Breath of Fire III

STORY

The story starts off with Ryu (hero) as a little dragon child being found by two orphans name Rei and Teepo. The three quickly formed a bond of friendship with one another. After learning of the villagers problem with the local mayor high taxes, the three set off to kick the mayor's butt which they succeeded. The major retaliated by sending a couple of gang thugs to the home of the three heroes. After a brief fight, Ryu was knock unconscious. When he wakes up he finds out that his two friends are missing and decided to go off on a journey to look for them. Thus your journey begins. On the journey you will learn more about Ryu and his dragon people's history as well as meet the rest of the cast of Breath of Fire 3. The story is a long and in-depth one and sometimes get's a little too boring. Still, it's the kind of story that you would expect from an epic rpg.

Score: 8/10

CHARACTERS

The game focuses on many characters. Each character is unique and has their own personality and background. There's a character for every gamer to like and not to like. Too bad you can only use 3 of the characters in a party. There is a lack of secondary characters that are not a part of your party though.

Score: 7/10

GRAPHICS

The graphics are beautifully done. You have sprites in a beautiful render 3-D polygon background. The drawn spites are done excellently. The only thing that hurt the graphics are the shady and somtimes dark colors. Overrall the graphics aren't stunning but is good.

Score: 7/10

MUSIC

The game consist of great musical tunes. Plenty of it too may I add. While not all the tunes are memorable ones, they are good enough to give you a lasting impression so that when you hear a particular tune, you'll say "hey that's from Breath of Fire 3".

Score: 7/10

GAMEPLAY

Now the gameplay is pretty easy. Basically you have random encounters and exploration of world maps as you progress throughout the game. There are a few unique feature presented in the game however. The most unique one is the skills and master system. Now each fighter has his or her own skills (magic/ technique) but during the game you can learn and add more skills to a fighter inventory. There are two ways to learn added skills. One is by learning them from enemies. Each enemy has their own particular skill. All you have to do is press the learn icon and when the enemy uses it's skills, there's a random chance that your fighter will learn that skill. Second is through masters. Scatter around the world are masters. Each master will teach you a group of particular skills. Inorder to get a master to teach you, you have to pass a requirement that the master put on you. Once the requirement is met, you can begin being a student of the master. Another unique feature is the fairy world or building of the fairy world. (see extras) Throughout the world are dragon gene crystals scattered about. If you find these crystals you can add them to Ryu dragon inventory. Each crystal will allow Ryu to transform into a different shape dragon with unique abilities.
Battle System: The battle system is pretty turn base basic stuff. You are only allow to have 3 members per party. You can choose battle formations for your party. Each formation has it's advantages and disadvantages. You can learn more formation from masters. Basically use attack, magic, or special skills. The only thing to note here is that Ryu can change to different dragon forms. The dragon forms can vary depending on the gene crystals you have and the combonation in which you want to use the crystals. It's too bad that the game only allow 3 mebers per fight
Breath of Fire 3 gameplay is quite simple but unique at the same time. I actually like it.

Score: 8/10

EXTRAS/REPLAY

For extras, there are a couple of things that stand out. First is the fishing game. Basically the fishing game allows you to catch fish for cool unusual items/weapons. Each weapon or item require a certain amount of fishes to be caught inorder to trade them in for that item. The fishing game can be fun and quite addictive. Second is the fairy world. After halfway into the game, the game allows you to help build the fairy world. What does building the fairy world do? Well, you can play mini games for cool items, or open shops to buy and sell unusual items. The fairy world has many features that it's hard to explain. Let's just say it's a very addictive mini game.
As for replay, there's not much here. No multiple endings or different scenarios. You'll probably want to play this game once only unless you really enjoy it and want another crack at it.

Score: 8/10

In the end, after finishing this game, you kinda get the feeling that it's not as good as it should be. Maybe it's the gameplay or story but for some reason you just have this unsatisfying feeling. The game is good but not as good as a third installment of a series should be.

Final Score: 7/10

~Chi