Best Breath of Fire Games RANKED
Which Breath of Fire game is the absolute best? There are five games in the Breath of Fire series. Six if you count the terrible offbrand free-to-play phone game that got shut down after like 6 months which… we will, I guess, just to make fun of it. So which ones are the best Breath of Fire games? Well let me break it down for you from worst to best. This is the best Breath of Fire games official definitive ranking.
6. Breath of Fire 6 – Best Breath of Fire Games
Breath of Fire 6 is a standard, run of the mill free-to-play collection RPG for mobile phones, branded as a Breath of Fire game. We all know exactly how these games are made.
There’s a very specific formula of phone RPG where you buy loot boxes with characters who have star levels and you spend either tons of money or tons of time trying to get 6-star characters who don’t suck so you can get past the very intentionally crafted difficulty spikes that serve as paywalls for the game.
This game was universally reviled. I think a lot of that was the sheer disdain that a lot of console gamers have for mobile phone gacha games in general, but if I’m being honest with myself, some of those free-to-play phone games are actually pretty good, even if they are all addictive, time-sucking scams.
Marvel Strike Force is decently fun, and so was Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes. Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius was also something worthwhile to play. The problem with Breath of Fire 6 is it’s exceptionally generic. It is literally the basic formula of all of these games with Breath of Fire 6 stuff slapped on top of it.
5. Breath of Fire 1 – Best Breath of Fire Games
There’s nothing particularly wrong with Breath of Fire 1, it’s just that it’s a product of its time. This is a game that was released in the same era as Final Fantasy 4 and Dragon Quest 5.
Pretty early on in the SNES life cycle, in 1993. It was overall pretty slow to play through, somewhat punishing in its difficulty, and lacking in a lot of the polish that its competitors (Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest) had. Nevertheless, it was a cool, fully fleshed out jRPG with a lot of side quests, a fresh world, some interesting minigames, and a cool cast of characters.
A lot of the things in Breath of Fire 1 went on to become mainstays of the series. Dragon equipment. Fishing. Karn’s fusions that were reimagined as Shaman Fusions in Breath of Fire 2 and Dragon Gene Fusions in Breath of Fire 3.
Ryu, Nina and all the different Breath of Fire races got their start here. Ladon is around. The reoccurring villain, Myria, makes her debut in this game, though her name is Tyr. It has this weirdly epic plot but it tells it in the NES style, with no flair or fanfare. Brusque, emotionless lines like “The king has died you must fight the wizard,” and, like, that’s it. Off you go. Got a wizard to kill.
4. Breath of Fire 5 – Best Breath of Fire Games
A lot of people didn’t like Breath of Fire 5 because it was different, but I actually liked the idea of it quite a bit and I’m surprised no other jRPG tried it because while it was questionable for a Breath of Fire game, it was a great concept.
It was dubbed a “survival RPG” and the basic premise of that concept was that you were expected to die, and every time you died, you’d start over with some sort of New Game+ bonuses, and it’s all about how far you can get and all the extra scenes you unlock as you play through multiple times.
Breath of Fire 5 is a cool game and well worth playing. It has some questionable gameplay decisions. The dragon mechanic is a little disappointing for instance. The main problem with Breath of Fire 5 was it was a little too experimental with a series where everyone wanted a solid new sequel that built on the existing franchise.
It was a bit too much of a departure. Breath of Fire 5 is more similar to Vagrant Story than it is to any of the other Breath of Fire games. Which is fine, because Vagrant Story is a great game. But you see what I mean.
3. Breath of Fire 2 – Best Breath of Fire Games
Breath of Fire 2 is held back only by its limitations as being an SNES game. It had a pretty cool story and all sorts of whimsical little substories, like going to a chef’s restaurant and getting cooked, or having to catch a golden fly for a frog prince.
Gameplay-wise, it featured town-building and a very interesting shaman fusion system that let you transform your characters into a variety of different forms. The cast itself was among the more memorable casts among the best Breath of Fire games. It was an improvement over Breath of Fire 1 in every way.
2. Breath of Fire 4 – Best Breath of Fire Games
The main thing that’s really great about Breath of Fire 4 is its graphical style. It features characters with a desaturated color palette that almost look like they’re drawn with pastels, which is a pretty cool look overall.
It also has the most interesting story of all the best Breath of Fire games, where the dark dragon Fou Lou, who is half of a dragon god, is seeking his other half, the light dragon: you. It spiced up the battle system with spell combos and some interesting multihit and all-hitting weapons. The masters system from Breath of Fire 3 returns, as well as the Faerie Village, dragon forms, and the fishing minigame.
And that’s sort of the problem with Breath of Fire 4. It brought back all these mechanics from Breath of Fire 3 but had worse versions of them. Fishing was back, but less fun. The Faerie Village returned, but it was less fun. Dragon forms returned, but the cool dragon gene fusion system was replaced with every dragon simply turning Ryu into the same generic-looking dragon form. Masters were somewhat improved though by having them function by feats instead of levels, so that’s something.
That said, Breath of Fire 4 is totally a great game. It’s not bad by any measure; it’s just second best when it comes to the best Breath of Fire games.
1. Breath of Fire 3 – Best Breath of Fire Games
Breath of Fire 3 was the first Breath of Fire released on Playstation 1 and it was amazing. It had an approachable and charming, colorful art style. It had a whimsical plot that was just serious enough, but not overly melodramatic. It had great music. It featured all sorts of fun little minigames like fishing.
It had a really cool system where you could apprentice your characters under various masters you find around the world which affected their stat growths and allowed them to learn a variety of skills. It told a story with a lot of heart, and had characters you cared about. Breath of Fire 3 was not only the best Breath of Fire game, it was among the best jRPGs on PS1, which was bursting with great jRPGs.
That about does it for the best Breath of Fire games. Be sure to check out the Games Section for more content like this, and click here for more game guides for Breath of Fire 3.
