Ryu (Breath of Fire)

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Ryu as he appeared in his most recent incarnation in Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter

Ryu (リュウ in Japanese) listen (help·info) is the name of every main protagonist in the Breath of Fire series. Despite the fact that each Ryu is a completely different character, they all share the same name, and blue hair (even in Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, where his hair is very dark blue sometimes mistaken for black), much like Nina, who also keeps the same name and similar features on each game. It is speculated that the Ryu from the first game is the ancestor of the line of Ryus through the third game.Some also speculate that each Ryu from the series is reincarnated from the Ryu of the first Breath of Fire "Ryū" (竜) also means dragon in Japanese.

[edit] History

In the original Breath of Fire, Ryu is a warrior from the Light Dragon Clan and lives with his sister Sara, until his clan's village was attacked by the Dark Dragon Clan. In Breath of Fire II, he is a half-breed member of the Dragon Clan, whose mother died 3 years ago protecting their village. He lives with his father and sister. In BoF III and IV (Breath of Fire), Ryu starts the story without any knowledge of his past. In BoF III he is one of the last of the species of the Brood, a species of Dragons. In BoF IV he is a half of a god, separated from the other half as the result of an inadequate summoning sending his other half several hundred years into the past. In Breath of Fire V, he is a normal human who gains the power to transform into a half-dragon form through linking to an external power source.

[edit] Abilities

In Breath of Fire, Ryu wields a sword and generally cannot learn magic without help. Most of the magic he learns allows him to transform into various dragon forms, found throughout the game, and that usually require a test (such as a battle or quest) before gaining the ability.

In Breath of Fire 2, Ryu again wields a sword, but this time can use some healing magic, such as Cure. In this installment of the Breath of Fire series, Ryu does transform into a dragon, but this time he does it in one shot powerful bursts that consume all of his MP. However, these are often very strong, and you can use it every turn if you have Ryu as the slowest in the party and have the other members us 'W-fruits', which restore MP, on him before his turn. The damage that is dealt with this type of dragon transformation is reliant on what percentage of MP is used up in the transformation. For example, if you use the Dragon 'Fire Puppy', and it consumes all of your MP, you do around 256 damage. If Ryu's MP is lower than 100% however, it does less damage.

In Breath of Fire 3, besides the master and enemy skills that any of the characters can pick up, he does have magic that he learns as he levels, primarily healing and some defensive skills, as well as a single offensive one that is fairly rare. His early healing magic makes him a primary source of it for a while. And of course, he has Acension after a certain event, which opens up an extremely wide variety of skills, depending on the dragon genes used.

In Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, which is the most recent and also the fifth game in the Breath of Fire series, Ryu yet again returns with his sword wielding abilities, yet this time he only has one dragon form, although this is the most powerful form ever seen in a Breath of Fire game before. Ryu gets his form after a certain point in the game, and from there on, he gains a Dragon Gauge which very slowly fills up. Once it gets to 100%, Ryu dies and it's Game Over. It increases incredibly slowly, though, so if you don't use Ryu's dragon powers at all throughout the game you could finish with around 30-40%, perhaps even lower. But, if you use it in battle, it's a different matter. When used in battle, the Dragon Gauge increases at a tremendous speed, so for every move you do there's about 1-5% added onto the Dragon Gauge, depending on which move you used. There is also a Dragon breath attack with which you can fire a scorching jet of flame at the enemy, doing absolutely immense damage. Unfortunately, the Dragon Gauge increases with the amount of time you are holding the button down, so it's really a very last resort, and even then it's not such a good idea.