Six titles make up the breath of fire series. And much like Final Fantasy,
most of the games are not seemingly connected. Despite this, the series
always follows 2 beloved characters in a variety of different time periods and environments.
Even though the creators insist there's not enough interest to warrant a continuation of the series,
there exists a passionate fan base that avidly supports the idea.
This.
Is the breath of fire iceberg.
A Resting Franchise
Let's start off with the question that most people have as soon as they see Breath of Fire - where's
the modern-day sequel? Unfortunately, the franchise is currently put on hold,
and Capcom has been very transparent about why. Former head of production of Capcom,
Keiji Inafune, has stated that Breath of Fire is on a hiatus due to lack of resources and the
RPG market being very competitive. He went on to say that there are too many RPG games that
have a stronghold in Japan and Capcom can't consider making a new game in the series at
the moment because of that. However, for what it's worth, the series is not exactly forgotten,
and Capcom considers it one of their most successful Role-Playing games.
Back but not really
The fifth mainline game in the series was released in November 2002, called Breath of Fire 5:
Dragon Quarter. The franchise did not see another mainline game until 2016,
with the release of Breath of Fire 6. However, although Capcom considers it a mainline entry,
it's often debated whether the game can truly be considered a revival,
because of the fact that it was a free-to-play multiplayer video game with microtransactions,
playable on PC and mobile phones. So, even though the franchise saw another game after 2002,
it's not something that the fans were really looking for, and was discontinued in 2017.
And another piece of detail that makes this entire situation even worse, is that this game
was never released outside of Japan, and only six of eight planned episodes were released before it
was shut down. Since then, the game has been lost to time, and there is no way to play it,
although this doesn't bother most people due to how much they disliked it.
The sole exception
In every mainline Breath of Fire game,
although the characters are not always related to each other, the protaggonist is always called Ryu,
and sooner or later meets a supporting character called Nina throughout the game.
However, Breath of Fire 6 is an exception, as it puts the player in the role of Ryu's sibling,
who then has to look for him in the storyline. So, it's the only main game in the series where
the protaggonist is not a character called Ryu but rather his sibling. Additionally,
Breath of Fire 5 is the only game in the series to not include a character called Deeis.
A direct sequel
Breath of Fire 2 is the only direct sequel in the franchise.
Even though every game has a main character called Ryu and the player always runs into
someone called Nina, they are all unrelated to each other. They are
self-contained storylines that follow a different version of those characters.
Breath of Fire 2 is the only game in the series that is actually a direct sequel, and although
it takes place 500 years after the first game, it's still related and within the same universe.
A Different Era
Every Breath of Fire game takes place in a medieval-ish fantasy environment,
with hardly any technology in sight - with the exception of Breath of Fire 5. Although the fourth
game has a robot companion, it's still a game that features ancient structures for the environment
and the players use swords and magic to fight. But Breath of Fire 5 takes place in a futuristic
setting with a sci-fi theme, so that means you see technology and modern clothing on the characters.
It's also the only game in the series to be completely 3D in both the character models
and the environment, as the other games had a mix of both.
This was not kept as a tradition, since the next game in the series went back to 2D graphics again.
References to pop culture
Like any other role-playing game from Japan, there are many references to pop culture that
can be found throughout the series. In the first Breath of fire, a town called Romero is
filled with zombies if you visit it during the evening. This is a reference to George Romero,
who directed popular zombie thrillers such as Dawn of the Dead. In the third game,
a boss called Stallion is a parody of Ultra man in appearance, and has a move called 'Utmost Attack',
which is a beam-like attack similar to Ultra man's Specium Ray. In the PSP version of the game,
the colors of the character were altered. In the third game, one of the frames of Ryu's
dragon transformation, contains the face of internationally famous robot cat, Doraemon.
The enemy, 'Little Ohmu', is named after the Ohmu from Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind.
In the first game, The boss characters called Bleeb and Night Bleeb, are named after a monster
in the Wizardry series of video games. In the second game, The Great Bird, called Millenium
Falcon, is a reference to Star Wars. Two members of the resistance are named after Mickey Mouse,
Peg-Leg Pete, Goofy, Donald Duck, Tigger, Winnie the Pooh, and more. In the third game,
the character Kukuys and his pet Doan, are named after a character from Mobile Suit Gundam, and
the 'Seven Senses' technique from both the third and fourth game is a reference to Saint Seiya.
Lastly, there are references to the movie Jaws within two scenes in the third game,
a reference to an X-Men villain in the fourth game, and a couple other less-notable references.
Censorship
Breath of Fire 4 was censored in several ways when it was translated from Japan to English.
To start off, the language was toned down because in the original version,
it was a bit harsh at times. Then we have entire scenes removed, such as Fou-Lu decapitating the
emperor Soniel in the first Royal Palace sequence, Nina and Ursula bathing in a pond, and Ursula
dropping her pants to prove that she's a woman to a bunch of sailors who don't believe it.
These scenes were completely missing from the localized version of the game,
and a few other things, such as references to Scias' alcoholism being removed. Although these
things weren't reinstated in any later re-release, the production supervisor Makoto Ikeharo,
detailed all of the changes in an interview in the Japanese artbook for the breath of fire 4.
A character called Danc was changed from his dark-skinned appearance to that of a
Caucasian called Karn. The reason behind it is very evident, as the character would have
caused a controversy for almost looking like someone who is doing 'Blackface'.
In Breath of Fire 5, several story elements within development were censored because they
were considered too shocking, such as a locked room in Biocorp Labs that would
contain headless cloned bodies of Nina and a scientist that looked like Adolf Hitler.
References to Capcom works
No Capcom video game is complete without references to their own series, so naturally
breath of fire has its fair share. Chun-Lee shows up as a cameo in Breath of Fire 1 and
Breath of Fire 3, while Sakura makes a cameo in the third game too alongside her. Breath of Fire
6 includes costumes and weapons from many Capcom franchises such as Devil May Cry, Resident Evil,
Monster Hunter, Darkstalkers, Street Fighter, and Mega Man. There's a Ghosts 'n Goblins reference
too as you can see portraits of Arthur hanging inside houses in the first game. The boss Goda
in the first game looks very similar to Stone Man from Mega Man 5, which is on purpose. A currency
from Black Tiger called Zenny, is present in several Breath of Fire games, Also, enemies named
after characters from Final Fight, Slam Monsters, and Resident Evil, occasionally show up as well.
Rushed development
One thing that is well-known about the Breath of Fire games is that,
aside from the intended censorship, the games generally have poor translations - with the
first and second game suffering the most. But the problem extends past the localization too.
Breath of Fire 4 had a rushed development and some of the planned features and story
content were removed. The most notable example here is of an extended ending,
which would have been related to the death of Yuna.
The next game in line, Breath of Fire 5, suffered in a similar way. Due to rushes throughout
development, a lot of planned features and story related things were cut out. For example, there
was a planned online mode which was abandoned since it wouldn't have been completed on time,
and a fishing mini-game was dropped for the same reason. There was also going to be a scene that
showed how the surface world was destroyed, but it was removed due to deadlines and was
never included in the game, despite the fact that it played a major role in the story.
References To The Series
As shown earlier in the Iceberg, the Breath of Fire games include many references to other
series. However, other games, especially Capcom ones, returned the favor. Going with recent
references first, the mobile card game teppen included several characters from Breath of Fire.
Similarly, The Knights of Avalon added Breath of Fire characters as cards too.
Monster Hunter Frontier G includes costumes of Ryu and Nina,
from B O f 3. There's also a costume set of Ryu and Nina from B o f 6 in Monster Hunter Explore.
In the Archie Comics' Sonic and Mega man Worlds Unite crossover event,
Breath of Fire 3's world is visited which shows characters like Ryu, Nina, Momo, Honey,
and others. A rescuable Reploid in Mega Man X6 is named after Nina from Breath of Fire.
Nina from B o f 4 is featured as a costume in Dead Rising 3,
while several artbooks and billboards based on Breath of Fire can be seen in Dead Rising 4.
Other games like Ohnimoosha, Blade Fantasia, Dragon's Dogma, Marvel vs Capcom, Pocket Fighter,
and SNK vs Capcom, include references to B O f's characters and magic spells too.
And lastly, Street Fighter 5 Arcade Edition has a Katt costume for the character Falke.
Religious themes
Like most fantasy role-playing video games from the old days, Breath of Fire is ultimately about
the battle of good vs evil. However, the game focuses on religious elements in the story
and in each game, the protaggonist is usually the last surviving member of a messianic dragon clan,
while the antagonists are either demons or goddesses. The player then has to save the
world from the false Gods, and almost every time they come across a corrupted religious cult that
turns out to have aided the false God in some way. Not only that, but there are even plot twists to
be encountered, such as the third game in the series being revealed to be a post-apocalyptic
world that had lost most of its technology, rather than being set in a past that never had any.
And in some of the games, such as Breath of Fire 4, there are strong political themes
that deal with things like nations at war and how a hero can turn into a villain.
In the 16-bit days of gaming, having such a focus on religious themes was not too rare within Japan,
although not too incredibly common either,
since many games did not even bother having a story. But in America,
Breath of Fire became particularly well-known for its focus on always including religious themes,
even in its sequels, because most RPGs that were localized in those days were greatly censored,
losing any religious content that could be considered offensive for a western audience.
Although Breath of Fire did lose some references here and there, it mostly kept the narrative
intact through the translations, and that sets it apart from the other games at the time.
Rumored victory
In Breath of Fire 2, you fight an unbeatable boss called Tiga. it's a part of the game's story that
the player loses to him. In some cases, unbeatable bosses have been defeated by players using methods
the developers did not expect, and sometimes they are beaten by the use of third party tools such as
Game Genie. So, several players started spreading the rumor that they were able to beat Tiga,
and it led to many players stacking up on as many items as they can, in attempts of
defeating the boss, only to learn that it does not work. This was eventually debunked entirely
through the use of a Game Genie code, which makes every enemy in the game die in one hit. However,
the fight against Tiga is an exception in which the code does not work,
because the game is scripted to keep him alive no matter what. For those who really care about the
technical details though, someone managed to edit a ROM file and killed Tiga through emulation - but
the game just goes on as if he is the one who beat you, instead of crashing like some other games.
A delayed development
Rushed development is all too common in the gaming world. As mentioned a bit earlier,
Breath of Fire 4 and 5 suffered from it. However, a reversal of that exists with Breath of Fire 3,
as the game went through a long development with several delays. These delays were caused
by the writing and design related changes that occured mid-development, which included some
story events and character designs. This is one of the reasons as to why the in-game appearances
of some characters are different from the promotional material. One example is child Ryu,
as his hairstyle is evidently different between the game and the promotional imagery.
General connectivity and fan theories
Outside of poor localization causing random inconsistencies, fans believe that there
isn't much of a contradiction in any of the games that would keep themselves from being
connected to each other. The first and second games are considered a direct sequel, but the
connectivity of the later games is a topic that is often debated by the fans. The most popular
opinion on this topic is that all of the games in the series are connected to each other but are
set in different time periods, and the rebirth of Ryu after hundreds of years every time, is a
prophecy similar to the resurrection of Christ - as the hero always arrives just in time to
save the world from shady religious cults, corrupt politicians, and evil dayeties bent on controlling
or destroying the world. The chronology is something that isn't always decided easily,
with the main argument being focused on whether the fourth game comes first or last in the story.
Two exceptions to this rule are the fifth and sixth games. Fans were unsure of whether the
fifth game is connected to the rest of the series or not, but it was then officially confirmed that
Breath of Fire 5 takes place in an alternate reality and is not connected to the rest of
the games - which also revealed that the other games are in fact connected to each other and
within the same world. On the other hand, although it's officially the sixth main game in the series,
Breath of Fire 6 was generally disowned by fans and newcomers alike, who considered it
a blatant cash-grab that tainted the image of the series. It also destroyed their
expectations for the franchise since there hasn't been a traditional game since 2002.
Japan only
A lot of the things related to the Breath of Fire games are only found in Japan . First off,
we have the translations, which leave out many details for the first two games. So,
you don't get the proper story details and themes in the translation and miss out on quite a bit,
which even includes entire scenes that were censored. And to make matters worse,
unlike most other Japanese RPGs, Breath of Fire 1 and 2 did not receive a re-translation
of the games on the GBA ports, even though they improved the games in a number of ways otherwise.
Then, we have all of the merchandise. There are several mahnga works that have adapted the series,
such as one that covers the first game, then one mahnga that acts as a sequel to it,
as well as a spin-off story. Then we have the mahnga series for Breath of Fire 5, which ended
sometime in 2010, - several years after the game's debut. Additionally, there are novelizations of
some of the games, artbooks, and other various medias. Everything that has been mentioned here
is completely exclusive to Japan. So our only option is to rely on fans for translations.
Unfortunately, the series is not popular enough to receive a fan translation for everything.
Western fans simply have to live with never experiencing these companion projects to the game.
Last but not least, as mentioned briefly before, Breath of Fire 6 was entirely
exclusive to Japan as a whole, not just in terms of a bad translation or the merchandise.
Controversial ending
Alternate endings are not a rare thing in the Breath of Fire franchise,
and players always expect to see them since the games have a fair amount of alternate scenarios.
For example, saving a certain character can lead them to helping you out later on in the game.
However, Breath of Fire 4's alternate ending was a bit too dark for most people. It shocked
many fans when they experienced it for the first time. At the end of the game, if you answer all of
the questions presented to you by Fou-Lu with, 'Maybe so...', it leads to a second ending in
which Ryu's God form is merged with Fou-Lu and the player then controls the Infinity Dragon. Then,
they can kill their party members. It is then implied that the Infinity Dragon might eradicate
humanity in revenge after the ending of the game. This is especially dark considering the fact that
the deuteragonist of the game gives a heartfelt speech, about how she prefers the world the way
it is with the protaggonist in it, while Fou-Lu tries to convince him to turn against them.
Cut content
There is a lot of cut content in all of the games which is not all necessarily removed due
to a rushed development - so let's take a look at some of the notable examples. In Breath of Fire 1,
we have an unused item called DrWarp that allows players to teleport anywhere that they want
and this also leads to many unused areas that were cut out from the game,
such as the 'Unfinished Shrine', which was possibly going to be used as a dungeon.
In the second game, there's a couple of unused graphics and areas. One of the unused graphics
include a blowing-kiss animation similar to what the shopkeepers did in the first game,
but it was removed for unknown reasons. You can also enter a second floor in
Ryu and Bow's house using Pro Action Replay, which has no NPCs but can be interacted with.
In the third game, there is a lot of unused dialogue, items, and skills - most of it
useless. But there are several inaccessible locations that serve as an extension of existing
areas that you visit in the game, such as Mayor McNeil's bedroom, a bunch of shops,
railroad tracks in the Dauna and Yraal regions, and a few others. Using walk-through cheats,
you can even get into interactions that are normally not possible. For example,
shelves behind shop counters include money for you to find. Interacting with robots in inaccessible
places make them talk to you with generic dialogue, and you can see Sunder doing something
a bit... private... if you enter Mt. Myrneg after he complains that it takes him a while to finish.
Not much is there in the fourth game that can still be found in the files,
since the things cut in development were simply left out, and the same applies to the fifth game.
BoF 3 and 4 sequel Theory
Although not officially confirmed, some fans believe that Breath of Fire 3 and 4 are directly
connected to each other. It emphasizes on a bunch of different points - the first one considers the
intro scene of BoF3 as a clue, since it explains that the dragon prince has fought the goddess
before. Then in the second clue, it focuses on the plot point where Rei brings Ryu home,
and adult Teepo comes to Ryu while he is sleeping, talking against humans.
Then, when you meet Teepo in the town, he guesses Ryu's name and says, 'How did I know that? Maybe
I dreamed it?' - which implies that adult Teepo told his younger self to talk to Ryu.
The purpose of the dream is vague, and that's what this theory tries to make sense of.
If Ryu and Teepo are the only 2 living dragons at the end of BoF3, then it makes it a bit confusing
as to how dragons exist in BoF4 if they are connected. The theorized explanation is that
Teepo didn't want to stay at the Mirya Station anymore, and tries to turn Ryu against mankind.
Ryu must have used the dragon genes to restore the power of Draginier and might have lost to Teepo,
being forced to merge with him. Then they must have become an endless being,
and eventually turned into Fou Lu - until Ryu breaks free and thus triggers the events of BoF4.
Despite the developers' lack of confidence for the franchise, the fan base remains loyal. And
without question, many of the fans would support any new project they announce.
We're rapidly approaching the 30th anniversary for the series, so maybe we'll hear some good
news then. Like and subscribe if you want to see more videos like this.
And let me know what subjects you want to see covered in the comments below.