Bravely Default II (2020)

[Hero-of-Time]

2 hours ago, Glen-i said:

I mean, Bravely Default is no stranger to the "Sudden Tonal Whiplash", (the Arcanist and Spirit master from the first game, and a certain pair from Bravely Second come to mind) but that asterisk arc does reach a new level.

I honestly can't remember much about the original game's story other than the twist. Bravely Second I always got about 10 hours into it and then dropped it. I think that has happened on several occasions now with that game. Possibly one on my most played 3DS games but with me never actually get past the start.  

[Hero-of-Time]

Well, things took another dark turn in Chapter 3.

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Seeing people being forced to test their faith by jumping off a cliff was a bit of a shock. Kinda reminded me of the stories of witch hunts where they would toss women off a cliff and if they flew they were a witch but if they died they would be sent to heaven. I thought for certain that the head priest's daughter would be saved but nope.  

Loved the revelation that Adelle is a fairy. Her sprouting wings and saving Martha was a great moment. I honestly thought the dragon was going to swoop down and save her but that wasn't the case.

There is starting to be a bit of a push back with the battles now. I can still use my tactic of spamming Body Slam but I'm now having to heal. The last boss I fought kept countering my physical attacks for 2000 damage on each character and so I just alternated between attacking and healing. 

 

[Glen-i]

11 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

There is starting to be a bit of a push back with the battles now. I can still use my tactic of spamming Body Slam but I'm now having to heal.

Drop Body Slam, start spamming Godspeed Strike instead.

[Hero-of-Time]

23 hours ago, Glen-i said:

Drop Body Slam, start spamming Godspeed Strike instead.

Man, that thing drains your MP. 

Started Chapter 4 this afternoon. 

Spoiler

Quite like how I'm having to zip around the world and help out the places I have previously visited. I've only done a couple so far and have enjoyed them both.

 

[Happenstance]

If I want to finally get around to playing Bravely Default should I just jump straight into II?

[Hero-of-Time]

9 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

If I want to finally get around to playing Bravely Default should I just jump straight into II?

Given my experience with the series, I wouldn't bother. There are far better JRPGs out there to play.

[Glen-i]

32 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

If I want to finally get around to playing Bravely Default should I just jump straight into II?

For an actual answer. Bravely Default II isn't connected to either of the 3DS games, plot-wise, so you can jump into this one if you want.

However, I do think Bravely Second is better then Bravely Default II, but Bravely Second's a direct sequel to Bravely Default, (Yeah, I know it's confusing) so you'd have to play the first game to get the most out of Second.

Edited December 9, 2023 by Glen-i

[Hero-of-Time]

I reached chapter 6, yesterday evening.

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I swear they better not be pulling a Bravely Default 1 move and have me play the whole thing again!

I quite enjoyed the boss fights in chapter 5. I've now had to change my strategy, although it's nothing fancy. Just changed to Beastmaster, caught a bunch of monsters and proceeded to wipe the floor with everything. I hadn't realised that I was still rocking a bunch of beginner abilities. I quickly changed these so my damage output is more impressive. I also added the ability for enemy counter attacks to miss me. This definitely needed to be equipped because the game has become quite cheap in that pretty much every boss now randomly counters your moves.

[Glen-i]

7 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

This definitely needed to be equipped because the game has become quite cheap in that pretty much every boss now randomly counters your moves.

This is why it's my least favourite of the BD games. It's like every boss is now that Swordmaster dude from the first game.

In the first game, it's one boss whose whole shtick is countering you, and it's fun because he has to waste a turn setting it up, so you can work around it.

In BD II, nah, they just counter you whenever they feel like it, it gets very annoying and unfair!

[Hero-of-Time]

Took down the first boss of chapter 6. Wasn't that difficult and was able to once again resort to using Body Slam. However, I finally met my match with the next battle...

Spoiler

Sir Sloan decimated my team. Granted, I'm only level 52 ( apparently I should be a lot higher than that ) but it looks like I will need to change my tactics. I'll probably just go level up somewhere and tinker with a couple of abilities. I've just been mainlining the story and so I imagine there are plenty of grinding spots that have passed me by.

 

[Glen-i]

Yeah, that fight was a very notable difficulty spike. And it's mandatory too! It's very mean.

The reward is totally worth it though. Good luck!

[Hero-of-Time]

Beat him this morning. I spent a little bit of time yesterday prepping for the battle. I played some cards to unlock the Gambler job. This enabled me to equip an ability to help farm Buns. I farmed Buns for a while and raised a bunch of stats, one of which was my HP levels.

After that, I read about a technique that trivialises the fight. Basically, you have a team of Phantoms as a main job and ranger as sub job. You can then keep him paralysed for the whole fight. Worked a treat! Dude only got in a couple of attacks.

Spoiler

 

[Glen-i]

56 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Worked a treat! Dude only got in a couple of attacks.

This is one of the coolest things about Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler. Status Effects don't suck when you use them. Sure, some enemies will resist certain ones, but a bit of experimentation can produce surprising results.

Anyway, now that you've done that. You're golden for the credits, it never gets harder then that.

[Hero-of-Time]

14 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Anyway, now that you've done that. You're golden for the credits, it never gets harder then that.

Just defeated the last boss now. Yeah, it was pretty easy in comparison to the previous fight. I switched back to Freelancer and White Mage. This wrapped things up pretty quickly.

Spoiler

Loved the moment where everyone has lost their memory and one by one you help out. The part where you Default a stupid amount, followed by the Heroes of Light showing up, was awesome.

I thought the ending was a little weird. Like, if Seth was gone then how would players be able to continue post game activities if they chose to do so? Also, where the hell was my awesome artwork that you usually get when completed this teams games? I decided to hit continue and see it all worked out. The credits went from a sad and somber tune to something more upbeat and epic and then my pic showed up.  

I have mixed feelings about the game. The graphics and game performance are rough at times, the story starts really slow and the day/night cycles are annoying when grinding, as is the low encounter rates. However, the battle system is great due to how broken it can become, some of the narratives are surprisingly mature and the music is fantastic as always.

As I said when I started playing this, the game really is a worse version of Octopath Traveler 2. I think the overall narrative is better in this game but OT2 trumps it in every other department. Playing this so soon after OT2 I can see where this falls short in comparison.

Another game I'm happy to have finally played and got off the backlog. Now if only I could do the same thing with Bravely Second. Maybe one day.

[Glen-i]

Spoiler

That second screenshot. I love me some good "hype through game mechanics".

Team Asano really like doing that.

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The final boss stating that it's opened the portal to the "Celestial Realm", only for your face to appear in said portal courtesy of the 3DS camera was a very clever reveal.

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The third phase of the final boss, you know what I mean. That was awesome.

 

EDIT: Oh right, speaking of,@Hero-of-Time been dying to ask this.

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What did you think about "Overwriting the save file"?

Cool? Or counter-intuitive? Seems to split people around the web.

I thought it was neat.

 

Edited December 17, 2023 by Glen-i

[Hero-of-Time]

Yeah, Team Asano know how to get you hyped up.

I've just realised, that's 3 of their games I've finished this year.

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