Bravely Default II (2020)

[Glen-i]

Is it the second game, or the third? No-one knows!

I'm well haps, the 3DS games are great.

Wonder if they're retconning Bravely Second with that title.

Edited December 13, 2019 by Glen-i

[Hero-of-Time]

I love it how we posted the topic with the exact same title format.  

Here's the trailer.

 

[Glen-i]

2 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I love it how we posted the topic with the exact same title format.  

Here's the trailer.

 

What can I say? We know how to title!

I was wondering if you would, but then nothing happened for a bit, so I took the plunge.

[Hero-of-Time]

1 minute ago, Glen-i said:

What can I say? We know how to title!

I was wondering if you would, but then nothing happened for a bit, so I took the plunge.

I'm very slow. I'm posting on a barely functioning iPhone 4S. 

[Glen-i]

2 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I'm very slow. I'm posting on a barely functioning iPhone 4S. 

My android phone is 7 years old at this point!

[Hero-of-Time]

1 minute ago, Glen-i said:

My android phone is 7 years old at this point!

Same age as my iPhone.  

[Sméagol]

Is this like Final Fantasy, and completely stand-alone, with no need to have played the first game (or games, it is confusing)?

[Hero-of-Time]

8 minutes ago, Sméagol said:

Is this like Final Fantasy, and completely stand-alone, with no need to have played the first game (or games, it is confusing)?

The first 2 games are connected but we aren't sure what this yet.

I'm honestly surprised they haven't ported the first two over to Switch. With this announcement it would make perfect sense to do so.

[Dcubed]

So... the second game is actually the third game!?

 

This really IS New Final Fantasy!

[MindFreak]

3 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

The first 2 games are connected but we aren't sure what this yet.

In the description, it says "New world, new characters, new story"...:

Quote

A new world, a new story, and all-new Heroes of Light await in an original RPG experience arriving on the Nintendo Switch system in 2020! This successor to the original Bravely Default game comes from the team that brought you the Bravely series and Octopath Traveler, and features music from Revo (Sound Horizon/Linked Horizon), acclaimed composer of the Bravely Default soundtrack.

– Brand-new entry in Square Enix’s Bravely Series
– Travel the world in search of the four Crystals with the latest incarnation of the brave band known as the Heroes of Light
– Latest creation from Team Asano, creators of the Bravely series and Octopath Traveler
– New world filled with new characters, but with the atmosphere and excitement the Bravely series is known for

 

Edited December 13, 2019 by MindFreak

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, MindFreak said:

In the description, it says "New world, new characters, new story"...:

The twists in the first two games are so mad that I don't entirely trust that claim.

It could be completely unrelated. But I'll believe that when I actually see it.

[Ronnie]

11 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I'm honestly surprised they haven't ported the first two over to Switch. With this announcement it would make perfect sense to do so.

That seems more of a Nintendo Direct type announcement I think

[Julius]

Only heard great things about the Bravely series here and elsewhere, so definitely got an eye on this. Like @Hero-of-Time, definitely think ports of the first two are in order, but like @Ronnie suggested, probably best to save those for a Direct. 

Great an announcement as I think this is...it's a pretty odd one to reveal at The Game Awards. JRPGs are a somewhat niche genre to begin with, and a series like this is very niche, all things considered. Then again, maybe it's S-E just showing some love to Nintendo after that great FFVIIR trailer they dropped, which, at this point, is basically for PlayStation, what with its year of times exclusivity 

[Hero-of-Time]

Thoughts on the demo, @Glen-i? I've yet to get around to trying it.

Also, just what in the heck is your sleeping pattern? It seems like every Thursday night/Friday morning you play until stupid o clock in the morning.  Do you work nightshift or something during the week?

[Glen-i]

2 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Thoughts on the demo, @Glen-i? I've yet to get around to trying it.

Also, just what in the heck is your sleeping pattern? It seems like every Thursday night/Friday morning you play until stupid o clock in the morning.  Do you work nightshift or something during the week?

Insomnia sucks.

So far, it's very Bravely Default, which is A-OK as far as I'm concerned. Just like the 3DS demos, it's a separate story from the main game.

It's quite tough though, I'm getting my butt kicked by random mobs, you have to be really careful. There's no difficulty options in the demo, which I think is a bad move. I can imagine some people getting put off with how harsh it is.

One key difference that I noticed is that you don't decide what all 4 characters do at the start of a turn, instead you choose what each character does whenever their turn comes around, kinda like the ATB system in the SNES Final Fantasy games, except without enemies acting while you select actions.

This might just be a demo thing, but there's no option to change the encounter rate. My guess is because encounters aren't random anymore. You see all the enemies on the map.

Run button is much appreciated though. And Elvis's voice is nothing short of amazing. Heavy Scottish accents make me smile.

Gloria on the other hand sounds like an American putting on a fake English accent.

Edited March 27, 2020 by Glen-i

[Hero-of-Time]

I've put a little bit of time into the demo. Thoughts so far...

• Yeah, the difficulty of this isn't going to do the game any favours. For people like myself who play JRPGs it's not so much of an issue as I do like the grind and can deal with it but for those unfamiliar with the genre or the series I can see them getting their butts kicked and calling it a day. Very weird decision to set the demo at this difficulty.
• Graphics aren't as nice as I initially thought, at least the character models. At times they look like plastic dolls and quite soulless. I think they lack a certain charm that the chibi characters had on the 3DS games.
• The game's performance can be a little rough, especially on the map and in the town. It felt like it was struggling in both areas.
• Not having random encounters is not a welcome change. Same goes for the lack of battle options/settings. I'm hoping some of these things are missing just because it's a demo.
• I hate Elvis. Dude is very grating and loud. Would happily punch him in the face. Seth is cool. Reminds me of Squall for some reason. 

Yeah, not a great first look at the game. I'll keep picking away at it as I want all of the jobs and abilities unlocked but it hasn't made me excited for the full game at all. 

 

 

[Hero-of-Time]

I see you've been playing it as well, @Nicktendo. What do you think of it?

What about you, @darksnowman? You enjoy FFV and JRPGs in general. You given this a go yet?

I've maxed out the Freelancer job and I'm now in a position where I can decimate the enemies that are in the first area. I'll do some more grinding to get some better abilities before I move on.

[Tim B]

I gave myself a taste of the demo as my first Bravely experience. Everything about the town was superb. I just loved the art style there and all of the music. Agree with everyone who said the characters look cheap. If there's a feedback form online then I'd put that in as my number one concern. They seriously look like they were pulled straight from the 3DS and it's not a good look. The battles were also very tough, but I just about got the hang of the Bravely/Default combat system which is the main thing.

I would really have preferred a demo more akin to Octopath Traveler or Dragon Quest XI, but it's clear the game isn't finished like those games were. This game actually feels like a mixture of those two, which is great for me as I loved a lot about them. I instantly recognised the voice actors who played Rab and Gemma in DQXI .

Hopefully the real version of the game doesn't start off so difficult. I can see it launching in September or October perhaps.

[Hero-of-Time]

I finished the demo this evening. I maxed my level (20) and maxed all of the (Bravely) default jobs.

The boss wasn't that hard. I had a full team of monks and just brute forced the battle, with one of my characters healing everyone where necessary. The boss did have a stupid amount of HP though. I could have been more tactical and ended the fight quicker but I was happy to bang my head against the wall until I broke through.

The mini map in the actually dungeon was absolutely useless and instead I had to just go by memory in regards to which paths I'd taken and where I needed to go.

Again, certain elements of the presentation of the game just look off. The few cutscenes I got were tough to watch. The characters mouths weren't going with the voices at all and in some cases they stopped moving all together mid sentence. The demo just comes off as rushed and cheap looking. 

When the demo ends you unlock another job to play around with and I've read there are a couple of hidden bosses to be found. I'll take a look at those tomorrow. Overall I think it's a disappointing demo.

Thinking back on the demo for Bravely Second and the difference in quality between the two of them  is like night and day. The Bravely Second demo had an interesting story, carried over your save, had a mini game in it that had you build up structures, cracking music, enemy entries to fill in....great demo. 

When the opportunity for feedback pops up I'll certainly be giving them my thoughts. All they needed to do was repeat and refine everything they had done in the first two games but have a new story, characters and update the visuals. Somehow they managed to cock it up.

[Glen-i]

Yeah, that demo wasn't nearly as good as the first two. I beat the first boss only for it to give me the "Thanks for playing" spiel.

The lack of a second screen hurts this game so far, everything feels so less convenient.

That said, the battle system started to give me that old Bravely feel once I tried one of the optional post-demo bosses.

That was a tough fight, and there's a harder one as well, not sure how I'll pull it off.

[Sméagol]

@Glen-i Are you positive this is a stand-alone adventure not included in the main game? I've got it downloaded, but haven't touched it yet.

[Glen-i]

4 minutes ago, Sméagol said:

@Glen-i Are you positive this is a stand-alone adventure not included in the main game? I've got it downloaded, but haven't touched it yet.

Yep, the game literally tells you so when you boot it up.

[Glen-i]

OK, so when that survey comes along, these are the things I'm going to suggest.

- Have the L button be bound to Default, I have no idea why they removed this. They already have Brave set to R while L doesn't do anything in battles, so it's just bizarre.

- Random encounters with an encounter rate slider was one of the best things about the 3DS games. Visible encounters that chase or run away from you are nowhere near as good in comparison.

- That minimap needs some rethinking. Even if it means having to have it on a separate screen, there needs to be a way to get this kind of map up when you need it.

I get that this is harder to do without a second screen, but it would help to allow the game to have more complex dungeons without becoming too frustrating.

- I'm not sure about the changes to how turn order is done. While the way BD2 does it allows for more improvisation, it can be quite hard to plan ahead, because you're never certain how often the enemies turns will come around before that character can act again. A good way to help counteract this would be some kind of graphic showing the upcoming turn order. Sort of like Final Fantasy X.

Something like what's on the right would go a long way to helping with strategic planning.

Those would be the major things that I think need addressing. I remember the first Octopath Traveler Demo also had a similar survey and when the second demo rolled out, it was a remarkable improvement, so here's hoping the same happens with this.

Edited March 28, 2020 by Glen-i

[Jonnas]

Alright, tried this out for an hour or so, and I think I got the gist of how the game's played. My main suggestions will be:

• Please give us a button to skip NPC text. I don't think the "text speed" option applies to them, but even if it does, please let me skip them anyway. Such a basic QoL improvement, not sure why it's absent;
• Make quest drops more frequent. If sidequests depend on me farming the same enemy over and over, that shit better be over quickly;
• When buying equipment, please let me check my character's current stats. As it stands, I see a blue 28, but I don't know exactly how much of an increase that is. At least put a "+3" or something next to the stat.

Yeah, boring QoL stuff Honestly, I think the core game already feels pretty good. I might just start Bravely Default on my 3DS on account of this demo, it's really enjoyable.

@Glen-i and @Hero-of-Time, since you're both Bravely Default veterans, I was hoping you could answer a few questions:

1. Is there any advantage or disadvantage associated with the Brave counter by the end of the battle? That is, is there a penalty of sorts for finishing a battle with a bunch of negative Brave points, or a reward for finishing with positive points?
2. Is there any disadvantage to using the job skills (like Shield Bash) over and over again? It feels like they're strictly better than just attacking, and I feel like I'm missing a catch.
3. All the Sub-Class system provides are the learned spells and/or skills from that job, right? For example, if I assign Black Mage as a Sub-Class, the character won't ever get that "Elemental Effectiveness" bonus, right? Just making sure I understood that.

[Glen-i]

4 hours ago, Jonnas said:

1. Is there any advantage or disadvantage associated with the Brave counter by the end of the battle? That is, is there a penalty of sorts for finishing a battle with a bunch of negative Brave points, or a reward for finishing with positive points?
2. Is there any disadvantage to using the job skills (like Shield Bash) over and over again? It feels like they're strictly better than just attacking, and I feel like I'm missing a catch.
3. All the Sub-Class system provides are the learned spells and/or skills from that job, right? For example, if I assign Black Mage as a Sub-Class, the character won't ever get that "Elemental Effectiveness" bonus, right? Just making sure I understood that.

1. No. If you think that going all in with BP will end the fight, then go right ahead, just be sure it does end the fight, otherwise, you're in trouble.
2. Not really, Shield Bash is a great move for characters with more defense then attack, like mages or Vanguards. There's two problems though, one being that no enemy is ever weak to shields, so jobs that focus on inflicting heavy damage won't get as much use from that. (BTW, casting Protect increases the power of Shield Bash, nice touch there) The other thing is that spamming that move with anyone who isn't a Vanguard won't build up your special attack. (Only Seth can use it in the demo though, so it's not that big a deal)
3. Yep. Exactly right. That said, in the full game, those job bonuses eventually become one of those equippable abilities if you get that job level high enough. Not in this demo though.

Bravely Default has a demo with a seperate scenario just like this, so you should give that a go as well. It's quite packed and gives you more freedom in difficulty. Plus, you can see why the encounter rate slider is such a great QoL feature.

Edited March 28, 2020 by Glen-i