Bravely Default – Square Enix – February 7, 2013 — $39.99
Photo Via – Bravely Default Website
Square Enix is making a statement with their new title “Bravely Default” releasing for 3DS on February 7, 2014. The demo was made available about a week ago on the eShop sporting 4 difficult bosses and 7 quests that would help you understand game mechanics, and give you items that transfer into the full version when purchased.
The first piece of gameplay that I am impressed with is the town rebuilding system. Set as a freemium style select-and-wait game, this has you upgrading shops and exploring different parts of the town to unlock higher level armor from merchants. In the demo there are points in the game that require you to upgrade the city to progress. While this was crucial to understanding the mechanic, there was one point of frustration for me. The game only counts progress towards these elements when it is running or in standby mode. This means that if you hit a wall, like I did before the forest boss, you have to leave the system in standby while you’re waiting for the task to complete. This also means that even though I can’t progress further in the game I can’t play any other 3DS titles. The street pass addition to this feature did what all Street Pass elements do, make me wish more people were playing the demo and that more people walked around downtown SLC with their system in tag mode. Each unique tag you receive gives you an extra citizen in the rebuilt town, which can be used to increase the speed at which tasks are performed. For example, upgrading the weapons shop to level 3 takes 7 hours with 1 citizen. Two citizens reduce that time to 3.5 hours, 3 citizens to 1.75 hours, etc. Generally, waiting for these upgrades gave me time to grind levels and money which is the next thought on the demo.
Photo Via – Bravely Default Site
The demo itself lends you to a lot of grinding. It took me 13.5 hours of play to get to and defeat the Dragon on hard. I would say that 7 hours of that was simply running around the dungeon grinding up levels before I reach the boss. The dungeons in the demo weren’t large enough to push you up in level enough to feel equal to the boss you were fighting. The first two were quite easy, and then the next 3 were insanely tough. Not until the game allowed you to rebattle the bosses was I able to find an efficient way to level my characters to take on the higher challenges. Once again, this is only a demo, but the concern does sit that it may require you to do the same in the full version, instead of utilizing the story and battle system to force you into combat situations that will naturally level you. I don’t mind a bit of grinding in an RPG, but I do mind if it is a constant requirement from quest-to-quest.
Brave and Default Mechanics
These mechanics are awesome, and the fact that the enemy uses them as well made battles challenging and exciting. Essentially, Brave mode lets you sacrifice “battle points” to use an extra move that turn, the consequences are, missing your next turn to recuperate that point, but if used correctly the rewards far outweigh it. “Default” sets you into a defensive stance that allows you to regain “Battle Points” faster, and has you taking less damage, finding different combinations of the two made battling unique and fun.
The classes in game are also intriguing, utilizing them and leveling up different character classes became a sort of obsession after finishing my first demo run. My current project is leveling my entire team as “Ninja’s” in the hopes of doing insane amounts of damage within the first three turns. Who needs healers or tanks when you can drop a nuke right?
Even with a few points of contention towards mechanics the first impression from this game is absolutely phenomenal. I love the idea of a side story demo, vs. having you play one dungeon from the story. Everything on the 7th will be fresh and the game itself looks like the developer really has a handle on making what we’d consider to be a run-of-the mill turn-based JRPG into something phenomenally unique. Check back next month for our full review, and if you’re in Salt Lake for God’s sake turn on your tag mode and come find me.