Breath of Fire III is a role-playing video game developed and published by
Capcom originally for the
PlayStation console as part of the
Breath of Fire series. The story takes place in a fantasy world where humans live alongside anthropomorphic creatures, and centers the story on Ryu, the last of The Brood , as he searches the world to uncover the mystery of his people and reunite with his surrogate family. When traveling through the game's environment, each character can perform a unique special ability that allows the player to solve puzzles or destroy objects, as well as gain access to otherwise hidden areas. An additional feature, the Fairy Village, gives the player the ability to influence the growth of a small town of faeries, which in turn gives them access to special items or in-game features such as mini-games and a sound test. While previous Breath of Fire titles allowed groups of four characters to participate in combat, Breath of Fire III restricts the party limit to only three, yet offers a new "formation" system that allows for characters to be arranged in certain patterns for tactical benefits. As a member of the ancient Brood race, he is a human with the ability to transform into powerful dragons, a power he doesn't fully understand at the beginning of the game, but begins to piece together as time goes on.