They can be zoomed out to such a distance that they genuinely do look like something you could put on your living room wall. We’d forgotten about the original’s painterly style at first and the backgrounds are shockingly gorgeous. When considering the visuals, Bravely Default 2 is very much a game of two halves.
#Bravely default 2 switch full#
The main playable character is a sailor you can name yourself, who washes up on shore at the beginning of the game and so knows no more about the game world than you do as a player, while you also quickly meet up with Elvis the wizard and Adelle his mercenary companion.Įlvis is frequently used as comic relief but it’s the quicker witted Adelle who ends up being funnier, although the game does a good job of showing the characters grow together as the story progresses and they realise the full importance of their mission.
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Thankfully the characters themselves are more interesting, and while the voice-acting is not consistent, in either quality or whether the game defaults to just written text, it is generally good. Crystals are involved, monsters are menacing the countryside… you’ve seen and heard it all a hundred times before. Everything revolves around a princess named Gloria whose country essentially no longer exists and who is caught in the machinations of a larger kingdom seeking to take advantage. In terms of story there’s absolutely nothing of interest to report, with the game’s break from the setting of the originals seeming almost entirely pointless giving how similar the whole warring kingdoms set-up is anyway. Thanks to some handy button shortcuts this doesn’t take any longer and instead manages to make the fights seem faster-paced and less stagey, although it’s a shame there isn’t more variety in the enemies.
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The mechanics are broadly the same as the last two games but Bravely Default 2 comes with a twist, that instead of picking all your party’s moves in one round you now take things one at a time for each character. It may sound a bit abstract but in practice it’s very easy to pick up and when combined with the many and varied job (and subjob) classes creates a game with plenty of depth and unusual tactics. In other words, the game encourages you to hold back until the perfect moment, once you can unleash more powerful attacks or to take advantage of a buff running out or a boss suddenly becoming vulnerable.