Bravely Default 2 Review: The Hardest Job

Bravely Default 2 is a turn-based RPG for the Nintendo Switch developed by Claytechworks and published by Nintendo outside of Japan. The game feels like an attempt to reboot the franchise, with an end result that will be far more appealing to die-hard JRPG fans who love a challenge and min-maxing characters rather than new players.

The story of Bravely Default 2 follows a sailor named Seth who survives a shipwreck with the aid of a mysterious crystal. He soon joins up with Princess Gloria, one of the last survivors of her kingdom. They team up with a spellcaster named Elvis and a warrior named Adelle, who are searching for mysterious items named Asterisks, as they possess a magic book that reveals visions whenever more Asterisks are acquired. The party soon learns of a plot to corrupt the power of four elemental crystals, which will unleash an entity known as the Night Nexus onto the world, bringing an end to all life. They go on a quest to visit each of the kingdoms on the continent, in order to acquire more Asterisks and learn the fate of each crystal.

The gameplay of Bravely Default 2 is almost unchanged from its predecessors. The battles involve actions called Brave and Default. A character can perform actions by spending BP (Brave Points) and they can increase this value by using Default, which grants an extra BP and puts them into a defensive stance. The player can spend multiple BP at once in order to perform several actions in a row, and it's even possible to put the character into negative BP at the start of a battle, using multiple attacks to kill the enemy before they can act. There is a risk to this strategy, as the character only gains one free BP a turn, so if the attack fails, then the monster will have several free rounds to chow down on the defenseless hero. The enemies can also make use of the BP system, and plenty of bosses will spoil the player's day with multiple attacks performed in a single round.

The gameplay of Bravely Default 2 is almost unchanged from its predecessors. The battles involve actions called Brave and Default. A character can perform actions by spending BP (Brave Points) and they can increase this value by using Default, which grants an extra BP and puts them into a defensive stance. The player can spend multiple BP at once in order to perform several actions in a row, and it's even possible to put the character into negative BP at the start of a battle, using multiple attacks to kill the enemy before they can act. There is a risk to this strategy, as the character only gains one free BP a turn, so if the attack fails, then the monster will have several free rounds to chow down on the defenseless hero. The enemies can also make use of the BP system, and plenty of bosses will spoil the player's day with multiple attacks performed in a single round.

There is one major addition to the combat system in Bravely Default 2 and it ramps up the difficulty to an extremely high level. Every enemy in the game now has built-in counters that activate when certain triggers are met. These include everything from hitting them with a physical attack, casting a healing spell, or defaulting. These counters are free actions for the enemy, and they can use these to attack the characters or heal/buff themselves. It's not unusual for the party to be wiped out when attempting a multi-BP strategy on a boss only to get hit by a counter for each move.