Bravely Default II

Game: Bravely Default IIGenre: RPGDeveloper: ClaytechworksPublisher: NintendoSystem: Nintendo Switch (NS)Year of Release: 2021Length of Playthrough: 76 HoursTotal Score: 96/100Value Score: 9.6/10• Story: 9/10• Characters: 9/10• GamePlay: 10/10• Graphics: 9/10• Sound: 10/10• Music: 10/10• Length: 10/10• Replay Value: 10/10• Player Value: 9/10Pros+Job and brave/default system intact like previous games - gameplay enhanced by expanded job system that has more abilities and skills+No random encounters+Ability to change battle speed+Boss fights are challenging and require strategy rather than bosses being damage sponges+New Game+ with a lot of replay value (rematch end game bosses)Cons-Some jobs are overpowered-Too many fetch back and forth quests-Frame dips during some animation-----Score wise comparison...Bravely Default (3DS): 95Bravely Second (3DS): 97Bravely Default II (NS): 96

a good game. i could recommend. very long, complicated job system. everything works reasonably well

Gutes Spiel. Viel RPG für sein Geld. Viele Jobs zum ausprobieren und skillen. Am Ende aber doch zu viele Jobs . Man verliert schnell die Übersicht. Auch wirkt die Story am Ende etwas gestreckt. Aber doch ein gutes Spiel. Etwas Grind gehört natürlich dazu. Ich habe in 60 Stunden aber kaum Langeweile gehabt. Der Endboss fällt gefühlt zu einfach aus

I rarely write negative reviews, but this might be the most disappointing game I've ever played. I LOVED the original on 3DS and was hoping for something similar. This game was a huge letdown both in terms of story and in terms of gameplay mechanics. Gameplay: the boss fights are ridiculous, almost like a puzzle game that doesn't mesh with the rest of the gameplay. The experience of fighting weak enemies along the way in no way prepares you for the extreme "strategizing" the the bosses require. Because of the limited information we are given about said bosses, we are apparently just supposed to try a million things out until something sticks. Given that an average boss fight can last for an hour if you haven't yet figured out "the trick," this trial and error process is incredibly time-consuming. Fine for gamers who don't have social and professional commitments away from their consoles, but for the rest of us, we have only so many hours we can put into a game, and the idea of spending HOURS randomly trying out strategies to beat bosses is a huge waste of limited leisure time. Usually, when I encounter this sort of thing in a game, I'll give it my best try for a bit and then switch to "easy" mode so that I can just get on with the game and story. In BD2, "easy mode" is still punishingly hard, requiring hours upon hours of either grinding or randomly trying out new strategies on each boss. The latter would be more forgivable if you could change classes/equipment mid-figh to speed up the "testing" processt. At least that would be more honest about what the game is asking the player to do: try random techniques until something starts to stick. Instead, you have to completely settle your jobs/equipment before each attempt, which again can result in hours of wasted time trying to guess the magic number. No worries if you have 40 hours a week to play games, but not all of us do. Generally, when a game is just too hard for casual players, they go online and ask the strategy guides to just give the darn answer to each boss "puzzle." In BD2, these solutions tend to be woefully stupid. For example, the first "final boss" at the end of Chapter 5 (the first of two bland "fake" endings) - can ultimately be taken down with a few contagion bombs. Just get the Salve-Maker Job and buy some ingredients from any local store, and you can deplete said boss of all MP relatively quickly. She just floats there for the rest of the fight, lamely shaking her wings trying to cast magic that never comes. Cheap and unsatisfying—the kind of thing that you would only come upon by trial and error. And yet without this trick, expect your party to get wiped out an HOUR into the fight when the boss suddenly starts spamming you with party-kill spells. At this point, it becomes a story issue as well. Because honestly, wouldn't this boss realize that she didn't have any MP left and... I don't know, try something else? Or run away? Nope, she just keeps wiggling her wings lamely for the rest of the battle, which by the way still lasted the better part of 30 minutes because she had such a ridiculous number of hit points. It stops feeling like a fight. It feels meaningless. Same with the final "final" boss at the end of chapter 7 - the "trick" is just using the ranger's paralyze ability and then you get to spend 20 minutes just slowly hacking away at her mountain of hit points while she is helpless to respond. It's not challenging, it's cheap. And it's not particularly fun. And don't even get me started on the side quests. Carry a lunch from the town to the ruins. Oops forgot the fork, gotta go back to the town. Oops forgot the drink, got go back to the town. Oops, another inane thing, gotta go back to the town. Is running back and forth 4 times between a town and a dungeon supposed to be fun? I found myself asking the "supposed to be fun?" question far too many times playing this game. I continued to slog through this mess because I wanted to believe the story was going somewhere. After investing 40 hours, you want to see it through, and you want to believe that it will be worth it to do so.. BD2 has its moments, for sure, but not enough of them. (spoiler alert for the original) I found the story in the first game quite compelling, when the entire quest was turned on its head and the cutest sweetest character turned out to be a genocidal maniac—disturbing stuff, a compelling portrait of betrayal in the midst of a story about friendship. In BD2, I kept waiting to the twist, but it never came. There's basically zero character development. Everyone ends up exactly the same as when they started. By the end, the story has devolved into a series of platitudes about friendship and choosing to do the right thing. It would have meant a lot more if these characters ever had to actually make difficult decisions or change their perspective. 72 hours gone. All in all, a terrible investment.

I adore Bravely Default and Second (3ds), but this... This is a very mediocre game. Weak writing job, Faded characters, nothing interesting happens between them. Ugly faces and costumes. If you are looking for an exciting modern RPG, then i insist! Go take a look at Trails of Cold Steel. (Vita, ps3, ps4, steam)