LTTP Bravely Default II |LTTP| Brave to a (De-) Fault

[MissingNo.]

First of all, obviously this OP and the thread as a whole contain spoilers for BD2. I would ask Fami to not spoil me anything ITT, though. So if you want to discuss stuff that is beyond what I have already experienced myself, please do so using the spoiler function.

With that out of the way…

INTRODUCTION

When Bravely Default II released last year, it was not at the top of my priority list. I made a call to not get it at launch, since I figured I would not be done with it before the launch of Monster Hunter Rise, and I knew I would be busy with that game for a couple of months. And I was right about that.

Then E3 rolled around and I was swept up in unadulterated hype for Metroid Dread. Plus, WarioWare and SMT5 were on the horizon. And so, over time, I just… kind of forgot about BD2.

However, a visit at a local retailer brought it back to my memory, and for 29€ I really could not say no. Especially since I am done with my first playthrough of Triangle Strategy. I am close to done with my initial playthrough of Elden Ring as well, and I know I need a break from it before I attempt to finish that one up.
In other words, I actually have time to go back and play a game I initially skipped.

So I figured I would do just that. And I figured, since I am already doing that, why not make a LTTP thread on it, too? So I did that as well.


INITIAL IMPRESSIONS: PROLOGUE

I have only played (partway) through the Prologue for now, so I intend to update this thread with my thoughts as I progress through the game.

Up until now, a couple of early observations.

First of all, I can see the presentation growing on me over time, even though I vastly prefer the HD-2D style. Image clarity seems decent enough, if not quite as crisp as Octopath or TriStrat. Either that, or the same issues might simply be less noticeable in HD-2D. Either way, it is perfectly serviceable.

I will say that the art style could be more consistent, and overall works much, much better for the monster models than it does for the human ones, but none of that really bugs me too much.

The music has been really nice and comfy so far, which honestly was to be expected. Some titles remind me a bit more of DQ than FF, which is not a bad thing, either.

The battle system is a nice twist, and I really appreciate the QOL feature to speed up battles, which I can already tell will come in handy when grinding. I can not wait for the job systems to open up and just experiment with different setups.

The first dungeon was okay as an introduction. I took the Asterisk wielders down without a hitch, focusing on the White Mage first — Yes, I am terrible with names, how did you know? — and got lucky enough in guessing both their elemental weaknesses, so I finished them off very quickly.

Last but not least, I already like Elvis. To the tavern we go!


I will report back as I continue my journey. Until then.

 

[Deleted member 2]

One of the Switch's gems, imo.

I felt like it was aimed at a more "hardcore" audience that cares less about plot, character development, twists, and graphics, and more towards those of us who get excited about the nitty gritty of teambuilding, strategizing and tactics, and finding fun ways to break the game.

That being said, the characters weren't terrible (sometimes I liked them a lot - particularly a specific lowly side character), and the world looked beautiful sometimes. It definitely had a very cozy feel to it.

It's definitely in my top 5 JRPGs on the Switch. I'm excited to hear from your journey!

 

[Lozjam]

I could not get into it very well. I do not like the mechanical changes they made, especially with turn order.

The artstyle was also somewhat dissapointing, especially considering they nailed an amazing artstyle with the opening of the first game.

It was obvious you couldnt do something like that live on a 3DS, but I was really hoping they would go in this direction for the switch game.

I am glad you are enjoying it though!

 

[SirArthur]

This was one of my favorite games last year. The refine combat is chef's kiss. There is nothing more satisfying than finding that team comp that recks the enemy. Plus Revo is back doing the music, they were absent for Second Layer, boss themes are epic. I can keep on lol, hope you enjoy your journey across Excillant.

 

[King_Dodongo]

Unlike ff9, only some people play the card game, unlike just about everyone. (which IMO is more fun than the former)
Great game for sure.

 

[NabiscoFelt]

Great game, was also fairly late to it but did get to play it last year.

Asano just doesn't miss

 

[SammyJ9]

Very good game. I wasn't hooked until the end of the prologue, but after that it had its hooks in me until near the end when it started to feel a bit repetitive, but that's more on me with keeping mostly the same battle strategy.

 

[MissingNo.]

A couple more thoughts after completing the Prologue.

• I forgot to mention this in my initial impressions, but getting randomised loot from cutting grass sure is a blessing, and a curse.
• Did all of the side-quests I came across, and while some are expectedly fetch-questy, there is also Truff. Oink!
• Horten was more of a challenge than the other two Asterisk chumps prior. Still, he went down without having done a whole lot.
• Adam. I knew it was one of those fights you were intended to lose, but then Sir Sloan kept reviving my fallen allies and dragged it out needlessly long.
• Sir Sloan sacrificed himself before I could apologise for being pissed at his constant use of Phoenix Downs, which, contrary to what I thought at first, did not seem to come out of my own pocket after all. RIP, buddy.

I think I will post my impressions once I am done with each respective Chapter from now on, but I might make some quick posts in between as well.

 

[MissingNo.]

Just quickly dropping in to ask why Castor is such a massive douche.

 

[Sorbete]

MY MIGHT KNOWS NO BOUNDS!

 

[Deleted member 2484]

I like Bravely Default 2 a lot. I didn't really follow any of the lead up to it, or know about any of the problems people had with it, but I saw it on a Tim Rogers stream and thought it looked very cute and traditional.

I should play Bravely Second some time.

 

[fiendcode]

I need to get back to it, kinda fell off on the post-game.

I also still want Asano and CTW to remaster BD1 and Second for Switch/PC. They already scale to HD incredibly well as is.

 

[Deleted member 2]

Holy shit this thread just reminded me of how good the card game is.

B 'n D is fantastic. I played the shit out of it. Beat every character you can play against, and got every card.

 

[MissingNo.]

I don't think I have unlocked the card game quite yet. Currently going after the Bard in the Sandswept Ruins. But I am looking forward to that, as I mostly enjoyed the card games in PS1 era FF games, especially in FF9.

 

[MissingNo.]

After 10 hours of playtime, I thought I would give a quick update.

• The music in Savalon never gets old.
• The game just feels comfy, and I think that is mostly due to the OST.
• I did not like Orpheus. What a popmous ass. Also, I already mentioned this, but Castor starts out as a total buffoon as well. His adviser seemed fishy from the get go.
• The Sandswept Ruins were, once again, serviceable as a dungeon, but I hope those get more interesting as the game goes on. Orpheus' boss fight was at least a bit more of a challenge than the earlier ones. But I managed to beat him without too much of an effort.
• I really liked the cave below Savalon from a visual perspective.
• I said the game was comfy earlier, but it went from that to kicking my butt really quickly, because up next was…
• Anihal's boss fight. This made me go back and actually grind a bit for the first time. I initially went into it with a Lvl 12 party, but eventually beat her with a Lvl 14 party. It did still involve some strategy (and lots and lots of poison abuse) to nail it down, and in the end I could not revive Elvis in time before the fight was over so he missed out on EXP/JP, but, oh well.

Made some good progress so far this weekend, and I am enjoying myself so far.

 

[SammyJ9]

After 10 hours of playtime, I thought I would give a quick update.

• The music in Savalon never gets old.
• The game just feels comfy, and I think that is mostly due to the OST.
• I did not like Orpheus. What a popmous ass. Also, I already mentioned this, but Castor starts out as a total buffoon as well. His adviser seemed fishy from the get go.
• The Sandswept Ruins were, once again, serviceable as a dungeon, but I hope those get more interesting as the game goes on. Orpheus' boss fight was at least a bit more of a challenge than the earlier ones. But I managed to beat him without too much of an effort.
• I really liked the cave below Savalon from a visual perspective.
• I said the game was comfy earlier, but it went from that to kicking my butt really quickly, because up next was…
• Anihal's boss fight. This made me go back and actually grind a bit for the first time. I initially went into it with a Lvl 12 party, but eventually beat her with a Lvl 14 party. It did still involve some strategy (and lots and lots of poison abuse) to nail it down, and in the end I could not revive Elvis in time before the fight was over so he missed out on EXP/JP, but, oh well.

Made some good progress so far this weekend, and I am enjoying myself so far.

The game is VERY comfy, no doubt. It does have some difficulty spikes here and there, but grinding almost seems intended at least to some degree with the automating actions/speed up/etc. options making it so quick and painless

 

[MissingNo.]

Also, I totally forgot to mention:

"Know a lot about women's feet, do you?
Got some kind of…special interest?"

 

[Seven]

I'm glad to see you're enjoying your time with Bravely Default 2 @MissingNo. it was one of my favorite games on the Switch last year. Sure, outside of a few twists it doesn't do anything unique with its story, but I don't think every RPG has to be a revelation in storytelling to be a great game. To me BD2 was like comfort food in gaming form, I loved the diorama-like world and figurine-like character design and the characters themselves (especially Elvis and Adelle) were very charming.

 

[MissingNo.]

I wanna be the very best
Like no one ever was
To catch them is my real test
To train them is my cause

• Yep. BD2 just turned into Pokémon for me. After having dealt with Anihal, I made Gloria a Beastmaster. So, naturally, I had to re-tread every area and dungeon and catch every beast I had encountered so far. And when I say every beast, I mean every. Single. One.
• Turns out, some monsters are pretty overpowered. Case in point: Bernard. Don't you just hate it when you want to test the damage output of the Heroes of Light, and they just end up obliterating you with Minotaurs? Lots, and lots of Minotaurs? Man, must suck to be you, Bernard. Tough shit.
• I have gone on record about not liking Castor initially due to his attitude. He came around somewhat in the meantime, only to go and burn all bridges for good. What a bum. Bit of a nutjob as well, apparently.
• After the least involved prison break in the history of prison breaks, I went side-questing. The highlight was the quest where I got to beat up a pot spirit. As luck would have it, the bane of potboy's existence turned out to be Oops! All Minotaurs, so it was over quickly once again. The return of Selene and Dag was unexpected, but welcome.
• Back to the prison break as I just have to comment on it. So Anihal's bird simply got the key, and then she just hands it to you and… You just walk out. And that is that. What? That one "guard" that is standing on the road leading up to the dungeons comments on how he did not know Gloria had been released if you bother to approach them. And that's it? Okay, I guess? Weirdly anticlimactic.
• I don't think I mentioned this before, but I like the way they implemented party chat. If you like the characters and want to learn more about them, you can. But it is not being forced on those who just want to press on, either. So far, I liked those little extra bits of party interaction.
• Lastly, I just found out I can play B'n'D at this point in the story, so that's what I will do next.

 

[MissingNo.]

Oh no. It happened. I am addicted to B'n'D.


Also, I am not sure if those are QoL oversights or I am just too dumb to find options for doing it, but:

• Is there any way to check which monsters you have/have not caught? Afaik, the only way to check your stock of caught monsters is in battle.
• On a similar note, is there any way to edit your B'n'D decks outside of approaching someone for a match?

In both cases, you can view information on monsters and cards through the 'Lore' section in the main menu, but they don't let you access what I am looking for there.


In other news, I have completed Chapter 1 and reached Wiswald. The sudden change in instrumentation in the overworld music upon crossing the bridge was neat. Otherwise, I don't feel like I have a whole lot to say on the conclusion to this chapter. The fight against Castor was manageable. Poison seems pretty good in this game when it comes to boss encounters.

Truff is my friend.

 

[TheWolvesDen]

Your positive experience so far is making me think that when I get to it, that I will love it like Bravely Default and Bravely Second. Those two games mean a lot to me.

 

[MissingNo.]

Your positive experience so far is making me think that when I get to it, that I will love it like Bravely Default and Bravely Second. Those two games mean a lot to me.

Sadly, I have no frame of reference, since I did not have the opportunity to play BD or BS during the time I owned a 3DS. I hope Square will eventually re-release them.

 

[Deleted member 2]

Sadly, I have no frame of reference, since I did not have the opportunity to play BD or BS during the time I owned a 3DS. I hope Square will eventually re-release them.

Neither did I, but I absolutely devoured Bravely Default 2. Especially B 'n D.

 

[MissingNo.]

Somehow, I managed to tear myself away from B'n'D to make some actual story progress. In a similar fashion, I also opted to ignore the sidequests for the time being.

• First of all, I really like Wiswald and its surrounding area. It is very cosy. I love how the town is just completely overgrown with spirit vines trees. I dig it.
• I was beating up Galahad until Adelle (or was it Gloria?) decided that our attacks are not making a scratch and that we had to flee. Oh, well.
• The whole theme of people being under some sort of spell is very spoopy, or at least mysterious, and fits the theme of the town pretty well, with it being home to a bunch of wizards.
• Enemies in the sewers somewhat ramped up in difficulty, which at least meant I was able to level up more quickly. I started playing around with different job/subjob combinations, and also managed to get most of them up to around level 9-11. For now, Seth is a Thief/Vanguard, though I am pretty sure those do not complement each other very well, but for now it will have to do. Gloria is a Beastmaster/White Mage. Elvis is a Black Mage/Bard, while Adelle is a White Mage/Monk. I flipped some of those main and subjobs around as I saw fit, especially for Adelle and Elvis.
• Godspeed strike seems really good, to the detriment of Roddy. He went down quickly, but his beast companion was tougher, I did not know how to properly deal with it to do reliable and significant damage, so I bombarded it with elemental items and Gloria's special until it finally went down.

 

[SammyJ9]

Somehow, I managed to tear myself away from B'n'D to make some actual story progress. In a similar fashion, I also opted to ignore the sidequests for the time being.

• First of all, I really like Wiswald and its surrounding area. It is very cosy. I love how the town is just completely overgrown with spirit vines trees. I dig it.
• I was beating up Galahad until Adelle (or was it Gloria?) decided that our attacks are not making a scratch and that we had to flee. Oh, well.
• The whole theme of people being under some sort of spell is very spoopy, or at least mysterious, and fits the theme of the town pretty well, with it being home to a bunch of wizards.
• Enemies in the sewers somewhat ramped up in difficulty, which at least meant I was able to level up more quickly. I started playing around with different job/subjob combinations, and also managed to get most of them up to around level 9-11. For now, Seth is a Thief/Vanguard, though I am pretty sure those do not complement each other very well, but for now it will have to do. Gloria is a Beastmaster/White Mage. Elvis is a Black Mage/Bard, while Adelle is a White Mage/Monk. I flipped some of those main and subjobs around as I saw fit, especially for Adelle and Elvis.
• Godspeed strike seems really good, to the detriment of Roddy. He went down quickly, but his beast companion was tougher, I did not know how to properly deal with it to do reliable and significant damage, so I bombarded it with elemental items and Gloria's special until it finally went down.

Godspeed strike is a little too good, IMO. Or at least, the problem is that once I had a good godspeed strike strategy team, every single other combination of jobs and abilities just didn't seem to work quite as well and so it kind of led to me stagnating with my experimentation. Not that later jobs aren't bananas and fun to mess with, and you still need them to make the most out of GS!

 

[MissingNo.]

Made a bit more progress over the weekend.

• Did a couple of quick side-quests after beating Roddy, because they were easy enough to get over with quickly (defeat x amount of y enemy). Once that was done, I headed towards Wiswald Woods.
• I really liked Wiswald Woods aesthetically. Made sure to capture a bunch of new monsters yet again, for good measure.
• Also managed to reach the level cap on a couple of jobs, and made Elvis a Black Mage/Red Mage hybrid. I get the impression that managing jobs will be rather important to overcome some boss fights, or at the very least to make them a lot easier. Still, I am yet to even try the Berserker, as I don't know where to work it into my current preferred setup.
• Managed to get through the woods fairly quickly and took on Lily. As was the case with Roddy, the Picto minster proved to be more of a challenge than Lily herself. Still, a rather painless battle. Looking forward to meet and share a nice cup of tea with that painter girl, she seems perfectly sane.
• Back to Wiswald and up the tower, since its entrance is no longer being guarded by Galahad. Headed straight for the seventh floor, not without some more monster capturing along the way, of course. Looks like Galahad will be up next, but I decided to leave it at that for the time being.

Beginning to wonder if I am missing out on anything important by not really making use of the ship mechanic. I tend to close my games before putting the Switch in rest mode, unless I only make a short break in between, so the ship has not been out exploring for much more than an hour so far.

 

[SammyJ9]

Made a bit more progress over the weekend.

• Did a couple of quick side-quests after beating Roddy, because they were easy enough to get over with quickly (defeat x amount of y enemy). Once that was done, I headed towards Wiswald Woods.
• I really liked Wiswald Woods aesthetically. Made sure to capture a bunch of new monsters yet again, for good measure.
• Also managed to reach the level cap on a couple of jobs, and made Elvis a Black Mage/Red Mage hybrid. I get the impression that managing jobs will be rather important to overcome some boss fights, or at the very least to make them a lot easier. Still, I am yet to even try the Berserker, as I don't know where to work it into my current preferred setup.
• Managed to get through the woods fairly quickly and took on Lily. As was the case with Roddy, the Picto minster proved to be more of a challenge than Lily herself. Still, a rather painless battle. Looking forward to meet and share a nice cup of tea with that painter girl, she seems perfectly sane.
• Back to Wiswald and up the tower, since its entrance is no longer being guarded by Galahad. Headed straight for the seventh floor, not without some more monster capturing along the way, of course. Looks like Galahad will be up next, but I decided to leave it at that for the time being.

Beginning to wonder if I am missing out on anything important by not really making use of the ship mechanic. I tend to close my games before putting the Switch in rest mode, unless I only make a short break in between, so the ship has not been out exploring for much more than an hour so far.

From what I remember, you're not missing much with the ship at all. So I wouldn't worry about it.

Wiswald is interesting, especially Wiswald Woods like you said. But I think overall it's not my favorite part of the game, the next main region you go to is really good though. Something about Wiswald's musical theme of high-pitched muted trumpets got on my nerves, especially in town, which is probably the only negative thing I'll say about the soundtrack at all.

Mastering jobs is a great feeling! The game just opens up more and more as you unlock more options.

 

[MissingNo.]

From what I remember, you're not missing much with the ship at all. So I wouldn't worry about it.

Wiswald is interesting, especially Wiswald Woods like you said. But I think overall it's not my favorite part of the game, the next main region you go to is really good though. Something about Wiswald's musical theme of high-pitched muted trumpets got on my nerves, especially in town, which is probably the only negative thing I'll say about the soundtrack at all.

Mastering jobs is a great feeling! The game just opens up more and more as you unlock more options.

Yeah, and speaking of jobs and builds, I feel like I have hit a wall with my current setup with the Galahad fight. I focused on Picto-Mona first to get rid of her heals. This took longer than I would have liked. Burned down Galahad and focused on Picto-Amrita afterwards. But then, RNG happened and Picto-Beleth managed to stun and kill half my party, without me being able to react. In the end, only Gloria was left, and she was stunned and thus followed shortly after.

Basically, the hard work of about 15 minutes or so fell apart in half a minute. So yeah, safe to say I dropped it for today.

 

[Seven]

Yeah, and speaking of jobs and builds, I feel like I have hit a wall with my current setup with the Galahad fight. I focused on Picto-Mona first to get rid of her heals. This took longer than I would have liked. Burned down Galahad and focused on Picto-Amrita afterwards. But then, RNG happened and Picto-Beleth managed to stun and kill half my party, without me being able to react. In the end, only Gloria was left, and she was stunned and thus followed shortly after.

Basically, the hard work of about 15 minutes or so fell apart in half a minute. So yeah, safe to say I dropped it for today.

Status effects are your friends in this game. It's been a while since I've played, but I remember that freeze tends to work wonders on a lot of bosses so try to stock up on monsters with that effect.

 

[MissingNo.]

Picking up where I left off, with the Galahad fight.

• Call me stupid, but I have only found out accidentally and after 25 hours of playtime that you are allowed to change your weapon loadout mid fight. Other JRPGs let you do this, but it somehow did not even cross my mind to look for the option to do it in this game. So that is new. Anyway, this changed everything, and outright trivialised the Galahad fight without me needing to go on yet another monster hunting spree.
• Earth Crystal ahoi — but no, looks like the painter girl fooled us yet again. Time to go after her.
• I can not really claim to care too much for the story so far, but finding out more about the artist's background as you progress through her hideout was a nice touch. Her whole deal was a bit too cliché for my tastes, but eh.
• With the help of Roddy, Lily and Galahad, taking down Folie was simple enough. There were a lot of mechanics to work around or simply deal with, though. Like her countering healing spells, her countering magic use in general, on some occasions her outright one-shotting one of my party members whenever she felt like it, you name it. The most tiresome aspect was the painting inflicting a party-wide debuff that negated the use of the Brave mechanic. Long story short, none of that saved her, even though I did (once again) not manage to revive Elvis in time before I finished her off. Poor sod.

• Heading out of Wiswald and through the Lost Woods. Not much of note happened here, except the transition to Chapter 3.
• Made my way through the area surrounding Rimedahl to reach the city. Enter Gwilym. This little guy is giving me some XB2 flashbacks. More interestingly, I am not sure if the way Adele keeps shutting him up is intended to seem a little sus, or if it is simply some sort of running gag. Because it does seem a little sus to me.
• @SammyJ9 was right, Rimedahl does look even nicer than Wiswald, what a sight!
• But wait, what is this about them 'judging' people for allegedly being fairies? My suspicions about Adelle grow deeper, as her tongue kind of slipped, saying that fairies had been long gone from this world, before hastily adding that she had at least heard that. Maybe I am reading too much into it…

Progress will likely be a bit slower over the coming weeks, as I have busier times ahead and don't want to burn myself out on this game. Plus, with 13 Sentinels releasing tomorrow, my gaming focus will not be exclusively on BD2 any more for a while.

I have been really enjoying myself so far, and will make sure to continue to give updates on my playthrough — even though they might come around less frequently for now.

 

[Kasur1309]

This Thread makes me want to go back to the game (tho i would have to restart its been almost a year!).
But even if i didnt finished it i really loved it back then. For me it was the most fun JRPG Combat i ever experienced. It felt difficult but so much fun. I did wipe at bosses multiple times till i figured out the best way to deal with them. Grinding was fun too! A true gem.