Braverly Default is an awesome game with a dull story (official thread)

[archnemesis]

The recycling of content gets progressively worse throughout the game. By the time I reached the end credits I had completely lost any interest in unlocking the true ending.

[AdmiralViscen]

Beat the game with the normal ending right at the first opportunity in Chapter 5.

The bitching seems unwarranted - it is pretty easy to view Chapters 5-8 as postgame/NG+ bonus content rather than mandatory. I guess it's better if you know that in advance.

[Rahxephon91]

Well I got this game. Whats with the code stuff?

[Himu]

How long is this?

[AdmiralViscen]

I got the normal ending in 32 hours. There is a lot of content (repetitive content) to get to the true ending though.

I'm not ruling out completing it.

[tiesto]

I'm on the mine in chapter 3 and absolutely in love with the game... shame to hear about the recycled content that pops up later on.

[Lucretius]

I think this may be the secret best Final Fantasy game ever.

Just got the true ending.  My game time was 78 hrs 27 mins 07 secs.  A good chunk of that was power leveling while marathoning four seasons of Community on Hulu.  I finished with all my characters at level 99 and all job classes maxed out, including all the optional job classes.  The backtracking after chapter 4 would have been really obnoxious had I not been super over leveled.  Hopefully they don't pull that crap in the sequel.  I can't wait for the sequel!

I like how it integrated StreetPass and Augmented Reality in cool narratives ways…

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Your online and StreetPass friends turn out to be parallel timelines that reveal themselves to be such during the final battle.  And the real world (our world) turns out to be the Celestial world.  That explains the opening AR scene that had Agnès freaking out in my living room.  The Celestial that was inhabiting Tiz was me (or you or whoever is playing the game), that's why at the end of the game, Tiz dies… because I'm not playing the game anymore.  I know Bravely Default isn't the first game to break the fourth wall like this.  Panzer Dragoon Saga and Earthbound both reference the player as some sort of god controlling events.  But it's still a good use of AR in storytelling.

[close]

Love the combat and job system.  LOVE the fact that you can adjust the encounter rate (up for grinding, down when you just want to plow through to the next boss).  I didn't love the voice acting, but it wasn't terrible.  Once you muscled through the repeated bosses of the latter part of the game, the story was great overall.

I have FF: The 4 Heroes of Light.  I may give that a try in a week or so.

[demi]

Lucretius darling, I need you to send me the biggest, thickest, attack you can muster and send it my way. And let me abilink your meaty member.

[Lucretius]

Lucretius darling, I need you to send me the biggest, thickest, attack you can muster and send it my way. And let me abilink your meaty member.

friend code 1590-4690-9174
name Mark

I haven't really used the summon friend or abililink stuff, but I've added you.  Let's see what we can do!

[Eric P]

just started playing recently


friend code 4227-1689-1461

[Rahxephon91]

Friend Code-4527-9274-0758

[Bebpo]

After reading this:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=789722

The second half of this game sounds absolutely fucking terrible.  People say you can turn encounters off and speed run the 2nd half but then I'm reading that they also talk about like 40 hours to get through chapter 5-8.  Is that 40 hours if you have no encounters and are speed running?  Or can you do chapters 5-8 with encounters off in like a dozen hours?  Because if you can blow through the chapters that way in a couple of days (<12 hours), then I'll play this for the goodness of the first half and speedrun the 2nd half for the full ending.  If the 2nd half takes 20-40 hours even with encounters off and speedrunning it....fuck that, I'm never going to play this game.

[Rahxephon91]

I'm only on chapter 2(I guess, I just did the 2nd crystal) and I'm at 32 hours. Jesus if the game has a 40 hour 2nd half.

[demi]

Yeah, unfortunately the second half is pretty bad. The difficulty spikes up dramatically too, since you cant just casually get by. You have to actually work on your jobs, and consider what to use. I actually appreciate that, but when I just want to get through and enjoy the game...

[AdmiralViscen]

After reading this:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=789722

The second half of this game sounds absolutely fucking terrible.  People say you can turn encounters off and speed run the 2nd half but then I'm reading that they also talk about like 40 hours to get through chapter 5-8.  Is that 40 hours if you have no encounters and are speed running?  Or can you do chapters 5-8 with encounters off in like a dozen hours?  Because if you can blow through the chapters that way in a couple of days (<12 hours), then I'll play this for the goodness of the first half and speedrun the 2nd half for the full ending.  If the 2nd half takes 20-40 hours even with encounters off and speedrunning it....fuck that, I'm never going to play this game.

It took me like 30-35 hours to get to the start of Chapter 5 and just get the bad ending right away.

If you turn off encounters and ignore the repeated sidequests (which give you more flavor text and harder boss fights) I am sure you could do the last 4 chapters in less than 3 hours. It's just four boss fights that you can fly the airship to and run right up to.

Beat the game at the start of Chapter 5 and view the rest as NG+

[demi]

I place it up there with "World of Ruin" from FF6.

[Himu]

But World of Ruin is fantastic.

[demi]

Sweet, you'll be sure to enjoy the same feelings in Bravely Default.

[Himu]

I enjoy WoR because:

- exploration, wide-open and lets you explore to your hearts content
- multiple dungeons with varying difficulty
- great character moments
- sidequests

BD's problems sound quite different than WoR, but I could be wrong. I'm getting close to chapter 5 so we'll see.

[demi]

BD has:

- Exploration, wide-open and lets you explore to your hearts content
- Multiple dungeons and boss fights with varying difficulty
- Great character moments
- Sidequests

But you'll find out

[AdmiralViscen]

Capital letters are the key differentiator

[demi]

Thats a subtle hint to Chapter 5

[Rahxephon91]

Must be pretty bad if thats whats making people dislike this game.

I'm only in Chapter 2(I guess, just got Red Mage) at 35 hours and I already feel like this game is the same thing over and over. There's already a lot of backtracking between areas(have to go back through poison forest, have to go back to the tailor dude) and to get the side jobs you already go through very samey environments, which already aren't this games strong point. The game's battle system has basically been BRAVE BRAVE BRAVE BRAVE THEN NUKE for regular enemies and then DEFAULT DEFAULT DEFAULT DEFAULT for boss battles. Not very hard or exciting. The water temple boss battle was probably the first challenging battle only because it seemed like it wasn't best to just build up defaults.

[SantaC]

it's bad because you're doing the same thing over and over again. No new dungeons or towns. The same overworld with the same bosses for another 10 hours or so.

[Vizzys]

I made it to chapter 7 last night
the pacing drops like a rock after chapter 4 for sure
but it has some neat moments and lets you see characters in a different light if you want + sprinkles of main story plot
still the world is cool and characters are ace so I look forward to a sequel hopefully with less padding
overall gameplay is king and the system they have for the battles is great and I hope they add like twice the jobs next game

[demi]

I disagree, most of the jobs are shit. They maybe have that one single ability that is good. Not worth the effort involved.

Most badass setups involve:

- Dark Knight
- Salvemaker
- Spiritmaster
- Merchant
- Ninja

Sprinkled with one or two abilities from other jobs.

[Rahxephon91]

At least the Red Mage outfit looks cool. Everyone looks dumb as hell in thier ranger outfits.

[SantaC]

I disagree, most of the jobs are shit. They maybe have that one single ability that is good. Not worth the effort involved.

Most badass setups involve:

- Dark Knight
- Salvemaker
- Spiritmaster
- Merchant
- Ninja

Sprinkled with one or two abilities from other jobs.

I'd say best jobs are:

Pirate
Time Mage
Templar
Spirit Master

with Time Mage as nr1 since you can just spam meteor.

[FatalT]

I'll add you JayDub, now add me.
2105-9979-9809

just started playing recently


friend code 4227-1689-1461

Friend Code-4527-9274-0758

I added you guys! My code is 0576-5623-7995

[Tasty]

http://kotaku.com/square-enix-has-finally-realized-that-people-like-jrpgs-1555236872

"Due to having split [the development mindset] according to regions around the world, we weren't able to see this clearly up until now, but fans of JRPGs are really spread around the world," Square Enix head honcho Yosuke Matsuda told Nikkei

[Trent Dole]

'We're complete fucking idiots!' - Square Enix

[demi]

These later fights are ridiculously difficult. It feels like the only optimal setups are the broken ones.

Optional fights, nonetheless. I might just make a dash for the end.

[demi]

Just got the TRUE ending - pretty good game all around.

I used the nasty combo of Rage + Stillness to cheese the bosses.

What is Rage + Stillness?

- Make character with Dark Knight / Merchant with at least Low Leverage and Rage unlocked.
- Make character with Spiritmaster with at least Stillness unlocked.
- Make sure to slap Agility on Dark Knight so they go before Spiritmaster (important!).
- Having a BP Battery is a good idea. I used Hasten World. This has nasty side effects of putting bosses on a cheese loop themselves, but Stillness counteracts all of it.
- Get a Blood Sword from one of the few areas (Vampire Castle is the earliest spot).
- Have Dark Knight use Blood Sword, for drain effect on sword. Equip a Katana afterward.
- Use Low Leverage to drop the cost of Rage and Stillness to 1BP.
- When you build up a nice amount of BP, try and buff/debuff as necessary (Pay to Play ups critical to 400%).
- Rage Rage Rage Rage, and watch as your Dark Knight does up to 20 attacks in a single turn, without losing health.
- Stillness will be cast afterward, nullifying... everything (except instant death or status effects).
- Repeat, as necessary.

[FatalT]

I'm really enjoying this game. I just got to Chapter 4 and I've put 19 hours into it so far. Gotten all the asterisks up to this point too! I still don't have any Bravely Default friends except for the guests though. You buttheads need to add my friend code so I can use your awesome powered up characters!

[Eric P]

added.