Overview
Nina is an important recurring character archetype in the Breath of Fire series, and has appeared in every game to date. She usually serves as a love interest for Ryu, and it is even implied in Breath of Fire II that the Nina and Ryu from the original Breath of Fire had a child together. She has been a magic user in every game, but whether she is a supportive or offensive user differs from game to game.
Series breakdown
Nina is the headstrong princess of the Clan of the Wing and joins the party in Winlan. She possesses defencive magic that heals, cures and protects the party. After she returns to the party at an older age, thanks to a little time travel, Nina gains the inherent ability to become a Great Bird and carry people on her back.
In opposition to most of her other incarnations, Nina is a shy and reserved young lady in Breath of Fire II. Nina is also a princess and has black wings. She was exiled from Windia by her parents because of the fear in the legend of the black wings curse. It is implied that the Nina of Breath of Fire II is a direct descendant of the original Nina. Nina1 reveals that her falling in love with a man outside the Wing Clan is the reason that modern Windians cannot transform into the Great Bird. Unlike every other game in the series, Nina is not the sole love interest for Ryu; she shares this role with Katt. However, Katt was more of sideline love interest used to spice things up in the story. Unfortunately, pursuing a relationship with Nina or Katt was never fully expanded upon, leaving much to be desired. Despite this shortcoming, if Nina is the one to go looking for Ryu in one of the game's endings, she confesses to Ryu that he is very important to her and she was not willing to lose him even if he was forcing her to forget him.
In Breath of Fire III, Nina is the Princess of Wyndia. She starts out as a young girl, but is a teen later in the game. She feels bad every time Ryu has to save her, and wants to be able to help him better. As the story of the Brood unfolds, she never loses trust in Ryu being a "Good Dragon". Nina also serves as a small love interest for Ryu. She is nice and forgiving to even the lowest of bad guys. Throughout the game, she is always running away from home as she is the princess, making the rest of the party out to be kidnappers.
Within Breath of Fire IV Nina is once again a princess on a quest; this time it's to find her sister Elina. At the start of the game Nina and her friend Cray are attacked by a Sand Dragon. After this event, the duo stumbles upon a young man named Ryu. As the story unfolds she joins Ryu one his quest. In the English version, poor translation indicated that Nina was in love with Cray. However, this was proven wrong as such a relationship was never mentioned in the Japanese version. The "love" towards Cray that Nina spoke of was suppose to have meant that she saw him as a brother. In addition, Cray was in love with Elina and knew the sisters for a long time. In a comical fashion, Deis even hints that Nina has the dragon under her thumb.
Nina also appeared alongside Ryu in Dragon Quarter. Contrary to her previous incarnations, Nina is a mute winged 12 year old girl, whereas Ryu is a 16 year old talkative boy. Nina was slowly dying in the game's underground setting. Furthermore, the fondness between Nina and Ryu in Dragon Quarter is more obvious than in previous games. For example, Ryu was willing to sacrifice himself for Nina's safety and well being. Nina was willing to place herself in danger to save a dying Ryu, and she clung onto him more often. In Dragon Quarter, Nina's wings are not natural; she was part of an experiment, and was seemingly created to purify the polluted air in the underground world. The wings on her back plays a part in the air purifying process. However, purifying the air will eventually kill Nina because the pollutants have to go through her body.
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