The original Breath of Fire is notable for two things:
- It has the most annoying combat system, where your heros walk around getting into random fights. There is no action involved in this fight, and mostly it consists of managing which characters use magic and which fight.
- Out on the great, big internet, there are several lists of RPG Cliches of varying lengths and intensities. If you play Breath of Fire, so many of these cliches come true it is no longer funny. Breath of fire has a Fetch Quest (many of them, including a Broken Bridge), follows the Collapsing Castle Law, a Deja Vu Dungeon, Dronejams, the Free Inn Rule, the Laws of Parents, the Machavelli Rule, Villainous Disbelief Law, Asbestos Rule, etcetera.
With all this, Breath of Fire does have a few redeeming qualities. For one thing, over the fairly large course of the game, the designers managed to put in some innovative back grounds and pretty towns and scenery. This doesn't however, change the mindnumbingly boring combat system, but when you get shrunk and must fight cockroaches on one of the games many Fetch Quests, well, it relieves the tedium.