Breath of Death VII: The Beginning
(Photo: Zeboyd Games)
There was once a time in gaming history when an RPG's quality wasn't determined by length or poly count but by it's writing and it's charm, "Breath of Death VII: the Beginning" looks to recapture that past glory. An Xbox Live indie Game BoD7's stated goal was to be a parody and homage to games of adventures past which is something that can be felt just by looking at the cover art (photo on the right). That said don't take this game's use of video game history as a sign of unoriginality as this game provides some good innovations to the old genre formula. The most interesting piece of original thought however is the premise. In the future (the year 20XX to be ironically specific) mankind has let loose a weapon that has decimated human life allowing only the undead to walk the earth and rather than this becoming a ghouls only fallout type of world all the vampires, zombies, and skeletons decide to have eternal worldwide renaissance faire for some never explained reason. The idea is creative and for the most part unheard of in this genre (though Square-Enix's new game Nier looks to have similar setting except with humans still being alive) and offers chances for varied and unique environments and enemies.
With the EXP rate in Bod7 you'll be seeing this a lot
(Photo courtesy of: Zeboyd Games)
The gameplay offers a lot in terms of innovation as well. The first thing you're going to notice is that dungeons are no longer a slog thanks to the fact that you are given back all of your health at the end of every battle. This makes for more challenging and more interesting fights rather than a series of punishing boring fights. That said the difficulty curve in this game becomes rather steep after the first hour (give or take fifteen minutes) requiring you to do at least a level or two of grinding before proceeding heavily into any of the major dungeons. Grinding though is less of pain then it is in other games as you're a given a "Fight" command in your field menu which allows you to instantly spawn a fight wherever you feel like it (over a mana refill/save point preferably) and grind away allowing you more control over what you're fighting. The grinding is also helped by a very fast EXP rate which allows for level ups much more regularly than in most RPG's. To make this system even better there is also a branching level up system that allows you to customize a bonus stat each level up which can do anything from change which stat you're boosting to how a new ability might work. Another issue with the difficulty is that save points are very well spread out and if you kick the bucket between them you can lose a lot of progress however this problem is endemic more to this genre than this game.The only real problem with the battle system is that you can run out of MP very quickly if you're reckless and the only ways to get it back is by either saving (at an inn or save point both will work) or through winning battles however the MP you get from winning battles can be only nominal later in the game.
Look at all those identical mountain blocks, brings
back good memories doesn't it.
(Photo courtesy of: Zeboyd Games)
The colourful aesthetic, authentic sounding music, and SNES style sound effects really do help to create the illusion of a old game but the vibrant colours as well as detailed character and enemy designs are very well served by the 720p HD graphics. The world is very reminiscent of an old Final Fantasy game however there are a few quibbles I have with it. One issue is that for all the detail put into the towns such as pots and bookcases in all the houses none of it is interactive and those that are tend to reuse dialog a fair bit. Another issue is that while there is a shop system you can only buy weapons and armor not any other items, to go along with that you can't sell any of the things you buy. These issues are minor however most likely caused by budget and file size limitation rather bad game design and I bring them up only out of journalistic integrity as once I understood that pots held nothing for me I learned to stop inspecting everyone I came across. One thing I have neglected to mention so far is the sheer amount of game references in this title. It takes it's job as a parody very seriously and as such at almost every turn there is some little reference to other classic games. While these do start to dry up about half way through the game they are very welcome and well implemented when they are there and not noticeably absent when they are not.
In conclusion BoD7 is a very good take on an old formula, for it's length (a good 4-6 hours depending on the amount of exploration you want to do) and it's price ( a measly $1/ 80 MS points) it's an incredibly worthwhile purchase. With new disc based games costing around $60 and even more if you want extra stuff it's refreshing to see a decent sized enjoyable experience for a price anyone can afford. The best part about this game is that it makes you want to go back and play some of classics of yesteryear which are thankfully more available then you might expect. This game is a great first time out with this genre for Zeboyd games and their future RPG prospects look good. For a great retro experience at a ridiculously low price "Breath of Death VII: The Beginning" fully deserves a 5 out of 5 stars.
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