37:13 The thing about the original Japanese launch is that it wasn't just rough, it had some major issues. The original sidequests forced you to commit to a single decision in both encounters to obtain a good ending, otherwise you would end up stuck with a bad ending. So to get all jobs you had to do at least 1.5 playthroughs. Other features like extra quests and even Fort Lune were tied to Square Enix's membership, meaning that you had to get an account before you could even use those features. The critique was bad enough that the only reason the series stayed afloat was a spinoff mobile game giving revenue for them to greenlit BDII since it showed interest in the series to Square. You also seem to skip a little bit over the jobs of Second, mainly that for as good they buffed Summoner, the trimming nerfed others like Ranger into the ground. Black mage and white mage get overshadowed fast by Wizard and Bishop, as one has the powerful spellcraft and the other completely ignores any need for a good mind stat. For as much improvements and QoL Bravely Second brought to the series, it also made decisions that clearly did not work out. Is Bravely Default II a overcorrection of this? Probably, but I think the devs are trying to find new footing for the series after the reception of Bravely Second.
I think criticisms against the Japanese launch are perfectly fair, those problems are really dumb and should've never existed. With that said though, I still think the way the devs treat the game is incredibly disappointing, and I don't think those problems justify them ignoring Second and treating it like a mistake. Default also had a major problem and that was the pacing during the endgame being horrible. But while that certainly brings the game down it by no means ruins the game, and maybe I don't have any place to speak on this because I never played the original Japanese version of Second, but while those are very noteworthy problems that deserve to be called out, those don't sound like they ruin that game either. Ranger I never noticed the Precision nerf (there might be some other things I'm not noticing) because I never liked that job in any of the games, I don't like most of the abilities just being attacks that are strong against specific enemies, but I get where you're coming from. Personally I don't think Black Mage gets overshadowed by Wizard but rather works well in tandem with it, I remember doing Dark Rain one time which was pretty funny. I think White Mage might have some decent passive abilities but aside from that I completely agree with you, Bishop outdoes it in almost every way. I don't really mind them changing up certain fundamental aspects around the gameplay, I think the turn order change could've worked if it wasn't for speed mattering way too much. That and the counter system is so deeply flawed that it would need to be completely overhauled or removed outright in the next game in my opinion. I just think they really overdid it with the changes and none of them worked out .
I'm glad I'm not the only person living in crazy world. From Second to 2 was an awful downgrade and I really couldn't stand a lot of the changes. I think to an extent a lot of this was caused by new game blindness. Like through a lot of people that were just happy to be playing a new entry, and dismiss criticism out of hand. I'm looking back there's a lot more content talking about Bravley second because it has so many interesting combinations lore and details, All of which was helped by the initial popularity of bravely default the first place. But it seems no one is going to admit that bravely default 2 wasn't as good. And I really can't understand the sentiment.
I can't for the life of me understand how Bravely Second could be considered worse than Bravely Default II. Is it just that BD2 has a better soundtrack? Because that doesn't make up for the jobs in BD2 being significantly shallower, the visuals being less interesting, modifying the encounter rate being replaced by enemies running at/away from you, and so on. A really good example of a step back is how the mage jobs are handled. In Default and Second, your magic spells are purchased from a shop like in the older Final Fantasy games. This leaves the ability list with plenty of space to learn new abilities in order to buff up your caster. In Default II, Black Mage takes three levels to learn the basic three spells, then another three levels to learn the -ra variations, and then ANOTHER three levels for -ga. That's nine levels to learn multiple spells, with each successive tier invalidating the previous one. Instead of abilities that could potentially be worthwhile for other jobs, you just have six levels of absolutely nothing worthwhile. Or, worse yet, NINE if none of the spells end up being useful to you! Edit: Haha, you made that exact point about the mage jobs. About Black Mage specifically, even.
THANK YOU! finally someone who understand my complains about BD2, im so tierd of people just shit of bavery second even thow it was improve on the predecesor
this is the first time i have ever seen someone share my exact opinions on this… i replayed BD and BS earlier this month and i swear they get more fun every time. i used to absolutely hate second too, but after replaying it it’s my favorite in the series now. everything about the first 2 games clicks in a way that BD2 just doesn’t, to the point where i am genuinely shocked the same team made it. the freedom and creativity of the past games just isn’t here anymore, with counters and weight and the dumb way speed works just hindering all opportunities to actually come up with cool things. like, doing dumb stuff like making your healer a ghost so you can mash benediction mist for free or making red mage bp batteries are part of what makes these games enjoyable (to me at least). nothing cool is ever worth doing in BD2 cause you’re just going to get countered for trying. or your turn is never gonna show up because you wanted to use berserker, like the most fun class in the game when you’re allowed to play. i just don’t get it. all the creative broken stuff is replaced with “level up thief until they get GSS, then just press that over and over”. even past all that, the story is so uninteresting and the characters aren’t appealing enough to carry it, the art style did not shift over well from the 3ds, and the characters talking in battle after every little thing is just handled so annoyingly (i even remember writing in the demo survey to give an option to turn them off for battles only lol). only praises are the music and even though i don’t like the art style (the towns backgrounds are still incredible though), the job outfits are very good all around. made it hard to determine who i want doing what on my team. tl;dr square please just make bravely second 2 next time instead of whatever you were trying to do here please thank you 🙏
I don't hate it but yeah bravely default 2 is wasted potential. I love second and consider it one of the best jrpg made by SE. If they ever do bravely sequel again i hope they go back to form.
I have tried to like Bravely Default 2, I really have but the more I actually played it, the more I realized I was not having fun, it’s a bit staggering to me that there is a much more positive reception, because i just don’t understand it
I entered this video expecting it to be bad and nitpicky but no I get it. All of these things, especially the turn system change, made me drop the game many times.
When i couldnt even even beat the first major boss because the game was less friendly to people who didn’t want to play with strategy and forced you to rely on job combos
You finally did a miitopia review. Many thanks
37:13 The thing about the original Japanese launch is that it wasn't just rough, it had some major issues. The original sidequests forced you to commit to a single decision in both encounters to obtain a good ending, otherwise you would end up stuck with a bad ending. So to get all jobs you had to do at least 1.5 playthroughs.
Other features like extra quests and even Fort Lune were tied to Square Enix's membership, meaning that you had to get an account before you could even use those features.
The critique was bad enough that the only reason the series stayed afloat was a spinoff mobile game giving revenue for them to greenlit BDII since it showed interest in the series to Square.
You also seem to skip a little bit over the jobs of Second, mainly that for as good they buffed Summoner, the trimming nerfed others like Ranger into the ground. Black mage and white mage get overshadowed fast by Wizard and Bishop, as one has the powerful spellcraft and the other completely ignores any need for a good mind stat.
For as much improvements and QoL Bravely Second brought to the series, it also made decisions that clearly did not work out. Is Bravely Default II a overcorrection of this? Probably, but I think the devs are trying to find new footing for the series after the reception of Bravely Second.
I think criticisms against the Japanese launch are perfectly fair, those problems are really dumb and should've never existed. With that said though, I still think the way the devs treat the game is incredibly disappointing, and I don't think those problems justify them ignoring Second and treating it like a mistake. Default also had a major problem and that was the pacing during the endgame being horrible. But while that certainly brings the game down it by no means ruins the game, and maybe I don't have any place to speak on this because I never played the original Japanese version of Second, but while those are very noteworthy problems that deserve to be called out, those don't sound like they ruin that game either.
Ranger I never noticed the Precision nerf (there might be some other things I'm not noticing) because I never liked that job in any of the games, I don't like most of the abilities just being attacks that are strong against specific enemies, but I get where you're coming from. Personally I don't think Black Mage gets overshadowed by Wizard but rather works well in tandem with it, I remember doing Dark Rain one time which was pretty funny. I think White Mage might have some decent passive abilities but aside from that I completely agree with you, Bishop outdoes it in almost every way.
I don't really mind them changing up certain fundamental aspects around the gameplay, I think the turn order change could've worked if it wasn't for speed mattering way too much. That and the counter system is so deeply flawed that it would need to be completely overhauled or removed outright in the next game in my opinion. I just think they really overdid it with the changes and none of them worked out .
I'm glad I'm not the only person living in crazy world. From Second to 2 was an awful downgrade and I really couldn't stand a lot of the changes.
I think to an extent a lot of this was caused by new game blindness. Like through a lot of people that were just happy to be playing a new entry, and dismiss criticism out of hand.
I'm looking back there's a lot more content talking about Bravley second because it has so many interesting combinations lore and details, All of which was helped by the initial popularity of bravely default the first place.
But it seems no one is going to admit that bravely default 2 wasn't as good. And I really can't understand the sentiment.
I can't for the life of me understand how Bravely Second could be considered worse than Bravely Default II. Is it just that BD2 has a better soundtrack? Because that doesn't make up for the jobs in BD2 being significantly shallower, the visuals being less interesting, modifying the encounter rate being replaced by enemies running at/away from you, and so on.
A really good example of a step back is how the mage jobs are handled. In Default and Second, your magic spells are purchased from a shop like in the older Final Fantasy games. This leaves the ability list with plenty of space to learn new abilities in order to buff up your caster. In Default II, Black Mage takes three levels to learn the basic three spells, then another three levels to learn the -ra variations, and then ANOTHER three levels for -ga. That's nine levels to learn multiple spells, with each successive tier invalidating the previous one. Instead of abilities that could potentially be worthwhile for other jobs, you just have six levels of absolutely nothing worthwhile. Or, worse yet, NINE if none of the spells end up being useful to you!
Edit: Haha, you made that exact point about the mage jobs. About Black Mage specifically, even.
THANK YOU! finally someone who understand my complains about BD2, im so tierd of people just shit of bavery second even thow it was improve on the predecesor
this is the first time i have ever seen someone share my exact opinions on this… i replayed BD and BS earlier this month and i swear they get more fun every time. i used to absolutely hate second too, but after replaying it it’s my favorite in the series now.
everything about the first 2 games clicks in a way that BD2 just doesn’t, to the point where i am genuinely shocked the same team made it. the freedom and creativity of the past games just isn’t here anymore, with counters and weight and the dumb way speed works just hindering all opportunities to actually come up with cool things. like, doing dumb stuff like making your healer a ghost so you can mash benediction mist for free or making red mage bp batteries are part of what makes these games enjoyable (to me at least).
nothing cool is ever worth doing in BD2 cause you’re just going to get countered for trying. or your turn is never gonna show up because you wanted to use berserker, like the most fun class in the game when you’re allowed to play. i just don’t get it. all the creative broken stuff is replaced with “level up thief until they get GSS, then just press that over and over”. even past all that, the story is so uninteresting and the characters aren’t appealing enough to carry it, the art style did not shift over well from the 3ds, and the characters talking in battle after every little thing is just handled so annoyingly (i even remember writing in the demo survey to give an option to turn them off for battles only lol). only praises are the music and even though i don’t like the art style (the towns backgrounds are still incredible though), the job outfits are very good all around. made it hard to determine who i want doing what on my team.
tl;dr square please just make bravely second 2 next time instead of whatever you were trying to do here please thank you 🙏
I don't hate it but yeah bravely default 2 is wasted potential. I love second and consider it one of the best jrpg made by SE. If they ever do bravely sequel again i hope they go back to form.
based
I have tried to like Bravely Default 2, I really have but the more I actually played it, the more I realized I was not having fun, it’s a bit staggering to me that there is a much more positive reception, because i just don’t understand it
a "little" shaky launch? BS had an extreamly terrible launch in japan. the game we got is legues ahead of what BS was in japan on launch.
I'm starting to think that Covid really affected the development of this game.
I entered this video expecting it to be bad and nitpicky but no I get it. All of these things, especially the turn system change, made me drop the game many times.
The counters were overkill, but at least early fame they are there to incentivise using diffrent jobs.
Bro the UI and the Speed stat was the WORST. I didn't even the buy the game after I played the demo.
uh oh
you’ll like this one
When i couldnt even even beat the first major boss because the game was less friendly to people who didn’t want to play with strategy and forced you to rely on job combos
At least it has Bernard.
Thank you. This video sums up exactly my thoughts about this game as a BD/BS fan.
Very good luggo
Octopath Traveler came out before BD2. They could have just took the turn order bar 1:1 and call it day. Easiest fix.
Are you luigi ? Hi luigi I'm jhorski jhorski from Poland
One of your best videos I think
Bravely Default 2’s visual design looks like a crappy budget Wii game.
well thats not very nice