Bravely Default (3DS)

Bravely Default is a pretty interesting game.The Battle System is easy to get a good grasp on - it has a class system like Final Fantasy V that controls what abilities the character has and affects their stats (e.g. a Black Mage is far weaker physically than a Monk but has stronger magic). But you can also equip a second set of abilities from a different class - so you could equip a Black Mage who would have a high Magic stat with White Magic. Then it also has the Brave and Default actions - Brave lets you take turns early while Default allows you to save up turns so that you can use Brave then still be able to take action the next turn.It allows you to create clever strategies and if you cleverly plan out moves based on your character's speeds, you'll be able to revive team members and have a team mostly at full health in a few turns.The only flaw I really saw with it was that some of the abilities on bosses were somewhat unfair. The max damage you can cause per turn is 9999 unless you use a special ability - but the Dark Knight of the game has a move called Minus Strike which does damage equal to the amount of HP they have lost. So he can insta-kill your characters with a move that you can't use to do more than 9999 damage.Graphically, the cutscenes at the beginning are amazingly beautiful but the rest of the game is done in a kind of chibi style - like Final Fantasy III when it was upgraded for the 3DS. There is only one single cutscene after that which is at the very end of the game - the rest of the game is done in that chibi style which isn't bad, but it makes the main characters seem a lot shorter than literally every other character you talk to.Story is where the game excels - it starts with a simple 'awaken the four crystals to save the world' and is very focused on what characters say - but things then become a lot more complex. I will admit that the second half of the game is somewhat tedious, especially if you do all the sidequests, but it is to add to the fact that the journey takes a long time. You get the true ending if you keep playing through but there is a second ending that you can find after you have started chapter five, finding it doesn't really do anything except show you would happen if you took that action instead of continuing onwards endlessly.Anyone who liked Final Fantasy, especially the early ones, would love this game.

Great game very similar to many final fantasy games, the job system is very cool for example it allows you to use a secondary passive ability from another job with your main one. This offers many strategic options for your team. Also the dialog in game can be funny and witty. I cant comment on the story so far as I have not progressed much. However I can tell you that you will have to grind levels a bit to comfortably handle the many bosses at stages of the game. (which there are alot) However level progression is very rewarding with your job level also increasing over time. The game also rewards you for bonus points for ending the fight in one turn and without an enemy hitting you which encourages innovation in your game play.All in all its everything I expected and more so far. I have under 10 hours played and still very engaged, I would recommend this to any final fantasy fan, especially the more old school ones. Sqaure enix have done well with this, my favorite 3DS game. If I was forced to give a critique of this game at gun point It would be the city building mini game where you have to wait sometimes 90 hours to unlock certain moves forcing you to keep your 3DS on sleep mode. It wasn't really necessary at all just a thing to prolong the game. I would have much preferred the unlock mechanic from say Final Fantasy 10 with the power orbs and moves in grids.Having said that I can tell I can sink alot of fun hours into this game making it a very worth while investment. Considering most 3DS games don't compel me to play for more than 20 hours.

If you're going to rip off a series then you damn well better rip it off from its good period and, in Bravely Default (BD), that's exactly what we've got. This is, in fact, an excellent Final Fantasy game from the series' strongest point. It stands up (mostly) as a companion piece to FFIV-VI, with lovely graphics, an excellent and cleverly thought through battle system and tons and tons of content. If it weren't for a few issues you could go so far as to call it a masterpiece. But, sadly, those issues are there and they're intrusive enough that you can't look past them.Shepard Tiz is out with his sheep and his younger brother one day when... a huge hole opens up in the ground and swallows his village, his flock and, most tragically, his brother. He falls unconscious and... the plot begins. From there, it's your typical FF story: crystals, an apparently evil empire, the end of the world, airships, archetypal characters, twists, betrayals, all those things for which the series became so well known, they're pretty much all here in one way or another.That's great and there's more good news: the battle system not only takes bits and pieces from the series better ideas X-2 dress sphere (Okay so X2 mostly sucked but the dress sphere stuff was good) which allows you kit out your characters in all sorts of combinations from twenty four different roles. It's a truly flexible and intriguing system. If you have any kind of interest in this sort of game mechanic, then, in this aspect, BD has hit it out of the park. It's glorious and you can keep on gaining new jobs till quite close to the end.Then there's the bit for which the game's named, the Brave/Default mechanic. This is another excellent concept. It allows the player to either spend up to four turns in advance, or to bank turns so that you can spend them later. This, again, makes for huge flexibility in your fighting and, given the occasionally massive difficulty spike in boss battles, it's highly welcome. It's also welcome if you want to spend time levelling up the afore mentioned jobs, as with a proper use of brave you can floor most normal enemies in random encounters in a single round. Added to this you also have the chance to set up the system to auto battle for you, so you can run about the field, get a random encounter and, a couple of seconds later, xp and loot. For power gamers it's seriously sweet. Hell, you can even, right from the beginning, set up the game to give you anything no random encounters right up to getting them practically every six steps.In all these regards BD is an exceptional piece of work and beautiful to look at, for 3DS game. And, really, given just how cleverly, how thoughtfully, how gracefully, the designers have worked in creating these aspects it truly pains me that I've got to now rain on the parade.What causes the game to fail to achieve it's true potential? Well there are several aspects. The first and maybe most obvious, is that, unlike, say, FFIV or FFVI the plot of Bravely Default (Which is a terrible, terrible title, even if it does call attention to one of the games better points) is dull. It's not terrible and it does have a few welcome surprises in it. But, really, it just doesn't cut it. In particular it fails to be as mature, as impactful, as moving as, say the story of Cecil et al from FFIV. Now there was a story, clichés and all, which just worked and made you feel for the protagonist.The next problem is the voice acting, it's not awful by any means, indeed a lot of it is rather good, and, in some cases excellent, but there are some characters who's squeaky, hi-pitched performances are just ghastly and make me reach for the mute button at warp speed. It's not as bad as some Japanese, adaptations I've come across, for instance, it's does hold a candle to Star Ocean: The Last Hope, which had characters which nearly made me fling the game across the room (despite it being another example of a deeply compelling battle system) but Airy needs to die and die now and, sadly, Agnes is not far behind her.The problem is not nearly as bad as either of these two. It's really just a nasty little bit of money grubbing from Square Enix. The game give the player a chance to use a command and freeze time allowing you to recover in a battle where you're being heartily beaten. So far, so good. Unfortunately, these commands are things which you can buy for x amount of real world cash. It's crass, it's unpleasant, its unnecessary and it pulls down the tone.So, all in all, Bravely Default is an exceptional game, it has its flaws, sure, and some of them are too big to be over looked when trying to sort out what I really think of it. But... but, overall, the pluses far and away outweigh the minuses making BD one of the best 3DS jRPGs of recent memories. Indeed, if it weren't for the problems I outlined above and the comparatively recent superior game Fire Emblem: Awakening, I'd come close to calling this a classic. And, even if it isn't one, it's still the best damn FF game we've had for a long time, probably since Crisis Core, which is now some seven years old. And I for one will take a good new FF game (even if it's not officially part of the series) over the dross we've been fed under that banner for such a long time now.