Breath of Fire II is a role-playing game developed and published by Capcom. It came out for the Super Famicom in Japan on December 2, 1994, produced by Tokuro Fujiwara, with Yoshinori Kawano as lead designer, a script by Makoto Ikehara, character designs by Tatsuya Yoshikawa and music composed entirely by Yuko Takehara. By the end of 1995 it had sold about 350,000 copies in Japan.
The first game had been published in North America by Square Soft, but this time Capcom USA handled the localization itself. The English version arrived on December 10, 1995, and Laguna released it in Europe in 1996. Several heroes were renamed along the way: Bosch became Bow, for example.
A Game Boy Advance version followed in Japan in December 2001 and in North America in April 2002, with a dash button, saving anywhere and a new battle interface. The SNES game later returned on the Virtual Console and, on December 12, 2019, joined Nintendo Switch Online.12
Names and releases
| Region | Title on the box | Platform | Date | Publisher | Src |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NA | Breath of Fire II | SNES | Dec 10, 1995 | Capcom | 1 |
| NA | Breath of Fire IIWikipedia sources give 15 and 16 April 2002 | Game Boy Advance | April 2002 | Capcom | 1 |
| NA | Breath of Fire IIVirtual Console | Wii | Aug 27, 2007 | Capcom | 1 |
| JP | ブレス オブ ファイアII 使命の子 | SNES | Dec 2, 1994 | Capcom | 3 |
| EU | Breath of Fire IIdate marked [citation needed] on English Wikipedia; Russian Wikipedia gives the same day | SNES | Apr 25, 1996 | Laguna Video Games | 4 |
| JP | ブレス オブ ファイアII 使命の子Nintendo Power flash-cartridge rewrite service, reduced price | SNES | Sep 30, 1997 | Capcom | 3 |
| JP | ブレス オブ ファイアII 使命の子 | Game Boy Advance | Dec 21, 2001 | Capcom | 3 |
| EU | Breath of Fire IIEnglish Wikipedia gives 28 June 2002, Russian Wikipedia 10 September 2002 | Game Boy Advance | 2002 | Ubi Soft | 1 |
| JP | ブレス オブ ファイアII 使命の子Virtual Console | Wii | Jun 26, 2007 | Capcom | 3 |
| EU | Breath of Fire IIVirtual Console | Wii | Aug 10, 2007 | Capcom | 4 |
| JP | ブレス オブ ファイアII 使命の子Virtual Console | Wii U | Jul 10, 2013 | Capcom | 3 |
| JP | ブレス オブ ファイアII 使命の子New Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console | Nintendo 3DS | Aug 23, 2017 | Capcom | 3 |
| WW | Breath of Fire IINintendo Switch Online SNES library | Switch | Dec 12, 2019 | Nintendo | 2 |
Also known as: ブレス オブ ファイアII 使命の子 JP3Buresu obu Faia Tsū: Shimei no Ko JP1Breath of Fire II: The Destined Child JP1
Box art by region
NA Breath of Fire II 
EU Breath of Fire II
Box art © its publishers, shown to identify each release. Scans: libretro-thumbnails.
Version differences
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TextSNES (NA)SNES (EU)
Several party members got new names in English: Bosch became Bow, Lin Pu became Katt, Deece became Bleu and Aspar became Spar.5
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ContentSNES (NA)SNES (EU)
In the Japanese version a short character bio appears after each introduction scene. The English ROM still has the translated bios, but not the code that shows them.5
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GameplayGBA
The Game Boy Advance version has redrawn portraits, a battle interface modeled on Breath of Fire IV, a dash button, saving anywhere and item trading over the link cable; its mini-games are easier.1
Translations
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English Official
Capcom USA1995SNES · Japanese versionReleased · complete
English version localized and published by Capcom USA itself; the first game had been published in North America by Square Soft.1
Where to play legally today
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Nintendo Switch Online Subscription
Reception
It debuted at number seven on the Japanese weekly chart with 89,700 copies and reached about 350,000 in Japan by the end of 1995. GameRankings averages are 76% for the SNES and 75% for the GBA version, with 81 on Metacritic for the GBA. Reviewers repeatedly criticized the English translation; GameSpot called the Wii release's localization "terrible."1
Sources
Checked: 2026-10-13Text reviewed: 2026-10-13
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