Game Review: Bravely Default!

For a look at my first impressions of Bravely Default click here!

Warning: Minor Spoilers Ahead!
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This past weekend, I cleared through my first play through of Square Enix's Bravely Default for the Nintendo 3DS. The game was initially released 2 years ago in Japan and got a North American release in February of this year. For those that have been somewhat disappointed by the recent entries in the Final Fantasy series, you may want to look into playing this. Bravely Default brings back the classics of the 8/16bit era Final Fantasies and other RPGs. I'm talking fantasy setting, end all/be all Bringer of Doom, conflicted beliefs from opposing factions, you know all that good stuff! The game opens up utilizing the system's AR and gyroscope as you follow an image of Agnes (ahn-yes) who pleads that you're the only one who can save her world from being doomed.

You then witness cinematic segments introducing the 4 main characters (Agnes included) ending with one's village being swallowed up and creating a huge chasm! Soon everyone winds up meeting in a beginning village/realm and go out awakening the crystals. OLD SCHOOL RPG AHOY! Bravely Default introduces a new mechanic which is known as "Brave" and "Default". To quickly go over what this entails, in battle you save up points which is known as BP by Defaulting. Default is basically like guarding for a turn. The more BP's you have, the more you can Brave which allows you to do various actions in 1 turn. Attack 3 times, use an item, that kind of stuff.

How the top and bottom screens look in Battle!

The game's Job System was definitely enjoyable for me. Normally I don't enjoy them as I feel like it's too much to juggle but mixing jobs for a robust team was loads of fun! When you level up a job, you gain special abilities which you can add on to your character. Each character can have one other Job function in addition to the default one given by what job you're in. For example, my Edea was proficient in the Black Mage and Ninja jobs. So while she's a Ninja, she can also have the ability to cast Black Magic! Regarding extra abilities, she could have some gained from the Monk class, Knight, etc.

The jobs themselves were super interesting. There's a freaking Vampire class you can gain later in the game. Templars have a high defense and attribution to light moves. Spell Fencers specialize in adding an element/status ailment to their weapon strikes. Merchants hurl MONEY! Rangers can use bows, the list goes on and on. It's all about constructing a well balanced team with the most robust selection of abilities. You can also do fights with everyone as a Dark Knight and rain down hell.

Gorgeous Visuals

For a game on the 3DS, the music and visuals are top notch. As you would probably expect from a game made by Square Enix. There are also tons of customization options to tailor the game to suit you. For one, there is an option to turn down the frequency of random battles popping in dungeons and the world map. I used this mainly in the later half of the game (final area actually) when I went back and forth to heal up and prep myself. You can also at any point change the difficulty of the game. For me I had lots of struggles in Chapter 1 or 2 I can't remember. After much frustration I decided to turn down the difficulty to Easy for the rest of the game. Truth be told this allowed me to enjoy the story a lot more! You don't also reach points where you have to grind levels/job levels too often but they're there!

That's right, you can be a PIRATE!

Speaking of which, the story was amazing. I feel that the voice actors did an awesome job. Though I admit Agnes was a bit annoying when she talked, especially when she screamed...ow my ears. Ringabel is definitely one of my favorite characters, as was Lord Derosso. So much that I'm very tempted to cosplay as Ringabel sometime next year should everything fall into place! For the StreetPass functionality, you can increase the population of the village of Norende as you attempt to rebuild it after it was destroyed. There are shops and obstacles you can clear that take a varied amount of hours to complete. The more people you assign to a shop, the faster it'll be finished. These shops award weapons, armor, special move parts and more!

Friends you meet can also be summoned in battle and do a 1-turn move. This can be a simple attack or a special move which can leave your entire party buffed as those moves do. You can chain special moves and have your party set with various amounts of buffs. So long as the kick ass character theme doesn't end :). Multiple jobs you can unlock, a compelling story, intricate battle system, Bravely Default has it all.

MORE GORGEOUS VISUALS

One of my only other complaints has to be what many others warned me about when I started playing. The later half of the game involves you repeating the same thing 4 more times and they were right. It's annoying as all hell, regardless, it shouldn't do a whole lot to turn you away from this game. I'm so ready for the upcoming sequel! I hope I gave you all enough details on this RPG!

Should you Play this Game?
Yes! If you're looking for an old-fashioned JRPG to give you lots of game time alongside a beautiful story, this is the game for you. If you're not up to the long haul, then feel free to skip. RPG fans, don't miss out!