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Bravely Default 2 - JRPG du jour


digdugnate

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Copied/pasted from the Modern Gaming tracker, but I thought it worth starting a thread for Bravely Default 2 in the Switch forum in case anyone has picked up and wanted to yak about it.

 

I played almost eighteen hours Friday-Sunday and have really enjoyed it so far.   It's a turn-based JRPG to its core and by that virtue super super grindy- if you don't enjoy that in a game, it's not for you.  ;)  The dialogue is predictably cringey and the English voice acting even more so, woof.  That being said, the graphics and lush soundtrack more than make up for that. I'm not overly fond of the character graphics themselves but it is sort of neat seeing the different party members with the different class costumes.

 

A feature I found pretty neat is that once you're a bit in the game you can set off on a borrowed boat and 'explore' if you're not actively playing the game.  Through some trial and error, though, I learned that to fully use this feature you have to 'Start Exploring', actually be IN the game, and have your Switch in Sleep Mode.  If you meet all three of these criteria a time counter will increment and you get 'treasures' while your Switch is asleep. 

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I keep hearing great things about the first one, but honestly I don't really need another 'by the numbers' RPG with crappy acting.  I put up with that sometimes if if it's a classic I love, but there are so many new RPGs out there I don't have time to play them all.  I just spent 200+ hours with Xenoblade Chronicles 2 so I'm a bit burnt on RPGs at the moment anyway.

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It is definitely 'by the numbers' in every way, shape, and form, lol.   I'd say that if there were trope checkboxes for JRPGs, it checks just about every one. :)  This game (without giving spoilers, really) if you see someone in a dorky costume, you can pretty much bet at some point you get their job class.

 

For me, the new 'coat of paint' for the cities and the soundtrack really save it.

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When the first one was announced I was still a big turn-based jRPG fanatic. I really wanted it, because it looked so gorgeous and was unashamedly old school (it was a time when everyone was piling up on TB games).  The art for the new one looks even better.

 

But not long after that I had discovered roguelikes and this spoiled a lot of this kind of games for me. These days I'm not sure I could play through an entire turn based jRPG (or any RPG) if the combat wasn't good enough. Or actually, it's more about difficulty level. Grinding itself does not bother me at all, but when individual encounters present no challenge whatsoever (and that's how it is in huge number of these games) and are followed by a 20+ minute boss encounter (which you need to replay a few times) then this is all a big waste of time.

 

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55 minutes ago, youxia said:

When the first one was announced I was still a big turn-based jRPG fanatic. I really wanted it, because it looked so gorgeous and was unashamedly old school (it was a time when everyone was piling up on TB games).  The art for the new one looks even better.

 

But not long after that I had discovered roguelikes and this spoiled a lot of this kind of games for me. These days I'm not sure I could play through an entire turn based jRPG (or any RPG) if the combat wasn't good enough. Or actually, it's more about difficulty level. Grinding itself does not bother me at all, but when individual encounters present no challenge whatsoever (and that's how it is in huge number of these games) and are followed by a 20+ minute boss encounter (which you need to replay a few times) then this is all a big waste of time.

 

This game is guilty of those over-long boss battles, or at least that I've seen.  I had several where the boss was a damage-sponge, had to be replayed a couple of times for strategy, and even then they're 20-30 minute affairs.

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With that many hours under your belt I need to know something, if you're that far to at least get an idea if it happens that is.

 

The original 3DS game had this problem around maybe 1/2 way into it where the game forces you into a situation near the fire temple, a sorta optional but probably not battle with this persuasive bimbo of a mid-boss.  Basically the game goes from open designs on how you want to team build and battle it out, whether you work for it, or breeze.  I'm guessing they did it to sell $30 strategy guides in print.  But with her, no matter what party you use, if you don't have your people set to some specific skill sets AND at a certain level of unlocks, the battle can not be won.  At that rate I read into guides online, found battles from that point on, not all, but commonly went this route with bosses.

 

I sold the game.  I wasn't going to be forced into repeated failures, or just reading a guide to advance around having to waste dozens of hours ranking up crappy job/skills because the game makes it mandatory to play more.  I've blown off the sequel to this on 3DS as it did the same, and this one being fresh I'm going to assume it's the same, but few have gone deep enough to expose that garbage. An online guide isn't always that clear, they'll tell you best use, but don't say ...do this or die... maybe as a measure of butt kissing the ad paying game peddlers their guide covers like previous scandals.

 

So is this one free to play or locked into specific jobs eventually where you do this, or forget it?

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12 hours ago, Tanooki said:

With that many hours under your belt I need to know something, if you're that far to at least get an idea if it happens that is.

 

The original 3DS game had this problem around maybe 1/2 way into it where the game forces you into a situation near the fire temple, a sorta optional but probably not battle with this persuasive bimbo of a mid-boss.  Basically the game goes from open designs on how you want to team build and battle it out, whether you work for it, or breeze.  I'm guessing they did it to sell $30 strategy guides in print.  But with her, no matter what party you use, if you don't have your people set to some specific skill sets AND at a certain level of unlocks, the battle can not be won.  At that rate I read into guides online, found battles from that point on, not all, but commonly went this route with bosses.

 

I sold the game.  I wasn't going to be forced into repeated failures, or just reading a guide to advance around having to waste dozens of hours ranking up crappy job/skills because the game makes it mandatory to play more.  I've blown off the sequel to this on 3DS as it did the same, and this one being fresh I'm going to assume it's the same, but few have gone deep enough to expose that garbage. An online guide isn't always that clear, they'll tell you best use, but don't say ...do this or die... maybe as a measure of butt kissing the ad paying game peddlers their guide covers like previous scandals.

 

So is this one free to play or locked into specific jobs eventually where you do this, or forget it?

This one I feel like tends to fall in the 'have certain job classes for certain boss fights' category, though it's not as cut-and-dry.  Generally if you're killing stuff on the way to and through the dungeons, you'll have your classes up to where you can beat the bosses.  The game for regular monsters uses the 'Dragon Quest'-style gauge for level where if you're over-levelled the monsters run away from you.

 

The bosses I've finished up to this point are damage sponges with a little strategy on the side; as long as your party classes are geared to where one person is a super good healer (there's a little flexibility on this once you're a bit in) two folks can do major damage output, and one person can do support-type stuff (don't discount thrown damage items because they can seriously win a boss fight you're losing).  I think having three difficulty level presets helps, but I think now this is where I have a (minor) complaint due to the time these bosses take.

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25 minutes ago, digdugnate said:

The game for regular monsters uses the 'Dragon Quest'-style gauge for level where if you're over-levelled the monsters run away from you.

Does it also have the DQ-style pushover standard enemies? That's the thing I was talking about earlier. I used to play DQ DS ports and remember you could basically hold one button depressed and go through every battle with your eyes closed...it was clearly designed like that.

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1 hour ago, youxia said:

Does it also have the DQ-style pushover standard enemies? That's the thing I was talking about earlier. I used to play DQ DS ports and remember you could basically hold one button depressed and go through every battle with your eyes closed...it was clearly designed like that.

Yup, you can do that if you're so inclined. :)  You can also adjust battle speed as well to make it quicker.

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5 hours ago, digdugnate said:

This one I feel like tends to fall in the 'have certain job classes for certain boss fights' category, though it's not as cut-and-dry.  Generally if you're killing stuff on the way to and through the dungeons, you'll have your classes up to where you can beat the bosses.  The game for regular monsters uses the 'Dragon Quest'-style gauge for level where if you're over-levelled the monsters run away from you.

 

The bosses I've finished up to this point are damage sponges with a little strategy on the side; as long as your party classes are geared to where one person is a super good healer (there's a little flexibility on this once you're a bit in) two folks can do major damage output, and one person can do support-type stuff (don't discount thrown damage items because they can seriously win a boss fight you're losing).  I think having three difficulty level presets helps, but I think now this is where I have a (minor) complaint due to the time these bosses take.

I tend to favor some traditional classes over others as I like to be able to magic blast people, hit with weapons, put up a good defense, and have a healer.  So when you get weird classes that dance/jest/jump/be 'blue' to do conditional stuff I tend to slack or ignore as they feel like tedious niche stuff not suitable in most cases (and odds are, they're not) so in a game that forces THIS job or DEATH the games tick me off and I stop playing.  I'm guessing from what you're saying here, this game is more of the same.  I don't run from this to that and grind, I'll grind, but I play from point A to B, and that won't allow to also level up more crappy specific job classes around the primary most useful stuff.  Thanks for clearing it up, I just won't buy it and with that being of trifecta of samey- style Ill just write the entire franchise off as just how it is by design because it works for them (and not me.)  Shame, I miss old FF style games, this was supposed to be that, but it added this simon-says or death style mechanic I can't stand.

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18 hours ago, Tanooki said:

I tend to favor some traditional classes over others as I like to be able to magic blast people, hit with weapons, put up a good defense, and have a healer.  So when you get weird classes that dance/jest/jump/be 'blue' to do conditional stuff I tend to slack or ignore as they feel like tedious niche stuff not suitable in most cases (and odds are, they're not) so in a game that forces THIS job or DEATH the games tick me off and I stop playing.  I'm guessing from what you're saying here, this game is more of the same.  I don't run from this to that and grind, I'll grind, but I play from point A to B, and that won't allow to also level up more crappy specific job classes around the primary most useful stuff.  Thanks for clearing it up, I just won't buy it and with that being of trifecta of samey- style Ill just write the entire franchise off as just how it is by design because it works for them (and not me.)  Shame, I miss old FF style games, this was supposed to be that, but it added this simon-says or death style mechanic I can't stand.

You summed it up pretty aptly with Bravely Default 2, and I think that this thread gives a pretty good overview to potential players of the pros and cons of this particular game.  :)  For sure in BD2 the player has to level up some of the job classes to certain points, and then it becomes an exercise in min/maxing for optimum abilities.

 

I think I'm some kind of masochist sometimes for playing these games, lol.  

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Yeah I guess I so.  What I wrote is both positive and negative, depending on what you want out of a JRPG.

 

If (like you) are a masochist with a lot of free time to put dozens of hours in leveling each person in your party up on each job to a certain minimum skill level, and this takes a good many hours, to then be able to finally take down random bosses(mid) or full bosses along the way after a specific point in the story forward -- this game is for YOU.  If you just want to enjoy the story, minor to moderate grind for gear and stuff, keep things rolling, then this isn't because the pacing, if you go all skill happy is probably worse than a dragon quest title.

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16 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Yeah I guess I so.  What I wrote is both positive and negative, depending on what you want out of a JRPG.

 

If (like you) are a masochist with a lot of free time to put dozens of hours in leveling each person in your party up on each job to a certain minimum skill level, and this takes a good many hours, to then be able to finally take down random bosses(mid) or full bosses along the way after a specific point in the story forward -- this game is for YOU.  If you just want to enjoy the story, minor to moderate grind for gear and stuff, keep things rolling, then this isn't because the pacing, if you go all skill happy is probably worse than a dragon quest title.

Absolutely. :)  I don't sleep much and I have downtime between stuff I'm doing at the house and work so those cracks tend to be filled with this stuff.  This definitely is a game for someone that has the time to mess with it and doesn't mind the tedious parts.

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On 3/4/2021 at 11:47 AM, digdugnate said:

Absolutely. :)  I don't sleep much and I have downtime between stuff I'm doing at the house and work so those cracks tend to be filled with this stuff.  This definitely is a game for someone that has the time to mess with it and doesn't mind the tedious parts.

Good call on that then.

 

To be fair I'm RPG buried with unstarted stuff.

- Final Fantasy 9 which I imported

- Grandia HD (1+2)

- Xenoblade Chronicles DE

- Pokemon Shield

- Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu

...and I still never finished others like DQ11S and while not an RPG, time consuming...Zelda Link's Awakening.

 

Yeah, I should be busy, but I'm not in the mood. :P

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10 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Good call on that then.

 

To be fair I'm RPG buried with unstarted stuff.

- Final Fantasy 9 which I imported

- Grandia HD (1+2)

- Xenoblade Chronicles DE

- Pokemon Shield

- Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu

...and I still never finished others like DQ11S and while not an RPG, time consuming...Zelda Link's Awakening.

 

Yeah, I should be busy, but I'm not in the mood. :P

I totally get it!  :D

 

I got like 2/3 through FF9 (i bought it digital from eshop, but i was sorely tempted to pick up physical from playasia), but kind of lost steam on it.  I put about 100 hours in my last Pokemon Sword playthrough (that i finished).  I liked Let's Go Eevee- I ended up selling my copy though because once I finished it I didn't want to play it again.  DQ11S is a great game and so is Link's Awakening!  

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Well I went with FF9 last night, been 20 years so I get flashes of memory but have no idea what I'm doing so that's perfect.  I almost went with Grandia, the first one I've never had and 2 I really dug on Dreamcast.  I'm on a pokemon kick with ultrasun right now, so those two are kind of benched unless my kid is up to something. :D

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 4/4/2021 at 7:07 AM, digdugnate said:

I don't feel like it is.  Both games stand alone plotwise/etc, but be ready for a grind if you play BD2 ;)

Well right now I'm playing Bastion and think I may play FFX next. I miss playing RPGs. So I'm trying to ease back in.

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  • 10 months later...
Absolutely. [emoji4]  I don't sleep much and I have downtime between stuff I'm doing at the house and work so those cracks tend to be filled with this stuff.  This definitely is a game for someone that has the time to mess with it and doesn't mind the tedious parts.

Today I just read through this thread and realized what type of game I’ve gotten myself into. I am using it for a time sink at work so the extra annoying job system is kind of a bonus. Normally I would steer clear of this type of game, but the ability to speed up battles and the art style/music has kept me playing. I haven’t played this style of battle encounter system in a long time, and I also appreciate the ability to avoid them with certain items. Overall I’m enjoying the game for its added default system but it also feels overly grindy just for busy works sake. But most RPGs take you there to some degree.

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