Platform: Switch
Developer: Claytechworks
Publisher: Square Enix
Year: 2021
Players: 1
Introduction
Bravely Default is a recent franchise produced by Square Enix that has been appearing on Nintendo’s hardware. This is because the first 2 entries were released on N3DS and the latest game is available only on Switch or Steam. This series has its ups and downs due to a highly acclaimed first entry (Bravely Default) and a second one that, according to the developers themselves, it’s not that good and couldn’t live up to the fans’ expectations (Bravely Second: End Layer). Then, what can we say about the newest entry (Bravely Default II)? Let’s check it out…
Plot (No Spoilers)
First of all, it’s important to inform that this episode is completely disconnected from the rest of the franchise, so, people don’t need to play the first entries in order to understand what’s happening in the current plot.
That said, this entry tells the story about a princess called Gloria and her friends, in search of a missing special crystals. According to Gloria, there are 4 crystals that need to be recovered and delivered to Musa (Gloria’s fallen kingdom), so this can prevent a massive calamity from unleashing to all the world.
This beginning is interesting and then the story is delivered naturally, despite it is too linear and uses an easy cyclic story-telling. However there are good plot twists and unpredictable events too.
Character writing is solid but not that deep, they just act and talk with sufficient congruence and according to each of their goals. Another positive aspect is the narration of problems and how they are solved later.
In my opinion, a big flaw is that the plot has «good ending» and «bad ending». Unfortunately, this is becoming a trend in many modern games to boost replay value, but this doesn’t mean it’s necessary or compatible on every release. However, the plot has a good writing, without trying to deliver something really complex or deep.
Gameplay
So, the plot has nothing to do with earlier releases, but the gameplay is indeed derivative from them. Combat is turn based and we need to leverage Brave and Default commands in order to improve our strategy and emerge victorious.
Our team consists of 4 characters that can use common command sets and special command sets (according to their jobs). Common or general commands include Attack, Brave, Default, Item y Special.
They is how they all work:
Attack: Inflicts damage with the current equiped weapon.
Item: Uses a recovery item or a damage item from the current inventory.
Special: Triggers a Special attack to inflict more damage and boost stats to our team.
Brave: Each pressing of the brave button provides an additional action and consumes one Brave Point (BP).
Default: Takes a defensive stance to take less damage and to recover 1 BP.
In addition, there are specific command sets for each and every job available, and this sets can be used when a character has a main job and a secondary job assigned. These commands are avaiable as another option in the main combat menu and they allow to do a variety of actions: inflicting more damage, inflicting a status ailment (there are more than 10 aillments), using buffs/debuffs (they exist for every stat) and some special movements that are unique for some jobs like stealing items from an enemy or protecting our allies. There are 24 different jobs, so there’s a variety of tactics to apply and ways to attack our enemies.
A negative aspect of the game is the design of dungeons because in general, they lack creativity, imagination and ideas and many of them are just like big confusing mazes.
The game’s difficulty is standard because there are non-trivial bosses and many of them are too challenging so grinding is needed most of the times. And maybe this is another flaw: sometimes the game becomes too grindy.
Music
Without a doubt, music in this game is a big asset to be reckoned with, they clearly put a lot of effort in the composition, interpretation and production of the game’s OST. Besides each and every soundtrack matches the ocassion and situation depicted on screen. And the variety is exceptional: there are tunes from middle-eastern folk, energic battle tracks (one of them is progressive rock), subtle music, jazz, traditional spanish guitar, etc. The composers mixed everything and used a decent set of instruments too.
In my opinion, the game itself is not even close to be the GOTY, but the sountrack is indeed that good, maybe worthy of an award or two.
So, go ahead and check this music, there’s a high chance you’ll like it even if you don’t play the game.
Graphics
Presentation is similar to previous entries: characters’ design is cartoonish but this time, all the landscapes look better than ever because the engine was used to produce some diverse environments including woods, desert, tundra, ruins, etc. Besides, special effects used on combat are cool, for example all the magic spells are looking great.
Conclusions
There are many ways to improve the gameplay and plot on this game but this doesn’t mean it is below the previous entry. This is modern turn based combat that combines mechanics from this franchise’s roots, Octopath and early FF. Difficulty is standard and learning curve is quite good but without losing depth.
Score: 8.0
Consoles Universe 