Bravely Default is a JRPG developed exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS. It is a classic RPG with some unique features that set it apart from other franchises.

The best part of the game is the battle mechanics. During battles, you can use the 'Default' option to defend and save an action for a future turn, or you can use the 'Brave' option to expend stored actions and take multiple actions in a single turn.

To gain an advantage of your characters' classes (known as 'jobs' in the game), you must use the 'Brave' and 'Default' options. All of this makes the game complex, but at the same time, it is easy to understand.

The story is actually quite good and I wasn't expecting that. The plot twist is really unexpected and makes you ponder how you didn't see it coming. I won't reveal too much, but it's fascinating to see how the game's main screen hints how the game will end since the beginning.

The downside of the game is how repetitive it can be. After some hours of gameplay, you will find yourself facing the same bosses you have already defeated. They will still have the same weaknesses and powers, but with slightly increased strength. You will encounter each boss at least five times.

Bravely Default is a good game that was forgotten in the Nintendo 3DS library. If you enjoy classic JRPGs with engaging storylines, then this game is a must-play. However, as I mentioned earlier, the game's repetitive nature may be a downside for some players, including myself.

Getting to the true ending left me with such a sour taste, so it's only in retrospect I can remember and understand how this game is widely considered a JRPG gem. A beautiful game with a masterful OST. Combat and job class systems that shine within the genre.

Bravely Default, does however, slowly become a chore as you progress, with difficulty spikes and repetitive gameplay/plotline. If I could completely look past how the latter half of the game made me feel, I know for sure I would have much more appreciation for this game as a whole.

I may write the biggest cope ever right now, but I can't help it.

I wish more people knew about this game and could give it a chance, but it being a 3DS title oddly holds it back while also giving it such a niche "you had to be there" fever dream of a vibe. This game is one big gigantic JRPG gem that I want MORE OF!!

The Brave/Default system is genuinely great, as it adds a more strategic twist to the classic turn based combat system and spices up the difficulty to a decent notch. The job system, while grindy, presents you with the option to keep abilities from jobs that you don't necessarily want to use. (Ex. A Knight could still have the passive abilities of a Monk or Pirate.) It just serves up a really satisfying platter of combinations for your characters to be built however way you want, with some combinations being insanely broken if you put in the time to nurture them. I love being an all powerful FREAK in a JRPG and don't mind grinding, so I cannot get enough of the class system in this game. It's a chef's kiss of variety and encourages you to swap classes often depending on the challenges at hand.

The plot of the game is also fantastic, and the music fucking rips. Each character, while their own degree of JRPG cringe, wrestle with their own issues that beautifully weave together as the universe's problems get much more dire.

That being said, the worst part of this game is definitely the last 1/3. I can swallow it just fine, but I can see why it puts a lot of people off. If it was shorter or executed in a different way, I could get by it a bit more but as it is, it makes the ending a bit of a slog to get through. It's a fantastic idea that ties the plot and conflict together, but it needed more details, more dialogue, more sense for it to work properly. It needed more than just ass blastingly difficult boss swarms to make it good. If you can get past that, you're in for a great finale.

Also please, this game has one of the best features in an RPG I have ever seen, and that is the ability to adjust random encounters. Please, please we need this more. You can crank that shit up to 1,000 to make grindfests much more manageble, or turn them off completely so exiting gigantic dungeons is less annoying. IT'S FANTASTIC. I'll die as a Bravely Default stan, BAYEBEEE.

When I first played this game in 2019, I enjoyed it a lot. But, I didn't see how special this series was until earlier last year when I played Bravely Second and this year Bravely Default 2.

The obvious qualities of this game is the combat, Team Asano crafted one of the best turn based combat systems in any game I've played. The amount of depth and variety the combat has to offer is astounding. And the boss fights actually force you to use variety, so you are forced to take advantage of the complexity. No grinding is ever needed if you have a proper strategy. Getting my ass kicked by a boss fight then spending a while theory crafting different builds and strategies until I figure out the best strategy feels so good. And the fact that Bravely Default 2s combat is even better is whats crazy. There are some dominant strategies like Stillness but this game is a tool box free to experiment with how you wish.

The art style is beautiful, not just for a 3DS game, but in general. The fact that I think this game looks way better than Bravely Default 2 A SWITCH GAME shows how fantastic the art direction was for this game. Revo created one of the best gaming soundtracks I've ever heard, the music is genuinely a masterpiece.

Finally the story, I love it. This game has Ringabel my guy. Of course the cast is amazing. The game's greatest use of story is how it incorporates the player itself and their feelings into the theming of the game. I wont go into spoilers, but all I'll say is one of the big themes of Bravely Default series is for the player to persevere with the party even if every action you take feels futile or meaningless. I also love the twist villain because the game uses your expectations against you to pull the rug from under you.

There is one big flaw with this game sadly, as you've all probably heard. Chapter 5-8 is basically recycles content. Now, narrative wise, this is genius, I cant explain because of spoilers but the act of "repeating the cycle" and the feeling of "futility" comes in again. But at the end of the day, repeating the same content gets boring, it fitting the story is irrelevant to this. Bravely Default 2 did a similar idea much better.

Overall, would I recommend this RPG to anyone like how I would, Persona 5? No, I can fully admit this game isn't for everyone, but for me, it's one of the goats.

Bravely Default presented a medley of Final Fantasy V's job class system, Dragon Quest's grindy progression, Tales' Skits, and a lush visual style and soundtrack in a work that actually felt like a step-up in quality for JRPGs. Its deep combat system features self-turn manipulating mechanics (Brave/Default, reminiscent of Xenosaga: Episode II's build & release combat) that reconfigure basic JRPG battle concepts to its own means, enhanced by a long list of job classes and skills altering it in various ways. While the characters are pretty tropey by themselves, the wonderful story moments, long-winded character building and meta twists compensate greatly. However, the story's back half devolves into repetition and superfluous boss-fights, that at least act more like engaging party-customization challenges than relevant, coherent story moments. More than just being polished and entertaining, Bravely Default is a textbook case on how to update the recipes of the past.

For those people who appreciate gameplay over story in JRPGs, this is a treat. The team really thought out what made old JRPGs great to play, and focused on gameplay experimentations and discoveries. You know it's a good game when you google "best build for this game?" and every single person has a different viable answer.

Then there is the story. According to the general internet consensus, Bravely Default is the game with the best story by Team Asano. This also barely means anything because their other three games were heavily critcized for their stories. The problem with Bravely Default is, for lack of better description, that it is the "Endless Eight" of video games. It makes sense why it's like that, but it also means it becomes painfully repetitive. If the gameplay was not one of the best in the genre, this game would've been near impossible to beat for me.

To end with a good note, I want to highlight the game's graphics, especially the use of 3D. This is one of the best uses of 3D on 3DS. It has no gameplay function, yes, but it still makes everything so beautiful. The towns are absolutely gorgeous to look at, and it's a shame that this style never really was copied by other devs. Also, obviously like with any Team Asano games, music is absolutely fantastic.

My first review.

Right from the start you get a CGI intro showing the motivations of all 4 main characters; Agnes Oblige, a Vestal of Wind who sets out to save the world from darkness by awakening the 4 Crystals. Edea Lee, daughter of the grand marshal of Eternia who seeks out his approval by capturing the wind vestal and becoming a skilled soldier. Ringabel, a charmer who has no memory and seeks to recover it with the help of an intriguing future-telling journal. And lastly Tiz Arrior, a young shepherd who lost his family to a mysterious pillar of light that swallowed his village.
With that out of the way, onto the gameplay.

GAMEPLAY

The world of Bravely Default (also known as Luxendarc) is like most other RPGs; a large overworld map with settlements and dungeouns you can explore. This part of the game is relatively simple and mostly serves just to connect all the places into one vast world.
However the true meat and potatoes of the gameplay is the combat.
BD serves an interesting take on the traditional formula, in more ways than one.
First is the very name of the game, Brave and Default mechanics. Defaulting makes you defend during that turn, reducing damage taken and storing up BP. Brave lets you spend those Brave Points by allowing you to perform multiple actions in the same turn. For example if you used Default 2 times, you'll get 2 BP which you can use in the next turn by Braving 3 times and performing several different moves at once. Bear in mind however that you can go into negative BP, making you unable to perform any actions and essentialy making you a sitting duck so choose wisely on what actions you'll perform.

JOB SYSTEM

Next change is the job system. Throughout the game, you'll encounter bosses known as asterisk holders, powerful foes that have their own unique abilities. Once you defeat them, you'll obtain their asterisk and their job as well.
This'll get lenghty so buckle up.
When you equip a job, there are multiple things to know; every job has unique base values. For example Knight has good vitality, Monk has good strenght etc. Next is arms proficiency. This tells you how well you can wield weapons of that certain type. Black mages are good with rods, thieves are good with daggers etc.
Lastly you have the specialty. Every job has one and it's an innate ability you get when equipping a job. Arcanist has Absorb magic damage, Ninja has Dual Wielding etc.
Now while you can equip a certain job and just leave it that, you can also equip a side-job. This means that you can have 2 different commands ready to use at any time; and this is where the combat truly shines.
It allows for some wild experimentation, regardless of your stats and arms proficiency. I won't say much more because it's more fun and engaging to just try it for yourself.
Next up are support abilites; these are pretty much what the name implies. When you upgrade jobs, you'll get abilities that have an active effect, rather than using it as a command. When you start out, you can only equip the ones with a cost of 1 slot (don't worry though, you get more as you progress), and this is where a good chunk of the strategic value lies.
A lot of these abilities are simple stuff such as Magic Defense 20% up, Physical Attack 10% up etc. However you also have some interesting ones like Holy One; reduces physical attack but increases effectivness of recovery magic or Zero, increasing the power of magic if the last digit of your current MP value is zero and so on.
Last but not the least we have Bravely Second.
The name might be confusing at first but the mechanic itself is really simple. Let's say you're having a hard time with a certain boss that's kicking your ass and your party is at critical HP. Well simply press START and you can pause time! This essentialy lets you perform an action at any given time, even during a turn. Of course this kind of freedom isn't free ironically, because every action you perform costs SP or Sleep Points. Once you spend one SP, you can put your 3DS to sleep mode and after 8 hours you'll gain SP. However the best use of Bravely Second is with the special moves.

SPECIAL MOVES

Early on, Tiz will meet the king of Caldisla, a kingdom where his village Norende was. He will name him the chairman of Norende restoration efforts, and despite the boring sounding title, this also one of the keys to fully enjoy BD. You'll get access to shops that sell recovery items, new weapons and such. Most of these shops however are centered around these special moves. These are the most powerful commands in the game which can let you cheese bosses IF you have it all planned out. Firstly every Special Move is centered around a weapon type; Staves, Knuckles, Katanas etc. Each of these moves can be customized with 4 kinds of parts; one lets you inflict elemental damage to a foe like Water, Fire etc. 2nd part is a simple power boost, ranging from 10 to 50%. 3rd part lets you make the move extra effective against a family of monsters such as Aquatic, Beasts etc. The last part infuses the move with a status ailment like Poison, Blind etc.
This is just for one type of moves, the others are Recovery, Enfeebling and Support, but we'd be here all day if i was listing those.
Now why did i mention Bravely Second for these?
It's because during regular gameplay the max possible damage is capped at 9,999. However if you stop time, that cap is removed, allowing you to deal ridiculous damage all the way up to 100K. Of course you still have to plan carefully to reach that level.

WORLDBUILDING AND LORE
Given how large the world is, you'd expect a good amount of lore to flesh out the locations and make them feel connected; in that case I'm happy to say it does indeed deliver on that.
All of the cities feel unique and part of one world at the same time. As for the lore, not only is the world and characters rich in it, but it's also delivered in many ways, subtle and obvious.
It can be delivered via simple exposition during the main story, talking to citizens of the towns, completing side quests, listening to the party chat, examining points of interests or just good old ludo-narrative storytelling.
Oh right about the side quests-

SIDE QUESTS

Side quests, or sub-scenarios as the game calls it, are optional missions you can do to either get to know the characters more or better yet, to obtain new jobs. I highly recommend doing them all because all of them are either self-contained sub-plots with their own nifty scenarios or something connecting directly to the main story. Basically you'll get some kind of bonus to your playthrough either way.
However after a certain event things become a bit of a mixed bag.

!SPOILERS AHEAD!
After Agnes awakens the 4 crystals, the Holy Pillar appears and you set out into it. After an intense fight on the ship's deck, you find yourself back in the spot the game started out from. At first it's confusing as all hell, but after a while you find out you've in fact visited another of the many Luxendarcs that exist in this universe. Now what does this mean for side quests? Initally, nothing really cause the events still play out basically the same, except you have the upper hand in having the memories and knowledge of the last time, and I will admit it is fun seeing everyone be confused on how your party knows everything. However this cycle is repeated multiple times, this world loop as it's called, which did drag down the experience for a lot of the players, especially considering even the main bosses get reused. The reusal also makes them feel lesser due to them reusing the same strategy and barely noticeable scaling. So if you want to experience the game in the best way, my advice is to beat every side quest in the first world, and then ignore them the next 2 worlds. In the 2nd to last and last world they get much better, shorter but also much harder.

SOUNDTRACK

Oh man, time to talk about this OST. Being composed by REVO (or Linked Horizon if you will), it is nothing but phenomenal, bangers all the way through. I'm gonna list some of my favorite tracks just to get it out of the way. Serpent eating the ground, That person's name is, Silence of the forest, all 4 special move themes, Horizon of light and shadow, Wicked battle/flight etc.
I highly recommend trying these out for yourself, even without the context it's a guaranteed bop. The OST as a whole has plenty of variety in theming and instruments. For example Tiz, being a shepherd, has the flute as the main instrument while Ringabel, being a ladies man, has the harmonica and castanets as the main ones. The music also knows when to be energetic, calm, melancholic and intense exactly when it needs to be. Oh and remember the special moves I mentioned? The best part of those is that, when you use them, that character's theme starts playing and you get a certain buff that lasts as long as the song does. Not only do you get to jam out, but it also encourages you to think fast in order to use those buffs to the max. You can also interrupt a song with another one and combine those buffs if you really wanna finish off your enemy.

ACCESSABILITY AND QoL
This might seem like an odd thing to include next to something like gameplay, music and such, but I must talk about how player-friendly this game is.
Starting off simple, when equipping a new job, your arms proficiency changes as you may remember. This means it can be a slog to change equipment every time, but fear not for these features make it a simple task. Firstly there is Optimize, a command that automatically equips the best possible gear for that character, and secondly you have a Favorites tab which allows you to save the job sets you have created and further simplifying the chore of job changing and saving you precious time.
Next up we have QoL stuff for battles; there is the option to speed battles up 2 or 4 times or to pause them, Auto-battle, which repeats your action from the last turn (great for grinding), Encounter rate meter that allows you to walk around freely when you want to progress the story or make grinding last a lot shorter. And my favorite of them all, the option to use left and right on the D-pad for inputting commands (right for yes, left for no).

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Bravely Default was an enjoyable ride throughout all the 96 hours I put into it (well, maybe not every single hour) and a must-play for everyone who's into RPGs or just recently got into them (like me). Overall rating i'd say is 9.5/10. Excellent writing, great story, phenomenal OST, always engaging gameplay etc.

P.S I haven't talked much about the characters and plot because to be frank, I don't really think I'd do a good job retelling it, but just to be sure
Ringabel best boy :)

I honestly don't know where to begin. Bravely Default was one of the most anticipated JRPGs in years. I remember everyone playing the demo and progress would carry across into the main game. It's good at luring you into a false sense of familiarity. You might think this is a typical JRPG with the only need to balance physical and magical attacks. There are over a dozen jobs in this game and they are crucial to getting through the many, and I mean many, dozens of bosses. Bravely Default is mostly a boss rush game with a few dungeons put in between to level you up.

The game starts out like any other typical JRPG. You have to solve a worldwide calamity, you are in a small town, you can visit shops, and you learn the ropes of the game. The main bulk of combat lies in Braving and Defaulting which allows you to borrow or save up turns. This is the key strategy this entire game and it takes trial and error to really learn when to do each of these during boss fights. You can bank up to three turns or borrow up to three. If you borrow turns in the negative you forfeit that many turns moving forward. This is great if you're powerful and want to get the battle over with or need to heal everyone fast. In combination with the right jobs and equipment, you can overpower many foes. Half of the jobs are locked away behind optional "asterisk" bosses while some are acquired during the story. The jobs are well balanced ranging between offensive and defensive types with supporting roles as well. The downside to this many jobs is the trial and error of knowing what jobs are best against what bosses. There are 14 levels per job and they don't level up super fast. You learn more job abilities as you level up as well.

It's important to balance your party. You don't want all offensive characters with none supporting you unless you're insanely powerful. The goal of the first third of the game is to awaken four elemental crystals with four guardians you have to beat to get to them. These dungeons are full of red chests with items and equipment, but some dungeons and areas have locked blue chests which can't be accessed until toward the end of the game. They contain some of the best equipment. There are save points usually before each major boss, and you can visit many towns to rest, and buy magic, armor, weapons, accessories, and items. The game consists of a large map that slowly opens up to you and eventually, you get a ship that can travel the entire map.

Now, I have to address the infamous final third act. These are chapters 5-8. Without spoiling anything you have to endure these chapters to see the true ending. You can skip this repetitive nightmare by breaking a crystal (I don't want to spoil more) and ending the game there. I sucked it up and endured cleansing the same crystals 20 times (literally 20) to see this ending. This is one of those things that makes me really have JRPGs. We could have just gotten a cutscene explaining what happens during these acts instead of literally repeating the same dungeons and bosses 20 freaking times. It was insanely boring and I wound up listening to music to distract me from the frustration. A lot of gamers will most likely just quit the game here or end it early with a false ending.

On top of these repetitive chapters, you can also repeat the optional "asterisk" bosses multiple times to level up your jobs. If you missed these asterisks during the first four chapters you can get these jobs later on, but the bosses are leveled to you. The benefit of getting them as they come up early on is you can level past them and make the fights easier. If you already have all the jobs you can just use these bosses to grind XP. There are some options to ease the burden a bit which helped a lot. You can actually turn random battles off or increase them. This is great for exploring a dungeon fully and then leveling up near a save or near the entrance. I really loved this feature and used it a lot. You can also reduce the difficulty down to easy any time or increase it. These options help push JRPGs into a more modern feeling and setting.

With all of that said the graphics are pretty and the music is great if repetitive. The same world map and dungeon songs will repeat a lot, but they aren't bad songs. The English voice acting is horrendous so I suggest the Japanese audio, and the story, while it does have a nice twist in the third act, isn't worth the extra dozen or so hours it will take to get through that third act to get the true ending. It's awful, boring, frustrating, tedious, and just plain not fun, and I can't forgive the game for this. No matter how good the rest of the game might be, or how unique the combat is, this third act is abhorrent and an obvious excuse to pad game time. I really hate, I mean hate, JRPGs that do this. It doesn't add anything to the game that a cut scene couldn't solve. Shame on Square Enix for this.

Overall, I'm not the biggest JRPG fan so others will like this more than I did, but that third act is unforgivable. I also felt there were too many jobs and the game's difficulty is through the roof. Towards the end of the game, you need to be doing close to the 9,999 damage limit to finish the game. To really finish this game and see everything that's here you will most likely need to hit the 99-level max at some point. This is an insanely hardcore JRPG and the casual Final Fantasy fans will probably quit during chapter 2 like I did when the game was first released. You will need to sink a good 100 hours just to see everything in the game including the bonus final dungeon that grants you the best stuff in the game to finish off the optional boss. While the graphics, music, and overall aesthetic of the game is pleasing this is a hate it or love it type of game.

Probably one of the best 3ds games. The plot is nice and simple, nothing too incredible or too obvious. The most interesting part of the plot is the sidequests, which have interesting characters and well-structured dungeons. Initially I didn't want to do them but they are so amazing that I did them all. Let's say that, however, I don't think that the "main focus" of Bravely Default is the plot, but the characters and the gameplay. The characters in this game are incredible, from the first to the last they are all very particular in character and design. The protagonists have their own mini-arcs, except for Tiz who always remains a little neglected, but is deepened in Bravely Second. Each Villain has its own side-quest which is always very nice. I was expecting the main pre-Villain of the game, but as a plot twist it fits. Also very nice is the fact that it changes the title screen once you reach a certain point in the game. I didn't mind the final villain. The soundtrack is fantastic, practically every single track is memorable and catchy even in loop. My favorite OST is That Person Name is along with Wicked Flight probably. The music, even taken individually without context and without having played the game, is truly wonderful. The gameplay is literally perfect. I had a little bit of trouble understanding the mechanics at first, but once I get it all out, it's really a lot of fun. Farming in this game is also fun, thanks to the ability to increase random encounters and the fact that you can repeat the moves used in the previous round. The primary and secondary classes are truly original, and make the gameplay even more fun and interesting. The Brave and Default mechanics are also great. For a 3DS game released in 2014, really great graphics. The "semi-chibi" artstyle is also very nice. In general the game is very nice. If you are looking for a jrpg with excellent gameplay, it is definitely for you. The only downside is that probably the final parts of the game could have been shortened slightly or repurposed in a different way

todo mundo achava que a segunda narrativa criada na história da humanidade seria o (ou durante o) pós-modernismo, se a primeira foi a tragédia grega e seu destino como personagem principal - mal sabiam os estudiosos que o pós-modernismo é a terceira, já que a segunda é bravely default e sua tese sobre a coragem de fazer o que é esperado de maneira consciente, tomando a decisão padrão por brio e não por conformidade, trocando a fenomenologia hegeliana (outro ato de coragem) pela fenomenologia hegeliana (outro ato de omissão).

escrevi mais (em inglês) aqui: https://www.superjumpmagazine.com/bravely-default-as-ergodic-literature/

It's impossible to predict what games give you comfort in what ways. I thought I almost died this week, and on the other side of that, I can't help but think of my time with Bravely Default.

I devoured this game at a time where it felt like my life was ending. My 3DS activity log showed that I played it in chunks averaging 8+ hours a session. To say that I thoroughly replaced reality with this game is an understatement.

I needed to find meaning and beauty in the world, and in Bravely Default, I found enough to tide me over. The repetitive nature of filling out the bestiary, maxing out every job class, even the repetitive nature of the game itself. When it reused bosses, I didn't blink an eye. I dutifully went through the long way of beating this game without a single critical thought, of any of the ways that I could have cleverly ended the game sooner. I needed that structure. I needed to not think about the freeform mess of reality around it.

When you need to find beauty in something, you do. I think Bravely Default still has one of the best soundtracks of all time. When I first heard the theme of the Land of Radiant Flowers, I almost cried. Obviously I was in a vulnerable state of mind, and now I don't think its one of the strongest tracks in the game. But I think about that experience a lot.

There were jokes I laughed at in this game that are objectively lame. I took screenshots on MiiVerse to save for posterity (lol) that I failed to remember the significance of within a month.

But that has to speak to something in the strengths of this game that I could use it as the refuge I needed it to be.

I remember very little about what it was like to play this game, because for a long time I needed to forget everything about that period of my life. Including this game. But like the experience I was trying to avoid, Bravely Default became a part of me. I still say "grgrgrgr" in real life the way Edea does. I have had Victory's Chime as my default ringtone for over a decade at this point and forget where it came from.

I'd like to think that was a form of healing. That I used that vulnerability to slot in the potential for something beautiful when I was at a low point full of pain. Maybe Bravely Default was a vapid thing to latch onto, but it was harmless. And at that time, as evaluated by my future current self, it was exactly what I needed. Or, now it has to be what I needed. Because I still got so much beauty out of it.

On its own merits, Bravely Default is an S-tier soundtrack on a mediocre game. Solidly B-rank, hard to recommend playing much more than recommending listening to the soundtrack.

But maybe the real lesson I needed to learn, or the lesson I taught myself through Bravely Default, was finding how to love something imperfect when it felt like the world would not love an imperfect me.

Bravely Default is a JRPG with a super unique battle system. In battle you can stock up actions by using a defensive move called 'Default' mid battle to block attacks and store up 'Brave Points' to then use 'Brave' and unleash multiple different skills, items, or attacks all within a single turn depending on how many Brave Points you have.
As you progress and defeat bosses you will gain new classes or 'jobs' you can change your party members into to completely change how you strategize and go about battles.

The menu and battles screens can be navigated super fast with the snappy controls and helpful built in optimization that keeps things aware from being a chore. The game also has on the fly toggleable difficulty and the ability to disable enemy encounters if you want to back track without wasting time.

The gameplay is amazing, but its also carried by its music, voice acting, and characters. The music is consistently absolute bangers from the start to the end of the game. The final boss theme is one of the best I've ever heard. The voice acting ranges from just entertaining and funny to actually really impressive, it never got annoying and was enjoying to listen to throughout the whole game. The 4 main characters can be stubborn, annoying, and questionable at first in how they work together, however as it picks up and progresses they actually do grow and change in meaningful ways and its great to see how far they go. The villains and side characters are hilarious and amazing, with outlandish designs and voices that kept me wanting more of them.

The only real downside this game has (Besides for random encounters in general) is the horrible late game pacing. The gameplay pacing suddenly gets really weird later in the game and forces you to do a lot of the task you've already done over and over again countless times if you want to achieve the 'true ending' the game has. A lot of end game side quest also have little rewards or incentives unless you just want the challenge and the chance to interact with the characters and villians more. The story can also be questionable especially in the later half of the game as it becomes more convoluted with the pacing.

However for me the story, characters, voice acting, incredible music, and minute to minute gameplay kept me going even through the tedium (and entirely on hard mode) through all the side content and all the way to the true ending of the game. which felt like one of the craziest things I've ever accomplished in a game.

the characters, music, plot, art, music, game mechanics, job mechanics, MUSIC, everything about this game is my favourite thing and there isnt anything i dont like about it.

the weakest points of the game are the party interactions that can come off as vapid when important things arent happening, and the pure amount of repetition which turns a lot of people off the game- which is understandable for sure but i 100% believe that it would be a worse game without it.

the player characters and villains are (for the most part) fleshed out and have unique dynamics with each other, and the plot is engaging, makes sense, and has some incredibly impactful moments. the depth of the villain characters combined with how imaginative the plot is absolutely Makes this game for me. it could play like absolute garbage and it would still be one of my favourite games, but the gameplay itself is genuinely fun and rewards players for experimenting with different jobs and job abilities, giving you a lot of freedom in how you want to play. exploring dungeons and fighting random encounters never felt like a chore and there wasnt a single boss battle that i remember not actively enjoying.

also the music is really good!!!!!

I'm not one for more traditional JRPGs generally, so me giving it a 5/5 should say something.

I loved this game all the way through. The chararacters are entertaining, the combat and job systems are fantastic, the music is excellent and there is a lot of meaty side content to enjoy. It also has some QoL features that I kinda wish all JRPGs had, such as x2 and x4 battle speeds and being able to change the frequency of encounters at any time. It also has some pretty nice social features, allowing players to use their friends' job levels or share useable to in-battle abilities, though I ignored the former because it felt a bit silly and I didn't want stupid Miis on my menu.

I also found the game fairly challenging on Hard, though a couple bosses did have really long fights in the first half. But it was SO satisfying to figure out how to beat bosses with the proper strategy and setup, even more so in the second half where you have more tools and such. Highly recommend not looking up strats online and figuring out your own way to beat the bosses. Though I do feel the endgame was kinda broken, as you have so many potentially broken setup possibilities, but it was a joy figuring those out too and trying to efficiently kill bosses. With the right setup, you can even Auto through some of the harder fights in the game (not counting the Nemesis obtained from the social features, which are a marked step up in difficulty).

The story, while nothing special at first and certainty not without its flaws in writing, was pretty cool, with an amazing finale. People love to complain about the later half, though, but I find the complaints as grossly overblown as Dark Souls' difficulty is. At worst, you can rush though the so called repetitive part really quickly as long as you have good strategy against the bosses. I'd also say this later half is not even a half, and more of a quarter. Unless you go for the side content, that is, but the side content during this part is actually really fucking great, specially in the last two chapters. Though I do feel a couple of the chapters could've been folded into a single one, I feel that they kept it how it is mostly to prevent missable content. And even then, there's still a brand new side quest during those, so whatever. So I can kinda see why people get filtered by it, but at the same I find the reaction extremely overblown.

Story aside, I found the characters extremely entertaining, though they're not particularly depth or anything. But I'm not one to think depth = good and simple = bad. The main players have enough depth for what they are, and they get more development through side content, with some really cool backstories too. I loved the asterisk bearers, all of them being very amusing in their own ways.

Music I touched on but I wanna repeat that this game's soundtrack is excellent. It feels like a bit of a crime that such a good soundtrack is limited by the 3DS, which has both low audio quality and low volume on headphones (at least my 3DSXL does). The one flaw the OST has it that it is very short. It's about 2 hours of music, for a game that I played for nearly 120 hours. I wish there was more to it just to alleviate repetition, but the soundtrack is so good it never tired me.

The voices also sound pretty compressed, probably because the game is nearly fully voiced save for generic NPCs and party chars, in both English and Japanese, while being a long-ass JRPG that has to fit within the limitations of the 3DS. Could've probably been alleviated by making the JP voices free DLC instead of bundling them in, but whatever. The compression kinda has some charm and it's not too bad. Voice acting itself I thought was pretty great (played in English) save for Agnès, but her voice made me laugh often enough that I can't be mad at her.

Gameplay is some of the most fun I've played in a turn-based JRPG. The job system is just fantastic, and the nice twist of the Brave Points elevated it further. You can use up (Brave) or store (Default) Brave Points to get up to 4 turns in a row, being able to go into a turn debt by braving into the negatives or play it safe by saving them up first by defaulting (which works as guarding too). BP are unique per character, also. It's just really fun because you have to think about when to Brave and when to Default, and the system extends to bosses so they play with the same rules as you, more or less. On top of combat itself being great dun thanks to BP, the job system is just highly satisfying as you mix and match the abilities of different jobs to come up with builds and setups. Finding a proper synergy is half the fun! There is also very little grinding, and even if you choose to grind it just goes by incredibly fast with x4 battle speed, auto (which repeats the last set of actions you did) and +100% encounter rates.

So yeah all in all, easily one of my favorite JRPGs. Kinda in shock that anyone involved with the boring slog that was 4HoL managed to make such a good game! Also in shock that people filtered so easily by the later "half" of the game.

I welcomed this game into my home for a comfy 4 chapters. "What a nice time we've had" I thought.

By the end of Chapter 6 we were no longer friends.

By Chapter 8 this game was trying to kick ME out of MY house

Hey, get this, folks. This game is—wait for it—unnaceptable!

Really, though, it's not great. While the combat mechanic is interesting in the beginning, the interactions between class skills in the game (there are a lot of them, to be fair) mean that it's fairly easy to muck around a little with class combinations to create a party that can beat anything with auto-battle on, mitigating any late-game difficulty (here's a tip: ninja with valkyrie skills and 1 team member has hasten world on).

The second half of the story is notoriously bad, and the character writing is wretched. There's much better stuff out there.

Decided to play this game to scratch a JRPG itch I had after playing Zelda. However, despite putting 60+ hours on this game, it still took me a longer while to actually sit down and finish it. Though it's not a bad game by any means. Before playing I decided to check what people thought of it, and nearly everyone mentioned a terrible "Endless 8" moment in the game that really drags it down. Despite this I decided to try out the game anyways to see for myself, if it is as bad as they say.

Firstly, I find the gameplay really unique, and a really nice change of pace from a slower turn based RPG. The brave system rewards "High Risk" gameplay and I absolutely loved it the most for the first couple of chapters. Later on though, when you've grown strong enough with a semi-/broken build, you'll find yourselves braving 4x every encounter for an instant win, which makes random encounters pretty weak. This also works with bosses early on, but later bosses will punish you for braving recklessly which is good unless you're running 3/4 DK with drain, then nothing's changed.

The story is where it's really at. It has one of, if not the best iteration of the "Warrior of Light/4 Crystal" storyline in any FF type games. It managed to turn a generic tale as old as time to a dark/epic/multiversal storyline. I thought it has a really fantastic start to it, with OK pacing, until I've reached the beginning of CH.5.

I do understand the need for the repetition plotline, In fact if done right It would've made the game incredibly good.
Though in defense of the game, I find people's complain about CH.5-8 somewhat exaggerated. Firstly, it's not exactly the same, with CH.6 and CH.7 lore dumping you with a really major revelation about the story. And secondly, it's not that long, especially if you don't play the side quests (which is mostly the same sidequests as the previous chapters, just slightly altered), CH.5-8 can be done in 45-50 min each, if you go straight to each objectives every time. Upon reaching CH.5 you're already around 70% of the game.

SPOILERS
My problem with this part lies in the fact that we can already know or at least have a clue of the major plot twist about the game as early as CH.4 If we've done the vampire subquest (which I did), and was later hinted more in CH.6 and outright shoved to your face in CH.7 even the title screen literally changed to spell it out for you. This means that as early as CH.4 you can already tell that what you've been doing is a mistake. But unfortunately, what has been lore dumped to your party fell to deaf ears, apart from their discussion when they're being lore dumped, it's not really acknowledged by the party at all outside of it. Even after reaching CH.7 Where the game outright tells you, that what you've been doing all this time is bad and one of you is a traitor, even Ringabel outright said who the traitor is, our objective (that would doom the whole multiverse) is still the same with little mention of doubt as we are awakening the crystals. I think the whole party has only acknowledged their mistake once outside of being lore dumped in the end of CH.7 where Agnes apologizes and the whole party said that they must "tough it out to reveal the true evil", at this point I thought "Finally, they do acknowledge it" and due to this, I also thought that the reason they still continued to follow the traitor's scheme is to root out the real evil in the end. Then CH.9 comes rolling and when the traitor finally outright betrayed them, they've all got the "surprised Pikachu face" reaction. As if the thought never once crossed their mind. In the end, they really outdid the whole repetition plotline, I feel like the only reason CH.8 even exist is so the numbers of crystal you've awakened is rounded up to the nearest ten (20), this is the part where there's nothing new in the story and the plot would still be the same regardless if it exists.

Nevertheless, I feel like the True Final Chapter somewhat made up for it. The whole chapter, apart from the mid dungeon, is fantastic. Especially the True Final Boss Fight. I love how crazy and epic the whole sequence is. Not to mention, upon getting the true ending, you're rewarded with an actually important and touching end credit scenes accompanied by a masterpiece of a song. If it weren't for the well done finale, I would've gave this game a way lower score.

Overall, Characters are alright, Ringabel and Edea is my favourite. Music is definitely top tier, and I don't mean this lightly. It was a fantastic journey in the beginning with a really steep landslide in the middle but managed to come back in it's full glory in the end. This was a rollercoaster of storytelling.