So, I should first preface this by saying I feel I've put my time in this. This game, granted I went into it completely blind, is utterly baffling to me. I'm currently on my third dungeon play-through which I'd argue is at least two times more then a RPG should ever have and I've heard people lament other games for repeating areas over and completely writing them off as terrible which I'll get to later. But, from all the love I hear from this game I decided to check it out despite my previous distaste for Final Fantasy-esque games. I just seemed to be utterly baffled about story, characters, voice acting, needless time sink, and whatever may come to mind while writing this.

I guess, before someone reads the prattling of an anonymous internet stranger I'll explain my background with JRPG's. I've played them since I first could read. Starting with the often forgotten Phantasy Star on the Master System and have continued playing through PS1-4, played what at the time was considered Final Fantasy 1-3, Shinning Force series, Grandia series, Tales of, Mana series, and many other such JRPG games. I've never really enjoyed the Final Fantasy series but I do consider FF9 to be the best of them though I've never played 11, 12, 13-2 or 3, or 14.

First is the story. Why should I care when the game doesn't seem to care? So as I stated I'm on the third dungeon tour through the game which means I've reawakened the four crystals and I've reawakened them 11 times . The main goal in the game is to reawaken the four main crystal to restore the land so how can I restore 4 crystals up to 11 times? Well... unless I'm doing something wrong which considering how linear many JRPG's are I think I can scratch that out. Every time you reawaken the 4 crystals a pillar of light shows up and after two supposed failed attempts the game reverts to the Very Beginning of the game and seems to shrug it's shoulders and figures let's go through it All Over Again. Why? Because... uh... reasons? Which leads me to Story and Characters.

Am I the villain? In my mind it certainly seems so. I can't say for sure but, the amount of people in the that game have told the main cast that reawakening the crystal is a fairly bad idea and will lead to the destruction of this world. So, with that knowledge our stalwart "Heroes" shrug it off as inane ramblings and continue to murder their way through. Even patricide is seems to be in considering I've tried it 3 times. Friends the cast have grown up and considered friends? Nope gotta wipe them out because Agnes and her little fairy friend said so? Exactly why should listen to these two when both attempts before lead to failure? But, nope our way must be right! And, if you don't agree well... we'll just kill you for the third time! So, Agnes and her fairy are pretty unappealing characters which leads to Tiz, Edea, and Ringabel. Tiz our hero burdened with rebuilding his entire hometown (which thankfully your progress doesn't revert during every story wipe) has good intentions but no will of his own. From his first meeting with Agnes he just goes with whatever she says. Edea betrays her family, friends, and way of life because of some an ass of a black mage and that's enough for her. Ringabel is the go to leech of the group who suffers from amnesia but, hey at least it isn't the main character with amnesia this time. Just the one of the main cast. At least his other self seems to be on the right side. Well I'll see how it turns out in the end. Whoever voices Airy (get it she's a fAIRY) seems to be stuck with cute, shrill, high-pitched voice that grates the ears every time.

So the Needless Time Sink... This is based on Tizs' wrecked town that he and he alone is entrusted on rebuilding. Granted you can speed this process up by having friend codes to double up on the work but it seems like a free-to-play money grab without the transactions? I'll give them credit for not charging money to speed up the process to build his town. Granted the only incentive to do this is for your crew to gain items, abilities, weapons, and armor. Though, why when most games of this genre left that up to actually experience gains or item pick-ups? It seems arbitrary to wipe out a town for this reason...

Granted I went into to this game blind and hearing all the praise for this game but it left me wondering if anyone who actually praised this actually reawakened the original 4 crystals and stopped there. I realize this is my opinion and I'll probably trudge through till the end, well, that is if I don't need to reawaken the crystals another 12 times. So despite my ramblings and first Blog(?) I'm sure some enjoy this, I'm just more curious as to why?

I haven't played the game, but most people I know enjoyed it for the gameplay, the systems and the art style (FFT style) over the story. I mean it's a FF game, melodramatic story that is more entertaining to some people, less to others, but deep to none. I played a good amount of FF5, it's pretty much the same thing just 20 years ago, story is a parody of JRPG stories but I played it for the fun job system.

Anyway, if you never really enjoyed the FF series why would you necessarily enjoy this one? For all intensive purposes, this is a FF game, just the style of FF game we haven't had since the SNES era. It's incredibly similar to FF3 and FF5 (japanese numbering), and the job system has much in common with FFT. Other people enjoy it (I probably would), but other people also have enjoyed more of the series.

If you don't like it, go play Phantasy Star II again. Genesis does... what Nintendon't.

Despite the fact that the back half of the chapters sans the ending makes you refight the bosses and reawaken the crystals 4 times in a row I still loved the game and would recommend it. Honestly the repetition sucks but if you have leveled your party enough (with the right job combos you can totally break the combat) you can blaze through all of the fights in about an hour or two. The most memerable parts of the game for me are the combat which go back to Final Fantasy job style system while maintaining it's own identity with the usage of fast fowarding the individual fights and/or doubling or nulifying the encounter rate. The soundtrack I find top notch and have been actively listening to it for the better part of the last year. Yeah the story takes a large nose dive at around the halfway point and the indivual characters as a whole aren't fantastic I still loved the game.

@belegorm Yeah, I understand the sentiment of "well if you didn't like the rest why start now" but I did truly enjoy FF9. With any series that spans over 20 game main games I figure there would be more then one I'd love. I heard Bravely Default was a throwback and considering I enjoyed FF9 which at the time was considered a throwback to older Final Fantasy games and with the praise this game had I figured why not check it out. Also, I love the comment but why no love for Phantasy Star 3 lol.

@oscar_explosion What!! 4 times! Also, yes the battle system can be busted with the right jobs and yes you can nullify the encounter rate but I've seen people down right trash otherwise perfectly fine games for repeating areas twice(DMC4). I should have mentioned that I've stopped the random encouter after the second cycle of bosses and that's my bad.. Though, why do they arbitrarily negate money and exp(for the most part), I mean it's nice you can still get the job points. It just seems like unbelievable superfluous padding for a game that may not or could have been far better without it.

I will still finish this game.

@mason20: I don't want to discourage you from finishing the game, but you are technically fighting the same 4 bosses and reawakening the crystals a total of 5 times (the first time in with each crystal in chapters 1-4, then repeating the cycle all over again in chapters, 5,6,7 and 8.) Like I said and you have already discovered you can totally bust the combat and blaze through all that stuff quickly. Also to your question of shattering any of the crystals early I believe it takes you directing to an ending but not the true ending.

The second half of Bravely Default is a trainwreck - I absolutely hated it. Chapters 5 - 8 exist only for the sake of its mediocre story. It's a boring, monotonous slog and it baffles me how the developers thought it would be a good idea to include it. I wish I wouldn't have bothered with finishing the game, I didn't feel at all satisfied by having completed it. The first half is at least somewhat enjoyable though and the developers did try to do something a little bit different with the battle system, so I'll give it that. I still wouldn't recommend it though - there are far better games on the 3DS.

I couldn't really get into Bravely Default, either. It takes too long to grind up different jobs, there's too much uninteresting dialog and it takes itself too seriously, and I don't even think the gameplay is all that good. It takes far too long to finish a turn and more often than not, I find myself braving four times to cause 250 damage per hit instead of just selecting a single attack for 1000 damage, so the gameplay isn't terribly engaging either.

I keep forgetting that this game has voice acting. I turned the voices completely off and just read text, like an old school FF game.

I will, however, praise this game's art. When I was playing the game, I found myself pushing through it to see what the next town looked like.

The second half (or last third, depending on how much boss rushing you want to do) of Bravely Default really soured that game for me. The ending is sort of bonkers, but it's not enough to justify what is a grindy, repetitive slog for the sake of a story that isn't that amazing to begin with.

It's a pity, because it was this close to being the Final Fantasy V sequel I've always wanted.