I’m an RPG fanatic, especially since I was very young. I enjoy reading books, so these kinds of games would take me on a journey that I couldn’t experience with other genres. One of my favorite series of all time has been Breath of Fire, especially part III. I have a deep hatred for part V (BoF Dragon Quarter) because of how terrible of a game it was, but that’s for another post.
Spoilers ahead for Breath of Fire III
BoF III is possibly my favorite of the five games (part six is currently in the works!) because of its plot, characters, realistic situations and humor. You play as the protagonist Ryu, a member of the Brood (Dragon Clan) who doesn’t say a word (typical RPG cliché) and his friends Nina, Teepo and Rei. The game starts off with them as kids going through various adventures, meeting new party members that become friends. They find out that Ryu’s clan of the Brood was eliminated centuries ago by order of the Goddess Myria. One of Ryu’s party members was part of a group of Guardians that killed off his clan and now wants to finish him off as well. He fails and the party goes their own ways for a time.
Free Will
The game jumps a few years and we find Ryu is now a teenager who joins back with his team and they go on a quest to find out why the Goddess decided to wipe out the ancient Dragon Clan. When they finally arrive and begin to question her, she explains that the Brood were a danger to the world and had to be destroyed before they unleashed their power. Since she was defeated by the Dragon Clan in Breath of Fire I, she already has hatred towards them and that’s why she committed genocide. She knows how powerful Ryu already is so instead of fighting him, she offers him a choice.
Give up your free will and live peacefully in her makeshift Garden of Eden or fight.
Her garden is basically a serene place where Ryu would never leave and spend the rest of his days like she did to Teepo (the Brood can live a long time) without endangering anyone. We never see any hint of Ryu wanting to harm anyone, but Myria will not take any chances and wants to pull all the strings and be humanity’s sole protector and guide.
I saved my game before choosing, so I played through both scenarios. If you fight, of course you have the hardest battle in the game then you win and watch the ending. The other ending though shows us how Ryu gives up his free will and lives out his days in Eden, and the game ends with “And so time passes unchanging”. This shows us that nothing happened at all, while Myria continued ruling the world behind the scenes as she saw fit.
Isn’t it just like the devil, to give us an option to do nothing instead of actually going out and making a difference. He dresses himself as an angel of light and pretends that he wants the best for us, when he in fact wants us sitting around wasting our time. Satan has already been defeated through Christ after He resurrected from the dead, yet he acts like nothing happened. The bible teaches us that God’s people perish for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6), which is what happens to many Christians waiting around for God to move instead of taking action.
When Ryu gives up his free will, as many of us do, we are giving up the power that God gave us since the beginning to create, choose and change. By not having those options we allow others to make those decisions for us.
2 Corinthians 4:4
4 Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.
Don’t give up on what God has called you to do. By choosing to do nothing you are making a decision. I challenge you to look over the responsibilities, duties, or choices you need to make at this moment of your life. After you see which ones you’ve been neglecting: take a breath, ask God for wisdom, get advice from others who have already done it, and start making the first move.
Don’t be afraid, God is for you, not against you.
Romans 8:31
31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?
