I haven't played the previous Breath of Fire's, but I've heard dragons were 'abundant'. In Breath of Fire 3, the dragons have all but died out and are only present in a harmless form called, 'chrysm'. This, chrysm is used to power machines all over the world.

The story starts out as we see two miners blasting out a supposedly dead dragon. It turns out the dragon is alive, and the miners are quickly toasted. As you journey through the mine, you find a bunch of cowering miners and are finally caught when whacked by a crane. Next thing you know he's being carted off to the zoo or something. I can't go on, it might reveal some key elements in the storyline, that would detract from your gameplaying experience. (other sites reveal them anyway). I got a lot to say about this game so stick around while I share my wisdom. It's just.....great and keeps you wanting to play till the end.

I have to commend Capcom on one thing, their game design is incredible. The gameplay is so deep you will be pulled in and glued to the television, I've never seen so many skills in any RPG (with the exception of the phenomenal FF7). The multiple mini games actually are enjoyable. Even though I sorta failed at the fairy mini game, once the concept came to me it was a breeze and the rewards are incredible. The fairy village can be built up a lot and once done, shops and a whole assortment of other things can be created. (there's even a music player!) The other major mini-event in the game is the fishing, which is fun but challenging like hell. I'm still trying to master it, which is a daunting task by itself, but veteran gamers will breeze through it.

The Music isn't even a mixed bag. It sucked!!!!!! Man, the jazzy tunes were getting sleazy after the first few hours. With better music this could have been a great, great game. One redeeming quality though was the ending music "Pure Again", man that song was just plain awesome and brought my percentage up a bit.

Now, perhaps the best part of BOFIII, the graphics, but first Capcom must hear me! Animation! Need Animation! Now! Sorry for the hysterics, but where are the animation scenes? Capcom needs these urgently! Modern RPG's almost always have these and they are quickly becoming a necessity. Besides that the, graphics are beautiful 3-D splendor. I have never seen 2-D mix with 3-D so beautifully (well....except in Xenogears, which is just..pause-heaven). The world is at peace! Just kidding, the graphics are great though. The backgrounds look like they were hand-drawn and the characters animate smoothly, with no slowdown. When I first popped this game into my PSX, the first thing I noticed was small dialogue boxes! The words move pretty slowly in these boxes also. It kinda annoyed me, but you might not care. After I got over that, the battle system more than compensated for everything. Ryu' s ability to change into over 500 different dragons and, like I said above the sheer amount of skills amazed me (Also a certain other characters ability to transform also sucked me in even more).

As I made my way through the game I also took on the task of apprenticing "Masters" who were spread throughout the game, their skills helped me along and eventually led me to whopping the last boss. If the following don't lead you to buy the game I have no idea what will, I'm still trying to get all the masters and secrets, with my clear game file so I can beat the final boss in a even shorter time. Congrats to Capcom on making a quality game.

All I have to say in conclusion is if you're looking for a great RPG in the wait for Xenogears, look no further because this game is excellent and will leave many with sleepless nights getting all the secrets. Don't listen to that garbage about how BOF3 is not as good as the classics, it's entertaining and great.