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Breath Of Fire
alt title(s): Breath Of Fire2; Breath Of Fire3; Breath Of Fire4; Breath Of Fire5; Breath Of Fire Dragon Quarter
Breath Of Fire is a long-running, fairly popular game series from Capcom. While all five entries in the game have been different, each of them have had a few things in common:

  • The Hero, unnamed in the earlier games. His official name is "Ryu," after the Japanese word for "dragon." One of his consistent abilities is the skill to change into a dragon. In some games, it's a one-off thing, like a summoning, in others, it's more of a transformation.
  • A winged princess named Nina. She was always a skilled mage, and not much of a fighter.
  • Worlds where humans lived side to side with anthropomorphic moles. And anthropomorphic dogs. And anthropomorphic...well, insert just about any animal here. All of whom can interbreed.
  • Enough psychological drama to make your head spin.
  • Laughably bad translations, at least for the first few games.
  • A connected storyline between games, albeit separated by hundreds or even thousands of years at a time, at least for the first three. There's still some arguments about the fourth, mostly over whether it comes first or last in the series, and the game's official artbook states that the fifth is not connected, story-wise, to the others.

The games are as follows:

  • The original game, Breath Of Fire, focused on Ryu's quest to save his sister and the world from the Big Bad, Zog, and the goddess of chaos behind the man, Tyr. The translation on this was somewhat better than the second and third games, due to being localized by Square rather than Capcom, the game's makers. However, Square's translators changed a lot of names seemingly at random, making some of the connections between games vague.
  • The second game, Breath Of Fire II, had an in-depth storyline from the get-go. This time, Ryu was an orphan (actually the result of a gigantic memory wipe) who, with childhood friend Bow, escaped his hometown of "Gate." Also, this was one of the first games to have a religious figure as a Big Bad, who is actually the son of the Big Bad from the first game. This was notable because this was the mid-90s, when Nintendo of America censored religious references in their games. While the translation was rather shoddy, a high-quality fan translation exists.
  • The third game was the series' first foray into the Play Station. This time, Ryu was the savior of his people, the Brood. Once again, the Big Bad was a religious figure. In fact, it's Tyr from the first game, now with her correct name of Myria, and with her religious aspects played up more.
  • The fourth game focused on Ryu's journey to find his lost memories. Without spoiling it, it culminated in a showdown with his Evil Counterpart who believes that Humans Are Bastards and the only way to solve the world's problems is to Kill Em All and start again. In the end it's up to you whether you agree with him or not.
  • The fifth game was the only one for the Play Station 2, and it was a radical departure for the series. Instead of a traditional RPG world, you were underground in a deep cave. Your goal was to get to the top, and supposedly it was a different journey every time.

As of 2009, there are no official plans for a sixth entry into the series (although there are persistent rumours). A manga adaptation of the fourth game of the series is presently being published by Comic Blade Avarus (the final chapter is due to be published in January 2010, with the final volume compilation a few months afterward).
This series provides examples of:

  • Adaptation Distillation: The manga adaptation of IV.
    • Arguably, also the novelisations of III and IV.
  • After The End: Dragon Quarter takes place 1000 years After The End, when humanity is driven underground by a Hopeless War that renders the surface uninhabitable.
  • Anticlimax Boss: Chetyre in the fifth game. This troper wonders if the real Final Boss was actually Dragon-hybrid Bosch before it. Really, you can't actually lose against Chetyre.
    • At the expense of this troper's dignity, I'd like to point out that it is actually possible to lose against Chetyre. I didn't realize I was supposed to D-Breath all the way to 100% (which is instant death all other times), so I stopped just short. He didn't take damage. Next turn, I got the bad ending where Odjn erupts violently from Ryu's body.
  • Alas Poor Villain: Assuming Fou-lu in IV is considered a villain (as opposed to Complete Monster Yuna), he'd qualify in the "good ending". He recognizes he was blind to the importance of humanity, and Ryu realizes all Fou-lu wanted was to separate mortals from the gods, and always felt guilt for Mami's death.
  • Alcohol Hic: Scias in IV, in the Japanese version. Bowdlerised to a stuttering problem in the English release.
  • All In A Row
  • All Of The Other Reindeer: In the second game, Nina was exiled from Windia when her wings turned out to be black.
  • All There In The Manual: In the case of IV and (to a slightly lesser extent) DQ, a fair amount of the world's background info only exists in the Official Works artbooks.
    • In the case of IV, this is pretty extensive; huge amounts of backgrounder info only appear in the artbook.  *
      • The manga adaptation of IV has on occasion directly incorporated background info from the official artbook.
  • Alternate Universe: Two, possibly three, universes exist as follows:
    • I-III are canonically in the same universe, separated by hundreds if not thousands of years per game.
    • Dragon Quarter is (per Word Of Capcom) in an Alternate Universe unrelated to other games.
    • The position of IV is best described as controversial.  *
  • An Ice Person/Making A Splash: Fou-lu in IV. (Ryu, of course, is Playing With Fire, fitting in with the Dragons Are The Yin-Yang theme of the fourth game.)
    • In fact, one of Fou-lu's draconic abilities (as the Serpent Dragon) fits one or the other trope, namewise, depending on whether you're playing the Japanese or English versions of the game. (See the entry under "Bowdlerise" for more info.)
  • Anyone Can Die: In the second game, if they're named and they're not recruitable in some fashion, they probably will die. In fact, four people die in the same scenario within an hour.
    • Not to mention a fifth that CAN die in that same scenario, if you don't know how to get the good ending.
  • Art Shift: All art in the series is supposedly done by the same artist (likely Kinu Nishimura), but starting with III the art makes a break from large-eyed, colorful characters draped with jewel-encrusted clothes, to characters with smaller, more natural faces, muted colors, and a greater emphasis on a Used Future look. This may have to do with the series starting its slide from telling tales about characters bouncing back from the brink of disaster to go on a quest restore a more peaceful balance, to characters being beaten down by the Crapsack Worlds they live in and simply struggling for survival.
  • Back From The Dead: Tyr/Myria in I and III; thought Killed Off For Real in I, came Back From The Dead in III.
    • Arguably Fou-lu in IV, but in this troper's opinion more of an explicit subversion of King In The Mountain.
  • Beneath The Earth: Pretty much the entire plot and background of Dragon Quarter. Humanity ends up being the group forced Beneath The Earth thanks to the use of genetically engineered Dragons of Mass Destruction, and Sheldar ends up being an increasingly Crapsack World version of this the lower you go.
  • BFG: Momo's magical bazooka.
  • BFS: Myrmidon from IV is big, but his sword dwarfs him. And it grows even bigger when he attacks!
  • Big Bad:
    • I: Zog appears to be this at first, but it turns out that Tyr/Myria was the one pulling the strings.
    • II: Deathevan, the spawn of the previous Big Bad
    • III: Myria reprises her role, but is painted in a far more sympathetic light this time around.
    • IV: God Emperor Fou-lu, the Evil Counterpart of protagonist Ryu. Turns out he really isn't that bad at all. Lord Yuna, however, more than qualifies for the role, the bastard.
    • Dragon Quarter: Bosch and Chetyre appear to be equal contenders for the title, but most would probably go with the latter.
  • Bilingual Bonus: The names of the ghosts in McNeil Manor in Japanese are references to business concepts.
    • In IV, names rendered in kanji were renamed to their Korean hanja readings for international versions. The puns still stay intact.
    • Also shows up in V in a manner combining names and Russian counting.  *
    • Most characters related to the port city of Raphalla are references to fishing terms, fishing lures or actual fish.
    • Several characters in the second game are named after English puns that its Japanese audience probably couldn’t catch without some bilingualism. Most notably are the cases of the plant guy Aspara Gus and the big noticeable man called Rand Marks, which when you factor in the well known issue of L and R in Japanese, becomes “Landmarks”. Ironically, character limitations meant most of these were completely lost in the translation.
    • Both the original Japanese name Master and the Dub Name Change to Ershin in IV count (in fact, the reason for the Dub Name Change was to preserve the Bilingual Bonus—in another language).
  • Biological Mashup: In the first two games, fusion is a very powerful technique to temporarily create strong characters.
    • In 3, the Fusion Gene creates a similar effect.
    • Also in 3, Balio and Sunder use this to transform into the only form you're ''supposed'' to beat.
  • Bishonen Line: III's Ryu's dragon forms get more and more monstrous, yet his ultimate form, the Kaiser, is... himself, colored gold. Partially subverted when he uses the Kaiser Breath attack, which turns him int a gigantic dragon.
  • Blind Idiot Translation: The second and, to a lesser extent, first games.
  • Body Horror: Nina in the fifth game is not a princess. She is infact some poor girl genetically engineered into an air purification device. It works by shunting all of the pollution to the girl, thus driving the initial goal of the characters to get her to the (Supposedly) clean surface. Oh and she had her tongue cut out because machines don't need to talk.
    • Elina in the fourth game reaches Nightmare Fuel levels. She is kidnapped, turned into an artificial endless by Yuna, and used as the engine for the Hex Cannon.
    • The Dragonslayer sword in IV is a botched summon by Yuna, that after being studied, was shattered and reformed into a sword. The rage of the god trapped inside causes it to eat the souls of anything it cuts.
  • Bonus Dungeon: Kokon Horay in DQ. In order to reach it, the fairy colony must be at maximum level.
  • Boss In Mook Clothing: The Archmage and Berserker from III and the Rider from IV. Also the Goo King present in most games. Technically, they're not Bosses, but they should be; they're some of the most powerful enemies in the series!
  • Bowdlerized: Subverted in II, a gender-swap with DQ, and more than made up with in IV (to the point fans wonder if the group handling IV's internationalization was slipped the old Nintendo Guidelines by mistake).
    • The two most infamous examples in IV involving a major plot-point  * and two other scenes  *. The first can even be considered a case of Aborted Arc Via Censorship.
    • Another example in IV: Scias is a literal Drunken Master in the original Japanese game, changed to a severe stuttering problem in the English localization.
    • Still another example in IV: The renaming of an ability of Fou-lu's Serpent dragon form from "Hellblizzard" (Japanese) to "Waterspout" (international). Explicitly bowdlerized because of the use of the word "hell".  *
    • The massive incidents of bowdlerization in the international version of IV are particularly puzzling (regarding Scias and the Aborted Arc Via Censorship), considering the game was released for a platform specifically known for being friendly to controversial games  *. Worse yet, no other games have similarly been censored (save for Cupid's sex change); most infamously, II got away with practically everything that was censored in IV. In other words, there really is no logical reason why it went through a Nintendo-esque hack job (not even fear of an "M" rating from ratings boards).
      • Even worse, fans don't hold out hope that a re-release will fix this; the Windows release (which came out worldwide a few years afterward) ended up following the international script, complete with bowdlerisations. Yes, even in Japan, where the original Playstation release was uncensored.
      • Ow. My brain.
    • Also occurs in Dragon Quarter, causing a She's A Man In Japan situation with Cupid, because of hir implied relationship with Elyon. This is notably the only incident of censorship in this game.
  • Bragging Rights Reward: In III, the Archmage and Berserker drop the best dagger and shield respectively. Unfortunately, they're incredibly marginal upgrades and by the time you can kill these two you're probably already at the final boss and can eat her for breakfast.
  • Breath Weapon: Well, obviously...
  • Broken Base: Reactions to Dragon Quarter ranged from ecstatic to furious.
    • STILL inspires holy wars on BoF-related fan boards, because some see Dragon Quarter as a Franchise Killer.
      • Despite it being the top selling game the week of it's release no less...
  • But Your Wings Are Beautiful: Nina in the second game. Arguably the trope namer, in fact, and definitely the textbook example.
  • Cain And Abel: Myria and Deis.
  • The Cameo: Except the fifth, every game after the first has cameo appearances from previous game's party members: II has Karn and Bo, III has Mogu, Gary (Gill in japanese, short for Gilliam/Bo), Worker (japanese name Builder/Ox), Bow and Jean; and BoF IV has Rei, Teepo and Momo (which doubles as a master).
    • DQ has this as well in a bit more obscure form—the puppet-girl instructors from BOF IV show up as the game's merchants.
    • And yes, all of these count as Mythology Gags if not blatant Continuity Nods.
  • Catch Phrase: Rei was very fond of saying "Doesn't this just beat all?"
  • Cat Girl: Specificially, Katt from the second game and Lin from the fifth game.
  • Chain Of Deals
  • Chekhov's Gun: in the second game, arguably the TownShip itself, for a role it will play in the true ending of the game.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: the mysterious robed figure that keeps popping up in the first game to give the party advice. It's Jade, helping you as a plot to overthrow Zog.
  • Chekhov's Skill: in the first game, the ability of the Wing Clan to transform into giant birds. Later on, Nina gains this skill and effectively becomes your party's Global Airship.
  • The Chessmaster: Elyon in Dragon Quarter.
  • Combos: there's a "Super Combo" in the third game; fourth game onwards, its part of the gameplay.
  • Comic Book Adaptation: Quite a number of them, actually—manga adaptations for I, II and IV that are actually directed by Capcom, and a mess of others:
    • The I manga ("Princess Of The Wings") is a fairly straight Comic Book Adaptation.
    • The II manga is actually a side-story involving Ryu and Nina's kid and Boche's kid.
    • The IV manga is a straight Comic Book Adaptation with additional material from the artbook. It's also a literal example of the Seven Year Rule, and the final volume will likely be released in time for the 10th anniversary of IV.
    • Note here that these are only listings of Capcom-directed adaptations (aka stuff Capcom had an active hand in providing material for). There are also multiple Capcom-''licensed'' but not Capcom-''directed'' manga including:
      • For serious comics: an anthology-comic for IV (which has both serious and parody stories).
      • "4-komas" (four-panel comedy comic) collections for III (one) and IV (two).
      • At least one Capcom-directed comedy manga (Capcomic) also has occasionally had BoF-related comics.
    • And yes, for the record, all of these are Japan-only. Fortunately, there is scanlation for some of this material available, mostly of the earlier mangas, the Comic Blade Avarus manga adaptation of IV, and some material from the IV anthology comic.
  • Coming Of Age Story: The first half of the third game.
  • Complete Monster: Lord Yuna from IV, and he's a fantastic Karma Houdini.
    • Captain Rosso from the same game counts as well. Whenever the man shows up, expect dog-kicking to occur almost immediately.
    • Vexacion from DQ also applies, largely based on his treatment of Bosch as a child.
  • Con Lang: The PabPab language in IV (which is also used as a Cypher Language in a sub-plot).
  • Contemptible Cover: The infamous, Conan-the-Barbarian-esque cover art for the first Breath Of Fire's international release.
    • Thankfully subverted in the GBA re-release that went with versions of the original Japanese cover art.
  • Continuing Is Painful of two different flavors:
    • In the third and fourth games, characters who remain KO at the end of the battle are revived at 1 HP but suffer a 10% cut in their maximum HP that can only be restored by staying at a bonafide Trauma Inn. Unfortunately, if it happens repeatedly the effect accumulates....
    • Choosing the "SOL:Restore" option in Dragon Quarter lets you try again from the most recent Save Point ... only without whatever items you were carrying when you actually saved your game there.
  • Contrast Montage: Both as a theme and with explicit examples in IV.
    • Ryu's experiences versus Fou-lu's experiences are a Contrast Montage in and of itself; practically every experience Ryu has showing humanity to be a positive influence is brutally subverted in Fou-lu's case, with the result that Fou-lu ultimately snaps whilst Ryu is brought down from an Unstoppable Rage by Nina's Cool Down Hug. Even the fact Ryu has his Nakama versus Fou-lu having only one close relationship—which itself is tragically subverted, resulting in Fou-lu's Unstoppable Rage—is contrasted.
    • A more literal example occurs in the final fight between Ryu and Fou-lu, with contrast of The Power Of Friendship and Humans Are Bastards respectively.
  • Cooldown Hug: In IV, Nina to Ryu during his Unstoppable Rage.
    • A straight (if mild) example earlier with Fou-lu and Mami in the same game, a bit more explicitly in the manga. Fou-lu tells of his past and starts to go into a rant on how meeting the wishes of mortals is impossible—and Mami tells him she's clueless about this but can't stand to see him sad. Cue Cool Down Hug and Fade To Black in the game, Cool Down Hug and scene change in the manga.
    • And a subversion later in the same game with Fou-lu where the acting Emperor Soniel claims the attempts to kill him were a horrible misunderstanding and embraces Fou-lu—only to literally (as opposed to figuratively) Back Stab him. This ends poorly for Soniel.
  • Crapsack World: Dragon Quarter's setting was all below ground, where humanity (and everyone else) was driven when a massive war ripped apart the surface. This leads to a series of abandoned tunnels and cramping issues which make Tokyo Underground look spacious, as well as severe pollution issues.
  • Crowning Moment Of Awesome: several examples. of the top of my head for now:
    • II: Ryu charging the Big Bad alone while there are explosions around him.
    • IV: the first time the Kaiser Dragon is unleashed.
  • Crowning Moment Of Funny: try not to laugh in III when Garr gets the shit beaten out of him by Deis.
    • For one of the most serious members of that game's nakama, Garr gets yet another noteworthy moment, when he tries to pass Nina off as his daughter. The reactions of the Wyndian guards? Priceless.
  • Creepy Child: Tyr's initial form.
  • Crystal Dragon Jesus: The second game has this in spades.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: Played with in IV. One mid-game boss will wipe the floor with your party, but when Ryu drops, he turns into the Kaiser, and kills the boss in two attacks. In other words, both sides took a curb-stomping in the SAME FIGHT.
    • Played straighter in Dragon Quarter. It LOOKS like Bosch has just issued you a Nonstandard Game Over- and then D-Dive activates. Cue extremely justified Oh Crap from Bosch.
  • Cut Scene Power To The Max: It is simply implausible that anyone could take out Ryu so easily in a one-on-one fight, and then die like a chump not two hours later.
  • Cypher Language: Dragon Quarter invented an entire pseudo-Cyrillic script. It turns out the writers hid many an EasterEgg and even some downright spoileriffic material in the artwork and even in-game, even though the script was never used in the game mechanics.
  • Deadly Upgrade: The entire process of linking with D-Constructs in Dragon Quarter. Ryu 1/8192 is slowly being consumed by Odjn (as indicated by the D-Counter), Bosch 1/64 is ultimately taken over by Chetyre, and Elyon not only has massive stigmata including horns and circuit-like markings on his skin but is dying as a result of an ultimately rejected link with Odjn. It's also stated that only three people, including Elyon, ever successfully linked with a D-construct before Ryu 1/8192 and Bosch 1/64—and two were ultimately consumed from within and killed.
  • Demoted To Extra: Bleu/Deis was demoted game by game: A party member in the first, an Optional Party Member in the second, a Master in the third, a NPC in the fourth  *, and completely absent in the fifth. Of course, she was always ridiculously powerful whenever she was available...
  • Disc One Final Dungeon: Angel Tower in the third game. Right after that, cue Time Skip.
  • Desperation Attack: Your characters will speed up their attacks when they are low on health. In the first game, at least.
  • Doomed Hometown: Opening of the first game.
  • The Dragon: Notably has a literal case in the second and third games, Ray and Teepo, respectively.
    • Jade is initially Zog's Dragon, but then turns out to be one for Tyr.
    • Yohm is the acting emperor Soniel's Dragon in IV (explicitly noted as such in the manga adaptation). And even worse, he ends up committing suicide by immolation when Fou-lu finally defeats him for the last time.
  • Dragons Up The Yin Yang: Dragons ARE the YinYang in IV. Literally.◊
    • This is not counting the "Static Heaven" bagua in the final stage, nor is this counting designs in Fou-lu's clothing. Suffice it to say the game is about as subtle as a brick with this trope.
  • Dub Name Change: Every game in the series has had this happen to a greater or lesser extent with I and IV having the most extensive. (Of note, this seems to be a common curse among all games produced by Capcom.)
    • In I, a partial list includes renaming of Deis to Bleu, Gilam to Bo, Builder to Ox, Danc to Karn, Manillo to Gobi, and that's just for starters. (Most name changes are largely due to outsourcing of the translation to Square and can be considered legitimate examples of Woolseyism.)
    • In II, Boche Doggy to Bow  *, Rinpoo Chuan to Katt  *, Ekal Hoppa De Pe Tapeta (whew!) to Jean, Aspara Gus to Spar, changes to a number of other names. Unfortunately, Square can't be blamed for this one...
    • In III Pecoros to Peco, Babaderu  * to Bunyan, several enemies and items (and dragon forms) had names changed. The majority of changes were to preserve puns or jokes or to localise them.
    • In IV, a partial list includes Master to Ershin  *, Babaderu to Bunyan, all NPC dragons to the Korean hanja readings for the kanji noting what kind of dragons they were, multiple town names from Japanese kanji readings to Korean hanja readings, other things being changed to Korean readings or even random Korean words, multiple dragon forms having names changed  *...the list is so extensive, in fact, this troper will just direct you here.
      • The extensive Koreanisation of names in IV has pretty much caused the fandom to scratch its collective heads since the game came out—especially considering how deliberately it was done.  *
    • In Dragon Quarter, there aren't a whole lot (especially compared to the rest of the series!)—but notable ones include renaming Members to Regents and DB's to Genics (the renamings, for once, seem to be restricted to classes rather than characters).
  • Duel Boss: A lot! Usually either for an Establishing Character Moment or because Ryu needs his Eleventh Hour Superpower.
  • Early Bird Cameo: The worst ending of II shows the silhouette of the Big Bad, far before he normally appears.
  • Easter Egg: Chun-li appears in the first and third game in a cameo. Sakura also appears with her in the third.
  • Elite Tweak: Started with Shamans in two, then progressed to the Master System from the third game onward.
  • The Empire: The Dark Dragon Empire in I, the Fou Empire in IV.
    • The latter is a rare example of one where the leader is not the God Emperor. Rather, Emperor Soniel and the Fou Empire are attempting to actively assassinate Fou-lu, who is (technically) the King In The Mountain—because The Emperor doesn't want to give up his seat to the God Emperor.
  • Epileptic Trees: Albeit heavily implied in-game, in the the second game: Patty is actually Yua, Ryu's younger sister.
  • Evil Counterpart: Fou-Lu in the fourth game, and, to a lesser extent, Emperor Zog in the first, Ray in the second, Teepo in the third, and Bosch in the fifth.
    • Fou-Lu is more of a Well Intentioned Extremist, his actions are brought about by a corrupt empire that summons him into existence and then repays him by using the woman who loved him as a biological weapon to kill him. This is reinforced further in the manga adaptation.
  • Evil Weapon: The Hex Cannon/Carronade in IV. The official artbook essentially defines the Carronade as a textbook example of this trope.  *
  • Fake Difficulty: some of which are just downright cruel.
  • Fan Translation: the 2nd game's translation was rather poorly done, with bland dialogue and many references removed. So a retranslation patch was made, rewriting the script from the ground up and adding some features the original lacked, such as a dash button and the ability to buy items in bulk.
    • Scanlation has also been done with much of the material in official artbooks and manga adaptations, particularly the manga adaptation of IV (largely because, of course, the artbooks were Japan-only and the manga has not yet been licensed in English).
  • Failure Is The Only Option: Partly subverted as a game mechanic for the fifth game.
  • Fantastic Nuke: The Hex Cannon/Carronade in IV is a Fantastic Nuke that literally runs on Nightmare Fuel.  *
    • Chamba is depicted as having been recently Hex Nuked; it required workers to go in with decontamination suits and only for limited periods of time. Even with the ongoing decontamination, Chamba will likely be uninhabitable for at least a year.
    • When used against Fou-lu...this merely succeeded in royally pissing him off. Especially when he found out the Fou Empire used Mami as the ammo.
  • Fishing Mini Game: Starting with the second game, fishing also existed as an automated process in the first.
    • DQ is exceptional in being the sole game in the series that doesn't have a fishing game of any sort. This was not for want of planning, though  *.
    • IV actually had its fishing minigame released as a spinoff game for Japanese cell phones.
    • This eventually was treated to an Affectionate Parody in an official Capcom "comedy manga" featuring all four Ryus (Dragon Quarter was not yet released) engaging in an ice-fishing contest.
  • Five Bad Band:
  • Five Man Band: The third and fourth games have these:
  • Forever War: The conflict between the Fou Empire and the Alliance in IV. The two continents have been in a Cold War that has lasted 600 years, punctuated by four world wars and the incipient threat of a fifth.
  • Four Is Death: "Chetyre" is Russian for "Four", and the final boss of Dragon Quarter.
  • Furry Fandom: This troper dares you to look at Bo◊, Ox◊, and Mogu◊ in the first game, Tiga◊ in the second, and your entire party in the second◊ and third◊, and not come to this conclusion.
    • While IV wasn't quite as hard on this, it did have Scias. V, however, was pretty well de-furred. This is mostly because they take place on different worlds than the first three games.
      • There are rare furries in DQ but they tend to be NPCs.  *
  • Gadgeteer Genius: Momo in the third game.
  • Gamebreaker: The Agni transformation in the first makes the game incredibly easy. Merging the whole party into a single being, max HP, an attack that does 999 damage, and status immunity would do the trick.
    • Kaiser transformations, particularly in III and IV. Once you get these dragons under your control, WHOAH.
    • In III, the hybrid-Rei form is incredibly fast and has a guaranteed crit-strike ability. The Myrmidon is also ridiculously powerful, and both can be maintained longer than Kaiser.
    • III also allows abuse of bonus EX turns with the Resist ability.
    • The IV incarnation of the Kaiser is almost completely broken, what with an infinite supply of Wisdom Seeds.
    • Dragon Quarter sets a limit on it. Even though you'll dominate almost anything in dragon form, if you use it too much, your D-counter hits 100%. Then you die.
    • II Is the only one that subverts the dragon trend, by blowing all your MP for a set damage attack.
  • Getting Crap Past The Radar: A lot of it in Breath of Fire II. Aside from the fact that pantsless Katt parades around baring her naked ass at all times, Nintendo's standard rules of Never Say Die, no religious references (practically the theme of the whole game), no mention of blood, no mention of sex (the fire shaman is practically propositioning Ryu in their first meeting), and other censorship methods typical of Nintendo games released at the time were all thrown completely out the window here. A pity the translation was horrid.
    • Of note, II is actually considered a highly historic game despite its Blind Idiot Translation for precisely this reason; it was the first video game ever released that broke multiple taboos Nintendo USA had on releases (in particular, its rules regarding religious depiction and "adult situations"). Possibly the first game that went into detail re religion to the level II did (outside of Japan) would be Xenogears for the Playstation—and even then, religious references in games were still considered a third rail, at least in the US.
      • ...and this only makes us scratch our heads all the harder over the massive bowdlerisation for the international release of Breath Of Fire IV (which was on a far friendlier console platform for mature RPG themes, yet was Bowdlerised on practically every point II got away with save for the religious references).
  • Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: makes up a good percentage of the Boss battles in III.
  • God Emperor: The God Emperor Fou-Lu in IV. Specifically the "God Became Emperor" variety, by literally being summoned to be the founding emperor of a new dynasty by the Vestigial Empire predecessor of the Fou Empire.
  • Gotta Catch Em All: in IV, less catching, more like recruiting the Endless. Obtaining them all, in addition to the dragon genes, allows Ryu to actually control the Kaiser dragon properly. Hope you didn't give the Mutant gene away...
  • Guide Dang It: finding most of the best weapons and getting the good ending in the second game.
  • Half Human Hybrids: Ryu and his sister in the second game- their father is human, but their mother is of the Dragon Clan.
  • Hand In The Hole: Happens in the second game.
  • Heroes Prefer Swords: Every Ryu is a sword-user. Thought the first Ryu has the option to wield boomerangs, complete with a different attack animation.
  • Heroic Mime: Nina in Dragon Quarter, and Ryu in all of the other games. Subverted in the first, where Ryu will occasionally put in a line or two of dialog, and in the fourth when Ryu speaks after fusing with Fou-lu.
    • Subverted even earlier in the fourth with Ryu's screams of fury during his Unstoppable Rage moment.
    • Ryu "speaks" several times in III, but only in his own mind, most often while "talking" to Peco, who is an actual silent character except when Yggdrasil's speaking through him.
    • And completely and utterly subverted in the manga adaptations for I and IV, since he needs to speak for characterization.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: mostly in the second game, although *who* is the sacrifice depends on what you've accomplished, and determines the ending.
  • High Heel Face Turn: Cerl in the first game.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: Balio and Sunder, in the third game, as well as Garr. Additionally, the first time you fight Barubary in the second game.
    • Tiga from the second game too, as well as Fou-Lu's first boss fight.
  • Hot Blooded: The Woren tribe, especially in IV. Cray tries to suppress his urges, as his position as leader requires a cool head.
  • Humans Are Bastards: The motivation of Fou-Lu in the fourth game.
  • Hyperactive Metabolism
  • Inevitable Tournament: Second game's Colloseum contest and third game's Arena/Genmel tournament.
  • Infinity Plus One Sword: Every game has one... and it's usually not the weapon the game hints at.
  • Journey To The Center Of The Mind: Frequently and often a major plot point in the first four games.
    • Portrayed especially tragically in III regarding Teepo.
    • Ends up as frank Battle In The Center Of The Mind in IV when the party frees Deis from her wards inside Ershin.
  • Just Like Robin Hood: possibly deconstructed in III.
  • Karma Houdini: In the fourth game, Yuna. Holy shit, Yuna.
    • This is actually the result of Executive Meddling to get the game out before Capcom went bankrupt  *. This is one of the rare cases where Executive Meddling managed to make the Main Baddie even MORE of a Total Bastard.
    • Head, meet wall.
    • When word got out about the manga adaptation of the game, many fans hoped that Yuna would finally be given his just desserts. Frustratingly, he still lives. It's safe to say he may be pushing for Most Triumphant Example at this point.
  • Keep It Foreign: The Dub Name Change of Master to Ershin in IV.  *
    • Dragon Quarter also has this. In addition to the dragon names, the entire game intro is recited in Russian. (In addition to the pseudo-Cyrillic script used, one could easily make the joke that Sheldar is Soviet Russia Only Underground.)
    • Dragon Quarter also has a second variant of this, only in German and obscured via the use of Cypher Font in the game's opening animation.  *
  • The Kingdom: Wyndia/Winlan in its various incarnations in I-IV.
  • King In The Mountain: Subverted to the point of deconstruction in IV.
  • Knight Templar: Myria, in the third game, is genuinely attempting to protect the world, she does this by killing off the dragons and suppressing technological development.
    • Through Peco's dialog at the end, the conclusion can be drawn that she's faking concern in attempt to control everyone. Given her actions in prior games, this is plausible.
    • Vexacion in Dragon Quarter qualifies in that he believes he is upholding the order of the Crapsack World in destroying Chosen of the D-constructs. This goes into Complete Monster territory when he forces his son Bosch to engage in gladiator-style fights against dangerous Genics around the time Bosch would be learning the alphabet.
  • La Resistance: in the second game, against the corrupt church of St. Eva, and in the fifth, Trinity. However, its leader, Mebeth, may actually be in cahoots with the government.
    • Arguably, in the fourth, the entire Eastern Alliance. Who has been in a perpetual Cold War with the Fou Empire—with four notable flares—for six hundred years. And the game starts with the search for Nina's sister, who was trying to broker a final peace agreement.
  • Last Of His Kind: Not even attempted in the first game, where there are plenty of living dragons left. Played with in the second and third games, where Ryu appears to be the last living dragon, only to find the rest of his race hidden within a secret village. The dragons in the fourth and fifth game are more individual Physical Gods than a “race” per se, so their low number isn’t as significant.
  • Laughing Mad: Fou-lu in IV after realising that Mami had been used as Hex Cannon ammo and going stark-raving mad as a result; it is even more disturbing in the manga adaptation.
    • Arguably a second instance in the Japanese version, again involving Fou-lu in the bowdlerised scene where he decapitates Soniel.
    • In Dragon Quarter, Bosch descends into this as time goes by particularly after he has Chetyre's remains surgically grafted onto him. Bosch was also considerably broken beforehand, though.
    • Rei, of all people, after learning that Ryu was alive and well after all those years they've been apart.
  • Literal Split Personality: Ryu and Fou-lu in IV thanks to a botched summoning by the Fou Empire's predecessor, and resulting in the god they called forth not only being split in two but the half that became Ryu being temporally displaced six hundred years in the future.
  • Load Bearing Hero
  • Love Hurts: In the fourth game, this is pretty much what the Hex Cannon relies on in order to inflict damage - the closer the sacrifice that was loaded into the cannon is to the intended victim, the greater the damage it causes. This is what ultimately broke Fou-lu, quite explicitly in the manga.
    • Cray from IV spends most of the game searching for Nina's sister and his love interest, only to kill her to end her misery as she's literally one with the building the Hex Cannon is in.
  • Love Redeems: Tragically averted in the fourth game, where it looks like your Evil Counterpart is going to fall in love with a peasant and go not-evil...and then she is kidnapped, tortured, and dies being used as a tactical missile to kill Fou-lu. He goes on a Roaring Rampage Of Revenge.
    • Also played straight in IV when Cray euthanizes Elina with a god-killing sword.
  • Luke I Am Your Father: Ryu, the dragon on the mountain behind Gate is your mother, and the old man you saved from (or fried on) the eye machine is your father.
    • For an example not seen coming a mile away, the end of the third game reveals that Myria and Deis are sisters.
    • In IV, Ryu gets the "Fou-lu is your other half" speech from Deis earlier in the game, and literally gets a version of the "I am your father" speech from Fou-lu near the end.
  • Mad Scientist: Cort from the first game, Dr. Palet from III and Lord Yuna from IV.
  • Meaningful Name: Ryu = "dragon" in Japanese.
    • Fou-Lu's pseudonym in the 4th game, Ryong, seems to be the Japanese pronunciation of "dragon" in Korean.  *
    • Ershin  * is one of the Prophetic Names. In the Japanese version, there's a pun that attaches the name Master to her, which is localized as the translation of Ershin in the Fou Empire's language.
    • Deis ALSO is one of the Prophetic Names—and one which was only revealed as prophetic in the third and fourth games.  *
    • In the japanese version of the first game, the Big Bad's right-hand is named Judas. He should have reconsidered hiring him.
    • Elyon in Dragon Quarter counts in this, especially if you consider some of the Kaballah imagery.  *
    • Vexacion in DQ as well at least if you ask his son Bosch about the matter...or the Chosen he killed before Ryu.
    • Won-qu and A-tur (Fou-lu's foo-dogs or guardian lions) arguably are symbolically named.  *
  • Mega Manning: learning skills from enemies is a staple since the third game.
    • Variation in the fifth, where some (if not most) of the characters' skills are stolen (as actual items) from enemies.
  • The Mole: Scias from the fourth game. To be fair, the party should have known he wasn't on their side, considering that he was pretty much assigned to keep an eye on them even from the beginning.
  • Multiple Endings: All installments tend to have a "good" ending and a "bad" ending. The second game also has a "meh" ending.
  • My Greatest Failure: for Rei, it's failing to protect his "family".
  • Mythology Gag: Nearly every game in the franchise after the first has this to greater or lesser extent (though to be technically correct, only those occurences in Dragon Quarter and possibly IV count as Mythology Gags). Of note, with a single exception, these tend to be examples based on the Japanese names and tend to be lost in the international localisation renamings Capcom is infamous for.
    • The most notable examples include Bunyan/Babaderu in III and particularly IV  * and Bosch and Lin's names in Dragon Quarter  *.
    • A blatant Continuity Nod example with Bow's Dub Name Change in II  *.
    • The Dragon Tear from II is the basis of an item Mythology Gag in III and IV.
    • Hell, the fact that in every single game The Hero is a blue-haired guy named Ryu who turns into a dragon and he defends a Winged Humanoid named Nina can itself also be considered an example of this trope. Admittedly, this is entirely justified in I-III as it's implied that the later Ryus and Ninas are reincarinations.
  • Nakama: Part 3 had the best and most tragic example, with Ryu, Teepo and Rei.
  • Naked On Arrival: Done twice with Ryu from the 3rd game and done once with Ryu from the 4th game. Also done by Deis (AKA Bleu) in the 3rd game.
  • Never Grew Up: The entire town of Chek in the fourth game with the possible exception of the Abbess.
  • Nice Hat: Lord Yuna in IV.
    • Also The Emperor Soniel, and for that matter Fou-lu in a Projected Man With Magic example when he first appears to Ryu in the throneroom. Depicted in the official artbook, and especially in the manga◊, in a way that brings an entirely new definition to the term White Haired Pretty Boy.
    • All examples noted, as an aside, are remarkable examples of Truth In Television and/or Shown Their Work.  *
  • Nightmare Fuel: Elina's fate in the 4th game. The room full of headless Ninas in the fifth.
    • And the Carronade in the fourth game, a city annihilating magical weapon that uses the souls of humans tortured to death as ammunition, with the best effect coming when the torture victim has a deep personal connection to the target.
    • With a bit of Fan Disservice, Myria's One Winged Angel, especially when she uses her physical attack (guts literally busting out) and her special attack, Holocaust, which involves her face melting off. Graphically.
    • Bosch and his demonic-looking arm (the monstrous features even reaches up to his face).
    • The final dungeon in the second game appears to be made of pulsating flesh.
    • Also from the second game: the worst ending.
    • Ryu's breakdown in IV. The fact that this even terrifies Nina, who had never shown fear of being that close to a dragon throughout the whole game, simply drives the point home. Oh, and the fact that his breakdown is exemplified by the manifestation of THE KAISER DRAGON.
    • The Fou Empire's predecessors deserve special mention. Their three attempts at summoning caused the first to spawn with only a head, the second to spawn with no physical body, and the third to be split in half and spread across 600 years.
  • No Export For You: The PSP-port of Breath Of Fire 3. Maddeningly, it was translated into complete English for an European release. However, the PSP isn't region locked...
    • This actually occured because Sony's US division requires a content increase of 20% for a rerelease; the game was originally intended to be released Stateside, but we all know what happened...
    • Two sidestory games to IV were also never released stateside because they were only developed for distribution on Japanese smartphones.
      • And two other IV-related spinoffs (a port of the Fishing Minigame and a Great Dalmuti/Millionaire game with BoF IV chars) also never have been released outside Japan for the same reason (Japanese smartphone only).
    • The Windows port of IV was, similar to the PSP-port of III, only released in Europe and Asia. (This, unlike the situation with the PSP-port of III, was apparently Capcom's decision.)
    • Breath Of Fire, as a series, does have a decent amount of written spinoff material (in the case of manga adaptions of the first two games, this even goes into Expanded Universe territory, and definitely so with the artbooks in later games). And pretty much with the exception of game playthrough guides, every bit of it is Japan-only.
      • The sole exception is with the Comic Blade Avarus manga adaptation of IV, which has a licensed Chinese translation.
    • IV had quite a lot of promotional goods that were Japan-only—about the only way to get them is purchasing over the Internet.
  • No Koreans In Japan: One of the most blatant subversions for this trope in the English localisation for IV; practically every name that appeared in kanji in the Japanese version were changed outright to Korean hanja readings or renamed to something in Korean. Some of the internal mythology in the game is also a subversion of this.
  • Nonhuman Sidekick: Bow in the second game, but there are almost no really "human" characters in the entire series, including Ryu himself, until the fifth game.
  • Non Standard Game Over
  • Novelization: III and IV have novelisations. Unfortunately, as with practically all merchandising material for Breath Of Fire, these are Japan-only.
  • Off With His Head: In the Japanese Playstation version of IV and its manga adaptation, and censored out of other versions:
    • In the Japanese Playstation version, after Fou-lu ends up at the Palace and meets the acting Emperor  *. This was depicted only via silhouette.
    • In the manga adaptation in the same scene  *. This depiction, in this troper's Humble Opinion, is a definite Crowning Moment Of Awesome.
  • One Winged Angel: With about four exceptions, every single boss from at least the first three games. Since quite a few of them were known to throw vicious Player Punches before you finally got to fight them, taking down yet another generic giant monster that happens to have their name on it this time instead of the evil tormenting form you're used to can be somewhat unsatisfying.
  • Orphan's Plot Trinket: the Dragon Tear from the second game.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: Each dragon form you can take has a different appearance, as well as move set and strength. The Myrmidon form is essentially a Half Human Hybrid, while the Kaiser form is a (golden) Western dragon.
    • The Dark Dragons in the first game generally play very fast and loose with the definition of "dragon". Most look like dragon/insectile hybrids.
    • This extends to the NPC dragons in IV, based largely on Eastern dragons. Each dragon is an Endless, a Physical God of an elemental force. These often tend to look decidedly undraconic, with the Sand Dragon resembling a Dune-esque sandworm and P'ung Ryong/Raui resembling a cross between an elephant, a flying whale, and an Eastern dragon. They only get weirder from there.
    • Also played with in a different fashion in Dragon Quarter. In this Alternate Universe, dragons were genetically engineered Weapons Of Mass Destruction.
  • Overrated And Underleveled: Garr in the third game, who joins you very soon after fighting a Hopeless Boss Fight against him. Naturally, he's much less powerful when he joins you, despite still being a solid melee fighter.
  • Petting Zoo People: Interesting in that over the four games, the people lose their animal characteristics and become more human-like.
  • Porting Disaster: The GBA version of the second game didn't even bother to update the translation. Enter the Fan Translation.
  • Portmanteau Couple Name: RyuNina in the series in general. Most other known portmanteaus tend to be restricted to Japan, some have made it to other countries, though.
    • In IV, FouMami (for the het pairing), FouRyu (for the selfcest pairing), and in Japan SciAsu (Scias x Ursula/Asura) also exists. FouMami, in fact, is probably the most well known portmanteau naming in the BoF fandom.
    • In DQ, RyuBo (Ryu x Bosch) is a known portmanteau in Japan.
    • In II, RyuKatt is a known portmanteau for the obvious pairing. Interestingly, in Japan there is not a RyuRin (Ryu x Rinpoo) equivalent.
    • II in particular also has a lot of portmanteau namings not related to couple pairings, but rather from fusion forms with other members of your party.
  • Powered By A Forsaken Child: The Hex Cannon/Carronade in IV uses people who are kidnapped and tortured to the point of insanity as the literal warheads.
    • Portrayed in especially tragic and Nightmare Fuel generating means (both literally and figuratively) in Mami's torture and death. This is especially so in the manga adaptation.
  • Power Levels: D-Ratios in the fifth game determine a person's potential in life and are therefore used as criteria for determining social status and prospects. 1/8192 means you're stuck as a grunt for life, 1/64 makes you a super-elite, while 1/4 more or less marks you as a Physical God. This mostly turns out to be total bunk, the D-Ratio actually determines a person's chance of linking with a dragon.
    • In subsequent playthroughs, your D-Ratio is determined by your previous playthroughs, and may allow you to do different things. Interestingly, even as a 1/4 people say you'll be a grunt forever.
    • And interestingly, per Word Of Capcom 1/8192 is considered to be essentially an Audience Surrogate (in that this would be the level of potential an average joe on the street has).
  • Puzzle Boss: The final boss of Dragon Quarter. You have to max out your D-Guage, something that you have been making sure not to do the entire game, as it leads to a Non Standard Game Over.
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Every game in the series has at least one.
    • I-III has Deis. Definitely in the "thousands of years old" range by III, per at least some timelines potentially far older.
    • IV has Fou-lu (canonically 600 years old and also a case of Immortality Begins At Twenty) and everyone who lives in Chek besides the Abbess (everyone living there is implied to at least be an adult, if not truly ancient individuals, but all look around seven years of age).
    • DQ has Elyon (canonically 1000 years old despite looking in his mid-twenties, mildly averted  *) and Cupid (who looks in hir early teens but is nearly as old as Elyon per Word Of Capcom).
      • It is also implied heavily that all of the Regents fall under this trope. Confirmed "far older than they look" Regents or former Regents include Mebeth  *, Vexacion  *, and Deamoned  *.
  • Real Song Theme Tune: Survivor's "Eye Of The Tiger" plays during Deis' Crowning Moment Of Awesome in III in which she proceeds to beat the living shit out of Garr and is naked as a jaybird doing so.
  • Rebellious Princess: Nina in the third game.
  • Redemption Equals Death : Cerl in the first game, Ray in the second.
  • Relationship Values: shown in the second game's Dragon Tear, although it's subverted that it barely has any impact in the storyline.
  • Resuscitate The Dog: Subverted in the third game, Garr, the traitor, helps wipe out Ryu's race, under Myria's command. Then, he plans on bringing Ryu to Myria, to question why the goddess issued those orders. He ends up defending Ryu from Myria himself.
  • Revive Kills Zombie: In the 3rd game, one of the random encounters you can face is a group of zombies lead by a ZombieDr. Beat the group up a little bit, and he'll use a group-healing spell. Oops.
    • Also useful in a few boss fights, such as the Zombie Dragon,provided one of your available party members has the "Kyrie" spell.
  • Rival: Bosch of the fifth game; also a borderline Archenemy.
  • Robot Buddy: Ershin in IV, sort of.
    • Of course, thanks to the fact Ershin is really Sealed Good In A Can and is a sentient suit of armour hosting a goddess...and refers to both itself and the goddess inhabiting it as "Ershin", Ershin also manages to come off as a Cloud Cuckoo Lander to boot.
      "If Ershin says it will be okay, it will be okay."
      • This even leads to a Tear Jerker scene later in the game  *.
    • Honey (Momo's little robot companion) in III would also be an example of this trope.
  • Rodents Of Unusual Size: The second game has you fighting giant cockroaches.
  • Saintly Church: The Dragon Clan and their religious beliefs. There's something very Book of Revelations-y about the second game, with the people ignoring the benevolent deity and worshipping a demon who poses as one.
  • Sand Is Water: Dragons can swim through it, in fact.
    • Most of the Breath of Fire IV world is covered in mud. Yes, mud. This puts this trope to the extreme at this point.
  • Sealed Evil In A Can: Myria/Tyr in I, and Hell Infinity in II.
  • Sealed Good In A Can: Deis trapped in Ershin's armor in IV.
  • Shout Out: The ending credits of the second game gave full names or at least first name and surname initials to every character in the game ever, NP Cs included. The great majority of these were references to people and characters from just about anything: Other Capcom games, real people, TV characters, music bands, etc. Bizarrely, many of them were references to western people that were not added by translation. In fact, the game is filled with reverse cases of Bilingual Bonus moments that its original Japanese audience probably never figured it out. To name a few:
    • The name “Tiga” is a bad romanization of “Tiger”, but the credits show that there's an extra "g" in his name. Yes, that one. In fact, the entire resistance is named after Disney characters.
    • There is a woman in the first town that has a peculiarly slightly-darker skin tone than the rest of the area’s NP Cs, her name is Whoopi. According to the credits, her last name starts with a G.
    • One of the weirdest shout outs in III: Balio and Sunder's Fusion Dance, Stallion. He not only resembles a certain Kaiju hero, he attacks like one, too.
    • In probably one of the more obscure examples, the manga adaptation of IV has shout-outs—to an earlier, Capcom-licensed Breath Of Fire IV anthology comic published in 2000.
  • Sidekick Ex Machina
  • Split Personality Merge: Happens no matter which end-game you pick in IV; it's just a matter of whether you decide that Humans Are Bastards.
  • Sprite Polygon Mix: The third game. The fourth one too, but the art styles were better matched.
  • Sword Of Plot Advancement: The Dragonslayer in the fourth game. A certain part near the end of Act 3 required the group to find and use it.
  • Summon Magic: the dragon system in the second and fourth game; faeries in the fourth.
  • Tear Jerker: Each game is usually good for about two or three.
    • I: Alan and Cerl's deaths, being forced to fight against and kill your sister.
    • II: The death of Rand's mother, the death of Tiga and Claris, the death of Ray, and the death of Ryu's mother.
    • III: Teepo's death, specially his dying words. And Rei's response to it.
    • IV: Elina's death, period. Mami's (Fou-Lu's girl) death may also count.
  • That One Boss: Wildcat the chef from the second game. Before you fight against him, you have to exchange all of your kickass equipment for a knife, a napkin, and a plate (as a shield). While you're equipped with the game's equivalent of heart, Chef Wildcat's chopping and dicing up your party with moves that can be close to an instant-kill if your HP are low enough. Try to sneak into his office with your weapons, and the bouncer will be more than happy to stomp a mudhole in you.
    • The bouncers are actually somewhat manageable, but unfortunately, it seems you can't get out of losing all your items and sacrificing 1/4 of your HP.
    • Gremlin in the first game as well. As soon as he Turns Red he uses his best attack every turn and has about two or three times his HP bar left.
    • Horn Toad in the first game has a nasty habit of using earthquake jumping moves a lot after he Turns Red.
    • Algernon in the second game. It has two companions, one heals roughly 100HP each turn, another does an AOE attack, in addition to Algernon's AOE attack. Among other things.
    • The Zombie Dragon in the third game, depending on whether or not he abuses his Bone Dance attack. Bone Dance damages and confuses both of the characters. He's also fond of poisons. Fortunately he can be buried with Kyrie.
  • That One Level: The Desert of Death from part 3, a Guide Dang It made even more so by a mistranslation that sends you in completely the wrong direction, made even scrappier by the fact a rather silly Insurmountable Waist Height Fence is the only thing preventing you from skipping it.  *
  • Theme Naming: As stated above, Chetyre in Dragon Quarter is Russian for 4, Odjn is 1, and the Bonus Boss is Dva for 2, but it was mistranslated into Dover.
    • Elyon's name as the Origin also fits into this, and all the names are binary powers of 2—just as the D-Ratios are based on fractional powers of two. And the talk Ryu has with Odjn at the end of the game pretty much explains why.
    • Whilst we're on the theme of Theme Naming in DQ, there's a surprising amount of theological names of Regents. Elyon is traditionally a Hebrew epithet for God  *, Jezuit is a reference to the Jesuit religious order, Deamoned is Exactly What It Says On The Tin, Tantra is a reference to a specific estatic Buddhist religious school, and Cupid is the Greek god of love.
    • The Regents and major characters not named after theological references, Russian numbers, or direct shout-outs to the earlier games in the series are named after Greco-Roman philosophers and orators. Zeno shares a name with a famous Greek philosopher who (per the Other Wiki) wrote extensively about paradoxes and the nature of reality, and Hortensia shares a name with an orator who (again, per the OtherWiki) led the Roman Senate to partially repeal taxes on female nobles.
    • Literally the only ones not fitting into this is Vexacion (who is Exactly What It Says On The Tin) and Mebeth (a Japanification of "Mac Beth").
  • This Is Unforgivable: Happens in the Japanese version of IV during Fou-lu's final confrontation with Soniel (and a victim of Bowdlerization in the international release).
  • Time Skip: Halfway through the third game.
  • Toilet Humour: In the second and fourth. Made even more impressive in that these are essential parts of the plot.
    • Including a dungeon in II entered by jumping in a toilet.
    • And in IV...well...let's just say to reforge the King's Sword, there's a fetch quest. Involving meeting up with fairies and obtaining fairy turds as a material component to alloy with the steel in the sword. And yes, we are serious.
      • Needless to say, Scias is horrified.  * Unfortunately Scias is also the only one who is sensible about this.  *
      • And thankfully, this was also not included in the manga. For which this Troper is eternally grateful.
  • Transformation Sequence
  • Took A Level In Badass: Happens to Ryu when he gets to transform into a dragon. Peco gets the ability to breath ice and fire! On top of that, he also undoes the Big Bad erasure of you whole team!
    • Also happens to Ershin in the fourth game. She gets a whole new set of powerful spells mid-way through the game.
    • Arguably in Dragon Quarter, though in his case it's the result of a Deadly Upgrade.
  • Took A Shortcut: Jaju, Arma and Leo in the fifth game, better known as the storage, armory and item shop kids, do this shamelessly and have no trouble reminding you of the fact that there is no conceivable reason for why they could possibly show up where they do.
  • Trapped In Another World: Occurs in spades in IV and is arguably a major theme of the game:
    • All three token cameo characters via a botched experiment by Momo that literally blew them into another dimension.
    • Also, the Endless were summoned to this world against their will. The dragon gods have accepted their lot in life, the others are not that pleased.
  • Turns Red: Every damn boss in the first game, as well as a few in the second. The final boss of the first game has almost three times as many HP after she Turns Red.
  • The Unfought: Whenever the main characters confront Yuna in the fourth game, he quickly reminds them that he's a pacifist and teleports away. This annoyed quite a few players, who understandably wanted to pound his face in by the end of the game.
  • Unwanted Revival: The most notable (and tragic) example is in IV.
    • From the Fou Empire's perspective, Fou-lu counts.  * This extended to the Empire spreading propoganda that Fou-lu was the "Dragon of Doom" who would destroy the empire. Thanks to all the stuff the Empire did to try to snuff Fou-lu, this became a Self Fulfilling Prophecy.
    • Not only that, it's pretty darned obvious that on the Eastern continent that Fou-lu counts here, too.  *
    • Let's face it, pretty much nobody seemed to actively want Fou-lu back other than his foo-dogs, and literally the only person who commented even remotely positively re his rule was Bunyan/Babaderu. And the one person whom he came close to any sort of relationship with ends up used as a Magical Nuclear Warhead because of his relationship with her. No wonder he decided Humans Are Bastards in a particularly extreme way.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Rei in the third game after losing his "family" Ryu and Teepo; Ryu's first transformation into the Kaiser Dragon in the fourth.
    • Also the second game's Ryu when he breaks from Deathevans' crystal cage after he kills the whole party, and then rushes at him ignoring the demon's attacks and slices him up good.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Both played straight and subverted (and in fact subverted by a second occurence of the trope) in IV.
    • Fou-lu in Sonne who is portrayed by Mami as her brain-injured cousin Ryong. No matter her cousin has horns in one of the few towns in the game not comprised of Petting Zoo People. The landlord is in fact the only one who mentions something amiss...even when Fou-lu defeats a monster in Mt. Yogy who was claiming to be the Volcano God.
    • Played straight and subverting the prior occurence at the same time when Ryu returns to Sonne later in the game where Ryu is greeted as if he were the missing "Ryong", despite the fact Ryu has blue hair and no horns and a definite lack of Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe. The only plausible explanation this Troper can think of for this is that Sonne is secretly a village of psychic farmers.
    • In the manga version, it's a little more obvious that the villagers of Sonne (and particularly Mami) know "Ryong" is more than what he's presented to be and that they're playing along.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: with Ryu in some of the games, and others.
  • Weapon Of Mass Destruction: The backstory for DQ notes that humans have been living underground thanks to the use of genetically engineered Dragons Of Mass Destruction in a war. This renders the surface of the planet uninhabitable for a millenium.
    • Yes, the Carronade in IV counts too, but there's also a specific sub-trope for it.
  • Welcome Back Traitor: Garr in game three, Scias in game four.
  • Well Done Son Guy: An ultimately tragic version in DQ involving Bosch. Bosch's main goal in life is to become a Regent like his daddy would have wanted and to make his daddy proud. His Daddy, unfortunately, is Knight Errant Vexacion whose idea of father-son bonding involves things like putting a barely-Kindergarten-aged Bosch in gladiatorial fights against monsters that could easily squish a five-year-old and even a lot of low-D adults. Needless to say, Bosch does not end up a well-adjusted individual as a result, and it only takes being bested by his low-D rival to throw him into a Villainous Breakdown.
  • What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: Both IV and DQ very rapidly become enamoured with this trope.
  • Where It All Began: In Breath of Fire II Ryu's hometown Gate is where the final dungeon is located.
  • Why Did It Have To Be SEA LICE AIEEEEEE: Ursula in IV, in a particularly hilarious scene wherein she and Nina are discussing phobias. It turns out Ursula is extremely phobic of bugs...even sea lice, which are completely harmless bugs (merely seeing one is enough to cause Ursula, normally quite the Type A Tsundere, to scream like a cheerleader).
    • In fact, this incident alone is enough to well and truly traumatise Ursula in regards to sea travel (in a later incident Ursula is convinced a knocking on the bottom of the boat is the sea lice who are OUT TO GET HER).
  • Winged Humanoid: The Windians.
  • The Woobie: Fou-Lu, from the moment of his resurrection, receives some of the crappiest treatment his world has to offer. He also realizes his purpose in that dimension is flatly impossible. Eventually he snaps.
  • Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Fou-lu is literally the canonical example of this trope.
    • And he uses this in conjunction with the Royal We (though at least that is justified, what with him being a God Emperor).
    • In a backhanded salute to this, the manga adaptation of IV apparently has Fou-lu speaking in what amounts to Ye Olde Butcherede Japanese, as opposed to the original formal (but not terribly archaic) Japanese.
    • During a particular plot point, Fou-lu runs into "volcano god" who proceeds to argue with him in Hulk Speak.
  • You Are Number Six: Dragon Quarter. Oh god, Dragon Quarter.
    • Everyone, save for people who are fugitives from justice (Lin and the rest of Trinity), the Regents, or those unfortunates so low on the totem pole as to be legally considered experimental animals (hello, Nina) have a D-ratio officially as part of their name.  *
    • Elyon has a number-nickname of Origin  *.
    • Every single dragon in the game has literal numbers (in Russian) as names, based on powers of two. (Yes, even Odjn; technically 2 to the zeroth power is 1.)
    • And yes, there is a deeply symbolic reason for the use of powers of two (and fractional powers of two) revealed at the very end of DQ.  *
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Examples of both the "Plausible" and "Impossible" subtropes, in fact!
    • In I-IV, Ryu has blue hair. Justified and quite plausible, in that he's at least a dragon in the first three, and a dragon god in the fourth. Bleu/Deis also qualifies for identical reasons.
    • In Dragon Quarter, however, this becomes an explicit example of the "Impossible" variant of this trope (Ryu 1/8192 is explicitly, per Word Of Capcom, a regular human at first).
    • This is undoubtedly a shout-out to the fact that all the other Ryus in the series have blue hair; the only other people in DQ who have unusual hair colours are Elyon  * and Cupid  *.

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