BRAVELY DEFAULT II
OUT NOW | SWITCH
Aprotagonist with an unknown past washes up on the shores of a fantastical kingdom, in which a megalomaniac seeks to retrieve elemental crystals protected by heroes of light… From its familiar plot to its formidably tough turn-based battles, the confusingly named third game in the Bravely Default series – launching five years to the day that Bravely Second was released – is an unapologetically traditional adventure, harking back to the 16-bit heyday of the Japanese role-playing game.
Yet there’s a flash of inspiration at the heart of the game – albeit one that formed the foundation of the eightyear-old original. The series takes its name from its inventive twist on turnbased fighting: the Default command lets you brace for an enemy attack while storing up Brave points, which can be spent to let you use multiple moves at once. There’s a difference this time, in that you don’t set up an entire turn for your four-strong party, but rather manage them individually, which gives you more flexibility at the cost of pulling off more elaborate combinations.
This works in tandem with magical Asterisks (liberated from powerhungry low-level villains) that let party members assume a range of jobs. Each can hold two at once, while benefiting from bonus abilities learned in previous roles. This mix-and-match approach means you can have, say, a fighting monk that can cast healing spells standing besides a berserker knight who can sing tunes to increase your chance of landing or avoiding attacks.
As the game progresses and more jobs are unlocked, the thrilling potential of these systems is belatedly realised. Yet it takes a long while to get there: even rank-and-file enemies pack a serious punch, which discourages experimentation, encouraging you to grind your way through groups of weaker foes to level up. And when you reach the showpiece encounters, you might well see a party member knocked out before you’ve even had a chance to make a move.
Persevere, though, and you’ll find a story that isn’t quite as hackneyed as it first seems. The subplots throw up a few surprises, too: in a quiet rural village, for example, you’ll find a desperate scholar attempting to harness dark powers to resurrect his late daughter. Bravely Default II is certainly not for the impatient, but if you’re up to its challenge, this substantial quest might just fill a hole during a lean spell for blockbuster
games. Chris Schilling