Tomoya Asano apologises for Bravely Second: End Layer on Nintendo 3DS

Bravely Default 1: after the halfway point, with the exception with the final dungeon/boss, you proceed to spend the rest of the game repeating the same actions, run back to the same locations with the same bosses with little more than stat adjustments given which chapter your in, mash the X button 16 times for plot… The stuff you want to do is all the sub scenario’s since they were the most variety you have after the halfway point, essentially boiling down to:
“You know what was fun? fighting the merchant! wanna know whats more fun? fighting the merchant paired with a red mage! ooooo~”
But even then the sub scenario bosses got to the point where you had to understand the fine tuning of every ability/move with each class since bosses would gimmick themselves anywhere from right at the start of a fight to right as your about to win. I even looked back on the game a couple years ago to see if maybe i just sucked at rpg’s at the time since I hadn’t played many traditional ones prior. Nope, its was still needlessly complicated.
If you didn’t resort to the slave maker or vampire classes you were practically dead in the water, since you vampire gave you a skill at max for a 50% chance or being revived from the dead at the end of a turn, and salve maker essentially rendered (priest? I don’t remember the name. the one victor gives you) useless since if you took the time to learn the crafting system could be used as a work around.
Something about every turn, move’s that one-hit your team at full health, unless you just knew the one gimmick for each boss, and having to rely on a 50/50 chance of re spawning every turn wasn’t fun. (And yes, I had all the best equipment, max stats, all classes/skills/etc unlocked.)
By the time I reach orouborus I was thrilled just to see something different than what had been continuously looped, on top of the of knowing I was finally almost done.
Bear with me as I say the original game was fine…Up until you got halfway through.

Bravely second:
The world, is both familiar and expanded upon, the game kept taking you to something new to make you wonder what you would run into next, as opposed to knowing what it would be for the 4th time with some numbers raised. The places you had been to before had been tweaked to the point it didn’t feel like you were retreading old ground. and hell, the fact you kept getting new stuff made the returning cast/references way more satisfying to see again. I continuously got excited whenever I saw something from the first game jump in and be important for a moment among what was happening since it was all to one tying thread. Whether that be a boss from the first game,hearing the music again, or seeing something for the plot.
Story quality (writing, localization, etc) can be its own discussion for both of these games, so I’ll digress.
The way jobs, skills, and abilities worked was way more user friendly to the point where if i was dying it wasn’t because something hit me that wiped my entire team in one go that i couldn’t figure out what i was supposed to do to just avoid one move, it was typically because i just played a fight poorly and I needed to go over my methods again.
while you could endlessly loop the game after a certain point, it only happens at this one instance. the way to actually progress the game at that moment is a tad obtuse given having to repeat everything if you didn’t do it right. so i chalk that up to being the games weakest point.
Sub scenario’s felt more in line with what the original game intended for them to be, a way to see more into the world of luxendarc and its denizens. Bravely 1 started this on the right path, but again, you continue to see the same faces replay mostly the same events just under slightly different circumstances in timelines that don’t matter to the one you started in. which was its way of giving you variety was just what kind of boss combination you got. Bravely second meanwhile entire mini episodes that keep with what the first half of bravely 1 started but meanwhile rather than repeating the mistake of the last game, they give you choices of outcomes with these episodes which determine the boss you fight at the end/ what job you get. and if you got one and not the other? thats fine the game lets you them later one just like the first. It was especially helpful since right out the gate they didn’t give you things like white mage and knight, the ones you got early on made you wanna think about what class you would rather have and how that could benefit you as you go.

and lastly, I felt bravely second had a better soundtrack. not that the first game’s ost was bad, the sequel was just better to me. I’ve heard a lot of people say how bravely second’s music was terrible because its too different from Bravely 1’s. however to that end I argue the bravely IP isn’t something with decades worth of memorabilia and legacy behind it. Like say DQ or FF. its a very small and relatively new thing. If it wants to shake up its identity and try other stuff, let it. a series with (in this instance) only had one game behind it, saying something like its music is bad since its not like the one other game…I would say is a determinant. Whats cooler? a small IP that lots of variety in what it puts out, or something small that stays still simply because that’s how it started.

I didn’t think someone would say “hey, explain yourself” on something like this. Hope this is what you wanted.

Yeah, it’s similar, but the turn structure is completely different. That’s what I’m referring to (obviously the Brave/Default mechanic and the job system are basically the same). In BD/BS you select actions for each party member at the start of a clearly-defined “round” and then everyone (party and enemies) all take their turn before a new “round” starts. And as part of that you could guarantee that your characters could Default before getting hit. In the BDII demo, there are no rounds. It’s more of an ATB system, where faster characters get to act more often than slower characters. I’m not a fan of that, as it gets rid of a lot of strategy, heavily favors speed builds, and makes Brave and Default less meaningful (which is probably not good, since that’s the name of the game). So it doesn’t really “feel” like it belongs with the series. There’s no real reason for them to have changed it, other than most turn-based games these work with some sort of ATB system (but to me that’s a reason why it should have been left as is – let the series stay as unique as possible).

A lot of people don’t mind it, which is fine, but there are also a lot of people that want the old style back. I’m sure the game will be good either way, but at the very least we need to know turn order (like every other ATB system out there).