Good grief, help me out here. This game was the first to make me loathe minigames, especially when most of the annoying ones are required to get through that plot that falls apart the more I look at it. Look, I like most aspects of this game, already mentioned in my look back at post, but these things make me not enjoy this game as much when I have to do them. Great game otherwise, but still.
Let's start positive. The fishing minigame is the most prominent and a huge step-up from its previous incarnation in Breath of Fire 2. It's real nice that you can even see the potential catches to get, as well as a nice ranking system, making this game literally its own thing completely let loose from the main plot.
The faerie village I can actually imagine being just as unique as the fishing minigame. But since I never actually done it in this game, I can't really comment on it. I did this game in Breath of Fire 4 though, and it's pretty mild.
So the bad minigames? Let's start. I'm not fond of that wood-chopping one, although it's really all about timing, the frames can be off at certain points. Nice that the guy who sponsors it actually teaches work skills though. Hide and seek is fine too, and it's even more advanced when your characters are grown up. Momo's Tower is surprisingly devoid of minigames for such a zany place. The first really annoying minigame, may not really be a minigame since it uses standard battle mechanics, it involves training Beyd, which naturally took up quite a few minutes of my time. It's like if I was playing Final Fantasy II, I gain in stats by being hit in stats or using other stats. That's literally how it is. Right after that, you go to a lighthouse and have to sacrifice a plot item known as a Flame Chrysm to program a main valve. It's a simply "hit x at the right moment to win game" and it's dumb. First try I got it, but only after staring at it a few times just to make sure I don't screw up. These two are significantly less annoying than the next few I'm about to put on here which happen after the time skip.
Steel Beach, a ways into the game from the time skip, is the location of a really annoying one involving Garr. Here, it's a two-person towing minigame where this monkey has two flags and you and some other foreman have to pull this thing out the water when the correct flag is up. The problem occurs when the same flag shows up and you or your other guy end up behind. It really does make me quite mad when it happened frequently. And to make matters worse, what you pulled up turned out to be a boss fight. Absolutely delightful, not.
Then there's the whole idea of the Shisu quest, an actually required quest that is just awful. Finding ingredients basically involves collecting multiples of horseradish, vinegar, shally seeds, and mackerel. Well, they all don't seem so bad, especially the mackerel which can be done with the fishing minigame pretty easily. All except vinegar that is. Once again, a rope minigame involving Garr and some EXACTING button presses involving the same amount of presses to lower the bucket and raise the bucket. Again, I somehow did manage to do it on the first try, but having read on how to do it, I can safely say I never want to touch that again. Then, of course, having to actually cook and prepare the shisu is a game in itself, one that is pretty easy if you read instructions, but eh, after that vinegar bit, I'm definitely worn out and want no more of it.
If you thought that was the end of it, you're wrong. There's more. Finding the Legendary Mariner of course is pretty much a waste of time especially after you meet the guy to find out he's a pooper, pretty much. But having to navigate the tides in twenty-five seconds is a rough go, especially since I want treasure too. At least the Legendary Mariner does allow you to reach the Black Ship. There's one other exacting minigame involving that, with a counter that you examine which counts up every second, and you have to talk to Momo on the control panel exactly when it hits 100 to get the ship moving.
If you thought my annoyances with everything not-standard-Breath of Fire 3 gameplay ended there, give yourself a pat on the back, because I obviously have not talked about the Desert of Death yet. It's another thing that pretty much qualifies as its own game, and isn't even a minigame, but unlike the fishing and possibly unlike the faerie village there is NOTHING fun about this. You have to navigate the desert in the nighttime with only the stars as the guidance, and naturally you also have to keep water with you all the time so the dehydration doesn't ruin your max HP values. Three infuriating things here. One is that it's another long portion of the game. Another is that it's a long REQUIRED portion of the game. The last? The fact that you're apparent in-game guide gave you the wrong directions to the oasis you need to go. Oh yeah, and a few really good pieces of equipment could be found here, and I went for them, but obviously didn't like the treks.
Do I hate Breath of Fire 3 because of these things alone? I don't want to, because if you take all the required minigames and annoying quests out and just leave the faeries and fishing in, it would have definitely been my true favorite amongst the entire Breath of Fire franchise. Everything aside from the minigames is pretty good and I enjoyed the aspects there, but not these dumb quests and minigames that were actually necessary for the plot when they popped up.
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