Bravely Default

[Broncos]

The demo really doesn't give the game the necessary props and thumbs up that it deserves.
Right off the bat, the story goes from "hmm" to "aalllriight!". Overall it's still building, more questions than answers; at least from where I'm at in the game. It's full of humor and suspense without revealing too much.

All four characters can adapt to each "class"/"job", really. It's up to the player to decide what role you want to bestow upon the character.

 

[Nah]

1) How's the story? Is it any good?

It seems pretty good so far; quite an interesting approach full of mystery and what's gonna happen next~


2) How predisposed are the characters to certain classes? Do they each faire a better in certain classes, or do they all do pretty well in any class?

Actually, I think any class can work with any character; the difference in stats is pretty small, with Edea has slightly better Physical Attack, Ringabel has slightly better speed, Tiz having good all-round stats, and Agnes having good Magic Attack, but, really, you can do almost anything so long as you have a good strategy to back it up!

The demo really doesn't give the game the necessary props and thumbs up that it deserves.
Right off the bat, the story goes from "hmm" to "aalllriight!". Overall it's still building, more questions than answers; at least from where I'm at in the game. It's full of humor and suspense without revealing too much.

All four characters can adapt to each "class"/"job", really. It's up to the player to decide what role you want to bestow upon the character.

That's good. I was hoping that the game's class/job system would actually be flexible and not be like "weeeeeell, you CAN change classes/jobs, but its better to have certain characters do certain classes/jobs". So yay.

But it'll probably be a while until I can actually get the game...

 

[Sheep]

Just started my game last night - only an hour in so far! Playing on easy mode because I am not at all used to these turn-based RPGs having only played one or two. Still finding it a bit hard so far. 8( But that's because I didn't stock up on potions and antidotes going into the centro keep. Darn those cait siths!

 

[Nah]

As it turns out, I was able to buy Bravely Default and the other things I wanted to. Stuff was cheaper than I thought.

 

[Entermaid]

I need lots of characters and customizations from a JRPG to stay interested, and Bravely Default is one of few games that balances the characters and storyline with the player's control over class customization. (Which only increases the replay value.)

The brave/default mechanic is like nothing I have seen before. It makes the game more interesting balancing number of offensive attacks, defense, and specialty moves all in one. (Not sure if all of these classes are available at the beginning of the actual game though.)

Further, more than anything, aesthetics, in both character design and environment, is a must. This game is highly stylistic, crisp, colorful, and balances realism with animated pop-art.

Oh, and the monster designs, open map, and music just happen to be great too!

Of all JRPG's offered on the 3DS, nothing I have played or youtube'd has come close to this. I rarely am persuaded by the demos either.

I will definitely purchase this game along with Conception II. (And Persona Q in the summer!)

This is for sure the year of the beautiful/stylish, innovative, and exciting JRPG's on the 3DS!

 

[bobandbill]

The brave/default mechanic is like nothing I have seen before. It makes the game more interesting balancing number of offensive attacks, defense, and specialty moves all in one. (Not sure if all of these classes are available at the beginning of the actual game though.)

No, and some of them are more towards the 2nd half of the game too. You get classes gradually, but it doesn't take too long to have a good number of options to play around with. (Plus they have more levels and hence abilities to test out than in the demo too).

 

[Netto Azure]

Well I've pretty much just no lifed this game through this past week and level capped all the jobs, fought/stole items on all the asterisk bosses. But now I'm too lazy to reach the 999k Cap on Bravely Second. Could only reach 105k on normal buffs sadly.

Anyways I have a serious question about the ending.

Spoiler:

So in both the false and true ending we see Ringabel leave a flower on the deck of the Grandship (Signifying the loss of his world's party) and in the True ending we see him deciding to fight Airy instead of becoming frozen with fear. Does this mean that he developed the power to go back in time? (Akin to the implied way Agnes did to warn Lord DeRosso and Yuruyana in the False ending)

Still if so, this ending disappoints me as it truly discounts his quite long journey and experiences with the Warriors of Light. You've seen him grow as time went on in the game and he/Edea did become closer over time. So simply abandoning that experience and saving his world's team is just grating for me. But that's just an interpretation since we do see in Ringabel's journal that he was with Egil, Edea and Agnes when they found Tiz in a coma near Til's grave.

Also, knowing that you, the player and Airy's sister has been providing the life force to keep Tiz's corpse going is quite creepy. XD But kinda fun in a dark way.

Personally, I would have preferred the Warriors of Light to have taken the Yulyana option where they replace their dead counterparts in the Ch. 6 World. XD

Anyways, some things that kinda grated on me :P

 

[bobandbill]

Anyways I have a serious question about the ending.

Spoiler:

I think it could be taken in a few ways; he went back in time/another world, or it's another Ringabel doing so. I think it's possible too that he goes back to save (a) team temporarily - that'd explain that he may also be back with the others six months later and all to update the journal.

Airy having a sister and all was quite the surprise, have to say. I wonder how much Tiz knew then - he seemed to know about her given what she said, but did he know earlier about Airy's true nature?

 

[Netto Azure]

Yeah...

Spoiler:

I'm starting to think that the Tiz we've been playing with all along is from a different world if he did know about the true story. He's been kinda laid back through the entire game. O_O

 

[Nah]

Been playing some lately, I'm still early in the game (level 12, at the Wind Temple) and have a few questions:


1) How customizable are special attacks, and does the party share the same 3 special attacks, or can they each have their own set of special attacks?
2) The Send command. I don't understand it.
3) iirc, there's a job called "Performer". Does it not totally suck at fighting, or is it kinda restricted to supporting/buffing/debuffing?

 

[bobandbill]

Been playing some lately, I'm still early in the game (level 12, at the Wind Temple) and have a few questions:


1) How customizable are special attacks, and does the party share the same 3 special attacks, or can they each have their own set of special attacks?
2) The Send command. I don't understand it.
3) iirc, there's a job called "Performer". Does it not totally suck at fighting, or is it kinda restricted to supporting/buffing/debuffing?

You can change the name of the special attacks/what is said at the end of them by the character, is all. As for what are available, you unlock more with the Norende rebuilding, and what one your character can perform depends on the type of weapon they are wielding (which also then have different requirements for performing them, e.g. brave 10 times, or do critical hits 5 times, and whatnot). Dual wielding two types gives you the ability to select a special attack of either weapon too.

Note you can build up special attacks across battles too (e.g. brave 10 times in a bunch of random battles before a boss, and then actually use it in that battle).

Select send before an attack, and anyone who has got you on their friends/encountered list can use your attack in a battle. Summon uses someone else's attack.

Performer is a while off for you. It's only okay for fighting I suppose (others do better with damaging), but great for buffing stats and also BP if you get it to a high enough level (or even debuff enemies which abuse storing bp). Not bad as a second job command choice.

 

[Arc]

So, I just finished Bravely Default just a few days ago and it was a pretty amazing experience. Everything about the game was just well done and polished. To the battle system, to the soundtrack, to the dialogue, all of it was fantastic (except for Chap. 5-8, but the side quests were amazing). I would rave more and more, but I'll probably write up a review sooner or later.

Now about the story and ending. SPOILERS.

Spoiler:

I thought the story was pretty good. I wasn't exactly surprised at the twist of Airy being evil, since I pretty much called it at Chapter 3. But I do question the origins of Airy, Airy's sister, and Ouroboros. Was both Airy and her sister spawned from Ouroboros? And where did Ouroboros come from? I can only assume he came from the Celestial Realm or something of the sort, if he knew about how their civilization functioned.

And Tiz! I knew he had something at least special about him. I wish they hinted at the Celestial inside him a little bit earlier, but whatever. It seems like Tiz was aware of his situation with the Celestial based off his last lines. Also, did anyone notice that when he was in the tube being healed, he was inside Victoria's room or something similar? Meaning that he would have to be in Eternia.

I'm sure most of my questions will be resolved in Bravely Second, but it's still nice to ponder. Also, apparently in the background for Bravely Second, there is a fish-like Nemesis fighting two air ships. If my ears aren't deceiving me, do I hear Julie Ann Taylor as Magnolia?! If so, <3

 

[Sydian]

Got home to find that my copy came in today! This is just something I wanted since I saw the praise it's gotten and it was a gift anyway, so yeah. Gonna start it up after I shower. I'm afraid that if I start before, I won't get one. :P

 

[Netto Azure]

Performer is great as a sub-class. People spam My Hero with the Mimic ability of Freelancers and have the passive Time Magician ability Hasten World to increase Brave Points.

Also Buff Up ability from performers is really good for long boss battles.

This is my favorite BGM from the entire game. So addicting to listen to.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ9LK6vsWbY[/ame]

 

[Raine]

The singer of the vocalized version also sung a couple from the Final Fantasy XIII soundtracks; her voice is very nice to listen to :) I feel like I haven't made much progress story-wise because with my OCD-ness for grinding my characters OTL For those who have finished it, how long did it take you?

 

[Netto Azure]

My time to do all the story stuff and sub quests plus Job Level grinding cap took 60+ hours. XD

 

[Raine]

My time to do all the story stuff and sub quests plus Job Level grinding cap took 60+ hours. XD

D: I think I'm probably 20-30 hours into the game and still on Chapter 2. The job grinding gets painfully hard once they reach 10+ OTL And not all of my characters have the 1.2 JP bonus so it takes a while at this point...And I'm surprised I like the Spell Fencer class as much as I do; I like having Edea as it, keke.

 

[Netto Azure]

You can grind better once you rebuild a certain point in Norende and can buy the Golden and Growth eggs.

 

[Sydian]

Really glad I decided to go for this game. I love the characters, the gameplay is fun, and the music is great!

By the way, after you defeat the Frenchie Merchant, is that the end of that sidequest? I feel like there's more but I'm not sure since I don't see another blue exclamation on my map. lol

 

[bobandbill]

Really glad I decided to go for this game. I love the characters, the gameplay is fun, and the music is great!

By the way, after you defeat the Frenchie Merchant, is that the end of that sidequest? I feel like there's more but I'm not sure since I don't see another blue exclamation on my map. lol

There's more to it, but you won't see the blue exclamation mark until you do a bit more plot (still within the chapter though I believe). Hint with that next sidequest btw - you'll have to go check it out at nighttime, and sleeping in inns makes it day again too.