Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD (Switch 2)

 

Love in the Crossfire!

I thought I had written about the original game since it came out in 2014, but apparently I didn't began writing my synopsis on finished game until half a year later in 2014 so I never did it. The closest when I was writing about the follow up demo for the second game, Bravely Second. Still haven't finished that main game so might continue with that, but that will be a while since the first game has a tendency to overstay it's welcome. And I had hoped just writing about the differences from the 3DS version and skip the story and such. 

So basically the story is that the great chasm swallows Norende, the pastoral town where Tiz Arrior lives together with his brother. His brother dies in the Chasm and Tiz wakes up in the nearby capital being saved from drowning in a river. He returns to the Chasm and meet Agnes Oblige, the vestal of Wind that looks into the Chasm together with Airy the Cryst-Fairy. They are being hunted by the Eternian forces that are intent on destroying any believers of the Crystal followers. They meet with Ringabel that have lost his memory and joins them after following instructions in his journal. They also meet Edea Lee, daughter of the Grand Marshal of Eternia that switches side after the cruelty shown by the Eternian forces. Together they travel to the four crystals to awaken them and banish the darkness.

The story is pretty much callbacks to Final Fantasy I-V. The order of the crystals is reversed from Final Fantasy I with wind, water, fire and earth. The class system is brought over from Final Fantasy III and V. Braev the Templar looks a bit like paladin Cecil (and Artemis looks like his dark knight version, but that looks like all dark knights in the series) from Final Fantasy IV. The other classes looks a bit like other classes from the games. The magic system is basically the same as Final Fantasy and so on. The biggest difference being the summons that are unique and looks like modern things like planes and trains, but stylised to look like summons so like the plane looks like a bird and so on. Had they done them like in Final Fantasy with Raruh, Bahamut and so on togheter with Moogles and Chocobos it would be the continued series if they hadn't done VI and so on. 

So you get the crystals awakened, fight the asterisk bearers to get the classes and some story bits. Each country is being undermined by the Eternians in different ways so you have to clean it up. You also meet the Sage Yulyana that helps you and then Lester the vampire. After defeating them all and fixing the crystals a pillar of light appears that you enter, Artemis Dim, the dark knight follows you and after defeating him his face is revealed showing Ringabels face and then you are transported back to the beginning of the game. The game is in a time loop like the original Final Fantasy as well. SO you fight the bosses again to awaken the crystals and get more story bits. You do this five times and is in one way kinda admirable for them to stick to it, but it gets repetitious since the dialog repeats as well, making you wonder do they remember what happens between each jump? Especially when the game pretty much spells out the plot for you, Airy is a lying fairy (which at the reveal shows up on the title screen as well). She pushes our heroes to go through this since she is in actuality a demon from the abyss that helps her lord Ouroboros to connect 10 000 worlds to release Ourobors from his prison and invade the celestial realm. I got it and the numbers on her wings showing how many there is left is kinda neat when you notice it, but the characters didn't seem to get it.

You defeat Airy and then fights Ouroboros on a stage that looks like the battle with Chaos from Final Fantasy I and he begins destroying world after world (if you where a bit more social on the 3DS or Switch I have the feeling they would have named the worlds after that compared to "Someone World". Our heroes almost gives up, but then heroes from other worlds helps out (named after my AI buddies since I'm a very anti-social person). Our heroes stand up for a final battle and the background have my mii in the background (Ouroboros hints that a celestial is in Tiz and on the 3DS they used the camera to show the players face making it kinda obvious that the celestial realm is our own). You defeat Ouroboros, everyone returns to their own world (meaning Ringabel went back to the world prior to the starting world).

It's a fun game, but the endgame really drags. In both versions I maxed all jobs and levels. It doesn't make you overpowered, you still need to figure out how to break the game and I don't know if I did it on normal on the 3DS, but I got to the final subplot battles in chapter 8 and tried to go directly to Airy but got beat up so bad. That's when I needed a break with Minish Cap, but after that I just lowered the difficulty to easy and ran through the game as quickly I could. On the 3DS I spent over 100 hours and on this I was something like 90 hours and it's to much. The classic games take something like 20-30 hours and at the 40 hour mark you enter the pillar of light for the first time and would have been better if you maybe had done 2 passes, but no, 5.

What did they add then? Since it's a launch game for the Switch 2 they added things to show the systems functions. They added two minigames that is mouse based. One is a rhythm game and the other is a game where you pilot the airship. By playing you unlock entries in the journal about people you meet and you also get flower points which you can use to get equipments and items. Played mostly Love on the Battlefield-theme, and by looking at the whole Linked Horizon concert the sound was taken from I learned that Motoi Sakuraba was the man playing the synths, you know, the Golden Sun music guy. Best song ever! I spent a couple of hours playing the rhythm game with the song the singer sings. It's rather good so that wasn't a problem, but I thought I could get several ribbons so I grinded up to over 150 points and turned out I could only got 1 of them from the store. There is another in the game, but that was the moment my carefully thought out plan went away and I stuck with easy mode instead. Still, I got a silver sword as fast I got to the mini games and that was useful at the very next part of the game since it was great against undead that was all over the next area. 

So, buy it if you are interested. I got it as a game key card and I wonder if it will be the only one I got like this. As I said, haven't finished the direct sequel and haven't started Bravely Default 2 either even though I have it for Switch. Will take some time before I play it though. The new Donkey Kong game comes out next week (in 2025 when I write this) so I will play something short in between.

Bravely Second: The Ballad of the Three Cavaliers

I assume it's a three musketeers homage?

I played Bravely Default when it was released and enjoyed it greatly, until the end game that is when it faltered with some repetitive nature and forced skill combinations you were forced to learn in order to win certain parts of the game. And it had a demo version which was some non-canon adventure in the desert region of the game so they repeat it here with another demo for the full version. I started it back in 2015... and finished it this year... more than 365 days after I started. Reason being I played it for 15 minutes before watching a play and didn't continue until much later where it took me 13 hours to get to level 20 and achieve most points of the demo.

It starts with the three cavaliers arriving in Al-Khampis where they are investigating certain monsters attack as their role of the best of the Crystal Guard, Janne Agard, Nikolia Nikolaikov and Yew Geonolgia... or however they are spelled. They have been assigned a guide by the Orthodoxy, but they are intercepted by Magnolia Arch who joins their adventure instead. You basically go around and solve quest for the people, defeat enemies and gather ingredients and so forth. Then you met old characters from the last game like the Swordmaster, RedMage and so forth as well as new ones, like a sharpshooter and... a cannibal? When I think about it it isn't much of a coherent story. The game pretty much ends when a monster is revealed in the desert which Magnolia is interested in. It's called a Ba'al and you defeat it and at the ceremony for your victory, Magnolia erases your memory and disappears as she fades away... I have no clue what happened.

Overall the framing story isn't that important, but it works for this since it's three old friends who are assigned a mission and they interact with a forth member which give reason to explain things between them. And it is better than the original demo who was a non-canon adventure just to teach you the game. This one is actually referenced in the main game as far I've played in it. Gameplay wise it's pretty much the same, the only difference is the new asterisks and a double or nothing mechanic if you win in the first turn can instantly fight again to get a multiplier bonus that raises higher and higher the more fights you are in. Also I believe the bestiary is something you have to grind to unlock information about the creatures, specially when the characters scribble their own notes and observations that adds to their characters. Janne is the more aggressive and bullying, Nikolai the calmer and reasoning together with Yew who is a scholar and a bit naive together tin Magnolia that is a bit random. It was fun to unlock and read about the characters and monsters. Although due to a bit of OCD-behaviour it stops me from continuing the story and just grind completion in the bestiary. Which causes me to be overleveled. It didn't get so bad in this demo since it caps at 20, but in the real game I already starts to be 3-4 levels above intended level recommendation. Well it's good to have played it and felt the real camaraderie of the three cavaliers and their goal to bring justice and peace across the world.

Janne on the left, Yew in the middle and Nikolai on the right