Friday, October 18, 2024

I Finally Beat Breath of Fire (After 20 Years!)

 In late summer of 2001 I was gifted my first Super Nintendo console and some games. In either 2002 or 2003 I purchased a copy of Breath of Fire and went straight to work on getting to the game's end. After many hours had been invested something else took my interest and Breath of Fire was packed away. I truly can't remember what it was, but whatever it was took me away from Breath of Fire so long that I totally forgot where I was and what I had left to do. If you're a fan of old RPGs you'll know, unless it's your favorite RPG that you've played through a few times already, picking up where you left off in an old RPG is damn near impossible. Throughout the years I attempted to figure out where I was, but I kept drawing a blank, getting frustrated and just packing the game away again. Not this time!


I knew I was on a tower with two elevators, so I went to GameFAQs and searched the most suggested walkthrough to see if it could steer me in the right direction. Thankfully it did! Now I finally knew where I was, after twenty years! I was literally an hour or less away from completing the game for over twenty years and never stuck it out long enough to get to the end. What a shame. My tendency to grind levels helped out quite a bit here as I found it fairly easy to get through the bosses I had left. I needed to backtrack through and pick up some equipment and learn some dragon skills, but all in all it wasn't a big struggle, especially the end bosses. #Spoiler: Once I got the agni ability they were actually really easy. Just keep a pocket full of cures and you're golden.

Yes, it's a photo of my TV screen. What?

The main reason why I wanted to beat Breath of Fire was to finally close the book, and have experienced this game completely after all these years. The second is because my 68 in 1 SNES Multicart has both Breath of Fire and Breath of Fire 2, so I have access to a (semi legit) copy of Breath of Fire 2 to play on real hardware. No save state safety net for me! Although I will be using a walkthrough if I get stuck and frustrated. Just being honest. With all the fun I had finishing the game I really hate to just pack it away and only think of it who knows when. I do think of the cartridge now in much the same way as I do my Playstation memory cards; windows to a bygone era when I had a lot more fun in life. Back when I was playing Gran Turismo 1 and 2 on the PS3 I pulled out my PSOne and took a stroll down memory [card] lane to see what my old garages looked like. It was a good time! Now I leave you with a typo I found in Breath of Fire. Yes, it's also a photo of my TV screen.




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