BRAVELY DEFAULT II

Review

Years ago, the Kingdom of Musa that once watched over the world, lost its four crystals, this lead to it's destruction, it fell apart and into despair. Now Princess Gloria along with Seth (your character’s name here), Adelle and Elvis you set off to find the four missing crystals in the hope of returning the Kingdom of Musa back to its former glory.

The game starts with a small intro underwater, “I am that which whispers... Which carries... Which connects... This thread of life... Adrift... Untethered... It must be woven back into the fabric of the world... Remember... Remember who you are... (choose your game difficulty here).

Now go... Return to the land... To your destiny... Cry out your name...” (name your character here).

There are three game difficulties to choose from: Casual (recommended for those players who wish to enjoy the story with easier battles), Normal (for everyone wanting a standard game) and finally Hard (recommended for everyone who wants a game where the battles and enemy turns come around much quicker than the other game difficulties). You are able to change the game’s difficulty at any time should you be struggling or want tougher battles.

After you’ve chosen your name and difficulty the game will start. You find yourself washed up on a beach with the waves lapping you as the sun beats down.  You notice two figures looking at you, an old grey-haired man and a younger woman. They are speaking about some crystal and a light which leads them to you. The old man is Sir Sloan and the young lady is Gloria, Princess of Musa. They take you to Halcyonia, where you awake in an Inn and after talking with Gloria and Sir Sloan your adventure begins.

Making your way around Halcyonia or any other town you’ll find shops, other places of interest and folks standing around doing whatever they’re doing. You can get a better look at your current location by zooming out. This will show you where places such as shops and inns are, as well as folks who may a job for you to complete. People with a quest for you will have a blue speech bubble instead of a normal white one. Talking to them will allow you to accept or refuse the quest they offer you. Indicated by a yellow and black diamond shaped icon is a key location which you are required to visit, as it’s part of the story. Other quests are indicated by the same icon although they will have a different colour in the bottom corner of the icon to indicate a different quest.

Leaving a town or city will take you out into the open world where you’ll find creatures roaming the land, and if you get close enough, they will attack you for the most part. Upon encountering an enemy you’ll be taken to the battle screen, where you will combat the enemy you have just encountered. There will be multiple enemies to fight and there may be other creatures apart from the one with whom you initiated combat. So, you’ll have to beware of who you fight as there’s no way of knowing who’s going to be in your next encounter. These creatures won’t always attack you, sometimes they will run away from you. This happens when you are too high a level and too strong for those enemies, although you can still initiate a fight if you run into them.

Combat consists of choosing from various options when it's your character’s turn, which is decided with the Turn Gauges which are displayed under your characters Health and Magic points as a bar which fills yellow. Once filled it will then be the turn of that character. The character you start with will have the options Attack, Miscellany (this will depend on the characters Job), Brave, Default and Items; other options will become available as you take on new Jobs.

Choosing Attack will allow you to perform a physical attack using the weapon that you’ve assigned to a character. There are several types of weapons that you can choose for your characters:  Daggers, Swords, Axes, Spears, Staffs, Bows and Shields. The characters can hold a weapon in both hands, so you could have a sword and shield or a spear and dagger, it’s up to you how you equip your characters.

Selecting Default will allow your character to go on the defence for their current turn, but it will also give your character a Built- Up Power point. You can use these Built-Up Power points by selecting Brave; this will allow you to use up to three points at any time allowing you to perform multiple actions. You are also able to select Brave up to four times and then perform multiple actions without first selecting Default. However, when you do this, it will skip your next turns depending on the number of times you selected Brave; this can come in handy if you find yourself in a pinch mid-battle.

Miscellany is the abilities of the Job type Freelancer, which is the main Job of your main character to begin with. With the Miscellany you will be able to use abilities such as Examine which will allow you to reveal an enemy’s Weakness and their Health. Examine is the first of the Miscellany abilities; you will unlock new ones as you win battles and earn Job Points. Once you have levelled up enough then your character will become a Master in that Job.

You can also have apart from your main job; a Sub Job.  This is a secondary job which you can use in combat and will provide other abilities. However, your sub job will not level up like your main job does so you will only have the basic abilities of the sub job. You can swap main and sub jobs around so that if you have mastered a job, you will still be able to take advantage of its abilities even if it is set as a sub job. There are several different types of jobs in which you can assign to your characters: Freelancer, Black Mage, White Mage, Vanguard and others.

To unlock new jobs, you will have to uncover Asterisks which can be found after defeating some shady characters. There are also Passive abilities which you can unlock, select and fill up to five slots for abilities; each ability will  take one slot out of the five you have available. As your character jobs increase in level, you’ll earn new passive abilities, some of which will have different values and will require more than one slot.

There will come a time when multiple enemies move onto you to initiate combat; when this happens it will trigger Consecutive Battles. This is a normal battle, but upon completion of the first battle another one will commence straight away. You can have multiple consecutive battles and in doing so you will gain better rewards and experience points multiplied by a factor depending on the number of battles you competed against. There are Monster Treats which you can use to bring in more creatures so that you can create more consecutive battles.

While roaming about, be on the lookout for creatures that look only slightly different to similar creatures. These creatures are much stronger than their normal versions, so only pay them a visit if you really think you can handle them, otherwise you could walk away with a spanked botty.

If you can approach a creature from behind, then you will gain the advantage in the battle, but this could also go against you if a creature creeps up behind you, gaining the advantage. You can also gain an added advantage by striking your enemy with your weapon prior to initiating combat. This will empower your group, making them feel brave.

You will have characters join you on your adventure, such as Princess Gloria and Sir Sloan. Some characters you won’t be able to control in battles, but they will aid you; Sir Sloan is one of these characters, while Princess Gloria you will be able to control in the midst of battle.

After helping an old lady on the beach, the lady returns the favour by allowing you to use her boat. You can use this boat by visiting a shop in town; this will allow you to go exploring. This exploring will take place in the background as you carry on with the game. Exploration will last for a length of time, but you can go back and visit the old woman at any time and stop exploring. As you explore, a small story will play out, detailing what you have found on your travels. Once an exploration has been stopped, any items or loot you had found will now be available to you and be stored in your inventory.

In the settings you will find options for Graphics - Resolution, Display Mode, V-Sync, Brightness, Sound (Master, Music, Sound Effects, Voices Volume Sliders and Restore Defaults), and Controller, Keyboard and Mouse shortcuts.

I do love to play games like Bravery Default II, and so far, I haven’t been disappointed with the game. I love the characters, especially Elvis.  The story is decent, and there’s plenty of quests to complete. There are multiple job options so you can customise your group and their play styles to your liking. The combat system, while  like any other in this type of game, has the added bonus of the Brave system which can help you out in a spot of bother or defeat your enemies through multiple attacks in one turn.

I haven’t had any problems with the game, although while out roaming the world, I did find the camera angles a little awkward when trying to get a butchers at your next way point. But this could be just the game not showing you the whole picture, as it would also show all the creatures roaming around.

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com

BRAVELY DEFAULT II Steam Store Page