BRAVELY DEFAULT II - Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch Lite

Arrived on time and in good condition. Best Buy Tacked on some goodies free of charge because I pre-ordered and they showed up on time too! I'll be sure to pre-order games with them again.

Bravely Default II, as the title suggests, is an excellent JRPG. In a day and age where turn-based combat systems are becoming less marketable, it sticks closer to the classic final fantasy style of taking turns to select actions from a menu - with allies on one side and enemies on the other, albeit with the fantastic new mechanics of braving and defaulting found in the Bravely series. As of the time of writing this review, I’ve played about 10 hours of Default II and the aspects that stand out most to me have been: 1. The graphics. They look excellent, unique, and at times are just jaw dropping in beauty and creativity. At first I didn’t care for the look of the in-game characters, but they quickly began to grow on me within the first several hours alone. The handrawn looking backgrounds of the city scapes, the diorama-esk environments, etc. It all adds to the charm and feel of this game. 2. The characters. I wasn’t sure if I’d like the main cast this time around. In my time with Bravely default on the 3DS, I grew to really love Tis, Ringabel, Agnes, and Edea. The trailers leading up to the release of Default II didn’t convince me this time around. However, within the first several hours I quickly came around and found that I rather enjoyed all four of the new heroes, both individually and as a group (regarding their meaningful and entertaining reactions with each other). 3. The party chats in this game have all been anything from funny and charming to heartwarming, and have all been interesting. They really help to make the group feel real - often showing a more mundane side to the characters interactions with each other and the world around them, though at times are entirely about that’s happening in the main story events as well. All in all, they are very welcome in helping add personality and depth to the four heroes of light. 4. The story. While I enjoyed the majority of the general story in Bravely Default, it wasn’t the best I’ve ever experienced in a Jrpg. With Bravely II, while I can’t speak of it on the whole, I can easily say that it’s already gripped me. I have found myself every hour, every step of the way excited and genuinely interested and engaged with what’s happening and wondering what will happen next. While the foundational premise is nothing new (four warriors of light destined to fight back the darkness; a fantasy story involving crystals), it doesn’t at all mean that it doesn’t work - really, I think it works quite well. And it helps being someone who hasn’t played every single classic Final Fantasy game. I’ve heard there’s some supervision of tropes and twists along the way, so I’ll be anxious to see how it all plays out. 5. The combat. The turn-based gameplay in Default II is amazing. It’s surprisingly easy to get a hang of, but holds a high ceiling regarding strategy and depth to be mined and exploited. Not only from risking or saving actions through the brave and default system and all that results from this, but equally from the various job classes you obtain throughout the play through. Boss battles are sufficiently challenging and even standard enemies on the over-world require a moderate amount of attention as they can easily put you in a difficult situation if you’re not careful. The combat is snappy, strategic, and most importantly - downright fun to engage with. 6. The quality of life features. While Default II does away with the ability to turn off enemy encounters completely (they are now visible on the overworld), it does provide some ability to avoid them by running around them if you choose to forgo grinding at that particular moment. In addition, there is an easy difficulty setting (which is much appreciated - but still, in my opinion, a bit too hard), as well as there are several speed up options both for character dialogue and for attack animations in battle. 7. The music. Like Bravely Default, some familiar tunes return in Default II and this brings a nice feeling of nostalgia. The new tracks are excellent and I’ve found all the music so far to be enjoyable to listen to, and nothing has become annoying as I’ve spent time grinding or making my away through the story bits and town exploration. Always a plus! 8. Lastly, and while I could say much more about my experiences with this game so far, I’ll point out that the sailing exploration feature has been surprisingly useful — to set sail, put my Switch in sleep mode and then 12 hours later reap rewards (character stat and job class experience items) has been super helpful. Overall, this game has really impressed me so far and I don’t see it letting up anytime soon. my only caution for newcomers to this series or the JRPG genre is the difficulty here. It starts off fairly easy and can lull you into thinking you can casually make your way throughout combat encounters, but I can’t stress enough how untrue this is — especially as the game progresses. Enemies don’t hold back, and the name of the game here is exploiting weaknesses which boils down to, in an almost puzzle like manner, figuring out the correct method to take down each increasingly difficulty boss fight. Grinding is a necessity as well. So if a higher challenge puts you off, you might be better off to look elsewhere at more friendly and forgiving games/experiences such as the recent Persona games, the Trails of Cold Steel series, etc — all of which provide easier and more forgiving difficulty settings and allow you to get through boss battles without too much effort (which is helpful if a boss is the reason you can’t progress the story).

From what I have played thus far, this is a fun game made by one of my favorite software developers. It incorporates a lot of traditional elements from the Final Fantasy franchise for better or worse. That's OK with me since Final Fantasy has bee one of my favorite gaming franchises for about as long as i can remember, however, for that same reason the game loses some points as it doesn't feel like there are a whole lot of novel features to it by comparison to what can be found in other Square-Enix titles (granted, I am only about five hours into it at the time of writing this review). Best Buy loses points on this matter as they had it displayed for $30.00 and charged me closer to $60.00 for it at the register. I was excited to think that I was getting it for a markdown and a little disappointed when I found out that wasn't the case. Price transparency continues to strike me as something that Best Buy needs to work on! Overall, this is a fun game, though, and I apologize for being a little late in getting my review for it out.

This game is FANTASTIC if you're looking for an old school style JRPG. Especially if you've been missing the old Final Fantasys (BD2 is also from Square Enix!) Three points stand out to me: Job system: This is the game's class system. Any of your four party members can take any of the 22 jobs. That itself would be pretty interesting, but all characters can also equip a subjob. So there are a ton of combinations to set up your party. Even more, once you level up a job and earn passive abilities, you can still slot those in (you can equip 4 passives) even if the subjob is no longer active. Battle System: the eponymous bravley default system is interesting. If you default, you take a defensive stance and earn a "Battle Point". If you "Brave" you can spend a Battle Point to act multiple times in one turn. This makes boss battles a challenge of when to bank points, and when to just completely unleash. It isn't always as strategic during random encounters, but it matters a whole lot during boss battles. Music: well I'm not a music theorist so I'm not sure what else to say other than... it is good. Very good imo. Revo is back and we are thankful This is a great game, but it is important to note that it is an old school style JRPG. There is grinding, it can be tough, but if you're into that I wholly recommend it! The main story will give you at least 50 hours. If you're someone that wants to get the most bang for your buck the post game will add many, many hours to your playthrough.

I had to wait about 5 days to actually get the game after release despite pre-ordering... Beyond that hiccup, Bravely 2 is a mechanical masterpiece, fixing a number of the issues in the first two games designs and makes it entirely worth playing despite its narrative being more boilerplate than previous entries. The character music tracks are also divine!

I love this series. The emotions that make you feel are as if you were experiencing this game, and the others, in real life. If you haven’t already played the others you should because you’re missing out.

Great rpg with an awesome story line and great graphics. Definitely a must own

Another excellent title from square Enix an essential for anyone into turn based rpgs.