When you say RPG, most people think of the Final Fantasy series immediately. But Final Fantasy isn't the only series to have a presence in the RPG world. The glory days of the Breath of Fire series come to the mind of all RPGers of longer history.

I say Glory days because, well, BoF3 sucked, in my and many others' opinions. Umm…I haven't played 1, either, and 4's not out…so that leaves BoF2. Breath of Fire 2 is the second in the Capcom series. The first was released in the US by Square, because Capcom was hesitant about the reception it would get. Well, America received it fine, and Capcom kept the rights to the sequel for themselves.

Breath of Fire 2's game play is about as old-school as they come. You assemble a party of four out of the nine characters you get - one of them is secret - and take them into a turn-based battle. Turn-based, in this as in most instances, means that you select the actions of your party all at once, then watch as they and the enemies make their moves. This system can make battles highly boring and repetitive, especially during the random battles, which is a whole other story. The random battles in BoF2 are possibly the most annoying I have ever played in a game. First, there is a ludicrously high number of random battles, and very few variations per location. This boils down to many, many boring, repetitive battles. Luckily, Capcom had the insight to put an "auto" feature into the game, which, when selected, has the battle continue uninterrupted with your party doing nothing but attacking until a press of the B button brings them back under your control.

Another thing that I feel I should mention; this game is F%&!ing HARD!! You can be doing just fine in the game, and then you'll hit a part you'll be stuck at for much, much too long. Sometimes it feels as if Capcom is purposely trying to piss you off. Part of this difficulty stems from segments where you have to take control of certain characters. Unfortunately, if you don't use this character regularly, well, you're pretty much screwed. The game play itself, while very old-school, has that classic feel to it. Unfortunately, the unnecessarily hard portions of this game weigh it down in spots. I give game play/control: 75%

BoF2 was released in 1995, so if you're looking for graphics on par with the most recent RPGs, look somewhere else. However, if you're a true RPG fan, you will know that graphics are not the important thing in a game. The visuals in BoF2 are very nice. The colors Capcom chose are very bright, vivid ones, and they fit the world created in the game very nicely. Towns, dungeons, battles, the world map, they are all nicely done, and while not a treat to watch, they come close. The in-battle sprites are well drawn and detailed, and their animation is done well. And when you get on in the game, and start bonding with the shamans you find, some of the characters look just plain cool. Really, I have no complaints in this section. I give graphics a: 93%

The sounds and songs of an RPG can greatly influence its enjoyability (who can say they weren't affected by the song playing during Aeris's death scene?). Breath of Fire 2, like in so many other fields, hits right in the "average" gray area here. The music in the game is neither memorable nor forgettable, if you catch my drift. It fits the settings of the game well, but you're probably not going to run out and buy the soundtrack. Many of the pieces blend together; I honestly didn't notice when the battle music changed halfway through. The sound effects are the same way. You've heard them many times before, but you're not going to hate hearing them again. Not much more to be said, really. A nice, but forgettable soundtrack is what you get here. Sound/music: 85%

In my opinion, the real feature of an RPG is its story. If there's one reason to play an RPG, story is it, and BoF2 does not fail to deliver in any way. People are always saying how religion is so predominant in games like Vagrant Story and Xenogears; well, in terms of religious overtones of a story, none of them hold a candle to this game. This is where you find what you're really looking for; false gods, corrupt churches, BoF2 has it all. There are significant twists and plot points throughout as well. Although this great aspect of the game is only significantly present for the second half of the game, it starts off rather slowly.

You are Ryu (BoF main characters are always Ryu; it means Dragon in Japanese, which makes a lot of sense later on), the son of a priest in the town of Gate. After rescuing your sister from a nasty monster (a beak, one of the weakest in the game), you take a nap in front of the large dragon guarding the town and the mountain behind it. When you wake up, however, nobody in the town recognizes you, and your father and sister aren't there. You end up running away with your friend Bow and get beaten up by a monster.

Fast forward to the future, where you and Bow live and work together. I won't say more because I've gone too long already, but even though it takes a while for the story to get going, trust me, it does later on. As always, Ryu is a member of the legendary Dragon Clan, the winged princess of Windia, Nina, is another character, and there are some filler characters to go along with you. This is my one complaint about the story: the characters. Ryu is, as always, mute. I suppose that's ok, but this annoys me. Also, I don't like some of the characters. Bow is annoying. Sten is annoying. Spar, I just don't like. Jean is annoying. Rand is cool, but the thing with his mom's death is rather corny, almost, and…annoying. Other than that, you don't get much from the characters. As annoying as the characters can get, the religiously themed story really is great, though. I give it: 95%

Overall, Breath of Fire 2 is a worthy way to spend some time. The story is intriguing and there are a number of cool features, too, like Shaman bonding and building your town (don't kill the old man!!). If you can overlook the frustrating parts of the game, you can see just why I gave it a: 92%