That thread's Name is...the Bravely Default thread!

The limited edition version of Bravely Default is a worthwhile addition to anyone's collection.

You mean European Limited Edition Abicion, we didn't get that statue (Thank Heavens).

Also, Spell Fencer job just made the game enjoyable. I'm all for imbuing weapons with the Elements and Status magics. Oh joy!

What in blue bloody blazes... that forced Ice Golem battle was ridiculous. How the hell are you supposed to deal with the constant Freeze Punches without spamming Utsusemi?

Any news on Bravely Second?

Just got this game today! My friend code is : 3754-7678-6674. Add me please!

Still at CHapter 2 and I have maxed out Norende. Wut.

Anyways, here's my FC for anyone who wants to be friends and one more villager: 4957-3513-2673

Bitching about stuff:

zsfds:

It's because battles are exploitable, experimental, and fun, the music is great (Always hearing the Asterisk Boss theme is a delight), and chaarcters are good.

And the fact that it's in the style of an old-school FF game.

Reviewers look on these instead of the story. And I will agree that the story is the weakest part. It is interesting, but goddamn, is it handled poorly and terrible.

Pretty much everyone I've encountered prefers to pretend the bulk of chapters 5-8 don't even exist, lest they sour the fun they had with the rest of the game.

It seems like pretty obvious padding, yet the game was already a worthy length just getting to that point so I'm not even sure why they did it.

It has the same scenario writer as Steins;Gate, specifically chosen for the series because the producer enjoyed S;G. So that is likely why the time looping plot exists.

Anyway, fortunately, despite the chapter numbers, 5-8 are only like, a quarter(or even less) of the total gametime, and can be gotten through pretty painlessly with the customizable encounter rate. I thought 5 and 6 were fine and rather interesting, but 7 and 8 were very shameless and did not lead to much progression at all.

The actual true end is quite good though imo. I enjoyed this game a lot.

But yeah there's no way 5-8 is the second half of the game in terms of actual game length. It consists of just warping to each dungeon 4 times each and completing them with the puzzles and such already done, two of which are just one screen hallways. Don't get me wrong, I get it's tedious, but it took me maybe like what, 3 hours to get past that point when it took like 20 to get there?

(I just ignored the sidequests though, I can't even imagine doing them all again even if I missed some good enemy steals. That is one part I would just advise skipping over.)

Man, that's a rookie mistake. I've said it before, my stance on time travel is that good plots only come out of time travel storylines as a fluke, it's basically impossible to intentionally write a good story if you're going to involve time travel. It's playing with fire, honestly. Either the core of your story is going to make very little sense (FFXIII-2's "if you change the future, you change the past" concept, The Legend of Zelda's web of timelines) or part of your story is going to revolve around backtracking after the protagonists fuck up the timeline (Steins;Gate.) The third scenario is just a dead end, the endless time loop, and those are NEVER entertaining (Haruhi's infamous Endless Eight, BlazBlue Calamity Trigger, and apparently Bravely Default.)

I consider Steins;Gate to be a noteworthy fluke, though I can't encapsulate why, and I also think that FFXIII-2's story is solid because they actually explain things competently at the game's end, something very rare for Japanese writing which typically leaves stuff up to the viewer's interpretation. I think an exception to the third scenario is Higurashi, but that's because they don't focus on the concept of the loop and just focused on showing you unique stories, more of a Majora's Mask format (Majora's Mask is also good because time travel is merely a mechanic and has no bearing on the narrative.) While BlazBlue is similar, it doesn't get a passing grade because it has all these characters whose paths intertwine, so a lot of content is repeated on top of the already-repetitive nature of the time loop.

I'm gonna say that it was a bad call, hoping for lightning to strike twice and doing another time travel plot just because he managed to write a good one previously. His chops lay in the characters and universe he created, not in the time travel concept, and from what I've experienced thus far I think Bravely Default is further proof of this.

I finished collecting all 100 things for Mother Pokemon or whatever, so I guess I'll start playing this now.

I gotta say, the title card for the "Finale" chapter, though?

Absolutely genius.

I knew I watched it in YT before, but is it the game's title as well? Lol

The time traveling aspect of the plot is actually pretty harmless. It's not like XIII-2 or Tales of Destiny 2 or something where you go in and you just get a nonsensical mash of events. It's just a simple time loop. It's kind of like Endless Eight in Haruhi where stuff repeats over and over but the actual narrative itself moves forward(well, this part isn't true in EE, but it is in BD), so you're not really dealing with plotholes or contradictions because the characters are jumping across different periods of time and the game fails to properly address the changes or contradictions or something.

The more common issue is what the game makes you go through in those loops from a gameplay perspective. In terms of the actual story events of the time travel, besides 7 and 8 which had no plot progression and were largely a waste of time, I thought the story in 5, 6 and 9/final chapter were all interesting and had some interesting twists.

Steins Gate and Madoka both involved time traveling backtracking and were rather good shows. BD's time loop isn't really any more offensive from a plot perspective than either of those shows would give you, but of course, unlike those, BD is a game, and it does force the player to experience the tedium of the loops. Even the characters complain about it, so I really think they were intentionally trying to make the player have a "when will this end?" kind of feeling alongside the characters. A controversial design decision to be sure, but when this aspect remained in even For the Sequel with all it's other improvements...

guess they just wanted you to step into Okabe or Homura's shoes for a day(also likely why the first scene of the game is the fairy having you promise to see the game to it's end??????????????)

Abicion wrote:

I finished collecting all 100 things for Mother Pokemon or whatever, so I guess I'll start playing this now.

nvm, I'm going to play Sonic Lost World first.

best vn wrote:

It's just a simple time loop. It's kind of like Endless Eight in Haruhi where stuff repeats over and over but the actual narrative itself moves forward(well, this part isn't true in EE, but it is in BD), so you're not really dealing with plotholes or contradictions because the characters are jumping across different periods of time and the game fails to properly address the changes or contradictions or something.)

I haven't played Bravely Default (I'm a couple generations behind on my videogame consoles), but this actually sounds really interesting. Certainly not anything that I've ever seen in an RPG before. Once I play Bravely Default, I imagine that I'll respond to it the same way that I did Endless Eight, alternating between appreciating it and getting a mellow pleasure from it on some artistic level, and finding it dull and monotonous and frustrating like Sui does.

Dr. Casey wrote:

best vn wrote:

It's just a simple time loop. It's kind of like Endless Eight in Haruhi where stuff repeats over and over but the actual narrative itself moves forward(well, this part isn't true in EE, but it is in BD), so you're not really dealing with plotholes or contradictions because the characters are jumping across different periods of time and the game fails to properly address the changes or contradictions or something.)

I haven't played Bravely Default (I'm a couple generations behind on my videogame consoles), but this actually sounds really interesting. Certainly not anything that I've ever seen in an RPG before. Once I play Bravely Default, I imagine that I'll respond to it the same way that I did Endless Eight, alternating between appreciating it and getting a mellow pleasure from it on some artistic level, and finding it dull and monotonous and frustrating like Sui does.

I think that's the beauty of BD, it can both give an amazing experience of great artistic proportions and at other times make you wish to watch the writers have their hands clenched by lobsters.

Oh my quite the seagoing feeling I've got all of a sudden~

Was the fairy in the English dub voiced by... Nyanners?

I start playing this game that's supposed to be a retro love letter to 16-bit era RPGs and the first thing I hear is YouTube talking to me.

It's Stephanie Sheh apparently.

Plot spoilers:

That being said, I wish that all the optional boss rematches were saved until endgame/postgame.

oh.

Is that why I saw people on 4chan comparing the Nyanners fairy character to Kyubey?

am I even going to finish this?

...I have to take a short break from this game and play Y for awhile. Finally got to the final place and I just can't get myself to complete it right now. I'm so damn drained from all the terrible pacing.

They said the finale is pretty good and great compared to the dreaded 5-8.

Still in Chapter 3, right after defeating Praline (**** her song and annoyance). School has been interfering with my playing, and as well as grinding jobs immediately when I get em. I actually try to level up all jobs evenly as much as possible.

Also, Specials are a life saver for bosses.

DylDawg wrote:

They said the finale is pretty good and great compared to the dreaded 5-8.

That's honestly reassuring to know.

DylDawg wrote:

Still in Chapter 3, right after defeating Praline (**** her song and annoyance).

This any better?


So this is the second time I've gotten a net summon that breaks 200k.