History YMMV / BravelySecond

** The sub-scenario sidequests involve not only needing pick between asterisks but also needing to pick a moral standpoint, as the asterisks holders are all in conflict over various issues and want you to side with them and fight you if you don't agree with them. Defeating an asterisk holder results in receiving their asterisk as well as preventing their plans from succeeding. This means that there's a chance that a job you want to have requires you to side with an opinion you don't agree with.

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks:

* MagnificentBastard: [[spoiler:[[PhantomThief Whitson]] is a criminal from a long family line of assistants who've served detectives in the past. He conspires with Madame Goldiga to murder her husband Lord Gulliver for his fortune, using a hidden passageway that no one was able to find quickly enough. When Argent Heinkel and Konoe Kikyo investigate the murder, Whitson lures one of them into a trap and impersonates them, [[MasterOfDisguise fooling almost everyone who was familiar with them]]. Despite failing in his goal of deterring aspiring detective Sholmes from his desired career, [[KarmaHoudini Whitson manages to escape justice]], clashing several times with Sholmes in the future.]]

** A very weird example where the character in question is ''[[spoiler:[[BreakingTheFourthWall yourself]]]]''. [[spoiler:Depending on how much you actually care about [[PlayTheGameSkipTheStory the characters over the gameplay]], [[VillainHasAPoint you may really be a]] JerkassGod [[VillainHasAPoint who's only helping the party for kicks.]]]]

* MagnificentBitch: Konoe Kikyo reappears, see ''YMMV/BravelyDefault'''s page for details.

** The localization removing cutsenes from the side quests. Some people are furious that the localization is removing content from the game, while others are glad they won't have to {{Save Scum|ming}} for all cutscenes, especially since some of the decisions render some content {{Permanently Missable|Content}}. [[spoiler: There are no good or bad endings. To explain: The first time a decision was made on either side of the sidequest, no matter which Asterisk was chosen, Edea could be seen second guessing herself and her decision. Upon the time reset, if the exact same decision was made again, choosing the same asterisk as before the time reset, Edea could be seen more sure of her decision. This meant that a player would have to play through the entire game twice to get 100% completion and all asterisks. The localization removed at least some of the endings where Edea was unsure of herself, cutting down on redundancy. Or more, a player would have to play through the game three times, if they wanted all the asterisks first, and all cutscenes later. After the outcry regarding Default's repetition, is there any wonder this was removed?]]

*** The game's opening HopelessBossFight plays out to this epic track, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5n9XY6Kd4U Battle of Oblivion]].

*** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvOEHr_jPsQ Battle of Tribulations]] is the battle music for fights against the new asterisk wielders. In contrast to the almost heroic "That Person's Name Is...", the intensity and dark, despairing chords fits the Glanz Empire to a tee, [[spoiler:especially after learning of their interlinked backgrounds on the tragedy of the Great Plague and corrupt Crystalguard.]]

*** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NE8Z0ZxPjQ Battle of Anne,]] the flamenco boss theme for this game's resident fairy, is especially fitting for facing off against [[spoiler:the one who was really pulling the empire's strings, [[DidYouJustScamCthulhu As well as the player's, from the beginning of the first game.]]]]
*** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxJJqucxTbQ The second version]] layers on the heavy electric guitar, OminousLatinChanting, and even '''''Dubstep''''', to show that she's not taken to kindly to [[spoiler:you [[NewGamePlus returning the favor.]]]]
*** [[spoiler:[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUJQqAjWFXk Diamante's theme]], full stop. Dark and twisted, complete with pounding bass, great guitar work and that haunting choir in the background. Highly appropriate for the KING of the Ba'als.]]

*** Most notably, the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIQDuaw4tzs Nemesis Ba'al theme]] is upgraded from a SecretBoss theme to match the increased presence of the Ba'als, making every battle with these [[EldritchAbomination monsters]] a sinister, heart-pounding joy to play through.
*** Furthermore, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCdWM4oGNbQ the track everyone loved, He of the Name/That Person's Name is]] from the first game is back in full force.

** Each of the [[BonusBoss Ba'al]] is designed to be deliberately unfair to fight against normally, each one requiring a different strategy to successfully defeat.

** Anne [[spoiler: [[SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay reprising her lines from the opening of the first game.]] ]]

** The sub-scenario sidequests involve not only needing pick between asterisks but also needing to pick a moral standpoint, as the asterisks holders are all in conflict over various issues and want you to side with them and fight you if you don't agree with them. Defeating and asterisk holder results in receiving their asterisk as well as preventing their plans from succeeding. This means that there's a chance that a job you want to have requires you to side with an opinion you don't agree with.

** Kamiizumi's event has the player choose whether they want to support Gho's decision to leave his current job or tell him to keep at it. The problem is, Gho has absolutely no reason to stay; He took the job under the impression that he would be using his knowledge of magic to improve the energy output of Ancheim's windmills. Instead, he spends the next month pushing a WheelOfPain with no evidence that he'll ever do anything else. What's his employer's excuse for this? They would let Gho do the job they hired him for, as long as he put up with them mistreating him for long enough. And if you tell Gho to take the entirely reasonable step of not working for an employer that considers hazing a vital part of worker orientation? Kamiizumi, the guy who's supposed to be a harsh but ultimately good-hearted mentor, tries to kill his former pupil Edea and her friends so [[HonorThyAbuser he can make Gho go back]].
** As pointed out on the main page, the absurdly high poor taxes that Alternis supports would result in the Grand Ship's economy collapsing while the tax reforms that Khamer proposes are not all that unreasonable. If you pick Khamer, it results in the Grandship flourishing and the citizens using their new wealth to help support the children who previously benefited from the taxes, but if you choose Alternis you get no such assurance that the Grandship won't go broke like Khamer predicted it would. Just a tacked on ending that reveals an increase of exports is allowing Grandship's citizens to make enough money just to get by, which would still lead to eventual stagnation.

** When rumors began circulating that the Tomahawk class would be replaced by a Cowboy class in the non-Japanese releases, opinions were quite mixed. Those not in favor of the change accuse the localization team of trying to be too [[PoliticalOvercorrectness "politically correct,"]] and say that people who are in favor of the change are "supporting censorship." Those in favor of the change say it was a good idea on the basis that it helps avoid any accusations of [[UnfortunateImplications racial stereotyping]] from select groups, and say that the people who aren't in favor of the change need to "get over it." [[TakeAThirdOption And then you have a third group]] who doesn't care either way since it doesn't involve any changes to the story or gameplay in a huge way. And a fourth group is in favor of the change on the grounds that the new Hawkeye is a far more thematically-appropriate name and design for a firearm-focused class.

* AnticlimaxBoss: Providence, especially when compared to his predecessor Ouroburos. Once you figure out how to get around his Mandate of Heaven + Divine Punishment gimmick, he becomes [[DisappointingLastLevel laughably easy.]] The [[{{Gamebreaker}} Spellcraft + Ectoplasm + MP Free in a Pinch combination]] and the myriad of strong magic-based classes available (''especially'' Yokai, which gives access to the strongest wind spell in the game) is enough to send this False God packing.

** Holly Whyte during the Hartschild sidequest. You are supposed to sympathize with her because her father was always at work and left her alone all the time, and that she doesn't want the little girl in that side quest to go through the same thing. However if you really think about it, Profiteur's plans (Making a trade route) could save BOTH the country and the little girl, plus there's no guarantee the same thing will happen again. What's worse is that [[FridgeHorror Hartschild is never brought up again if you side with Holly, Profituer just runs off and you don't even confront an NPC and tell them that things will get better. Hell, the little girl will probably have to repair the wreck of a house all by herself, and take care of herself and her grandfather, who will probably die in a few years, and leave her all alone.]] [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Which makes Holly look like a selfish brat who is willing to doom entire countries all because she hasn't moved on from her past.]] Even worse, Profiteur seems to be genuine this time; one of Holly's ways of defending her views is bringing up that Erutus is shacking up with pirates and former criminals, and giving them money. [[NotHelpingYourCase The party immediately realize Profiteur is trying to help the economic recovery by hiring former cons and pirates as a workforce so that they not only get an honest living doing actual work as dockhands, construction workers, and ore miners, something those rough-and-tumble types would be good at,]] [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments but also so they can defend the burgeoning trade route from other pirates. Given the very first sidequest in the game had Jackal, a rather sympathetic character, doing just that, it's hard to see Profituer as the villain this time.]] The economy is also stated to practically be in the toilet, as the wars the country is facing prevents trade by land and there's a shortage of ''everything'' but gems and minerals, which is something that could be easily solved by trading the [[WorthlessYellowRocks valuable-but-worthless]] materials they can get. At worst, Profiteur's being pragmatic and will make a tidy profit while ''saving a country'', and at best he's undergone a genuine HeelFaceTurn, and just happens to still love money. The scenario is ''supposed'' to be a 'the needs of the many versus the needs of the few' scenario, but when Profiteur's plan will still help the few, it's hard not to side with him.

* {{Woolseyism}}: "Hawkeye" is definitely a better name for TheGunslinger class than "Tomahawk", which implies the use of [[AnAxeToGrind axe-like weapons]].

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** One of the biggest complaints about the original ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'' was that having to go through a GroundhogDayLoop and refight every boss in the game three times [[EndingFatigue got extremely tedious after a while.]] This game addresses that, [[spoiler: you only go through one loop this time, and the way the story unfolds is distinct enough from the first world that it doesn't feel like a total replay.]]
** The other biggest complaint about ''Bravely Default'' is that much of the conflict relied on the protagonists and antagonists [[PoorCommunicationKills refusing to communicate with each other]]. In this game, the protagonists repeatedly ask why the antagonists are opposing them, and the antagonists are much more willing to explain their motives.
** Tying into this was how in the first game, many of the asterisk holders were [[VillainBall needlessly cruel and sadistic in what they did]]. However, in this game, not only are many of the empire's asterisk holders more sympathetic in background, but the returning asterisk holders have motives that give them much more depth and motives that in many cases will have players agreeing with some of them. Also, the asterisk wielders in the first game essentially got one/two moments to shine before their death, leaving them underutilized in the game. The sequel makes it where you fight most of the asterisk wielders several times as recurring threats.
** In the previous game, Jobs adjusted stats based on the level of the Job. This made switching to new Jobs a [[ScrappyMechanic risky and frustrating proposal]] because it meant taking a heavy statisical hit that would render your party members even more vulnerable than their newly-restricted movesets would suggest. While stats still scale based on Job level its influence has now been significantly reduced, making the swap a much less shaky proposal.

* WereStillRelevantDammit: The Japanese dialogue is filled with reference to Japanese memes, which many find to be annoying. Downplayed in the English dialogue, but there are still some snippets.

** When rumors began circulating that the Tomahawk class would be replaced by a Cowboy class in the non-Japanese releases, opinions were quite mixed. Those not in favor of the change accuse the localization team of trying to be too [[PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad "politically correct,"]] and say that people who are in favor of the change are "supporting censorship." Those in favor of the change say it was a good idea on the basis that it helps avoid any accusations of [[UnfortunateImplications racial stereotyping]] from select groups, and say that the people who aren't in favor of the change need to "get over it." [[TakeAThirdOption And then you have a third group]] who doesn't care either way since it doesn't involve any changes to the story or gameplay in a huge way. And a fourth group is in favor of the change on the grounds that the new Hawkeye is a far more thematically-appropriate name and design for a firearm-focused class.

** While Yew and Janne have a fairly brotherly relationship, it isn't difficult to see how some fans might read into some scenes. [[spoiler: Overlaps with FoeYay, down to Janne admitting in the third fight that no matter how much he tries, he can't bring himself to hate Yew.]]

* CompleteMonster: [[GreaterScopeVillain Lord Providence]] is the [[GodIsEvil ruler of the Celestial Realm]] and the source of all the game's misfortune, with all of [[TheHeavy Anne]]'s evil tracing back to him. After his takeover of the Celestial Realm, Providence [[EmotionEater nourishes himself]] off the utter despair of a woman named Vega, feeding off her depression over being separated from her lover Altair in the Celestial Realm while perverting her good memories to twist them into the monstrous Ba'al. Providence's plan to keep Vega as a food source for him forever is to allow the Ba'al to ravage Luxendarc before he plunges the world into despair and annihilates it, all for the purpose of permanently breaking Vega's lingering hope. After the death of Anne, Providence [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou personally confronts the heroes]] and tries to obliterate Luxendarc himself, merrily noting that Luxendarc's destruction would be "pointlessly absurd"--a sentiment he considers amusing. With the worst master plan in the series, Providence manages to beat out even Ouroboros in sheer, unmitigated sadism.

** The FinalBoss of the game [[spoiler:messes with your save files, can attack while you're on the menu screen, and breaks the fourth wall to [WhatTheHellPlayer call out the player for messing with the game's characters for their own sick amusement]]]]. ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', which came out a few months after this game, has route-specific final bosses that also do these things.

* EvenBetterSequel: Overall, most fans agree that ''Bravely Second'' is a notable improvement over ''Default'', with most of the praise going to the story, characters, new jobs, and refined gameplay. It helps that the most common criticism about ''Default'', the GroundhogDayLoop that made [[DisappointingLastLevel the second half]] [[EndingFatigue feel stagnant]] and [[FakeLongevity repetitive,]] is gone entirely in ''Second'', as [[spoiler:you only go through one loop this time, and even then it's different enough so that it doesn't feel like a retread of the first half.]]

** Kamiizumi's event has the player choose whether they want to support Daniel's decision to leave his current job or tell him to keep at it. The problem is, Daniel has absolutely no reason to stay; He took the job under the impression that he would be using his knowledge of magic to improve the energy output of Ancheim's windmills. Instead, he spends the next month pushing a WheelOfPain with no evidence that he'll ever do anything else. What's his employer's excuse for this? They would let Daniel do the job they hired him for, as long as he put up with them mistreating him for long enough. And if you tell Daniel to take the entirely reasonable step of not working for an employer that considers hazing a vital part of worker orientation? Kamiizumi, the guy who's supposed to be a harsh but ultimately good-hearted mentor, tries to kill his former pupil Edea and her friends so [[HonorThyAbuser he can make Daniel go back]].

* SidetrackedByTheGoldSaucer: Bet you didn't think it was possible to get sidetracked by doing (almost) ''absolutely nothing'', did you? Let Chompcraft prove you wrong. One Party Chat even lampshades how addicting it is.

* {{Woolseyism}}: "Hawkeye" is definitely a better name for TheGunslinger class than "Tomahawk", which implies the use of axe-like weapons.