History VideoGame / BravelySecond

MechaMooks:

** The Iron Men, a series of egg/frog-shaped mechanical soldiers in service of the Glanz Empire. Turns out their creator was a former Eternian engineer who had been working on them during the events of the first game before the duchy was defeated, then later started making them for the Empire after the Kaiser was impressed enough by them to want them as a significant bulk of his army. The [[SuperPrototype first generation surprisingly remains the strongest in spite of them being deemed outdated models]], enough that they exist as part of the Empire's PraetorianGuard. The third and fourth generations' designs meanwhile are said to have had a big role in the creation of the Superdreadnought Bael and the Vucub Caquix.

** '''Catmancers''' and '''[[spoiler:Yōkai]]''' can learn monster abilities, the former by getting hit by said abilities and the latter by defeating {{Bonus Boss}}es, though Catmancy uses consumable items instead of MP.

** The {{Superboss}} can hit very hard with its assortment of abilities, but [[spoiler: if the Companion starts the round [=KOed=], she ''will'' use Call Comrade to resuscitate it. This counts as healing, of course, so as long as Winter Storm is in effect, the Adventurer is effectively helpless.]]
* AllPartOfTheShow: Played with. Florem's new pageant tries to consider both inner and outer beauty, and allows both men and women to compete in separate categories. [[spoiler: When Edea interrupts the show when the Empire attacks, and Alternis saves her from Geist, they win on the spot.]]

* AntiVillain: While [[spoiler: Norzen]] played this straight at first, like its predecessor, players find that the supposedly villainous group turned out to be this. [[spoiler: Kaiser Oblivion, aka Denys Geneolgia, wanted to kidnap Agnès and a time artifact to turn back time so the corruption of Eternia's Crystal Orthodoxy never happened, and many of his allies and followers (except for Angelo and Aimee) were victims before Braev reformed Eternia's Orthodoxy seventeen years before Bravely Second. Though some of the asterisk bearer's AntiVillain side were more prevalent by chapter 5. Bella and Cu Chulainn, for example.]]

** Subverted in the fight against [[spoiler: Yōko]]. [[spoiler:Ringabel]] does help you fight her, but he's not a controllable party member.
* ArcWords: ''"By what strange trick of fate do your paths cross anew?"'' [[spoiler: They become much more meaningful when you realize the narrator is Deneb, who has been watching over the party over the span of both games.]]

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: When Agnès asks [[spoiler: Magnolia if she's returning to the moon, she and Yew spend the rest of the story depressed about her having to leave.]]

* ArtisticLicenseEconomics: The "Salvaging The Economy" side story involves [[spoiler: deciding the current taxation laws on Grandship. Apparently, the government program to take care of orphaned children is so outrageously bloated and incompetently handled that the taxes needed to fund it require a feast at the Drunken Pig to cost ''millions''. If the player supports abolishing this program (with no other apparent changes to economic policy), the economy reverts to normal almost instantaneously; if the player supports keeping it in place, the citizens are able to keep up by making an even more nonsensical amount of money through exports.]]

** [[spoiler: The -ja level elemental magic spells, Firaja, Blizzaja, Thundaja, and Aeroja, are good and powerful.. but they cost 99 MP each, so you can't just use them willy-nilly unless you have a party setup that allows for easy MP restoration or casting spells for free.]]
** [[spoiler: Consume Life and Acid Breath are pretty good, but they do cost 2 BP each and aren't too useful against bosses. There is also Three Blades, which has the same cost, is even ''less'' useful against bosses, and generally tends to be outclassed by both Consume Life and Acid Breath (not least because while it can instantly halve a foe's HP, the chance of it doing so is only 50%).]]
** [[spoiler: Envy is useful, acting as a full-party Dispel along with debuffing both attack and defense stats, but again, it costs 99 MP to use. Sloth has the same cost and, instead of inflicting stat debuffs, inflicts all elemental weaknesses instead...but how often do you need enemies to be weak to more than one element at a time? The Patissier can already inflict elemental weaknesses, and for a lot cheaper. Finally, Pride keeps the same cost and dispel effect but instead buffs the user's attack and defense stats by 25% each...which is frankly underwhelming for this far into the game and that much MP.]]
** [[spoiler: Avarice absorbs 1 BP from every foe, but since it costs 3 BP to use, it's not repeatable unless you're up against at least four enemies, and of course it doesn't work on bosses.]]
** [[spoiler: Lust inflicts Charm status on all foes with a 50% trigger chance for each. Obviously, it doesn't work on bosses, and the same effect can be had with a Patissier fitted with the Items for All passive. At least this one only costs 20 MP.]]
** [[spoiler: Gluttony and Wrath are moves that are really only useful [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman in very specific situations]]. The former causes all party members to absorb all damage but get K.O.ed if they absorb enough that it would put their HP beyond maximum (which, unless you're using Dark Knights or Phoenix Flight, basically amounts to "great, now I'm taking damage that I can't heal off"), while the latter inflicts Berserk (with a 75% chance) on all enemies. And yes, they do still get the 50% P. Atk. bonus from it.]]
** [[spoiler: Finally, the only active ability unrelated to the "sin beasts", Disguise, allows you to essentially transform into a copy of another party member and use their job skills. It ''can'' be quite useful (for instance, if you have a Fencer in the party, you can activate Bloody Wolf before going to town with -ja spells or what have you), but it costs 1 BP to transform and 1 to transform back, and you can't transform and use the new job skills on the same turn (nor transform back and use your normal job skills on the same turn).]]

** [[spoiler: The party upon starting New Game+ and intervening with the opening battle]].

* BigNO: [[spoiler: Yew screams out one when Denys uses the compass to send him and Diamante to the far reaches of time.]]
* BookEnds: [[spoiler: Caldisla. It’s the first city visited in ''Default'', which is followed up by a trip to the Norende chasm. In ''Second'', it’s the '''last''' city visited... again followed up by a trip to the chasm. It’s even referred to as the "Land of Endings", in contrast to its title "Land of Beginnings" in ''Default''.]]

*** [[spoiler: At the end of Chapter 4, as the party is expressing their annoyance at Kaiser Oblivion getting away without them facing him once, Yew stops them, looking thoughtful, then directly addresses the player, knowing one little thing... Wasn't the HopelessBossFight Yew was in at the start of the game against Kaiser Oblivion? Cue the NewGamePlus unlock.]]

* CorruptChurch: You thought the Crystal Orthodoxy was bad in the first game? [[spoiler: Turns out they are even worse this time around. The Crystalguard in particular is shown to have been incredibly corrupt in the recent past and is pretty much the reason for almost every villain in the game joining the Glanz Empire in the first place. House Geneolgia in particular has a history of corruption and oppression, notably the founder as well as Yew's own father, who made his followers murder every member of the Crystalguard who were against surrendering to the newly-founded Duchy of Eternia, all for his own personal quest for wealth and power. Oh, and the Great Plague, whose victims the Orthodoxy quarantined and left to die, which was one of the reasons Braev founded the Duchy in the first place? Turns out the Plague was spread by the Orthodoxy itself!]]

* DarkestHour: The end of chapter 4. [[spoiler: Kaiser successfully goes back in time with Agnès and Anne displaces the moon before the party manages to kill her. With the moon gone, time stops and the world is cast with a perpetually washed-out color, Altair and Agnès become unable to provide the party with guidance, and the party is left with no choice but to appeal to ''divine intervention'' to do anything about it. As the final blow, Fort-Lune goes along with the Moon, and with no Ba'al Busters to intercept them en route to Luxendar, the Ba'als ''completely overrun'' the overworld, replacing all random encounters outside of dungeons with [[BossInMookClothing exceptionally powerful boss fights]].]]

* EverybodyLives: [[spoiler: After using New Game+ to go on in the story, the party spares the members of the Empire rather than killing them as they did the first time around.]]

* FatalMacGuffin: The Sword of the Brave is this to anyone that tries to wield it. Yew tried to obtain it, but his older brother Denys [[spoiler: aka Kaiser Oblivion]] tried to stop him, resulting in the sword [[AnArmAndALeg cutting off Denys' right arm]] and later being disowned by his family.

* FatalMacGuffin: The Sword of the Brave is this to anyone that tries to wield it. Yew tried to obtain it, but his older brother Denys [[spoiler: aka Kaiser Oblivion]] tried to stop him, resulting in the sword [[AnArmAndALeg cutting off the latter's right arm]] and later being disowned by his family.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Talking to one of the scholars in Al-Khampis after [[spoiler: the moon is destroyed]] has him remark that he detected the Kaiser traveling [[spoiler: not to the past, but 200 years in the future. This lets on that someone other than Yew's gang has put a spanner in the Kaiser's works...]]
** This bit requires quite a bit of grinding (or lots of friends to send you low-level ones), but fill the Ba'als' bestiary entries and you will notice Purple Pen/[[spoiler:Altair]] getting distraught by the scenes on the background. [[spoiler: You later indeed find out the Ba'als and the background are made from his and Vega's memories together]].

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* GoldfishScoopingGame: Yew and Magnolia play this together [[spoiler: as Altair and Vega did before them.]]

* GrandTheftMe: [[spoiler: One of the abilities of the guardian class is to possess people.]]

* InMediasRes: While the demo provides some backstory, the game proper opens up with a HopelessBossFight against Kaiser Oblivion, leaving questions about what happened beforehand to be answered in as the game goes on. [[spoiler: Subverted on NewGamePlus, wherein you have the opportunity to change your destiny by defeating Kaiser Oblivion then and there.]]

* IUhYouToo: In the Epilogue, [[spoiler: Agnès indirectly tells Tiz she wants to get married by saying she wants his last name, and Tiz says it's what he wants too.]]

** [[spoiler: The Ba'als are manifestations of Vega's pain from being left behind by Altair, weaponized by Providence.]]
** [[spoiler: Edea is secretly burying a lot of sadness from Ringabel's absence.]]
** [[spoiler: Late in the story, Magnolia and Yew are hurting deeply about her having to return to the Moon.]]
* LoveTranscendsSpacetime: [[spoiler: Altair says this. It's also Magnolia's final line to the Player.]]

** The levels of schools of magic has also been cut down to 6, with only two spells per level [[spoiler: Awakening and job level 11 usually add a seventh level, which has just one spell]]

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: As revealed in the very end on the game, [[spoiler: people in Moon only tell their real name to the one they marry. The player doesn't get to hear Magnolia's, though. [[FridgeBrilliance After all, she isn't marrying the player!]]]]
* OnlyOneName: Yōko, [[spoiler: Altair, Vega, and the true name of the Adventurer, Deneb.]]

* SanitySlippage: Geist, the Bloody became AxCrazy due to constant usage of Undo. [[spoiler: The fact that he left his son to die and had to put him in a suit of armour doesn't help him either.]]

* SequelHook: [[spoiler: After the credits, a short scene plays in which one can hear Ringabel speak of some sort of Three Keys and the Sword of the Brave, which was a plot device at the beginning of the game, being one of them. Works even better in Japanese where ''Bravely Sword'' sounds similar to ''Bravely Third''.]]
* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: [[spoiler: The main motive Kaiser Oblivion had aimed to make the Crystals go berserk again. He wanted to go back in time and kill Foundar Geneolgia, the first head of the Geneolgia family so the Crystal Orthodoxy wouldn't be as corrupt. His own followers (minus Angelo and Aimee who defected by Chapter 5 for a much peaceful and happy life) had their reasons too but they shared the same goal as the [[CorruptChurch corrupt main Crystal Orthodoxy at Eternia before the reform by Braev]] was the reason for all their DarkAndTroubledPast issues. Even if it meant that he and Yew would disappear.]]

** [[spoiler: Revenant]], the holder of the guardian asterisk who [[spoiler: died of sickness while his father, Geist, left to treat the Great Plague.]] His soul was placed in a suit of armor as a likely one for ''Franchise/FullmetalAlchemist''.

* ASinisterClue: Zigzagged with [[spoiler: Janne. When he's a playable character, his weapon defaults to his right hand like everyone else, but during cutscenes, he holds his sword in his left hand. He fights left handed full time as an enemy.]]

* SnowMeansLove: [[spoiler: Yew met Magnolia in the snow and presented her with a flower, like Altair did with Vega.]]

* TakingYouWithMe: When the party is not able to defeat [[spoiler: Diamante, who keeps regenerating itself, Denys decides to take himself and Diamante to the most distant future with the compass of time and space in order to save the present.]]

* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The opening cinematic, released as a trailer, [[spoiler: shows Tiz, Edea, Yew, and Magnolia as a party]].

-->'''Anne''' ''(facing the player)'': Oh, hello! [[spoiler: [[SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay I see fire in those eyes!]] ]]

* YouAllShareMyStory: Nearly all of the new asterisk bearers are revealed to be interconnected by the tale of the great plague; [[spoiler: Yōko carried it, Griede (Yew and Denys's father) freed Yōko and thus spread it, Geist was dispatched to exorcise it, Revenant was a victim of it, Minette's mother and Norzen researched a cure for it, and the fallout of its ravages caused Braev's rebellion against the church, which led to Janne, Bella, and Nikolai's sufferings.]]

* OffModel: [[spoiler:The Adventurer's fighting model]] still retains the same chibi size from the prequel. It becomes more jarring once [[spoiler:she reveals her identity as Deneb in the immediate fight after...and still looks smaller than your team, despite having shown at normal proportions at the end of the game]].