Today's Nintendo Direct Mini has thrown up a few little surprise treats, not least more information on Square Enix's upcoming Bravely Default II, with a deeper look at the characters and gameplay in a four-minute segment from the broadcast.
You can check out the trailer above, but perhaps more importantly you can head to the eShop today and download a demo for the JRPG which is still set for release later this year. As detailed in the video, the makers will be asking for feedback from the demo via a survey which will be taken into account as they tweak the game before release.
The game - a sequel to the two 3DS games Bravely Default (subtitled Flying Fairy in Japan) and Bravely Second: End Layer - is looking very nice indeed, especially the environments. In the trailer we see the main characters run across meadows, down stone steps winding through a city, across a boardwalk by the water and through a snowstorm, and they all look gorgeous.
The character models look to echo the proportions from the 3DS games rather than overhaul the visual design for Switch, but with some depth of field effects and beautifully smooth animation, it's all looking very nice indeed. In a couple of places it brought to mind some of the visual loveliness of Octopath Traveler, a huge success for Square Enix that has sold over 2 million copies to date, and one that the company will no doubt be hoping to repeat with Bravely Default II.
Big fan of the series? Couldn't give a flying fairy about Bravely Default? Let us know if this piques your interest and if you'll be downloading the demo below.
Comments 44
Downloading it ATM (Very slowly, I think there's stupid amounts of people going for it at once), I'm going to assume it's like BD1 & BS demos where it's kind of it's own little thing as opposed to just playing the first hour or two of the main game, which is what I loved so much about those demos. Can't wait.
Certainly be checking the demo out, looks good and pretty.
Would there be any MRGRGRs?
The one good part about the Direct being a video rather than a stream was I was able to skip that boring Bravely Default segment that was far too long. I wanted to like the first game but couldn't get into it at all so this will definitely be a pass for me.
Didn't get to watch the Direct as soon as was out so I'm just now downloading the demo. Excited for the game but I know it's going to take a good while before it's out. The team behind the series is very good with demos though. Bravely Second had an awesome demo, as did Octopath Traveler. Can't wait to hear the new music.
I absolutly love the Bravely Series, cant wait till it gets released (which will probably fall/winter 2020)
This looks gorgeous and seems to capture a lot of what I loved about the other two games! I'll be giving the demo a shot, though not right away.
To those who worry about spoilers: the demos for this series are sort of their own thing, so don't fret about that. Traditionally, you also receive rewards in the actual game for having the demo data on the system.
Really looking forward to this. Loved the first one but sadly missed Bravely Second. If I had more time to play I would def go back to my 2DS for it, but too many great Switch games to play.
Screenshots look fantastic.(I really need to finish bravely second)
I love the voice of the female protagonist (was her name Gloria?). Also it seems that the tall guy will be the funny one of the party. Kinda like Ringabell.
OH MY GODDDDDDDD
I hope there's some bonuses to transfer over to the full game, like the original game's demo.
This a great game so far. Combat system is like the same as octopath traveler. Graphically the game looks good, but the characters are blurry.
@Expa0 you should invest in a wired adapter bro. I just downloaded it in about 10 minutes or less. I got a J5 create adaptor and get 80 Mbps download test on switch.
This demo is so fricking difficult. Been playing for 90 mins and u REALLY need to grind... -.-
Man this is so out of the blue and I still hadn't finish the Trials of Mana remake demo yet. I'll get to this one once I finish that one.
dont forget guys to fill up a survey! we need this game as good as possible!
Wow wow wow... are you sure those are real time graphics on Switch?! That confirms it, this is an Unreal Engin 4 game
Downloading it now. Looked great in the trailer!
Highlight of the direct mini for me. Absolutely adored the first two games. I have trouble playing jRPGs these days, but these captivate me for some reason. Can't wait to try the demo.
Demo is promising so far.
Lighting and textures are great, I would love to see the first two remastered with these graphics if possible.
I'm playing right now and Im loving it. The enemies are rather tough, but they do mention in the demo that enemies are stronger than usual so players can fully test out the combat system. Feels very similar to the past games. Feels like they took some tips from Dragon Quest XI (enemies on field, you can hit them with your weapon to gain advantage before the fight starts, the party member travel with you on map, etc). There is room for improvement however, like I don't like how you select party members or monsters in battle. Its just a yellow outline and in a desert zone like the demo is in, it can get really confusing when selecting. Anyways, need to finish it and can't wait for the final product
@HardcoreDaBoss I feel like the combat is pretty different than Octopath. This game doesn't show you turn order, and weaknesses work completely differently - you can't "break" enemies. You can also overspend BP in this game. I loved OT, but I didnt enjoy this demo at all - actually, not true, the music and art style are both fantastic.
I thought the demo looked bad and the picture and lighting was fuzzy
Personally I think it looks great,plays great and I'm loving the soundtrack!
But unfortunately I died in my first battle so I can see I'll probably have as much trouble with this as Octopath Traveller..
@Wazeddie22 no, the difficulty in the demo is way too high (they did it on purpose) ...
wow so the demo's difficulty is really brutal, I just cannot enjoy since it is way too difficult and I am a Dark Souls lover and also a guy who loved how diffiult the old Final Fantasy games were, but this was just fun to play, it was so frustrating..
...yes I know they did it on purpose (which I dont get it at all), so the only thing you can do is grinding low lvl enemies to get stronger in order to be able to face more difficult enemies, you just cannot use any tactics as your ass can be beaten up in a second
..no way I spend hours of grinding only to be able to finish the demo, it is just not worth it
@drewber2635 this is the most stupid decision since you would have fully tested the battle system, had the demo been at a normal difficulty
...this is just way too frustrating to play
@MadMaestroNole I agree...not good at all
So my overall feelings (didnt beat the demo, not worth grinding for hours at all)
I like some aspects, i did not like some aspects. I just..it was..OK? Yeah, it was. But that's pretty much it.
Yeah, also I would welcome a ZOOM IN option.
@MadMaestroNole Tinker around in the menus a little. These games are famous for their total control of difficulty. In the normal games you can switch difficulty e whenever you like, up the exp that you get and turn random encounters up, down or off of you want.
I usually don't have the patience to finish rpg's and I leveled the Characters to 99 in this! (because of all the customization options and fun job system.)
(Edit, they apparently made this way too hard on purpose. The base game will probably be a lot better, as I mentioned)
@BlackenedHalo phew. I thought I was a giant doofus, but glad you share my view on the difficulty. ^^
I think the game looks "fine" overall, I don't really dig the artstyle in towns (it is still FINE too). I reckon xenoblade chronicles definitive edition will be more likely to be my kinda jrpg.
Atm, I doubt that I want to grind through the demo. Too many games to play. I also want to try trails of cold steel 3. I tried the Japanes demo before but I had no idea what was going on, looked very promising though!happy it was added to the European eshop
Btw: jrpgs are my favourite kinds of games since the 1990s
@garfreek I doubt this makes a huge difference. After completing the side quest and some additional grinding, I entered the ruins and those fricking wasp-monsters just annihilate my whole party in 3 turns. At the same time, their hps are ridiculously high. And yes, air used different jobs targeting their weak spot
I never finished Bravely Default (and never even purchased the 3ds sequel). I really wanted to like it, but lost interest fairly quickly. Bravely Default 2 does look beautiful though. This is a "wait and see" for me. May try the demo (if I get my switch lite anytime soon).
Still really on the fence. 🤔
I'm afraid the game fails to impress me due to disturbing contents inside despite it rated E10+ to Rating Pending based on the trailer.
The 3D environment with 2D assets threw me for a loop at first, but now that I'm used to it in motion it looks very nice. Still, I hate to say it but I would kind of prefer the map to remain static; the first games on 3DS felt like you were traversing around gorgeous paintings.
Also, I can't help but strongly dislike the 3D character models. The faces vary wildly between plastic-y and unsettling.
In my opinion, if you're going to commit to 3D models, then go the whole mile and zoom in the camera within the actual environment during dialogue segments. If you're going to pluck characters out of the environment to present isolated dialogue bubbles, then just use the 2D illustrations.
That's all just my personal opinion of course. Otherwise I'm enjoying the demo and still excited for the game!
anyone knows, when is the release date of the full game?
"Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when Covid-19 attacked. Only the Bravely Defaulted, masters of all four elements, could stop them, but when the world needed them most, they vanished. A hundred years passed and my brother and I discovered the Bravely Defaulted II (2nd gen to the 1st group), a gentlemen theif named Arsène Lupin III, two snow princess's (Elsa and that souless redhead who has no name), and some generic swashbuckling anime protagonist. Although their fighting skills are great, they have a lot to learn before they're ready to save anyone. But I believe the Bravely Defaulted II can save the world."
Seems odd that this is called BD2 and yet is 3rd game.
Maybe they should have just gone with BD3 for clarity.
I'm not a super-fan, so maybe there's some reason for this...
@Travisemo007
Great, now I need to rewatch it
@GamerDad66 with these guys, nothing is a coincidence is all I'm saying ^_^
@BlackenedHalo I think you are overreacting a bit lol it's not that hard. You grind, find treasure chests, go back to town and rest, rinse and repeat until you are about lvl 16 or 17, get max job levels and boom, you defeat the final boss. I think it was smart of them to release it like that, rather have a demo be too hard than be too easy and beat it in 15 mins but thats just my personal taste
@Ulysses same here - I’m really disappointed by the new 3d -ish city panoramas and plastic character models of this game. First two were visually stunning.
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