This could just be a town called "Moto", but it can't be mere coincidence that the town the adventure proper starts in has a name meaning "origin".

Ryu and Bosch stand in an office, facing an older man behind a large desk or small table.

A doyen is a senior member of a group, profession, or society. I wanted something less generic than "elder" and this seems to work.

Just then, a young woman with purple-tinged white wings walks into the office. No, she's not Nina.

The credits give the pet's name as Suzy Q, which is believed to be a reference to musician Suzi Quatro.

Mina leaves.

Let's talk to some of the other Rangers first.

It seems the Rangers are basically a guild of contract workers for hire. Though interesting from a worldbuilding standpoint, that doesn't help with our mission. Mina and two white-winged guards are staying at the inn, though, so maybe they can give us a little more information.

That doesn't really help either. Lets ask some of the locals.

I think we know where to go now. But first, there's a dragon statue on the edge of the town...

As in Breath of Fire I, the Dragon God statues will save the game, though they generally sit out in the open, largely ignored. And, as the Dragon God's complains hint at, the Evaist churches will also save the game, though the one in this town is currently inaccessible.

While looking at the shops, I noticed another useful change in the GBA version is that items now have icons to indicate their type (helmet, armor, and so on). Especially with the dubious translation, this does a lot to help avoid confusion. Shop menus additionally display indicators when the merchandise would be stronger or weaker (based on raw attack/defense) than what a character currently has equipped.

Also, when in one of the random hunting zones that may appear after battles on the world map, dashing is disabled, so it has no effect on gameplay there. That would have been easy to overlook, so count me impressed! The whole area doesn't quite fit on the screen and should perhaps have been shrunk, though.

On that note, Bosch's field action uses his crossbow to hunt animals in special hunting zones that randomly appear as tufts of grass on the world map after combat. The animals tend to spook if they spot someone, though, and his firing range only slightly exceeds their awareness range. However, when firing horizonally, he can strike animals that are one tile above his line of fire, so take advantage of that. He can also shoot through rocks, but animals can't see through them. Most take two shots to finish off, and the meats they drop act as healing items and also sell for a decent amount of money.

Ryu's field action, on the other hand, is fishing in special predefined fishing spots that may appear as leaping fish along shorelines on the world map after combat. He'll need to equip a rod and bait to fish. Try to cast as close to Ryu as possible to minimize the distance to to reel the fish in, thus reducing the chance of breaking the line and losing the bait for nothing. Like meat, fish tend to have healing effects, though they don't generally sell as well and are frankly more trouble.

Fishing is also the first place I noticed any text changes at all in the English GBA version. They corrected "Equip lod/bait" to "Equip rod/bait". The fact that this error was ever in an English release in the first place is pretty indicative of the quality of the translation as a whole.

Speaking of the world map, there's also a sideshow tent just outside of town, but it's not important yet, so we'll save that for later.

Futabi might be 双尾, which roughly translates to "twin tails".

The enemy encounter rate seems to be significantly reduced in the GBA version. That helps to offset the increased gains per battle, anyway, and makes exploring less tedious, especially when combined with the dashing ability. They were either clever with these changes or just lucked out.

Soon after entering, Bosch hears someone talking...

After we pass through a cave with a handy healing spring, perfect for grinding out a few levels, the voices return...

...and a few steps later...

A trio of harpies dramatically swoops down from the cliffs and attack! They'll focus their attacks on Ryu...

...except in the second round of combat, when they attack each other instead...

...before going back to cooperating.

Putting Ryu in the rear of the "scramble" formation will help protect him. Fortunately, the harpies don't have all that much health.

A rock blocks the next cave...

...so we push it out of the way. Unfortunately, that knocks over a much larger rock, which tumbles down the mountain and crushes the first cave entrance, startling a passing merchant fish. On the plus side, it also creates a much shorter path between the east and west sides of the mountain.

There's a Deadly Flame (FireRock) in one chest in the cave. Hold on to that for now...

Continuning, we have to hop in a hole in the floor of the cave. There's a man here who seems significant, but he's of no relevance for now.

Later on, he'll be one of many possible villager recruits, but we'll save that for then.

That's it for the mountain. Beyond lie the remains of a former village.

A fishing spot north of the village has a treasure chest containing an Iron Bracelet (IronBR), but good luck fishing it up without a better rod.

Only one house remains standing, and it's in poor repair, though at least there's a Dragon God statue next to it. As we approach the house...

In the building, a swarm of cockroches corner an old man.

The cockroches aren't strong, but they are quick, and there are a lot of them. This might sting a little. With any luck, Ryu may counterattack a few times.

And a giant cockroach attacks. It's considerably tougher than the smaller ones, but there's only one of it, and it's not nearly as quick. The biggest problem is that sometimes it just refuses to die.

Worse, it may do this repeatedly, though that typically won't happen. Regardless, it eventually stays dead.

Although reminiscent of how most bosses in Breath of Fire keep fighting well after their visible health bar runs out (they actually just have more health than shown), the cockroach merely has a random chance to revive with partial health when killed. Dead bosses in this game normally just die.

He pulls out a pig from somewhere.

He sticks the pig in a pot of boiling water.

The pig is turning red...

(insert dissonant noise as Bosch reads it)

Whoops. Maybe someone should have mentioned that Suzi was a pig and not a more conventional pet. Bosch rescues her from the pot.

So it's a happy ending for Suzi, but I can't help but feel a little sorry for the old man...

Back at Ranger headquarters, we find Mina and her two winged guards already in the doyen's office.

He puts Suzi on the table.

She leaves with her guards.

That we did. The doyen seems pleased as well.

Let's head home, then.

Sounds like a plan. Let's go take a well-deserved rest.

The Dragon's Tear appears here, and Bosch's Mood increases or decreases based on how much he has to nag before Ryu agrees to go to bed. However, because it was initialized back in the introduction and has been affected by dialog options then and combat since, it could conceivably be anything at this point. If combat has been going fairly well, there's even a good chance it's gone rainbow already. Not that it seems to have much of any meaningful effect.