Bravely Default Nintendo 3DS Review

Enjoyable RPG, very nostalgic and entertaining.

5 Stars - Preferred Purchase

GAME STYLE:

Bravely Default is a turn based role playing game for the Nintendo 3DS developed by Square Enix. It's ability to captivate the player with a fresh story of a group's troubles and triumphs has been a missing ingredient in this genre for way too long, but Bravely Default delivers this and also looks/sounds fantastic. Story alone does not make a great role playing game though, so Bravely Default ensures much depth and different levels of difficulty of it's play through.

GAME PLAY:

Turn based battles with a new twist.

Each character can learn skills from a multiple selection of jobs (classes) which can then be combined with another job's speciality to allow a unique skill set for each character, tailored exactly how the player wants it. Along with this specific second job ability a character can use any job stat boosts at any given time with any job selected, as long as they have enough skill points that can be allotted. The battle system is an evolved turn based system, which introduces a Brave/Default selection, which allows you to have a character perform multiple actions in one turn (Brave) but your character will miss out on the following turns, or you can use a defend (Default) style play, which also builds points for your character to be able to go back to using the Brave style and not miss out on the turns afterwards for the multiple actions. Alongside all of this, an auto battle option is available and you can speed up the character movements in battle to make grinding levels and pg (the in game currency) much more quicker. A truly revolutionary take on a classic game play style.

GAME DEPTH:

Bravely Default shines brightly on the 3DS, cramming a lot of game into the tiny little cartridge. A world map to be traveled with various cities, dungeons, shrines, and enemy hot spots (areas where specific enemies can be battled) along with a town you must rebuild which also contains shops for weapons, items, and upgrades to your special attacks gives the player plenty of places to travel and see. A difficulty setting is available and can be changed anytime from before the game starts right up to the last boss encounter, from a simple change in the option screen, which also allows players to edit the random enemy encounter rate from 100% (enemies are fought every ten or so steps) to -100% (enemies are not fought at all besides bosses and scripted battles). With 15+ jobs to obtain, superior equipment to wear, and ultra nemesis to fight, this game can easily give the player a 40+ hour experience. Street pass functionality and the ability to import friend's characters to help you along side battle are also a welcomed addition.

Multiple jobs to discover, which use Job Points to level up.

PROS:

+ Great graphics, story, and sound (includes voice acting).
+ Awesome job class system to ensure lots of grinding, but can be customized to make easier.
+ Excellent battle system with various difficulty levels.

CONS:

- Although there are some great pieces of equipment, they seem limited in comparison to the numerous different jobs you can obtain.