Last month, it was brought to my attention the book “The Definitive Book of SNES RPGs Vol. 1” authored by Moses Norton and published by Bitmap Books contains issues with properly citing Dragnier (among other sources) and a factual error with one of the Breath of Fire II staff interviewed by Dragnier.
While a bibliography and assets reference list does exist at the end of the book, direct citations and footnotes on the pages where quotes are used are non-existent, making the sources unclear and dubious. Likewise, the bibliography and reference list often don’t provide enough information to clarify exact articles / URLs. As I looked through the book’s Breath of Fire and Breath of Fire II content and sources, I found other inaccuracies and misattributions as well. I had reached out to the author and publisher individually. Both were very transparent and apologetic to me, but unfortunately at this point, the book will not be reissued with any corrections.
I am making this post not to disparage the author and publisher, but to simply set the record straight on the Breath of Fire and Breath of Fire II content within the book. I strongly urge video game researchers, book authors, and publishers to take extra care when researching games. Please proofread and fact-check your work, and properly cite your sources.
The following list is not exhaustive, but this is what I was able to dig up upon reviewing the Breath of Fire and Breath of Fire II chapters of this book.
Breath of Fire, p. 161
“If you don’t have stuff like that, things for the players to do outside of the main quest, or when they get stuck or lost, it makes for a dull experience, you know? Just reading dialogue and going from story point to story point, that’s not really that fun.” – Makoto Ikehara, planner, Breath of Fire
Breath of Fire, p. 163
“Well, it’s funny though, with a protagonist who speaks, they’ll sometimes say things that you yourself would never think to say? Like ‘cool’ one-liners and stuff. If someone said those things to me in real life I’d cringe.” – Makoto Ikehara, planner, Breath of Fire
No citation nor footnote is given to these quotes on the pages where they are printed. The source listed in the Assets reference list on page 533 is “Planner Makoto Ikehara, interview by The PlayStation magazine (shmuplations.com)”. It was indeed from the “Breath of Fire III – 1997 Developer Interviews” translations by Shmuplations, but no direct link nor article name is given. Also, the interview pertained specifically to the development of Breath of Fire III, not the first Breath of Fire. While Makoto Ikehara was a planner for Breath of Fire, he was the director of Breath of Fire III at the time this quote was made.
Breath of Fire, p. 162
“A Warp By Any Other Name: Let’s face it, RPGs can be really long. If you wanted to check out or revisit a specific section of an RPG back in the day, you didn’t have many options beyond simply playing through the game. There is a warping trick embedded in the new-game menu here, though. Giving Ryu Street Fighter names, typing in a specific secret code and using a second controller could launch you far into the game, complete with some handy level-ups!”
No citation nor footnote is given for the source of Breath of Fire’s new game passwords on the page where this is printed. The source listed in the Assets reference list on page 535 credits a screenshot from tcrf.net (The Cutting Room Floor), but no direct page or section is named. The actual information about this new game cheat code originates from the findings of programmer Myria, with The Cutting Room Floor page listing that as the original source on its own page.
Breath of Fire, p. 165
“Actually Capcom approached us. They had a very busy schedule (that included at least two RPGs) so simply didn’t have room for [Breath of Fire]. And we loved it, and knew it to be something our audience was dying for …” – Ted Woolsey, translator, Breath of Fire
No citation nor footnote is given for the source of Ted Woolsey’s quote on the page where this is printed. The source listed in the Assets reference list on page 533 correctly credits Super Play magazine’s September 1994 issue, but no volume number nor exact page is given. Dragnier has directly cited this interview in its own overview of Breath of Fire.
Breath of Fire, p. 165
“The Coach of Ox: Did you know Ox has a coach? He can even pull the coach. Because he’s an ox. Too bad it’s an unused item that has to be hacked in. The coach doesn’t do anything, anyway. Go back to reading the rest of this chapter.”
No citation nor footnote is given for the source of this information on the page where this is printed. The source listed in the Assets reference list on page 533 correctly credits a screenshot from tcrf.net (The Cutting Room Floor) and the bibliography only just generally lists “Cutting Room Floor”, but no direct page or section to the source is given there.
Breath of Fire, p. 166
“Art from a Mega Man: Famed artist and creator of Rockman Keiji Inafune left his mark on Breath of Fire. If some of the art present in this chapter looks familiar (it’s in the eyes!), that’s probably why. Inafune produced a number of original illustrations for Breath of Fire and worked on early character designs before being replaced by Tatsuya Yoshikawa. Despite the change, Inafune’s unique touch survived in the final product, directing the presentation of legacy characters in this series for years to come.”
No citation nor footnote is given for the source of this information on the page where this is printed. The book’s bibliography generically credits Nintendo Power magazine, but does not cite the exact source of this information. Dragnier has directly cited this interview in its own overview of Breath of Fire.
Breath of Fire, p. 168 + 169
The screenshots showing Ryu, Nina, Bo, and Karn standing next to the river come from screencaps of a GIF I made for a Capcom USA blog post in 2016: “Breath of Fire blazes onto the New Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console“. The blog post is not directly cited on the page. In the Assets reference list, a generic “Waterfall in daylight (news.capcomusa.com)” source is shown without an author, direct URL, nor name of the blog post.
Screen caps from the book:
The GIF I made:
Breath of Fire, p. 169
“I think there was a concern that a game like BOF might not sell well in the US (in the early ’90s, a lot of salespeople I worked with would say things like, ‘This game/box art is too Japanese for our retailers’), so Square seemed better equipped to release it. SNES cartridges were really expensive for third-party developers like Capcom, so you really needed to be confident that there was an audience for your game because production and shipping costs were immense, oftentimes millions of dollars out the door before you saw a single penny in return.” – Chris Kramer, PR specialist
This is a quote lifted from my own interview with Chris Kramer and Justin Berenbaum, originally posted on Reddit and later on Dragnier. No citation nor footnote is given for the source of this information on the page where this is printed. The book’s Asset list shows “PR Specialist Chris Kramer, interview by Breath of Fire fan page (reddit.com/r/breathoffire)”, which doesn’t specify the exact Reddit post nor Reddit user.
Breath of Fire, p. 171
The screenshot showing Ryu, Nina, Bleu, and Karn fighting a Flower appears to come from screencap of a GIF I made for a Capcom USA blog post in 2016: “Breath of Fire blazes onto the New Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console“. The blog post is not directly cited on the page. In the Assets reference list, a generic “Flower boss” source is shown without an author, generic URL, direct URL, nor name of the blog post. The Flower enemy is not a boss, by the way (there is a boss named “FlowerX” with a different color palette).
Screen cap from the book:
The GIF I made for the Capcom USA blog post “Breath of Fire blazes onto the New Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console“: (Photosensitive Seizure Warning: Flashing Lights)
Breath of Fire, p. 171
“Carried along by gentle ripples on the surface of dramatic storytelling, Breath of Fire was always intended to be part of an ongoing ‘franchise series’, according to producer Yoshinori Takenaka.”
No citation nor footnote is given to Yoshinori Takenaka’s quote on the page where it’s printed. No source is listed in the Assets reference list on page 533. This brief quote is from the “Breath of Fire III – 1997 Developer Interviews” translations by Shmuplations, but no direct link nor article name is given.
Breath of Fire, p. 172
The screenshot showing Ryu, Gobi, Bleu, and Ox speaking to a woman from Tunlan appears to come from screencap of a GIF I made for a Capcom USA blog post in 2016: “Breath of Fire blazes onto the New Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console“. It’s also available here, on Dragnier. The blog post is not directly cited on the page. In the Assets reference list, a generic “Musical dialogue in Tunlan (news.capcomusa.com)” source is shown without an author, direct URL, nor name of the blog post.
Screen cap from the book:
The GIF I made:
Breath of Fire, p. 172
“Doctor Warp, PHD: If you hack the developer item DrWarp into your inventory, you can visit an inaccessible area: the secret bar of Nanai. Witness the full glory of … a big empty room with some NPCs standing around. They simply repeat dialogue from elsewhere in the game. The only real reward is hearing a musical theme that’s heard nowhere else!”
No citation nor footnote is given for the source of this information on the page where this is printed. The bibliography only just generally lists “Cutting Room Floor”, but no direct page or section to the sources (Source 1) (Source 2) is given there.
Breath of Fire, p. 174
The cartridge scan being used here is inaccurate. Breath of Fire did not have this type of cartridge shell, which was discontinued by Nintendo sometime in 1993, a year before the game’s release in the West.
Breath of Fire II, p. 177
“There was so much going on in the industry at the time. Congressional hearings, lawsuits, attempts to ban video games … Strangely I think some of us had concerns but no real ability to make significant changes, especially to the design or animation. I think if the story had been different with regard to the protagonist’s mission, maybe there would have been more issues. I’m also guessing most of the folks looking to ban games were focused on the blood, gore and over-the-top realistic violence than playing 40 hours into an animated RPG to find something to be offended by. – Justin Berenbaum, translator”
This is another quote lifted from my own interview with Chris Kramer and Justin Berenbaum, originally posted on Reddit and later on Dragnier. Additionally, Justin Berenbaum is miscredited as a translator for Breath of Fire II. Our interview made it clear that Justin edited the translated English text of the game, and the actual translator for Breath of Fire II was Isao Kanamori, who partnered with one external translator. No citation nor footnote is given for the source of this information on the page where this is printed. The book’s Asset list shows “Translator Justin Berenbaum, interview by Breath of Fire fan page (reddit.com/r/breathoffire)”, which doesn’t specify the exact Reddit post nor Reddit user.
Breath of Fire II, p. 179
“… rather than being a mere sequel, it’s a new story.” – Tokuro Fujiwara, producer, Breath of Fire II
This quote comes from a Japanese V-Jump V-Fest ’94 VHS tape. No citation nor footnote is given for the source of this information on the page where this is printed. The book’s Assets reference list does list “Producer Tokuro Fujiwara, in VHS footage (V-Jump V-Fest ’94)”, which is accurate. We have the clip featuring Tokuro Fujiwara uploaded on our YouTube page, entitled “Breath of Fire II at V-Jump V-Fest ’94 with Tokuro Fujiwara”, and as far as we know, our video is the only one that has actual human-translated English subtitles (thanks to translator Kevin Fischer). Nevertheless, the quote in the book has some different wording than what is in our video subtitles (1:12), so it is unknown whether the quote was retranslated from the Japanese or our subtitles were re-worded.
Breath of Fire II, p. 187
“The initial moments when I was in a good mood to make compositions didn’t last much. I slowly slipped into a deep sadness, which seemed to bring me into depths that seemed to have no end. But surprisingly, I never said, ‘I can’t do this,’ nor did I run away … if I had to say why, it’d be because at the time, our sound team didn’t have many people. Even if they had wanted to replace me, they still gave me all sorts of encouragement.” – Yuko Takehara, composer, Breath of Fire II
This is a quote lifted from a translation of the Breath of Fire Original Soundtrack Special Box liner notes on Video Game Music Online. No citation nor footnote is given for the source of this information on the page where this is printed. The book’s Asset list on p. 534 shows “Composer Yuko Takehara, in commentary, Breath of Fire OST Special Box (vgmonline.net/breathfireboxliners)” which at least has a direct link to the source, however the translator, Gerardo Iuliani, was not credited.
Breath of Fire II, p. 190 – 191
The screenshots showing Bow hunting, Katt smashing a rock, Rand turning into a ball and rolling, Sten extending his arm across a gap, Spar walking through the forest, and Jean swimming in the lake all come from screencaps of a GIF I made for a Breath of Fire II Twitter tips thread in 2019 and then reposted on my own personal website: “Tips for playing Breath of Fire II – SNES Nintendo Switch Online“. Neither source is cited on the page where the images are printed. In the Assets reference list on page 535, the screenshots are erroneously attributed to lparchive.org (Let’s Play Archive). No author, generic URL, direct URL, nor Twitter thread/blog post are cited.
Breath of Fire II, p. 200
Once again, the cartridge scan being used here is inaccurate. Breath of Fire II did not have this type of cartridge shell. The cartridge shell depicted was discontinued by Nintendo sometime in 1993; 2 years before the game’s release in the West.
Finally, below is my feedback for the book’s Assets and Bibliography, reiterating the issues noted above.
Assets, page 533 – 535
168 – SS (Screenshot) – Waterfall in daylight (news.capcomusa.com) – No direct citation. Which blog post? Who is the author? What’s the direct URL?
169 – SS (Screenshot) – Waterfall in moonlight (news.capcomusa.com) – No direct citation. Which blog post? Who is the author? What’s the direct URL?
169 – QU (Quote) – PR Specialist Chris Kramer, interview by Breath of Fire fan page (reddit.com/r/breathoffire) – No direct citation. Which reddit thread? Which Breath of Fire fan page? What’s the direct URL?
171 – SS (Screenshot) – Flower boss – No direct citation. Which website? Which blog post? Who is the author? What’s the direct URL? This Flower enemy is not a boss.
172 – SS (Screenshot) – Musical dialogue in Tunlan (news.capcomusa.com) – No direct citation. Which blog post? Who is the author? What’s the direct URL?
177 – QU (Quote) – Translator Justin Berenbaum, interview by Breath of Fire fan page (reddit.com/r/breathoffire) – No direct citation. Which reddit thread? Which Breath of Fire fan page? What’s the direct URL? Justin Berenbaum wasn’t the translator of Breath of Fire II.
179 – QU (Quote) – Producer Tokuro Fujiwara, in VHS footage (V-Jump V-Fest ’94) – No direct citation. Was the footage accessed directly by VHS and translated, or was Breath of Fire Fans/Dragnier’s video upload with human-translated subtitles the actual source?
190 – SS (Screenshot) – Bow hunting (lparchive.org) – No direct citation. Which page? Who is the author? What’s the direct URL? This isn’t even from lparchive.org; this screenshot was taken from a GIF made by Dragnier’s admin and is featured in a Twitter thread and a personal blog post.
190 – SS (Screenshot) – Katt rocking (lparchive.org) – No direct citation. Which page? Who is the author? What’s the direct URL? This isn’t even from lparchive.org; this screenshot was taken from a GIF made by Dragnier’s admin and is featured in a Twitter thread and a personal blog post.
190 – SS (Screenshot) – Rand rolling (lparchive.org) – No direct citation. Which page? Who is the author? What’s the direct URL? This isn’t even from lparchive.org; this screenshot was taken from a GIF made by Dragnier’s admin and is featured in a Twitter thread and a personal blog post.
190 – SS (Screenshot) – Sten reaching (lparchive.org) – No direct citation. Which page? Who is the author? What’s the direct URL? This isn’t even from lparchive.org; this screenshot was taken from a GIF made by Dragnier’s admin and is featured in a Twitter thread and a personal blog post.
190 – SS (Screenshot) – Spar walking (lparchive.org) – No direct citation. Which page? Who is the author? What’s the direct URL? This isn’t even from lparchive.org; this screenshot was taken from a GIF made by Dragnier’s admin and is featured in a Twitter thread and a personal blog post.
190 – SS (Screenshot) – Jean swimming (lparchive.org) – No direct citation. Which page? Who is the author? What’s the direct URL? This isn’t even from lparchive.org; this screenshot was taken from a GIF made by Dragnier’s admin and is featured in a Twitter thread and a personal blog post.
Bibliography, page 550:
Breath of Fire Wiki, The bof.fandom.com/wiki – Which pages on the BoF wiki were used for the book? Did those pages have credible citations/sources? What are the direct URLs?
Capcom news.capcomusa.com – Which blog posts on the Capcom USA News site were used for the book? Who was the author of the posts? What are the direct URLs?
Cutting Room Floor www.tcrf.net – Which pages on the TCRF wiki were used for the book? Did those pages have credible citations/sources? What are the direct URLs?
Dragnier www.dragnier.net – Which pages on Dragnier were used for the book? Who is the author? What are the direct URLs?
r/breathoffire www.reddit.com/r/breathoffire – Which threads from Reddit were used for the book? Who is the author? What’s the exact URL?
(Blog header image source: Bitmap Books, artwork by Stumpyfongo)