Virtual Console Reviews

Woo!!!

I love this game =] I loved the first one on the GBA despite its shortcomings, so imagine my pleasant surprise when I moved onto the even better sequel!

Though I hear the SNES version is much harder than the GBA version, and I did find the GBA one hard as it was! Still, 800 of my points shall definitely go to this, as should any RPG fan's 800 points =] (Just be prepared for a daft English translation!)

Looks pretty neat, I'll be looking out for more info.

What about the first game?

Yeah, what about the original? The original was just as awesome.

BoF II has also been rated by PEGI. That means the game is coming to Europe sometime in the near future. The game has been given an age rating of 7+.

The original was never released on the SNES in Europe, and even Capcom didn't release it in the States! Squaresoft published it in the US instead!

Well, BoF II is the better game. I had both on GBA and enjoyed the second game a whole lot more. Did anyone else think the first game was too slow and kinda boring?

It's about time they started taping the RPG archive! So many good RPG's were released during the 16 bit era that are little known but well worth playing.

Oh and to Ant - Capcom did release the GBA BoF1 in America. UbiSoft handled the European release. I don't know how this affects a V.C. release of the first game.

well from what I have read the GBA has:

-2x the EXP
-3x the $$$
-a dash button for travel
-cut scenes
-different character art
-slightly different translation (I hear it has similar engrish to the SNES version)

One of best RPGs I have played in my life.

-link64

Yeah, the dialogue wasn't great ("Do you want an explanation on trading souls?" "Yes" "All right, let's trade souls!" Err, hello? Explanation?) Not enough to ruin the game though =]

I didn't know it had one or two new cut scenes, I think the original Breath of Fire GBA port did too. I remember there being a manga style drawing at one point in the game which definitely won't have been in the SNES version.

More than anything, I think I'm going to miss the dash button, movement will be pretty slow without it! Ah well, not enough to ruin the game. Let's hope us Europeans get it tonight, or soon anyway!

so it's both rated by the ESRB and PEGI
lol i see

You'll want to consult GameFAQS frequently while playing this game for precisely the reasons that people mention here ("Do you want an explanation on trading souls?" "Yes." "Okay! Let's trade souls!" "Err...?"). This looks like it's going to be the SNES version, which has no Dash feature common to RPGs nowadays.

I really enjoy this game, as I find the story strangely compelling despite the confusing translation. Unfortunately, the translation for the items is often worse than the dialogue, so again, keep GameFAQS or some similar website handy while playing. Many have played through already and identified the glitches and figured out precisely what "Trading Souls" does.

I guess I'm the only one who was really disappointed by this game after playing the first game. My biggest issues with this game were the brutal difficulty and the lackluster soundtrack (what happened!). I remember this game getting scores like 6.0 when it first came out on the SNES. Later, to my surprise, the GBA version gets much better scores even though it looks like the exact same game. What's different?

For the same reason that PC Gamer gave the original Myst a 90+ percentile score, only to give the sequel a much lower rating years later; the review staff changed.

That and the mechanical changes they made to the GBA version (increased xp and gold gain, dash feature, slightly lower encounter rate) probably made it much easier to stomach the game's flaws.

BoF2 will be one to download. As said previously, keep the GameFAQS handy [especially to find the hidden characters] BoF1 was great too. I'm a huge RPGer. Can't wait for more!

I love this game. It got a good story wich affects on what you choose to do, fun side-quest, nice graphik, good musick and cool caracters, this game is awsome. the only thing that I did not like about this game, is that you move a little slow on the map and the dragons was cooler on the first BoF.
this game is also on Gba with some few changes on the looks on the carracter. For all of you who like Rpg, buy it. Its too good to be forgotrn.
(And when it comes, buy BoF too. then you hav too awsome RpG:D)

Some years back I felt like trying out BoF1 and 2 since BoF3 is one of the best RPGs ever made imho. Though I didn't really like em close to as much... I'm sure the story is great as it was in BoF 3 though there was something with the gameplay that bothered me...
It's too bad BoF 3 was made for the PSOne and thus won't be released for the VC... I miss that game. It's strangely enough the only game I really like in the series... I did play through BoF 4 too though, 5 on the other hand sucked so much it wasn't even funny.

Superb title.
Nice compelling story.
Nice soundtrack too.

The first BoF game unlikely to be released on the VC, as Capcom sold the the game to Squaresoft (Read the text when you power on the game once) before launch for whatever reason. While Capcom retained the rights to the name/series, the first game itself is property of square-enix. Considering SE's relationship with Sony, it doesn't seem likely that SE will cut a deal with Nintendo.

Actually, it is possible Square could release it. They're not releasing their OWN games right now, but they are releasing stuff by other companies they own (For example, ActRaiser).

Aww. I really want this one, but I don't know if I want it bad enough to deal with the horrible translation. Darn it Capcom, would it have been that bad to try giving an old SNES game a new translation effort?

"Considering SE's relationship with Sony, it doesn't seem likely that SE will cut a deal with Nintendo."

You're ignoring that they've released all those old Final Fantasy games on the GBA and DS, plus don't forget Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Square DID have an exclusivity agreement with Sony back in the day, but that's finished with, and now Square is partnering with whomever they feel is right for the job.

And I found this game way too hard, with too much battling, and not enough story. Still it was better than the first one.

Hahaha, most RPG games have too much battling. Annoying that you can't avoid them. It's still a great game. I downloaded it and played it about 3 hours ago. Because I have played it before, I'm doing AWESOME right now. Good times, good times!

John Wood, maybe you'd really enjoy "Tales of Symphonia" (GameCube).

As the original cartridge is still nicely tugged away on my shelf, both for SNES and for GBA, I don't see any need to download. But I can recommend it to everyone who is looking for a real, japan-style-random- encounter-hours-of-leveling- before-the-boss-RPG. I, guess the GBA-port in fact gave you more experience and gold- but does that make it a better game!? it just means you need half the time to level up, a good thing for those who play on the subway and then go for the PC once at home. But it only makes the game shorter, not easier...
I sure hope Nintendo and Square-Enix come to a deal. Because now that we got BoF, voices will soon be heard demanding FinalFantasy- mine for example ^o^. And saying FinalFantasy means saying DragonQuest as well.... but PLEASE only featuring real translations, my japanese ain't so great, domo arrigato....

Picked this game up last Saturday on the Shop Channel not knowing what I'd get myself into. Surprisingly, I found this to be great fun. Its second place VC RPG material! As Paper Mario is first, obviously...

Seriously, it is quite good and a huge improvement over the first one.

This was one of the best games on Super Nintendo! yezzir!

This is definetly the best RPG of all time. Shure, the dialogue sucks sometimes but that doesnt ruin it. The storyline is epic, 9 charecters. unique battle system, really hard battles, and some memoriable deaths.

Is a great game i love it

The best RPG of all time? Have you ever played a Final Fantasy? IV? VII? Practically all of them have more epic storylines. What about Xenosaga? That trilogy has probably the most epic storyline ever.

What Breath of Fire 2 was epic cause it had 9 characters? Suikoden has 107.

The gameplay and balance in BOF2 was ridiculous. It was such a boring game, and yes the translation was horrible. All the games I mentioned are much better games, and there are many more that trump BOF2 in every way.

Be more careful when throwing around those words "Best RPG of all time"

The fact is that we all have different opinions and ff6 had a way better story than 7 or 5 So did breath of fire 2 before everyone copied it.

This was my first ever RPG, forever hooking me. I love it!

I have the VC version of this game. At first it was really hard for me to get into it because of the graphics (obviously). I mean, I don't consider myself to be someone who favors graphics over gameplay, but, I think we can all agree that we've been conditioned over the past couple of years to look for graphics as one of the top priorities in our games. And, it's quite a throwback to be playing a SNES game in the 7th generation of consoles. (I grew up on the NES and the Genesis, so I'm no stranger to old school).

Anyway, I played BOF3 when I was a bit younger and it is still my second favorite RPG of all time, next to FFVII. So it took me a few minutes to really get into this game. But right about the time you enter the tournament with Rand and the poison arrows, I could tell something big was about to take off!

What a great game. Definitely an RPG must have.

(4 stars because nothing's perfect)

I seriously adore this game!

Just recently beat it, not as good as the third one that was released on playstation but fun going along with the story. Ive beaten them all except for the first one just wondering if anyone knows a fast way to play it!

I don't know why but all day today and yesterday this game was on my mind, I want it so badly. And tomorrow, it will be mine!

I just bought it. so far it's kind of slow, but it looks like I'll like it. But why is it black and white in the beginning, something I'll find out later in the game? I can't really rate the game yet though. Oh and when it says would you like to tell me of your journey, then says journey recorded, does that mean it saved?

This B/W sequence in the begining throws most people of, I can tell! Heck, I played this when it first came out, but I still get puzzled by this ('is the video-cable plugged in correctly?!'). Guess it's to show that the intro is set in the past, kind of a flashback.

Yep, the Dragon God "storing your journey in his memory" means the game's been saved. Same goes for the priests of St. Eva, as you will see later in the game.

I find this to be a fairly enjoyable game. I don't think by any standard that it stands up to many of the other stellar RPGs of the SNES era - but then again, those were really high standards to match, and this is by no means a bad game.

Yeah this is the only game I play now, it just has something to it, I just love it. I guess It's good I'm playing this now because I haven't played any of the snes RPG games so I don't have much to compare to. But this game gets hard. I was doing good, fighting through the field when I enter this village and walk in a well, and there's this crazy monster, that takes me and my other three members out in four turns! But I like how when you die your EXP, doesn't go down. just money. So I don't take any money with me because most towns have banks. It's completly a 5 star game, I recommend it to every (turn based) RPG fan. It's also cool how you can go from day to night, it adds more.......something to the game.

The game looks fun but I gotta know, is this anything like the first Final Fantasy games because I LOVE those games!

Never played any final fanasty games, but if you like em you'll like this one. It's just fantastic. I didn't think snes games could be this good. only two downsides. You can't move vertical, and the game has odd speaking. Like a sword with a long blade. Or To save you go to a statue and he says would you like to tell me the story of your journey, which means would you like to save. I would give it a 9/10. But I'm stuck I went to this village and a kid fell in a well. so I go look for him and fight a crazy monster then got out of the well. But now I have nowhere to go. I can't get back to the east land because the castle guard wont let me through (in windia) and he says to cross the cliff where the distance is not great. But I can't

The only Snes RPG released so far, even tough a great one, why did they start with the sequel?! Just like Probotector 2 ,veryyyy strange, no logic...

I d/l-ed it shortly after X-mas and didn't get around to playing it until about a few weeks ago. I must say, this has been the only game I've played since. The game really sucks you in. For me this game is easily falling into the category of my favorite RPGs. Right up there with FF4, Secret of Mana, SoulBlazer, Chrono Trigger, Paper Mario, Dragon Quest 8, etc.

Taterschoice: To compare it to the final series...hmmm. I'll just say it reminded me alot of an early FF story(like part 4) but with the multi-character mechanic of Chrono Trigger and uses a Dragon Quest style battle mechanic. A tasteful blend that sucks you in after about the first hour or so. A word of caution, much like Dragon Quest 8, you won't be doing much level grinding but you will be starved for cash alot. So you will be doing a lot battles for a while to afford your weapons and armor. That is until you learn to use the hunt ability... Not to spoil stuff but Selling the roasts you retrieve from hunting is a good thing.

SPOILER WARNING!!! I can't answer shoemaker's question without spoiling a bit of the game.

The shoemaker: I ran into a similar problem that the game kind of expects you to know about. And I almost forgot until I looked at the VC included manual. (Btw, the VC manual isn't very clear either) Anyhow, I finally remember this explained in the original instruction manual I read when I rented the game ages ago. In the overworld map, who you have in the 'front' of your party changes what you can and can't do. I say 'front' in quotes because pressing the L or R buttons changes who's in the front of your party only for the purpose of the overworld map. It won't change your battle formation. Anyhow, in the overworld just South of Windia you'll see what looks like a pair of pegs with water seperating them. Well, this is for Sten 's (the monkey character in your party) ability. He can stretch his arms like a grappling hook so to speak. How does one do this? Well, just press L or R until Sten is at the 'front' of your party, stand on the aforementioned peg and press the Y button. Sten will stretch his hand over to the other peg and you'll be heading back east. Other characters have similar abilities when you press Y and they are at the 'front' of your party:

Ryu: You must have a fishing pole of some type and some kind of bait equipped in you extra slots below your armor. When you see a fish jump out of the water in the over world, go to it and press A and you'll be in a fishing mini-game. Haven't quite figured out how successfully nab a fish... yet...
Bow: Go into one of the random grassy knoll icons with him in the 'front' of your party by walking up to it and pressing A. You'll go into a one screen hunting field where you can hunt down deer and pig like thingys by pressing Y. You can get roasts if you manage to kill one. Selling these at the item shops gets you lots of gold. Also work good as free elixirs as these roasts restore all hp to one person when used as an item.
Katt: Similar hunting abilities like Bow's. Also can crush rocks but I haven't figured the usefulness of that yet.
Rand: Your party rolls up into a ball and takes your party across the overworld fast with no battling. However, it's hard to control and you'll most likely get attacked if you crash into a bush, wall, mountain, etc.
Nina: Nothing that I can figure out yet. Perhaps later in the game?
Jean: Turns your party into a giant frog and you'll get into less battles. You can also swim across lakes and stuff. Much like Sten, this is very much needed later in the game to progress.

I've only just got Jean in my party and am at Simafort.

Overall a great game. 4/5 rating is right on the money!!

Damo: One final note, it seems like the youtube clip you have on there is from a different game. The game I d/l-ed looks more like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOpYmxrMiNM

Luigi182: The Youtube clip on the site is from the GBA version of the game. The graphics were simplified a bit.
As for Nina, she'll learn her ability late in the game. Like Jean and Sten's, it's required to pass certain obstacles. Let's leave it at that.

As for the game itself.. eh. I never liked any of the BoF games a whole lot, and this one, while much better than the original, is still fairly dull. Far too many fetch quests, little story progression until extremely late in the game, dull dungeon design, bosses that take an eternity to defeat.. eh. Don't like it.

Thanks Luigi182, I would have never thought you could you special moves on the over world map! I read the manuel and i knew you could swa positions, and use special moves, but I nver knew how to use the moves, thanks again. Well I finally made it back to the village, and I swaped one of my partners for Rand, because he was only level 7, and every one else was level 14. I'm stuck again, but I'll figure it out somehow.....

And Adamant, a lot of the things you said, is what I love about the game! the Bosses are take such a lobg time, you never no if you'll beat him, or have to restart. You also need a plan on how you will fight him, two attack, two heal other people, all attack, or all heal? very fun, it keeps me playing for hours. and I like the atmostphere of the dungeons, looks well dungeon like. i also like how there's little quests to do, and that you never do to much to get past the story each time.

Over all it's a great game, and dare I say beast game on the VC!

Great Game I hope other 16 Bit RPGS come out for the vc.

Anybody like Chrono Trigger?
I sure do!

I can't remember where I am in this game. I should play it again sometime

if you leave this game for too long like i did (1-2 months maybe more) and you havent played it before you're going to need gamefaqs (unless there is another way...?) because there are like no hints whatsoever

Classic RPG with a nearly perfect leveling system. 9.2/10

FIRST thing I downloaded. This is one of my most favorite RPG's in existence. I'm being a little biased, but I give it a perfect score. Warm, fuzzy nostalgia for me. * has it on the original SNES too *

Worenx

Yeah i agree this is one of my favorite RPGs too. But after beating the parts I was stuck on, I now have no clue whatsoever of what to do. Maybe I just need to look harder or something.

This is by far the best RPG out now! Until of course nintendo starts to put final fantasy games on vc if they are that is.

Kingston couldn't BE more wrong. It's clearly deserves a 9.3/10.

This game changed my life. Bang for your buck, people.

When I bought that game on GBA, I thought it was a wonderful classic... but it was such a bad game.

And I love rpgs, but not that one.. sorry

I really want this game. RPGs are the best.

I've been trying understand why everyone was praising this game so much when I thought it was just mediocre. But when I saw Garlyle's comment I think it's because there are so few RPG's on Virtual Console with no other games to compare it to. There are so many better games that have yet to come out!