The 3DS has successfully become one of the best consoles for role playing games.
Games like Fire Emblem: Awakening, Shin Megami Tensei 4, Etrain Odyssey IV, and more have all enriched the 3DS’s library. Bravely Default was released around the world last December, but myself and others in the North America won’t receive the game until February 7th, 2014. So does Bravely Default deserve all the critical acclaim it has received? From what I have been able to play, I can eagerly say yes.
Gameplay
Bravely Default is the latest game from Silicon Studios who are best known for their game 3D Dot Game Hero. Bravely Default is a turn based rpg and a spiritual successor to Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light. Anybody who is familiar to classic Final Fantasy gameplay will be mostly familiar with how this game plays. Players have a party filled with four characters named Tiz, Agnes, Ringabel, and Edea. These characters don’t have a set class because Bravely Default offers a robust job system. Players can fit any character with a variety of different job classes creating a party that is totally unique to you.
Players use these classes to fight in traditional turn based combat: However, there are a few unique mechanics thrown in to make this system stand out from the rest. When in battle, players can use a technique called Brave which allows your character to take a extra turn. Players spend BP points in order to use Brave, but you don’t need to have any BP points in order to use it. In order to get more BP however, your character simply needs to default (block) for a turn. This becomes very important when it comes to winning battle because players must be wise when they decide to brave. If players decide to brave when they have no BP they will have to sacrifice a turn for each time they braved. The only way to get around this is to default and gain BP. This feature really changes the battles, and makes boss fights especially intense. I was really excited to see a new change in the common turn based format, and I can’t wait to see what the full game will offer.
In addition, the game also has a town building aspect that seemed really interesting, but I couldn’t get the most out of it. Players can rebuild the town of Norende which has been recently destroyed and is actually Tiz’s home. This is accomplished by recruiting villagers and choosing places to build. For example, let’s say you want to build a weapon shop. Players simply click the icon for it and are then presented a time. With one villager, the shop will be fully built/repaired in a hour. This may seem like a long time, but players can lower that time by assigning more villagers to that job. In order to recruit villagers however, the game utilizes the street pass feature on the 3DS console. For each player your street pass connects with, it adds a villager to your town. Some NPC can also add villagers to your town, but it doesn’t seem like a reliable resource. Overall, I found this feature to be very promising and I can’t wait to see the full benefits it brings to the main gameplay.
Presentation
Visually, the game looked stunning; especially the backgrounds. The background have a certain pre-render look to them which looks beautiful on the 3DS. The visual style actually reminds me a bit of the classic Playstation RPG Vagrant Story. In addition to that, the character and enemy designs are very creative. However, I believe the creme de la creme is easily the soundtrack. From what I heard, this is probably one of the best soundtracks I have heard in a video game. Although my experience with the presentation was limited to one part of a game, I am really excited to see the rest that this game has to offer
Overall
Bravely Default might just become your next favorite RPG on the 3DS. It features many promising mechanics that seem to change the repetitive gameplay that comes from the JRPG Genre. Besides that, the game has already received massive critical success across the world. If you are looking to hop into another great RPG on the 3DS make sure to keep your eyes on Bravely Default which releases on Febuary 7th, 2013 in North America.
