I got into the Bravely series when I obtained a rental copy of the first installment (Bravely Default proper) about a season after I started blogging, i.e. late 2014. I first mentioned the game (in blog form) on September 27 that year, made a top three list of jobs about a half-month after, and talked a lot about the series just last year, but now I intend to write a full-fledged review about the latest entry: Bravely Default II. Before that, however, I must declare from experience that it is not necessary to play the first Bravely Default, let alone Bravely Second, to fully enjoy Bravely Default II.
(Henceforth, I will refer to the first Bravely Default as BDFF (FF meaning Flying Fairy, the subtitle), Bravely Second as BSEL (EL meaning End Layer), and Bravely Default II as BD2.)
Now, first off, allow me to compile the important parts of Loaded Months 2 and 4, the two prior posts in which I talked about this installment.
[T]he main quartet has a similar feel to that of the first Bravely Default, yet the characters [are] original otherwise, especially with the added presence of accents. Apart from the continued use of series-defining aspects (such as crystals, asterisks, jobs, and Brave/Default), it seems a whole lot more fresh than Bravely Second [hence my earlier declaration], and I suspect that Octopath Traveler was a step in that direction—what with the picturesque scenery, the turn order changes, the one-liners during battle, [redacted due to falsehood] the updated pause menu, and the particle effects of disappearing monsters. […] I’m glad Revo is back for another round of composition, [but] I find the lack of pause menu music strange, considering the first two games had pause menu music (and that of the first game was surprisingly catchy). […] I prefer subtlety in overworld themes, and [those] of [BD2 are] the epitome of subtle: [unified themes] for day and night, muffled in the latter case. […] Poison helps.
Loaded Month 2
I decided to get Xenoblade Chronicles 2 early [February 2021] and immersed myself in Bravely Default II the day it came out. [BD2 is] everything I hoped for, particularly after experiencing the Final Demo (in which I (painstakingly) managed to defeat [Asterisk boss 5] within the time allotted). […] Obviously, it will be difficult to balance these two RPG sequels, but…challenge accepted.
Loaded Month 4
The result of the balancing? I finished BD2 (Level 99 party, Legendary job levels, all endings) in 125:11:51 in-game time on the 7th, and XC2 (Level 80+ party with all manner of miscellany) in 158:53:36 IGT on the 22nd. (It helped to have a digital copy of the former and a physical copy of the latter.)
In Loaded Month 4, I also mentioned having made a Job Compendium, and now it’s completely finished! So, if spoilers are no concern, feel free to have a gander.
To clarify the point about Revo (from Sound Horizon / Linked Horizon of Attack on Titan fame), I’ve always considered his compositions the number one aspect of the Bravely series (which makes it a bit of a shame that the tracks exclusive to BSEL have a different composer: Ryo from Supercell) and honestly overall my favorite video game music of all time. I have frequently mentioned being particularly fond of “That Person’s Name Is” from BDFF, and I kept doubting that BD2 would hold anything quite like it, but beating the game made me realize that liking JRPG music is akin to liking JRPGs per se: It’s a slow and steady process, possibly expedited in a poignant moment. I’ll cover the specifics later, as I’m trying to hold back on spoilers until later in this review, so I’ll leave it at this for now: The BD2 soundtrack is what I would call a true successor to the BDFF soundtrack, comparable to a vector with the same direction and a greater magnitude.
On that note, I have a few further follow-up points to make, as much as I withheld in the Loaded Month snippets:
- Unlike prior Bravely games, BD2 writing contains European English spellings, yet strangely few uses of the Oxford comma.
- I gotta question the decision to make Seth’s name customizable, an unprecedented decision in the Bravely series. That said, for my full-game playthrough, I decided to name him Stefan in honor of the Robbie Rotten actor who sang “You Are a Pirate” (because I knew from the first demo that Seth’s entire gimmick is being pirate-like, plus Seth and Stefan are quite similar names).
- BD2 has additional unique mechanics in equipment weight and countering: the former adding a layer of strategy to loadout management, and the latter allowing opponents to immediately respond to player actions (e.g. with a free attack to counter physical damage or +1 BP in response to an opposing Default).
- Like just about any JRPG, BD2 has its fair share of sex appeal; for instance, Adelle’s freelancer outfit has full midriff exposure, a similar level of thigh exposure to Ibuki from Street Fighter, and a visible drawstring to keep her pants up, which drives the imagination wild.
- On that note, I liked in the Final Demo that when you obtain an Asterisk from a boss character, that character’s outfit gets replaced by common clothes.* (Although, considering Orpheus’s tank top and Anihal’s white dress, I was hoping that all the common clothes would be scantier, but really only those two and Shirley’s were.)
*unless the character’s death comes first
Turning up the heat a bit, the most memorable aspect of BSEL is its occasions of breaking the fourth wall, one of which relates to the use of its bad ending as a plot point towards its true ending. BDFF also has a bad ending, but unlike that of BSEL, it has no bearing on the true ending (and I honestly didn’t even know about it until I got into watching speedruns of the game). The divergence points for these endings are respectively in the prologue and in the endgame. BD2 has four endings total: one bad ending chronologically like that of BSEL but as significant as* that of BDFF, two bad endings the other way around (although “endgame” in each context means something different), and the obligatory true ending. I should also mention that the true ending of BD2 involves some BSEL-like plot advancements by unconventional means, namely saving the game and using the Brave command.
*really even less significant than, but that substitution would ruin the rest of the sentence
…Okay, the spoiler-relenting gloves are off, and now it’s time for death by bullet points relating to my experience with Normal difficulty. (But I’ll at least indicate the chapters to which the points pertain.)
- (0) Interesting that Elvis starts out at level 3 and Adelle at level 5. I’m so used to RPG levels being in favor of the protagonist if anything, and I make it a point to keep all party members alive every battle so that nothing goes awry. I mean, I still do so in BD2 despite this discrepancy, and a certain speciality has potential to worsen the discrepancy. (Hint: It involves the first “optional” Asterisk.)
- (1)
Mr. 0Bernard was, in my experience, the first real frustration of the game. I first approached him with a level 17 party, each member of which I had stick with one job until reaching level 12 in it (designating Stefan as the tank, Gloria as the healer, Elvis as a magic attacker / backup healer, and Adelle as a physical attacker), only to find myself in a war of attrition that I could not win (primarily due to Steal Breath, which he uses to counter Martial Arts like those of Adelle at the time). Accordingly, all I did was level up once and manage to inflict poison (which I thought impossible until after retrying), and somehow it worked out. It was either this battle or the one against Shirley that got me really liking the “Battle with Those We Must Face” track (which I would say is my personal favorite).
I should also add that Godspeed Strike is freaking broken, not only dealing obscene damage on the initial hit, but shortly afterwards dealing the exact same damage again. (Not to mention it can be stacked as many times as desired.) - Speaking of Shirley, in a similar vein to BSEL’s Chompcraft, BD2 also has a minigame: Bind and Divide (B ‘n’ D for short). It involves challenging NPCs to a card game similar in premise to Othello the board game. I haven’t done much with it beyond the necessary steps to the Gambler Asterisk and winning against all C-rank NPCs, but it had to be mentioned.
- (2) Regarding Folie, the abuser of the earth crystal:
- No character fits the “Battle with Villains” track better than her.
- I find it clever that she counters Black Magic with Chiaro and White Magic with Scuro.
- Sometimes I think she would be one of the cutest characters if she weren’t so demented.
- (3) Glenn was also a pain, but only because I fought him as early as I could. His most dastardly tools are his charm-inflicting Philtre and his Big Contagion Bomb of obscene damage output. The deciding factor in my strategy was giving my most MP-dependent party member (probably Gloria) the contagion-immune accessory.
- Going back to the subject of cuteness, Martha is the most attractive Bravely character to date. Her dragoon outfit is skin-tight with a silver-scaled booty, her hair is long and brown, and she has a strong yet kind-hearted personality.
- (4) Chapter 4 is the Neptunia-esque “go back through all the regions and resolve their conflicts” arc of the story, as well as the debut of “The Ceaselessly Resounding Rhythm of Battle” (which arguably is not as good as “The Bells of Battle Ring Out Again”). I approached the regions in chronological order of when they are first visited, but then I learned the hard way that the best order is Wiswald, Halcyonia, and Savalon. Reason being that Halcyonia has waves of enemies, Wiswald has an entire dungeon, and Savalon has…
amogusnothing but the boss. This “best order” also ranks the bosses in ascending order of difficulty; Vigintio is no problem because he’s undead and tends to hurt himself, whereas Marla was the second real frustration of my playthrough. - Elaborating upon Marla, she had such an easy time getting up to 3 BP (because, if I remember correctly, she counters magical attacks with +1 BP and dodges physical attacks with relative ease) and, at low HP, decimating the party with Become the Lightning (to boost her offensive power), Dream within a Dream (to deal obscene damage), Shroud (to deal further damage), and Recurring Nightmare (to get a free action per KO, normally either another Recurring Nightmare or a Default). Part of the problem, I found, was having Stefan and Adelle both armed with Miscellany (Examine is essential to any first playthrough, and the damage output of Body Slam is nothing to sneeze at), so I just gave Stefan Taming instead, and it really worked out (mainly considering my tendency to collect monsters in spades when I have a Beastmaster in the party).
- “A Ship Soaring the Skies of Conquest” is my favorite dungeon theme of the Bravely series.
- Not long thereafter came the third real frustration of my playthrough: the last third of Adam’s HP. It came by rather quickly, but by that point he just wouldn’t freaking die. (And thus did “The Hellblade Conqueror” become an anthem of trauma.) His offensive presence was so overwhelming, that between Deal with the Devil and Heavencloud Blade (the latter of which is disappointingly not a real Hellblade ability), it was a matter of seeing how far the party could bend without breaking. Ultimately, I have to say: Specials were my saving grace, and his 10k HP resort in Deathstorm helped to render him defenseless to a last spurt.
- After having listened to all five overworld themes, I would rank them like this: Halcyonia > Rimedhal > Holograd > Savalon > Wiswald
- (5) Edna’s battle theme (“The One Who Soars in the Darkness of Having Longed, Leapt, and Soddenly Fallen”) contains a mother-loving “Wicked Flight” reference. (But Revo isn’t the only one to refer back to BDFF music; the Ba’al theme of BSEL also contains evident inspiration from Airy’s theme songs.)
- (6) Upon reaching the Isle of Nothingness, my party was in the 60-70 range of levels, and those last three treasure chests (containing “nasty surprise[s]”, naturally) were too much to handle on account of the obscene damage outputs of Mass Attack and Volcanic Fang. (The worst part about the former is that it doubles as a counter against restorative magic.) So, I decided to start grinding, particularly in the northwest sector of the Holograd region using Insect Nectar and eventually the level 8 Bravebearer passive ability Obliterate (which fortunately applies to every round of a continuous battle) until level 80 (a level of my arbitrary choosing that might be higher than necessary), at which point I migrated to the Fount of Knowledge and considered alternatives to Insect Nectar—mostly Plant Food, sometimes Devil’s Delight, and occasionally Soul Food. (JP Up + JP Up and Up (Freelancer lv. 9 and 12), More Money (Gambler lv. 4), and the Golden Egg helped to maximize encounter yields.)
- Come level 99 with Mastered job levels, I rolled with Shieldmaster + Salve-Maker Stefan, Spiritmaster + White Mage Gloria, Red Mage + Oracle Elvis, and Bravebearer + Thief Adelle.
- Stefan: I thought it would be interesting to have a dual-shield wall with a means of fixed damage, similar to the Pokémon Blissey, with Status-Conscious making Compounding side effects more likely. If I ever find him using a Shieldmaster ability, odds are it will be Defender of the People.
- Gloria: The combination of There in Spirit and Spirited Defence makes for a robust healer with indispensable utility, although she’s usually the first to die to an onslaught of physical attacks.
- Elvis: Chainspell is too good to pass up
(two good, if you will), and I thought it would be cool to have In One’s Element to pair with that. Oracles have awful statistics, so it’s natural that I’d want Sub-Job Speciality 1 (Spiritmaster lv. 8) on the Red Mage side. Also, the combination has a versatile elemental coverage in Stone, Aero, and Triple. (To complement it further, Gloria has Holy, and Adelle is a prime target for Elemental Supplement.) - Adelle: Did I mention that Godspeed Strike is freaking broken? Bravebearers are tied for the highest of every statistic except Critical Chance, so naturally they take the absolute best advantage of the ability. (Close runners-up are Phantom and Dragoon, which fall just short in Physical Attack and Critical Chance, in the latter of which Dragoon is tied for second-worst.) True Grit also helps.
- Based on this loadout, I confronted the Legendary trials in the following order: Martha + Helio + Domenic, Galahad + Gladys + Glenn, Selene + Dag + Roddy + Lily, Orpheus + Anihal + Bernard + Shirley, Emma + Lonsdale + Sloan, Castor + Folie + Vigintio, and Horten + Marla + Adam. Honestly, the most irritating part was Castor’s Brave sequence of Vent Fury + three Indiscriminate Rage attacks which would easily fell Gloria.
- Like “Serpent Eating the Ground” (my second-favorite BDFF track), the final boss theme of BD2 also contains bits and pieces of tunes before it, this time notably including some of the Asterisk boss themes.
Spoilers end here. Long story short: BD2 lives up to its predecessor while not being as attached to it as BSEL. And just like BDFF, it’s an 8/10 game with a 10/10 soundtrack.
À la prochaine! (Until next time!)
Vouiv-review 