Overview

In Breath of Fire III, dragons are all but extinct, leaving behind fossilized remains that turn into chrysm: a resource used to power new technology. The dragons of the past are viewed by the present as a fearsome, destructive force that tried to destroy the world in a full-scale war. Yet, nobody knows how or why they became extinct.

Then, during one fateful day in Dauna Mine, unsuspecting miners awaken a baby dragon encased in chrysm. Much to their horror, they find its alive and ready to wreak havoc. The player is thrust into the role of the threatening dragon whelp, who is none other than the child Ryu; the last living member of the Dragon Clan known as “The Brood”.

Following Ryu’s subsequent capture and escape, his fate intertwines with two desperate, starving ruffians named Rei and Teepo, who are ostracized from the nearby inhabitants of McNeil Village. Thus begins Ryu’s mystical, emotional, and perilous journey of self-discovery.

Highlights in Breath of Fire III include:

Development History

Capcom Development Studio 3’s work on Breath of Fire III began as soon as Breath of Fire II: Shimei no Ko was released in Japan. The dev team, comprised of about 30 people, were in high spirits and wanted to hit the ground running with the third entry.¹

Breath of Fire III was shown off in a trailer accessible within the Options menu of Street Fighter Zero 2 (known as Street Fighter Alpha 2 in the West) for PlayStation, which released in Japan on August 9, 1996². More details were shared in an interview with producer Yoshinori Takenaka published in Famimaga Weekly Magazine on November 1, 1996.³ GamePro initially reported a potential March 1997 release date for the game in Japan, however this was later pushed to September 1997.⁴

With Breath of Fire III, Breath of Fire planner and Breath of Fire II writer Makoto Ikehara took over directorial duties. Yoshinori Takenaka served as producer along with producer Hironobu Takeshita, who spearheaded marketing/promotional duties.

One of the most dramatic changes in moving the Breath of Fire series from Super Famicom/Super Nintendo to PlayStation was the increase in memory. Game dialogue took up a large amount of memory in Breath of Fire and Breath of Fire II, but with Breath of Fire III not only was that no longer an issue, but the developers were able to include voice acting for the first time, as well.

When formulating the story, Ikehara thought about the theme of “independence” and “thinking for yourself”. The team first sketched out a rough outline of the story, and whenever someone had an idea for a new area, side-story, or notable piece of NPC dialogue, it would be incorporated into the progression, even if that scenario didn’t have a direct connection to the main narrative.

While Breath of Fire III has story and character connections to the previous games, the developers tried to find a middle ground between carrying things over to appease veteran fans, while also challenging themselves to create new worlds, characters, and concepts. There were even talks to not include a “III” in the title, but it was eventually decided to keep it. Ultimately, the team’s goal was for Breath of Fire III to be a conclusion to the world and style they had been building since the previous two games.

Another new aspect of the series was battles taking place on the field map without a screen transition. The team’s biggest challenge with this approach were the CD-ROM read times, which caused a bottleneck when field map data and programming and battle / effects programming were all being loaded simultaneously, affecting the amount of memory available. At the beginning of development, CD read times could take 4 – 5 seconds, but the team was able to lessen those load times as development progressed.

The game’s dragon gene system was implemented late into development and was born out of the decision to not include the character fusion system from Breath of Fire and Breath of Fire II. Once the character designs were completed and coded in, the devs used their remaining time to flesh out the dragon gene system, adding unique magic effects for each dragon.

The team acknowledged a common fan criticism of the previous two games: the slow walking speed of the characters. For Breath of Fire III, the walking speed was increased and players could “dash” to move even faster. This concerned programmer Tatsuya Kitabayashi, because the field maps would feel smaller with a faster walking cadence. Unbeknownst to the rest of the dev team, producer Yoshinori Takenaka addressed this by working with another programmer to sneakily include a caveat where dashing slightly raised the enemy encounter rate. The developers also noted the fishing minigame being a staple of the Breath of Fire series, and expanded on the minigame considerably with the third entry.

Tatsuya Yoshikawa returned to handle artwork and character designs, with Tōru Yamashita serving as the lead pixel artist. Initial designs for characters like Ryu, Nina, Teepo, and Rei carried a style similar to Yoshikawa’s previous work on Breath of Fire II, however his art style evolved substantially during development and the character designs were reworked. Yoshikawa attributed fellow Capcom artist Akira Yasuda (Akiman; Street Fighter II, Red Earth) for helping him evolve his style and to “use his head” when designing characters.⁵ As a result, he began to include more meaning in his drawings to reflect his own passions. He also stopped drawing things he didn’t like and pursued designs he truly wanted. Due to the character artwork changing at a late stage, the in-game pixel art designs for the characters reflected the old artwork, with only the ending showing off the revised designs.

Breath of Fire III’s music was composed by two members of Capcom Sound Team: Akari Kaida, serving as lead composer, with Yoshino Aoki providing support. While the music was initially intended to be orchestral, Kaida strongly felt a pop/jazz hybrid soundtrack complimented the colorful visuals better and infused her compositions with that style. Both composers provided their own vocals for the game’s ending theme, “Pure Again – Staff Roll”.

Breath of Fire III was shown during Tokyo Game Show in 1997. A trailer for Breath of Fire III was revealed to be included in the upcoming Japanese demo disc release of Biohazard 2 (Resident Evil 2 in the West), which itself was bundled with Japanese copies of Biohazard: Director’s Cut (Resident Evil: Director’s Cut in the West).⁶

Breath of Fire III was released on PlayStation in Japan on September 11, 1997.⁷ For the game’s TV commercial, Capcom partnered with J-rock band SOPHIA, who produced the single “Machi” to promote the game.

The North American release window for Breath of Fire III fluctuated considerably. It was initially planned for September 1997, but was pushed to 1998, with Capcom attributing the lengthy translation time for the delay.⁸⁹ Its estimated January 1998 release window was later changed to February 1998, then March 1998.¹⁰ It was ultimately released in North America on May 18, 1998, although some retailers began selling the game a week earlier.¹¹ The game’s English localization was outsourced and handled by a team of six people at Bowne Global Solutions.

The publishing rights for the European PAL version of Breath of Fire III were picked up by Ocean Software, which folded into Infogrames in 1997. The PAL version was expected to release in July 1998, however this was pushed out to August 21, 1998, then September 25, 1998.¹²¹³¹⁴ An actual release date for the English language PAL release is unclear, but it is thought to be on or around October 8, 1998.¹⁵ In Spain, it was released on October 15, 1998.¹⁶

For the first time in the series’ history, localized French and German language versions of Breath of Fire III were made available in late 1998. In Germany, a Special Edition of the game was sold in limited quantities, featuring a box containing a Flame Dragon figure, Flame Dragon pin, and a t-shirt sporting the game’s Japanese key art.

On December 21, 2000, the Japanese version of Breath of Fire III was reissued under PlayStation’s “The Best” lineup, which was reserved for top selling popular titles that were made available again in a lower-priced version.¹⁷

Breath of Fire III was ported to Windows PC by Taiwanese game company Dysin Interactive Corp. for Asian markets in 2001. The Traditional Chinese language version, localized as 龍戰士3 (Long Zhanshi 3, aka “The Dragon Warrior 3”) was distributed by Acer TWP Corp and released in Asia on March 15, 2001.¹⁸ This was followed by a Simplified Chinese version localized as 龙战士3 and distributed by Ubisoft Shanghai Studio on May 24, 2001.¹⁹

In June 2005, a port of Breath of Fire III for PlayStation Portable was revealed in Japanese retail reports.²⁰ Capcom then formally announced the PSP re-release for Japan and Asia, sharing a release date of August 25, 2005.²¹ The game featured new touch-ups and enhancements, including a redesigned logo, new promotional artwork, a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio, a Gallery artwork viewer, and a standalone version of the fishing minigame where the player could rank up to unlock artwork. Players could also wirelessly share a demo of the fishing minigame with other PSP users through local ad-hoc wireless communication.

The PSP version of the game was announced for a European release on November 28, 2005, with a release date of February 10, 2006 given.²² It ultimately released in Europe on February 3, 2006.²³ A North American release was originally planned, but blocked by a Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) policy prohibiting ports of games from other platforms that are deemed to not have enough new PSP-exclusive features.²⁴

On January 25, 2007, a reduced-price “CapKore” repackaging of Breath of Fire III for PSP was released in Japan.²⁵

Breath of Fire III‘s PSP version was released digitally on PlayStation Store in Europe on November 27, 2009, then in Japan on January 27, 2010.²⁶²⁷ On July 14, 2010, a budget reissue of Breath of Fire III was released in Europe under the “PSP Essentials” branding. On May 27, 2011, it was revealed by Capcom USA Senior Vice President Christian Svensson that a PSone Classics release of Breath of Fire III for PlayStation 3 and PSP failed a legal intelletual property (IP) clearance, referring to “some obscure sprites in the PS1 version having potential infringement issues that the PSP versions cleaned up/didn’t have.”²⁸ Svensson then mentioned he was looking into one way with SCEA to bring the digital PSP version into North American circulation, calling it “a long shot”.²⁹

On January 27, 2016, Capcom USA revealed the digital PSP version of Breath of Fire III would finally release on the North American PlayStation Store.³⁰ It released digitally in North America on February 9, 2016³¹. A release on the Brazil PlayStation Store followed on August 1, 2017.³²

Massive thanks to @ravilesmana for assistance with the Breath of Fire III release date research.

Sources