Line #65 WMG/BreathOfFire


1	[[WMG: Breath of Fire is the far distant future of the Pokegirls universe.]]
2	* It would explain where all the [[BeastMan animal folk]] came from.
3
4	[[WMG: Alternatively, Breath of Fire is set in the same world as [[VideoGame/FireEmblem Tellius]].]]
5	Since we know there's more in the world than Tellius, but aren't sure what. The various tribes are different groups of laguz, though many of them seem to have lost or be losing their transformation abilities.
6
7	[[WMG: Or the same world as Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann.]]
8	The world of Breath of Fire shares its population of weirdly ultra-anthropomorphized creatures with the Beastmen of TTGL - not to mention ''Dragon Quarter'', set in a far, far future when [[spoiler:humanity is forced underground by a terrible war]] and must excavate constantly to survive.
9	* These need ''not'' be mutually exclusive, especially as per WordOfGod ''Dragon Quarter'' is in its own AlternateUniverse.
10	** There's also been a ''lot'' of speculation as to just how much ''Dragon Quarter'' in particular influenced the writers of Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann, so (as with all Wild Mass Guessing) your mileage may vary.
11
12	[[WMG: Whilst we're engaging in Wild Mass Guessing about relationships between Franchise/BreathOfFire and other universes, ''IV'' may be in the same world as ''VideoGame/{{Utawarerumono}}''.]]
13	Not only do you have the kemonomimi running rampant (and in the artbook for ''IV'' it even states the Endless chose specific tribes of humans and changed them into furries to begin with), but you have two folks who are part of a split god. One of whom is involved with the EvilEmpire and the other of whom is an amnesiac.
14	* And the similarity of Japanese titles.
15	* And the fact that both ''IV'' and Utawarerumono play ''very heavily'' from mythology of cultures that Japanese have tended to be ''very'' racist towards (Korean in the case of ''IV'', Ainu in the case of ''Utawarerumono'').
16	* There's actually a rather strong possibility the writers of Utawarerumono may have been at least a little influenced by ''IV''--Utawarerumono originally came out as a visual novel series in 2002, and ''IV'' was released in Japan in 2000.
17
18	[[WMG: ''IV'' could be in the same universe as ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', for that matter.]]
19	Let's review the similarities: EvilEmpire in the west who wants to destroy the protagonist, LastOfHisKind [[CrystalDragonJesus Crystal Dragon Buddha]] sealed away for hundreds of years, set in a FantasyCounterpartCulture version of the Japan/China/Korea general area, and a bunch of chosen ones who are linked to specific elements who end up helping out the Crystal Dragon Buddha.
20	* Of course those two bits of Wild Mass Guessing above only really work if you consider ''IV'' an AlternateUniverse, though.
21
22	[[WMG: Myria is the result of Yuna's experiments on making gods being a success.]]
23	VERY popular {{Fanon}} for folks who take the "VideoGame/BreathOfFireIV is a NonLinearSequel and in fact a prequel to I-III" interpretation.
24	* At least one variant even posits that Myria is actually ''Elina'' who really ''did'' get turned into an EldritchAbomination (and whose being turned into an "artificial Endless" was such a success that even the Dragonslayer couldn't permanently kill her).
25
26	[[WMG: Alternatively, ''Dragon Quarter'' is what happened after Yuna learned to make his own dragons.]]
27	At this point, this bit of Wild Mass Guessing is pretty much officially {{Fanon}} (as Capcom has issued its WordOfGod that ''Dragon Quarter'' isn't connected to the rest of the series) but it ''does'' occasionally still turn up as a theory.
28
29	[[WMG: Theories as to where, or even ''if'', ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIV'' fits properly in the timeline.]]
30	Yes, it's all pretty much WMG here. Blame Capcom for not giving us really ''anything'' to work with other than in the artbooks.
31	* One of the more fan-preferred timelines is IV-I-II-III.
32	* Others have suggested I-II-III-IV.
33	* A ''very'' plausible argument exists in this troper's opinion for ''IV'', like ''Dragon Quarter'', being in its own AlternateUniverse; the stories of how the gods came and chose people, and particularly some stuff re the Wyndians, doesn't match up neatly with the rest of the timeline. (For one, in ''I'' Wyndians were strong fliers and progressively lost flight up to ''III''; in ''IV'', Wyndians can hover but are poor in controlled flight, and are actually implied in the artbook to have been much stronger fliers but having lost some of their flight ability over time.)
34	** You forget that the Wyndians in ''I'' were able to freely turn into giant birds (which was something of a plot point) while in ''IV'' they were still humanoid when they flew. Perhaps they wanted to be able to fly more freely and in-between ''IV'' and ''I'' they found a way to change into full on birds.
35
36	[[WMG: Whilst getting into some REALLY wild mass guessing--possibly ''IV'' is its own ''universe'' but settled from folks from another world--even potentially from ''I''.]]
37	The artbook for ''IV'' actually quite explicitly states that the ''only'' truly native sentient race in that world is the [=PabPab=] (who are also the sole race who were never chosen by an Endless). It's implied that literally everyone else was brought from or came from ''elsewhere'' and the Endless "adopted" them.
38
39	[[WMG: The birth of Deathevan resulted in Myria losing her destructive aspect.]]
40	This would account for the change in Myria's actions and motives between ''I'', where she's a impulsive trickster god, and ''III'', where she is a controlling mother god. This also ties neatly into my next Wild Mass Guess...
41
42	[[WMG: Deathevan is the source of the Desert of Death.]]
43	Still buried deep beneath the Earth, Deathevan is unable to assume material form, but he still drains the life from the surface world. Thus, you end up with two aspects of the same divine being at cross-purposes to one another, without either ever realizing it.
44
45	[[WMG: The REAL reason Capcom has shown a definite lack of ParentalFavoritism towards the ''Franchise/BreathOfFire'' franchise...]]
46	Capcom has had a long history of not really knowing what the hell to do with the ''Franchise/BreathOfFire'' games in general (hence why it was such a shock when four phone games and a ComicBookAdaptation came out); most notably, it is probably the ''sole'' remaining Capcom franchise that has not yet been featured in a VideoGame/CapcomVs game. Nobody really knows why.
47	* One urban legend (inspired by Squaresoft's translation of ''I'') is that the first ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireI'' was actually a Square game that Capcom bought the rights for and the entire franchise is under some considerable restriction on its promotion/development as a result. (This is easily disprovable by the Japanese release being all Capcom's baby; FanTranslation from the original Japanese game has been very helpful in this regard.)
48	** More plausible is the idea that there may be residual licensing issues from the ''North American'' release of the first ''Franchise/BreathOfFire'' that essentially prevent the franchise from being included in a VideoGame/CapcomVs. Square and Capcom actually share distribution rights in the US for the first game (due to Capcom having farmed out the localisation of ''I'' to Squaresoft) and this explanation does become ''slightly'' more plausible with the news [[http://www.gofanboy.com/go-fanboy-news/2363-square-enix-bringing-valkyrie-profile-sequel-to-xbox-360-and-more SquareEnix is apparently working on ports of ''I'' and ''II'' to the XBox360 to be formally announced at E3]]. (Of note, Creator/SquareEnix ''doesn't'' have distro rights for ''II'' unless Capcom is specifically licensing it.)
49	*** However, this technically wouldn't prevent any cameos from ''III''-''Dragon Quarter'' unless there's other licensing issues we don't know about...
50	* Another urban legend states that the creators of the series essentially prohibited Capcom from including the series in any VideoGame/CapcomVs games.
51	** And pretty much each and every single UrbanLegendOfZelda regarding why the ''Franchise/BreathOfFire'' franchise has never ended up in a VideoGame/CapcomVs got blown out of the water by a recent tweet from the ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom'' development team (which in and of itself has, in addition to the CEO of Capcom leaving, added ''considerable'' fuel to the "are they going to revive ''Franchise/BreathOfFire''" rumour mill).
52	*** Specifically, there ''were'' plans to add Fou-lu from ''IV'' as a playable character in ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3''--plans that got nixed as the ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom'' franchise was marketed primarily for Western audiences and ''Franchise/BreathOfFire'' was seen as less popular in the West. The same development team has expressed interest in having Fou-lu in a ''future'' VideoGame/CapcomVs--so at least for ''IV'', there's no problems with ''licensing'' that would prohibit a VideoGame/CapcomVs.
53	There is also a minor constellation of WildMassGuessing as to why the franchise has been in DevelopmentHell for (at this date) nearly seven years:
54	* Another urban legend is that Capcom was trying to sell the franchise to another company, but this was largely disproven when Camelot Games actually ''tried'' to buy the rights to ''Franchise/BreathOfFire'' (Capcom refused).
55	* One urban legend (which is in part responsible for the BrokenBase regarding ''Dragon Quarter'') is that Capcom was so disappointed in international sales of ''Dragon Quarter'' (despite being a best-seller in Japan and even for a week in the US) that they pretty much have put a semi-permanent freeze on further games in the franchise or even ''references'' to the franchise's existence.
56	** This is partially proven and partially disproven; there hasn't been an official announcement of a new ''Franchise/BreathOfFire'', and there was (comparatively speaking) very little ExpandedUniverse material ever made for ''Dragon Quarter'' other than the artbook and the soundtrack. It is known from the developer's blog by the creators of ''Dragon Quarter'' (now offline) that the creators would have liked to do a ''Franchise/BreathOfFire VI'' using the same game engine as ''Dragon Quarter''--if this was the case, this was probably ''rapidly'' shelved when Capcom saw just how much of a BrokenBase had developed (there are ''still'' some who refuse to recognise ''Dragon Quarter'' as even being in the franchise).
57	*** In other words, the official policy of Capcom is not only to deny that ''Dragon Quarter'' ever happened but to deny that the ''Franchise/BreathOfFire'' franchise as a whole happened, at least outside of Japan.
58	*** However, there has been a ''lot'' of promotion of its immediate predecessor ''Franchise/BreathOfFire '''IV''''' in Japan (and more recently, in France and China), especially since 2007 (when both three separate Japanese smartphone games--two of which can be considered a NonLinearSequel to ''IV'' itself--and the ComicBookAdaptation of ''IV'' were released); this has led to WildMassGuessing on its own that Capcom is probing interest in a Franchise/BreathOfFire VI that is either a sequel or prequel to ''IV''.
59	*** At least some media reports have indicated that developers at ''Capcom'' have a real interest in reviving the franchise (which has actually been backed up by the jettisoned ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom'' plans) but that the main issue--per the CEO of Capcom at the time--was funding. (The CEO who gave the statement resigned from Capcom effective November 2010, which has in and of itself revived rumours that the series may finally exit its seven years of DevelopmentHell--the popular perception has been that the CEO (who was responsible for the Franchise/MegaMan franchise) may have been nixing revivals.)
60	*** One bit of circumstantial evidence that does give some credence to the "former CEO put the kibosh on any new Franchise/BreathOfFire" idea--said CEO was also the primary developer behind the VideoGame/MegaManLegends series; almost all the RPG spinoffs have become a bit of TheUnfavourite since he has left Capcom (almost to the degree that the Franchise/BreathOfFire series has suffered), and the company is actually acknowledging Franchise/BreathOfFire enough to have re-releases (on PSN) and in multiple "card game power-up" cameos in ''Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3'' (in what is, by far, probably the most high profile ''any'' Franchise/BreathOfFire character has been in a VideoGame/CapcomVs yet).
61	* At least one rumour posits that a major developer for the franchise has either died or left Capcom. No reason why it wouldn't stop development, though...
62	* Several Breath of Fire IV characters appear as fightable [=NPCs=] in VideoGame/StreetFighter6's World Tour mode, so somebody at Capcom still supports the series.
63
64	[[WMG: [=BOF1=] Myria/Tyr actually was the [[KidsAreCruel child]] she pretended to be. By [=BOF3=], she's matured enough to try making up for her old villainy.]]
65	Of course, she also (consciously or subconsciously) couldn't resist eliminating everything that would have explained [[OldShame her past]] as a GodOfEvil and [[MoralEventHorizon wiped out the dragons]] so that another Ryu wouldn't show up to kill her again before she finished. (Clearly, no one ever taught her what being good actually meant.)
66
67	[[WMG: Highfort was at war with...]]
68	No one. It was a smokescreen for having their army ambushed and slaughtered by demonic forces (Or from another perspective, they were at war with the demons but weren't aware of it). Shupkay was the MoleInCharge and intended to use the forgotten superweapon to assist the demons' invasion plans, and to kill off the one threat to her leadership while she was at it.
69
70	[[WMG: Highfort ''thought'' it was at war with...]]
71	* Simafort. The false Jean was going to run the other side and he and Shupkay were going to play both sides against the middle. When he was killed off by Ryu, she had to improvise.
72	* Tunlan.
73	* Itself. There was an illusion cast on each half of the armies each time they went out to think the other half was their enemy.
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Context WMG / BreathOfFire