The blog has been
silent for a while, but I have been keeping up with gaming news. Playing the
new titles I purchased need to wait for more pressing issues, but I still sit
down for a session once in a blue moon. Other times I try out a game only to
find out that I am obsessed with it to the point that I want to write about it
before I go any further into the adventure. For a recently released Japanese
RPG on the Nintendo 3DS, I find myself in this situation. I better write about
it before defaulting on more important obligations.
Bravely Default is a portable JRPG that
brings just about everything I love about old turn-based RPGs and modernizes
them for a new challenge. It has a job system like Final Fantasy V, in which you
can choose a primary class with a secondary ability and level the primary class
up to unlock new abilities. You also have the opportunity to unlock support
abilities that give passive bonuses like giving better bonuses on equipment,
reducing damage from elemental attacks, or activating special powers upon being
hit with an attack. The turn-based system feels novel because of the
Brave/Default system. Instead of spending a turn defending, you can choose to
Default, but that allows you to take an additional action on the next turn with
use of the Brave command. You can even Brave multiple times to quickly defeat
an certain enemy that given the chance will hit the party with a powered up
attack or cast a debilitating status effect like Poison or Charm. Enemies also
have access to this system, so you need to plan your battle strategy carefully
to make sure you’re not caught off guard when the enemy attacks multiple times
or exploit the enemy’s inability to attack. In one scenario the enemy had an
ability that on occasion gave more Brave points when being attacked. One of my
party members had an ability that sometimes counterattacked being hit; she
wasn’t dealing much damage, but the enemy had more chances to recover and hurt
my party more. The ability to hit through a Defaulting target and moves that
cost multiple Brave Points make the system even deeper and encourage
experimentation for the best plan of action to defeat a tough adversary.
What surprises me
more is the world building that I have not seen in a Square Enix title for a
while. Unlike the more recent Final Fantasy games, which tried to cater to a
wide audience and involved melodramatic characters with unexplained motives,
Bravely Default clearly defines heroes being heroes and villains being villains.
The young adult party of four is thrust into a grand struggle to purify the
crystals and prevent the world’s destruction by the hands of unpleasant and
downright disturbing antagonists. The game makes it clear that the enemy
soldiers are liars, thieves, even torturers out to rip apart societies and kill
the people who believe in the power of the crystals. You wonder what exactly
your party is doing when a defeated adversary tells you that blood is on your
hands, and another honesty does not understand why one of the members of your
party has turned traitor to her country to restore the crystals and balks at
the chance to kill the heroes even though the adversary is completely capable
of doing so. The beautiful environments you explore are aided with descriptions
of characters, places, items, and enemies from a travel journal that I was
checking every time I was notified something new was added. The music is grand
and adds entertainment to the comedy and pathos to the tragedy that befalls the
characters. If past RPGs are of any indication, there will be even more moments
of triumph and tragedy as this game continues.
I don’t sit down
and play games too often, but Bravely
Default has grabbed my attention, and I want to finish it soon. The job and
battle system are extensive enough and provide a challenge not too difficult
but still enormously rewarding. I look forward to exploring the rest of the
fantasy world and discovering the journey of the characters and the impetus
behind the global conflict. If you have a 3DS, download the demo to try out the
battle system without going into the narrative. It may well motivate you to
purchase the full game and see why people hold the JRPG in high regard.
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