Bravely Default - Nintendo 3DS

The story of the game is great, the game is incredibly long (for those of us RPG fans that love an in depth adventure), there are plenty of side quests to keep you interested. There's very little grindiness and the best feature is that you can completely control monster encounters with a setting. Ever get frustrated that you get so many monster encounters in a dungeon that you forget the direction you're moving between battles and accidentally backtrack? Or a dungeon is so long that by the time you get to the big boss, you have nothing left and you either waste all your best items or get pummeled? You can set random battles to -100% (so 0 battles) but you can also set it to +100% so if you really do want to grind you can have battle after battle...preferably right next to a town so you can heal and save and do it some more. The title is also the key mechanic in the game. The battle system is a typical turn based non-tile based RPG system (think the original FF for NES), but with a twist. You can "Brave" or "Default" each round in addition to your abilities. To "Brave" means to do more than one action (up to 4 by default, but there are future skills to change that and effects that limit it). To "Default" means you'll be blocking (lower damage from monsters), you'll skip your turn, but you'll store one of your brave points. So that means you can spend 3 turns blocking, then do 1 turn using 4 abilities, then immediately start blocking again. If you "Brave" without storing moves, you will then be NOT blocking, but be unable to attack until you've burned off that debt. So against small easy battles, you can obviously brave everyone without defaulting first. Each Brave/Default is on a character by character basis so you can develop very good strategies around who does what when while the others are defaulting or braving. The level up system is a typical job system where each job for each character can be leveled independently. You get to use the abilities from one other job you've leveled for a character in addition to their active job (example - you've leveled the white mage -- healer -- job, but your person is a black mage...so they can use white or black mage magic). But you also have support abilities (like + physical defense, or get extra brave points when attacked, etc.) that can be used from your other leveled jobs as well. If you really wanted to max jobs for people, you'd play forever...but it's not so slow to be frustrating and not where once you get a new job you're so far behind it'd be dumb to switch to it. Really a good gem. The story is linear and you really have a fixed set of characters, so if those pieces make an RPG better for you, you'll be disappointed. But the battle system is unique, the boss battles definitely take strategy rather than just attack attack attack while one person heals and the story is interesting and the dialogue is well done. Overall a great RPG.

If you like JRPGs then you will LOVE Bravely Default. They have taken old school Final Fantasy games as a base and then built new and innovative systems on top of it. They've made so many quality-of-life improvements on the JRPG template that I'm not sure I could go back to the old way. All that being said the second half of the game does take a risk, one that I personally think works for this game but could be considered very grindy. Pluses: 1) Job system is the best I've play in a JRPG. There are 24 jobs and each character levels up each job individually. Also each character has access to the skills from their job + one other job. Then on top of that they have access to passive abilities from ANY number of other jobs. The build diversity is incredible. It's the main reason why I was able to sink 85 hours into it. 2)The graphics are gorgeous. All of the settings look like painting, with tons of intricate design. Tons of unique characters and monsters 3)The characters are great. Your entire party is unique and likable if but a little cliche. After spending 85+ hours with them though I still like them. 4)The Brave/Default system is a nice addition to the standard turn-based combat. What makes it probably the most interesting is that the enemies can do it too. it adds a nice layer of strategy and can help speed up those times when you need to grind. Minuses 1) The story. The story isn't bad but it's not as good as the rest of the game and basically falls off the map for a few chapters only to return in the finale. Better pacing was needed 2)Side quests aren't rewarding in the 2nd half of the game. All of the side quests offer a nice challenge when tackled at a level-appropriate time. In the first part of the game the side quests are almost essential. However later in the game the challenge ramps up and the rewards become almost non-existent. 3)This is really minor but there could have been more musical diversity. Thankfully there IS some diversity in the combat music but it doesn't happen often enough.

I remember reading in an issue of Game Informer that the game would base the combat off of Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, and I was excited because I briefly watched one of my friends play that game, and I tried seeing what it was like on an emulator. When I found out there was a demo on the 3DS, I downloaded it and looked here for the game on what was apparently the day before its release. Now that I've played it and my party is around level 25, I can say that I am really enjoying the story and gameplay. The new classes they added are very interesting, and I like that I can use a set of abilities from another class, as it adds more stylized strategy to the battles and makes my versions of Tiz, Agnes, Ringabel, and Edea unique to the way I like to play. Though the story takes from previous games in that it involves the rejuvinating of the four crystals, I enjoy it because it reminds me of my happy exploration of the DS remake for Final Fantasy III. I like the voice-acting and that I get to choose whether it plays automatically because it allows me to sit back and watch the story as though it were an anime or a movie. (Or even just a normal cutscene.) That I can easily switch between that and normal press-A-to-continue options is very nice for when I'm pausing to look at something else, and the skip ability is convenient for when I have died, though occasionally I have used it to pause mid-sentence and have ended up having to reload the game because I accidentally skipped the scene. In a more recent issue of Game Informer that I read, it said that certain aspects of traveling between locations were pointless, and to this I agree, but I've dealt with much worse in other games and barely noticed it as I played this one. It also said that the gameplay gets even more interesting half-way through, so I'm looking forward to it. Though I often get distracted by other things and tend not to finish games, I have a feeling I will make it to the end of this one, because I've had trouble putting it down. It's like a good book, but it is also a game, and I am in control of how awesome the battles are.

What you need to do is download the demo to see if you will like it! Yes, I've bought the game and I'm waiting on it to come in the mail. I downloaded the demo a few days ago to play after work between cleaning the house and whatnot. It was interesting at first, the first few battles I was suprised at how "hard" (just not easy) the enemies were and after just two or three battles I was mezmorized by how much more strategy this game required than most JRPGs. I was experimenting with different classes (they are not all unlocked at once) and I could not stop explaining things and telling my fiance about it. It's just so different than any game I've ever played; even though it's final fantasy-style, they have different flavors. If you've read any other reviews or looked at their website at all, I'm sure you've read about the "Brave and Default" system. Personally I think this immediately makes the title cheesy but that doesn't matter. You can either choose to take a defense turn to stack "battle points" (how many attacks you can make per turn), go ahead and just do one action, or if the sitaution calls for it complete an action that puts you in the red. If you're negative, the game will not allow you to take a turn (even defensively, I believe) until you have battle points again. If you have stacked then you can unleash several attacks/actions at once. So you could cast a defensive spell, cure, and attack all in one turn. You could make them all attacks. OR, some actions require multiple points so you could use those without going negative. BP resets to 0 after each fight so sometimes it's not necessarily bad to go negative - if it's a hoard of weaker enemies and you have a high-cost attack that will wipe all of them at once, there is no reason to not use it - the negative points won't matter and you get bonuses for that kind of thing. The thing about BP? The monsters get it too and their system works the same way. Which also means that some turns they just won't attack you at all and some turns they'll purposely go negative three and lay on the hurt. From what I can tell it's completely random and you have to always be prepared for the worst. When you choose a class there is a passive ability (like a chance of countering attacks), a class ability (uses special attacks related to that job), then you have a chance to choose a job ability from one other class (so you could be a knight that also heals). Once you gain levels in specific classes you earn support abilities that you can assign and use no matter what class you are. I don't know any story about the characters as of yet, but this game is beautiful and the characters are cute. You also get a front-facing view of them during battle, which I prefer. You can switch who leads your party (I haven't been able to figure out any other reason to "sort" the party, if there is please comment and let me know). So if you want a cutesy girl in a dress to lead your party, you can. If you want a rough guy in armor, you've got it. When you're in town and aren't walking around, the camera zooms out completely to show the whole town. There is a map on the bottom screen and that helps you know where to go, but I honestly hate the zoom out feature. It shows off the beauty and it's gorgeous, but it gets annoying when I stop then want to go again and accidentally run into a person and can't go anywhere until I can actually see where I am. As for coin, you get a decent amount from beating normal creatures (I have a suspicion it changes with how much damage you take, how many turns, etc) but it becomes a small amount pretty quickly once you start getting the ability to buy more expensive equipment. You will definitely need to keep upgrading equipment in this game because, like I said before, the monsters aren't playing around. You can't skip a few upgrades to store up cash unless you want to grind levels for hours and hours. Now, as for story: The demo doesn't really have one. Random people send you on quests that all have to do with killing monsters, that's it. It's just a giant sandbox (literally) for you to get used to how the system works and how to strategize. Your levels and coin don't even transfer over to the real game (some things do, go look it up). SO! That being said - you've read the reviews. They say that the story can be pretty bland. Some people don't mind, but it kills the game for others. I love a game with a good story but I've been playing games like Pokemon and Final Fantasy enough to not let it bother me. Some people are complaining about grinding and time. If you're looking at rushing through a game, you probably aren't familiar with Square Enix. I have put 8+ hours into the Demo alone! I've read elsewhere that the game is pretty long and worth it, somewhere around 60+ hours. Tl;Dr: Complex and fun class and battle system - if that keeps your interest then I would suggest it. Play the demo to see if you'll like it! ***Update*** Not much else to say, but I beat the demo last night. I put about 11 hours into it. In that time I mastered about 4 classes before the last boss, and with the experience from the last boss I mastered two more and gained two class levels on another character. Of course I can't use it, but it felt good. I highly suggest you complete the demo before you start the actual game, even if you've already got it sitting in your hands. You get bonus items for different things you complete during the demo that give you a headstart at the beginning of the actual game. Plus, it gives you a chance to figure out what you're doing before you jump into your game and then you won't be stumbling around trying to figure out which class-path you want to take. Pro-Tip: This is a really long demo and Nintendo only lets you open demos 30 times. Just to be safe I only opened it once - closed my ds and left it on whenever I wasn't playing it, plugged it in when I felt I needed to. Turned off wi-fi and 3D to conserve battery usage. Sure enough, once I quit back to the menu when I was done it said I only opened it once. If you feel like you won't get long chances to play and have to do it in chunks, I would recommend this (though my battery might hate me now, it still lasts quite a while.)

It's decent. More for older kids though.

I've been a gamer since I was in diapers... And I'll still be a gamer when I'm old and back in diapers. I love all styles of gaming and all systems (including PC, all handhelds, and consoles). In comparison to other JRPGs, this one holds a special place. There are TONS of turn-based RPGs, but this one is superb. The story line is nothing new, but it does have it's own twists and turns. The game provides an excellent tutorial for everything (including every job that you unlock, as you progress)! You will be provided with detailed videos, chances to practice, and detailed text. Even though the battle system is complex, it is easily manageable. The various classes (jobs) and abilities (including your own custom special move, that YOU create) are excellent! I really enjoy having the freedom to mix and match. There aren't many weapons and abilities at the beginning, but that gets better as you progress. You'll gain the ability to augment powers into your weapons, create your own special move, and so on. With all of that, this game is excellent! The gameplay, alone, is worth the buy. However, it gets better! The streetpass feature is used very well! If you pass another player, you'll send/receive each others chosen characters (The game gives you an AI friend and you can receive characters through the internet, once per day). You can call on these characters during a battle (only once for one attack). Each player may choose the job and move they wish to use for their streetpass usage. It adds a LOT of creativity and it's fun to see the creativeness of passing strangers. ALSO, with each streetpass, you gain a village worker. These workers are part of a minigame, that can provided excellent rewards! The more workers you gain, the faster and more work you can do. Here, you'll earn the ability to buy certain items from the traveling adventurer, gain augmentation items, and so on. It seems endless! You may, also, see a nemesis appear in this village. These may be fought for more rewards and gain. You can send these to other players, as well. Overall, there is a LOT to trade and receive. With every aspect of this game, you should never be bored. I HIGHLY recommend this one! I believe new and old JRPG players would enjoy the feel and gameplay. If you're still hesitant, try to find a used copy from GameStop (Good luck! There hasn't been any). GameStop lets you try a used game for 7 days. If you don't like the game, within 7 days, you may return it for a full refund! However, you should buy this now. I feel confident, that you'll love it.

Bravely Default is that type of game that reminds us of why we love Turn based RPGs so much. It does everything right, to the robust battle system, to the colorful cast of characters, to it's gorgeous world in 3D. This is a game that fans have been long awaiting ever since it's announcement in 2012, and the waiting period for it's upcoming sequal is a large gaping void. Bravely Default stars Tiz Arror, a young farmer who lives in the village Norende in a small kingdom. One day, a large dark-infused sinkhole completely destroys Norende, kills Tiz's younger brother and family, and strands the poor guy to the nearby city. When he awakens, he attempts to go back to his now-destroyed village and meets Agnes Oblige, a priestess known as the "Vestal of the Wind". Agnes reveals that the sinkhole was caused by dark forces inhabiting the world's crystals, and so, Tiz joins Agnes in her journey to awaken the 4 crystals and set everything right. Along the way, they are joined by the amnesiac Ringabel and Edea Lee, a former Sky Knight and daughter to the Grand Marshal (Whom is one of the antagonists of the game). I would like to say that the story could end there, but the thing is that Bravely Default has two different "Phases" to it: Everything BEFORE Chapter 4 and everything AFTER chapter 4. I say Chapter 4 because after that point the story takes a gigantic nosedive into Science Fiction territory. Ill elaborate on this later. BD's combat strikes a familar chord with old Final Fantasy titles. And make no mistake, this IS a Final Fantasy, just with a different name. Everything that made Final Fantasy great is here, and the game makes no attempt to disguise it. Battles will take the majority of your time and it is a classic turn based affair with a major caveat: Brave Points. Battles revolve around these points, as using any action will consume one. You automatically gain BP once per turn, but this is where it gets interesting. You have two more options in battle: Brave or Default. By Braving, you can sacrifice your BP to take an extra turn. By Defaulting, you can sacrifice your turn to gain extra BP. Put two and two together, and the battle system is all about how to manage BP, as well as HP and SP (The game's "mana"). This gets even more interesting as your enemies can use this system too, so battles will quickly escalate into a mindgame against the computer. There is also a few more systems to mention as well. The first is Norende. After the initial tutorial level, Tiz will gain permission to rebuild Norende. You do this by allocating workers to fix the various shops that used to populate the village. When you put a worker to a shop, an allocated amount of time will appear. This is Real World hours, so when it says it will take 99 hours to fulfill an objective, it really will take more than 4 days. You can put additional workers to the same shop to lower that amount of time. However, you gain workers by using the game's online features, or get lucky and use SpotPass to gain extra people. You can gain one person per day if you have a working internet to your 3DS. This is the game's major weakness in my opinion, as the shops can take forever to unlock, and later levels all have that 99 hour period. I wouldn't complain that much, but the problem is that this games version of Limit Breaks, called Special Attacks, is unlocked through this system. And in battle those attacks can mean everything. The second notable system is the Class System. Similar to Final Fantasy V, your 4 characters will get access to a total of 24 different classes throughout the game. You are also able to select a Sub Class, allowing one unit to use skills in two separate class pools. These classes range from the obligatory Knight, Thief, White Mage, Black Mage, Monk, and Red Mage (obvious FF staples) to a few more unique classes like the Spell Fencer, The Dark Knight, The Performer and The Spiritmaster. The classes is where the games battles really come into fray, as the varying abilities can change up how the entire battle unfolds. The performer for example uses skills to buff up their allies, with their final skill able to give everyone +1 BP. You also have access to Passive abilities as well, and they can range from stat boosts to in battle effects. Lastly, there is Bravely Second. Other than being the name of the game's sequal, it's a...unique system in the game. During any point in battle, you can press the START button and time will literally freeze, allowing your character to act even during their opponents turn. Second also allows you to breach the 9999 limit, allowing you to inflict massive damage. I managed to clock in 970,654 points of damage against the final boss. However, Second uses "Sleep Points" which is gained for every 8 HOURS that the 3DS is in Sleep Mode. Or you can go online and buy a drink that automatically gives you 3 SP. Yes, there are microtransactions, yet this system isn't that bad. Most bosses are easy enough to not force you to use this if you plan right, and the only time I really needed to use it is during the final boss. As for the story, it's a typical affair for FF titles. Yet one thing that must be mentioned is chapters 5-8. From Chapter 4 onward, the 4 characters get stuck in a seemingly endless time loop ala Groundhog's Day. This is where the game makes a giant nosedive, guarding each one of the crystals are 4 select bosses. This means that you have to fight the same 4 bosses a total of 5 TIMES. 4 of which IN A ROW. And each time the bosses get harder. I wouldn't mind a timeloop, but having to fight the same four bosses 5 times is a pain in the ass. Luckily, the game tries to put in subtle differences between each jump, and the mystery around the timeloop is ultimatly solved nearing the game's ending. As for the characters, it's one of the best parts. Especially the english dub. Good god, the dub. The dub in this game is one of the best English Dubs I have heard in a while, considering that Japanese Games like these don't normally get great dubs. Notable voices include Ringabel, The Grand Marshal, Lord DeRosso and Alternis the Black Knight. Tiz and Edea also have great voices, and it's fun seeing the characters play off each other. Unfortunatly, the dub falters when it comes to Agnes. Agnes has a natrually high voice, but for some odd reason, whenever she is sad, angry, pissed off, thrilled, and/or terrified, her voice jumps two octaves. This makes some of her lines UNBEARABLE as it sounds like shes screaming. You also have access to the original Japanese Dub, as well as Dubs in Spanish, Danish, French and a few others. Bravely Default is one of those few games that really need to be played. It is THE Final Fantasy title we have been waiting for since X. If you are looking for a great JRPG to put in about 105 hours (which is the amount of time I played this thing), then you should owe it to yourself to pick this game up.

Very much like one of the older Final Fantasy games. In fact, this is probably the best Final Fantasy game released in the last ten years even though it's not really a Final Fantasy game. The job system is interesting, the writing is excellent, the character designs are cute, monster designs are interesting, but do fall victim to palate swap syndrome, and the gameplay is definitely a throwback to old school turn based RPGs. Fans of the genre should not miss this game. I've finished the game without using the "second" powers during battle. It requires that you leave the 3DS in standby mode with the game running to recharge this ability. [Close the 3DS while leaving it turned on with the game running]. It's an interesting mechanic, but due to how much of a pain it is to use and the limited number you can have [3] it's not really all that useful. The game can easily be completed without it. Specials are interesting and require certain actions be taken a set amount of times to use. Usually something like using spells, items, or damage enemies with a specific type of damage a certain amount of times. It varies from class to class and keeps things interesting. The Brave and Default system is neat and very useful. Brave allows players to burn up Brave Points to allow multiple actions in a single turn. Up to four can be taken in a single turn, and you start with one at the beginning of a battle. You can go negative, but if you do you lose future turns until you get back into positive points again. Default is basically a "Defend" command that allows players to build up these points. You can use up to four points in a single turn and thus perform four actions. It adds a nice layer of strategy to the game and can allow players to lay down a lot of hurt at once on enemies and make good use of various buffs. The 3D is nice, but easily ignored. I use it, but most will likely turn it off. If you enjoy the old school Final Fantasy games you really shouldn't miss this. It's very much like a Pre-FF 8 game and has a ton of charm. Highly recommended.

Excelente juego para portátil. Pura nostalgia. El servicio de entrega excelente. Llegó el día programado.

Very cool but when I got it nintendo services online for 3ds stopped. So you can still do it without adding friends

Uno de los mejores juegos lanzados para la Nintendo 3DS, no lo dejes pasar, llego en perfecto estado y muy rápido, sin duda uno de los mejores vendedores.

I enjoy it. I mostly got this one so I have an unopened copy. I already finished the game. I bought it digital off the eshop before it closed.

This is a good return to form for fans of job-based systems. You can customize your party and abilities to create fun combos, and the defend/all out aspect of the combat adds a good layer of strategy with BP management... or whatever this game calls them. The characters are well written, even if some may get annoring at times. Their story and personality gets explored as you go. The story itself is somewhat generic and WILL wear its welcome as you reach the second half of the game. The second part can either be fast forwarded to get the game out of the way, or you can keep playing to get challenging fights. Whether or not the repetitiveness of it is tolerable for the sake of doing those special fights is really up to you. Good idea, interesting mechanics, horrible pacing and the questline gets incredibly repetitive. Your strategic mind will be challenged, and so will your patience, if you decide to see everytjing this game has to offer... which amounts to stuff you've already seen but harder and somewhat rearranged.