30.1.2014

If you're going to rip off a series then you damn well better rip it off from its good period and, in Bravely Default (BD), that's exactly what we've got. This is, in fact, an excellent Final Fantasy game from the series' strongest point. It stands up (mostly) as a companion piece to FFIV-VI, with lovely graphics, an excellent and cleverly thought through battle system and tons and tons of content. If it weren't for a few issues you could go so far as to call it a masterpiece. But, sadly, those issues are there and they're intrusive enough that you can't look past them.Shepard Tiz is out with his sheep and his younger brother one day when... a huge hole opens up in the ground and swallows his village,his flock and, most tragically, his brother. He falls unconscious and... the plot begins. From there, it's your typical FF story: crystals, an apparently evil empire, the end of the world, airships, archetypal characters, twists, betrayals, all those things for which the series became so well known, they're pretty much all here in one way or another.That's great and there's more good news: the battle system not only takes bits and pieces from the series better ideas X-2 dress sphere (Okay so X2 mostly sucked but the dress sphere stuff was good) which allows you kit out your characters in all sorts of combinations from twenty four different roles. It's a truly flexible and intriguing system. If you have any kind of interest in this sort of game mechanic, then, in this aspect, BD has hit it out of the park. It's glorious and you can keep on gaining new jobs till quite close to the end.Then there's the bit for which the game's named, the Brave/Default mechanic. This is another excellent concept. It allows the player to either spend up to four turns in advance, or to bank turns so that you can spend them later. This, again, makes for huge flexibility in your fighting and, given the occasionally massive difficulty spike in boss battles, it's highly welcome. It's also welcome if you want to spend time levelling up the afore mentioned jobs, as with a proper use of brave you can floor most normal enemies in random encounters in a single round. Added to this you also have the chance to set up the system to auto battle for you, so you can run about the field, get a random encounter and, a couple of seconds later, xp and loot. For power gamers it's seriously sweet. Hell, you can even, right from the beginning, set up the game to give you anything no random encounters right up to getting them practically every six steps.In all these regards BD is an exceptional piece of work and beautiful to look at, for 3DS game. And, really, given just how cleverly, how thoughtfully, how gracefully, the designers have worked in creating these aspects it truly pains me that I've got to now rain on the parade.What causes the game to fail to achieve it's true potential? Well there are several aspects. The first and maybe most obvious, is that, unlike, say, FFIV or FFVI the plot of Bravely Default (Which is a terrible, terrible title, even if it does call attention to one of the games better points) is dull. It's not terrible and it does have a few welcome surprises in it. But, really, it just doesn't cut it. In particular it fails to be as mature, as impactful, as moving as, say the story of Cecil et al from FFIV. Now there was a story, clichés and all, which just worked and made you feel for the protagonist.The next problem is the voice acting, it's not awful by any means, indeed a lot of it is rather good, and, in some cases excellent, but there are some characters who's squeaky, hi-pitched performances are just ghastly and make me reach for the mute button at warp speed. It's not as bad as some Japanese, adaptations I've come across, for instance, it's does hold a candle to Star Ocean: The Last Hope, which had characters which nearly made me fling the game across the room (despite it being another example of a deeply compelling battle system) but Airy needs to die and die now and, sadly, Agnes is not far behind her.The problem is not nearly as bad as either of these two. It's really just a nasty little bit of money grubbing from Square Enix. The game give the player a chance to use a command and freeze time allowing you to recover in a battle where you're being heartily beaten. So far, so good. Unfortunately, these commands are things which you can buy for x amount of real world cash. It's crass, it's unpleasant, its unnecessary and it pulls down the tone.So, all in all, Bravely Default is an exceptional game, it has its flaws, sure, and some of them are too big to be over looked when trying to sort out what I really think of it. But... but, overall, the pluses far and away outweigh the minuses making BD one of the best 3DS jRPGs of recent memories. Indeed, if it weren't for the problems I outlined above and the comparatively recent superior game Fire Emblem: Awakening, I'd come close to calling this a classic. And, even if it isn't one, it's still the best damn FF game we've had for a long time, probably since Crisis Core, which is now some seven years old. And I for one will take a good new FF game (even if it's not officially part of the series) over the dross we've been fed under that banner for such a long time now.

8.1.2014

Although I've bought a fair number of JRPGs over the years, I find that I actually complete very few, so it says a lot that I managed to see the final screen of this one after some 164 hours of play. Admittedly that is a very long run-through for this game, involving quite a few optional activities, but how did this game succeed where even so great a game as Ni No Kuni failed?Forget about the plot ("elemental priestess on the run" yada yada "airship" yada yada "world in peril" yada yada): in narrative terms, this is one of the most formulaic JRPGs imaginable. Were it not for the rather pretty 3D visuals and the above-average music, this could be any of the early Final Fantasy games (FFV is the one most mentioned as a point of comparison)and although the plot is eventually satisfying, that's not where the strength of the game lies.Bravely Default succeeds by offering more options for customised parties than any other RPG I can think of. There are 24 job classes and each character can have a major job active with the skills from a minor job at any time. On top of which, once you have unlocked the perks for a job, you can also equip those to each character, meaning that it's tempting to want to play absolutely everything. If you end up playing a party this is simply Knight, Thief, White Mage and Black Mage, you have absolutely no one to blame other than yourself. How does Vampire, Salve-Maker, Performer and Merchant sound?The endless grind to develop these jobs means that you spend a lot of time fighting, so it's just as well that the battle system is fairly robust. The gimmick - being able to take turns early and pay for them later, or save them for future rounds instead - is simple, but effective, and means (for example) that you can get some buffing out of the way on the first turn before things start hitting you. Or unleash hell on the round when a boss's invulnerability falls. The spells are for the most part over-familiar, with the scissors-paper-stone elemental weaknesses all present and correct, but there are some nice animations for the Summons once you get them, and collecting them is another nice sub-quest in a massive game.There's no online multiplayer, but the game makes good use of its simple friend system (using Spotpass & Streetpass) without ever becoming essential. Special downloaded bosses called Nemeses provide a daily challenge if that sort of thing sounds to your taste.The English-language voice acting, though of a high quality, makes everything sound like a Disney cartoon and characterisations are (to say the least) very broad indeed. Fortunately, this can be turned in Settings to give Japanese soundtrack with English subtitles. [Thank you to Mr. P. Thorne for drawing this correction to my attention.]On a more serious note, this may look like a kids' game, but there is a layer of innuendo (particularly in the first fifth or so of the game) that means that parents should take seriously its 12 age rating. Even adult players would be justified in finding the subject matter distasteful at times. The character models were slightly censored compared with the original Japanese release, but there's plenty left in Bravely Default to take exception to. It's a shame that a story that is in many respects more sombre and serious than it first appears is marred by things that lead character Agnes Obliges would doubtless call 'unacceptable'.Moreover, the later stages of the game do become repetitive, which has caused some consternation of gamers already deep into the game who are suddenly facing what seems like an arbitrary barrier to completion. Personally, I found that there was enough pay-off to this large chunk of the game, but again that will depend on how much you are enjoying the game when you reach that point.Nevertheless, issues with some aspects of the game can't change the fact that this is a first class JRPG, able to stand comparison with the best available on just about any platform, present or past. The highly addictive gameplay and generous game size mean that this thing could be in your 3DS for months to come.

11.12.2013

Despite having a pretty stupid title this game is quite possibly one on the best role playing games (rpg) I have played in a long time. Unfortunately, I imagine that the bizarre title may actually put some people off buying it because it just sounds too odd. Anyone that has read any reviews or heard anything about this game will know that it has been getting a lot of positive things said about it. All these comments are justified too.This game follows a familiar format in that your little group of people travels around the world in an attempt to prevent some sort of cataclysmic disaster. Along the way you meet numerous characters, both good and evil, and have to carry out tasks to advance the story.The story in this game is a good one which I won't spoil for you here. All I will say is that it is worth reading / listening to the dialogue in the little scenes as it is well written, well voice acted, and is interesting, useful, sad, funny... just read it instead of skipping it okay.Also following a familiar route is the random battle format and experience / skill building system. However, the tried and tested turn based battle system does have a twist that can dramatically affect how things turn out. You can save up your moves whilst defending from the enemy to use all in one go. So you could save up the moves of your healing character whilst the others are in good health in case they have to heal multiple characters at once, or you could save up and hit a foe multiple times when it keeps healing itself regularly. Alternatively, you can gamble and use future turns to get multiple hits / heals. Doing this means that you can't do anything until those future turns have been counted down which can leave you vulnerable. The balance of risk against reward when saving up moves or using them early can be a fine one but it is a system that works incredibly well and adds something fresh to the rpg genre.Levelling up characters is pretty addictive due to the job system. There a loads of job classes to unlock and each one has its own pros and cons. There are skills that automatically take effect for each class and others that are used in battle and the as you gain experience from battles the level of your character and the level of the job class increases. You can change classes at any time outside of battle but you get better and better abilities at higher job class levels. So, do you go for a balanced character with loads of job abilities that they can switch between or do you concentrate on having fewer, more powerful abilities? Decisions, decisions! It never really gets to the point where there is so much to choose from that things just get confusing and frustrating though.One aspect that could be slightly frustrating for some players is the side game where you rebuild a village. By getting streetpass hits from anyone else with this game you gain extra villagers to rebuild the village quicker. This means that anyone who rarely gets streetpass hits will not reap the benefits from higher levels shops / armouries etc... that can be a big help in the main game. This is only a minor thing though and shouldn't spoil things too much.Overall, this game is fantastic! It plays well, is challenging, interesting, funny, exciting, gorgeous to look at, awesome to listen to, lengthy, and just brilliant in general. The best rpg for a long time.

31.12.2013

I will preface my review by saying that I have been waiting for this game for a long time - I bought a 3DS this year purely on the strength of this game getting localised.Simply put, Bravely Default lives up to my expectations.GAMEPLAY - 9/10I take one mark off here for the frankly pointless Norende village rebuilding minigame - it's kind of cool at first, but honestly, it's just a Facebook game tacked on so they could say the game has Streetpass functionality.The game is so simple that anyone can grasp the basics, but nuanced enough that you will need real strategy - particularly on higher difficulties - to win. That combined with the ability to change the difficulty at any time,turn off/on different battle rewards such as money or experience plus the random encounter ratio slider enables the player to set their own challenges and puts them in complete control of their game experience. A massive plus for me.The job system itself manages to be fairly standard while adding new twists to an old genre trope. There are old favourites like the black and white mages, but also new ideas thrown in the mix. While I haven't tried out every single job yet (there are 24!), it leaves a lot of room for experimentation and again, personal agency when it comes to customising your game experience. While some jobs seem useless at first, there are always ways in which you can make them work for you, and only one or two seem like filler, really.Finally, the actual battle system itself. A blessing for a turn-based JRPG fan, it manages to blend very old-school (put in your commands at the start of the turn and watch it go!) with the new Brave and Default system, which adds a nice layer of strategy. It's also refreshingly challenging! On playing normal mode, I found myself getting wiped out by bosses frequently until I had worked out a good strategy for defeating them.VISUALS - 10/10This is where Bravely Default shines. The world of Luxendarc is beautifully rendered in an art-style that makes it look like you're running around in a painting. The character designs are also brilliant, and while some will not like the chibi sprite style, I think it works well with the almost ethereal quality to the backdrops.SOUND - 10/10Again, a stunning piece of work by composer Revo. I frequently find myself humming the various themes even when I'm not playing - the tunes just stay in your head for days, and there is a wide variety of different styles as well. I am particularly fond of the theme that plays whenever Edea performs a special move, it has quite a retro 90s feel to it that you don't hear much anymore!Overall, Bravely Default has polished the JRPG tropes of old until they shine again. If you like turn-based RPGs, you will love this game. The story, while a little cliche and predictable if you play a lot in the genre, is well-crafted and actually a little surprising in places, which is hard to do to a hardened veteran like myself. The characters are likeable, and the world feels very alive.In the six days since I've got this game, I have put in 50+ hours of playing (probably 60 if you count the number of times I died and had to reload). THAT is how good this game is. I just can't put it down.

11.2.2015

If you've played any of the earlier entries in the Final Fantasy series (before 4) and Dragon Quest then you will be in familiar territory here.The story (simply) follows 4 youths who consist of a country boy, a priestess, an amnesiac and a General's daughter who take it upon themselves to restore the power of their worlds crystals (responsible for the maintenance of their worlds environment...) whilst taking on an army who wish to destroy them.This is a real throwback for Square-Enix (an enjoyable one at that....) in turns of gameplay (considering FF XIII). Its your typical RPG from yesteryear with turn based tactics and a job system of levelling up, but with some modern touches.

5.2.2014

Bravely Default a conventional RPG with monsters to rival the adorableness of Final Fantasy and global community storyline which reminds me of a Tales Of.I think your main character is Tiz, I say main, he is the default lead in the party so you run around as him. I know you can change but he’s adorable and the other party members respect him, so let’s stick to tradition.As per most hand held RPG, you have a little town or city you can walk around platform style, but when you enter shops etc, you don’t go in and have a snoop (so no drawers or pots to steal things from like usual), just a menu comes up. Once you leave said city,

5.5.2014

Bravely Default is a pretty interesting game.The Battle System is easy to get a good grasp on - it has a class system like Final Fantasy V that controls what abilities the character has and affects their stats (e.g. a Black Mage is far weaker physically than a Monk but has stronger magic). But you can also equip a second set of abilities from a different class - so you could equip a Black Mage who would have a high Magic stat with White Magic. Then it also has the Brave and Default actions - Brave lets you take turns early while Default allows you to save up turns so that you can use Brave then still be able to take action the next turn.It allows you to create clever strategies and if you cleverly plan out moves based on your character's speeds,

1.3.2014

Bravely Default is a great game in many ways, but is let down by a few flaws common to most JRPGs. At the time of writing, I have logged 130 hours in Bravely Default and only just managed to complete the game, that kind of play time is testament to both how good but also how tedious the game can be. Bravely Default has great role-playing elements with a large number of classes for you to choose for your characters to help them in the game's turn-based battles. The "brave" and "default" features allow you to attack multiple times in one turn, or not at all to save power depending on what the situation is, this combat system adds a great layer of depth to battles and forced me to consider the strategies I would employ in order to defeat one of the game's many pesky bosses.

17.4.2014

I think this game would have deserved 5 stars if it wasn't for the repetitive dialogue and story when it comes to the crystals in the later chapters. The game and combat is great and is a must by for 3DS RPG lovers.What I liked:- The Story- The voice acting is better than some have said in my opinion- The combat works so well, even though sleep points cost real life money if you don't leave your 3DS on sleep they aren't even required to get the most out of the game anyway (I'm up to Chapter 7 without using any)- The brave and default system- The amount of jobs and different strategies for each boss battle- The fact that you can't just go full offensive in the game,

25.8.2014

Great game very similar to many final fantasy games, the job system is very cool for example it allows you to use a secondary passive ability from another job with your main one. This offers many strategic options for your team. Also the dialog in game can be funny and witty. I cant comment on the story so far as I have not progressed much. However I can tell you that you will have to grind levels a bit to comfortably handle the many bosses at stages of the game. (which there are alot) However level progression is very rewarding with your job level also increasing over time. The game also rewards you for bonus points for ending the fight in one turn and without an enemy hitting you which encourages innovation in your game play.All in all its everything I expected and more so far.

24.1.2014

Pretty much an old Final Fantasy game with a new title and it's so good. If you love those types of games as much as I do you'll love this. The battle system is turn based but changed up just enough to keep the whole thing fresh and very strategic, but it still feels very familiar and veterans will quickly get stuck in. Basically there are two new actions "Brave" and "Default". Brave allows you to do an action more than once in that turn but at the cost that you have to wait as many turns to recover or you can default to receive less damage and built up attacks.The story is pretty good, not amazing but interesting enough.The job system is cool,

16.6.2014

A Japanese-style RPG, probably the most complex handheld RPG ever produced, with excellent graphics and design, and an interesting storyline, at least at first. It does have problems, though. One is that character development poses problems. As usual, your characters can take on various jobs, and then gain abilities and experience in these jobs classes but....some of the job classes are only acquired very late in the game, and seem to be needed to defeat enemies towards the end. So, you've spent many hours with certain jobs, and have been successful up to this point in the game, only to find that the skills you've got are more or less useless, and you have to start again.

20.2.2014

This is a great RPG game with an in depth Job class mechanism, your party consists of four characters, each with their own story about them which develops throughout gameplay.The thing i really loved about this game is the Job class mechanism, allowing players to change their characters job classes at any time outside battle between a choice of 24 job classes, which allow a vary in gameplay experience and allows a player to build their party around how they feel it should be.There is one thing that i must point out that i feel really let this game down, and that is the repatition, the game is spilt into chapters to mark your progress, but i cant help feeling that once you have completed Chapter 4...

5.4.2015

It would have been 5 stars, had it not been for the latter half of the story in this game. The first half of the game is near-perfect, with the addition of the 'Brave' and 'Default' combat mechanics that really make the game feel fresh in the RPG genre, allowing a great element of tactics to each fight. The characters are all unique, each with their own recurring quotes and dialect that makes them rather likable. The art-style is also beautiful, with a painterly style within cities and towns that (thankfully) zooms out to view the entire structure if you wait momentarily in place.As noted, my only gripe is the frustration that most will receive from playing the second half of the story,

27.4.2016

The turn based combat does serve as strong suit towards this game, giving the user complete control of their group. Customization is beyond 'unreal' in terms of what combinations you can fish out. Story was pretty good but the voice acting shines without a doubt, portraying the characters in such a believable way.Only criticism would be the final segment of the game, which does become repetitive to say the least. Still, I was engaged enough to put up with this as the game manages to raise the difficulty as means to get you really thinking on how to tackle the next boss. The challenge is clearly there and most would welcome the change of pace.In the end, I did feel like I'd been on an epic journey,

Bravely Default (3DS) - Reviews

Info

Analysis

Detail