Five Things I Had Forgotten About Breath of Fire III

Breath of Fire III was one of my favorite RPGs back in the day, but I’ve never completely replayed it. Thanks to my good pal SovanJedi I’ve recently come into possession of a copy for PSP, and I sank six hours into it last night at work. Here are a few things I noticed about the game that came flooding back as vividly as if I’d just played it last week:

1. Teepo is a bag of dicks. I already know the  circumstances behind Teepo’s grand revelation, of course, but man, I had forgotten what a prick he is even at the game’s outset. Pretty much all he wants to do is get lippy with people, brag about awesome things he’s done, and kick things. He kicks everything.
2. Momo’s delightful “Oh!” BoF3 doesn’t have much in the way of voice acting… pretty much just standard grunts and gibberish to accompany various actions in battle. When Momo fires her giant shoulder-mounted bazooka she lets out a wonderfully surprised “Oh!” sound, as though she’s seeing the explosive force of her own weapon for the first time. Yeah, science does that to me too, lady!
3. Ryu stops being a sissy the moment Nina joins him. At the beginning of the game Ryu’s attack animation consists of him holding his sword out in front of him and flailing it around while shielding his eyes from the violence. I knew at some point he graduated to a more focused and confident slashing attack, but I had forgotten this moment occurred right when Nina joins him in the crypts beneath Wyndia. In putting on a brave face in front of his new friend, Ryu actually becomes braver! That’s about as good as the character development gets in a mute hero.
4. How awesome is fishing? So awesome. I hadn’t forgotten that the fishing minigame was great… but I did forget just how great. I think I spent over an hour just pulling up Jellyfish and Rainbow Trout. I even managed to score an octopus towards the end!
5. Battles are sloooooow. This is probably the reason I haven’t replayed this game until now. Battles are very sluggish. Actions and animations occur in a precise, un-speed-up-able order: first the name of the attack is displayed, then the casting animation happens, then the attack lands and damage is dealt. Most RPGs have figured out to stack all these stages together, or at least allow them to overlap, but no such luck in BoF3. Fights you should be able to clear in ten seconds stretch out to nearly a minute because of this.

There’s a bunch of other stuff, I’m sure, but that might have to wait until I get further into the game. I’m pretty excited to get back to it; I’m able to recruit Peco in a couple more dungeons!