Is Bravely Default 2 on the Switch just another JRPG to ignore or is it a brave new addition to your gaming library?ĭisclaimer for anyone who might be interested in the game, you do not need to play any of the previous games to enjoy this one. Starting on the Nintendo 3DS, Bravely Default is a traditional RPG that takes heavy inspiration from Final Fantasy VI and focuses on game mechanics like the job system. Bravely Default 2 is a classic JRPG game from Square Enix and is the third entry in the Bravely Default series, they aren’t very good with numbers apparently. There is nothing more comfy for a RPG fan than a traditional JRPG where you have to travel and collect four magical crystals across a whimsical fantasy land. It isn’t brave enough to get out of its comfort zone, and by embracing the dullest genre cliches available, it is doomed to be the default.// Reviews // 5th May 2021 - 8 months ago // By Joshua Michael Howard Bravely Default 2 Review Final thoughtsīravely Default 2 is a prime example of how stagnant the JRPG genre has become in recent years. It feels like it’s trying to waste your time. It doesn’t feel like it’s trying to challenge you. But it never feels like that, it just feels like a slog. The idea is that you’re supposed to get your behind kicked and come away from the fight swearing vengeance, before power levelling madly, returning to the boss and blowing it away. JRPG’s love gating off the next chapter of the main quest with obscenely powerful bosses and Bravely Default 2 is no exception. You can spend hours grinding levels to get powerful enough to progress, and all it takes hitting the next boss to make it all feel worthless. Like a lot of JRPG’s, Bravely Default 2 falls into the trap of forcing the player to grind weaker enemies to gain extra levels. It’s also lucky that the combat is fun because god, you do a lot of it. It can seem overly complex at first, but once you get your head around it, its a system with a lot strategic meat on its bones. Burn a Brave at the wrong moment and you’ll be quite severely punished for it. Against harder enemies, you’ll want to use them more sparingly. It’s up to you to pick your moment: against weaker enemies, it’s possible to burn all your characters Braves and wipe the baddies out before they ever get to move. Default moves grant a defence boost and store extra moves for use later. By contrast, using a Default costs you nothing at all. To wit, you can attack three times on this turn and deal triple damage, but you’ll have to sit the next three turns out if you do. Performing a Brave move borrows extra moves from your future attacks. Two of the more powerful actions you can take are Braves and Defaults. You can give your characters a “job” to better categorise their playstyle, from basic setups like Knight or Black Mage, to more complex picks like the art-centric pictomancer. As with most JRPG’s, Bravely 2 uses turn-based combat and gives the player multiple characters with different specialisations.
If you’ve never played Bravely Default or its true sequel Bravely Second, the game’s title refers to its battle system. The only facet of the game that isn’t a complete let down is the combat. Its characters are paper-thin and of little interest despite the reams and reams of fully voiced dialogue.
Its side quests are uniformly fetch-quests, unhappy slogs that do nothing to immerse you in its world or provide a window into those who inhabit it.
The central plot is banal in its predictability, its twists openly pinched from other games. Bravely Default 2 refuses to try anything remotely interesting or different to its competition.
#BRAVELY DEFAULT 2 ELVIS SERIES#
That’s a dire position for a series this well-liked and respected to find itself in. If you didn’t know I was talking specifically about Bravely Default 2, would you have ever known the difference between this and a hundred other JRPG’s released every year? Default by name, default by nature Both Elvis and Adelle will join you on your quest to save a vaguely European fantasy world and defeat a pallid, conventionally villainous, queer-coded, one-dimensional villain. Both characters speak in a soup of British and Scottish colloquialisms that can only be the work of an American localisation team. A set of powerful crystals has gone missing and it’s up to you and your team of happy-go-lucky, found-family losers to get them back and earn their place in society AND in history.Īmong your party are the mage Elvis and his strong, unflappable bodyguard Adelle.
You are greeted by Princess Gloria and her loyal elderly knight Sir Sloan (cliches both) and are quickly pulled into an urgent quest to save the world. Stop me if you’ve heard this one beforeįrom the moment its protagonist awakens on an unfamiliar beach, suffering amnesia, the groans and eye rolls began in earnest. Bravely Default 2 is a long, bland parade of JRPG cliches, presenting one after another for 50 consecutive hours.