love the bargin bin chaos at work here
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there are apparently already 5 of these games?
of note: maps now rendered in 3d and rotatable.
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oh right, those games that were pretty much always on sale in the 3ds eshop
I wasn’t feeling the previous demo. Not sure if I’ll bother trying this one.
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i refuse to let this team of devs fool me again lol
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Might give them the benefit of the doubt given how hard they raised the feedback from the last demo. I think the main cast and world is just a bit bland though.
Was the first one good? I occasionally think about getting it since I still have my 3DS
NO
3/5ths of the game are actually very charming, but the last 2 are so bad, it essentially taints the whole experience
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That might work for me, I can only be arsed for like half a JRPG these days anyway.
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Oh yeah I only played two hours but it was a good two hours.
Warning the first 20 minutes is an ARG using the 3DS camera. I was in…the worst possible circumstances to start playing something like that.
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…was Bravely Second not actually a Bravely Default II?
i rinsed bravely default almost exclusively because i really wanted a new jarpeg and it came out during a major drought and the christmas holiday, you’re probably better off just playing ff5
some of it is good? the random battles are probably peak jrpg tedium but you can turn the frequency down or off entirely in a menu
music and art can be very nice, a lot of it feels like ff1-6 cutting room floor
figuring out how to beat some of the postgame stuff is genuinely tricky and interesting, you do have to build a team rather than just picking the four most overpowered jobs or setups
the endgame plot twist is hilarious
Just play 4 Heroes of Light and you’ll be fine
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My understanding (from hearsay, not having played the games) is that Bravely Second is like “Final Fantasy I-2” to the first game, while Bravely Default 2 is like a “Final Fantasy 2”.
Or maybe it’s the other way around.
If it’s neither then I’ve been lied to and have no idea what Square’s doing.
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I can’t remember why I disliked the first Bravely Default II demo, but I do remember loading it up, talking to a few NPCs, turning the demo off, and never playing it again. Yet I ended up playing about an hour and a half of the new demo, and I think it’s ok.
I’m going to compare this to the second Octopath Traveler demo for a moment. I played through that demo. It was full of interminable dialogue dumps that I could not take seriously, care about, nor connect with. That was a huge turn off. But I was pleasantly surprised to find the story, writing, and voice acting in BDII seems fine. I think that’s opened me up to idea of this game.
And playing the BDII demo feels like I’m playing a version of the DS remake of the Famicom Final Fantasy III with more mechanical and narrative depth. This seems good to me, as I really liked that Final Fantasy.
I dunno. I’ll probably play out what’s left of the demo’s 5-hour time limit. I’m not exactly frothing for more, but I’d consider picking up the full game next year.
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The weird disconnect with all the characters in Octopath is what immediately turned me off. You’re expected to play all these stories that seem to exist in a bubble and while the characters can all join each other in their respective stories, there’s zero interaction or sense of motivation. Like what amounts to a paladin happily coming along without a peep to help a cat burglar. I dunno, it drove me nuts. Just keep them all fully separated if you’re not going to do anything with them together til the end.
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Yeah that sucked too.
From what I’ve seen of Bravely Default II, there’s plenty of interaction between the party members, and their motivations seem plausible and acceptable. Something is obviously at stake, and the party shares a purpose.
The villains and guest party member in the new demo also seem interesting so far. There’s a bit of a mystery going on.
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narrative seems to be the thing they really struggle with. like they make some interesting systems and their art direction is wonderful, but ultimately, it’s like they don’t seem to understand what makes a jrpg compelling?
BD spoilers: i have to assume that the end of Bravely Default was a symptom of running out of time, or worse, a need to make the game hit a certain amount of playtime. both of these are cynical and sad, but what could be even scarier is the possibility that they really thought someone would want to repeat the exact same hours-long scenario more than 3 times.
i mean i guess enough people did like it, because we keep getting more stuff from them?
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Yeah I’m not getting my hopes up on the new one because I’d heard about how the 3DS one played out by the end. But this demo caught me by surprise narratively. Like it’s pretty obvious what’s going on, but it’s still framed as a bit of mystery, which adds a layer interest for me at least. And it’s more nuanced than I’d expect. There’s something going on about class and about power turning a blind eye to corruption. At least that’s how the demo’s narrative thread is set up. I’m not sure how it’ll play out, nor if I’ll see it through within the time limit.
Huh, I wasn’t expecting to have so much to say about this game…
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