Bravely Default Developer Team Asano Asks Fans If They Want A New Entry

The AR and Streetpass stuff was barely relevant in the original, I don't think it would really be missed.

Not really interested in new entries after BD2 and I suppose just in general I'm not really into these types of JRPGs where practically the only gameplay comes from the boss battles.

Don't ask just make it.. we will buy it.

The street pass interactions would have to be replaced with a different system so I can see why they are hesitant. The summons and town population would not be easy to replicate.

Would a sequel to 'Bravely Default II' be called 'Bravely Second II'?

of course ...most switch rpg fans would be interested in a third installment..

If they just want to alternate between Bravely Default and Octopath until the end of time, I'm cool with that.

"Bravely Default II was well-received by fans" I'm not going to judge as I have yet to personally experience the game, but considering how I have never seen a single person praise the game in any way, shape or form, I wonder if I've just been looking at the wrong places.

@BrazillianCara I think you've been looking in the wrong places, honestly. It is a WONDERFUL game. I absolutely love it.

@BrazillianCara From what I've seen, not many people absolutely love it. II is a fairly generic RPG, and most of the game is grinding in order to get further into the story. There's some great moments plot-wise, but not as good as what I heard the other two games had.

@BrazillianCara I think the reason it's not mentioned much is because it's such a 'safe' JRPG. Nothing wrong with it at all, it's just that it doesn't do much that's memorable.

After BD2 I’d rather not have a new game.

I've only played the first, but there are few games I've disliked more. I'm not saying they should stop if others enjoy them, but that game irked me like no other.

How about a remake of the original, without that AWFUL second half?

If we can put in a decent story, sure. The last one was pretty cheap on presentation. I don’t even remember what happened really, come to think of it. Something about fairies…

If people want it sure why not? But I am done with boring grinder jrpgs. Give me something with soul please.

@MrHonest My impression as well.. I'd rather ports of Bravely Default/Second. Disappointed with Default 2...

BD2 was such a disappointment, compared to the previous entries. Enough is enough. Grinding gets to a point is not fun anymore, like the Hyrule Warriors game. So if they can't fix their mistakes is not even worth to ask for another game.

I haven't played the other games, but the first Bravely Default already had the option to download random people once a day if you couldn't use Streetpass.

Ports of the 3DS games would be appreciated, especially with Nintendo killing off the 3DS in just over 5 months.

Since when was Bravely II well received? The extreme difficulty and outright rule breaking of boss fights made it extremely clear the love and balancing that went into the first two were replaced by laziness or, more likely, studio rush to release. I've ZERO desire for there to ever be a Bravely 3rd bc my gods it was depressing to see a series that had such well built up and balanced boss fights go to "we're not feeling up to all that balancing, so we'll just let bosses do basically whatever they want and go as many turns as they desire. There! We have achieved difficulty!" It literally killed my interest in the series, and adding another on top just feels like spitting acid on an amputation wound.

It’s an ok series. I wouldn’t buy a third. I’ve had my fill with the first 2 games. There’s just something that irritates me about this series and the characters but I can’t quite but my finger on it.

NoooooooooOOOOOOOOO.

Damn, a lot criticism I see here are clearly from newer JRPG fans who miss the point. The Bravely games are meant to have simple stories and characters because they're inspired by the old Final Fantasy games like 3 or 5 which Square designed to be more gameplay driven rather than narrative driven, you might as well rag on Mario for having no story next.

That being said, I'd love a third game, I prefer if they keep doing self contained stories instead of continuing the 3DS one. I'm curious to see what more jobs they could come up with so I can mix and match them for a good strategy. Until then, I'll be happy with Octopath 2.

@Dizavid it sold well and it has a mostly positive reception on its Steam page.

I don't see how the game is frustratingly hard either, it's easier than the first two if anything. I Steam rolled every boss on the second half just by combining the right jobs for each character.

Well, I really liked the first two games on 3DS, but...

BD1 had very annoying second part of the game which is complete repetitive slog. Who played it, he knows. I do not want to see it ever again in any game. However, I like building the village and I like the characters.

I enjoyed End Layer the most. Interesting story, building the moon base. But the voice over was somehow strange. And the boss fight was absolutely genious! Post game is ok. And both of these games have amazing word plays in the title that I greatly missed with BD2.

BD2 on Switch is mostly average game. The figures look like they are made of plastic and lack a soul. The game is too easy but I enjoyed grinding to develop all classes. This time, I completely skipped using any magic attack due to magic counters on every other mob. I missed that there is not any town or base to build. I missed any direct references to the characters from previous games. I enjoyed the card game and the boss fight but then there is no post game. Not a bad game but also not great.

I would buy the next game if there were the best aspects from previous games I enjoyed.

Please port and make another. I started two ten days ago and have 48 hours invested in it. It is a classic jrpg with excellent music and a great, intuitive combat system. Graphically, it is beautifully simple. It’s a great throw on the old school SNES rpgs.

Porting the first two would be very welcome, don't really think there's much need for a new one unless they have a more concrete idea of how to approach it from a new direction. Bravely Default 2 taking the approach of, "Let's do the same thing again except the gameplay's worse," kind of underperformed for a reason.

@Liam “use of AR and SteeetPass” 😉

@retroman64 This and also this
make me dislike Bravely Default 2.. compared with Bravely Default and Bravely Second.

I guess you already finished Bravely Default and Bravely Second as well right? Since most of us that dislike II are comparing it with its predecessors.. imo.

@Anachronism If they toss in the occasional Triangle Strategy as well, then I am down for this business model too!

@Miu i think it would be faster if I replayed the games than read all of that lmao.

I really loved Bravely Default II, I thought it was much better than both the 3DS games. It's quite an underrated game in my opinion. If they can keep that kind of quality up then I would definitely buy a new entry.

Why bother asking when they will go with whatever the shareholders decide anyway?

Yes, please! I’d take a new game and ports

I enjoyed both 3DS entries and would love to see them ported, though I understand the difficulties involved. I own Bravely Default II on the Switch but haven't played it yet.

I got a bit burned out after the third entry, but I would look forward to a new entry.

BD III? NO THANK YOU!!! After they completely ruined the combat in BD II, I have no interest in the series continuing. But if they port the 3DS games or make a "Bravely Third" with the same combat as BD/BS, I'm in.

@PapaGarv How was the combat ruined? It felt the same to me.

Give it (all of it) to me on PlayStation 4/5 or Steam and I'm on board. Not really interested in supporitng my switch anymore since getting the Deck.

I'm playing the second game now on PC. I'm not terribly far, so I can't make any meaningful comments on it. It's a bit grindy, but that goes with the territory. The series is inspired by classic Final Fantasy titles (it WAS initially conceived as a FF spinoff before changing the name in development), and I literally grew up on the job class level grind lol. Only thing I'm not getting about a lot of the comments is people who feel 2 was a step down so they say don't make any more. A lot of revered franchises (including BDs parent series FF) have their divisive entries or duds. Imagine if they just ended the one time the community was split on a title. Square followed up the very divisive FF 8 with the generally beloved 9, for example.

Where do they ask these things!! I'm definitely a fan but it sucks that I only ever read about "fan feedback" after the fact, and usually coming from some nebulous source. How do I contribute?? Sorry it just always reminds me of the frustration of reading that Paper Mario Sticker Star was changed based on "fan feedback" from some random Club Nintendo forms.

I wouldn't mind a new entry if I could go ahead and get a port of the original and Second. I've heard the remarks of difficulty, I don't doubt it takes getting into the code and making some tweaks, but if these games are brought over, I may yet give this series a go. But only if I get to start it from the beginning. I only want to play them on Switch or I won't bother.

Games like Bravely Default are just too simple for me. I loved games like it when I was younger. Played through breath of fire and final fantasy many times. However, now, I'm more interested in games that provide more mental stimulation. Octopath Traveler was much better in that regard (and also the story was way better as well even considering the awful secret ending)

@BrazillianCara

I think it’s ok.

It has some problems. The story is lame sauce.

But the boss fights are hella fun and actually challenging overall. Unlike another certain Square RPG (cough Dragon Quest XI; don’t get me wrong I love DQXI but most of the boss fights are stupid easy)

Revert the art design back to the 3DS entries. The pasty, plastic character models of BDII were just too awful for me to consider buying the game. I could not take the in-game dialogue seriously in the demo; that's how jarring the character models are for me. I'd rather they go back to the 3DS/DS polygon character models than to move forward with BDII's current art design.

I'd love another Bravely game, but they ABSOLUTELY need to fix the problems that were present in BD2. It seems like they not only got rid of every QoL feature from Second and some even from the original game, but they added in several new things that nobody asked for that do nothing but make the game more annoying. The game is unbalanced as heck and the story is half-baked, but I wouldn't mind those so much if they had just had dungeon maps, kept the new features from BS (like saving party configurations), not included the weight system, and most importantly, not had the stupid COUNTERS. Dear lord. I reviewed all three games here: https://themartiangeek.wordpress.com/2021/05/22/video-game-review-3-bravely-default-bravely-second-and-bravely-default-2-something-old-something-new-something-brave-something-true/

I also ranted about the game here: https://youtu.be/e9avg1SjFuU?t=192

(Edit: PART 1/2)
@Wilforce It all comes down to turn economy, which is what the entire series is based on (it's literally the name of the game). There's 2 big differences that ruin it for me (and plenty of smaller changes, like getting rid of random encounters and all the sliders for exp/jp/pg/encounter rate, and many more I won't list). Keep in mind, this is coming from someone who absolutely adored the combat in the 3DS games. BD might be my favorite JRPG (either that or Golden Sun 1&2)

My first issue is that combat in BD II is much more reactive - you don't plan your moves in advance for everyone. Instead, you pick what you want a character to do when they get their action. Not inherently bad on its own, but it could've been handled better. It especially makes Default feel a lot less good to use. Two obvious issues: you no longer get to Default at the start of an encounter, and you don't have to think about whether the enemy will default on their turn. This results in a minor loss in strategy overall. But more importantly, half of the game's namesake (tbf, the less important half) has been altered (or rather, its context).

My second issue, and this is the big one, is the pseudo-ATB system (I know, I know, it's not all that "active" but waiting around for a meter to fill up isn't exactly "active" either. This system is still basically ATB, just with "wait mode" turned on and the bars move a lot faster. So don't complain about me calling it that). I really dislike that every character and enemy no longer get the same number of actions (in fact, I think ATB in general is kinda bad for this reason). It makes it more confusing and unpredictable than it needs to be. The bars they added help a little bit, but the game really needs a proper timeline like Octopath Traveler or FFX. It also makes coordinating a full-team strategy more cumbersome, whereas BD/BS allowed and encouraged coming up with a wide variety of crazy team strategies. The typical argument in favor of this change is that it's done "for the sake of balance" because some jobs would be OP if they got to go as often as other jobs. But I think that's a poor argument because the job should be changed in that case. The previous games had plenty of room for balancing jobs/moves, such as costing BP to use a certain move (which is very much in-line with the design of BD and is the correct way to make a job act less often or use a move more sparingly), or just tone down the damage/accuracy/duration/etc (not saying balance was always achieved in BD/BS, but it certainly could have been without overhauling the system). Different actions having different delays is also part of why the above ATB-like system is annoying/unpredictable, but I think I've talked about it enough.

(Edit: PART 2/2)
@Wilforce The point is, it feels like the new team wanted to change things without any good reason. Like they started twisting too many knobs at the same time in their attempt at creating something "unique" (which I use loosely in reference to this bastardization of old BD and every single JRPG that exists with ATB (which is a lot)) instead of staying faithful to what the previous team built and fixing a single thing at a time if there were real issues. There's an overabundance of JRPGs with ATB-like systems (or even just straight action). Bravely Default was such a refreshing change of pace for going back to a more traditional design philosophy. That's a core aspect of its identity, and part of what makes it so unique in the modern age. The end result of all these changes is a series at war with its past. The simple yet deep combat system that focused on Brave and Default for altering turn economy, the whole gimmick of the series, has been convoluted by haphazard additions and poor design decisions that fundamentally change the feel and usefulness of those once integral mechanics. The move away from traditional round-based battles to ATB is contradictory to the very reason the series was created. In short, it doesn't feel like Bravely Default.

TL;DR - the Bravely series is fundamentally about turn economy. BD II throws the previously established core mechanics of turn economy out the window, resulting in a combat system that doesn't feel like Bravely Default. Longer/better summary in the last paragraph.

@PapaGarv Thanks for filling in the gaps for me. I never noticed the difference that you pointed out and loved both the originals and BD2. Both of those make complete sense though since in retrospect they do change the original combat dramatically. Having an extended time between the original games and sequel likely made me a bit more forgiving on the changes to combat. I personally focus a lot on the overall atmosphere, and that’s one of the things that captivates me.

@Wilforce No prob. I actually just replayed BD earlier this year to see if I was misremembering how good it was, and I came to the conclusion that I wasn't. Honestly cemented my distaste for BD II even further. Oh well. I'm glad some people were able to enjoy it, but it's just not for me. Thanks for not flipping out over our disagreement like a lot of people tend to do these days.