Bravely Default II Review – A Good RPG Countered By Questionable Tactics

I feel as though I should preface this Bravely Default II review by noting that I’ve never played a Bravely Default game before. I had the 3DS, and I knew of the original and End Layer, but I just never had the urge to play it. But with this game, I wanted to give it a try. And though it was far from perfect in some ways, the RPG did wow me in others that led me to truly appreciate what the team at Square Enix was trying to do.

Game Name: Bravely Default II
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch
Publisher(s): Nintendo/Square Enix
Developer(s): Claytechworks Co. Ltd., Team Asano
Release Date: 2/26/2021
Price: $59.99

 

Let’s start at the beginning, as all good stories do. You start off your journey with the sailor Seth washing upon the shore of a new land (because why stop with RPG tropes at this point in gaming history?). He’s quickly found by a princess named Gloria, whose kingdom was destroyed and their sacred treasures of the four crystals were stolen. After hooking up with two travelers on their own quests in Elvis and Adelle, your party of four goes to seek out the crystals, stop those who abuse them, and of course, save the world.

If that sounds like a “standard RPG story base”…it is. And Bravely Default II isn’t trying to wow you with a story that is insanely intricate or hard to follow. In fact, most of it is basic to a certain extent.

For example, the four crystals are in four different kingdoms. Each of which (the crystals) are being used in different ways to try and either conquer the said kingdom, make it useful for their own purposes, and so on. The real story is within these kingdoms and the people you meet. While the game lacks a DEEP story, it’s not afraid to go deep and dark on some of its plots.

A great example is in the realm of Wiswald. Where you find out that the mastermind behind a series of brainwashings is a child who is so desperate to use “special paint” that she’s willing to kill, corrupt, and bend people to their will. And the red paint she uses…is human blood.

There’s another realm that dives into the question of faith and “how much faith should you put into one man who hears a god?” Some of the results of these arcs are downright horrifying and that’s honestly a good thing. It gives more depth and a better reason to go from place to place to see what other stories you’ll uncover.

The tradeoff with that though is that your main party of four doesn’t exactly get the greatest of depths. Elvis and Adelle show off plenty of personality while you only see Gloria’s in certain “Party Chat’s” and key sidequests, and Seth…well…yeah, he’s there. The other characters you meet are worth the trip but you wish your main characters had more going for them considering how much you see them and fight with them.

Without a doubt, the main hook of Bravely Default II is its battle system and the Jobs you can assign to each character. The game dares you to go and experiment by collecting “Asterisks” as they’re known and giving up to two jobs to each character to see how they play and how each fits your strategy. You’ll slowly build up those jobs over time and it is fun to see what they can do and which ones fit the character you’re trying to build.

For example, in my build, I gave Elvis a Black/Red mage combo so that his magics could take out any foe more-or-less regardless of elemental weakness. Meanwhile, my Adelle was a Beastmaster (the most OP class in the game…) and a White Mage ability so that my Gloria (White Mage and a Hunter) wouldn’t be fully burdened with the sole healing duties. My Seth was a Vanguard for much of the game and I was always looking for a new class to pair with him to see what one would fully accentuate his abilities.

In fact, by the end of your game, you have so many Jobs to choose from it can be a bit overwhelming. But, since you get JP (Job Points) in battle, you can do some grinding and get those new jobs to higher levels rather quickly if you’re willing to work for it.

While the jobs are good, and the combat with the now-classic “Brave” and “Default” systems for you to use…there is a catch or two that you should be aware of. Mainly, the learning curve.

For me, it took me a while to truly grow and use the Brave/Default system like intended, it wasn’t that long, but enough. Furthermore, especially early in the game, if you don’t level up quickly, you’re going to be quickly overwhelmed. This is a stark contrast from other RPGs that prefer to “ease you in”, no, you will die if you’re not careful, even if you’re in the “Casual” mode that claims to be a lot easier but at times…not by much.

Once you get over the curve you’ll be mostly fine, but still not out of the woods. Because the other real down part of the combat system is that your enemies don’t just have abilities of their own, they have Counters at times. These counters can be tripped by various actions. From physical attacks, to magical attacks, to healing, and more. They’re unknowable going into battle for the first time against them and you won’t be ready for them until they show their faces and potentially wipe out your party.

A great example happened late game when I faced a boss character with the Assassin Asterisk. In my first bout with them I was hammering away at their health, and then because of counters she had 3 BP and used it to wipe out my party despite them having THOUSANDS of health left a piece. This wasn’t a one-off either as multiple bosses and powerful foes had such counters and it can really drain you from having to deal with them. Especially when you’re “one attack away” from victory and the counters kill you before you get the chance to said attack.

In terms of graphics, that was something that surprised me the most about Bravely Default II. Early trailers didn’t put the game in the best light, but even in handheld mode, the game looks great most of the time. The picture above is the kingdom of Rimedahl and it’s a perfect example of them used height and depth and texture to make a place feel alive. You’ll see this throughout the main kingdoms. Furthermore, the cutscenes in certain parts (like Gloria meeting Seth, the Crystals activating and more) had a very cinematic quality I wasn’t expecting at all.

Now, in terms of the overworld, dungeons, and “areas in-between”, yeah, they aren’t the best. They’re flat and the dungeons especially don’t stand out, outside of their length at times. Furthermore, while many monster designs are creative, they eventually fall into “new monsters with a coat of paint” and it’s kind of lame given some of the fun designs they do make.

Another smaller issue is the sidequests. On one hand, there’s a LOT of them and there were times I would spend an hour or two just doing certain quests in order to get a key item or just help people out. But…not unlike an MMORPG…many were fetch quests, including ones very late in the game! So yeah, it can be a drag.

But there are other things that help elevate the game to good heights. In combat, you have a “combat speed” feature that can make battles happen WAY faster than regular RPGs and that can help you get done with grinding much quicker. Furthermore, the voice acting in the game is top-notch (after toning down a certain character or two…). Finally, there’s a community “sailing” venture that you can do when your console is in sleep mode, and when that’s activated, your game will connect with other players and you’ll get items in return. Including things like orbs that’ll increase your experience, your JP points, and even give you money!

Bravely Default II is hardly a perfect game. But what it lacks in certain areas it more than makes up for in others. Its combat system will impress many while frustrating others, that’s just the nature of deep systems like this. The story amazes at times but also shorts itself at other points (another classic RPG theme). But overall, the game is fun, and I looked forward to playing it every day and because of the nature of it, you could do another playthrough almost entirely differently by building up your teams a different way.

If you’re looking for a fun RPG to keep you going until the next big Switch title comes out? This is definitely one to consider.