Breath of Fire

Breath of Fire is a RPG series produced by Capcom. Each of its five installments features Ryu, a blue-haired protagonist with some connection to dragons.

Contents

1 Theme 2 Characters 2.1 Other playable characters from Breath of Fire I 2.2 Other playable characters from Breath of Fire II 2.3 Other playable characters from Breath of Fire III 2.4 Other playable characters from Breath of Fire IV 3 Release history

Theme

The theme has taken a different direction in each game, each with a slightly different genre and very different plot line. The major conflicts of the plot lines have slowly shifted from problematic gods to genetic modification over the length of the series.

The Breath of Fire series is generally anime in overall style and character design. A wide range of both European and Chinese-style dragons play a critical role throughout the series. The types of dragon used change with the style of that particular game.

Gameplay has undergone as many changes as the theme throughout the series. The perspective of the first two games is top-down, the next two isometric, and Dragon Quarter is third-person. The battle system is turn-based with infinite amounts of time between turns and this is probably the only consistency.

Characters

Throughout the series many characters have come and gone. The four constant characters in every game are listed below. Their appearances and abilities vary with each game.

Ryu is the protagonist of the series. Ryu is always related to the dragon clan and is able to change from human to dragon at will after a certain point in the game. He generally appears between the ages of 15-25 with blue hair (medium blue in BoF1-3, sky blue in BoF4, dark blue in Dragon Quarter). Ryu in Dragon Quarter is a human whose power to transform was granted to him by an outside source, because Dragon Quarter has no "dragon clan."

Nina is the main supporting character in each game. She usually appears between the age of 13-23 and has constantly had wings. In the first four installments of the game she is a princess of the Windian (sometimes Wyndian) tribe.

Deis (sometimes called Bleu) is generally a sage-type character. She usually has very powerful destructive magic. Her appearance has slowly changed between a naga and a human of 25-30 years old, although storywise much older. Unlike Ryu and Nina, who are different characters with similar basic characteristics, the immortal Deis is the same character in each game. Her name was changed to Bleu for the first two games because of the different translation teams. She does not appear in Dragon Quarter.

Myria (also called: Tyr, Maria) the Goddess of Destruction, is the antagonist and final boss of I and III. She has a beautiful and angelic appearance, but when threatened, she becomes an ugly snake-human naga. Breath of Fire II's antagonist, Deathevan, is her offspring. In Breath of Fire I, she grants powers to the Dark Dragons to create war in the world. In Breath of Fire III, she acts as an overprotective mother of all the world's creatures, "protecting" them from the dangers of technology. At the end of Breath of Fire III, it is revealed that Myria is Deis's sister.

Other playable characters from Breath of Fire I

• Bo (Gilliam in Japan), a hunter from the town of Tunlan, resembles a bipedal wolf
• Karn (Dank in Japan), a crafty thief who can learn different ways to "fuse" with other characters into large monster forms
• Gobi (Manillo in Japan, which is the name of the species, not the character), a merchant who resembles a bipedal fish
• Ox (Builder in Japan), an ox-man (as his name suggests) of the Smithy Clan who is a very strong builder
• Mogu, a mole with the ability to dig through anything

Other playable characters from Breath of Fire II

• Bow (Bosshu in Japan), a half-dog half-human member of the Grassrunner clan, and close friend to Ryu (not related to Bo from Breath of Fire I)
• Katt (Linpu in Japan), a sassy catwoman fighter whom Ryu first encounters during a fighting tournament (member of Woren/Fullen clan)
• Rand, a strong Armadillo humanoid fighter of the Shell Clan and tournament manager
• Sten, a monkey with extendable arms
• Spar (Aspara in Japan), the legendary "grass man" of ambiguous gender
• Jean (Tapeta in Japan), a frog-human of the Crawling Clan who fights well with a rapier and speaks with a very unconvincing French accent

Other playable characters from Breath of Fire III

• Rei, a young Woren thief who develops the ability to transform into a weretiger (best known in the game for his catchphrase: "Doesn't that just beat all?")
• Teepo, a young thief and friend to Ryu and Rei; one of the less-addressed aspects of the game is his duality with Ryu
• Momo, a Grassrunner scientist who carries a large bazooka armed with magical shells
• Peco (sometimes called Pecoros), a walking onion plant
• Garr, a "guardian" (who looks suspiciously like the "demons" of Breath of Fire 2) whose purpose is initially unknown

Other playable characters from Breath of Fire IV

• Cray, a chief of the Woren tribe of tiger-like people, much like Katt from BoF2 and Rei from BoF 3
• Scias, a shadowy mercenary of unknown background, a member of the Grassrunner clan.
• Ursula, a general in the Imperial army
• Ershin (Master in Japan), a magically animated suit of armor with its own mind containing the entity Deis.
• Fou-Lu - While not a party member, Fou-Lu is playable by himself at certain points of the game. He's somehow related to Ryu...

Release history

• 1993 - Breath of Fire I is released for the SNES in Japan.
• 1994 - Breath of Fire I is translated by Squaresoft and released in North America.
• 1994 - Breath of Fire II is released for the SNES in Japan.
• 1995 - Breath of Fire II is translated by Capcom USA and released in North America.
• 1997 - Breath of Fire III is released for the PlayStation in Japan.
• 1998 - Breath of Fire III is translated and released Europe and North America.
• 2000 - Breath of Fire IV is released in Japan, translated and released in North America.
• 2001 - Breath of Fire IV is released in the United Kingdom.
• 2001 - Breath of Fire I is re-released for the Game Boy Advance in North America.
• 2002 - Breath of Fire II is also re-released in North America.
• 2003 - Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter (A.k.a.: Breath of Fire V) is released in Japan and North America.ja:ブレスオブファイア