Breath of Fire II (Video Game)

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It was like waking from a long dream... but, now his father and sister have disappeared and no one else recognizes him...
He dreamt of a horrific demon who ripped his heart and body apart... but it remains just a dream.
Yet, the vision remains strong. Deep within the corners of his mind, he hears it calling. A different world... A world of silence... a world of darkness. He moves towards it, feeling both fear and exhiliaration. He succumbs and the darkness welcomes him.
"You are the one" the demon screeches. Reaching within his own heart, he realizes that it is true. Then, in that moment, reality washes away and the dream begins to take shape...

— Intro Narration

The second entry into the long-running and popular Breath of Fire Japanese Role-Playing Game series. It was released for the SNES 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 Portraits, a dash button, upgraded 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.

Ryu Bateson seems to have the ideal life as a young child. Sure, his mom is missing, but his sister Yua and father Ganer love him very much. However, that all changes when, after saving his sister from a rampaging monster, he goes back into his hometown of Gate only to realize that no one remembers not only who he is, but who his father or sister are (the two of them have disappeared, natch). After spending the night at the local church's orphanage with his new friend Bow Doggy, he decides to flee his hometown for greener pastures.

Flash forward 10 years where he and Bow are now Rangers, working to protect the people of HomeTown from various monsters. One day, they get a mysterious call from a princess of Windia that will change their lives...

There are two things that stand out most about this game. The first is the terrible, terrible job that Capcom did translating it (and by some accounts the GBA port's translation is even worse!) from the original Japanese, particularly all the butchered names. 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.

There exists a character sheet for the series. Place any character-related tropes there.

Provides Examples of:

Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The toilet in WildCat Cafe, which opens into an entire cave. It's empty of monsters, but you still have to cover a surprising amount of ground to get the item you went in there for.
Almighty Idiot: Deathevan. He's been propped up as the godhead of the Church of Eva for so long that he believes his own propaganda. Once Ryu manages to wound him, Deathevan's kindly old man facade falls away, and his monstrous final form is a screaming lunatic that can't even comprehend why Ryu and his friends would fight so vehemently against him.
American Kirby Is Hardcore: The page picture is the original Japanese box art. North America got something close to what one would find in Conan the Barbarian. In short, Bow looks like he wants to chew you... as do the rest of the crew.◊
And Now for Someone Completely Different: In some events, you take control of Sten, then Nina, and then Ryu's mother Valerie.
Anyone Can Die: Particularly if you're in the Grand Church of Evrai. Tiga, Claris, Ray, Rand's mother, and potentially Ganer all bite it in that area.
Apathetic Citizens: Two flavors:
- First: On the whole, the citizens of Fantasy Counterpart Amphibian France SimaFort can tell that the person claiming to be prince Jean is an impostor bent on stealing the throne. They also generally care a great deal more about haute cuisine and pursuing their various artistic passions than they do about the ongoing coup d'etat.
- Second, and more disturbing: The citizens of Evrai, who, when not mindlessly and joyfully praising St. Eva, are little more than Empty Shells incapable of independent thought and action, with their ability to communicate cut down to vague mutterings of distress using as few words as possible.
Apocalyptic Log: The deserted hunter's lodge contains a diary, with this summation: Do NOT go into the woods.
Asian Cleaver Fever: About midway through the game, you visit a restaurant where they try to cook and serve you. This trope is in full effect — albeit mostly by implication due to Limited Animation — as each strike of Chef WildCat's cleaver slashes you multiple times. You even have the option of being taught the move "Chop-Chop", which is pretty much this trope as an attack, by the chef after defeating him.
Attract Mode: As you let the title screen loop, you'll see story scenes for each party member explaining what they were doing just before the plot picks up after the prologue. You'll then see them participate in a quick battle.
Awesome, but Impractical: Averted by the Death spell; unlike most SNES JRPG's, this one is Simple, yet Awesome, since it works on a majority of non-boss enemies (but has a pretty simple animation).
Badass Preacher: Ray. Spreads the word of St. Eva, kills monsters, and can turn into a dragon.
Berserk Button: You do NOT mess with Ryu's friends. EVER. Not even if you are God.
Big Bad: Deathevan, the "god" of the Church of St. Eva.
Bilingual Bonus: Eichichi's Punny Name, for starters.
Blackout Basement: Barubary's lair is pitch dark. Since it's mostly just a Boss Corridor, this wouldn't be particularly relevant... if it weren't for the fact that there's an item hidden on a side path. Even if you get the hint from Barbubary by defeating him one-on-one, you're still left blundering around in the dark without even the knowledge that you'll need a couple field skills to actually reach the item.
"Blind Idiot" Translation: A famous example, to boot; this game came as close to a Translation Train Wreck as is possible without becoming totally incoherent. For example; an NPC offers you a tutorial on Joining Souls, but will only give it if you answer "no". This is because in the original Japanese you were being asked if you already knew.
Bookcase Passage: The hidden entrance to Bando's crypt is under a statue. A sharp blow from Katt's stick reveals it.
Bookends: Depending on your actions towards the end, then the game will both begin and end◊ with a dragon blocking the path from Gate to Dologany.
Boring, but Practical: Chopchop/Slice only does around 60 damage, but it’s consistent, defense-piercing damage that doesn’t miss, and there’re several late-game monsters that have low HP and high defense who fall very quickly to it.
Bottomless Pit Rescue Service: Nina, if she's leading your party in a dungeon and is not transformed into her angelic shaman-fused form. Averted in Thieves' Tomb, though, possibly due to the pits moving around.
Bowdlerise: Surprisingly few examples for a game of its time. Among the worst, most blatant Bowdlerisations is the writing of man-crazy witch's name Nimpho Mani (as in, nymphomania) as Nimufu Mani - and even THAT'S potentially just a botched romanization of the Japanese characters of her name; it's not as if there aren't plenty such examples already.
But Thou Must!:
- Quite a few, such as when Petape sinks your boat, leaving you with no way out of SimaFort and therefore no choice but to save Jean. She later forces you to eat the food during the Cooking Duel, then complains when you find it unpalatable.
- The Grass Man quest has an interesting variation on the trope: the Ringmaster asks you to either pony up an obscene amount of Zenny or get a replacement monster to be devoured instead. While you have the option to refuse to do either from the beginning of the quest, you will be roundly ignored unless you’ve fought the Uparupa and spared it, at which point it will progress the plot.
Caged Inside a Monster: There is a boss with a figure listed as "Old Man" chained up to the side of it. Killing the boss without killing the man (easier said than done, as a lot of your strongest spells will also hit him) allows you to rescue him.
The Cameo: Bo and Karn from the first game (or possibly their descendants, considering that they're still alive and don't even recognize Bleu) appear on a small northern island.
Can't Catch Up:
- It takes roughly half the game to clear Bow's name, by which time he'll be far behind everyone else in exp when he rejoins.
  - To be fair, he can catch up; it'll just take some time Level Grinding him. (And it's well worth it too, as he becomes the party's best healer.)
- Pretty much everyone compared to Ryu. Since you Can't Drop the Hero, he will almost always be higher-leveled than the rest of your party.
- Since this game avoids Leaked Experience, anyone who you don't use will remain at their original level. This isn't a problem in most cases, even when the game forces you to use a particular character, because you always have at least your other three "mains". Except in two cases with Sten and Rand. Sten will have to fight a tough boss (albeit one with little HP) and go through a short dungeon on his own. The game forces you to use him before then long enough so that he should barely survive. Rand, however, is a completely different story. If you've never used him, he'll be around level 7 or 8 when he will have to solo a very strong enemy with high HP and strength. Be ready to grind a few hours to get Rand up to par!
Cash Lure: You can catch the fish-man merchant Maniro by baiting your hook with a bit of gold.
Cave Behind the Falls: One waterfall near SimaFort hides a cave containing a hermit who teaches Ryu the second-level Dragon transformations. Good luck finding out about it without looking at a guide.
Chekhov's Gun: Arguably the Township itself, for a role it will play in the true ending of the game.
Clear My Name: The quest to clear Bow's name is infamous for being one of the longest Fetch Quests in JRPG history. Humorously, this plot culminates in rescuing Jean after he's jailed for impersonating the Prince, which is another quest for clearing the name of another character. This whole quest takes up about 4 out of 10 chapters.
Cloudcuckooland: SimaFort. The residents are so laid back, they don't even care if there's a coup d'état.
Cock Fight: Optional; if you choose to claim there is something between Katt and Ryu, Tiga will challenge Ryu to a duel, which, sadly, isn't winnable.
Colony Drop: In the best ending, Ganer drops the entire Township on the gate to Infinity in order to seal it so that Ryu doesn't have to make the same sacrifice his mother did.
Confessional: A selectable option at every church of St. Eva. The priest's response changes according to Ryu's current mission.
Controllable Helplessness: Used to initiate the Moment of Awesome in the YMMV tab.
Cooking Duel: A literal example — the end of the SimaFort arc involves Jean and the imposter Prince competing in a cooking competition, as Jean is a renowned chef.
Corrupt Church: Evrai can be seen as this. Breath of Fire II is one of the first games to pull this trope off effectively.
Creative Closing Credits: Rather than showing the development staff, the credits list the names of every single character in the game, even minor NPCs and town dwellers, sometimes on a full-name basis. This is also so full of Shout Outs to western culture that it counts as a Bilingual Bonus for the Japanese.
Cutscene Power to the Max: It is simply implausible that anyone could take out Ryu so easily in a one-on-one fight, and then die like a chump not two hours later. Unless you're Tiga.
Crystal Dragon Jesus: The church of St. Eva worships one. Or rather, they worship an arch-demon pretending to be one.
Darker and Edgier: Much more so than the first Breath of Fire game. Heck, this trope applies when comparing Breath of Fire II to a lot of SNES games at the time.
Death Mountain: Mt. Fubi, Mt. Rocko, and Mt. Maori.
Death of Personality: The reason why being transformed into a "Great Bird" is a heroic sacrifice when Mina does it in Nina's place. To quote one NPC [paraphrased]:
"If you become a bird, your mind becomes a bird's. Isn't that the same as dying?"
Demonic Possession: Several boss characters. Most are humans who were corrupted by power or greed.
Disadvantageous Disintegration: When hunting, Bleu/Deis rains lightning bolts down on all the animals on the screen. This makes her the easiest character to hunt with... if you don't mind getting a lot of nearly-useless Charcoal. You can at least turn Charcoal into free Herbs by cooking (and turn those into stronger items later), but that's only useful if you picked the Township option that lets you cook, and even then you'd be better off with the Roasts and such that you'd normally get from hunting.
Disproportionate Retribution: Because you humor Jean's sister Petape in her attempts to expose the impostor Prince Jean (about which literally no one else, including the real prince Jean, cares all that much), he will have you executed.
Dressing as the Enemy: Katt wears a nun's habit when infiltrating the church of St. Eva.
Dub Name Change: Plenty, mostly due to the "Blind Idiot" Translation as it seems the translator didn't even know how to render names correctly (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 the original Breath of Fire's translation (Bleu, some magic spells).
Duel Boss: More than a few. Ryu gets a couple, though one (Tiga) is unwinnable and the other (Barubary) is optional. Nina, Rand, Sten, and Bow (optional) get theirs as well.
Early-Bird Cameo: The worst ending shows the silhouette of the Big Bad far before he normally appears.
Early Game Hell: This game doesn't really hold your hand after the Distant Prologue finishes; after being thrust into the shoes of Ryu and Bow, heading out into the overworld and to your destination will result in you getting slaughtered in no time flat. Most guides recommend you're at least level 10 before entering the first cave, and you have to grind a bit more from there for Bow to get some healing magic to make things more bearable. Then you lose Bow for an entire third of the story, and you have to barely survive with only Ryu to the next party member before things finally begin to even out.
- Likewise, after the difficulty is partly smoothed out by Ryu getting his Baby Dragon transformations, soon after you reach SimaFort enemies once again have enough HP that it won't one- or two-shot them... unless you spot the hermit behind a random waterfall on the world map which unlocks Ryu's adult dragon skills.
Eldritch Abomination: The more you go through the game, the more the enemies start becoming this. In the beginning, we're talking things like two-headed werewolves. By the end of the game, you'll be seeing mini-Cthulhu's in priest gear, giant bloated scorpions with human skulls for heads, and whatever the hell THIS is supposed to be!
Elemental Hair Colors: Each Shaman's hair color corresponds to their respective element.
Encounter Repellant: The Smoke spell and item, and the HolySF accessory.
Evil Tower of Ominousness: Infinity is an underground variant. You get a good look at it in the game's intro.
Exact Words: In the Cooking Duel between the real Prince Jean and the imposter, when the King declares the winner, he says "from where I'm standing, the one on the left," which from the balcony overlooking the room would be the fake Jean. No one seems to notice that just before he said this, he turned around, so that the real Jean was actually the one on his left.
Fake Longevity: One particularly annoying example stands out. After helping Ray save the villagers in Capitan, he says he wants to give you a blessing, and asks you to take him back to where your party gathers. So, you have to travel on foot all the way back to Township, just so Ray can give a spell to a party member of your choosing. ^note Then, you get to travel all the way back from Township to Capitan again, whereupon Ryu is shoehorned into attempting to fuse with a Shaman, which awakens his dragon powers and destroys the Shamans' house. So, the Shamans force you to take them back to Township and give them part of the house there. At least the trip back to Township this time is just done via cutscene, but the trip back to Capitan AGAIN to recruit a carpenter is NOT. Thankfully, you don't have to personally escort the damn carpenter back to Township yourself, and after all that's done you can FINALLY move on with the plot.
"Fantastic Voyage" Plot: A wizard shrinks the party in order for them to enter the body of Tunlan's Queen and slay the demons inside her heart that are causing her obesity.
Flashback Effects: Scenes from Ryu's past are Deliberately Monochrome. The game itself begins in black & white, but abruptly turns color when young Ryu enters the woods.
Foreign Queasine: The cuisine of the frog-people of SimaFort involves worms, cockroaches, and flies. Ryu gets to taste some... With predictable results.
Free-Fall Fight: Sten and Torubo battle on a collapsing bridge as it plummets.
Fusion Dance: There are six recruitable shamans. Most of the party members can merge with up to two of them at a time. Ryu, on the other hand, absolutely cannot because of his draconic heritage, but attempting to do so unlocks his dragon potential. Bleu also cannot fuse with any Shamans, but she's a strong enough Black Mage that she doesn't need to.
Gameplay and Story Integration: The monsters you fight in the Queen’s body don’t drop any money, which makes sense as there’s no conceivable way they could have come across it before.
Giant Mook: Any Random Encounter on Monster Island counts as one. This also presents the debut of the series-recurrent GooKing enemy (or K.Sludge as its named in this one).
Glamour: Evrai seems like a utopia full of happy citizens. Try to leave, however, and they're revealed to be muttering, brainwashed puppets.
Glass Cannon: Katt. She can't take much physical abuse, but she can dish it out better than any other character in the game.
Global Airship: The Great Bird, and later Township.
Gods Need Prayer Badly: The entire point of the St. Eva scam.
Good Wings, Evil Wings: Averted by Nina ("black" bird wings) and Patty (dark bat wings). Played straight by various demons.
Guide Dang It!: So, SO many...
- Finding the guy who teaches Ryu's Elemental Dragon upgrade isn't terribly obvious. Fittingly enough, the Prima Strategy Guide actually references this secret with the heading, "Why People Buy Strategy Guides". Miss your first chance, and Wildcat, a boss who would be a total pushover with said upgrade, instead becomes That One Boss and you have no way of going back for the upgrade. Your second chance lasts the whole game after a certain point, but it's still quite well hidden. And you don't get the "G. Dragon" upgrade, which surpasses the Elemental Dragons, until very late in the game. Up to that point every boss is That One Boss because they are all designed expecting you to be using the Elemental Dragons and therefore dealing far more damage than you're capable of with your pathetic Elemental Puppies.
- Avoiding the Bittersweet Ending requires finding a certain NPC to live in your new village, saving the old man strapped to the Eye Machine boss, and finding the hidden control room under the village. Miss the first, you'll never know what the third does. Miss the second, you'll never get the third to work. You'll not get a single hint as to what it does until you've already got it working.
- The Township's potential inhabitants themselves are a large Guide Dang It! on top of that. To the uninitiated: From an early point in the game, you're tasked with turning a single run-down building into a bustling town. The first step is to find a carpenter to build a few houses; the choice of carpenter decides the layout and style of the residential buildings, as well as the function he and his wife serve in their own building. (Hint: The one you want is the one who will eventually allow you to cook items, which is a huge Game-Breaker when you consider that you can buy two cheap items and turn them into one item that permanently raises one's stats, or take it a couple steps further to get effectively infinite Shop Fodder.) Pick a carpenter you don't like, and you can't change them. More to the point, your town has a rather paltry maximum of six houses, so if you're too generous early in the game, you're stuck with losers like Poo (who sits around thanking you and eventually sells an item... ONCE) or El (who literally does nothing). Inviting some of these losers leaves you unable to give houses to people like Yozo (who offers the unique deal of raising one's max AP) or the Permanently Missable Barose (who offers the equally-unique deal of granting spells to any party member you want). The real problem comes into play when you realize that each tenant will only occupy a specific house in the Township; if you invite El, you can never invite Yozo. A real Guide Dang It! for people wondering why a prospective tenant suddenly lost all interest in moving into your town.
- Another example involves a secret character: Bleu/Deis, a recurring character from the first game. Sure, finding this character isn't as hard as some of the others on the page, but it's still a Guide Dang It! in its own right. The search involves two simple steps: First, you have to walk into a random (albeit marked) spot in the middle of a desert to find an empty abode, containing little more than two unhelpful spirits that simply proclaim that "[their] master is away". Then, you're expected to visit a building in the first town — one that you've had almost no business in since the start of the game — and talk to a random NPC within, who inexplicably transforms into Bleu. Considering that said character is met at a high level (relative to the level you're expected to be when you first enter the aforementioned desert) and knows a ton of powerful magic, pulling this off makes things considerably easier.
- Yet another example: Finding all six of the elemental shamans. Using these can power up your characters drastically, but only two of them are encountered in the course of normal play, and of the remaining four, only one (Shin) fails to qualify for this trope, and you get her right before The Very Definitely Final Dungeon. Seso is at least possible to run into by chance... Except that when you do, she's Taken for Granite, and good luck remembering to go back for her after you lift the curse on everyone in the tower. Solo requires you to donate 2000Z to Namanda, when the game only lets you donate 100Z at a time - the only hint you're given is a wise tree telling you to "be generous with your donations!" and it's entirely probable for a player to miss this tree altogether. The worst part is that Solo won't even show up until after you level the St. Eva Church, in a place the player is less than likely to return to, and if you didn't donate 2000Z by this point, Solo is lost forever. And the last shaman, Seny, somehow manages to be even worse - randomly showing up in a dungeon the player beat three hours ago, with no indication whatsoever that anything is different there. This, by the way, is the second method of finding Seny - the first method^note is such utter Guide Dang It! that it took the playerbase fifteen years after the game's release to find it. If this isn't indicative of II taking Guide Dang It! up to eleven, nothing is.
- Beating Barubary in a one-on-one fight is certainly a climactic moment; he even praises your bravery and gives you a hint to the location of a rare and powerful accessory! Problem is, his hint^note doesn't mention anything about needing both Katt and Sten's field abilities to actually reach the treasure, and since his lair is pitch dark, there's no way to determine that for yourself short of blindly flailing around or looking it up somewhere. To add insult to injury, neither Katt nor Sten can use their field abilities while transformed (which they almost certainly will be, if they're part of your party for The Very Definitely Final Dungeon).
Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Katt, Tiga, and Bleu / Deis.
Half-Human Hybrid: Ryu and his sister - their father is human, but their mother is of the Dragon Clan.
Hand in the Hole: A guard in the Joker Gang's hideout tells you the switch to open a gate is in a nearby hole in the wall. It's actually a trap containing a poisonous spider, but you don't have the option to say no. You do at least get to kill both the spider and the guard afterwards.
Heroic Sacrifice: Sten fakes us out of one, then Nina gets robbed of hers by Mina. Just after you enter Evrai, the amount of sacrifices is considerably increased; 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; some 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 normal ending where he takes up his mother's place.
Holy City: Evrai. You may never want to leave!
Holy Pipe Organ: The village church theme, "Please, God", is a rather soothing organ piece. It serves as a stark contrast to "Decadence of God", which is heard after the Church's true nature is revealed.
Hopeless Boss Fight:
- The first battle with Barubary, given that Ryu is a child at the time.
- The optional duel with Tiga is also impossible to win.
Human Resources: There are several ancient machines powered by draining life energy. 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 insists on powering if you rescue him, allowing Township to fly.
I Have No Son!: Windia's royal family has disowned Nina. Her mother refuses to acknowledge they're even related. They were supposed to kill Nina because of a prophecy about a black-winged royal bringing destruction to Windia. Instead, they sent her to HomeTown when she was a little girl, and they faked her death to ensure that she would be safe.
I Have Your Wife: The Church of St. Eva abducts Rand's mother after she refuses to donate her land.
Inevitable Tournament: The contest at the Coliseum in Coursair, although Ryu only has one actual battle (against Katt).
Informed Deformity: It would make a lot more sense if Nina's black wings were actually... y'know, black. This might be explained by 1) with the 16-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 colour change was so you wouldn't mistake one for the other.
It's All Upstairs From Here: Witch Tower. Sky Tower inverts the trope.
It's Personal: Midway through the game, the Rangers Guild gets what their most veteran members declare an impossible task: to slay a monster near the town of Gate, where Ryu and Bow first met. They quickly realize it's Barubary, the same monster that nearly killed them as children and take up the mission without a moment's hesitation. You can opt to ramp this trope's invocation up to eleven in the final dungeon, by having Ryu take Barubary on solo. Revenge will never be sweeter.
Japanese Ranguage: The cast list at the end of the game is filled with blatant misromanizations of proper English words. Apparently, lumberjacks in the Breath of Fire world are called "ramberjacks".
Journey to the Center of the Mind: The arc about entering Gandaroof's dreamworld.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: The trope that sets the plot into action. Later, you get to meet the guy who fired the laser and kick his face in.
Last of Her Kind: Katt thinks she's one, as she's not seen any other Woren around. Tiga later explains to her that there are a very few of them scattered all over the world.
Leotard of Power: They actually have an armor called LeotrdCL, wearable by the female characters. ^note It becomes obsolete after about the third town, though.
Let's You and Him Fight: When you enter CotLnd, Tiga decides to fight Ryu because he thinks there's something going on between him and Katt.
Listing the Forms of Degenerates: The fan retranslation has Father Halk delivering such a litany when describing "all of society's refuse" that the Church will nonetheless gladly take in. No doubt as fodder to summon their dark god.
Long-Lost Relative: Patty is actually Yua, Ryu's sister. This is barely alluded to, with only one quick line ("I want my brother!") despite being a central aspect of the The Dragon's plan, and is never followed up. See What Happened to the Mouse?.
Lost in Translation:
- Most of the Punny Names and Theme Naming.
- Gandaroof should've been Romanized as Gandalf.
- The "A" in "A. Sludge" stands for "Atomic", which might explain why most of the monsters in the island where you fight them are giant.
Lost Superweapon: Highfort. Surprisingly for a JRPG, Shupkay fails to reactivate it.
Love Triangle: Torubo hates Sten for abandoning the Princess, who loves him. Made more complicated by the fact Torubo pines for the Princess himself.
Meaningful Name:
- Township.
- Father Manson.
A Minor Kidroduction: The game's prologue shows Ryu as a child, and how his troubles begin.
Missing Mom: She's around; she's just not able to do much, what with the whole "holding closed the doors keeping the horde of demons and their god from escaping Infinity" thing.
Mobile City: The entire city of Township gains the ability to fly after an optional quest. This is required for the best possible ending.
Mobile Menace: Teleportation is the only possible explanation for Habaruku serving as both leader of the St. Eva church and priest of a tiny backwater village on another continent. For ten years. (Granted, the game does have a "Warp" spell.)
Money for Nothing: Get the cook carpenter for Township, and you'll be able to make as many gold bars as you want out of fish or other cheap things.
Multiple Endings: There's a bad ending where everyone gets killed and the demons win, a bittersweet ending where the world is saved but Ryu sacrifices himself to reseal the entrance to the underworld, and the good ending, where Ryu's sacrifice is averted by his father, who drops Township onto the underworld's entrance, sealing it under thousands and thousands of tons of rock. You can only get the good one if you don't kill a certain person during a boss battle.
Mutually Exclusive Power-Ups: Each of the six Shamans can only be fused to one character at a time, with several characters' most powerful forms requiring a specific combination of Shamans. Want to use Nina's most powerful fused form? Then you're not gonna be having Sten's, Jean's, or Bow's in the same party.
My Master, Right or Wrong: Ray knows that the Church of St. Eva is bad, but fights you anyway out of loyalty to his adopted father.
Nerf: The original Breath of Fire allowed you to stay in dragon form indefinitely after an initial AP cost. In this game, the dragon transformation is a one-off deal that consumes all your AP (and gets weaker if you have less than a full tank). This is somewhat mitigated by the fact Ryu can cast the dragon forms multiple times if the player constantly replenishes his AP.
- Makes some sense in-series as, unlike the Ryus in other games, Ryu Bateson is a half-breed with a weakened connection to the dragon genes. As is explained in-game, interbreeding with other clans can lead to loss of clan abilities and eventually leads to future generations becoming Clanless (i.e. humans). It's a well-established piece of lore in the series, and it's made clear it applies when Nina has her little talk with an old friend...
Noble Demon: Barbaroi/Barubary. If Ryu decides to face him one-on-one, he will praise him for his honor and courage. Win, and he'll give a hint to the location of a useful accessory.
Nobody Poops: Averted. II is the only game in the series to include bathrooms in every house, and even two instances where the bathroom is a dungeon.
Noob Cave: Mt. Fubi.
NPC Amnesia: When you're trying to smuggle your partner out of town in a garbage can, the guard will stop you and ask what you're carrying. Any of the three responses will work. Later on, the party is asked by a monk what the true name of their god is; answering correctly will let you skip a boss fight.
NPC Boom Village: The "Township" sidequest is about turning the run-down house Ryu and Bow hide out in at the start of the game into a full village. This is done by rescuing carpenters in an early story quest, and finding NPCs to move in (and provide services). To get the best ending, you must find a hidden machine under the town, recruit the right NPC to restore it, and rescue a certain character to power it; this allows the entire settlement to fly.
Optional Party Member: Bleu/Deis is not necessary to finish the game. That said, she's an absolutely badass mage with a skill that recovers her HP for free, and she'll likely start several levels above your other characters, so it's probably wise to pick her up.
Orphan's Plot Trinket: The Dragon Tear, the only memento Ryu has left from his mother. It also serves as an indicator of how certain people feel about him.
Paper-Thin Disguise: The fake Jean looks nothing like the real one. Subverted in that his subjects don't really care, so he can get away with being thinner and handsomer.
Path of Inspiration: The Church of St. Eva. Probably one of the earliest examples of a video game using a religious organization as an antagonistic force.
Peninsula of Power Leveling:
- The area right near SimaFort. Just southeast of it is a signpost; south of this signpost are orange crabs that are meant to be fought a bit later. They give far more XP than other monsters you've seen so far, and they all die very fast to Nina's S.Boom spell that she learns about the same time you get to this area.
- The Island of Giants, home to Giant Mooks that drop loads of experience and are generally fairly easy to kill if you know the trick to it (watch out for the incredibly deadly K.Sludges, though).
Permanently Missable Content:
- Building up the Township community requires careful planning, as there are only 6 available houses, each one with a short list of possible residents. Since it only takes speaking to a tenant to make him/her join, it is quite easy to talk to the wrong NPC and have them permanently take the place of a far more useful tenant.
- The Great Bird, lost very close to the end, leaves Ryu's Infinity +1 Sword out of reach if you didn't get it in the brief time she was available.
- Getting Township to fly requires saving Ganer in a boss fight where it might not even occur to you that saving him was an option. If he dies, too bad, because now you're permanently locked out of your replacement Global Airship AND the Golden Ending. Hope you had an extra save file from earlier, or have fun starting the entire game over again.
- Solo the Earth Shaman, as mentioned under Guide Dang It!. Especially frustrating in that (A) the only clue you get is a vague hint to be generous with your donations, (B) there is nothing that tells you how much to donate or clues you in when you've given enough, and (C) even if you do donate enough, she doesn't show up until a few hours of gameplay later, in a spot you might not even think to go back to check.
Planet of Hats: Nobody speaks a word in Tunlan, instead communicating via flute music.
Plotline Death: Tiga and Claris. Both are killed by Habaruku when the plan to infiltrate the cathedral goes south.
Power-Up Food: The cooking carpenter specializes in making these, which is why he's considered a Game-Breaker compared to the other two carpenters.
- Foods that permanently boost certain stats by 1 point each^note can be made from items bought in the item shop in Guntz, plus maybe some fish that you can buy from Daiye if you recruited him for your town. If one doesn't mind the monotony of stocking up on supplies and cooking over and over again, then you can max out your party's stats, regardless of level, by the game's halfway point.
- Biscuits will fully heal your entire party, as well as cast a full-party defense buff. They're very easy to cook in unlimited quantities, but if you went with one of the other carpenters instead, then they can only be found as very rare enemy drops.
Punny Name: Alzheimer (Aruhamel), Aspara Gus (Spar), Eichichi (chichi literally means "udders" — the credits call her "A Titi Efcup"), Land Marks (Rand) and Nympho Mani (Nimufu) were Lost in Translation. Algernon and Township made it in, though. The Fan Translation preserves Eichichi's Punny Name by naming her Gigi Kupp.
Relationship Values: Ryu's Dragon Tear measures how other characters feel about him. Subverted in that it barely has any impact on the storyline. It allows Ryu (and by extension, the player) to figure out the feelings of the person he's talking to, which can be useful to get some nice upgrades from a couple NPCs.
Religion of Evil: Played with regarding the Church of St. Eva. While it's secretly bad to the bone, its believers (and many of its puppet preachers) genuinely believe it's as good and noble as they were told.
Renovating the Player Headquarters: The game has side gameplay where the player can recruit several characters to help them repopulate a village, adding life and vibrancy to the town and offering goods and services, like selling items or playing the in-game soundtrack.
Repulsive Ringmaster: The Chief of the traveling circus, who keeps an imprisoned Grass Man as a star attraction. He eventually grows frustrated with the Grass Man's waning popularity and plans a blood sport where he'll feed the Grass Man to a monster. As you have need of a Grass Man's aid at that point, you intervene and are offered a choice between paying an exceedingly large sum of money or going and fetching a replacement creature for the event. No matter which you offer the ringmaster (the money, the creature, or just telling him to fuck off after going through the associated Fetch Quest), he'll turn into a mammoth demon and fight you.
Required Party Member: You need Sten to get to Highfort, Katt to enter the Whale and CotLnd, and Rand to break down walls in the Grand Church.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: It doesn't matter if you think you're God: if you kill his friends in front of him, Ryu will bring you down, no matter how many explosions you throw at him.
Saintly Church: The Dragon Clan and their religious beliefs. There's something very Book of Revelation-y about the story, with the people ignoring the benevolent deity and worshiping a demon who poses as one.
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 Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, artist Salvador is named after Salvador Dalí, etc...
- Kilgore Trout is a fictional character created by Kurt Vonnegut of Slaughterhouse Five fame. Kilgore and Trout are the feuding rich folks in HomeTown.
- The Gargoyle enemy sprite bears a striking resemblance to Firebrand.
- The giant plant boss fought at the Hunter's Lodge is called Algernon. The two underlings it calls in battle are called Danielle and Suiky^noteLienda and Eskey in the retranslation as reference to Daniel Keyes, the author of the novel.
Shout-Out Theme Naming:
- Elforan and Gedd are named after Earthsea characters.
- Resistance members such as Tiga (Tigger) and Daisy (Daisy Duck) are named after Disney characters.
- All the bouncers in the WildCat Cafe have their names given in the Creative Closing Credits. They are all characters from Capcom's Wrestling Game Saturday Night Slammasters.
Storming the Castle: The Grand Church of Evrai.
Stripperific: Katt only wears a small top, foot coverings, and gauntlets. Patty dresses in a Leotard of Power. All the Elemental Shamans barely wear anything beyond some strips of cloth.
Take a Third Option:
- One happens as a Secret Test of Character. To obtain the ultimate power of Anfini, Ryu is told he must sacrifice one of his party members. The correct choice is to refuse to sacrifice any of them.
- In the best ending, Ryu is told that Deathevan may return, so he prepares to sacrifice himself by using his dragon form to seal the entrance to the underworld just as his mother did (which is what happens in the bittersweet ending). Then Ryu's father shows up and drops Township onto the gate, burying it completely.
The Power of Friendship: Not only is it actually a running theme in the game about how far Ryu will go for his friends, or how far they are willing to go for him in return, it also turns out that this is the true power of Anfini: to revive all of Ryu's friends after being killed by Deathevn so they can help in the final battle.
Theme Naming: All the tenants who sell weapons are named after gun manufacturers (Heckler, Beretta, Kalashnikov, Remington). Obviously, the translator never figured this out...
Tournament Arc: Coursair's battle tournament. Subverted by Augus, the crooked manager, who's trying to turn it into a Blood Sport.
Town with a Dark Secret: Several locales in this game use this trope, with Evrai being the most prominent example.
Trauma Conga Line: Sets the record for sheer number of Trauma Conga Lines in a single game in the franchise, damn near being a Trauma Conga Limbo Party in and of itself with most of the cast.
Under the Sea: The Upa Caves and Sky Tower.
Underground Level: The Dry Well of Capitan.
Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Ryu and Yua's parents. Their mom is a hot young winged woman who can turn into a gigantic dragon and their dad, while not necessarily ugly, is a normal old human:Ganer official artwork◊ / Valerie official artwork◊.
The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Infinity. In a twist, there's an entire town of friendly NPCs about halfway through.
Wake-Up Call Boss: Augus. He gets two turns every round, and one of his actions can be to charge up his next attack to do extra damage. Charging up then attacking in the same round will one-shot Katt at full health unless she's blocking (and Ryu and Rand if they're not pretty close to full health). Oh, and he can heal himself. It's also worth mentioning that charging up his attack doesn't guarantee he won't also get a critical. If he happens to get a critical on his charged attack, it'll easily one-shot even Rand.
- Also Terrapin, found in the dried up well in Capitan. One of the harder bosses of the game if you're underleveled, mostly due to being one of the first bosses with attacks that hit the entire party.
- And let's not forget Algernon and her friends who... Well, let's say she's been known to put a stop to progression for many people.
The Wandering You: This game features long treks across the world map in general, but the worst one happens when you reach Capitan and save the townspeople there. Ray wants to reward you with a blessing, so you have to go back to your hideout... at the other end of the continent. Once you have the blessing, you have to walk back to Capitan, where Sana the Fire Shaman drags the main character off for some private business involving "uniting". When you've finished setting the house and the surrounding forest on fire, you get back to town and a man says your friends got bored and walked back to the hideout on their own. You're then (thankfully!) warped back home and told to get a carpenter... from Capitan. Once you get there for the third time and hire a carpenter, you're finally allowed to move on with the plot. Fortunately, not too long afterwards you'll start to gather alternative transport methods that save a lot of frustration.
Warmup Boss: The giant Roach.
"Well Done, Son" Guy: Averted when Rand's mother sacrifices herself to save him.
What Happened to the Mouse?:
- After Patty (who is really Yua, Ryu's long-lost sister) serves her purpose in the plot, close to the endgame, she is unceremoniously thrown into the tall grass and never seen again.
- An attempted aversion is made in the GBA remake as The Stinger shows her watching over the area from a tree, but she still effectively disappears without a word.
Where It All Began: Ryu's hometown, Gate, is where the final dungeon is located.
Whole-Plot Reference: The WildCat Cafe, where a monster cat asks you how you want to be cooked, is lifted straight out of The Restaurant of Many Orders.
Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Ryu gets a lot of flak for his alias, "Baba(del)".
Wise Tree: Gandaroof the Great Wise Tree. There are also several "minor" Wise Trees around the world.
Womb Level: You physically enter both Grampa the Whale and the Queen of Tunlan.
Wrench Wench: Eichichi (Gigi), who has massive breasts and finds machines... stimulating. She'd probably be Ms. Fanservice, too, if the sprites in this game were large and detailed enough.
You Can't Go Home Again: Applies in the prologue — Ryu comes back from a nap to find his father and sister are gone and none of the other townsfolk remember him.