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Breath of Fire II(JP) is a Japanese game developed and distributed by Capcom in 1994 , Licensed by the Laguna for European distribution in 1996. According to the title of the Breath of Fire series, then converted for Game Boy Advance and globally distributed, the release on the Wii Virtual Console received an evaluation from the ESRB and was erroneously attributed to it 'Released on July 27, 2007, though it was distributed online two weeks later, August 10, 2007 in Japan, and August 27, 2007.
Breath of Fire II is followed directly by Breath of Fire, set 500 years after the events of the first title, and focuses on the story of the orphan Ryu Bateson, whose family has disappeared mysteriously long ago and after a false accusation Give a friend, start their own adventure.
Gameplay[]
Breath of Fire II is a classic two-dimensional JRPG with ambient and two-dimensional characters, with top view, four directions of movement, interaction with secondary characters, and casual combat.
The game menu has been redesigned and is now completely text-based instead of icons such as Breath of Fire, as well as the new "Monster Meter" with whom you are aware of the chance of casual encounter with an enemy. During the adventure you will encounter more and more powerful monsters and new characters with new abilities, interchangeable with each other - except in some areas - but only present in three during the fights - excluding the protagonist. Each character has a special technique out of random battles, with which to destroy obstacles. Breath of Fire II allows the player to build a customized camp, which can be assembled with various accessories and constructions that can be inhabited by their characters. Each character can live in different style constructions based on which of the three available architects he uses and there are six Bonus characters, the "Shaman", fickle with their characters to give them new skills during combat. Combat in Breath of Fire II is shifts, acting first is the fastest character, you can apply different combat formations to assure various bonuses to characters placed in special positions, winning battles you get money, items and rarely equipment. By acquiring experience it gets higher level and the character concerned can learn a technique. Each character has hit points and if reduced to zero the game ends. The inside cartridge cartridge acts as a rescue memory.
Plot[]
Breath of Fire II is set in a fantasy world 500 years after the events of the original game. The story opens on Ryu, age 6, living in the village of Gate with his sister Yua and father Ganer, a priest for the Church of St. Eva. Years earlier, Ryu's mother disappeared when demons erupted from a hole in a mountain on the outskirts of town, which was eventually blocked by a large dragon. One day, after visiting the dragon near the mountainside, Ryu returns to find his family missing and that no one in the village remembers who he is. Believing him to be an orphan, the townsfolk send him to live at the church with Father Hulk, who has seemingly been acting pastor for years. There, Ryu meets Bow, a fellow orphan, and runs away with him during a storm. Upon leaving the village, the two seek shelter in a cave, where they encounter the demon Barubary, who claims that Ryu is the "Destined Child", knocks them unconscious, and disappears.
Ten years later, Ryu and Bow live together in HomeTown as members of a Rangers guild, and are tasked with finding the lost pet of Mina, princess of the Kingdom of Windia. The two reluctantly complete the task and upon their return, Bow is charged with stealing from Trout, a local rich man. Bow claims he was framed by a mysterious "winged thief". Both escape the town the following night, and Bow remains in hiding while Ryu leaves to find the real thief and clear his friend's name. To gather information, Ryu travels to Coursair, a town with a large coliseum, and becomes a challenger in the arena against Katt, the coliseum's most popular fighter. Ryu gains Katt's trust by foiling the coliseum manager's plot to poison her and stage the fight, and then allies with her and Rand, an employee at the Coliseum, to defeat the manager, who has been possessed by a demon. While Rand stays behind to help construct Bow's hideout, Ryu and Katt arrive at HomeTown to investigate. There, they meet Nina, a student of magic and Mina's older sister. When Mina is kidnapped by a gang in an effort to blackmail Nina, she joins Ryu and Katt to defeat the gang's leader, who is also a demon in disguise. The party returns Mina to Windia, but find themselves expelled from the castle due to the superstition surrounding Nina's black wings, and is joined Sten, a trickster. In the port town of Capitan, the party encounters Ray, a wandering priest of St. Eva, and assist him in rescuing a number of villagers from Capitan's dry well. Afterwards, Bow's hideaway is rebuilt into TownShip, and Ryu meets a Shaman, who taps into his latent ability to transform into a dragon, revealing him to be a part of the Dragon Clan thought missing for hundreds of years.
Upon traveling to a new continent, the group meets Jean, a frog-prince whose castle of SimaFort has been usurped by an impostor, whom the party is able to expose as a demon and defeat. The party obtains the real thief, a bat-winged girl named Patty, from SimaFort's dungeon and turn her over to Trout. Exonerated, Bow rejoins the party, but expresses suspicion over Trout. He and Ryu break into Trout's house at night and find Patty imprisoned in a secret dungeon, and defeat Trout, also possessed by a demon. Suspecting the demon outbreak to be part of a larger problem, the party searches the world Spar, a Grassman able to communicate with plants. Upon rescuing Spar from the clutches of a traveling sideshow, the party consults with the Great Wise Tree Gandaroof and discover that he is losing his memory. He requests that the party acquire the Therapy Pillow from the city of Tunlan so that they can enter his mind to restore it. To communicate with the people of Tunlan, the party first retrieves Famous Flute from Sten's hometown of HighFort, where Sten is forced to confront his past as a former soldier and help rescue the kingdom from Shupkay, another demon in disguise. After saving Tunlan's princess from demonic possession, the party uses the Therapy Pillow to visit Gandaroof's mind, which is being destroyed by the demon Aruhameru. Aruhameru claims that Gandaroof possesses knowledge that threatens his "God", and reveals that he destroyed the people of Gate's memory of Ryu.
Once the party vanquishes Aruhameru, they learn that the demon outbreak is linked to Gate and the Church of St. Eva. Once Rand's mother Daisy is kidnapped by St. Eva's soldiers, Nina decides to return to Windia and obtain the "mark of the wing", an old relic that will allow her to transform into the Great Bird and fly the group to St. Eva's Grand Church. After reuniting with her parents and consorting with the spirit of her great-great-great-great grandmother, the original Nina from Breath of Fire, Nina obtains the mark and prepares to undergo a ceremony that will transform her into the Great Bird permanently. However, Mina steals the mark and takes her sister's place, sacrificing her humanity. Traveling on Mina, the party makes their way to Evrai, the home of St. Eva. They find themselves trapped within the city, but manage to escape with the help of Claris, a young woman allied with a group of rebels seeking to destroy St. Eva.
Seeking out the rebels, the party meets their leader Tiga, and reunite with Patty, now the rebels' benefactor. Together, the rebels and the party discover that St. Eva is a front for a demon who uses the prayers of worshippers to empower itself, and Tiga formulates a plan to infiltrate the Grand Church. The plan succeeds, and the party learns that Habaruku, St. Eva's high priest, has captured Claris. Tiga attempts to rescue her, only for both him and Claris to be killed. The party pursues Habaruku, but Ray blocks their path and attacks them in dragon form, revealing himself as a member of the Dragon Clan. The battle awakens a powerful new dragon form in Ryu, which he uses to vanquish Ray. The party then rescues Daisy, who sacrifices herself to save Rand from a trap so that her son can continue fighting. In the catacombs of the church, the party finds Ryu's father Ganer attached to an energy-draining machine, having been kidnapped by Aruhameru ten years ago. Ryu and his friends either kill or rescue him, demolishing the church in doing so, and make their way back to Gate to stop the demons' plot once and for all. In Gate, the party watches as Father Hulk and the townsfolk try to destroy the dragon with a bomb, believing it to be responsible for the death of Gate's forest. The bomb weakens the dragon, allowing demons to escape from the mountain, and, remorseful, Hulk asks the party to bring Patty, who has knowledge of the dragon. Upon Patty's arrival, Father Hulk captures her and reveals himself to be Habaruku in disguise, declaring his plan to sacrifice Patty, a member of the Dragon clan, to open the gate and release his God—also revealing Patty to be Ryu's sister, Yua. With help from the dragon, the party defeats Habaruka.
The dragon thanks the party and reveals herself to be Ryu's mother Valerie, a member of the Dragon Clan that traveled from their underground hiding place and married Ryu's father, later assuming the form of a dragon to save her family from the invading demons. Valerie gives the party the choice of allowing her to resume her duty of guarding the gate, or traveling to defeat the demons for good; she sacrifices herself to open the gate if they agree. The party travels deep underground to the demon stronghold, where they meet the last remaining members of the Dragon Clan. Ryu gains the ultimate dragon power of Anfini and battles Barubary, the demon from his past. Once Barubary is defeated, the party confronts his master, Deathevn, St. Eva's God and a remnant of Myria, the main antagonist of the previous game. Using Anfini, Ryu defeats Deathevn, and returns home with his friends, although he realizes that Deathevn has not truly been defeated and will someday return. Two possible endings occur based on the player's actions—either Ryu sacrifices himself like his mother by transforming into a dragon to prevent further demon encroachment, or, if the player saved Garner and enabled TownShip to fly, Ganer pilots the town onto the mountain, sealing it for good.
A third ending also exists: If the player chooses not to enter the cave and confront Deathevn, a non-standard game over will be triggered in which the demons ultimately break through the weakened seal and conquer the world.
Reception[]
Reviews in North America were mixed to positive. The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly generally found the game worth getting for its high quality sound and lengthy quest. Though Mark Lefebvre felt the graphics were below average and that the game overall "could have been a little better", the other three reviewers were more enthusiastic, praising the graphics and the shaman mechanic. GamePro's Major Mike was also impressed with the sheer length of the RPG. While remarking that there are very few cinematic scenes compared to the first Breath of Fire, he was pleased with the complexity of both the main story and most of the side quests. He also complimented the graphics and the change to different musical themes halfway through the game, and summarized, "This long, absorbing game offers plenty of story turns, intense battles, and intriguing characters." A reviewer for Next Generation said that the game "is larger and more involved than its predecessor, but unfortunately also much less interesting. While some parts are very clever (you are able to build your home town, populating it with stray homeless folks you run across), it suffers from too little direction, a purely mechanical storyline, and the clunkiest dialogue since Night Trap."
External links[]
- Breath of Fire II at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Breath of Fire II at GameFAQs
- Breath of Fire II: Shimei no Ko at Nintendo's Wii Virtual Console page (Japan)
- Breath of Fire II: Shimei no Ko at Nintendo's Wii U Virtual Console page (Japan)