Breath of Fire 3 review

[Mateva]

[Spoiler]6- The Brood did not use their “Ultimate Power” to defend themselves, out of fear that they would destroy the World, and were nearly exterminated as a result. Yet it was OK for Ryu to use it against Myria? Wasn’t that really risky?

It could be that if one of the Brood used the Ultimate Power to defend themselves, the other Brood would naturally join them in comradre. But if they decided that they would all just die passively, then it would be "easier. Since Ryu was the only Dragon left, he could freely blow her up without worrying about other dragons joining him.[/Spoiler]

[Skankin_Garbage]

I might as well take advantage of this thread to ask some questions regarding the plot of BoFIII that still bother me to this day.

(Spoilers, obviously: )

[SPOILER]1- Ryu first awakens in a crystal underground. I assumed he was hidden there by the Brood. But I read somewhere that it was actually a Brood Egg, meaning he was “born” there. Is that right?

[/spoiler]

Never explained, I don’t think. It was said that some of the brood escaped Myria by hiding deep underground, so maybe that had something to do with it.

2- Ryu had a dream early in the game that ended up being a prediction of future events (meeting Teepo as an adult, and also Myria, though neither is revealed for who he is at the time.) Why did that happen? He’s not seeing dreaming the future anymore.

Never explained. I always thought that was kind of stupid.

3- Why did the Nue Chimera’s pups die?

Never explained, but not really that important, either.

[4- If Myria did not want to allow technology to develop so there would never be Weapons of Mass Destruction again, why allow any technology to reach the outer world at all? Some of it was indeed used for weapons, such as Momo’s bazooka, or for dangerous experiments (the Chrysm plant experiments.)

Those aren’t really weapons of mass destruction. They’re dangerous, but I mean, look: There are hardly any bazookas in the world - especially in the ‘not desert’ part of the world. Also, there is only one Chrysm Plant. The actual amount of dangerous technology is scarce, and couldn’t even be used for purposes of mass destruction, or even war, too efficiently.

5- Mikba seemed to hint that his powers were a matter of fate. Does that mean Myria gave him his powers? Why would she do that?

This pissed me off big time in the story. A big part of why Rei says he wanted to go with Ryu was to learn why Myria would allow such types of power to exist at all…but, he never even asked! How ridiculous.

6- The Brood did not use their “Ultimate Power” to defend themselves, out of fear that they would destroy the World, and were nearly exterminated as a result. Yet it was OK for Ryu to use it against Myria? Wasn’t that really risky?

[SPOILER]
Yggdrasil tells Ryu that his power alone is not enough to destroy the world. I think either

1. It would have to be several dragons using it all the time, much like what would happen in a war, or

2. Their power was sorely overestimated.

Both are hinted at well enough in the game.[/SPOILER]

7- Does Nina have wings or not? She seems to, but they might be part of her dress (in previous versions she did, but in here none of the Windians had wings. She’s also never shown flying.)

No idea. I was pretty sure some of the windians had wings, though. Either way, no answer, but not all that important.

8- Was Peco an Yggdrasil Tree sapling? I thought he was just a random creation of the Chrysm Plant, and that his link to Yggdrasil was something he forged by visiting the Yggdrasil tree. But I read somewhere that he is meant to grow into such a tree himself (we do see what looks like a buried Peco sprouting at the end of the game.) (along that same line: was Yggdrasil the mind of one tree or many?)

I always just figured that, since the whole ‘enhanced life’ projects were made using sap from a Yggdrasil tree, that all mutations that mutated enough to be conscious were Yggdrasil. I mean, think about how oddly wise the mutant you killed in the beginning was! And yes, I think that Yggdrasil is just one mind.[/SPOILER]

9- What did Momo’s mother (and father) die of? Is it ever mentioned?

Never mentioned, probly not important.

[spoiler]10- Lastly and most important of all: What was Myria doing that needed to be stopped? Sure, she ordered the Brood destroyed because they had a power that could destroy the World (which even they admit was true) but that was 400 years ago; she seemed to have mellowed since then. She even sounded sincerely sad over the Brood’s deaths, and she did offer Teepo and Ryu the option to live if they stayed with her (which we know she did intend to keep if you play the alternate ending.) Other than that, her only other current action was preventing the development of technology… though actually she seemed to be doing the reverse (as mentioned above.) I’m not sure if there’s a chunk of story missing, but Myria simply didn’t seem to be a threat anymore. In fact, by creating the ocean (assuming that was true) she kept the Desert from expanding all over the world. Her only threat seemed to be that she would not let Ryu go free, and that Yggdrasil didn’t agree with her shepherding the world. Was that worth killing her, especially after Ryu regretted killing so many people to get there?

She wasn’t doing anything! I always thought it was funny that the brood called her ‘evil’ even though she wasn’t. I guess they wouldn’t really know much better, although the same people who say they aren’t bitter are the ones who call her evil. I think she was just trying to baby the world, and killing the brood was a part of that. The quest was never to go kill Myria, after all; it was a quest to find the truth. The party sort of contrived a reason to fight her after they met her, which I always thought was stupid.

[Seraphim_Ephyon]

A lot of BoF III’s story hangs on the very-badly integrated backstory previous to BoF I, a sort of legacy of the time where they included the game’s story in the manuals instead of the games themselves, made exponentially worse when said manuals were never translated officially and the first game had such a bad translation. Let us all remember that continuity and good story-telling are very novel concepts to Capcom, so older works are… well, like this.

2- Ryu had a dream early in the game that ended up being a prediction of future events (meeting Teepo as an adult, and also Myria, though neither is revealed for who he is at the time.) Why did that happen? He’s not seeing dreaming the future anymore.

Not explained here, but BoFIV has Ryu’s “Dragon Eye”, a sort of foresight skill that works randomly whenever the plot calls for it. The First and Second Ryu also had a couple of dreams like these. So… don’t think about it too much.

5- Mikba seemed to hint that his powers were a matter of fate. Does that mean Myria gave him his powers? Why would she do that?

Likely collateral damage from centuries of her and her son Deathevans’ granting strength to puppets to do her biding. That’s why the demons and such even appeared in the world to begin with and were sort of left on their own when their masters got shafted by Ryu I and II. Might be a random thing she’s not even takeing care of for anymore since it’s not big-scale enough. She’s not almighty.

6- The Brood did not use their “Ultimate Power” to defend themselves, out of fear that they would destroy the World, and were nearly exterminated as a result. Yet it was OK for Ryu to use it against Myria? Wasn’t that really risky?

The Brood DID already kinda devastate the planet in the war that sealed Myria the first time around (Before BoF I) and Zog’s crusade. Probably a single one isn’t enough to cause so much ruckus. Ryu has also got a Chosen One kinda deal going, so he can accomplish stuff on his own that would have probably taken a lot of his clan to pull off.

7- Does Nina have wings or not? She seems to, but they might be part of her dress (in previous versions she did, but in here none of the Windians had wings. She’s also never shown flying.)

The Fae have progressively lost their power ever since Ryu I married Nina I and messed up their lineage. Nina III has very tiny (and useless) wings on her back, but most of them don’t even have them anymore.

10- Lastly and most important of all: What was Myria doing that needed to be stopped?

She essentially froze the world’s developpment one way or another… except she still couldn’t stop the decadence, so she was just delaying the inevitable. It was either her restricting the Desert’s advance as well a she could but never stopping it completely so the world might eventually face a slow agonizing death, or taking the gamble with Yggdrasil’s sprout and the whole ususal war, greed, weaponry development et al to aim for a recovery or simply hasten the destruction.