Bravely Default — Across the Universe

Well after its reveal and release in all territories, the biggest question pertaining to Bravely Default remained “Is this the new Final Fantasy?” It’s asked by former FF fans who feel Square Enix’s flagship franchise lost its way in the last half-decade, a problem that worsens whenever development costs rise — and that goes double if you prefer your FF in pre-Final Fantasy VII flavors. Producer Tomoya Asano wished to continue the classic FF trend started on DS, but with a new IP to prevent it from being beholden to the standards of a previously-established series, even though the mainline FF series is all about usurping conventions.

At this point, that question is doing the game a slight disservice. It’s easy to think it’s the new-old FF from its appearance, but playing it will show anyone that it’s its own beast. Asano and developer Silicon Studio didn’t aim for this to be a one-time spin-off, but its own franchise, and it mostly does a good job of that.

A pity the story details only help fuel those “this is FF, right?” questions. Bravely Default is about a party of four that must restore the crystals in the land of Luxendarc. The story is written by Naotaka Hayashi, mainly known for his work on visual novel Steins;Gate. He tried to infuse his visual novel-esque sensibilities into the Japanese RPG realm, which works in some ways but not others. For as good as some of the game’s character development is, those aforementioned sensibilities also include VN-style twists that don’t work in a JRPG. The plot is basic-though-tolerable only on, but you’ll have trouble caring once you reach the end.

The characters you travel with are a mixed bag, too. Tiz is pretty much the protagonist of this tale despite everyone being important, but sometimes he feels like he’s just there for the ride and serves little purpose throughout the game’s first half. Agnes probably means well, but she lacks common sense skills that anyone her age should have. The amnesiac Ringabel is mostly good, though he cracks one too many womanizing jokes. Edea, on the other hand, is mostly great, and is developed well. Most of the villains may seem like caricatures at first, but it’s later in the story when they develop more character. I’m struggling not to go into spoiler territory here, but it’s tough.

Bravely Default’s plot has nods to the older FF games, but the battle system is where it stands on its own. It lets the player “Brave” and “Default,” the former letting you store an attack while defending, with the latter giving each character the chance to attack. There’s an intricate layer of strategy surrounding it, though you’ll rarely use that for random encounters. You’ll find yourself relying on it for normal enemies upon entering a new area early in certain chapters, due to a difficulty spike, but it won’t take long for your power to equal theirs.

No, the battle system really shines during boss battles, where your strategy for Braveing and Defaulting is the key to standing a chance against them or being annihilated. The tenseness they provide increases later on, when bigger challenges are thrown in your direction. If you still think you can approach boss battles like an FF game, you won’t survive for long.

Mastering it requires switching classes, and finding which abilities in certain classes work with others. The classes you’ll start with are useful early on, but it’s later when you’ll obtain ones that provide a plethora of damage-dealing, defending, and buffing/debuffing opportunities. It’s a lot of fun to find which ability combinations are the deadliest, some of which can break the game in half.

The battle system is by far the best part of the game, so it’s unfortunate that it gets overshadowed by the poorly-paced final chapters. This version is based on the enhanced “For the Sequel” version that released in Japan a little over a year after the original, which included s new additions based on fan feedback. Upon reaching chapter 5, you’ll understand why they were really included. Turning encounters off makes venturing through previously-explored dungeons far more palatable. It helps, though it’s the equivalent of putting a Band-Aid on a giant, gaping wound, giving the impression that its designers ran out of content to keep players interested for a set amount of time. It’s OK, Silicon Studio, you can create a Japanese RPG that lasts for a well-paced 40 hours or so. Heck, that’s how long the classic FF games that inspired this title were.

There’s thankfully no need to bother with the microtransactions for SP, which let the player “Brave” without using one of their Brave points for a risk-deprived extra attack. By the time I reached the latter half of the game, I forgot they were there. The game’s bosses are challenging, but it’s a challenge that should be preserved. And if it becomes too difficult to you, you’ll sacrifice far less of your dignity by merely lowering the difficulty to “Easy.” That they exist at all is a skeevy move on Square Enix’s part, but it’s the kind of feature you’ll feel satisfied by ignoring.

It’s not easy to make a good-looking game on 3DS by today’s standards, due to its comparatively low graphics output and resolution. But you can’t say this game isn’t a looker. Somehow, the wizards at Silicon Studio were able to use its art style and character designs to make a title that looks great in motion. That isn’t a huge surprise considering the developer’s history in producing middleware for the Japanese market, but it’s nonetheless a sight to see while played on the actual 3DS system. The (perhaps unintentionally) genius aspect of the 3DS is how it forces developers to make games that have to shine through their art style. Some fail at that, but many others benefit from the lack of power.

(You’ll want to note that I’m not making excuses for the hardware, though.)

I was a little concerned when Square Enix said the music would be composed by someone who’d never worked for the company before. Few English-speakers heard of Revo before Bravely Default, previously responsible for composing the opening themes for Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm and Chaos Wars. That’s hardly a lengthy resume for video games. He composed every track for this game (though other composers arranged the tracks), and did a fantastic job with it. It’s to the point that I’d love to see him handle soundtracks for other games, outside of the upcoming Bravely Second.

I was only a little worried about the soundtrack before release, but I was incredibly concerned about the English voice work well before release, even if it did star some veterans. That was mostly due to Nintendo’s western districts — or Square Enix, whoever’s responsible — for releasing some bad trailers with little context for the acting. Some of the work is a little iffy, mainly due to some confusing voice direction, but it’s not bad overall. Of course, there was always the Japanese voice option to fall back on.

Don’t take my focus on the flaws as me saying Bravely Default is a bad game. It’s a very good one, but it could have been great if it wasn’t for the developer’s desire to pad the gameplay length to make the audience feel like they’re getting their money’s worth. If you make a great game, the intended audience will cherish it regardless of its longevity — especially if it’s already 40 hours or so before the pacing becomes ruptured. Many developers realize that, and hopefully Silicon Studio will be one of them the next time around.