Bravely Default II Producer Was Both "Ashamed" And "Relieved" By Player Feedback To Demo

Shamely default.

I haven't played any entry in the series but I'm looking forward to this one, especially since they released a beta to get feedback and improve the game, not just for debugging.

Really glad that they are listening to their fans and react to their feedback
Other developers should take notes from them

Tried the latest demo and after a few minutes I was done. I love the combat of these games and sunk 40/50 hours in the first one but then it hit me: the dungeons were terribly boring and the dialogue is soooooo bad. I was literally playing the game to level up the jobs but you had to level each one separately so experimenting was laborious

This new demo reminded me how bad the dialogue could be. Also, this obsession with regional uk accents to denote a fantasy RPG is DONE. I say this as someone from the uk who loves our accents.

@meeto_1 they are picking too "clean" a representation of the accent. They should get people who's accent you Cannot understand so that when the words of what they are saying come up on screen, you'll be able to follow them and subconsciously learn the accent and dialect. Putting the education back in and covering up the weakness of the script. Or just have default Nolan North V.O, that used to annoy the hell out of me.

No need to be ashamed if you are humble enough to take advices and critics in order to improve the game.

I am still unsure on if i should get this game or not, i think its quite positive how he reacts to his feedback though. Pretty sure the gameplay is great as a rpg but everything else is alright to meh standards

Always good to get feedback and add quality of life features

i loved the second demo tho the voiceover is awful! I will be playing this game the oldschool way - without voices. I played the second demo like this and the game became much better

I also love the card mini game which was definitely inspired by Triple Triad from Final Fantasy VIII

@meeto_1 "the dungeons were terribly boring and the dialogue is soooooo bad" ......welcome to the world of JRPG .....bad dialogues are JRPG trademarks ...as if the screenplay was always written by a 10 years old boy

I just wish they made the character models look like their artwork... the SD style models are actually a big hurdle for me to clear, immersion-wise. I was not really able to get into the demo emotionally, because the somber tone and visuals just did not add up. It's a shame, because I'd like to give this game a try but aesthetically I don't think I can get behind it.

@BlackenedHalo after I wrote my first comment I thought to myself that I should have commented how the scripts felt like they are written by 13yo trying to write a school drama.

people comment that this is a staple of the genre to be celebrated and/or accepted but I think this is a weak defence and I find the dialogue really un engaging.

And if the dungeons are also poor I might as well play a game like FE or Advance wars where you go from one battle to the next

Certainly no Octopath, but it should be a fun time anyway. I will wait for reviews, but I expect to be an early purchaser for this. Although... with Monster Hunter Rise and Bowser's Fury releasing at the same time, I may be a later adopter.

@BispoSnake While kyōshuku (恐縮) does translate to 'ashamed', it's more like a Japanese stock phrase that sounds respectful and nice to say in an interview, a social platitude/cliché just like "Please understand". It means he probably behaved exactly what you suggested.
If a Japanese compliments you, reply "Kyoshuku desu" and you'll fit right in.

@BlackenedHalo after Golden sun every dungeon seemed boring! WHERE ARE THE PUZZLES!

Now I'm used to it, and I think this game does everything to make it as interesting as possible (At least if they keep giving you the option of altering all the difficulty and encounter rates )

I've always loved this dev team! They are beyond humble and work so hard to please fans of old school JRPGs! It always feels like I'm playing a lost entry in the Final Fantasy franchise and as Dragon Quest XI shows there is still a market for traditional JRPGs.

Cannot wait to bravely pickup a copy and default on my life for a week after purchase!

I think this team is a few good writers away from producing something special, but their games are always just not quite better than OK story-wise. I hope this game is the one that makes the leap, but I don't think it will if I'm honest.

@aznable I have that trouble a bit too. It's like I have a hard time with chibi-ish esthetic when it's polygons, but I'm just fine with it using sprites (e.g. Final Fantasy VI, Lufia, Ara Fell, etc.). I have this love/hate for Bravely Default of visual vs gameplay and I hate it. I had the same problem with Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light back in the day for the DS. I passed on that completely.

I haven't tried the new demo, and probably won't since I know I'm getting the game anyway, but for anyone who has played the demo, did they tone down or at least allow the option to turn off the constant battle quote spam? Doing bravex4 attacking an enemy weakness with the speed up function in play resulted in an auditory assault which quickly drove my patience thin. I know that the on-screen encounters are still in which is among my chief complaints, but I'm sort of alone on preferring random encounters most of the time so I wasn't expecting them to change that.

It's a bit sad that I didn't get the survey because I felt like I would've had a lot to say.

Alright Crystal Chronicles Devs, TAKE NOTES.

No matter what, this is the game that I'm going to buy day one. I already know that I'm going to be thoroughly satisfied with Bravely Default 2

Already pre-ordered but glad to see how seriously they take player feedback. And voice acting.
Someone else said they were done with UK accents in RPGs, but considering how many have American voices I'm totally up for more UK accents being used, especially when it's done WELL. Like I hated a lot of the voices in XC2, but loved XC1. And seeing Bravely try it out with decent voice acting, as well as being localised for the UK, it's bloody fantastic.
Saying that I'm looking forward to BD2 is an understatement.

I have to check out the demo. I am still on the fence about getting the full game. I have too much on my backlog as is. It seems like they made some good changes from the first which hard had some problems though I didn't play that demo either. Lol

Though some people on here talking about the bad or good voice acting, it seems to be about the English VA. Luckily I only play Japanese voices only for all games made in Japan so I am never disappointed.

I'm glad they took the constructive criticism well. While I liked the first demo for the most part, it was definitely rough around the edges. Though I still think many people missed the memo about the upped difficulty being intentional.

I'm excited for the game. I didn't play much of the final demo in order to avoid spoilers, but I'm pleased with many of the changes I ran across. I really enjoyed the two 3DS games and am expecting an experience on par with those two with Bravely Default II.

Also...am I in the minority that isn't bothered by the chibi style? I like all sorts of character representations/artstyles across gaming, and this is no different for me. Besides, at least they have feet, unlike in Fire Emblem Awakening.

@meeto_1 I find it refreshing to hear other english accents as there are way to much american english in games. Though I can see your concern

everything about it seems like a half step to me, like it either needs to go further or back

@HenFjo I’m all for diversity but some game devs tend to just randomly pull out an eclectic mix of accents for the sake of it and they always sound a little off.

Compare it to something like Game of Thrones, the accent choices were intentional and made sense. Southern plain accents for the capital and northern Yorkshire dialects for the north. There was a logic and it fed into the world building.

@Tyranexx I like chibli models in general but I have to side with others and say the characters models in this game don’t work for me. The town environments look amazing.

@ancientlii Exactly my thinking. Bravely Default 1 used the DS' power constraints to its advantage, utilizing a beautiful painterly aesthetic with its 2D graphics. Bravely Default II has gone too far with its use of 3D assets in my opinion, reducing the charm of the minute-to-minute experience.

@aznable The character models are also the biggest barrier to entry for me. They just look too plastic-y and make it impossible to take them seriously. Combined with the poor voice work and cheesy dialogue that others have mentioned, and one of the biggest aspects of this game, the storyline, just doesn't work at all for me. Completely ruins the immersion, and I'm sitting through the demo unable to stop thinking that the whole charade feels preposterous.

This is the right way to make a game.

This is why I fear game development shifting more to the West...

Would CDPR be ashamed & embarrassed by the Cyberpunk debacle?

Nope, they just dump out a broken game & fix it eventually by 2022 after huge cash grab.

If only the models resembled the artwork more. Not a fan of the chibi approach.

Loved every part of the final demo.
Thanks for this!

It's great that did that. More games should have this feedback method.
Has anyone been bothered by the help text in the Battle menu blocking the actions?

I keep meaning to try the 2nd demo, and keep forgetting. Thank you for the reminder!

@meeto_1 Yeah, I've seen better, but I'm not really bothered by them. Controversial opinion maybe, but I'll take them over the character models in Animal Crossing.

I will most likely buy this just to support the devs taking feedback seriously. But I’m still really struggling with the fedora character. Who thought that was an appealing outfit?

@aznable exactly. It looks like the jrpg version of "Team America World Police". I can't stand the look & i loved both 3ds games, but not sure i will be able to get over the character looks. The towns look great, tho.

Glad to see this franchise continue. Now that I they put a turn gauge to see the characters turns and have exclamation marks when enemies are close to attack, I no longer have major issues with the game.

One job I would like to see, is the Sage job (not to be mistaken with the Conjurer job of Bravely Default 1). Since it would be too O.P. to have all the magics, I just want the job to have all black and white magics so that we can combine it with the Summoner job to replicate the DS Sage version of FF III.

Sadly it looks like they ignored my requests. I absolutely hate this jrpg with visible encounters concept that seems to be taking off. So sad to be honest, developing game concepts that directly are counterintuitive towards psychological aspects.

Companies should run demos like this more often. It’s going to be such a better game due to all this feedback.

I love how they did this demo. After I played the first one, I didn’t think I was going to get the get the game. But after the second demo, it’s a day one for me.

you know i realy like these kind of games, and i realy want to try to finish it, but since these jrpg's got voiceovers in wich every female sounds like a japanese hentai schoolgirl, and males like teenage boys who act though and all sound like spoken by one person, i have a tuff time to play them. why can't they hire proffesional actors to do this instead of staff.

thats actualy my only complain about it, the game looks like fun and magical.

I played the first demo for Octopath and I had a number of complaints. I filled out the survey and literally every single issue I had was addressed, so when I saw they were doing the same thing with Bravely Default II, I was excited. It's great seeing developers get this kind of feedback BEFORE the game launches (take notes, CD Projekt) so that the game is actually complete when it launches.