Well, I finished Breath of Fire II again, and was reminiscing about it to a mate (in both senses of the word) when I realised that he’d never heard of it. Sooo…Anyone else play it/have played it? (Seriously, play it. Eet is awesome in a cartridge. And made me cry. Hell, I didn’t cry at ‘My Girl’ but this had me shedding real tears. It is just that good.)
My favorite Breath of Fire game would have to be Breath of Fire 4. And I hated Breath of Fire 5, IMO it sucked horribly.
I’ve only played 3. It was quite dull but perhaps I should have given it more time.
four is another I beat recently. I really like taking the evil ending!
Even though it got me nowhere.
I haven’t played much of three, although it looked good. But then I love the BoF series, so even if the game was only ten minutes long and featured dancing alligators I’d still proclaim it one of the greatest things ever.
And darn it, I thought five would be good, but everyone is saying it is craptacular. 
Trust me, it’s horrible. Don’t waste your time, it has none of the charm, and atmosphere that the rest of the series is known for.
Having never played a BoF game - what makes this series worth playing through? What sets sets it apart from other games of the genre?
The Breath of Fire series has always been your typical batch of Japanese RPGs, but even today, some of the games in the series put other recent boring reused characters and story lines in their place. Having played them when they were first released, you could say it’s kind of a nostalgia thing. I’ve always admired the series for it’s character development, interesting battle system and great storytelling, typically BOF 3 and 4, were the best the series had to offer, and if I had to go and tell you what to play first, I’d say those.
Like link, from the Legend of Zelda, Ryu the main character as well as princess Nina, were always reincarnated in each new installment of the series. A BOF trademark. In BOF 3 the turn based battle system, had Ryu turning into a combination of different dragon forms, of which you could mix together to get different results using items called dragon genes. The story focused around an ancient civilization driven into extinction, as well as an ambitious Goddess bent on keeping her control over the world intact. I Won’t give anything away, BOF 3 and BOF 4 are definitely worth a look though.
BOF 4 was just as good as BOF 3, character sprites were vibrant with detail, the battle system was still fun, and the story kept you playing. I’d suggest reading some reviews over at gamefaqs. 
Both my sister and I adore BOF 2 and 4. Neither of us were very keen on 3. BOF 2 needs to get released on the VC.