Geekery: Bravely Default Review

As I know there are still those out there who are on the fence about playing this game, I have made this review spoiler free. However, be careful with any links to the wiki, as I can't guarantee that there won't be integral plot points mentioned. Other than that, let's get on with it! This game has had me in an addictive love and hate spiral for the past couple of months, I feel mentally and emotionally exhausted by it like every other Square Enix game I've had the pleasure of picking up.

To save you having to exert all that energy by typing the game into google, here's a quick summary from Wikipedia:

Bravely Default revolves around four young heroes of Luxendarc: the Wind Vestal Agnès Oblige who finds the Wind Crystal consumed in darkness; a mysterious vagrant named Ringabel with no memory of his past; Edea Lee of the Duchy of Eternia who is sent on a mission to protect the world from a great evil; and a youth named Tiz Arrior who witnesses his brother and his hometown Norende being swallowed up by a Great Chasm. They are accompanied by Airy, a cryst-fairy who is seeking to restore the crystals and save the world from the natural calamities that the tainted crystals are causing.

STORY

I was incredibly surprised when I found out how long this game actually is, with a total of 8 Chapters and alternate endings, I began having a senior moment wondering how so many hours of entertainment could fit into such a tiny cartridge. I managed to complete the game (False Ending and True Ending) in around 125 hours total, which is a wonderful change from my Xbox 360 titles that I can usually complete in less than a week if I'm feeling particularly determined.


It has been stated that the game is primarily comedic up until the player develops a liking for the characters before the real drama starts, and oh my stars does it get dramatic! I was completely engrossed in the story from the beginning until the very end, suffered from many extreme emotions and feels with some of the cut scenes and more often than not I had to put the game down and have a mental time-out because some of the plot twists blew my mind.


As great as the story is though, it does get a little frustrating towards the end chapters. Nothing major tends to happen apart from a little bit of character dimension and development for the Boss characters, which could have easily been included earlier on. So it does tend to get a little boring if you're like myself and cannot bare to see a side quest incomplete, but unfortunately without these short side quests the last couple of chapters would have been so repetitive you may even start to believe your game has glitched.

GAME PLAY

I'm a big fan of turn based battle systems in RPG games, and what's nice is the 'Brave' battle command to increase your number of attacks during that turn, or 'Default' command to conserve your Battle Points and defend your character. This makes for much more interesting battles and means that I had to re-think my tactics for a lot of the bosses.


Included is a mini game that you can access from the side-menu, where you must rebuild Norende, Tiz's village that was swallowed by the great chasm. Where they rebuilt the village I'll never know as Norende is pretty much a giant void 99% of the time. It's probably next door. Using street pass and Wifi to collect villagers to help build and upgrade different shops, you'll also let in a few unwanted beasties that will kind of (butnotreally) terrorize your villagers. Defeating them is optional if you want extra goodies to improve your base stats.

I really enjoyed how equipping a different weapon would unlock a different Special Attack, which required certain actions before activating, some far easier to accomplish than others. You can also customise your Special Attacks by upgrading the Special Attack Shop in Norende, making it easier to inflict status ailments and bigger foes and take huge chunks out of their health.

The Job System is a work of pure brilliance, and not just because you get to play dress up with all of your characters (it's a pretty big deal though, who doesn't love costume changes?). After completing certain boss battles, you earn a Job Asterisk which unlocks new abilities and bonuses. My personal favourites include Vampire, White Mage, Thief, Spirit Master and Salve Maker.

One of the things that let me down when it came to the game play is the schizophrenic difficulty levels. Some bosses and enemies were a complete breeze, and then suddenly it's as if I'm being beaten up by Satan himself. As someone who prides herself on her grinding abilities, it wounded me deeply when I saw my entire team being wiped out in a single fart of an attack after hours of training.

Depending on your gaming style, this can make you even more determined, or you could have a few broken windows and a smashed 3DS.

Music

When it comes to game music, I am a massive nerd. I know that if I were to revive my old laptop from its ancient slumber that it is full of OST's from pretty much every game I have ever had my grubby little hands on. This soundtrack is no different. Composed by Revo, leader of the Japanese musical group Sound Horizon who have performed the opening themes for Attack on Titan and composed the new Sailor Moon Crystal theme.

So as you can imagine, the music is on a pretty epic scale. I'm a fan of the Special Attack Music that's different for each character, Edea's theme, 'Baby Bird', in particular makes you feel like a super kawaii princess just as you're about to smash the shit out of your enemies.

There's nothing quite like a good boss theme to get you all pumped up, unless of course you've heard it for the 70th time because you're stuck on the same fight because someone *couch*Qada*cough* takes cheap shots. I'm not going to lie, the ending credits had me all glassy eyed. My heart strings were already being tugged on, coupled with the music I completely lost it because I am a sad strange little girl.

Characters

I don't think I could love these characters any more than if I had given birth to them myself. That being said, I'm a little disappointed that only Tiz and Agnès have been confirmed for the Sequel; 'Bravely Second'. Edea and Ringabel are quite possibly my favourite video game duo ever, and their constant back and forth bickering has me smiling (and internally screaming for them to just kiss already). I have developed an insane attachment to the characters mainly through how much dialogue they have (at first the Party Chat prompt used to bug me, now I live to press Y), and I felt an overwhelming sadness at the thought of the game ending and the team going their separate ways.

As the game progressed further I found myself liking more of the the Bosses as well, despite them trying to pummel me. You get to see so many different sides to each character as you progress, such as Holly Whyte tearing up over Konoe Kikyo being bullied into silence, Victoria F. Stein forming a small feminist society and Fiore Derosa being the most hated old pervert in the whole game, even by his peers.


As far as design goes, Square Enix games never fail when it comes to aesthetics, the only thing I felt that lacked diversity were some of the enemies simply being recolours to denote a change in elemental type. It made beast spotting for my bestiary a little tedious, but I still found myself chasing that dragon.

Overall

This quickly took over from South Park: The Stick of Truth as my favourite game I've played so far this year, and I am eagerly awaiting a release date for Bravely Second like a rabid fangirl. I can only hope that they will include Ringabel and Edea for the following important reasons:

I can only hope that it's going to be as good as Bravely Default, fingers crossed!