Bravely Default Series

I didn't really play the demo past trying a few battles and looking at all the job skills, but I got the strange feeling that they were trying to recreate the original Bravely Default in almost every way, with the party having roughly the same dynamic between its characters (normal guy, goofy guy, serious girl, playful girl) and even placing the demo in the desert town, just like the original Bravely Default demo.

I'm still excited for it, and obviously this series has loved to turn our preconceptions on their heads with the story, but I find it disconcerting how little they seem to want to stray from a formula that worked.

Edited by Clarste on Mar 26th 2020 at 7:22:09 AM

For what it's worth, I thought BS was a lot better than BD. And I'm saying that as someone who enjoyed BD.

The demo seems odd in some ways. Combat is harder than expected, though the game does warn you about that. And the party dynamic does seem almost identical to BD, though it's a bit too early to say if the actual personalities are different. Gloria and Adelle seem different from Agnes and Edea, but I'm seeing similarities that worry me a little.

It's hard to be sure because the demo takes place after the beginning of the game and the character introductions.

Bravely Second has its faults, but I like it more than the original for sure.

Japanese Bernard from Default 2 is Takaya Kuroda. Does the Kazuma Kiryu battle cry and everything.

On a similar note, after several attempts I finally beat him. I really hope the game's AI is similar in the final game, he's pretty damn tough and makes really good strategic and difficult to predictable use of the Brave system - the old strategy of Defaulting until you're full and unloading simply doesn't work.

Edited by Hashil on Mar 27th 2020 at 3:11:55 AM

its really good, but nothing will have the same oomph as That Person's Name Is

It could still be a WIP, IIRC Seconds Asterisk theme was also incomplete in the demo and looped a lot more than the final version.

I liked Battle of Tribulations more than That Person's Name Is.

Honestly, kinda same. I really liked That Person's Name Is, but Battle of Tribulations had a different, also very solid style to it. I like both roughly equally, since I feel they work for their respective games better. Default's Asterisk holders were for the most part fairly disjointed and goofy, so the more upbeat, lively tempo fit the goofier group. Second's Asterisk holders meanwhile felt more menacing and malevolent a lot of the time, so they were more appropriately accompanied by a more menacing theme.

I haven't played the demo, but I hope this game has a non-evil fairy in it.

help I realized I was lost at starting a file halfway through so I started BD again from the beginning

maybe this is why my backlog is so big

I liked Default, but Second... I've just never been able to get into it. The plot feels disjointed, the bosses seem way too powerful, the Job Masters who were evil in the last one suddenly aren't for no reason, and I'm kind of uncomfortable with the Melia/Kamiizumi sidequest because Kami's side seems to be that employers lying to prospective hirees and hazing are okay because Misery Builds Character.

Second is weird, because you get no explanation for the Job guys in the last game unless you read a tie-in manga. And them living after Edea killed them isn't explained until the end of the game.

This weeks famitsu will feature some new BD 2 infos + a new artwork◊

Hope to see some info on some new asterisk bearers and, by proxy, classes.

What they give you a look at for II is hilarious because it's such a blatant case of Easy Levels, Hard Bosses. Once you trudge through all the hornets and snakes the thief man is hilariously easy to take out.

Playing the demo for II got me so hype I grabbed my copy of Second and started playing it again. I dropped it when I was about twenty hours in but I take my sweet time. Just discovered the local Wutai.

Oh and for the record Seth seems far, far more Hot-Blooded than then timid Tiz or bookish Yew.

Edited by ShirowShirow on Apr 17th 2020 at 1:53:08 PM

I think you mean Hard Levels, Easy Bosses.

I do! They used to be the same trope! XD

The new aggro stat makes all the difference in a lot of ways. Vanguards are excellent tanks.

I'm not sure I'd describe Tiz as timid.

Soft-spoken, then. Everything is relative in any case.

I forgot how much this series loves to inflict Punny Name on people. It rivals Dragon Quest.

I played the non-punny Dragon Warrior/Quest games for years so when the pun transition happened I had to relearn the names of almost every spell.

Edited by lalalei2001 on Apr 18th 2020 at 1:33:50 AM

I would under no circumstances call Tiz timid. Soft spoken maybe, but it was more like he was the Straight Man for the rest of his party to have shenanigans around.

Fuck off Angelo I had just changed everyone's classes and hadn't saved in hours.

I'm at Chapter 3 of my final playthrough of BD (Hard). For all its flaws, this game is so damn fun. The QOL helpers like the encounter rate slider and auto-battle really do a great job at removing the more tedious parts of JRP Gs and leaving just the real meat, though there's still a few mechanics I'm not too fond of (Examine meaning you have to waste (pre-Mimic anyway) a job slot on Freelancer, semi-randomized turn order, all the nonsense about First Strikes and such). Still, it's very easy to just sit down and play for hours at a time. One small quibble is that it takes until about halfway through chapter 2 for there to be real room to experiment with builds and ability combos, which is a bit of a shame since that's the game's biggest draw — I remember way back when it first dropped, the BD demo let you get jobs like Ninja and Red Mage very early (Ancheim) so you could try out a bunch of cool combos and get a taste for the combat system. There's also that Two-Handed is such a mandatory pick for physical classes for the better part of the game (until you get real dual-wielding classes, level 14 Monk for Natural Talent, or bows) that they might as well just make it a core mechanic. Other than those minor complaints, it's still as fun (and pretty, and has as amazing a soundtrack) as I remembered.

Would you like a delicious cake in this trying time?

After playing the BDII demo a few weeks back, I decided to finally start the first one on 3DS (part of my lengthy backlog). I'm actually having a ton of fun with the Job system, even without the Qo L improvements from the BDII demo (and there's a decent case to be made that not knowing which skill you'll learn next is fun in its own way).

Currently on Chapter 2, and I'm loving the small builds I'm learning along the way. Thieves with Knuckle Lore, White Mages with Two-Handed Iron Poles, Rangers w/ Elemental Bows... and having just unlocked Valkyrie and Red Mage, I'm looking forward to finding more .

I do have a question, though: whenever one of my character levels up, are their stat growths influenced at all by the job they currently have equipped? Like, if I've been using Ringabel in all sorts of Magic Jobs, will his speed and defense suffer in the long run?