Review of Bravely Default 2: A Neoclassical JRPG

JRPGs are comfort food for gamers, as has been mentioned many times before. They are the container of ice cream that soothes the pain of a painful breakup, or the substantial stew that gets you through the winter. It won't matter whether you first played Dragon Quest XI or Chrono Trigger—you'll probably still get that same emotion.

It's never been truer than with Square Enix's most recent wave of neoclassical JRPGs, a word I proudly invented myself. Since the shoe fits: The unjustly underappreciated Various Daylife, Octopath Traveler, and Bravely Default all have a design aesthetic that is extremely contemporary but pays homage to the JRPGs from our childhood.

The newest game in this subgenre, Bravely Default 2, is perhaps the finest one to date. It is the apex of the design concepts that before it, yet it also looks into the future. The end product is a title that is charming, funny, and flourishing but is unsure of its path and aspires to be something else entirely.

Let's begin with the parts that bring us back to happier times. That mostly relates to the narrative and structure of the game, which are so rife with clichés that they almost seem like parodies. As the amnesiac hero (check), you must rescue the world by working with an innocent princess (check), an elderly and wise comedic relief (check), and a somber and menacing mercenary (check, check, check).

Even if the characters are quite unmemorable, they do work well together, creating some endearing and even amusing moments. The nicest thing I can say about them is that they were a pleasure to have along for the whole long voyage and never got boring. Even though I felt like I had already met them all, I was always eager to hear what they had to say and to dive into their side projects to find out more about them.

What about that thing about rescuing the globe, though? It's also a little too recognizable. As you search for four elemental crystals—seriously?—you'll see castles, deserts, forests, and other locales. These crystals will enable you to transform into the four heroes of light—you're having me on, right?—and stop a ton of horrible things from occurring.

The main narrative kind of swept me away, to be honest, but I thought the people you met along the road were far more fascinating. Even if the antagonists' reasons are sometimes a little implausible or forced, Square Enix at least tries to humanize the antagonists instead of only using clichéd, good against evil, black-and-white imagery.

It's in that combat system that things really start to become interesting. Even though it's more of an evolution, it will feel quite similar to those who have played Octopath Traveler. It's all about the ingenious Brave and Default mechanisms. While Default has you defend and accumulate Brave Points (BP) for use in a later turn, Brave gives you the ability to perform one extra move during your turn—up to a maximum of four.I found myself employing this to unleash four strikes throughout each character's turn to push through the grind on the over-world map at first, when combat are a pretty straightforward affair. Square Enix obviously intended for this to occur, as seen by the convenient Y-tap repeat and fight speed-up features. This lets you grind without really having to grind.The challenge in Bravely Default 2 increases rapidly, and I found myself utilizing the fight system as intended: accumulating BP while searching for gaps in my opponent's attack patterns that I could then take advantage of with a barrage of potent assaults. It also enables you to bounce back from unfortunate circumstances, such as instantly healing and resurrecting a character. However, this puts you in negative BP, requiring you to wait two rounds before acting once again. As a result, your decision-making is nicely pushed in both directions.Creating your characters is just as difficult, if not more enjoyable. As you advance, you'll be able to access a multitude of Jobs using devices referred to as Asterisks. Receiving a new Asterisk is a thrilling experience since it allows you to explore a whole new playstyle or, at the very least, it supports a build you were working on previously.There are four heroes in your team, and you may give each one a primary job and a secondary one. Your stats and two fixed passive abilities are adjusted by the primary job. You may advance your Jobs level, which is separate from your character level, to unlock more passive and active skills. A character's passive skill may be equipped in one of five slots once they have unlocked it for a job; this ability persists regardless of the main and sub-jobs they choose.This is the role of theory-crafting. As soon as the system triggers, you will immediately go to the Job panel and search through all of the passive talents to find ones that complement the primary Job you are aiming for with that character. One of my favorites to date is my Berserker Adelle, who mixes passives from the Beastmaster, White Mage, Black Mage, and Monk to create a formidable weapon capable of doing massive damage while replenishing her MP and HP with every strike.As a compulsive theorycrafter of more than twenty years (wow, I feel ancient), Bravely Default 2 is a real dream come true for me. Its immense amount of construction possibilities puts it in the same league as Dragon Age, Baldur's Gate, and the early Final Fantasy games. I always look forward to unlocking a new Asterisk to see what new options it brings.And that's before we even get to the extensive selection of equipment available. Every adversary kind (sword, axe, bow, spear, dagger, and staff) and element may harm them, but every job has elemental skills and is more adept at wielding a variety of weapon types. The second theorycrafting component is making sure that your team has a balance between the different weapon and element kinds and that each member is utilizing a weapon that is suited for them, or not using a weapon at all in the case of the Monk.Thankfully, there is a great deal of equipment versatility. Each character has two hand slots, allowing them to dual-wield, employ a weapon and shield, or equip a single weapon with both hands in the case of the bow. However, every style has advantages and disadvantages of its own. With two weapons, you will undoubtedly inflict more damage than with one, but you will also lose out on the defensive advantages of a shield and stronger armor.All of these elements work together to produce an intensely addictive system that only becomes more interesting the longer you play. Square Enix continually releases new asterisks and gear that might drastically alter your build or provide you access to possibilities you never would have considered. You may quickly get engrossed in it if you have a certain attitude, and it offers a lot of replay value as you try out jobs you first disregarded.Recalling my previous statement that Bravely Default 2 has an eye toward the future, this is most evident in the graphics. They've received mixed reviews, based on what I've read, but I thought they were absolutely stunning. While the overworld map has a very broad range of biomes that entice you to explore, the Chibi character models are charming but may not be to everyone's taste.The city' lack of aesthetic coherence with the rest of the game is my only grievance with the visual style. The towns resemble paintings, while the overworld, dungeons, and other explorable places almost seem as if they were sculpted out of clay (it's much prettier than it sounds). Don't get me wrong, these paintings are stunning—especially at night, when the lighting effects are especially exquisite—but they do seem out of place and clash. Square Enix would have been better served sticking to one style or the other, in my opinion, than leaving us with this Frankenstein's monster.It's really more of a mixed bag. whether it comes to exclusives, a sub-1080p or 720p picture whether docked or portable, respectively, often stumps my sensibilities. Developers have complete control over this feature if they are creating games just for the Switch. However, Square Enix delivers a picture that is considerably fuzzy and has a quality that is substantially lower than what the Switch can achieve. It also doesn't run very well and is full with jaggies. We've seen sluggish loading times and drops in frame rate; the Switch seems to be under a lot of strain.However, it isn't at all broken and doesn't significantly lessen the experience. In the worst case scenario, the little pause while loading can make you think twice before accessing the party chart or starting a fight. The degree to which all of these problems impact the experience as a whole is, in fact, a bit off-putting.Because, all in all, I thought Bravely Default 2 was a very endearing journey that does a fantastic job of transporting us to a bygone age of gaming while feeling very much in line with the present. The finest fighting system we've ever experienced is here, along with Octopath Traveler, and the diversity of builds available are a theorycrafter's dream come true. We certainly feel confident in suggesting Bravely Default 2 to you if you like JRPGs.