Bravely Default 2 – Game Review

Our Rating: 8/10

Bravely Default 2 is the savior of the purest essence of the first RPGs in video games. Although the title is related to the original Bravely Default, it still takes us to a completely new world. It has a story created for the occasion and with a selection of unpublished characters. You will understand the story of the game even without playing its predecessors.

GAME OVERVIEW

The world is in peril after the Elemental Crystals fall into selfish hands. They use the crystals’ power for their own benefit, wreaking havoc on others and causing chaos to reign.

The protagonist, Seth, sails his boat through the sea when a strong storm washed him to shore. Luckily, it doesn’t take long for him to receive the help of a girl named Gloria.

Gloria is on a mission to travel the continent of Excilan. She searches for the four crystals of power to recover them and prevent a catastrophe from occurring in the world. However, villains will also try to seize these crystals for their Machiavellian purposes, above all. All of them soon realize that the enemy is gaining more and more strength as it advances.

Seth and Gloria will also have the help of Elvis – the scholar, and Adelle – the mercenary. Coupled with their reasons to embark on this exciting journey, they become the four Heroes of the Light.

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay is similar to what we saw in the two previous installments. For the most part, it offers the classic turn-based battles that revolve around the management of the Brave and Default commands.

Each time you use Brave, you perform an extra action on your turn in exchange for a BP. Default makes your character adopt a defensive pose, thereby reducing damage. This will also acquire an additional BP together with the one obtained for each turn that passes.

It is a very interesting system that translates into battles with a fresh and very differentiating tactical touch. Best of all, your enemies can also use Brave and Default. Therefore, it also forces you to choose when to attack and when it is better to stay on the defensive.

The order of the turns is managed with a time bar whose speed varies depending on a multitude of factors. Therefore, adding a little more strategy both to the combats and preparation.

Of course, a spectacular class system supports this. This allows you to level up different jobs to acquire new techniques, spells, and passives.

Classes and Jobs

Each character can have a main and a secondary class equipped. The Main Class is the only one that receives experience and defines your statistics. Besides that, this also affects your expertise with each type of weapon, your specialization skills, and the effects of your final move. The Secondary Class will give access to all its unique commands that you have unlocked.

As the adventure progresses, your heroes will obtain gadgets called Asterisks. This will give them jobs with which their appearance will change, as well as their statistics and abilities. Among them are the Monk, the Black and White Magician, the Bard, and many others.

This section is where you can see the extreme customization that this installment presents. Each job has its magic and passive abilities. As a result, this completely changes the way of playing your characters.

Maps and Dungeons

In addition to the cities, the game is divided into a world map with multiple dungeons.

The dungeons are more or less complex, large, and with many secrets and hidden chests. Also, a good number of them even dare to introduce their mechanics. They have a very classic design that has greatly reminded us of the type of dungeons that used to be made in the era of 16-bit games, so they fulfill their function with solvency.

We have another somewhat irregular aspect in the optional missions. The vast majority of them act as a messenger without any grace or plot that we could consider as filler.

Although there are also a few exceptions in which they do seek to tell us something more about the characters (both heroes as secondary and antagonists), they take us to dungeons that we will not enter during the main story and will even make us face powerful and fearsome unique bosses.

The GOOD, the BAD and the OVERALL GAMING EXPERIENCE

The well-balanced difficulty in this game is very striking. Furthermore, it constantly poses a great challenge even at its normal level. This system benefits the class and combat system immensely. This gives both your heroes and strategies a lot of thought.

Unfortunately, we cannot say the same about the confrontations against normal enemies. Not only does the existing variety in their designs are practically the same, but you are also going to spend the whole game fighting against recolored versions of the same 10 or 20 creatures. It is exhausting in a 50-hour adventure where you fight a huge amount in order not to fall behind in level.

In their defense, we have to say that they tend to acquire new skills, attacks, and passives, but the feeling of boredom has been something that we have had much more present than we would like.

Game Aesthetics and Audio

The game is not without technical problems, and although the number of images per second does not usually drop regularly, we do have frame pacing that causes us to perceive jerks in the image. Loading textures do not always work as fast as we would like, especially when changing zones.

The game is the subject of much criticism due to the particular appearance of its characters, previously similar to those of Final Fantasy 3 for Nintendo DS. The game is given a very little artistic twist that gives it even less personality.

Nonetheless, we still have a surprisingly good and highly detailed texture, varied settings, and a title that is especially beautiful in cities. The backgrounds are beautifully hand-drawn illustrations.

Where you cannot put a single fault is in its soundtrack. Composed by Revo and of incredible quality. It is extensive, extremely varied, and leaves us with songs capable of making epic of many situations to unimaginable levels.

A true pass that shows, once again, how important music can be in a JRPG. Add some good effects and a fantastic dubbing into English and Japanese, and you have an impeccable sound section.

Conclusion

The Bravely Default saga is the perfect mix between tradition and originality of the JRPG. A twist on the well-trodden genre to make it more strategic and attractive.

In Bravely Default 2, you will have a classic game that will entertain you for dozens and dozens of hours. Therefore, it will be very addictive if you are a fan of the purest RPGs.

The move to Nintendo Switch has served to make its entire setting even more beautiful. The small visual problems that it has, do not tarnish the general visual section. It is still a fantastic classic JRPG that you will love for its spectacular combat, wonderful class system and, challenging and exciting bosses.