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Jean is a recurring character throughout the Breath of Fire series. He first appears as a playable character in Breath of Fire II, where he is the prince of the Creeping Clan's homeland of SimaFort. He is noted for his jovial, optimistic personality and his fondness for painting. The game's end credits reveal this iteration of the character's full name to be Ekaru Hoppe de pe Jean.
Like many of Breath of Fire II's characters, he returns as a non-playable character in following game where he once again displays a fondness of painting. However, in this iteration he goes by Ecarl, a variation of his Japanese name. In both games he speaks in a faux-French accent.
Role Throughout the Series[]
In Breath of Fire II[]
- Main article: Jean (Breath of Fire II)
The party first encounters Jean hiding in a forest pond, embarrassed by his appearance as an enormous frog. He explains that he was transformed into this shape by the witch Nimufu, whom he annoyed with his amorous advances. He asks the travelers to visit her and persuade her to remove the curse. After being defeated in battle, Nimifu reveals that her spell can be broken by the kiss of a young girl. The party is surprised to learn that, even with the curse removed, Jean still maintains a naturally amphibious appearance, and is in fact the Prince of the Creeping Clan.
The party escorts Jean back to his home in SimaFort, where he is immediately arrested. It is later uncovered that an impostor had infiltrated the castle during Jean's absence and assumed his identity. With the help of Jean's sister, Petape, Ryu and the party manage to uncover the plot and reveal the impostor's true identity as the demon Kuwadora. Jean is freed from prison and decides to accompany Ryu and the others on their journey.
- For the full article on Jean from Breath of Fire II, see here.
In Breath of Fire III[]
- Main article: Ecarl
Jean returns as a non-playable character under a romanized version of his Japanese name "Ekaru". In this game, he is a painter who living in Maekyss Gorge. While the party is never required to speak with him, his wife Kimiko plays a pivotal role in teaching the party how to make shisu.
Appearance[]
The reference volume Breath of Fire Official Complete Works states that Jean's concept and extravagant medieval costume were inspired by the Grimm's fairy tale The Frog Prince. His stocky build is atypical for his clan.
Personality[]
In both games, Jean possesses a jovial, optimistic personality. In Breath of Fire II he remarks that he "doesn't believe there are any bad people in the world, only bad hearts and weak people." He exhibits a carefree attitude toward danger, such as when he is imprisoned and sentenced to death by a demon posing in his place. However, this same blithe attitude often results in him shirking his official duties. In Breath of Fire III he decides to take up residence in Maekyss Gorge because of the tranquility and solitude it affords. Both incarnations of the character possess a fascination with aesthetic beauty and gourmet cuisine.
Abilities[]
Jean is only a playable character in Breath of Fire II, where he possesses good natural defense but incredibly low agility. He learns a combination of offensive and status-based spells. His combat ability "Jab" allows him to perform a physical attack against all enemies, however the damage is progressively reduced based on the number of targets. In his base form, Jean a durable fighter with his standout features being his good defense, decent HP and AP growth, and ability to wear heavy armor. His ability to weaken the enemy via his spells also compliments his own endurance as a fighter. He is also useful for traveling between areas as he is one of the first party members to learn the Warp spell and his field ability limits the amount of enemy encounters. By the end of the game, he learns the Death and Renew spells that give him aditional utility. His AP growth makes him a good candidate for learning some of Barose's magic. His attack power is average, but he can make up for this with his high luck stat, which increases his likelihood of dealing critical hits. He also has some useful weapon options with many of his rapier weapons having elemental damage properties to help offset their comparatively low attack power.
In his Shaman tranformation state, Jean gets good stat boosts across the board with an emphasis on Vigor and Wisdom to boost his defenses. His Jab skill is replaced with Chop, a skill that sacrifices a turn in order to deal lethal damage against all non-boss enemies the following turn. Despite showing numerical damage, this skill is actually an instant kill ability similar to Death and Angel and as such possesses a chance of failing.
If Jean leads the party on the overworld, he can resume the great frog form that Nimufu transformed him into. This allows the party to travel more quickly and greatly reduces the number of enemy encounters. It also allows the player to reach a number of previously inaccessible areas as it can hop over certain obstacles and swim through shallow water.
Abilities
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| Level | Name | In-game description | Effect | AP Cost |
| Default | Ag-Up | Agil. up temporarily | Temporarily raises a party members agility | 4 |
| 12 | Hush | Seal Spells | Prevents an enemy from casting spells | 5 |
| 14 | Warp | Warp to a town | Warps party to any town previously visited | 8 |
| 16 | Pwr. Down | Lower the enemy's Off | Lowers the enemy's strength temporarily | 5 |
| 18 | Cold | Ice Stone Single | Deals 30 points of Ice damage to single target | 4 |
| 20 | Idle | Seal the enemy's movements | Puts one enemy to sleep. | 6 |
| 30 | Angel | Holy Power All | Group hitting Exorcism attack that instant kills all Undead and Spirit type enemies. Only works on Spirit and Undead. | 12 |
| 32 | Death | Death Power Single | Single Target Instant Kill spell. Does not work on Spirit or Undead type enemies. | 8 |
| 34 | Renew | Recover ability 70 perct. | Has a 70% chance of reviving a party member with 1/4th of their HP. | 10 |
Etymology[]
Jean's Japanese first name, "Ekaru", is a play on words that functions on multiple levels. It is the Japanese spelling of "Ecarle," a reference to Eric Carle an American children's author who illustrates his books using a unique blend of painting and collage. Although he is an American writer, he enjoys global popularity, including in Japan, where he has won the Japanese Picture Book award, the country's highest award for picture books, and his work has been widely exhibited in Japanese museums. This reference is more obvious in Jean's Breath of Fire III appearance, where his name is translated as Ecarl and he appears as a painter. "Ekaru" is also an anagram of "kaeru" the Japanese word for frog.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- His blood-type is AB.