Breath of Fire/YMMV

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• Anticlimax Boss: All the way back in the first Breath of Fire game for the SNES, we have Tyr/Maria/Myria, the Goddess of Destruction. All the build-up for how terrible she is, and because of Agni, which reveals her true form, she can't even deal damage in the triple digits, and healing is only an occasional necessity.
• Awesome Music: The ending music, particularly the ones from Breath of Fire III and Breath of Fire IV.
  • Barubary's boss music.
  • Dragon Quarters soundtrack. The soundtrack credits the music with Hitoshi Sakimoto, and there were even rumours that Yasunori Mitsuda had some involvement here. Even by themselves, they are both pretty good at often serene and atmospheric music (and Dragon Quarters really represents a society on the brink of crumbling, just barely struggling to stay alive, let alone make progress).
• Broken Base: Reactions to Dragon Quarter ranged from ecstatic to furious. There's also some regarding the manga adaptation of Breath of Fire IV, being a pure case of the detractors stating They Changed It, Now It Sucks.
• Complete Monster:
  • Cort/Kyura.
  • Tyr/Myria: Not that much in her limited screentime in the game, but The Dragon Warrior manga cranks it Up to Eleven.
  • Vexacion.
  • Captain Rasso.
  • Yuna. Most fans of the series consider him to be one of—if not the—most evil character in the franchise.
  • Deathevan a.k.a. Father Evans/St.Eva: he only appears in person at the very end of the game, but he makes very good use of his screentime. Killing your party members and throwing Ryu into an epic Heroic BSOD! Needless to say, running your sword into his face moments after that feels good. Not to mention everything he does behind the scenes...
    • And all of his servants.
  • Habaruku/Habalq V: Complete Monster does not even begin to describe him.
• Ensemble Darkhorse:
  • Barubary.
  • Rei. His cheeriness, catchphrase, good looks and usefulness in battle have made him a fan favorite for those who played the game.
  • Teepo: for similar reasons to Rei.
  • General Rhun.
  • Scias.
  • Fou-Lu.
• Epileptic Trees: Albeit heavily implied in-game, in Breath of Fire II: Patty is actually Yua, Ryu's younger sister.
  • Yuna in Breath of Fire IV has quite a few of these surrounding him. There is a portion of the base that believes he created Myria and set the entire series into motion. This theory stems from the fact that he pulls a Karma Houdini at the end of the game and announces that he wants to create more gods. Of course, this assumes that the game is a prequel to the others, which has not been confirmed. Now that the manga is concluded, his continued existence -- along with the survival of Fou-lu -- has a few people thinking that he may be coming back as the Big Bad of a sequel or side-story.
  • According to the Creative Closing Credits in Breath of Fire II, the elder of Dologany is named "Ryu Rider"... could he be Breath of Fire I's Ryu?
    • Overly-literal translation of "Dragon Leader"?
• Evil Is Sexy: Fou-lu, Elyon.
• Fanon: The current Ryu and Nina are the reincarnations of the Ryu and Nina from the previous games, and they are soulmates.
  • Due to the fact that the exact position of Breath of Fire IV has never been established timeline-wise, there are at least two fanon interpretations as to where the game fits (not counting Alternate Universe explanations). The most popular "Fanon Timeline" places Breath of Fire IV as a Non-Linear Sequel (specifically as a sequel in the distant past) to Breath of Fire I-Breath of Fire III, with an entire constellation of fanon related to this interpretation, specifically involving where Myria came from.
  • There's a standard Fanon portrayal of Fan-Preferred Couple Scias and Ursula in Breath of Fire IV, which lives and breathes Belligerent Sexual Tension.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: To an extent in Breath of Fire II, shows up more blatantly in Breath of Fire IV and Dragon Quarter.
  • Ryu x Rinpoo/Katt in Breath of Fire II is a popular Fan-Preferred Couple in both the US and Japan, even gaining its own Portmanteau Couple Name in English-speaking countries.
  • Scias x Ursula in Breath of Fire IV is a fairly well-established Fan-Preferred Couple that has taken on a fanon life of its own. Ryu x Lin in Dragon Quarter is a similar case of a Fan-Preferred Couple.
  • Yaoi Fan Preferred Couples abound as well. Probably the most popular examples include Fou-lu x Ryu which is technically a selfcest pairing in Breath of Fire IV, Ryu x Bosch in Dragon Quarter, and Elyon x Jesuit in Dragon Quarter.
• Fan Yay: Garr has been popular in gay-oriented Fan Art.
• Game Breaker: The Agni/Ultimate Power transformation. Merges all the party into a single being, max HP and AP, and the damages it deals always caps at 999.
  • Sadly falls under Last-Disc Magic. And this is in the dark eras of most RPGs not having New Game+ (with one exception).
  • In Breath of Fire II, Bleu has the best stats, most powerful spells and the ability to shed her skin, which restores her HP completely. There's a reason she has no Shaman bonding.
    • Breath of Fire I also relegates her to this status, seeing as she has the highest experience rate in the party (i.e. the easiest and fastest to level up).
• Jerkass Woobie: Bosch. Though admittedly the "woobie" bit doesn't come out till you hit the scenes featuring, ahem, Vexacion's idea of father-son bonding.
• Love to Hate: Even though a good deal of the fandom wants to see Yuna burn in the lowest level of Hell, many admit that he plays the villain well.
• Magnificent Bastard: Yuna. He manipulates Soniel into testing the Dragonslayer blade on Fou-lu and eliminates him in the process, leaving the throne up for grabs. Fortunately, it is implied that the Fou Empire disbands after the final confrontation, so it is unlikely that he ever becomes emperor.
• Memetic Mutation: Apparently, simply writing the KAISER DRAGON like that developed into a meme...
  • Capcom indulges in a big one by having not taken advantage of the GBA re-releases in order to fix the translation discrepancies (specially in Breath of Fire II) and not making use of the chance to expand on some Plot Holes (Patty's whereabout probably being the biggest).
• Moral Event Horizon: For Harabuku: murdering Tiga and Claris, causing the death of Daisy, ruining Ryu's life, torturing Ganer for ten years in a secret facility beneath the Evrai Church, sacrificing innocent souls to the Big Bad... the list goes on.
  • Whenever Yuna makes an appearance, expect him to do something horrifically evil. Mutating Elina into a disfigured Endless that can be used as a sacrifice for the Carronade is probably his worst deed, and the fact that her boyfriend Cray has to mercy-kill her afterwards only makes it worse. Even more disgustingly, Elina came to visit them on a goodwill mission. He also turns Fou-lu's love interest Mami into a Sacrificial Lamb for the same cannon, which convinces him that Humans Are the Real Monsters and that they deserve to die.
  • When Captain Rasso mercilessly slaughters the summoners of Chek. Just to make it worse the summoners in question looks like children, and it's made even worse in the manga since they acted very heartwarming towards a in doubt Ryu.
• Player Punch: Dear sweet Ladon, there are so many that this section would collapse if we listed them.
• Porting Disaster:
  • The GBA-version of Breath of Fire I also didn't provide an updated translation. To make things worse, the game experienced sound-glitches during battle whenever damage is being added/reducted, as the music would be scrambled for two seconds when you're getting healed, or the "damaged"-sound effect would get warbled whenever you or the enemy take damage. While this isn't all too great of a bug, it's still very jarring.
  • The GBA version of Breath of Fire II didn't even bother to update the translation. Enter the Fan Translation.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: RyuNina in the series in general. Most other known portmanteaus tend to be restricted to Japan, some have made it to other countries though.
  • In Breath of Fire IV, FouMami (for the het pairing), FouRyu (for the selfcest pairing), and in Japan, SciAsu (Scias x Ursula/Asura) also exists. FouMami, in fact, is probably the most well known portmanteau naming in the Breath of Fire fandom.
  • In Dragon Quarter, RyuBo (Ryu x Bosch) is a known portmanteau in Japan.
  • In Breath of Fire II, RyuKatt is a known portmanteau for the obvious pairing. Interestingly, in Japan, there is not a RyuRin (Ryu x Rinpoo) equivalent.
  • Breath of Fire II in particular also has a lot of portmanteau namings not related to couple pairings, but rather from fusion forms with other members of your party.
• The Scrappy: Gobi/Manillo. Being the less useful party member and having a solo part where losing on purpose is actually easier and faster than trying to fight back speaks for itself.
• That One Boss: Wildcat the chef from Breath of Fire II. Before you fight against him, you have to exchange all of your kickass equipment for a knife, a napkin and a plate (as a shield). While you're equipped with the game's equivalent of heart, Chef Wildcat's chopping and dicing up your party with moves that can be close to an instant-kill if your HP are low enough. Try to sneak into his office with your weapons, and the bouncer will be more than happy to stomp a mudhole in you.
  • The bouncers are actually somewhat manageable, but unfortunately, it seems you can't get out of losing all your items and sacrificing 1/4 of your HP.
  • Gremlin in Breath of Fire I as well. As soon as he Turns Red, he uses his best attack every turn and has about two or three times his HP bar left.
  • Horn Toad in Breath of Fire I has a nasty habit of using earthquake jumping moves a lot after he Turns Red.
  • Algernon in Breath of Fire II. It has two companions, one heals roughly 100HP each turn, another does an AOE attack, in addition to Algernon's AOE attack. Among other things.
  • The Zombie Dragon in Breath of Fire III, depending on whether or not he abuses his Bone Dance attack. Bone Dance damages and confuses both of the characters. He's also fond of poisons. Fortunately, he can be buried with Kyrie.
  • Barubary/Barbaroi. Definitely one of the toughest opponents in the second game.
• That One Level: The Desert of Death from Breath of Fire III, a Guide Dang It made even more so by a mistranslation that sends you in completely the wrong direction, made even scrappier by the fact a rather silly Insurmountable Waist-Height Fenceis the only thing preventing you from skipping it.
  • It has a counterpart in Breath of Fire IV that isn't much better. Seriously, who at Capcom could have thought this was a good idea?
  • The crystal-path maze in Mote/Sigmund's nightmare.
  • Also from Breath of Fire I, the tower in Mogu's dream world; there are certain tiles that turn all of the walls invisible, making it very easy to get lost if you don't know exactly where you're going.
    • Similarly, there's also the Memory Tower in Breath of Fire II, due to the fact that you can only see a few spaces in front of you.
• Viewer Gender Confusion:
  • Spar/Aspara Gus. There are many who have thought of him as a girl. His Mushroom Girl Shaman form doesn't help at all.
    • This is even adressed by his team mates during the game, as they comment he looks like a man but they can also see him as a girl.
  • Teepo. Something rather recurrent with fans.
• The Woobie: Nina, Teepo, Fou-lu.