Breath of Fire III | A Young Dragon’s Coming of Age Tale (Retrospective)
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- The Breath of Fire series is considered to be a classic to many fans of the genre. This video takes a look back at the third installment, which is a fan favorite and what many consider to be the best in the series. The game was released in 1997 in Japan and 1998 in North America. Over 20 years after its official release, how well does it hold up all these years later? Find out our answer in 'Breath of Fire III - A Quick Retrospective'
Thank you to everyone who took the time to watch this! We hope you enjoyed it and found it fair enough. We have a lot of nostalgia for these older, classic JRPGs so these videos are always a blast to make. The nostalgia does make it a little harder to be objective though, but I do try my best not to let it blind me too much lol.
If you enjoy these retrospectives, leave a comment below with what games you would be interested in seeing covered next. We do have a few videos planned for the near future already, but we will definitely take all comments into consideration for games to work on after these next few are finished.
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![What happened to the Breath of Fire series? [The History of Breath of Fire]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nTBmsBLJG4Q/mqdefault.jpg)
Rei was such a cool character. Still one of my favorite JRPG characters ever.
Doesn't that just beat all?
He was not only super cool, but he was quite broken: Weretiger +influence to keep him in check and have him be the leader in a Chain formation... He is ridiculously strong.
Rinpoo > Rei > Cray & Lin.
Mine as well...
@@arturoescorcia same with Kaiser.
3:56 That Bunny Girl looks really nice.
If she could have been in the main party, I would have loved to play this back in the day.
its such a crime that this series and this game are barely talked about these days. Its such a well designed game for 1997 standards and still holds up pretty well in many areas. Sadly capcom barely thinks about this game/series except some very wierd Crossovers (fun fact Rei is cannonically a west coast Avenger in Marvel vs Capcom)
also my brother got stuck as a kid in Momos tower and he was so dedicated to finish it, he literally leveled his party to lvl 70 or something. He never bothered to read the books in the library and worst of all, he lost his save game before he could even go through the tower and had to start all over.
Didn't even know it was a hidden gem it really was a great game for me as a child.
Breath of fire 2 was my fav snes rpg
I played this growing up and think you nailed the good and bad points of this game really well
from my experience the BoF series is just as good as early Final Fantasy and sometimes better. the music is great and the story is pleasing. I strongly recommend fans of older rpg's to have a try.
Fishing is an essential part of an optimized character. Anyone who knows what I mean, what comes after Silver?
Such a good game this....the acsension system was brilliantly customisable.... I still go back and play it now and again...and I loved the time skip.... n getting fisted by balio and sunder early..I was desperate to avenge Rei n teepo lol
The PSP version had really bad loadtimes, mostly because of UMD. Playing it off of a memory card (the Vita had a downloadable port of the PSP version, which is probably the best one) or emulated makes it a much more enjoyable experience.
The Final Fantasy games always were these epic big theatre spectacles, while the Breath of Fire games felt like personal adventures with friends
The fishing mini game is amazing in bof3 . I wish they made a bof inspired fishing title with these mechanics.
Sorry but no if they were going to put any effort into anything related to Breath of Fire the fishing part should only be a cog in an actual sequel. I will probably never see that sequel that isn't some shitty mobile game.
i... actually liked the mini-games. especially fishing... minus the desert.
No one in my family could get passed the desert the directions to get though it didn't work. Honest think family's copy of the game must have been broken.
@@nautdead3197 No, the directions are actually bad. It was either mistranslated or just written in the game wrong. I forget the details exactly, but I think one of the directions given to you mixes up east and west.
I loved the mini games, the fishing was great. I played it so much. An that chopping wood game 😂
Just finished the game for a second time. It is my favourite JRPG of all time and I wanted to relive the adventure for the first time in 3 years. To see if it was indeed the same game I remembered and praised. I loved it even more on the second playthrough.
Thank you for this video. It's one of the most honest reviews on UA-cam for BoFIII out there. It's quite hard to give an unbiased overview of a game that stuck with someone for years. There are some things you said I reckon are not really accurate or diverge from my personal experience with it.
I disagree with the slow start. Whilst the ultimate motivation takes about 30-40 hours to be set in motion, the childhood half has a really interesting intrigue for the most part (Balio and Sunder are great villains) and sets a few important questions for the player to think about. Until Garr joins the party and tells Ryu he thinks Rei and Teepo are dead, Ryu only has one goal : find his missing friends. The game never tries to deviate from this goal until the Angel Tower ark, something I wish more JRPGs would do. There is also the whole philosophical/moral implications that are never presented as right or wrong to the player but rather force them to answer them themselves. There was a now deleted video about it by Casp'O Saurus. One of my favourite scenes is Rei rampage during the second half. I couldn't see its beauty until very recently, during my second playthrough. He has been driven completely crazy by the loss of his "sons" and knows no limits when it comes to revenge. He slaughters everyone who has done wrong to him as well as the entirety of Syn City. He is also the first non-initial party member to be encountered in the second half of the game, showing a great dichotomy in the themes of both halves. Whilst a child Ryu couldn't see the wickedness of the world, adult Ryu has come to form his own paradigm and perceives "right" from "wrong". The music, the themes, the bosses, the dialogue all reflect this sudden change in perspective.
Without the first half, the second one would not be nearly as impactful. It does take some time to get going, yes, but in retrospective, every little scene is important in the grand scheme. If one were to pay very close attention from the very start, they could even notice some hints as to the upcoming events and story.
The sprites for the game are well-made, but from a 2021 perspective, they really do look stiff. I think I, II and IV have better sprite designs. The main exception is during battles where, although there are not many animations, they do mostly look fluid.
When it comes to mini games, they are pretty tedious on the first playthrough but with precise enough guides (which are plenty on the Internet nowadays), most hardly present a challenge. The only real exception is the Shisu quest with mackerel grinding and the infamous well-vinegar atrocity. Even the tedious mini-games such as Beyd training, Desert of Death traveling or the electric floor in the final dungeon are not that bad if you know what you are doing.
When it comes to movement, it feels very alienating compared to other PS games in particular, but is not too bad when the player gets used to it.
Last point I wanted to share is the ending. I am used to Final Fantasy games which usually have half-baked endings. Breath of Fire III's is seemingly open to interpretation and is made such that the player thinks about it. Much like in numerous other instances in the game, the ending's meaning is implied through the visuals of Ryu and co looking at the desert as well as the track. There is also the fact that Myria didn't seem to be lying and her fear of the Desert spreading might actually happen. Now, did Ryu and the team save or doom the world ? Myria has committed terrible crimes but without her, the future of the world is uncertain.
Once again, I would like to thank you for this thought provoking video. It seems like everyone's got a different interpretation of the game, which imo contributes to its legacy.
I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the video and thank you for your insightful comment as well. You make a lot of good and interesting points, some of which I hadn't thought of in that way. As you mentioned, I do really love the whole morality aspect and open interpretation to this game and is one of my favorite parts about it. A lot of rpgs from back then seemed to always tell you what exactly is right and wrong, along with how stuff will play out to a T. I love that this game defied that and did its own thing, leaving a lot of thinking up to the players themselves. This aspect resonates with me more than ever as an adult as I've come to see the world as more than just mere black and white.
And yeah, I didn't touch on it in the video but the shisu quest was easily the worst mini game type segment, so tedious. I never experienced that part as a kid so when I got to it as an adult I remember thinking to myself, "oh wow, as a kid I never would have been able to get past this part or figure out what to do" lol
Again thanks for watching and your detailed response, great to see other passionate jrpg fans out there
I agree with Alexandre Zeddam, this review was awesome and honest, and it does justice to a game that not many people really talk about. Breath of Fire 3 also being my favourite JRPG of all time, each time I play through, it seems very apparent that the beginning slower half is actually what creates the extremely powerful character development which we don't see in a lot of other RPGs. In fact I would say the character development and story are this game's greatest strength, especially with the camping mechanic which allows you to see into the thoughts of each of the characters, and that dialogue gets updated after literally every moment in story-progression or geographical movement, in some areas it really allows you to see the subtle, yet intriguing shifts in perspective for some of the characters - whoever programmed this part showed dedication to the story - and whoever did the translation did a crazy good job.
I'd say the most powerful moment in the game is moving out into the overworld again after facing Garr and growing up, that music "To a Distant Place" plays and perfectly captures that feeling of innocence lost and that sense that you can never go back, knowing that Teepo and Rei are likely dead, and now there are two even greater callings/journeys, The Self and Myria. I always loved that.
Gaming Broductions you did a really fantastic job with this. And I loved your explanation too Alexandre Zeddam (though I think the sprites are still top notch haha).
Awesome retrospect
Cool retrospective dude...I did a let's play of this game that lasted for 10 years. Dope to see you remind me of that.
Thanks man. That's a hell of a let's play lol. What a journey, I'm sure finally making it to the end was a momentous and perhaps bittersweet occasion
That just makes me think of playing it at like 15, stopping at the age gap and playing it again at 25 and finishing lol
You're telling me your let's play lasted 10 years or was it 10 years ago?
I also like how expressive the text boxes are. Like when a character shouts really loud, the text is HUGE when it first shows up (Like with the dolphin at 13:57), and if they're nervous, it'll be shaking back and forth, or it'll be tiny if they're whispering. I wish more games did that.. at least ones without voice acting.
Lowkey, BoF III, and IV are the best in the series. III's characters have more character development in my opinion, and it was super dope seeing these characters grow and become strong enough to willingly challenge a god. Loved the dragon gene system too!
Sadly Capcom has said that the Breath of Fire series is on Hiatus. I honestly don't know if the series can make a comeback after the mobile game but I do hope the series can get a reboot remake one day. Remake the very first game and make a new series possibly.
The jazzy OST is another reason why I’ll always have this as my favorite JRPG.
Overworld theme: insert Pacha meme
What I love about the representation of Ryu especially is his changing battle sprite during the game.
He starts of just wiggling his sword and being more afraid of fighting and getting hurt.
But as soon as his confidence kicked in,he stood strong and slashed with determination.
And not to forget “adult” Ryu, being an experienced fighter and swordsman. And I like his almost crouched attack.
2 years late, aheh, sorry...
The funny part is the time Ryu finds his confidence also happens to be the time Nina joins the party. Leading you to wonder is he showing off, or does he realise he's not just defending himself now?
Child-Ryu's idle sprites change through the game too, it's lovely attention to detail.
I played this game when I was actually a lot older, around 18 or so back in 2010 and I found this game to be amazing. I had already played ff7 and 8 in my childhood and had a sort of RPG renaissance in my life after I graduated highschool. Right after beating this game I jumped on bof 4 and it didn't have the same impact as this one so I definitely choose 3 over 4
Thank you for doing this retrospective, breath of fire 3 is one of my favourite JRPGs. There is a certain kind of down to earthness to this game that no other JRPG seems to evoke in me, sure you have a party composed of anime characters but it feels immersive in a way that i can't get into final fantasy or the tales for example (with some exceptions ofcourse).
I definitely know what you mean. There's something just really charming and endearing about the characters and the way the world is presented. The overall aesthetic is quite immersive like you mentioned and is one of the first that I think of when PlayStation RPGs come to mind
I totally agree! Somehow the world seems closer to the one we live in than a lot of others in jrpg. And with places like the Chrism Plant and Sin City, I see the parallels to Modern Life
This game is hard as hell. Beat it back in the 90s before guides. Took me forever as a kid. I did love the fishing though.
I took me over 90 hours to beat this game for the first time (late 90s) the desert of death beat the shit out of me, but by the time I made it through, I was probably 10 levels higher then I would have otherwise been.
And I had a blast with the fishing mini game, too.
@@adampindell Desert of Death is what I call unintentional grinding. I call that good game design. It gives you a goal in mind so you don't think of grinding you just happened to do it while getting to the hard to reach goal or at least the hard to figure out goal. That's how all games should be played anyway.
This game has an amazing atmosphere.
this is one of the first RPG's i've ever played on the playstation. it is easily my favourite game in the world.
I also love how at the first part when he was a kid up to i think a little bit after he save nina several times, his kid sword attack action changes to a more confident and honed one
Fairy Village essentially breaks the game though, invest in it enough and you can do several things
* Get items that are incredibly overpowered far earlier than you should (Ivory Charms, AP Shells, etc)
* Duplicate ANY item you have (This also includes Stat Boosting items like Swallow Eyes in where you can only get them as a drop from 2 enemies in the whole game or treasures in certain locations)
* Sell antiques at full value (You can see where this can head with the aforementioned item duplication)
People do dump on it, it is a time sink, but it pays off immensely as it lets you breeze through later segments far more easily.
I really don't remember being stuck in the desert part when I was a teen, I even remember liking it lol
Maybe I should replay one day to see what's the big deal. I remember this game with great fondness so I hope it doesn't ruin it.
I had a somewhat similar experience with some differences.
To me, Breath of Fire 3 was in 1998 what Final Fantasy 7 was to me in 1997. It was a game that I played every single day for months as a 12-year-old kid. I think the timing was perfect, being so young and all. I loved every single minigame and every single thing that happened in the game. I had a bomb Fairie Village and I even looked forward to fishing the whales on the uncharted continent.
I used a guide on GameFAQs for the desert, because videos back then were non-existent, and I still liked it; I just never got bored with it. And because it lasted for so long, I grew attached to the characters as if they were my real friends. It's what always caused me to be sad once the game ended, because it felt similar to when your friends move away to a different city. Sure, you can call them now and then and hang out during holidays, but it'll never be the same again as when you first shared all those adventures.
Being a 12-year-old helped with that, because back then the world was just simpler. You allowed yourself to befriend a cast of characters because you were young and innocent, and parasocial relationships like that had no negative consequences. The suspension of disbelief was subconscious and automatic, untainted by the cinicism and weariness of an adult mind. It was just fun, comforting, and enjoyable.
I had a great childhood, and Breath of Fire 3 was most definitely part of that.
Bro the fishing system and fairy village were pretty cool side quests to do for that era. You get pretty good rewards for fishing too, and you can borderline 100% catches once you're good enough.
For me, playing this game is like rereading your favorite 1000 page novel. You don't wanna do it every year, but when you do, going in with the expectation of a slow burn and really taking the time to enjoy the smaller details is what's going to make the replay fun.
This is always going to be my favorite JRPG, which I 95%ed in 1999 and beat for the first time in 2010, and when I play replay it in 5-10 years, I can't wait to approach the game differently and maybe try to actually make Peco and Momo work instead of the Rei/Garr hyper-cool team I always rely on. Either way, I'm going to appreciate the time I spend with it.
It's always been hard for me to beat this game because of how much I enjoy it, and I'm one of those people that used to struggle to complete JRPGs back in the day because of the feeling of sadness beating them brings.
If you leave Peco at level 1 until you can make Fahl his master and then level him up he becomes super powerful.
"Mini games sucks"
Are you kidding me? BOF3's fishing game is considered to be one of the best in the whole genre and it greatly rewards you will some really good items
The fishing game is actually pretty good for what it is even if I didn’t delve into it too much, you’re right about that. I was more talking about the abundance of random mini games that were forced into the main story, like the shisu segment as a whole and the desert of death for example
@@GamingBroductions I knew it. It was the part of pulling the well that frustrated you. I had that problem too. I did eventually get it even as a kid.
Brehthu of fiah turee
This is legit what I heard too :')
I love Breath of Fire 3 with all my heart, I grew up with it and it will always be dear to me but the minigames are indeed horrible, I was stuck in that desert for a month waiting for magazine to release a guide...it also doesnt help that the guy at camp gives the exact opposite directions....bruh.
Love the game to bits tho.
Great retrospective! I totally agree that this game is incredible and totally worth playing even if it didn't age too excellently. I definitely had... okay have a huge crush on Rei Chiba and rank BoF3 as my second favorite BoF. On the PlayStation I find that the battle loading screens can still be a bit of a drag at times and if at all possible I think it's optimal to play this game with a fast-forward button to get through some of the boring random battles. I'm curious if you'd ever do a retrospective on BoF4? Despite several decades of playing hundreds of other games, Breath of Fire 4 has managed to remain in my top five favourite games of all time. I know it's personal opinion but I think it's soundtrack is one of the best ever video game soundtracks and ranks up there with Chrono Trigger and Cross in my book. To me Breath of Fire 4 is an upgrade of Breath of Fire 3 and almost every way, the battle system was more engaging, the graphics more pleasing, translations improved and the story stronger and darker. I can't wait to see more content from you!
Thank you! A fast forward option would be amazing if they ever ported this to a modern console, sorta how the ports of FF 7-9 did. And funny you mention that but yes we actually plan on covering BoF4 in a retrospective later this year! Probably as a year anniversary to this video. I could go on a lot more with how I feel about it but I'll wait until that one to talk in detail :) In the meantime we did just include it in our most recent video about 8 great JRPGs that have aged really well
My brother asked me why my save file hours say 99 hours.... i just told him... fishing. I got addicted to it for some reason XD
1:24 The sprite work was pretty good but the sprite work of BoF4 still the best looking 2D JRPG to this day.
The desert was nothing.... not knowing that you had to sit and do nothing to pray in the dream to advance.... that sucked, sat there just grinding for like 30 hours because I didn’t know I just had to sit in front of the statue and do nothing....
"Dont that just beat all?"
Me: [ugly crying] 😭😭😭😭😭😭
CAPCOM needs to bring back all Breath of Fire games as a bundle except for Dragon Quarter.
My fav RPG ever. I loved it so much! Even to listen to the music makes me almost cry 🥺
I play this game about once a year. I've beaten it close to a dozen times (But never could beat it as a kid). It's easily my favorite JRPG, bar none.
I love the minigames and all the little gimmicks in this game (except the minigame where you have to haul in trash from the ocean, fuck that game)! This must be the reason I'm the only person I know of who prefers 3 to 4. Training Beyd is so much fun, and the Faerie Village was my favorite part of the game when I was a kid.
Ryu's attack animations and voice clips change before the timeskip! His original attack animation is to turn away and just sort of wave his sword in the direction of the enemy, but he changes to a more standard slash with a yell as he attacks. I remember the first time I played this game and it changed I thought it was so cool, like the character was really evolving.
You are not exaggerating about the battles being slow. I tried to replay this last year and just could not get through it despite this being one of my favorite games. Between that, the timeskip, and the sheer amount of stuff to do in this game it's pretty understandable to get fatigued before finishing. Some of the dungeons are just too damn long (Momo's tower immediately comes to mind) and it's not uncommon for me to just put the game down for a couple of days when in one of them.
The Dragon Gene system is so fucking cool in this game, and there's not really anything else like it out there to my knowledge. It's a shame this series has died out, it could easily stand in the second tier of RPGs with series like Trails of Cold Steel, Ys, and the Tales series.
My dude! I'm glad I'm not the only one who enjoyed fishing and the faerie village, and man I spent way too much time training Beyd... but he definitely didn't need my help, haha.
This is probably one of my top 3 RPGs. While BoF4 had a lot of technical improvements, it definitely took a few steps back in other areas. And yes, this game has it's shortcomings, but it has that charm to it.
I think I've played through this like 5 or 6 times, last time being on an eboot I made for my psp from my original disc. Speaking of, if you were playing on the official port, the loading times were probably due to it being the port, as I know quite a few ps1 ports suffered that problem. I never had much of an issue back on original hardware or my backup on psp. I don't have the psp version.
The fishing mini game was my jam, though 4 made it slightly better I believe? Fairy village was pretty decent, nothing too crazy involving but you could get sick items/weapons from it and other goods. I do have to agree that the one-off mini games like drawing horseradish from the well or training Beyd and whatever else sucked and there were far too many of them sprinkled in through the game. Desert of Death sucked to do without a guide, ugh. Overall though still one of my favorite games.
Gotta know, did you get a Goo King Sword? I'm guessing not. There was an inside joke back in the old forum days that it didn't exist since it was so rare. I finally got a legitimate drop back when I was playing my eboot save in... 2010 or so. Meanwhile I had multiples of the other rare items in that area with the same drop % chance on every file I made.
Ryu's sword swings actually change even as a child. When he's with Rei and Teepo he does that frantic scared multiple jab thing but after Rei and Teepo are gone and he meets Nina, he starts swinging it down in a slice. That was also when he started turning into a dragon.
His Defense animation also changes. At the start, he cowers and covers his head. After meeting Nina, he crosses his arms across his chest. Protecting Nina and fighting Balio and Sunder really forced him to mature.
If you play the psp version on an emulator you can frameskip the load times kekeke.
This was my first PlayStation game. Loved it
BoF3 has the best story, characters and dragon system.
One thing that BoF4 nailed was the battle system. Just imagine how awesome BoF3 would've been with BoF4's battle system.
I loved the IDEA of the master system. I hate that they never explained it or how it worked, causing me to get halfway through the game without understanding it, missing out on tons of moves, etc.
To be expected from a PlayStation game. Some of the deepest (or perhaps just obtuse) sidequests of any console.
The 2D Sprite work holds up really REALLY well.
I was more of a Breath of Fire 2 player back on the Wii Virtual Console years ago but knowing how the PlayStation games were with the series, Breath of Fire 3 looks really beautiful and holds up really good these days.
I think the fishing minigame in BoF 3 is probably among the best iteration of that minigmae.
Great video, covered a lot of what is great about this game. I got this game purely by accident as a kid (picked it off the shelf at a game store I guess?) and played it like you with my brother and friends for ages. I was kinda shocked years later when I looked up the game and saw that it had middling critical response and I really thought I was crazy until people started talking about how great it is online. It really felt like a game for the wrong time - in the midst of all the PS1 JRPGs being released, using sprites instead of the terrible 3D models everyone seemed to like at the time and with an unusual soundtrack it's really far more suited for modern tastes than those at the time of release.
On the slow battles: I've always actually appreciated that BoF3's battles felt quite snappy. The PS1 FF games were more like: hit random encounter > screen effect whilst ugly battle arena loads in > slow pan around battle arena > battle (relatively slow anyway) > victory screens > load back to normal gameplay. BoF3 by having the encounters in the normal environments always felt faster and less jarring to me. I also appreciated that *most* of the spells had pretty short animations (damn you War Shout) with no lengthy summon animations etc. Breath of Fire IV's battles felt far worse to me for the same reasons.
Man congrats on putting up with this on a PSP. I replayed it recently on an emulator with speed boost (and reading guides to get past the desert and a few annoying bits). It's one of my faves for many of the reasons you mentioned. The OST is honestly worth a playthrough for any JRPG fan.
A guide is definitely the way to play the game these days, I can't even imagine trying to get past some of those parts without one. If this game ever got an official remaster an option for speed boost like in the FF remasters would be incredible, the slowness at which the game moves is one of my biggest gripes with it. And yeah that soundtrack... one of the best out of all the Playstation JRPGs for sure
The 3rd has amazing soundtracks
It really does, my favorite out of the whole series
Looking back, this is the only game I played blind without looking at guides and finished with satisfying awe. As a kid I didn't think I'd religiously check every nook and cranny just to find all that dragon genes. Now, I'm playing it for the 5th time and I still get amazed with the art-style and story. This and BOF4 (which I've yet to finish) is the only PS1 games I play again and again and don't get tired along with its flaws.
I have a tattoo of a dagger and rose on my arm, and the handle on the dagger is the handle from the sword on the box for this game
Rei was my favourite from the cast.
The mini games in Breath of Fire 3 are phenomenal. I wish there were more of them…. As good as the fishing game. I liked BoF3 fishing mini game more than almost any other fishing mini game, but that’s where it stops lol
3 is my favorite all time rpg!
I did love this game when it first came out. Ive probably played though it 10+ times but yeah its pretty tedious now. I think we get spoiled now a days with no random encounters and waypoints. And hate that stupid desert of death, forced me to go buy a strategy guide as a kid. But story and characters were awesome, maybe i would playthough on a emulator at 2x-4x the speed to help it out a bit
Best rpg soundtrack!
Mini games were one of my favorite parts. IT was always mixing things up and adding a new puzzle for me to solve. I really appreciate the creativity the devs brought here. They could have done a better job introducing those mechanics but I enjoy figuring them out.
I loved this game, and got stuck 6 months on the mission where I had to be stationary about 20-30 seconds. Irony, i just needed to do nothing.... just this beat all xD
I say this a lot about a lot of old games but Breath of Fire 1-4 need to be remastered in HD. Accessibility is very important when it comes to classic games in my opinion.
Oh my god! JNCO Jeans?! Holy shit I forgot all about those! I used to rock those back in the day too! Haha how embarrassing lol
So did many other terribly misguided youths in fashion back then 😅 Now that’s one thing I don’t mind leaving in the past lol
I just beat BOF3 for the first time. The story and especially the gameplay were great and an improvement over the first two games. Unlike the first two games, I didn't feel the need to grind that much save for the final dungeon. Though I was not a big fan of the overworld design being too linear, I did enjoy the skippable random battles. Even though I am OK with RPGs with high encounter rates, I think this design choice is a good idea especially for those new to the genre.
It seems like Capcom took some inspiration from FF6 which was released 3 years prior. For instance, the Master system in BOF3 was somewhat similar to the Espers in FF6; while you can simply switch between FF6 espers, you have to backtrack to the location of the BOF3 masters to gain stat bonuses upon leveling up.
As for the minigames, I actually enjoyed playing them a lot especially the fishing game where you can catch Manillos to purchase exquisite weapons and items.
Yes, I think the fact that certain dungeons that require you to have specific companions in your party is a big let down. Perhaps having some dialogue clues would be helpful or make these sections optional for backtracking and exploration.
Another flaw that really annoyed me is when you have Garr in your party, he often gets stuck between people and in tight corners so many times because he is just so big. This makes me constantly switch party leaders just to get him back on screen.
The music in this game just rocks. It is definitely something I can listen to all day and not get bored. My only complaint is that the 1st overworld theme in BOF1 (Starting the Journey: ua-cam.com/video/3IrsP6Kk1ts/v-deo.html) and the 2nd overworld theme in BOF2 (Breath of Fire: ua-cam.com/video/d4c7f_4GuDo/v-deo.html), which are basically the same song, is not present in this game. Some might say that it may not be fitting or relevant for the story, but it could have been an opportunity for Capcom to introduce a very catching and recognizable tune similar to Mario's World 1-1 and Zelda's Overworld Theme.
Overall, I thought Breath of Fire 3 is an amazing game and definitely one that I will be replaying many times in the future.
i need a remaster of this game coz i wanna play it again
This definitely needs to happen!
Capcom had quality jazzy music during that time. Street Fighter Third Strike did too.
I was addicted to this game when it came out.
I actually really liked the fishing mini game and is probably one of the best and most in depth fishing mini game of any jrpg, and let's be honest it's not a jrpg without a fishing mini game. I actually prefer this fishing game as opposed to the one in BoF4. The fairy village is... meh, but the fishing is the best the series has to offer.
Hey UA-cam what an fantastic recomendation!
Sadly many RPGs was overshadowed by FF7 at the time, by the simple fact that game magazines never cared to talk about them (the only media that we had back at the time). If not for a friend of mine I never would have played BoF3, Arc the Lad and Suikoden.
Again it looks like you never played the other BoF games. Field Action was also a thing from BoF2. And really? That's what annoyed you? There wasn't even that much field action moments you had to use. Minigames were also not that numerous. You're complaining about things that came about every now and then. In comparison to what other games was this a problem? In other RPGS you had to have a specific character to interact or progress. I'm playing FF6 right now and I had to have certain characters to activate things. Big fucking deal. And how many characters was it for you to figure out? You can take 3 characters around and tehre isn't that many total.
...The minigames were bad? WTF? The fishing minigame in BOF3 has been one of my most favorite fishing games in any RPG that features a fishing minigame. The fishing minigame was just so well crafted because it was more than just your standard "press one button to throw your line in then spam press another button to reel in fish". I actually liked making the fairy village too, but I do like civilization builder games, so having small one you have to micromanage was nice imo.
I liked making the "shisu" for that one story quest and kinda wished it was expounded on more like a full blown sushi restaurant minigame or something. I felt there could have been something more there, but I guess it was just my love for sushi talking. And training Beyd up for his duel...god I pity Zig for what happened to him. I'll admit the desert was a pain to get through for me when I was younger, but when I picked the game up again as an adult to relive some nostalgia, funny enough the instructions were really easy enough for me to do it in one go. That one boat one though where you gotta rush to get to a certain place, I was still hating that one.
Breath of Fire 3 will always be on my top 10 PS1 JRPG list. I just like how different it was, where you weren't exactly trying to save the world from immanent destruction, and how the cast was truly a hodge podge of various races (literally no one was merely a human, Ryu being the only one looking like a typical human). Whether it was the Dragon Gene system where mixing and matching gave you interesting results, the master system that admittedly took me a 2nd playthrough to actually get, or simply using observe to steal a skill from certain enemies (Influence being one of the most important ones you want to get early on, you'll thank me later). BOF4 just didn't do as much as BOF3 did for me, but I do believe I need to play that game again as an adult since I haven't tried to yet.
This was one of the games i got with my playstation for my 10th birthday. It was the first jrpg i ever played. When Reí first turned into the tiger and you fight that Australian shark on the beach shook me. The tension raiding the manor. Leveling up pecoros to become so powerful.All the dragon gene combining, this game was unique and memorable.
This is one of those games where I tried it, but never really got hooked.
One day...I really enjoyed BoF 1, very "slice of life" type JRPG.
Thanks for the video.
Imagine this game in the same format as the ff7 remake, more dragon combos and additional story? Take my money capcom, take it now!!!
Don't forget the death penalty. If you die and didn't get resurrected then you will suffer a temporary max HP lost until you find a bed or inn to sleep in. I think it was a unique new way to handle penalty of death. In other earlier RPGs deaths had brutal punishments. BoF3 was trying something different. There's also abilities that make you lose max HP to trade for massive damage.
BOF 3 is the kind of game that you play because of the journey, the end boss motivations are a bit inconsistent and lackluster in my opnion, and about Gar i'm not native english speaker, so i don't know if you're being sarcastic, but Garr is a Gargoyle isn't it?
We need a new version on the PS5 and/or Switch with better graphics and maybe better controls (I'm looking at that camera control) and maybe a new modern version of the music/soundtrack.
Maybe not so much a remake, but definitely a remaster.
Or maybe it does need a remake like you say with some of the things that is wrong about it fixed and made better (the mini games and load times) while making some of the things that are right have modern version done to it (a modern remastered version of the sountrack)
Basically everything you said in the video.
"doesn't that just beat all?" -Rei
Come on, at least fishing is very well done in BoF3 xD The desert though, that was just wrong.
I really liked BoF3's way of story telling. They don't just give you this big bad villain from the start. They just start you out with what you saw in front of you. You're found lying in a ditch being sniffed out by two wolves ready to eat you then picked up by a resident thief. You're then recruited into a small bad of orphans turned thieves. There's no big bad nothing. Every now and then you fight the resident bad guy of the place, right now they started you out small, let's rob from people. You mess with the wrong guy he sends you to fight the Nue, a monster that was terrorizing the town, then you find out your mistake after killing it then you go deal with Mayor Mcneil. It's just I like this way of story telling. There is no big bad you just go around handling problems while heading to a certain destination. Then once you get there you're given another one. It's hard to explain, it just felt like you were living their life and they are going about dealing with problems.
Not what you mean about minigames when you brought up the desert. The fishing game was perfected not sure what you mean. You obviously never played the other BoF series. Fishing was in BoF 2. BoF3 perfected the minigame.
I LOVED THIS GAME AS A KID AAAHHHHHHHHH SO NOSTALGIC! So is Final Fantasy 8, so thanks by having it in the intro too!
I don't know the desert of death didn't annoy me at all. Sure it was hard to figure out but once you understand it you would think it was ingenious because it makes you think that was how people got around deserts without modern technology. That is pretty cool. Also it's a RPG. The Desert was obviously playing on a kind of survival game and you should be grinding. It was basically unintentional grinding but by giving you a goal you grinded without thinking you were that is good goddamn RPG design.
BoF 3 villains were actually well designed. I have to tell you as a kid I never felt for the villains but every BoF 3 villain had something you can see that made them do the things they did. They were pretty gray in nature. Of course some of them were just downright nasty mixed in there. But they taught me a lot of interesting things about people. As an adult you understand their motives a lot better. You even begin to believe that what the good guys do are pretty down bad. Especially what one of them did. And it's interesting that the villains and the events actually seem to fall back to the same story that is told again near the end. There is a lot of foreshadowing of events that retell it further into the game, of course not many people might have picked up on it but I did now.
I'm starting to think Mayor Mcneil. Is he basically Trump?!
Back in those days 8/10 were high scores. There was like 3 named with 10/10 by 2000
the fishing minigame is one of the best ever imo
Really the mobile game didn't put it in the coffin. Breath of fire wasn't feasible for a while before that. Alot of turn based rpgs died cause of the times and flaw belief system that japanese game design was terrible and turn based rpgs were outdated.. not the platform. Mobile platforms has tons of great rpgs today like wayward souls, mage gauntlet, battleheart legacy, axe cop, chaos ring and Steve universe. If a series hit a mobile platform, it's caused there's no justification for it to be on a bigger platform. Breath of fire couldn't back then justify a big budget. It tried with the ps2 and suffer terribly which is the real reason the series dwindle.
One aspect I like about BOFIII is the theme of morality. Several parts of the game present these moral dilemmas reminding you not everything is simply black or white.
I liked this game but in the Start it's soo slow & I remember thinking man...when is this going to pick up I have no clue what's going on! I prefer BOF 4 then this game though its still pretty good.
The Minigames in Breath of Fire 3? Phenomal! wish there was more of them. couldnt get enough!
There now you have Read it somewhere :P
also honestly ,i didnt really mind them and had my fun with fishing and stuff
Such a good game 🥹
Fantastic game. The desert of death kept me from completing it for over ten years. Still was worth it to go back and complete it.
S-Tier music fo-sho
Everytime I want to replay this I get reminded of the desert and I just don't. The problem I had was a minstranslation of the directions in the german version. They told me to follow the star in the west which obviously is the wrong direction and you can basically walk for hours without ever coming close to where you need to be...
there's two kinds of jrpg players, those who like minigames, and those who don't. I actually really enjoyed them.
Sprites and 2Dish rpg graphics really did look good. Way better than the blocky 3d "realistic " graphics back then.
My heart is broken about your mini games perspective! BoF3 finishing is probably my favorite fishing mini game in any game released.
I remember getting a ps1 a little later than my friends but when I did I picked this up over final fantasy 7 and I was always trying to convince them to play it but yeah it has problems. God getting lost in the desert took me fucking forever
I still have the original disk (the one with the black back) of Bof3 that I bought in 1998. The case? not so much.
If I'm going to reach back into my memories I think the minigame you didn't like was the one where you were pulling the well for the vinegar? Yeah I mean that was hard for me to figure out and I thought I barely got it. Pretty sure if you looked back at it you would figure it out better as an adult.
Breath of Fire 2 is my favorite. So much nostalgia for the gameboy advance version I played when I was a kid.