Breath of Fire II: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''I quickly learned that Breath of Fire II’sII's reputation for having a terrible translation is 100% warranted. In fact, it’sit's so poor that it’sit's fascinating. I’mI'm sure that every translated game out there has its own little quirks, flaws, and mistakes, but Breath of Fire II has translation quirks, flaws, and mistakes of nearly every category possible.''|''Clyde Mandelin''}}

The second entry into the long-running and popular ''[[Breath of Fire]]'' Japanese [[Role-Playing Game]] series. It was released for the [[Super Nintendo]] in December 1994 in Japan and December 1995 for North America. It was later ported to the [[Game Boy Advance]] in December 2001 in Japan, April 2002 for North America and June 2002 for Europe. It includes updated [[Character Portrait|Character Portraits]], a dash button, upraded graphics for the menu screens, a trade option between games (with a few bonus items) and a re-balancing of Exp/Money given by enemies.

There are two things that stand out most about this game. The first is the [[Blind Idiot Translation|terrible, terrible job that Capcom did translating it]] from the original Japanese (allthe kinds[[Fan ofTranslation|translator]] butcheredfor ''[[Mother 3]]'' observed that the translation contains '''every''' possible ''type'' of namestranslation existmistake). The second is the fact that despite this being the '90s, when Nintendo of America's censorship policies were in full swing, this game got away with having numerous and explicit references to both religion and death. The [[Big Bad]] is a deity, for crying out loud! It's pretty much the opposite of what happened with ''[[Breath of Fire IV]]''.

* [[And Now for Someone Completely Different]]: In some events, you take control of Sten, then Nina, and then {{spoiler|Ryu's mother Valerie}}. Hopefully you leveled Sten up beforehand, as if not you might as well be softlocked (there's a place to level up, but it's extremely slow).

* [[Anyone Can Die]]: {{spoiler|Particularly if you're in the Church of Saint Eva. Tiga, Claris, Ray, Rand's mother, and potentially Ganer all bite it in that area.}}.

* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: Averted by the Death spell; unlike most SNES jRPGsJRPGs, this one is [[Simple Yet Awesome]] since it works on a majority of non-boss enemies (but has a pretty simple animation).

* [[Broken Aesop]]: There's a touching scene with Katt/Lin/Rinpoo (depending on translation), where she {{spoiler|explains to Tiga that people don't just fall in love at first sight. Then it turns out that Ganer and Valerie, Ryu's parents, fell in love at first sight.}}.

** To be fair, he ''can'' catch up;: it'll just take some time grinding him. (Andand it's well worth it too, as he becomes the party's best healer.).

* [[Clear My Name]]: Bow. Infamous for being one of the longest [[Fetch Quest|Fetch Quests]] in JRPG history. Humorously, this plot culminates in rescuing Jean, after he's jailed for [[Irony|impersonating the Prince]]. Yes, that's right, it's a [[Clear My Name]] '''within''' a [[Clear My Name]]!

* [[Creative Closing Credits]]: Rather than showing up the development staff, the credits lists the names of ''every single'' character in the game, even minor [[NPC]] and town dwellers, some times in full-name basis. This is also so full of [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]] to westernWestern culture that it counts as [[Bilingual Bonus]] for the Japanese.

* [[Dub Name Change]]: Plenty, mostly due to the [[Blind Idiot Translation]] as it seems the translator doesn't even knew how to render names right (''Rand Marks'' instead of Land Marks). Other cases are due to space restrictions (Jean and Spar), making up new ones (Katt) or, randomly, because they wanted to adhere to ''[[Breath of Fire I]]'''s translation (Bleu, some magic spells)

* [[Flashback Effects]]: Scenes from Ryu's past are [[Deliberately Monochrome]]. The game itself begins in black &and white, but abruptly turns color when young Ryu enters the woods.

* [[Foreign Queasine]]: The frog-people's culinary, with its use of worms, roaches and flies. Ryu gets to taste some... with [[Vomit Discretion Shot|predictable results.]].

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: As stated above, numerous - and explicit - references to both death and religion. Even more bizarre that Nintendo allowed this, yet denied the SNES version of ''Final Fantasy II''/''Final Fantasy IV'' from using the word holy.

* [[Glamour]] / [[Mass Hypnosis]]: Evrai seems like a utopia full of happy citizens. {{spoiler|Try to leave, however, and they're revealed to be muttering, brainwashed puppets.}}.

* [[Half-Human Hybrid]]: Ryu and his sister -: their father is human, but their mother is of the Dragon Clan.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: Oh sweet mother of God, '''YES'''. {{spoiler|Sten fakes us out of one, then Nina gets robbed of hers by Mina; later, Tiga and Ray go down for your sake, followed by Rand's attempt only for his mother to switch places with him, and Ganer is more than willing but it depends on you; time later, it's Valerie's turn so you can progress; and finally, Ryu has two different situations: one in which everyone is willing, but he must ''not'' sacrifice a friend, and the last one in the bad end where he takes up his mother's place.}}.

* [[Human Resources]]: There are several ancient machines powered by draining life energy. {{spoiler|One under Evrai, in which Ryu's father has been imprisoned, one in Highfort, which the princess must be rescued from, and one under the Township, which Ryu's father [[Heroic Sacrifice|insists on powering]] if you rescue him, allowing Township to fly.}}.

* [[Informed Deformity]]: It would make a lot more sense if Nina's black wings were actually... you know, black. This might be explained by 1) with the 8-Bit engine, if they really were black, they'd likely just look like a shadow following her, and 2) you meet Nina around the same time you meet Patty, so the color change was so you wouldn't mistake one for the other.

* [[Last of His Kind]]: Katt thinks she's one, as she's not saw any other around. {{spoiler|Tiga later explains to her that there are very few of them scattered all over the world.}}.

* [[Lost in Translation]]: Most of the [[Punny Name|Punny Names]] and [[Theme Naming]].

** Also, Gandaroof should've been Romanized as Gandalf.

** The "A" in "A. Sludge" stand for "Atomic", which might explain {{spoiler|why most of the monsters in the island where you fight them are giant}}.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: [[Floating Continent|Township]].

* [[Missing Mom]]: {{spoiler|She's around, she's just not able to do much}}...}}

* [[Mobile Menace]]: Teleportation is the ''only'' possible explanation for Habaruku serving as both leader of the St. Eva church ''and'' {{spoiler|priest of a tiny backwater village on another continent}}. For ten years.

* [[Multiple Endings]]: There's a bad ending {{spoiler|where everyone gets killed, and the demons win}}, a bittersweet ending {{spoiler|Thewhere the world is saved, but Ryu sacrifices himself to seal the entrance to the underworld}}, and the good ending, {{spoiler|where Ryu's sacrifice is avoided by his father, who plummets Township onto the underworld's entrance, sealing it under thousands and thousands of rock}}. You can only get the good one if you don't kill a certain person during a boss battle.

* [[My Country, Right or Wrong|My Religion Right or Wrong]]: Ray knows that {{spoiler|the Church of St. Eva is bad}}, but fights you anyway out of loyalty to his adopted father.

* [[Nobody Poops]]: Averted. ''Breath of Fire II'' is the only game in the series to include bathrooms in every house, and even two instances where the bathroom ''is the dungeon''.

* [[Path of Inspiration]]: {{spoiler|The Church of St. Eva}}. Probably one of the earliest examples of a video game using a religious organization as an antagonist force.

* [[Plotline Death]]: {{spoiler|Tiga and Claris.}}.

* [[Punny Name]]. Alzheimer (Aruhamel), Aspara Gus (Spar), Eichichi (chichi literally means "udders"), Land / Rand Marks (Rand) and Nympho Mani (Nimufu) were [[Lost in Translation]]. Algernon and Town Ship made it in.

* [[Religion of Evil]]: Played with {{spoiler|the Church of St. Eva}}. While it's secretly bad to the bone, it'sits believers (and many of it'sits puppet preachers) genuinely believe it's so good and noble as they were told.

* [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]: It doesn't matter if you think you're God: {{spoiler|Ifif you kill his friends in front of him, Ryu ''will'' bring you down no matter how many explosions you throw at him.}}.

* [[Shout-Out]]: The tenants are full of these: the fortuneteller is named after [[Whoopi Goldberg]], the old guy Barose/Burroughs from the dreamworld is named after a character from ''[[A Nightmare on Elm Street]]'', artist Salvador is named after [[Salvador Dali]], etc...

** Kilgore Trout is a fictional character created by Kurt Vonnegut of ''Slaughterhouse Five'' fame. Kilgore and Trout are the feuding rich folks in [[Home Town]].

* [[Shout-Out Theme Naming]]: Elforan and Gedd are named after [[Earthsea]] characters.

* [["Well Done, Son" Guy]]: Averted when Rand's mother {{spoiler|sacrifices herself to save him}}.

* [[Where It All Began]]: {{spoiler|Ryu's hometown Gate is where the final dungeon is located}}.

* [[Wrench Wench]]: Eichichi ([[Fan Translation|a.k.a. Gigi]]). Has massive breasts and finds machines… stimulating. Probably would be [[Ms. Fanservice]], too, if the sprites in this game were large and detailed enough.