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A Bravely Default Review

Nah

15,926
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10
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  • Age 31
  • Seen today
I was bored and was like "hey let's write a little Bravely Default review" So here we are.


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Bravely Default Review

Bravely Default, as know as Bravely Default: Flying Fairy and Bravely Default: For the Sequel is a JRPG made by Square Enix for the Nintendo 3DS that was originally released in 2012 in Japan. An updated version (For the Sequel) was released a year later (it was also released in Europe), and it finally came to North American shores in early 2014. It's been labeled as a spiritual successor to the Final Fantasy series, and a sequel, titled Bravely Second, was announced late last year.

But now for the review stuff. I'ma break it down into 3 sections.

Graphics/Audio:

Being on the 3DS, you shouldn't expect Bravely Default's graphics to be the most amazing you've ever seen, but as far as 3DS games go, it looks pretty good. Character models look nice and the overall animation is solid. The most interesting part is the art style. Bravely Default sports a unique art style I've never seen anywhere else, and it gives the game a bit a of charm. But rather than explain what it looks like, here's pretty pictures for you:

Spoiler:


Spoiler:


The cutscenes (even though there's very few of them) look great as well.

As for the audio, Bravely Default has one of the best soundtracks I've heard. But instead of me talking about it, just go and give it a listen:

-Love's Vagrant
-Ship Soaring Through the Heavens
-That Person's Name Is....

The game's sound effects are fine, and the voice acting is pretty good overall as well (and if someone starts going on about how the Japanese audio is better, I'm going to have a conniption).


Gameplay:

This is Bravely Default's greatest strength. Bravely Default's battle system is a classic turn-based system that breathes life into this tried-and-true method by introducing the "Brave" and "Default" commands. While the game is turn-based, the actions you can perform is based on the amount of BP you have. Using Default stores up BP for you while doubling as the defend command. Brave eats up BP in order for you to perform more attacks or powerful moves. Managing your character's BP adds another tactical layer to your battles.

Spoiler:


Bravely Default also spices up the old character class system. Like in so many JRPGs, your characters can be of several different classes with different abilities. There's some RPG staples like Black Mage and Thief, but Bravely Default also has several unique classes as well, such as Templar and Valkyrie for you to play with. What's more is that you can assign a character a secondary job, effectively allowing you to mix and match character classes. Want your Knight to be able to cast support spells? You can do that. Think it'll be funny to have a White Mage that can also smash enemies aside? Be my guest. Making it even better is the fact that the characters can all do any of the classes equally well. No more of that crap where you can choose any class but are actually limited in selection because certain characters are predisposed towards certain roles. There's about 23 classes in all, btw.

Spoiler:


The game also makes use of the 3DS's connectivity features. People registered in your 3DS Friends List who also play Bravely Default can help you out on your journey. The Abilink feature allows you to link your characters with the characters of a friend and gain abilities that you don't currently have. Really need your Tiz to be a White Mage, but you're too lazy to grind so he learns the skills you need? Abiliink him with your friend's Tiz who's already a skilled White Mage and you're good to go! You can also summon your friend's characters in battle to help you out. Is that one boss too tough? Summon a powerful friend's character to smite your foe with a super powerful special attack. You can even return the favor by Sending a move of your own for your friends to Summon. There's also a little side distraction where you build up a village, and more friends means more people to build the village faster. Even though the village building thing is rather simplistic, it's still nice to have nonetheless.

Then comes grinding. Such a divisive word. Everyone either loves or hates grinding in RPGs. Fortunately in Bravely Default, grinding is relatively painless thanks to the ability to alter the difficulty and battle speed at any time, as well the ability to set the game to "auto-battle" (so long as you've provided it with commands to execute beforehand). You also get an airship reasonably early in the game, which helps significantly.

Story and Characters:

This is unfortunately Bravely Default's greatest weakness, which is a big no-no in JRPGs. The game's 4 protagonists are all the same boring archetypes you've seen before if this isn't your first JRPG. Edea is the idealistic, headstrong, and stubborn girl. Tiz is the every-man/best friend character who's also got shonen hero syndrome because he can do anything despite being some nobody from a little village before the game starts. Agnes is the sheltered, high status young woman who has issues with the outside world. Even Ringabel, the most interesting of the 4 (and my favorite character in the game), falls into the archetype of the enigmatic philanderer who may or may not have ulterior motives. Oh, and he also has amnesia. Like that isn't a JRPG cliche. It's worsened by the fact that Tiz, Agnes, Ringabel, and Edea show very little character growth throughout the story. The various villains you encounter throughout the game have somewhat interesting and/or amusing personalities for the most part, but they tend to lack depth. Well, they do have a little depth, but by the time you get to see it, you kinda stopped caring already. Why's that? That would be because of the story itself.

The story is a pretty standard "4 heroes (who were total strangers until the game begins) unite to save the world from darkness" plot. Oh, and there's the 4 elemental crystals. Because clearly no good RPG can go without the cliche 4 elements as part of the storyline. Now it wouldn't be so bad if that was the worst of the story. But unfortunately, the game does something I find to be pretty terrible.
BIG ASS SPOILER ALERT
Spoiler:

END BIG ASS SPOILER ALERT

So yeah, that's why you kinda stop caring about the story after a certain point. Also, the ultimate evil guy is a standard JRPG villain too. =/

Final Words:

Now, this is usually the part where the reviewer gives a summary of their review and slaps a numerical score on the game. But I'm not gonna do that. If you really wanted to read a review for a game, you would've read all the above and a summary is kinda pointless. If you came only to read the review summary, you shouldn't have come at all. If you want a short synopsis of the game and an idea of whether it's any good or not, just ask around.

I don't want to assign a number score to the game because this review is not a set in stone fact of the game's quality. As objective as anyone can try to be when reviewing a game, a review will never be truly objective and is little more than a glorified opinion. Not to mention that what makes a game good varies from person to person. Sure, I think Bravely Default has one of the best OSTs in recent memory and freshens up the old JRPG gameplay but has a ****** storyline and meh characters, but not everyone will agree. And what matters at the end of the day is how YOU feel about the game, not what some stranger thinks.


So, anyway, there's my first ever game review. Feel free to comment on the review and tell me how it was decent or that this was the best review you've ever seen or how I don't know what the **** I'm talking about and should be subjected to Chinese water torture for not agreeing with your opinion on the game or whatever it is you wanna say. Addio!

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BUT WHAT ABOUT RINGABEL'S HAIR?! I'm pretty sure it fixes 2/3 of the character cliches by its gravity-defying awesomeness. Just look at it in that gif at the end.

Outside of Ringabel's hair, I do agree with most of this review. I do wish you would have made the section for character classes bigger since, for me, it is the BIGGEST selling point of the game. Being able to use other class's commands and mixing abilities is what makes this game interesting (again, personal opinion). I love that there is classes and abilities that seem better as secondary jobs instead of primary ones. You could pretty much just make this review about the classes in the game if you wanted (which I know is dropping a lot of the game but having to fight everyone again and again without the characters having any kind of hang ups is kind of annoying).
 
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