I apologize for the long delay.  I was away on business, but the good part of spending time in airports is that it becomes prohibitive to do anything but indulge in hobbies. As such, I've been going back through a number of old SNES video games and attempting to deconstruct some things that hold up and some things that really don't, particularly with Breath of Fire 1 and 2

Breath of Fire 1

I am under no illusion that Breath of Fire 1 is nothing if not the most bog standard call to adventure one could possibly get, but we would be wise to remember that this was 1993 and standards were not exceptionally high. Even its western tabletop contemporaries were not exploring terribly complex themes in games and the sword and sorcery genre was still more about shirtless wizards than it was rich emotional nuance. However, despite that, there are a number of things that it does exceptionally well. The sprite art - both overworld and in battle - still holds up today. While it is perhaps a bit simplistic and very vibrant, the tile sets display a level of detail uncommon for 1993. 

However the combat early on is a severe drag, with most of the combat being auto attack, with early boss battles being interspersing basic attacks with use of herbs. The consumable spell items (that have incomprehensibly abbreviated names) are helpful, but provide little early game strategy. Getting the reusable Earthquake Key is the first thing that adds any sort of decision making to the game , with getting Nina in your party soon after helps a bit. 

Breath of Fire 2

BoF2 is an improvement in most ways. The UI is better, the sprite art has more character, and characters - perhaps cribbing from Final Fantasy  each have a unique ability tied to them like Ryu's ability to self heal representing his grit, or Katt using her talents as a gladiatrix to taunt enemies. The UI wastes some space with useless information (who cares what your level is in combat?) but the improvement to the life bar is good. The animations are expressive, from Nina's DBZ like casting animations to Rand's Greco-Roman / Bodybuilder posing moves. They do well to represent the character's persona through their action. I only wish we got to see Katt's taunting pose from battling her as an animation  when she is in the party.

BoF2 suffers a lot of ways as the first one. There are still too many random encounters and most of them rarely matter other than taking some chip damage. It seems every time I play the first real difficulty spike is in Simafort where you are dealing with a number of monsters with PSN BRTH and Zombie which quickly consume your AP (even if you're still trying to blitz the fights without curing the zombie status). 

BoF2 seems to spend a little more time coming up with justifications for why dungeons are the way they are. BoF1 doesn't particularly care and just makes labyrinthine dungeons that have little set dressing or purpose. I don't particularly mind, but I think these days with our sensitivity to procgen stuff, such a lack of consideration may seem indicative of a lack of cohesion even if its not

Both games have separate combat and field sprites, which is something I am still grappling with.  The BoFs are lighter on dialogue than Final Fantasy 6, but with BoF2 at least I still feel like I know who the characters are. All of the elements are working very hard to sell that. Nina is the quiet but determined sorceress. Katt's a bit dumb, and hotheaded, but a good spirit. Rand is a gentle giant. Sten is a shyster. Bow is earnest, but constantly at the whims of the fates to which he has some part in determining. Jean is carefree to a fault. This is shaped by dialogue, of course, but also the stances and animations. 

So What Does It Matter For Me

Given that I am working work character creators and do not have a lot of room to create a lot of custom poses and sprite work (at least not initially), a lot has to be sold in dialogue and in the character customization choices you CAN see.  It's been one of the reasons why I have been considering moving up to larger sprites that give more room to be expressive, and whether I use ONLY larger sprites (like Chrono Trigger) or a hybrid of Field Sprites and Combat Sprites (like BoF 1/2) remains to be seen. I do lean towards creating larger sprites but... man that's a lot more work. 

I've made some good tools to help me minimize the work of importing and preparing my sprite sheets, which is helpful to not have to do thirty  clicks every time I do a minor revision to a sprite sheet. 

More to follow