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

[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.]

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.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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.