Finally done with this game. This was a months long odyssey for me, and while it only clocked out at 58 hours, it really felt like at least double that at times. This game was sold and indeed is a fairly traditional JRPG, an old school Final Fantasy in everything but name, but with a modern touch and features meant to showcase what the 3DS could do. Some are really cool and very welcome, like the one handed control setup and the option to tweak random encounter frequency down to none at all which is a godsend for when the game gets very repetitive. Unfortunately, some other features kinda really date the game in a way I haven't seen often. The game really wants you to have friends playing the game, or find people that play it with Streetpass. You need them to do the town rebuilding side quest that gives you some of the best items in the game, and for summoning in combat or to share their progress on jobs. Now, to be fair, the game does give you bot friends that do a good job at filling in if you don't have friends. They're basically useless for summoning, but they do help rebuilding the town. Still though, you need to go online to get them and lord knows how much longer any kind of online servers for the 3DS have left seeing as how the eshop closed not too long ago, which would make a very integral part of this game worthless and actively hamper the rest of your experience. Not only that, but the focus on community has an actual ingame explanation and having only bots as friends makes the ending funnier.

As for the actual game, I was enjoying it a fair bit up to a point. Graphics are lovely, all the towns in the game have a hand painted, layered look that for once looks even better with the 3ds, there's a decent amount of enemy variety, and the music is sublime. There's not one bad track in this game, and I love how each character has a theme that starts playing when you do a special move in combat, which gives you a buff depending on the move that lasts until the song ends, it's so fucking hype every time to hear Tiz's theme start playing. The combat is quite fun, the job system is pretty much lifted straight from Final Fantasy and you have quite a lot of build possibilities since you can use skills from two classes at once and choose up to 4 perks that all do a lot of different stuff, some can almost completely change how you play that character. I am also a big fan of the whole bravely/default system, which is basically borrowing turns from the future or saving them in advance by defending to act several times in one turn. It adds an extra layer of tactics that spices up the gameplay in a way only things like the ATB system on FF games or the press turn system on Megami Tensei have achieved. Unlike those two systems though, I feel like enemies in this game don't use brave or default a lot. Perhaps it is a blessing in disguise, as that could've been too annoying. I also liked the story, even if it was quite simple. The main characters and their interaction had enough charm to carry the plot.

But then, it all takes a turn. Because of said story, you are groundhog day'd into playing the game again. The first time this happened, I was confused but intrigued. You basically play through a condensed version of the game that's almost a boss rush, and I had fun beating every boss again with my stronger party. But then it happened again. And then again. And then one more time for good measure. Every time this happened again I seriously considered just dropping the game, but every time the sunken cost fallacy won. By the third time I just turned off random battles completely which did help a lot with the tedium, and I never even felt underleveled. Each human boss does change their tactics a little each run, and they even start grouping together near the end for very challenging fights that were also pretty fun, but it was a massive fuckin slog. There is actually two endings, and having done both I think the true ending is okay, but the tedium it takes to get there was borderline deal breaker for me and I only got through with sheer willpower.

It's not a bad game, really. It has a very solid battle system and job system. The brave/default system is interesting but ends up being a lot more shallow than you would think since it often just ends up being used in 2 ways: spamming brave at the beginning of a random encounter to end it quickly or defaulting to the max for boss fights and unloading all the attacks at once. The only reason to ever really break away from those strategies is spending however many BP you need to do healing with a white mage. There are some smaller nuances that appear around the halfway point like one or two enemy attacks that drain BP and some jobs that use skills with BP costs, but it's not enough to radically change the combat. That being said, the brave/default system only improves on the typical turn based combat so it's a welcome addition. As with any other game with a job system, it's fun to level up jobs and the support abilities you can carry over makes it feel more rewarding to level up multiple jobs, but none of the jobs I got were very interesting compared to other games. The artstyle is cute and the music is nice but severely lacking in variety. My biggest issue with bravely default is that it falls into the worst pitfall a JRPG can have, and that is that the party members are not very likable at all. Tiz is an extremely generic hero, Agnes's naivete and distrust of others just comes off as annoying, and Edea and Ringabel have the same back-and-forth in every other scene. From what I played (up to the end of chapter 3) the plot was nothing special. The only promise for something interesting was the twist I had already been spoiled on for some time but I know that with that twist comes having to repeat the first half of the game all over again with minor changes so I didn't have the motivation to go on. I can see why people like the game, but the flaws were just in spots that I couldn't ignore for the sake of a job system I've experienced in several other games.

Bravely Default may just be one of my favorite RPGs I've ever played. At the time of this review, I've played through and beaten this game 4 times now, and it's far from my last. I first played Bravely Default in 2015, and my life changed ever since. This one 3DS game is probably one of the games that has the biggest influence on my life.
Bravely Default's strongest selling point is its Jobs System, and it is one of the most engaging systems I've encountered. The Jobs System basically functions as classes for your characters to choose from, and there's 24 jobs in total, each with unique affinities, abilities, and support skills tied to them. While there's a lot of customization that can be done with that alone, you can select a secondary job for each of your characters! With that, you can produce an outrageous amount of unique party combinations, allowing for individual playthroughs to have wildly different parties. While some combinations are definitely better than others, it's really fun to try and experiment what could work. And on top of all of this, each job grants support skills that you can then add to your characters. These can be specific stat modifiers, unique abilities, or certain in-battle quirks. While I also would say some support skills are definitely better than others, I wouldn't say it to the same extent as job combinations. But this all comes together to create some of the most interesting and open customization in any game I've ever played! There are noticeable limits, but there doesn't feel like there is any.
Combat is also really fun! The game takes such a simple mechanic, but polishes it to such an amazing extent, that of course being the game's namesake, Brave, and Default. Defaulting is the game's guard, but every time you Default, you gain a Brave Point. This leads into Brave, where you can Brave up to 3 times, allowing a specific character to act 4 times per turn. There's a back and forth of building up your Brave Points, and using them to act more often. However, it's not as basic as that. Some abilities are dependent on BP amount, and some use BP to be used. Sometimes you'll have to use your Brave Points early in order to respond to a boss' attacks. And you also don't need Brave Points in order to use Brave, though that comes with the risk of not being able to act for a number of turns. This all leads into a beautiful balancing act of knowing when the stockpiling your Brave Points, and when to use them! This is neglecting the fact that every enemy also have Brave Points of their own to use!
Now, I love the story. But I can't really talk about it in this review. I tend to keep my reviews relatively spoiler-free, and for a game like this, I don't want to spoil it at all. But having now played through this game in full 4 times, the story is so much smarter each time. The game really is able to throw you for a loop, there's some really good red herrings in this game, and some great foreshadows that you probably will only notice on a repeat playthrough. I really think Bravely Default's story is well crafted. And on top of that, I really love the characters. Of course all of the major bosses you come across are really fun characters, but the main four are so fun. They have an amazing chemistry between them, and it makes all their interactions so worthwhile to me.
And this leads into what Bravely Default has been most criticized for, which is the game's second half. Now, I constantly see criticism about Bravely Default's second half, and how it is both tedious and repetitive. And yeah, it is, but it's used in such a way that I can't help but compliment for that. I think the game wants you to be frustrated and annoyed, because I think the game is purposefully testing the player. In the absolute start of the game, a characters says to you, the player "say that you'll stay, 'till the very end". And with the first half of the game, that half of the game tests the resolve of the main cast. I feel like it then evolves in the second half to be a test of resolve for the player. And though I won't describe how, the game tries to convince you to stop playing it, which I think works in tandem with the tedium and repetition. While I see where people are coming from with their criticism, I can't help but see it in a positive light, as a really good design choice.
And speaking on that, Bravely Default has so many amazing Quality of Life choices that I think other RPGs really should take from. For one, Bravely Default allows you to control the odds of random encounters! It ranges from double the encounter rate to no random encounter at all. And it's so nice because when needing to level grind, double the encounter rate is perfect, but if you're already far enough leveled, you can turn off random encounters to not have to deal with them! Level Grinding is so easy as well, I was able to max out every single job, and get to level 99 for each character rather easily. For one, depending on what occurs in battle, you can get some bonuses, and the more you fulfill those parameters per each battle, the boost gets larger and larger, meaning you can gain levels super easily. And on top of that, a certain support skill you can obtain in the later half of the game makes grinding an absolute JOKE. Bravely Default has some of the best Quality of Life choices in any RPG I've played, and it kinda sucks that neither of its sequels really have the same choices made.
And there's so much more I could talk about for Bravely Default. I could talk about the game's story for hours on end, especially with the game's ending, which I still get hyped over in every playthrough. And I've yet to even mention the amazing soundtrack made by REVO! Bravely Default to this day is still one of my favorite games of all time, and I beg for people to give this game a chance. I absolutely love this game.

Nice jrpg with a cool twist , best implementation of the job system in ff followed by its sequel , even if it’s not technically a final fantasy.

However , the final stretch of the story is bogged down by certain section that can feel stretched and rather repetitive even by intention and can sour your experience depending on how patient you are .

Also the music is pretty darn good.

Ringabel the best