When Square Enix released 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Bravely Default for the Nintendo 3DS back in 2012, they didn't expect such a massive positive reaction to the game. Beautiful, charming, cute, and a refreshing take on the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:classic, turn-based RPG format, Bravely Default went on toไ exceed the publisher's expectations, ꧒selling over a million copies worldwide.
Propelled by this success, the studio provided fans with a direct sequel, titled Bravely Second: End Layer. Now, the developers have been hard at work making 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Bravely Default 2, the third Bravely game, supposedly unrelated to the first two games, with a new cast of characters in a new setting. The game is 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:scheduled to release worldwide on February 26, 2021. In the meantime, a demo is available on the Nintend🍎o eShop to give fans a taste of what to expect. Here are some things thatꦏ we liked and disliked about the demo.
10 🌄 Liked: The Musiꦅc
A hallmark of Square Enix RPGs tends to be the music. Whether it be Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest, or The World Ends With You, the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:music is always fantastic, thematically appropriate, and loved by fans.
The soundtrack for Bravely Default 2 is no exception. Composed by Revo, who also worked o🔴n the original Bravely Default, the music in the demo is enchanting and endearing, enhancing gameplay and the game's setting. It elevates the thrill of enemy encounters and boss fights and is sure to find spots on fans' music playlists.
9 🧜 Disliked: Characterඣ Models
In 🌼the original Bravely Default and its sequel, Bravely Second, the visuals were limited by the hardware of the 3DS. However, the charac♛ter models had a charming simplicity to them. They had a chibi art style and doll-like qualities that simplified most features while maintaining each character's energy.
In the switch (no pun intended) to newer hardware, the models have been given a refresh, and opinions are divisive. The model textures look plasticky and dull. The small, dotted eyes of previous games have been replaced with larger ones, and features such as small noses, lips, and necks, have been defined. This looks awkward, uncanny, and 🍨unlike the art 🎉style that the game is going for. It feels like an awkward middle ground between a chibi style and a more realistic one.
8 Liked: Character Art 𓆏
On that note, the character art of the Bravely series has always been top notch. While the artist for the first two games was ꦜfamed Square artist, Akihiko Yoshida, who also worked on Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy XIV, the torch has been passed to Naoki Ikushima, who also worked as an artist on Octopath Traveler.
While eagle-eyed fans may be able to spot the differences between the two art styles, Ikushima's work stays faithful to the traditional, painterly look and chibi style. The in game character portraits and concept art are gorᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚgeous, and it's when you see this art next to the character models that the d🎃isparity between the models and artwork really shows.
7 Disliked: Overworld And Dungeon Came🐷ra
A lot of moving around in Bravely Default 2, and in JRPGs in general, involves exploring the overworld, going from town to town, and then to dungeons, all while getting involved with enemy encounters. As such, a 𓆏lot of time is spent wandering the overworld of the map, and convenience in exploring this part of the game world is often crucial to enjoying it.
Unfortunately, the overworld in Bravely Default 2 is hi🍰ndered by its camera. The environments look nicely textured, but the camera is pulled so far back that it can be difficult to see what exactly is going on. This makes exploration frustrating and can wear down on the fun.
6 ꦇ Liked: City And Town Backdropꦫs
One of the best things about the Bravely series is the gorgeous variety of locales that players explore. In the 3DS games, the towns and cities were vibrant and painterly. When ༺your character stopped moving, the camera ꦜwould pull back to let players take in the full view.
Thankfully, these beautiful backdrops make a return in Bravely Default 2. For example, the demo le🔯ts players explore the partly flooded oasis city of Savalon, and it's a joy to investigate. Another environment that players get to explore later on in the demo is also beautiful, with atmospheric lighting and beautiful environmental effects.
5 ꦕ Disliked: Menus And 💙User Interface
Bravely Default and Bravely Second had incredibly clean menus. Navigating them felt slick, snappy, and satisfying. The studio's third game, Octopath Traveler, also had clean and easy to understand menu💟s that didn't distract the player from the information being presented. Unfortunately, Bravely Default 2's menus are rather messy.
The menus in the demo seemed to be saturated with unnecessary background textures for the text blocks, and the font is not easy on the eyes. Granted, it's an improvement over the menus from the first Bravely D🧔efault 2 demo, after which the team implemented some changes, but it's still a frustrating mess that's hard to navigate and hard to understand.
4 Liked: Jobs And Jo🐽b Outfits 🐟
The Bravely series started out as a spiritual successor to Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light. It also took inspiration from other classic Final Fantasy games, implementing 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:a job system, full of abilities to learn and a different look for every job c♎lass.
That trend continues in Bravely Default 2. The jobs we've seen so far in the demo are great, with mod𝓡ern refreshes of traditional Final Fantasy job outfits such as the monk and black mage. The traditional outfits are iconic, bu☂t there's something endearing about seeing these reimaginings and all the love that's went into making them.
3 Disliked: HP Dr♛aining Moves 🌳
In Bravely games, job specific special moves cost MP. This is standard fare in most RPGs, though sometimes in series such as Pe𝕴rsona, some moves cost HP instead. In Bravely Default 2, it seems that this is also true.
In the demo, players will notice that some moves, such as the Monk job's Strong Strike, cost HP to use. Other moves, such as spells or even just other Monk actions, 🐎cost MP, and we're not sure how that will factor into gameplay overall, outside of the demo. By making moves cost HP, some characters get stuck in a cycle of healing. It also may lead fans to wonder about the fate of the Dark Knight job, which was dependent on losing HP to make its skills powerful.
2 ꧋ Liked: Battle System
The Bravely series battle system has always been incredibly fun, taking inspiration from classic JRPGs. Players can take a gamble and adjust their strategy to be more aggressive or defensive usi🗹ng the Brave and Default commands, dictating the number of times a character can act per turn.
This system is improved in Bravely Default 2, thanks to smarter enemies and a turn based combat order. I🦋n the past games, it was easy to play each random encounter aggressively by having your entire party use Brave and wipe the enemy before they had a chance to attack, as actions were round based. With turn based order, the enemie🍌s can attack before the player characters if they're fast enough, so every encounter is exciting and keeps players on their toes.
1 ♊ Disliked: Performanc🦩e Issues
Though the overworld is a bit bland, the Bravely Default 2 demo remains gorgeous in towns and dungeons. Despite the strange texture of the enemy and character models, the combat effects are stun🥀ning and job actions are a pleasure to see as fights play out.
However, when playing in handheld mode, the game's performance suffers considerably. Everything feels crammed and difficult 🍰to digest, and character models blur into backgrounds. There's frame rate hiccups and muddled backgrounds during combat, which is unfortunate gi🐼ven how beautiful other parts of the game are.