Breath of Death VII – A Breath of Fresh Air on XBL Indie?

Developer: Zeboyd Games / Rainbow Despair
Genre: Role Playing
Countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States
Languages: English
Players: 1
Price: 80 Microsoft Points (US $1.00)

Developer Summary

Resurrect the classic era of RPGs with the retro parody RPG, Breath of Death VII: The Beginning. Join Dem the Skeleton Knight and his allies as they explore an undead world in search of the secrets of the past. 4-6 hour quest with multiple game modes & difficulty levels! Fast battles! Frequent LV-Ups! Branching character customization! Multi-character unite techniques! Laugh! Cry! Laugh some more!

What We Think:

Cos Play

Breath of Death VII is a game that successfully manages to express the creator’s obvious love affair with 8-bit JRPG titles (with a heady nod to the early Dragon Quest titles) without getting too caught up in itself.  For those old enough to remember, the fact that there isn’t a Breath of Death I-VI might conjure up nightmares of Bill Cosby in Leonard Part 6. You can exhale now.  The “VII” is a jab at the numerous sequels that follow most successful JRPG titles. While it does pay considerable homage, it also benefits from a healthy dose of self-deprecation. There’s a lot to enjoy in JRPGs, and a lot to poke fun at. Breath of Death VII manages to do both really well.

Fine Ol’ Fantasy

The game takes place on a birds-eye-view world map, with your standard town and dungeon sprites to whisk you into other areas. Your allies will each follow one pace behind the other one. Past that, forget about the typical fantasy backdrop: BOD takes place in the distant future. In fact, it takes place at the same time as Mega Man (20XX for those whom only minored in gaming history). Some eons ago, the world fell to a great tragedy, and now the undead walk the land. That’s where you come in.

You start out with your soldier, Dem. He’s a skeleton and at first I was led to believe that he is a silent protagonist. Let me state this clearly for the record. I HATE silent protagonists. HATE HATE HATE. I get the idea behind it (he’s silent because he’s YOU! You’re a part of the game! You’re special!), but I detest how it works out. You have a bunch of Lady Chatterlys in your party, and somehow by firing back using only ellipsis you manage to mobilize everyone, inspire them, and convince them to fall in love with you. Like. Hell.

…And we’re back. Remember, this is only a parody of a typical JRPG.  As it turns out, Dem is only a “semi-silent” protagonist. You’re able to see everything he’s thinking…but being a skeleton, he no longer possesses any of the human anatomy required for speech. Thus, he’s often subject to the whims of magic user Sara, who is able to read his mind, but often decides on Dem’s actions despite his fervent mental protestations. One of the most famous (and annoying conventions of JRPGs) is thus addressed and subsequently poked full of holes. The result is some truly amusing character exchanges. You’ll eventually form a party of four travelers, on your way to unlock the mystery behind the breaking of the world.

Grind Dem Bones

You can’t have an old-school JRPG without a ton of random encounters. Take the time to engage in grinding sessions when you reach new villages. Make sure you earn enough coin to purchase all available weapons, and you’ll breeze through these battles. Inns in the game are free, and the extra experience points never hurt anyone.  The boss creatures all possess tried-and-true special attacks and quirky features (such as powerful magic spells with countdown timers, or “pod” accomplices that will heal the boss until they are dispatched). For the most part, if your level is high enough, you can whale on the A button and pass most skirmishes.

There is an ample variety of enemy characters to dispose of, and you can sometimes find yourself squaring off against five at once. This complicates things, as there are no attack or magic animations, making it difficult to keep on top of the action. If you want to follow what’s happening, you’ll just have to be patient enough to read the text detailing what happens. Even so, if you are fighting multiples of the same type of enemy, you’ll have to remember which one you targeted, as there is nothing to indicate one from the others. If there are three of one type of enemy, and one powers up its attack, it would be nice to know which one did so. As it is, your best guess is your best option. You may find yourself button-mashing just to keep the text boxes moving along. At the very least, the screen will turn colour when a comrade is nearing a dangerously low level of health.

Ding!

Leveling up will provide the player with a choice of new skills, so you can shape the way you character develops. Will you choose attacks that take some HP of all enemies on screen, or bring down the hammer on one foe with powerful one-hit kills? There is also a counter to the side of the battle HUD that keeps count of your party’s attacks. Let that rack up and then unload with an attack that will use the count as a damage modifier. This works great on larger enemies.

There were really only two things that could keep me mindlessly grinding away at the Dragon Quest games, and that was an engaging story, and great music. I’m pleased to say that the story in Breath of Death is well written (if nothing especially new, save for its humourous outlook on it all) and the music in the game is nothing shy of fantastic. Even as I’m typing this review, I can hear the ambient tunes bopping around in my brain.

It’s a little on the short side, but seeing as I tend to lose interest in today’s crop of JRPGs (Dragon Quest 8 took me 105 hours to beat after deciding to play for the “best” ending) you’ll find it to be a fun way to spend an afternoon or two. Ultimately, I found Breath of Death VII to be a lovingly crafted homage to the genre that never takes itself too seriously.  Take a trip back to the golden age of video game role-playing with Breath of Death VII.  Who says there’s no humour in the post-apocalypse?

Rating:  

Get Breath of Death VII now at the XBOX Live Marketplace

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