Bravely Default II (2021)

The art style and gameplay were fine, but the characters and story were very generic. There was also a good deal of grinding required if you didn't cheese the job system...which I did.

I enjoyed it better than the first Bravely Default, mostly due to the ending not requiring repeatedly playing through the same scenario multiple times like the first game. There are better games out there, so wouldn't recommend outside of a large sale and lack of other available options.

Started playing this and I already love it, but I'm also partial to the Bravely Default mechanics. I still need to beat the 3ds version (I'm like at the last boss, but I think I don't have the right jobs).

So far, this game is solid. The artwork is cute, there are ton of QOL improvements, and the mechanics are mostly the same from the 3DS game.

I'm sure this game will disappoint me just like before. But for now I'm enjoying the ride.

While I had fun and I still think the series' flexible Job system is one of the best ever found in JRPGs, it feels like they could have done so much more with this. The core story felt shorter and less complicated than those of the first two Bravely games but it also felt less engaging somehow. I liked the idea of the protagonist not being the standard clueless teen, but I wish Seth showed more personality and that the stakes were more personal (Edea's and Ringabel's arcs come to mind).

Gave it a four but that's rounded up from 3.5.

So I'm in the part where I'm in the dungeon to recharge the crystals, which I think is pretty near the end, but I don't know if I can push through anymore. All the battles are just so repetitive now (even though the monsters aren't exactly the same), and well, I'm not really that much invested in the story or any of the characters to find joy there instead. I'm very much considering the idea of abandoning this game now, unfinished.

When I began playing this game, I thought about it constantly and just wanted to keep on playing, and now I wonder whether I should have taken advantage of that attitude then so I could have happily finished this game. I tried to take my time, and the excitement subsided. Not sure if the excitement would have subsided anyway too if I did play nonstop when I was still overtly excited. With the past instance with Bravely Second, I was on a long holiday, and I played almost nonstop. I enjoyed that game until the end but perhaps that is also a better game, and that's why I did not get demotivated to keep on playing near the end. I definitely enjoyed the jobs in Bravely Second more.

If I had to force a joke or whatever, you could say Square Enix Defaulted instead of Braved on this one.

It's a very solid entry in the series, the Brave/Default system coupled with a healthy selection of Jobs to customize your party with makes for great strategic combat both during boss battles but in regular encounters as well. This new entry also does make a number of improvements and changes such as making enemies appear to be avoided or interacted with instead of the previous random encounters. I also really appreciated how the new weight mechanic added to equipment made the player have to think over the trade-offs of different equipment loadouts more carefully than in typical JRPGs.

While this is a solid JRPG all around, it does fall short of being remarkable, lacking any extra flair to set it apart in my opinion. It's a standard experience overall in many ways that left me a bit disappointed when compared to Bravely Second.

Bravely Second remains my favorite in the series because it is just so much more remarkable and memorable. The twists and turns of the story, the creative boss encounters, and most importantly, the numerous and unique Jobs all helped create a really interesting and outstanding experience.

Bravely Default II tries to make a few nods to the previous games and clearly draws a lot of inspiration from them, but it fails to do anything new of merit to stand above them. I also think this game engine proved a challenge for the dev team as the game is rife with performance issues and little oddities that sometimes make it feel rushed. I'm hopeful that this entry is successful enough to warrant a crazier, more experimental follow-up down the road.

Over 100 hours in, still doing what I feel is "late game" stuff right before trying to complete the full story. There's still some good challenges to enjoy, but at this point I am finding the plot turns and character development lacking. The series never was good at hitting the mark with deep or interesting and rewarding character development, but the plot turns and fun job classes held them up well enough.

While BDII certainly has some improvements over the 3DS titles, it definitely feels like a reboot of the series on the Switch rather than an expansion of the series in a meaningful way. It doesn't expand on world building, or more importantly for me, the quantity and quality of Jobs you unlock. I'm hopeful that this is just a starting point however, and we get another title down the road where the devs will have more time and freedom to experiment with since they now have an existing engine to work from.

4/5

This was my first Bravely Default game, and it was a banger. I played this straight after playing Dragon Quest XIS, which I gave a 5/5, and found many similarities between the two throughout my playthrough. They both harken back to old-school JRPG’s in gameplay, story structure and presentation. For my money, however, Bravely Default elevates all three (maybe 2) of those elements in ways which make this game pretty much perfectly suited to my tastes.

I’ll start with gameplay because for me this is where the game truly shines. My most played switch game is Fire Emblem Three Houses, a game where I bore the (IMO) sub-par writing, story, and presentation for its golden egg – character progression and customization. Bravely Default 2 has a similarly addicting character progression and job system which is inspired by those found in Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy III and V and more. I was obsessed with levelling different jobs to acquire new passive abilities that I could then combine with other jobs and passives to create gnarly combos. The system gives you a level of control and freedom that encourages you to conceptualise how these skills might interact and see that play out. Jobs also affect stats and the weight of equipment you can equip – which is another fantastic addition which creates a push and pull to what you focus on when kitting out your characters. The gameplay is classic turn-based fare with the addition of braves and defaults which I think is excellent and opens even more strategy.

The highlight is the boss battles – where your team is really tested. I played on hard difficulty which was extremely challenging at first but as my team attained more abilities became gradually easier, yet always satisfying. Bosses also have counter abilities which you are forced to play around, meaning I could not beat down all the bosses with the same strategies – I do think that analysing targets should reveal these counters for easier strategizing. In terms of grinding, I never found myself grinding for levels throughout my playthrough. I did however grind for job points at multiple stops so I could unlock new abilities, and this was entirely voluntary and made easier using the monster treat items and 4x battle speed. I never found myself over levelled in doing this. There is a decent smattering of post-game content (job trials) which I didn’t dive fully into, but the few I did complete were good fun.

Dungeon crawling is also satisfying, primarily due to an early ability you attain that shows how many chests are in a given area. It's satisfying to figure out how the a labyrinth fits together and collecct all the treausure, which usually contains great equipment - making exploration rewarding which is an easy win for me. Finally, there is a fun board game built into the game which is always great. I found it to be fun but pretty easy to beat my opponents once I had a few solid cards.

I was very apprehensive about tackling this game after the behemoth that was DQXI as I tend to space out my JRPG playthroughs. In my experience the stories tend to have a plodding, bloated nature to them can wear me down throughout a playthrough, with some exceptions. Bravely Default 2 had all the warning signs of such a story early on – four warriors of light hunting crystals travelling from town to town – however, the whole thing was packaged with just enough freshness to keep me engaged. I found all four members of the party very endearing in a very simple and one-dimensional way. I especially enjoyed Elvis and his lame humour, but they were all fantastic. Their interactions with different people across the cities were to me quite charming, they tackle interesting themes like using religion to take advantage of your followers, grief, and the struggles of leadership. The exploration of these themes does come across as fairly naïve, but I personally don’t expect much more than that from a game like this, especially with its style of presentation. I feel like the game could be edited down to a nice 40 hours from the 60 it took me (including doing about three quarters of the available side quests) by just cutting out a dungeon here or there, but I understand that they tried to attach a dungeon to each asterisk (job) that you collect. Bravely Default 2 strongly sticks its landing. The ending had me guessing right until its true end, and I think it thoroughly earns its cheesiness.

The presentation is the only part of the game I found lacking at times. The aesthetic is a mixed bag. I absolutely loved exploring the beautiful cities – where it is presented like an updated version of the old 3D character models on a 2D backdrop. The designs of the cities themselves were very creative and immediately engaging. I also liked the overworld exploration, where it’s a fully 3D miniature kind of exploration, like the old Final Fantasy’s. The camera was pretty whack in these overworld sections as you don’t have full tilt control over it so sometimes can’t see baddies running up to you. The character models really threw me off at first, but they slowly grew on me as charming. However, the performance of this game is pretty shocking. The framerate consistently drops both randomly and when performing certain tasks like talking to people, there are obvious frame pacing issues and even menu’s chug sometimes. I would have absolutely preferred a hit to the ambitious aesthetic of the game for some smooth performance. I found the music to be wonderfully old school, and the voice acting very solid, with a few occasional misses. Just the fact that it is voice acted is so novel for me in this style of game and I found it adds a lot to the characterisation of your party.

This is an absolutely easy recommend for me to anyone looking to recapture the style of games like the old school Final Fantasy’s.

As I was brushing my teeth and deeply contemplating to whom I should be giving my speed boosting buns (to my support character or to my physical attacker), I realized that some games just naturally consume me more than others, regardless of whether the game, in the absolute sense, is great or not. I am briefly reminded here of reading something from Neil Gaiman about the divide between books you enjoy and books that are good, and him siding with the former. I share the same sentiment in that I'd choose, albeit at times shamefully, things that I like over things that are universally aclaimed as great, as long as it's not hurting anyone.

I wish I find more games that has this effect on me. I like it - these kinds of thoughts are a lot better than others that usually occupy my mind, which often just leave me sad, frustrated, or misguidedly hopeful. Now if I could also find a research topic that would also have the same effect on me then that would also just be swell for my career.

Anyway, I'm leaning more into giving the support party member the bun now as more opportunities not just for healing but for buffs as well can't hurt in the long run now can it?

This is probably one of the most horribly unbalanced games I have ever played. I'm not really sure what the design philosophy behind the game is honestly. I started on "Hard" and much like many people, bosses were kinda kicking my butt. It's not because they were "Hard" either, it's because you have no way of knowing beforehand what kind of Counter abilities a boss has. At one point I had a boss that just countered physical, magic, halved damage on daggers, and probably more, so my current team just kinda fell apart. At that point I was like "Okay, I guess the game wants me to level up more jobs before proceeding." I did just that and got a plethora of useful abilities, such as the ABSOLUTE MUST HAVE "Dodge Phys Counters" and now.... the game's too easy. After leveling some jobs it becomes trivial to hit the damage cap of 9999 and bosses just completely fall apart. It falls into the same issue that Octopath Traveler had where you just Default until you have max Brave and just Brave x4 with no real strategy involved. I'm only 15 hours in, lvl 34 and I'm not sure what the game wanted me to do. I feel like I have post-game stats whilst still only being on chapter 3. There wasn't any particular effort involved either, the game provides you with the tools to grind JP extremely easily and Freelancer job's Forage lets you also easily get a ton of Ethers so you never have mp problems. Magic also feels insanely weak compared to any of the Phys jobs. Thief, a class you get relatively early, has a very silly skill that can do up to 18k damage with a single use whereas magic barely manages to squeeze out 2k-4k even on vulnerable targets. I'm going to assume there's a better Magic Job later on considering how early I still am. I think I just make a beeline to the end of the game, unlock the rest of the jobs, and hope the actual endgame/post game is... better I guess? Or maybe wait for a ridiculous difficulty spike? There IS a satisfaction of just clowning on bosses, but considering how early it's possible to do this, I really do wonder what the developers wanted us to do.

Chapter 2 job spoiler, but my goal right now is to figure out why Pictomancer exists as a job and how I can get this inexplicable job to reach dmg cap.