@G-SprinklesJanuary 29, 2025
Back in ‘98, I remember perusing my local Blockbuster looking for game to play on my newly-acquired PlayStation. I was looking for something with an engaging narrative but was still new to the RPG genre; A neighbour had only just introduced me to Final Fantasy 7, which piqued my interest.
When I came across the North American box art for Breath of Fire 3, I wasn’t sure what to expect — the thing really didn’t give me much to go off of. What could I really intuit from this simple image of a sword floating against a backdrop of fire? If it weren’t for the Capcom logo, I very well might not have given it a shot.
Decades later, I still can’t properly emphasize how grateful I am that I rented Breath of Fire 3. I was enamoured right away.
The game starts the player off as a petite dragon on the loose, torching innocent mine workers to cinders. From there it sets off on a very personal story that grapples with themes about identity, freedom, balance, atonement, and discovering one’s own purpose in life. There is no grand quest to save the world, but instead an intimate journey to pursue truth and reject the confines of the status quo.
The game balances these themes gracefully with a cute, handcrafted art style, in tandem with a catchy fusion-jazz soundtrack. The game knows when to have fun and when to take itself seriously.
True, the constant battles and grinding don’t age as well as my rose-tinted nostalgia may want me to believe, but that is the price of admission for what I consider to be a rewarding game experience. And I haven’t even mentioned the Dragon Gene Splicing system, where your main character can transform into a diverse assortment of powerful Dragons.
I really do hope this game is selected for preservation on GOG. Funny how a game from almost 30 years ago can have such a profound impact on one’s life, but here we are.