Story/Translation
****************

Too early to tell at this point exactly where the story is heading, but
it's been quite interesting so far. The translation is better than
average.... I have yet to notice even one spelling or grammer error
(though one sentence was missing a comma). Best of all, the story is
simple to follow, and not as confusing as most other RPGs of late. Breath
of Fire also contains quite a bit of humor, and I found myself laughing
out loud on several occasions.

Graphics
********

Very nice. BOF3 uses hand-drawn sprite characters on polygon backgrounds,
similar to Final Fantasty Tactics, Grandia, and Xenogears. The characters
are well animated, and the backgrounds are beautiful. The special effects
and spells are also quite impressive, even at this early stage. I suspect
they will be pretty damn spectacular by the end of the game.

Sound
*****

After hearing complaints about Breath of Fire's music, I wasn't sure what
to expect. So I was pleasantly surprised to take the game home and
discover (gasp) that the music is actually quite good. It's mostly mellow
Jazz, and while it's not as heavily orchestrated as some RPGs, it *is*
well composed and seems to fit the "mood" of the game rather nicely.

And the sound effects ROCK. Especially your characters, who all have
voices, and let out a yell before each attack. In fact, one of the
characters, Teepo, sounds suspiciously similar to Goku from the Dragonball
anime. I wouldn't be surprised if they share the same voice actor.

Gameplay
********

So far, it's been a blast to play.

It plays similar to other turn based RPGs, but with a few innovations, the
most useful of which is the "Examine" command. While in battle, you have
the choice to attack, defend, examine, use a skill, or use a item. So what
does examine do? Your character does nothing for one turn, except watch
the enemy of your choice. If that enemy performs a special skill, your
character will learn it! Most enemies seem to have at least one special
skill, but not all skills are learnable. Those that are learnable are
quite useful and use little or no magic points, so you will definately
want to use examine often.

Another innovation - random battles on the world map are optional. When
you are traveling on the world map, an exclamation point (!) will appear
when there are enemys at that point. If you want to fight them, just press
the action button (X), otherwise, keep walking!

You are forced to fight random battles on the "area map", though. This is
when you are walking through forests, villages, mountains, etc. When you
first enter an area for the first time, you may have to fight your way
through the area map before you have the option to walk over the area (and
skip the random battles) in the World Map.

Like it's ancestors, Breath of Fire 3 features unique abilities for each
character in your party. When Ryu leads the party, you can swing a sword.
Useful for cutting firewood!  ^_^  When Teepo leads, you can kick rocks
out of your way. When Rei leads, you can pick locks and break into
people's houses!

And of course, this wouldn't be a Breath of Fire game if it didn't include
fishing, so yes, the fishing sub-game is there. It's actually rather fun,
too. But what happend to the hunting? I keep seeing all these cute little
bunnies in the forest, and thinking how much fun it would be to go after
'em with a bow and arrow....

Details, details
*************

I think the thing I like best about this game is the attention to detail.
When you exit a town, the town doesn't just end abruptly, there will be
people outside of the town working on their farms, fishing, or just plain
gossiping. And I'm impressed with the wide range of speech for each
person..... so far, EVERY character in the town has changed their saying
with each major event. Even the shopkeepers talk to you before selling
their wares. And everyone is well animated. Your party members have some
very funny animations. And people working in the farms even stop for a
moment to hold their aching backs!

It's also nice to go back to the days when you could see every character
in your party following behind you, though this only happens on the area
map.

Minor complaints
**************

My main complaint so far is the camera system, it only allows you to
adjust the camera about 90 degrees total, and the effect is only temporary
(mainly used to look for hidden items in towns). As far as I can tell, you
can't change the camera angle during the battles.

Another complaint would be the 3/4 isometric view. While the control isn't
as bad as some games that have used this viewpoint, it's not quite as
dead-on as I'd like.

And finally, why does the game only allow you to save 3 files per card? An
empty memory card will hold about 15 of these save files, so I'm not sure
why Capcom limited it to three.

But all in all, Breath of Fire 3 looks to be a great game. Even if you're
not a fan of previous BOF games, you may want to check this one out... so
far I like it considerably more than Breath of Fire 2.

Torajima