Quick Look: Bravely Default

The end of that beginning was pretty special... this game is pretty great also.

I'm really curious how long Brad actually ends up playing Bravely Default. I feel like he kind of wants to play an JRPG whenever he checks one out for the site, but then drops it fairly quickly. He seemed to like this one quite a lot, but with the time investment and the whole Dota situation...I doubt this will last for too long.

I bought this game when it came out in Europe and have yet to open it. I want to finish Xenoblade first, but by the time I'm done with that, I won't have time for BD anymore. D:

I love all the options this game has. And thank Akihiko Yoshida for the watercolor-ish/classic character and bg art. @brad If you look up 'bravely default censorship' some costumes that were too strappy (literally) were changed to be less revealing. The character ages were also bumped up to 18+ iirc. Also, some more hot tips:

1- Braving consecutively increases can increase attack power for some moves e.g. braving 3 times and using Valkyrie's Jump.

2 - During battle, swing the analog stick left and right to check enemy info and party stats respectively.

3 - The amount of BP an enemy has (check this using the above) can determine your strategy and may also determine what actions an enemy might take, esp. bosses with special/stacking moves. Obviously, negative BP = no enemy turn.

4 - Turn order is determined by your speed stat e.g. ninjas strike earlier than knights.

5 - Don't shy away from the cheesy Elvis-looking performer job because Buff Up is pretty sweet.

"I don't think I'm far enough to do this sidequest yet."

*Points out the blue exclamation point marking the next step in the sidequest.

Classic Brad.

Also, you can see a monster's "Examine" data if you push the slidepad left. This is explained in one of the many forced tutorial popups.

"Maybe we should play [FFV]"

I think Brad just volunteered for an Endurance Run

Why do JRPGs refuse to get rid of random encounters?! The only JRPGs I've ever liked are Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, and Dragon Quest IX.

Man this game gives me the warm Final Fantasy fuzzies I can't get enough of it, great job Square Enix for once.

@donaldlee: Brad was actually right on this one. You can't start that leg of the quest until you complete the dungeon he was in. Having the marker there was really bad design on the game's part.

Ze game is stereotypical, no?

I love this game, it's such a great tribute to those great old Final Fantasy games, especially 3. I was one of the ten people that loved Four Warriors of Light and this is just that extrapolated out to nth degree.

@dagbiker: I've known him longer than he's known this game, That's for sure. Also you don't know from comedy. @marokai: <--- This guy gets it. Also, I could make about 20 of these on just this quicklook alone. *Game doesn't inform you when it finishes, Talks about how it shows you when it finishes... Special move is blinking 70% of the QL, OMG I HAVE A SPECIAL MOVE... Reminds himself he may not of saved, Runs back to town when he could of done it on the over world... Doesn't want to waste summons, Proceeds to waste summons... Talks about how not defaulting was killing him, Dies from poor planning... Talks about how easy it's been and how he's over leveled... Promptly complains it's hard... Fights boss... calls it a wash after 3 turns... So on so forth. There's a metric ton more. Also he talks about putting more streetpass guys on something isn't worth it, Then promptly does that very thing... That's our brad.

Oh god, the user comments for that would be hilarious.

I'm doing that quest right now and I haven't done that dungeon yet.

Virtually all JRPGs have gotten rid of random encounters -- this just happens to be one that's channeling the '90s. Also, you can totally turn random encounters to 0 and get through the game on boss EXP alone. It'll be a good deal shorter too.

@linus_south said:

Yes, I'm sure the story improves after a couple of hours, when you've invested so much time that it makes you convince yourself that it was good rather than admit that the time spent was wasted.

cant decide if writing is bad on purpose or just a typical bad jrpg story

can someone explain to me how they recorded the opening? I don't get it.

I've been curious about this game for a while, but somehow never bothered to look further into it. Thanks to this QL, I'm gonna have to get this immediately now.

Agnes isn't a prude like Hatsune Miku.

@linus_south said:

To be fair, it doesn't take that much time to tell if the voice acting is good or not. Even if a couple characters down the line have better VO, it won't change how bad it is for the main characters or other characters you've already met.

I think this is one game I need to play for myself, because I honestly fell asleep watching this.

I take it you learned grammar from mid-'90's JRPG's? I haven't seen that many ellipses since then.

Also, if you're six and a half hours into the game and the story still hasn't done anything more than "hometown destroyed, four powerful crystals, one evil kingdom, etc." then it's a pretty good bet that the story isn't anything special. Especially since Final Fantasy IV did all of those things ages ago. And you can take a pretty good stab at VO quality as soon as more than one person has said something.

I love the SICK GAME-PLAY TIPS that pop up in the comments.

Anyway, may have to pick this up -- haven't played a JRPG in years.

Yeah, find an excuse to play some FFV.

`My god the first two minutes of this QL are SOLID GOLDBURG

Really love the look of this.

Between the art style, the soundtrack, and the game mechanics, this is reminding me of classic SNES JRPGs.

I wasn't expecting on picking this up, but I may have to.

It's not necessarily a deal breaker for me but I'm with you, I hate queueing up attacks in RPGs.

The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age has a battle system that is almost exactly like FFX and I thought it was decent enough as a fan of the movies. The Wild Arms series(with the exception of 4 and XF) are all turn based and are great western themed RPGs.

I really hate the downfall of turn based JRPGs in favor more action based combat.

So I guess with this, there might finally be enough reasons to own a 3DS. I might pick one up with this game and Fire Emblem.

I don't usually complain about quick look lengths, but wow, 80 minutes for this game.

well these comments were decent for a while...

That intro is something else. A really excellent use of the 3DS's features. I wish more games did stuff like that.

I also wish I had hot anime ladies flying into my crotch.

I honestly don't know why people are still whining about how JRPGs never evolve. They're so few and far between at this point that I'm just happy when a new one that isn't trash comes out.

This is really the first game that made me consider getting a 3DS

Haha, holy shit the intro is incredible.

I wish every quick look started with an AR intro sequence.

Love that a guy who actually posted a memegenerator image is telling someone else they don't know comedy.

good job

The 3DS has cameras on the outside, and the video feed is shown on the top screen of the 3DS. And the game also supports AR cards, so 3D game models appear over the video that the 3DS cameras capture.

I decided to start the game this morning at work. As I watched the opening, I had some people come in to look at the gallery I was guarding (I'm security at a museum). These patrons were probably in their seventies, and they clearly thought I was crazy as I moved the 3ds all around the room while a beautiful scantily clad maiden plead for my help and was sucked into the floor. I hope they didn't see me try to get an upskirt.

That beginning was great...lol.

Anyways really happy to see a JRPG get a really long Quick Look, and just some attention in general. The Xenoblade one being like 20 minutes was such a bummer. Looking forward to checking this out. Thanks a lot @brad. Also any chance of a Lightning Returns Quick Look? I'd assume you'd be doing that one as well.

Brad: so many lies

@encynerate: The two sweetest words in the English language!

Bravely default on mortgage payment. Steadfastly refuse to comply with foreclosure. Announce intention to secede from nation and declare residence + land plot to be autonomous state. Stitch custom super cool flag of awesome to fly on front lawn. :)

oh man... i don't have a 3ds so hadn't paid any attention to this game. this is... this is like a for realsies Final Fantasy from the time when those games were good. I need to have this. ♥

Was Brad trying to show a boss? Why did he not just turn the encounter rate down to 0%?

Picked it up after seeing this. I am very, very pleased with it at about 2.5 hours in.

For a long time I thought that this game's title was "Final Fantasy: Bravely Default".

I hate to be that guy, but Square-Enix offers both Japanese and English VO.

@ruthloose: You may hate being that guy, but I wanna be the guy!

Yeah, I switched to the Japanese VO as soon as I could. I really appreciate that they have that option in there. Only thing that kinda bugged me is that Ringabel sounds a bit too old, but I got used to it.

Legitimately fell asleep watching this. JRPG's are just so.....ugh.

That AR card opening thing was actually pretty cool. I'm impressed how far around she walks and how high up and stuff. Pretty rad.