Breath of Death VII: The Beginning – Reanimated – Review

When we were given the chance to take a look at Breath of Death VII: The Beginning – Reanimated, our first thought was that we had never even heard of the series, let alone played through any of the first six games. As it turned out, that extremely lengthy title was, in fact, a joke indicative of Breath of Death’s sense of humor. Parts I-VI of Breath of Death don’t exist, and VII is actually the first and only game in the series. It was originally released as an obscure indie title on the Xbox 360 back in 2010. That original version has been completely remade, resulting in the game that we’re looking at today.

Story

Given that Breath of Death’s world is filled to the brim with fantasy tropes and archetypes, it’d be logical to assume that the game is set in a medieval fantasy world. However, as the game’s opening cutscene shows, the game actually takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting. A weapon of mass destruction has completely wiped out humanity, and the undead rule the world. This doesn’t result in the hellish landscape that you’d expect. Zombies, ghosts, vampires, and the like live together in harmony. Unsurprisingly, their peace is about to be threatened by an unspeakable evil. This is where our protagonist, Dem, comes in. He’s a reanimated skeleton that is unable to speak, due to not having any vocal chords. However, he is able to communicate with his soon-to-be-friends (and with the player) through the power of thoughts.

The game begins with our bony friend breaking out of a dungeon, which doubles as the game’s tutorial. Shortly after this, he runs into Sara, a ghost who is looking for the ruins of Langsong. The two end up as an adventuring pair, mostly because of Sara’s immediate but unrequited crush on Dem. Soon enough, our duo is joined by Lita, a technology-obsessed vampire, and Eric, the prince of the zombies. This unlikely foursome embarks on a quest to collect magical crystals that… no, that would be spoiling things. The tongue-in-cheek writing is easily Breath of Death’s biggest strength and you’re best off going in blind. This game doesn’t take itself too seriously, lampooning fantasy tropes and video game conventions. One of the best features is the in-game chat feature, which lets you read through optional side conversations between different party members.

Graphics

We’ve never played the original Breath of Death, so we can’t tell you how much of an outright glow-up the retro 8-bit visuals received compared to 15 years ago. What we can tell you is that the new (and now 16-bit) visuals of this newer version look fantastic. The pixel art strikes a good balance between looking appropriate for the era that the game takes inspiration from and incorporating modern visual design principles. The environments are filled with tons of tiny details and sight gags to discover too. As you’d expect, Breath of Death isn’t too taxing on hardware, and performance was buttery smooth as a result.

Sound

It’s not just Breath of Death’s pixel art that got a makeover, but its soundtrack as well. Again, we can’t contrast and compare directly with the previous release, as the game is missing an option to switch to the original music, but we really dig what’s present here. From what we understand, that original version relied on period-appropriate chiptune music, but here it has been completely reworked by HyperDuck Soundworks, adding more depth and emotion into the relatively simple compositions. It’s necessary too given the absence of voice acting.

Gameplay

Although Breath of Death is a parody game that lampoons classic JRPG series like Breath of Fire and Dragon Quest, that doesn’t mean that its gameplay isn’t fully fleshed out. Breath of Death offers up a full-fledged retro JRPG experience with turn-based combat. Most RPGs try to add a unique twist to their battle system and Breath of Death certainly isn’t an exception to this. The idea here is that the longer a battle takes, the more vicious enemies become. You’ll need to strategize accordingly, and try to take out enemies before they get the chance to retaliate. You’ll typically be fighting groups of enemies too. Landing hits builds your combo meter, so it’s typically a good idea to take out weaker enemies first, then unleash your combo on a more powerful beast. That is unless the opposing side uses a combo-breaking skill of their own.

It’s a surprisingly robust system that has more depth than you’d assume at first glance. There’s no needless grinding here either. Characters level up at a steady pace, and each area has a set number of encounters to take on, ensuring you’ll always be at the right level to take on the next boss. That isn’t to say that Breath of Death is a walk in the park either. There are three difficulty levels to tackle from the get-go, as well as a fourth hidden Hard+ mode once you clear the game. Even at Easy difficulty, you’ll still have to strategize. The combat system is the most fleshed-out aspect of Breath of Death‘s mechanics, as the rest of the gameplay will feel all too familiar to anyone who has ever played a JRPG from the SNES era. There are dungeons to clear out, cities to explore, and tons of quirky NPCs to interact with. Your party members level up and learn new and more powerful attacks too. It’s pretty standard stuff but it has worked like a charm in the past four decades so why would this be any different here?

That isn’t to say that Breath of Death’s gameplay isn’t without its faults, mind you. The game’s pacing feels off occasionally. We found that for particularly punishing dungeons, the best strategy was to sit next to a healing spot, and then force the encounters through the menu, saving and healing in between battles. After this, we were free to explore the dungeon without running into random encounters, which did feel counterintuitive. However, given the game’s over-reliance on potions to revive party members, we sometimes felt like this was the only way to make it through a dungeon without the party getting wiped. You should also get in the habit of saving often, as there is no autosave feature present in the game.

By JRPG standards, Breath of Death is a short but sweet experience, with the main quest taking around five hours or so. It’s not a linear game, though, and there are plenty of reasons to deviate from the beaten path and explore your surroundings. Our favorite side quest involved collecting all seven of the hidden Dragonduck dolls. Once we did this, we unlocked a secret ARPG game mode. Additionally, there’s also a Score Attack mode to cater to gluttons for punishment. It all adds up to a robust package that is well worth the €4.99 asking price. Breath of Death isn’t going to be a game for everyone, but if you’re either a retro JRPG enthusiast or a fan of fourth wall-breaking humor, you’ll find plenty to love here.

Conclusion

The original Breath of Death flew under our radar, but we’re glad that the remake didn’t. This is a fantastic little game that clearly loves what it is parodying as much as it makes fun of it. It looks and sounds great and has a robust combat system to boot. While the game’s pacing and balance can feel all over the place at times, don’t let that deter you from giving this one a chance if it seems up your alley. It’s a pocket-sized RPG with a matching price to boot, so it’s well worth checking out.