Breath of Fire...III

I've heard nothing but good things about the Breath of Fire serious, but I've never played a single one. I've played a few hours of I and IV, but not enough to remember anything or draw a conclusion. The internet informs me the third game is the best, so I'm starting off at the top. Is it the best? Is the franchise any good? Who knows? But let's find out.

We start the game in a mine, where two people prepare to blow up a crystal with a dragon in it. Seems reasonable. After a quick conversation, where one man tells the other that this happens from time to time, the other guy sets the timer, and the bombs go off! The purple crystal is gone, but the dragon housed within is very much alive. The two men do the only sensible thing and that's attack the mythical beast!

We are now in our first battle, but we're the Dragon Whelp. We have the option to perform a normal attack, but we also have Whelp Breath at our disposal. We also have counters, which are performed with the breath attack. With our legendary powers, we incinerate our opponents. One of them carried the Melted Blade, which is a decent weapon in a moment. We then stroll our way out of the mines, dealing a similar fate upon anyone who wishes to oppose a dragon. I think there are four such battles. As we reach the exit, a large man comes out to try his luck. As the battle starts, we hear a voice telling us not to attack. It causes us to lose attention, and the engineer behind us controls the crane to whack us on the head, knocking us out.

We then see a few scenes where we're transported into a small cage onto a train and carried out over a cliff. As we leave, we regain our senses, shake around our cage, and manage to knock us off the train and into the forest below. We see a large catman stalking a pig, saying how hard food is to come by this season. The pig hears sounds in the distance and runs off, which causes the catman to investigate. He sees two wolves about to feast on a small, naked boy near a cage. He gets his revenge on them by killing them. He considers letting the boy die, seeing as there's not enough good in the forest for himself, but his kind nature shows, and he takes him home.

When the catman returns to his home, he talks to his young friend, Teepo. We learn the catman's name is Rei, and these two live and struggle together in this neat treehouse. Rei puts us to bed, and the other two head to the village for food. We wake up shortly thereafter and begin our exploration. There are no random battles yet, so get you're fill in now. Also, enjoy the music here. It's enjoyable and a great way to start the game. It gives me Chrono Trigger vibes. We can talk to three monster looking guys, but they're tutorials that we can't do much with now. At the exit is a man who tells us that Rei and Teepo and bullies and to stay away from them... We walk through the forest, but theres' nothing here now. A few apples where Rei found us, and a few more people, who reaffirm how terrible the harvest was this year, but we reach the end in time. We come to the world map, but I can't get a good grasp of things yet. To the south of the Cedar Woods is the village of McNeil.

As we enter, we see Rei and Teepo being chased out of a nearby house. It turns out they're thieves who are here trying to find food for the three of us. They're well known around here, so their attempt goes poorly. They notice that Ryu has woken up, so they decide to include him in their next plan. But first, we need to be properly equipped and not in our pajamas! Rei enters the general store, leaving Ryu and Teepo to talk. During their conversation, Teepo instinctively calls us Ryu. This is odd since we haven't introduced ourselves yet. It comes as a shock to him, but Rei comes out before we can dig too deep. Their second attempt at robbery goes better as they manage to get Ryu some armor and a weapon.
 
From here, we're to keep going south to the Yraail Road, but I went back into the forest. I wanted to see the combat and talk to the monsters. I managed to learn about some of the mechanics in the game. Everyone is a Blue Mage! That sounds both fun and tedious... At around level five, I get on to the story. We pass the farmyard, where we learn McNeil is a terrible mayor, and the local cows are attacked every night by a monster. We eventually come to the Road fork. We've come to lay siege to anyone passing by and steal their food. Rei doesn't want to hurt anyone, so he says we'll keep it clean. There is honor amongst these thieves! The two of them give us a lay of the local land and tell up they want to live in Windia, just down the road, one day when they're famous, but that'll come later. We need food now!

We don't have to wait long as a large man out for a walk has come to the fork. Rei tells us it's time for us to show what we've got, but we seem reluctant. We don't have a choice as he throws us to the lions. We bounce off our would-be target, but he seems unfazed. He warns us of Rei and Teepo and tells us to keep our nose out of trouble before carrying on his way. Rei knows that man's name is Bunyan, a well known stout man in the area, and laments the score. Teepo realizes that if he's out, maybe we can raid his house. It's so good an idea that we head right there. After a quick case of the joint, we head down in his basement. We find some Beef Jerky, so rad. What's not rad is we hear that someone else has entered the house. Assuming it's Bunyan, Rei heads upstairs in an attempt to let us get away. We hear crashing sounds and screams of pain... Teepo says the coast should be clear and heads up. We hear nothing this time, so we try to leave. The first floor is clear, but as soon we exit and notice our new friends, we're smacked in the head by Bunyan.

We wake up wrapped in rope with Bunyan trying to preach to us about living a clean life. He thinks we should be ran out of the forest but decides to use our strength to his advantage. He tells Rei to hunt down a monster living in Mt. Glaus. Teepo and Ryu stay back to cut firewood in a mini-game like thing. I got twenty two blocks! Shortly afterwards, Teepo tells us he's worried about Rei. When Bunyan takes his eyes off us, we run away. We keep running until we reach Rei in a house on the mountain. Since the sun is going down, we decide to camp out here for the night. In the morning, we'll help Rei with his hunt.

If day comes at 6:00 AM, the screams of a monster comes at 6:05 AM. We're immediately attacked by Nue! Our first boss can be tough, especially since I wanted to steal from it. You can get a Power Meal, which ups a characters' strength, so it's up to you if you want it. Nue can cast Chlorine, which is this game's poison. Teepo is a mage who starts the game with Flare, a fire spell, and Nue seems weak to Fire. Either that or she resists Ice. The furry frog with snakes for tails puts up a fight, but nothing too dangerous right now. Good thing we rested! Unfortunately, she runs away. Not wanting her to regain her strength, the team decides to give chase.

Inside a cave, just up from the shack, the team finds a trail of blood, which we can think is from Nue! There are a few items off the track, a sword, for example, but we don't go too far from the stains. At the second fork, keep following the blood. We'll follow it to a dead end, which confuses the team. When we exit the room, Teepo will tell us his hypothesis. There was a cave behind a waterfall in the previous room, and he thinks Nue swam into that to get away. Head back to the second fork and head up. In the room to the left is a ledge over a stream. Rei will ask us if we believe Teepo's theory, and we'll jump in. It turns out Teepo was correct, and, after we shake off the water, we see a wounded Nue.

By now, Ryu was low on mana, and I had no antidotes. Zombies, man... I found a good number of Healing Herbs, which did their job. Nue has the same steal, and the fight is exactly the same. Despite both of us being weaker, I think she had the upper hand this time. When the dist settles, Nue "dies on her feet," seemingly guarding the passage to a back room. The team sneaks past her and sees three dead cubs. Her children have been dead for a long time, but she kept bringing them food. It's a bit dark and shows that even the deadliest monster is just trying to protect her kids. Sad music plays as we leave, jump back into the river, and leave the mountain. We return to Bunyan, and he congratulates us for doing some honest work. Don't we feel better?

Time passes, and winter goes by real quick. I like snow, so I would have liked to see the forest then. Regardless, Spring has sprung, and Rei seems to have given up his knifing ways. He suggests this harvest will be better than last years and wants to pay the village a visit. Teepo wants them to congratulate us for killing their assailant, but Rei just wants to see people. I, however, save and call it a night.

Day one lacks a big plot dump, but I am asking why was I a dragon, how does Teepo know my name, and who was the voice? I suppose I have fifty hours to find that out, eh?