Breath of Fire is a role-playing game that Capcom released for the Super Famicom in Japan on 3 April 1993 as Breath of Fire: Ryū no Senshi. It was Capcom's first full-scale RPG and started a series that ran from 1993 to 2016. Keiji Inafune worked on the character art before being replaced by Tatsuya Yoshikawa, who kept many of his designs, and Chun-Li from Street Fighter appears as an easter egg.
Capcom USA had little experience with text-heavy RPGs, so Square Soft localized and published the game in North America on 10 August 1994 and advertised it as coming from the makers of the Final Fantasy series. Space limits in the text forced many names to be shortened or changed.
Europe had to wait for the Game Boy Advance version in 2001, which brought the game there for the first time with redrawn portraits and new conveniences such as a dash button.123
Names and releases
| Region | Title on the box | Platform | Date | Publisher | Src |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NA | Breath of FireLocalized and published by Square Soft | SNES | Aug 10, 1994 | Square Soft | 1 |
| NA | Breath of Fire | Game Boy Advance | Dec 1, 2001 | Capcom | 1 |
| JP | ブレス オブ ファイア 竜の戦士Buresu obu Faia: Ryū no Senshi | SNES | Apr 3, 1993 | Capcom | 1 |
| JP | ブレス オブ ファイア 竜の戦士 | Game Boy Advance | Jul 6, 2001 | Capcom | 1 |
| EU | Breath of FireEnglish Wikipedia gives 14 December 2001, marked citation needed; the first European release of the game | Game Boy Advance | December 2001 | Ubi Soft | 1 |
| WW | Breath of FireVirtual Console, New Nintendo 3DS | Nintendo 3DS | 2016 | Capcom | 1 |
| WW | Breath of FireNintendo Switch Online SNES library; 5 September 2019 per English Wikipedia, 6 September in Japan | Switch | September 2019 | Capcom | 4 |
Also known as: ブレス オブ ファイア 竜の戦士 JP2Buresu obu Faia: Ryū no Senshi JP1Breath of Fire: The Dragon Warrior JP1
Box art by region
NA Breath of Fire
Box art © its publishers, shown to identify each release. Scans: libretro-thumbnails.
Version differences
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TextSNES (NA)
Space limits in the English text forced many names to be shortened or changed: Gilliam became Bo, Danc became Karn, Manillo became Gobi, Deis became Bleu and Carla became Cerl.1
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ContentSNES (NA)
The prologue that plays when the Japanese title screen is left idle was removed from the North American version.2
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CoverSNES (NA)
The North American release came with a substantially different package design.2
Translations
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English Official
Square Soft1994SNES · Japanese versionReleased · complete
English localization handled mostly by Square Soft, with Ted Woolsey as the main translator.1
Where to play legally today
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Nintendo Switch Online Subscription
Reception
The SNES game was a considerable success in Japan and modestly successful in North America at first, where sales picked up after Breath of Fire II came out. The 2001 Game Boy Advance version sold 63,407 copies in Japan by the end of 2001.1
Sources
Checked: 2026-10-13Text reviewed: 2026-10-13
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