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[Avallon]

via: Siliconera

Last month, Square Enix filed trademarks for “Bravely Second” and “Bravely Third” in Japan, but it turns out that these aren’t for new games—they’re for new gameplay systems in Bravely Default: For the Sequel.

Bravely Second is a new feature that allows one to pause time in the middle of battles, using SP, and attack their opponent, according to a report in this week’s issue of Famitsu magazine. SP is gained while your Nintendo 3DS is in sleep mode. Alternatively, you can buy SP drinks in the form of DLC via the Nintendo eShop.

Normally, the maximum amount of damage you can inflict on a foe is 9,999. While using Bravely Second, however, it is possible for an attack to do over 10,000 damage.

Additionally, over on the official Bravely Default Twitter account, Square Enix note that, while the original version of Bravely Default would take about 70 hours to clear, For the Sequel’s completion time has been “shortened” to around 30 hours, as part of the game’s improvements.

This doesn’t mean that any content from Bravely Default has been cut, however, Square Enix clarify. (For the Sequel actually has additional story events and content.) Instead, Square say that you’ll get more enjoyment out of the game in half the time. If you prefer, of course, you could take your time to complete the game as you wish.

Streamlining the game and shortening completion time sounds like a move in everyone’s best interests, however. As we reported last month, Bravely Default producer Tomoya Asano revealed that only 20% of people in Japan actually reached the game’s true ending, and one of the development team’s goals was to allow more people to complete the game.

 

[RangerBAD]

This isn't what I wanted to hear. I was looking forward to an old school length RPG (PS1 era).

 

[Wario64]

So it's a downgrade

 

[Avallon]

So it's a downgrade

It's "streamlined" -- whatever that means.

 

[Silky]

Bravely Default: For the Casuals.

 

[Asd202]

Hmm nothing was cut so...

 

[Busaiku]

Well, there goes that.

 

[zroid]

Weird. Doesn't sound like a big deal though.

 

[Soulflarz]

Hmm nothing was cut so...

so its super easy?

 

[GhostTrick]

I think that it's when you lessen difficulty or encounters.

 

[BY2K]

Read the whole thing guys, everything from that is optional and you can still take 70h to complete the game is if do it the old, non-microstransaction way.

 

[fates]

lol, between this and the DQ/FF6/7 news, what the crap is happening at Square Enix right now? It's like they've just decided to go as fast and hard as possible in the worst direction possible.

 

[Nirolak]

Huh, microtransactions. Actually didn't see that one coming.

 

[Hellraider]

Hmm nothing was cut so...

What were these 40 hours then?

 

[Cess007]

Man, to think these days to cut a game duration more than half and put microtransactions on it are also is labeled as "improvements" :/

 

[Mesoian]

Bravely Default: For the Casuals.

This.

As long as you don't HAVE to use this energy system BS, it's fine. I'm all for alternate methods in games. The moment that stuff becomes required is the moment that I jump ship.

 

[KirbyKid]

Sounds good to me. Radiant Historia, Pokemon, and so many other handheld RPGs are around 30 hours to complete. Sounds like there's still plenty of stuff to do.

 

[Nirolak]

What were these 40 hours then?

They made them optional sidequests.

 

[NIN90]

I don't fucking care anymore, SE. I just don't fucking care.

 

[perorist]

Sounds completely optional so I'll just ignore it.

 

[RangerBAD]

I think that it's when you lessen difficulty or encounters.

Oh, that sounds better.

 

[Mpl90]

No content cut (there's even more!), won't ever touch the drink DLCs since they're optional, no problem for me then

 

[chickdigger802]

well it seemed like you can 'turbo speed' up combat animations, make sense the game's length is cut drastically.

 

[Coffee Dog]

I actually don't get how you would shave off 40 hours from the completion time unless massive changes were made to the difficulty. And if it's piss easy then they've just pissed me right off.

 

[Hellraider]

They made them optional sidequests.

That... doesn't sound bad at all!

 

[Avallon]

well it seemed like you can 'turbo speed' up combat animations, make sense the game's length is cut drastically.

40 hours of combat animations? What?

 

[R-User!]

They're pretty Brave doing this to Bravely Default.

 

[mullet2000]

So what was cut to shorten the game length so significantly?

Importers: Was the original game way too padded out so that this shortening would be a good thing?

 

[Nirolak]

I actually don't get how you would shave off 40 hours from the completion time unless massive changes were made to the difficulty. And if it's piss easy then they've just pissed me right off.

There's a difficulty slider IIRC.

 

[Eusis]

Really depends on how they shortened it. DQIV on DS goes for way less time than the PS1 original, but that's because the game was faster in general and dungeon sizes shrank without the layouts significantly changing. Could well be that combat dragged and now we can make it go faster.

... Is Bravely Second consumable? That'll determine whether it really puts me off or is just kind of annoying.

 

[Coffee Dog]

There's a difficulty slider IIRC.

That's about as good as you could ask for, I am pleasantly surprised.

 

[Avallon]

So what was cut to shorten the game length so significantly?

Importers: Was he original game way too padded so that this shortening would be a good thing?

Read the article I posted. Only 20% of people who bought BD finished BD in Japan.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

Square Enix, ladies and gentlemen. Square Enix.

 

[Prelude.]

I'm starting to think that Wada was a better fit for SE.

 

[chaosblade]

Doesn't this version also have a speed up option a la FF12 International? That plus microtranactions making it easier would cut a lot of time off the total. So it's probably going to be fine. Edit: Plus the encounter slider. So yeah, there are plenty of ways you could cut down the time necessary to finish the game without missing anything.

 

[oti]

Wish more RPGs would do that. 30h for a game is more than enough for me personally, but I can see why some people would not like this at all.

 

[Kurtofan]

Can't someone bail out SE? It's getting a bit pathetic.

 

[Oregano]

That's about as good as you could ask for, I am pleasantly surprised.

There is also a slider to control the encounter rate.

 

[Aostia]

What were these 40 hours then?

random encounters now toned down?
thanks god they cut them almost off, imho

 

[Prelude.]

Read the article I posted. Only 20% of people who bought BD finished BD in Japan.

Did they ask them after a while?

 

[Asd202]

What were these 40 hours then?

Yeah beats me I don't think they tinkered with the difficulty, they gave option to speed up the battles if you would like and an option to control random encounter rate so maybe that's the reason. About that microtransaction thing it's really not that bad you don't have to deal with it in any way, shape or form it's just a cheat to win a battle.

 

[Avallon]

Did they ask them after a while?

What? I think that's data collected to-date from online 3DS systems. That's just a guess though.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

I imagine they could shave off about 15 hours just by streamlining the battle menu system a bit so it didn't take so long to set up an attack.

 

[Durante]

Holy crap, they actually did it. They put a stamina bar in a normal retail game. That's far bigger news than the time IMHO.

Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate

 

[Colonel Mustard]

Did they ask them after a while?

You elect your 3DS to send data to Nintendo, so...

 

[MagiusNecros]

You guys are panicking over nothing. You can probably clear the game in 30 hours due to being able to set your encounter rate to 0 as well as select an easier difficulty and whatnot.

The game allows a lot of freedom in how you use the battle system. And battle speeds can be sped up to make things go faster.

-----------------

SP is interesting though. Seems like you can pay for an item version or acquire SP via the same way you would obtain Play Coins.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Did they ask them after a while?

Aren't these metrics gathered via online tracking?

 

[mullet2000]

Read the article I posted. Only 20% of people who bought BD finished BD in Japan.

I saw that but I'm curious if it's because there was too much bad/boring content in the game if if that was just because of the game being very long in general, menus are slow etc.

 

[ElFly]

Holy crap, they actually did it. They put a stamina bar in a normal retail game. That's far bigger news than the time IMHO.

Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate

Um Jojo fighter did it already.

 

[Dinda]

WTF I can't believe it. For every good news Square Enix will make sure there are 2 (or 10) bad ones.

I can't wait for the News that they switched Main Characters to a Bald Dude in Drakengard 3 in the west.