Bravely Default for Nintendo 3DS - thoughts?

It feels like an expansion of Final Fantasy 5. A criminally underrated game with an amazing job system. I spent hours on the demo and I am still playing the first game. However, I've been meandering a bit due to experimenting with said jobs. Fantastic music too.

Good stuff, will continue to play.

The sequel looks fine, but I'm not too crazy on the soundtrack this time around. The demo version was fine, but due to complaints they just added an out of place guitar over a lot of it and sadly made it sound worse.

From someone whose cleared this game several times, lemme give ya some 2 cents. Gameplay is great. Its basically FFV, which is my favorite FF. The Job System is robust and the ability selection is expansive, if youre the experimental type, I imagine you'll have a fun time. The Brave and Default System a welcome mechanic that can add strategy to your play or save you from an extreme life or death situation. Music? HOLY BALLS. ITS AMAZING. Composed by Revo of Sound Horizon, your ears will melt from auditory ecstasy. Dont believe me? look up Loves Vagrant (You'll thank me later). Artstyle gorgueous, Akihiko Yoshida seems to be that guy that seems to GET fantasy (also the thighs on the females he draws, yum....But thats a another story), he doesnt go overboard like a certain other Square Enix artist, and fits the game just right. Story?.......eh.......this is where things get messy. Like Scuttlest says, after Chapter 4, the pace GRINDS to a halt (emphasis on the word grind). Granted its optional, (unlike the vanilla JP version), but its a nasty blemish on a great game. Characters? Its subjective. you'll either love em or despise em. I personally cant stand Agnes, and you'll see why. And there ya have it, is the game worth picking up? Absolutely. Do so. You want a fresh but familiar JRPG with tried and true mechanics while also bringing something new to the table? Dig in. Anyone reading this, who may want to try out this game for themselves, JUST DO IT.

Edit-Also with Bravely Second coming out next year, you might want to jump in pretty soon.

It's pretty cool but there's a point in the game that loses most players (myself included).

Well, obviously since I suggested it, I like the game haha. I still haven't beaten it - I feel like I'm almost at this point everybody is talking about, though. I'm somewhat worried, but if it is what I think it is, then I'll probably be fine with it. I've also played the entire game on Hard mode and haven't adjusted the encounter rate/other settings. It's been a pretty good challenge, but not too hard. I usually have to fight bosses at least once before I figure out their gimmick/how to fight them.

I didn't play much of FF3 or 5, so it feels more like FF1 to me. The way magic is purchased in shops, the four crystals and the deterioration of the earth, some of the monsters/bosses, etc all remind me of that game.


Hahaha, why? PC gamers can never seem to stand exclusives. C'mon man, you guys have plenty of great stuff. Not everything has to be ported to Steam lol. The way the game uses the two screens -could- be reworked to be on one, but it'd be a lot of work and re-arranging of assets and menus.

I got the demo... It doesnt seem bad but it hasnt really wowd me either.

Ill probably buy it much later on if and when it gets a big discount on the estore. But i dont need any new rpgs atm. Im currently good in that department.

I never did like ff5 much though oddly enough. I think not liking a single one of the characters much didnt help. Not even the villain was interesting to me.

I just beat it a couple days ago after starting it a couple years ago. With minimal spoilers there's simply a part of the game that forces a bunch of repetition. I decided to finally go back to it and tough it out, and read up on a few OP strategies including a good grinding spot, so now everyone is at level 99 and I have all jobs maxed if anyone needs a friend for that. I can also give some tips on strategies and such.

It picks up a little bit, but only slightly. Still I am excited for Bravely Second.

I don't find Ninja's to be all that OP.

These are the specific abilities I can speak of that are OP as heck:
Enigma, Fairy Ward, Stillness (Spiritmaster) Maximize HP (Spiritmaster passive)
Dark Bane, Minus Strike (Dark Knight)
Low Leverage (Merchant)
Mimic (Freelancer)
Amped Strike (Pirate)
Free Lunch (Swordmaster)
Knuckle Lore, Natural Talent (Monk passive abilities)
Phantom Weapon (Spellfencer passive)
Magic Thirst (Vampire), -aja spells, White Wind (genome abilities)
Two-Handed (Knight passive)
BP Recovery (Red Mage passive)
Widen Area, Compounding, Ressurect (Salve-Maker)

Notable passive abilities:
Rob Blind, Master Thief (Thief)
Obliterate (Conjurer)
Hasten World (Time Mage)
Angelic Ward (White Mage)
Pierce M.Defense, Group-Cast All (Black Mage)

The quickest and easiest way to grind to 99 (and all jobs to 14) is after any of your characters hit level 73. If you still need to get to level 73, an easy way is to just hit boss after boss.

Grab up the ability Obliterate from Conjurer (you can add me for this ability if you need). Equip it on your level 73 character and go to the dungeon west of Florem, and go to the deepest part of the dungeon that still has random encounters. Pump up that encounter rate to maximum and watch as everything gets maxed. If you aren't level 73 yet and have ran out of bosses to fight, then you can probably still grind a bit here until you hit 73.

Obliterate automatically kills all minor enemies that are at least 20 levels lower than you are. There is an attack that is similar to this, but the usage of that attack will negate all rewards afterwards, while Obliterate will keep them. To make it even faster you'd equip Growth Egg bought from Norende. With the growth egg you'll consistently gain JP over 800, and the lowest you'll ever get is over 400. The experience points are also great and you'll hit 99 before you max out all your jobs.


I took on the final boss at 99 so I don't know how hard it is at around level 70 or so. One of the best methods of attack though, is to equip Maximize HP (from Spiritmaster), and use Dark Knight's Minus Strike attack. Maximize HP doubles your HP count but only in battle and it does NOT recover your HP to that point, so essentially at full health when entering battle you'll actually be at 50% health, which is actually a good thing. Minus Strike deals damage equal to the amount of HP you're missing, and ignores defense and low leverage.

So basically if you want, give 3 of your guys Minus Strike and Maximize HP. Just 4x Minus Strike ever turn with all 3 of them, but make sure one of them has Low Leverage to use, just to increase your survival rate.

Your 4th guy should probably be a Freelancer/Performer. The strategy here is to completely break the game. Use My Hero and Mimic 3x. My Hero increases everyone's BP by 1 (including the user), but costs 2 BP. Low Leverage will reduce the cost to 1, and Mimic will negate the cost entirely. With Low Leverage you can use this setup on every turn, letting your team Brave 4x every turn with no downtime.