Bravely Second: End Layer (3DS)
Dec. 8th, 2017 09:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroTwo years after Tiz and Agnes saved Luxendarc, a new threat has arisen, and a boy named Yew (heir to a famous house) and a warrior maiden from the moon must save the world again, this time from the evil Kaiser Oblivion and his flying fortress.
A lot of this, both in terms of systems and plots, is a re-hash of the first game (literally: the dungeons from the first game are used for the side quests, in which you fight the first game's asterisk holders to unlock the first game's classes). Those classes are not strictly necessary, as there's a new variation on white and black mages and several new fighter-style classes the game gives you automatically, but it's fun to have access to everything.
Given that it’s been a few years since I played the original game, I’m more okay with re-doing original dungeons—they feel a bit nostalgic. For that matter, the returning classes are streamlined and many returning antagonists get better characterization than just, “I’m CRAZY EVIL!” I felt like less grinding was required overall. They added a feature where, if you beat a battle in one turn, you can take on an additional battle and multiply your rewards. In practice, this streamlines grinding, because I didn’t realize it at first, but the multipliers make every additional battle count double. (Two battles gives the rewards of three, three gives five, four gives eight, etc.)
I was annoyed by the meta-trick required to unlock the second half of the game: You reach a “bad ending” situation and are told that New Game + has unlocked. What you need to do is start a new game plus, then on your first turn in the intro battle, use the Bravely Second feature, which brings in your original party and forces the plot to continue. And I understand they wanted to give you the “re-do the sidequests/everything” feature that the first game had, but in a different way, this felt needlessly obtuse. (The ending goes crazy meta, with fourth-wall breaking to make the usual matter of killing God more exciting.)
I was also somewhat annoyed that they never really put together why the Caldisla region had been hidden / forgotten: It was Yoko’s doing, ostensibly to protect the world from Anne finding the Great Chasm. But that’s left kinda muddled by the exposition. Also, townspeople talk about a warrior named Setanta in lots of side conversations, but this appears to never be relevant to anything.
Overall: If you enjoyed the first game, you will also enjoy this. It’s very much more of the same; the plot is a little weaker and the mechanics are a little stronger, but on balance about on par.
A lot of this, both in terms of systems and plots, is a re-hash of the first game (literally: the dungeons from the first game are used for the side quests, in which you fight the first game's asterisk holders to unlock the first game's classes). Those classes are not strictly necessary, as there's a new variation on white and black mages and several new fighter-style classes the game gives you automatically, but it's fun to have access to everything.
Given that it’s been a few years since I played the original game, I’m more okay with re-doing original dungeons—they feel a bit nostalgic. For that matter, the returning classes are streamlined and many returning antagonists get better characterization than just, “I’m CRAZY EVIL!” I felt like less grinding was required overall. They added a feature where, if you beat a battle in one turn, you can take on an additional battle and multiply your rewards. In practice, this streamlines grinding, because I didn’t realize it at first, but the multipliers make every additional battle count double. (Two battles gives the rewards of three, three gives five, four gives eight, etc.)
I was annoyed by the meta-trick required to unlock the second half of the game: You reach a “bad ending” situation and are told that New Game + has unlocked. What you need to do is start a new game plus, then on your first turn in the intro battle, use the Bravely Second feature, which brings in your original party and forces the plot to continue. And I understand they wanted to give you the “re-do the sidequests/everything” feature that the first game had, but in a different way, this felt needlessly obtuse. (The ending goes crazy meta, with fourth-wall breaking to make the usual matter of killing God more exciting.)
I was also somewhat annoyed that they never really put together why the Caldisla region had been hidden / forgotten: It was Yoko’s doing, ostensibly to protect the world from Anne finding the Great Chasm. But that’s left kinda muddled by the exposition. Also, townspeople talk about a warrior named Setanta in lots of side conversations, but this appears to never be relevant to anything.
Overall: If you enjoyed the first game, you will also enjoy this. It’s very much more of the same; the plot is a little weaker and the mechanics are a little stronger, but on balance about on par.
