Topic: Bravely Default II (Nintendo Switch)

I’m super disappointed with blurry graphics in handheald mode! Didn’t try it on tv but in handeald it’s looking horrendous for a new game. It cannot be that Switch is that bad spec wise.. we’ve seen much complex games running much better graphics.
That’s a shame because if graphics were better it would be a day one purchase for me because I’m a big fan of previous Bravely games

I played in handheld mode and it was one of the best looking games I've played on handheld (art style played into that, of course).

But it wasn't "blurry" at all. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 in Gormott field or in the cloud sea, or Wolfenstein 2 in game cutscenes before the patch... that's blurry. This game was absolutely fine.

Taken right on my Switch Lite. This is top notch. I bet it comes out to be 720p in the analysis too, or at least 540p minimum. People said the same thing about other games, then it turns out ya, it was max res the whole time. I mean, even going out there on a limb and saying its 540p, that's still pretty good for handheld gaming. No way that's "blurry". You need 360p to 480p before things actually get into blurry territory. In fact, go play Bravely Default or Bravely Second on 3DS for a reminder on what actual blurry games look like.

I've even seen some 480p games that didnt look blurry due to some visual tricks they use. Spyro is one of them. That game looks fantastic on handheld and it was only 480p! Goes to show res isnt everything. Sometimes games can look better than their native res suggests. Art style likely plays into that.

In any case, if this is considered "blurry" then I'll play blurry games all day every day. Please make my games blurry like this.

Just look at character models.. it looks like they ported straight from 3ds games. Actually all that BD2 hype made me start a new game on Bravely Default on my 3ds xl and I swear that game looks more impressive with 3D on that this one on Switch.

And no, I'm not saying BD2 doesn’t have higher resolution but but original just feels more visually impressive on that piece of toaster aka 3ds.

Just look at high detail lvl of tiny things in Animal Crossing NH.. I couldn’t believe that game can look so good on switch and now you have that irritating character Elvis from 3ds era.

It's a chibi art style. It's meant to look like that. And it's a zoomed out view so, you're not going to see as much detail.

Sure, I'll agree that for the 3DS, the original games were more impressive in a relative sense, but that's only because most other games looked butt ugly on 3DS, while Switch is running full AAA games in comparison. Compare this to other JRPGs on Switch in handheld mode (not first party games with cartoon art styles and cell shading, which can be leveraged to make almost anything look bad in comparison) and its above average, easily.

Art style is subjective. No sense arguing over that. But I think the art style is drop dead gorgeous and they've nailed it beyond any possible expectation I could have hoped for. Its immaculate. As for res, it's par for the course. At worst it's the same as every other JRPG on the system. At best it's a step above. Certainly looks higher res than Dragon Quest XI S or YS VIII in handheld mode. And those games looked good in handheld mode.

I agree that the enemies were pretty unbalanced in the demo, but I did give that a mild pass; I had assumed they were so lopsided due to the intentionally increased difficulty. I did pretty well on the enemies close to Savalon, but I definitely had issues with the wasps and snake-like monsters. No TPKs, but I had one or two members downed in more than one battle.

Both Bravely games on the 3DS look pretty decent to me, especially with the 3D effect running. Granted, unless something is a major graphical mess, I'm not typically bothered by resolution.

That's what I figured too. They said they intentionally made the demo more difficult (why I dont know). The wasps destroyed me.

I'm confident the full game will have a much more gradual difficulty curve, and less punishing. Which is why I'm not really concerned about that. It does kind of put me off from grinding the demo, but in no way erodes my excitement for the actual game itself.

Not to mention, the entire purpose of the demo is to garner feedback and improve. Now. If someone just hates absolutely everything, they may as well stop discussing the game now because there's nothing here for them. They're not going to completely change every aspect of the game, nor should they. Most of what they have is top notch. Just a few tweaks here and there and we'll have a defining JRPG masterpiece on our hands.

I'm also pretty sure there will be difficulty levels.

The unbalanced battles are probably what I'm least worried about. That sort of thing will often be polished in the final few months of development. It's the artistic aspects of the game I think they need to look closely at.

Normal random encounters are a bit dated, but the QoL improvements that came along with the international release of BD:FF made it very convenient for the player. Seeing enemies on the map is better than normal random encounters, but fully customizable random encounters grant even more control to the player's experience.

It was an amazing mix of old-school style with modern improvements.

I... we're just not going to agree here. Aside from having better texture quality and a higher displayed resolution, it looks worse, imo, than the original game did on the 3DS. The soft, painterly style worked really well with the low-res 3DS visuals, but the visual design is just messy here.

I do agree with whoever said it's like they've taken a 3DS game and upscaled it for the Switch. The look doesn't work for me.

Also, noses don't mix well with the chibi-ish character designs.

The original did a perfectly fine job of having strategic depth without adding an arbitrary value to your equipment.

I'm not too bothered by it, though. Maybe they'll balance this well in the full release. Just seems like a weird change to make.

The original had amazing music. Even the random encounter music was a banger. It was a huge aspect of that game's appeal.

Advertising the return of Revo was pointless if they're going to turn in merely adequate work for the sequel.

Very few games have actively bad music. But when you're a sequel to a game known for the quality of its OST, you had better make sure the music is up to snuff.

@Ralizah
But again, you havent played the game yet. You havent heard the soundtrack yet. Only a demo. If you want to criticize the soundtrack after the game releases and reviews have had a change to hear it... go for it.

But the eagerness I'm seeing to dismiss Revo as if their talent just evaporated into thin air all because you didnt hear a particular banger in a demo... seems very strange, especially from someone who usually has reserved and balanced opinions. Maybe it will turn out not as good. I don't know. But that's just the thing. None of us do. The game isnt out yet.

You dont judge a soundtrack by a demo any more than you judge the story. For that you have to have the full game in hand.

As for the rest... yes, we'll have to just disagree. This game seems to be everything I loved about the originals but improved in every conceivable way, aside from a few questionable menu and interface decisions which can easily be ironed out (and even if not, they're not a dealbreaker)

I have no strong opinions about these games (outside of not getting the appeal of the first game's characters at all), but I do have to agree that some parts of graphics in this game seem underwhelming for even a B-tier Switch game, especially the characters. But to be fair, I had some similar issues in Megaman 11.

@Ralizah @JaxonH The graphics are a bit of a turn off for me, the 3DS games are just more visually appealing. Part of that is being used to the 3DS graphics though, and I always (always) come round to the style of a game I previously disliked once I get into it.

Enemies on the map seems a bit pointless to me too when they had such great flexibility with the random battle slider. Just put that back in, make it easy access, and let the player decide if they want combat or not.

Not dishing out all your player moves at the start of the turn is a really annoying difference, hopefully they'll change that.

I don't really like the way the character feels when you're moving round the map, doesn't it seem less responsive than it did on 3DS? Can't all be down to the lack of circle pad...

I think people have just played power consoles for so long their expectations of what handheld games should look like has skyrocketed through the roof.

Mega Man 11 was a good looking game. Nothing special, but clean. On Switch it was much more impressive though.

And if I were to look at Bravely Default II through the lens of a new exclusive PS4 game... sure. I'd probably have the same opinion. But its not. It's a Switch game, 7th gen power, and compared to PS3 and 360 games it looks phenomenal. Compared to 3DS it looks like a two generation leap.

The ability to compartmentalize expectations of games on present day power consoles/PC and games on handheld consoles is quickly eroding, it seems. I look at this game and I'm taken aback at how incredible it looks. The graphics are muah! Just gorgeous.

Watching that trailer especially, seeing the characters run through the environments, I was just astounded at how amazing this game looks visually.

So when I hear complaints of everything from graphics to art style to resolution (really?) I'm just flabbergasted.

@kyleforrester87
Some people dont dig the chibi style, and that I can at least appreciate, even if I love it and think they've adapted to HD perfectly.

But I cant support random battles or sliders any more than I would for a Final Fantasy, Persona or any other JRPG. Why it's a huge step forward when every other series does it, but a detriment when Bravely Default does it, seems questionable to me.

I also love the turn order. It adds depth. Not that I disliked how it was before, but I'm all in for the change. No idea what the big deal is. Plenty of games have similar systems and its never been a problem for those games.

edit That being said they should add the actual turn order so the player can see it, then it would be perfect

Moving around also feels completely normal to me so, Idk.

@JaxonH No problem with the chibi style, certain aspects (the monsters in particular) just looks rather.. unsophisticated, generic and cheap, I suppose. I'll undoubtably come round to it.

Theres just no reason to be able to see enemies on the map when you could have a slider to chose how often you encounter them anyway. Without the easy to access slider.. sure, make enemies visible so you can avoid them if you don't want to fight. I just liked really the slider.

Yes, turn order is a must if they are going to keep it like this.

And as for the movement, it's most noticable in the city - it's fine in the dungeons and on the world map. The momentum just seems a bit off when exploring around town on the 2d/2.5D map (whatever you want to call it)

Small thing, but I also miss being able to skip the battle intro. Only saved you a second or two, but it was a nice touch when you're grinding.

@kyleforrester87
I really like how the monsters look. In fact I was actually impressed by how good they look. When I first saw the wasp the very first thought that popped into my mind was how I felt when I first saw a zinger in DKC as a kid, and the emotional response felt the same as back then. It was such an amazing looking game at the time and how good the monsters look here made me feel exactly the same way.

I get that people grow attached to the older systems such as the slider but things have to evolve. You got to enjoy two games with that system. There comes a point in time where the series has to take a step forward- we can’t stay in random battle land forever. And for every person who likes the random battles there’s five people who would rather have enemies you can see. Hence why games are moving in that direction, because that’s what most people like nowadays (myself included). There’s still items that can repel enemies so if you want to “turn off the slider”, I’m sure those items will have the same effect. Anything in between can be achieved by how often you choose to battle.

And yeah, they definitely need to add a little bar at the top of the HUD that shows turn order. That I’m 100% on board with.

Not sure about the city movement. It might just be an illusion due to the perspective of the camera. Mechanically it feels the same to me. But that seems like a very minor gripe. As long as there’s not delay or lag, I’m good.

Ha!

I didn’t know you could turn the camera out in the desert. Idk how I didn’t try that before. This whole time I’ve been thinking some secrets were hidden by perspective. Wth... And, you can spin the camera behind you with the right analog stick. That’s awesome.

@kyleforrester87
Also, I would like to be able to skip the battle into too. But that’s a very small, bottom of the barrel nitpick. The fact they give you so much control over the speed of the battles more than compensates. I like the middle speed. Really fast but not insanely so. It makes the normal speed feel way too slow in comparison.

I’m not sure if the demo has a glitch, but I mastered all my jobs, yet my black mage hasn’t gained any special abilities. Everyone else has 2 or 3.

I am fine with most of the things in this game. One of the very few things I think needs changes/improvements is the battle turn system. Not knowing when the enemy is going to attack can put one at disadvantage due to the turns being like in Octopath Traveler. Another option would be that they put the turns like in the previous two Bravely games.

While I'm happy that the ethers are more affordable than in the previous games, now the equipment is very expensive. But I hope that this was just for the demo version to give us more time to experiment with the jobs.

P.S: They need to slow the talking speed of Elvis. I can't keep up with what he is saying XD

@JaxonH it’s the little details in the originals which made it stand out, so it is disappointing to see them regressing (even if it is something as minor as not being able to skip the battle intros.)

But that’s why they released this demo, and if it’s anything like Octopath they will no doubt listen to this sort of feedback so I am not worried.

I bet it won’t be out until late October at the earliest, and might even delay into next year.

I have actually already bought all the best equipment for all of my characters from the shop.

When I first started playing this game it was insanely difficult. Tough as nails. But now I’m starting to get really powerful and enemies are running away from me. It’s too adorable watching these enemies turn around and run with the little fear tear animations over their heads lol. I’m almost level 17, and I can’t express how rewarding it feels to have gotten so powerful when I felt so helpless not that long ago.

One of the things that was turning me off from continuing to play the demo is how that wasp destroyed my entire entourage. But now that I’ve leveled up quite a bit, and bought better equipment for everyone, and purchased accessories that provide immunity to silence or blindness or poison... have mastered jobs and started working on mastering new jobs for everybody... it just feels so amazing.

There are some really great attributes that I’m vying for all my team mates. In particular are the ones that provide MP restoration when doing damage, and the ones that decrease damage when defaulting. So white mage and vanguard are absolutely musts for every party member, just for the skill sets they provide. Once everyone has mastered those two jobs I’ll probably change them back to their original assignments. But right now I want to ensure every party member has those skills.