Breath of Fire/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • 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.
  • Broken Base: Reactions to Dragon Quarter ranged from ecstatic to furious. There's also some regarding the manga adaptation of 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...
    • Habaruku/Habalq V: Complete Monster does not even begin to describe him.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: the ending music, particularly the ones from III and IV.
    • Barubary's boss music.
    • DQ's entire 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 DQ's really represents a society on the brink of crumbling, just barely struggling to stay alive, let alone make progress)
  • 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
  • Epileptic Trees: Albeit heavily implied in-game, in II: Patty is actually Yua, Ryu's younger sister.
    • Yuna in 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 II, the elder of Dologany is named "Ryu Rider"...could he be 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 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 IV as a Non-Linear Sequel (specifically as a sequel in the distant past) to I-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 IV, which lives and breathes Belligerent Sexual Tension.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: To an extent in II, shows up more blatantly in IV and 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 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.
      • 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 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.
  • Nightmare Fuel: The series sometimes thrives on this, as noted below:
    • I: Mote's whole dreamworld stitch, and Myria's portrayal in The Dragon Warrior manga adaptation.
    • II: The opening where you go from beloved resident of Gate to no one having any recollection of you (shudder). Most of what Habaruku does. The worst ending. The final dungeon's pulsating-flesh appearance.
    • III: With a bit of Fan Disservice, Myria's One-Winged Angel, especially when she uses her physical attack (guts literally busting out) and her special attack Holocaust, which involves her face melting off. Graphically.
    • IV: Elina's fate. The Carronade and anything to do with how it works and what it does. Ryu's breakdown, who even terrifies Nina, who had never shown fear of being that close to a dragon before. The Fou Empire's predecessors, with their three attempts at summoning caused the first to spawn with only a head, the second to spawn with no physical body, and the third to be split in half and spread across 600 years.
      • The manga adaptation seriously drives this point home with both the Carronade and Ryu's breakdown: The former with Mami, who is tortured with hot irons and who is explicitly described as having suffered every torture the Empire could throw at her and the latter Not only showing the Kaiser Dragon on a Godzilla-esque rampage (complete with depictions of Fou Empire solders being torn asunder), but it's shown that Kaiser Breath is capable of boring holes in mountains.
    • DQ: The room full of headless Ninas in People Jars. Bosch and his demonic-looking arm (the monstrous features even reaches up to his face). The Nonstandard Game Over.
    • Nina. In addition to having been turned into a human HEPA filter, her tongue was cut out to boot--so she couldn't tell people what happened.
    • Bosch (1/64), after he has bits of Chetyre grafted onto him.
    • Everything about what Yuna does to sacrifices for the Carronade qualifies. In order to make them potent offerings, he tortures them in the most painful ways imaginable into their minds completely break.
      • It gets particularly terrifying when the party explores his laboratory at the end of the game. The music becomes unsettling and sounds like something out of Silent Hill. A thick mist fills the entire building, and at the end the party comes across masses of organs in flesh that they must climb to reach the top of the structure. One particularly creepy instance is when they reach a room with a bloody white cot and a diagram of the human body next to it. When they finally reach Elina, he reveals that he transformed her into an immortal Endless that he plans on using as an eternal battery for the Carronade.
      • The manga's depiction of this scene is quite possibly even more disturbing. In one scene, Ryu slices through what look like a mass of giant intestines, and in addition to the above, Yuna also describes graphically how he created the Dragonslayer--by summoning only the head of an oni-like god, studying and torturing it, and then fusing its spirit into the sword. And yes, the manga shows how only the head came through with the god in question essentially doing an I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.
  • Player Punch: Dear sweet Ladon, yes.
  • Porting Disaster: The GBA version of II didn't even bother to update the translation. Enter the Fan Translation.
    • The GBA-version of 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"-soundeffect 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.
  • 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 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 DQ, RyuBo (Ryu x Bosch) is a known portmanteau in Japan.
    • In II, RyuKatt is a known portmanteau for the obvious pairing. Interestingly, in Japan there is not a RyuRin (Ryu x Rinpoo) equivalent.
    • 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.
  • Tear Jerker: Each game is usually good for about two or three.

Ershin: "Was that... an appropriate time to laugh?"

    • Jade/Judas's death in The Dragon Warrior, along his lover Sara.
  • That One Boss: Wildcat the chef from 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 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 I has a nasty habit of using earthquake jumping moves a lot after he Turns Red.
    • Algernon in 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 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 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 Fence[2] is the only thing preventing you from skipping it.[3]
    • It has a counterpart in 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 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 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
  1. ↑ considering the Nina in that game is all of twelve years old and Ryu has more of a Big Brother Complex with her.
  2. ↑ The only thing stopping you from going straight to the final dungeon after getting the portal network working again is the fact that nobody in your party has the guts to hop down from a 6-foot-tall crate.
  3. ↑ And it had the simplest solution: turn 1 degree to the right; from that direction, it's literally a straight path.
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