Son of Bate...Gainer...?

It didn't take me two months to finish Breath of Fire II!

I have a sketchy history with the Breath of Fire franchise. I tried to enjoy BoFIII twice but eventually learned to hate it. But I thought IV was a masterpiece. Meanwhile, game one felt like a slog. So, I had low hopes for II. 

And consider them smashed! 

Breath of Fire II came out late in the SNES cycle. The day before the PlayStation One, in fact. It's a quasi direct sequel, but it's 500 years after, so it's only kinda. The world looks pretty similar, but the water has conquered much of the land. Other than a handful of place names and an interesting cameo, it's not a big deal. 

As before, and in the future, you play as a blue haired boy named Ryu. Unlike before, we can meet Ryu's parents. He lives in a small, isolated village named Gate with his father, Gainer, and little sister, Yui. Gainer is a priest at the local church of St. Eva. His mother is a tad more intriguing... Yui has run off, as she often does, because she hates naps. Gainer asks his son to look for her, and Ryu finds her near a cave entrance, but who cares because that's a dragon over her! There's also a floating blue shell guy, but Papa kills it with his lightning magic. Yui often sleeps here because this white dragon is her and Ryu's mother. Gainer tells a bit of their history and confesses he wasn't strong enough to save his wife, so she has to turn into a dragon to save the village. Yui suggests Ryu take a nap here, hoping Mom will talk to him there. Ryu does fall asleep, and something speaks to him...

Ryu wakes up and returns to the village, but something is different. None of the villagers know him, and neither Gainer nor Yui are around. The priest in charge of the church is new. Hulk thinks Ryu is a lost orphan and aids the poor boy. 

That night, Ryu meets a fellow orphan named Bow, a dog boy. He's actually a thief in town to steal stuff, but there's nothing worth in Gate. Bow convinces Ryu to run off together. A storm hits, so they take shelter in a cave, but there's something else in there. They follow a snake's tail to a massive demon at the back of the cave. The demon calls Ryu the "fated child" and promptly beats him...

Ten years later, Ryu and Bow are working for the rangers, a group of mercenaries, in "HomeTown," and their first job is to find a lost pig. Bow thinks it's beneath him, but he swiftly changes his mind when he learns the poster is from a beautiful woman with wings named Mina. 

This kicks off a long story, where they learn the truth about Ryu, his mother, the dark history of Windia, and save the world from a former foe. He makes new friends; a cat girl who hates pants, a cursed Nina, a Renaissance frog man, a monkey, a giant armadillo, and a snake goddess. They also get eaten by a whale, fuse with pretty magic women, and create a new village of outcasts! 

And I loved all of this. Half of the main cast felt like fodder, but I, for the most part, liked all of them. Katt is plucky, and Jean's aloofness is fun. Sten was the only one I didn't like because he's introduced to the party from out of left field, and he's a pervert. I had trouble remembering who some of them were, though. What was the plant's name? Spar? Spar and Sten also don't bring much to combat. Bow is probably the de jure white mage (with a crossbow), while Rand is a D&D tank cleric. Nina is a black mage, which is an odd twist but fits her narrative. Not the best cast, but it works. 

Meanwhile, the villains are neat! The bloated snake demon has a big hand throughout the game, but he isn't this evil for the sake of it. He has a strange bit of honor about him. Patty, the initial primary antagonist, is vital to the story. The final boss is kinda shoehorned. Ultimately, like the playable cast, they're not the worst group I've experienced. 

Put all of that together, and it makes for an interesting story. It can start to drag for a while after Bow takes a bow and becomes a rad fetch questy, though. Especially after I spend a night wondering why we're saving this frog man. It made sense in the end, but I felt like I was playing Dragon Quest VI during Act Two. But there are a lot of shocking twists and character reveals in Act Three/Four. I was hooked and actually looked forward to playing the game. 7/10

The gameplay is very much like Breath of Fire I. Each character has a unique field skill, but I feel the in battle techs are just different enough. There are a lot of heal spells in the party, but there's more variance between character stats and roles. Katt is obviously the quick powerhouse, while Rand is the Ox of this game with more MP. Each character has their tech, but I found most of them to be bad. Why would the fragile Katt want to be hit? The lack of descriptions didn't help. What did Jean's jab do?

The real new mechanic is the shaman system. You meet several NPCs through the game that can fuse with your cast. This usually results in a massive stat boost. But, occasionally, this fusion can result in an appearance change. Spar can turn into a cute mushroom girl, Bow is a Fallout power armor, and Nina looks like a goddess. The my did my boy Rand dirty, though. A pink bug? It's a lot of fun to mess around with them and rewarding to seek them out. There are only two mandatory ones, but seven in total. It's so much better than the master system to come. 8/10

The sound fits. It's a lot better than the previous game. There are more songs, more varied tempos, and slightly fewer iterations. You still hear the cave dungeon music too much, but that's the only blight. The world map theme even changes, and I (good) struggled to find my favorite song from the OST. 9/10

The visuals are, technically, better. NPC sprites are more abundant, but there are still plenty of repeat mobs. There's also a contrast issue early on where I couldn't find a mountain pass for an hour. I'm probably making a big deal out of it, but it nearly killed the game from the start. 6/10

So Breath of Fire II has a town building mechanic! It's surprisingly deep, with an assortment of potential visuals and people to populate it with. Some are better than others, though. Regardless, it's cooler and less confusing than the fairy town in future releases. I love stuff like this, and this helps to tick all the charm boxes. There are also other reasons, but I've said enough. 9/10

Sadly, the writing is still wonky. -2. 

Add everything together, and Breath of Fire II is a great 37/50  game, but it feels like it should be higher. 

So are the even numbered BoFs game amazing while the ids numbered kinda suck. BoFII feels like it should be higher than 74%. I looked forward to playing the game every night, and I'm sad to be done with it. I have a hunch this one might be the standard for my missed SNES game series. I don't know what's next, but it's gonna be hard to top Breath of Fire II!