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Bravely Default 2 |OT| Brave New Worlds

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
One thing I’m surprised is how dark BD2’s story can be, the chapter 2 boss was straight up Drakengard level of psycho.
 

Naibel

Member
Even though BD2's demo wasn't anything to write home about, I decided to give it a shot and buy it, as the first BD was a big favorite of mine on the 3DS. I like RPGs that doesn't reinvent the wheel, yet still does small tweaks to the same-old formula to keep things interesting. And if Danjin44 Danjin44 is correct, some darkness is on the menu which is a nice surprise, as I though the game would slightly shy away from that.

I'm going to wait a bit before beginning my playthrough though, as Persona 5 Strikers is hooking me a lot more than expected ! And with Monster Hunter Rise coming at the end of the month, I suppose BD is gonna take a back seat once again, until the summer I suppose ^^'
 

Sejan

Member
Even though BD2's demo wasn't anything to write home about, I decided to give it a shot and buy it, as the first BD was a big favorite of mine on the 3DS. I like RPGs that doesn't reinvent the wheel, yet still does small tweaks to the same-old formula to keep things interesting. And if Danjin44 Danjin44 is correct, some darkness is on the menu which is a nice surprise, as I though the game would slightly shy away from that.

I'm going to wait a bit before beginning my playthrough though, as Persona 5 Strikers is hooking me a lot more than expected ! And with Monster Hunter Rise coming at the end of the month, I suppose BD is gonna take a back seat once again, until the summer I suppose ^^'
Chapter 3 gets dark enough that anything from chapter 2 looks like unicorns and butterflies in comparison. It’s definitely a game that is comfortable with allowing the bad guys to be truly evil to meet their goals. On the other hand, there are several bosses that are truly redeemable and you pity the situation that they are in. While this game is not a master class in writing, it is definitely willing to take risks to tell its story.

On another note, just beat the phantom asterisk. That was a tough fight. It’s the first that I’ve lost to multiple times. Eventually, I had to beat it with two tanks (one pure tank, the other a tank/white mage), a dedicated healer (freelancer/white mage to push his survivability) and one damage dealer. That boss was the toughest I’ve fought in a turn based rpg in a while. This was all after grinding out some job levels to fill in some holes in my passives.
 
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Sejan

Member
This so true, my god! I really like this game is not afraid to be very dark when it wants to.
The best thing is that it is dark in a believable way with a villain that actually has a realistic motivation.

I really love that it explored a corrupted religion without throwing the entire concept of religion under the bus like you see most of the time in games or movies. It handled the evil religion plot line with more respect toward religion than I’ve seen in a long time in any medium.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
The best thing is that it is dark in a believable way with a villain that actually has a realistic motivation.

I really love that it explored a corrupted religion without throwing the entire concept of religion under the bus like you see most of the time in games or movies. It handled the evil religion plot line with more respect toward religion than I’ve seen in a long time in any medium.
Very true and they are people who you fight against but still feel sorry for them like Gladys.
 

Sejan

Member
Very true and they are people who you fight against but still feel sorry for them like Gladys.
Absolutely, I love that they waited until after her death to complete her redemption arc. It made her story of loss alongside her tragedy of siding with the villain all the more impactful.

I’m also enjoying the recurring side quest story of the white mage and vanguard from the beginning. After losing their asterisks, they appear to have become good. I’m hoping that line has a satisfying conclusion.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
I’m also enjoying the recurring side quest story of the white mage and vanguard from the beginning. After losing their asterisks, they appear to have become good. I’m hoping that line has a satisfying conclusion.
I really like those two, they look like fun couple, yeah I also like to see nice conclusion to their stories
 
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reinking

Gold Member
I just unlocked thief (gambler too) and so far really liking the story. I agree with the sentiment that the game does allow characters to be dark based on their motivations. It isn't the best writing but it is good enough to keep me engaged. I'm not as fond of the voice acting as other seem to be.
 

Exentryk

Member
I've been enjoying my time as well. Basically been 1 turn killing all the bosses so far on hard, and now starting chapter 3. The story definitely has been getting darker as the chapters go. Lets see how this Chapter 3 unfolds.

P.S: That Enderno town is so cozy!

3Rl4AZQ.jpg
 

SinDelta

Member
Danjin44 Danjin44

How does this stack up to the first two games? I am considering getting the first Bravely Default for the 3DS. Remember liking the demo years back.

I've seen people say this is a sequel in the Final Fantasy sense of the word, ie each entry is independent (with a few exceptions like Final Fantasy X-2, Lightning Returns, ect.)
 
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Chapter 3 gets dark enough that anything from chapter 2 looks like unicorns and butterflies in comparison. It’s definitely a game that is comfortable with allowing the bad guys to be truly evil to meet their goals. On the other hand, there are several bosses that are truly redeemable and you pity the situation that they are in. While this game is not a master class in writing, it is definitely willing to take risks to tell its story.

On another note, just beat the phantom asterisk. That was a tough fight. It’s the first that I’ve lost to multiple times. Eventually, I had to beat it with two tanks (one pure tank, the other a tank/white mage), a dedicated healer (freelancer/white mage to push his survivability) and one damage dealer. That boss was the toughest I’ve fought in a turn based rpg in a while. This was all after grinding out some job levels to fill in some holes in my passives.

I just did that fight too, and yeah, it was pretty brutal. Took me a few tries.
 

Exentryk

Member
How does this stack up to the first two games? I am considering getting the first Bravely Default for the 3DS. Remember liking the demo years back.

I've seen people say this is a sequel in the Final Fantasy sense of the word, ie each entry is independent (with a few exceptions like Final Fantasy X-2, Lightning Returns, ect.)
I love the original games, and this series has my favourite turn-based combat ever. The original game is known for its combat, music and quality of life aspects (Encounter rate adjustments, EXP/Money/JP on/off, Auto-battle option using your last set of commands, speed up battles, one handed play, etc. The game has everything like the old school FFs with world map, airships, and it just feels like a great adventure. I highly recommend the first game and even the second.

This BD2 game does change a fair few things. The first is that we have lost random encounters to visible encounters, and have also lost all the quality of life aspects that the original had like being able to tweak the encounter rates to your liking. The second is that the combat system has been changed from round based to turn based. This somewhat devalues the Brave and Default commands compared to the original games. Lastly, the art-style is also different. Also, we don't get airships in this one.

Overall, I feel like BD2 is a step down from the original games, but it's still good enough that I'm enjoying myself a lot. The combat is the main draw of this series for me. There are so many jobs and abilities and they synergise so well, that you can have endless hours of fun coming up with unique party setups to take down enemies.

So yeah, you can't go wrong with playing either game first. Go for it!
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Danjin44 Danjin44

How does this stack up to the first two games? I am considering getting the first Bravely Default for the 3DS. Remember liking the demo years back.

I've seen people say this is a sequel in the Final Fantasy sense of the word, ie each entry is independent (with a few exceptions like Final Fantasy X-2, Lightning Returns, ect.)
I Ali played both pervious games and enjoying BD2 a LOT. I personally don’t have issues with changes they made when it comes to its combat.

Edit: Adam was one tough motherf**ker!!!
 
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Nico_D

Member
Kinda funny thing happened.

I was grinding jobs and ran into the woman boss in the forest. I had two white mages (grinding for Drain Attack for Seth-Vanguard) and then Berserker/Black Mage and Beast Master/Monk.

I thought I'd just take a peek of the boss and then switch to my actual jobs. What I found out was that two WMs is pretty tough. Spamming cures, protects, besudas and then building up the specials for both to bring everybody back to full health.

Pretty easy boss but I was surprised how well the combo worked. Beat the boss without troubles.
 
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Kimahri

Banned
I have a warrior now who's just... nothing kills him. He attacks every enemy on every attack. Every attack hits twice. Every attack drains health. Has counter. And carries two identical swords for extra damage. Most enemies I encounter goes down with one or two attacks. Like all of them. Game suddenly got really easy.
 

Sejan

Member
I love the original games, and this series has my favourite turn-based combat ever. The original game is known for its combat, music and quality of life aspects (Encounter rate adjustments, EXP/Money/JP on/off, Auto-battle option using your last set of commands, speed up battles, one handed play, etc. The game has everything like the old school FFs with world map, airships, and it just feels like a great adventure. I highly recommend the first game and even the second.

This BD2 game does change a fair few things. The first is that we have lost random encounters to visible encounters, and have also lost all the quality of life aspects that the original had like being able to tweak the encounter rates to your liking. The second is that the combat system has been changed from round based to turn based. This somewhat devalues the Brave and Default commands compared to the original games. Lastly, the art-style is also different. Also, we don't get airships in this one.

Overall, I feel like BD2 is a step down from the original games, but it's still good enough that I'm enjoying myself a lot. The combat is the main draw of this series for me. There are so many jobs and abilities and they synergise so well, that you can have endless hours of fun coming up with unique party setups to take down enemies.

So yeah, you can't go wrong with playing either game first. Go for it!
Most of the QoL improvements are still in the game, just in a different form. The way that they handle the on screen encounters largely mitigates the need to adjust them with lower level enemies fleeing from you on the map. This makes avoiding trash mob encounters rather easy for the parts of the game that you would most likely want to for the entirety of your play time rather than just the end. As far as turning off XP goes, there is a simple sidequest relatively early on that gives you a set of 4 accessories that does it on a character by character basis. There is also a button press to reuse your last set of commands for each character in battle. It’s not quite autobattle, but it’s almost there and potentially useful in more situations. Speeding up battles and one handed mode are still present as they were before. While these QoL improvements may appear different here, they are mostly still present throughout the game in albeit different ways.

While the battle system has changed, I didn’t find it too difficult to adjust to the new system. I certainly would have preferred some means of more clearly seeing turn order, but I do like that the battle system has a different feel that allows the player to take advantage of the speed stat (both high and low can be useful in different situations).
 

Sejan

Member
Adam can go to hell. I'm tired of grinding just to survive his attacks.
I just finished that fight without too much trouble.
I used the Bastion’s ability Rampart to nullify most of his attacks entirely. As a healer, I used an oracle subclassed with white mage. Elvis was set up as a arcanist/black mage but he was mostly worthless aside from having the noble sacrifice stability which did help mostly he just served to toss out an occasional Phoenix down or ether. All of my damage came from a phantom/sword master with a ripper dagger equipped to give him a strong attack vs Adam.

My turns were pretty straightforward
Bastion used rampart every time since I think all his attacks are physical
Healer healed as necessary
Arcanist defaulted or Phoenix down while trying to look important
Phantom reapplied solid stance if he ever died and attacked otherwise

Adam does have a huge desperation attack that nearly wiped me out, but my arcanist actually became useful at the last moment with a noble sacrifice.

All in all, Rampart won the battle through in through. I did find it worked best to not use any moves to force Adam to attack one character or another since rampart works best if he attacks everyone.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
I just finished that fight without too much trouble
I had my Aadelle in Berseker class and giving her sub job abilities of rangers to dodge counters and also multitask so she can hit even more and I was able to do crazy damage to Adam. He still hits pretty hard but my poor Seth gets most of the damage.

His tough but never grind in order beat him, when I lost, I just adjusted my part’s job set up.
 

Sejan

Member
I had my Aadelle in Berseker class and giving her sub job abilities of rangers to dodge counters and also multitask so she can hit even more and I was able to do crazy damage to Adam. He still hits pretty hard but my poor Seth gets most of the damage.

His tough but never grind in order beat him, when I lost, I just adjusted my part’s job set up.
Yeah. The most I’d recommend grinding for a boss is a few job levels in case you need a specific ability or passive or maybe an experience level for another unit of carry weight. This isn’t a game where 1-2 character levels is going to make much of a difference.
 

Exentryk

Member
Most of the QoL improvements are still in the game, just in a different form. The way that they handle the on screen encounters largely mitigates the need to adjust them with lower level enemies fleeing from you on the map. This makes avoiding trash mob encounters rather easy for the parts of the game that you would most likely want to for the entirety of your play time rather than just the end. As far as turning off XP goes, there is a simple sidequest relatively early on that gives you a set of 4 accessories that does it on a character by character basis. There is also a button press to reuse your last set of commands for each character in battle. It’s not quite autobattle, but it’s almost there and potentially useful in more situations. Speeding up battles and one handed mode are still present as they were before. While these QoL improvements may appear different here, they are mostly still present throughout the game in albeit different ways.

While the battle system has changed, I didn’t find it too difficult to adjust to the new system. I certainly would have preferred some means of more clearly seeing turn order, but I do like that the battle system has a different feel that allows the player to take advantage of the speed stat (both high and low can be useful in different situations).
The QoL options in BD2 are significantly worse than what we already had in BD1 and BDS.

  1. Visible encounters are a significant downgrade:
    • You can't avoid encounters and make enemies run away if you're not overlevelled.
    • Even with Ward Light, you still need to avoid enemies manually, which can be tricky in narrow dungeon paths. You also have to keep using this item every minute or so by going in to the menu. And if you get too close to the enemies, they'll see you anyway.
    • If you want to grind enemies, it's now a lot harder because you have to chase the enemies as they might be running away from you. Even with treats, once you kill an on-screen enemy, you have to wait for them to spawn again.
    • So overall, visible encounters are just worse in every case compared to previous games.
  2. The no EXP/PG/JP accessories can't be gotten until late game. I'm in chapter 3 and still haven't gotten it. We had these options available from the start of the game in BD1 and BDS.
  3. The option to use the last set of commands is only per character. It was much better in previous games where you could do it for your whole party in one go, and leave it on auto after doing that once. Now you have to press buttons on every turn.
  4. BDS even had the options to save your load-outs. We don't have anything like that here, and it's sorely needed.
So overall, no, the QoL aspects in BD2 are not the same things as BD1 in different form. They're significantly worse.

Also, while the battle system is easy enough, the changes make the titular mehanics Brave and Default worse. For example, Braving into negative slows you down, and Default no longer works at the start of the round, so your weaker slower characters and tank characters might not even be able to use Default before getting hit.

All this to say, the game can still be enjoyable. The Ward Light item is good enough to make things less tedious and I basically use it 100% of the time in dungeons. I'm having a good time overall.
 

Sejan

Member
The QoL options in BD2 are significantly worse than what we already had in BD1 and BDS.

  1. Visible encounters are a significant downgrade:
    • You can't avoid encounters and make enemies run away if you're not overlevelled.
    • Even with Ward Light, you still need to avoid enemies manually, which can be tricky in narrow dungeon paths. You also have to keep using this item every minute or so by going in to the menu. And if you get too close to the enemies, they'll see you anyway.
    • If you want to grind enemies, it's now a lot harder because you have to chase the enemies as they might be running away from you. Even with treats, once you kill an on-screen enemy, you have to wait for them to spawn again.
    • So overall, visible encounters are just worse in every case compared to previous games.
  2. The no EXP/PG/JP accessories can't be gotten until late game. I'm in chapter 3 and still haven't gotten it. We had these options available from the start of the game in BD1 and BDS.
  3. The option to use the last set of commands is only per character. It was much better in previous games where you could do it for your whole party in one go, and leave it on auto after doing that once. Now you have to press buttons on every turn.
  4. BDS even had the options to save your load-outs. We don't have anything like that here, and it's sorely needed.
So overall, no, the QoL aspects in BD2 are not the same things as BD1 in different form. They're significantly worse.

Also, while the battle system is easy enough, the changes make the titular mehanics Brave and Default worse. For example, Braving into negative slows you down, and Default no longer works at the start of the round, so your weaker slower characters and tank characters might not even be able to use Default before getting hit.

All this to say, the game can still be enjoyable. The Ward Light item is good enough to make things less tedious and I basically use it 100% of the time in dungeons. I'm having a good time overall.
I’m pretty sure that I got the no exp accessory by chapter 2 or even chapter 1. I’m not certain, as I’ve never actually used it to this point. It’s a side quest reward so it would be easy to miss if your aren’t looking for it. I think the quest was in the starting city, but I don’t know when it became available.
 

Exentryk

Member
I’m pretty sure that I got the no exp accessory by chapter 2 or even chapter 1. I’m not certain, as I’ve never actually used it to this point. It’s a side quest reward so it would be easy to miss if your aren’t looking for it. I think the quest was in the starting city, but I don’t know when it became available.
It's not. I've done all side quests up till now. Checked each location in day and night. You don't get it before chapter 3 and it might even be in chapter 4, who knows.

If you have revenge passive skill on your tank then there no need to for him/her to default.
Defaulting is to reduce damage, not only just raising BP. So Revenge will not help at all here.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Defaulting is to reduce damage, not only just raising BP. So Revenge will not help at all here.
With my Tank I didn’t do much defaulting and mostly used " Defender of the People" skill to protect my other party members.
 

Sejan

Member
It's not. I've done all side quests up till now. Checked each location in day and night. You don't get it before chapter 3 and it might even be in chapter 4, who knows.


Defaulting is to reduce damage, not only just raising BP. So Revenge will not help at all here.
Just looked it up. It’s a side quest at the end of chapter 3. My mistake.
 

Exentryk

Member
With my Tank I didn’t do much defaulting and mostly used " Defender of the People" skill to protect my other party members.
That's fine, but the point I'm making is that Default doesn't work as well in this combat system compared to the previous games. For example, in previous games, if I'm up against a boss, I can default for all 4 characters and it will get executed before the boss attacks, thus making Default very useful. In this game, Default will only execute when the character gets their turn, which might mean the boss has already attacked and killed a few characters and they didn't even get to Default. An example of this can be seen below:

 

Sejan

Member
That's fine, but the point I'm making is that Default doesn't work as well in this combat system compared to the previous games. For example, in previous games, if I'm up against a boss, I can default for all 4 characters and it will get executed before the boss attacks, thus making Default very useful. In this game, Default will only execute when the character gets their turn, which might mean the boss has already attacked and killed a few characters and they didn't even get to Default. An example of this can be seen below:


I’ve lost a few random battles that I didn’t give proper respect to, but I’ve never had the issue of having my tank die before I got an action before. I’ve lost a blackmage or another squishy character before they got a turn, but I’ve seen that result happen in BD and BS, too. I’m assuming that he went into that battle either underleveled or undergeared to have that experience. He must have wandered into a higher leveled area without realizing it or ran past a bunch of enemies and found himself woefully underleveled. Either way, the result of that battle would have the exact same in either of the games before regardless of the battle system.
 

Exentryk

Member
I’ve lost a few random battles that I didn’t give proper respect to, but I’ve never had the issue of having my tank die before I got an action before. I’ve lost a blackmage or another squishy character before they got a turn, but I’ve seen that result happen in BD and BS, too. I’m assuming that he went into that battle either underleveled or undergeared to have that experience. He must have wandered into a higher leveled area without realizing it or ran past a bunch of enemies and found himself woefully underleveled. Either way, the result of that battle would have the exact same in either of the games before regardless of the battle system.
Not really. In the previous games, you'd be able to check the enemy stats when the battle started, and either Default, or flee the battle if needed. In this game, you don't get any chance to do anything (in that situation). That's the difference.
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Not really. In the previous games, you'd be able to check the enemy stats when the battle started, and either Default, or flee the battle if needed. In this game, you don't get any chance to do anything (in that situation). That's the difference.
I can see it might bother some people but I honestly didn’t have that much issue with, most encounters that killed me in first turn usually optional super bosses I was severely under levelled and under equipped regardless if I could default or not.
 

Exentryk

Member
I can see it might bother some people but I honestly didn’t have that much issue with, most encounters that killed me in first turn usually optional super bosses I was severely under levelled and under equipped regardless if I could default or not.
Don't get me wrong. BD2 is easy enough even on hard that this hasn't caused any issues. But I'm just highlighting how the battle system has changed.

As far as how I'm doing, well, been one turn killing all the bosses on hard so far. I'm currently in chapter 3.
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Don't get me wrong. BD2 is easy enough even on hard that this hasn't caused any issues. But I'm just highlighting how the battle system has changed.

As far as how I'm doing, well, been one turn killing all the bosses on hard so far. I'm currently in chapter 3.
What level are you at currently!?
 

Sejan

Member
Not really. In the previous games, you'd be able to check the enemy stats when the battle started, and either Default, or flee the battle if needed. In this game, you don't get any chance to do anything (in that situation). That's the difference.
You could just as easily say that you could see from a distance that the enemy is glowing red and get back.

I really struggle to say that one system is inherently better than the other. They each have strengths and weaknesses that must be taken into account, and each system has tweaks that could make it better.

In BD’s original style you had the option to input commands before the enemy acted. Slower characters only acted later as a penalty for being slow and as such were artificially strengthened since they still acted just as often as a speedy character.

In this style, speed is a much more important factor in building your party. A faster character has an advantage over a slower character in that they get more actions over the course of a lengthy battle.

Obviously, there are more factors than speed alone, but its certainly a big consideration in the formula. I love both systems, but if I were forced to choose one over the other I would honestly take BD2’s system. In my opinion it’s allows for a few more variables to consider with party composition. If a theoretical BD3 were made and they reverted to the system in BD1, I would not complain about it. The biggest change that I would like to see to the system in BD2 is a action bar on the side of the screen that shows everyone’s turn order. I’d really appreciate having a better idea of how much of an effect moves that delay an enemy’s turn actually have with a visual indicator of some sort.
 

Exentryk

Member
You could just as easily say that you could see from a distance that the enemy is glowing red and get back.
The thing is that even non-red glowing enemies can kill you. And that still doesn't solve the situation of being able to take action before the enemy acts, like Defaulting.

Also, BD2's system where faster characters get more turns than slower characters is just unfair to slower classes. It gives undue advantage to faster classes. BD1's system was an even playing field for all classes (faster and slower), and each class got one turn in a round. The faster class went first, but the slower class wasn't being left behind in the overall battle, like they do here.

So it's easy for me to say that the previous games had an inherently better system.

While I don't mind playing this system, and would be okay if BD3 went with this speed focussed system again, what I would really love is to go back to the old system.
 
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SinDelta

Member
Danjin44 Danjin44

Just got Bravely Default 1. Gonna install it when my 3DS memory is upgraded from 4gb to 32gb.

What am I in for?

Damn the 3DS lineup is monstrous. Also looking at Dragon Quest V, VIII, Radiant Historia. I might have to hold off on Monster Hunter Rise for now...
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
What am I in for?
JRPG with great turn based combat but it has nice quality of life feature like controlling the amount of random encounter and combat speed. But there is one controversial part that happens near end of the game but will find out yourself once you play the game.
 

SinDelta

Member
JRPG with great turn based combat but it has nice quality of life feature like controlling the amount of random encounter and combat speed. But there is one controversial part that happens near end of the game but will find out yourself once you play the game.
Did you mind these "controversial part" though? Do you consider the game good enough to overcome them?

I did research, but I would like to hear from you on this.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Did you mind these "controversial part" though? Do you consider the game good enough to overcome them?

I did research, but I would like to hear from you on this.
If you are enjoying the combat then maybe, “controversial” part is much more gameplay related rather than story.
 

bender

What time is it?
That's fine, but the point I'm making is that Default doesn't work as well in this combat system compared to the previous games. For example, in previous games, if I'm up against a boss, I can default for all 4 characters and it will get executed before the boss attacks, thus making Default very useful. In this game, Default will only execute when the character gets their turn, which might mean the boss has already attacked and killed a few characters and they didn't even get to Default. An example of this can be seen below:



"This game is trash. I want to go again."
 

Exentryk

Member
Completed chapter 3 and so far it has been the best chapter. Nice story and surprises and some great cutscenes.
 

SinDelta

Member
Danjin44 Danjin44

I got Bravely Default 1. Nifty so far, but very early in the game.

Artstyle is amazing, a striking overview storybook/Ghibli like contrast to Vanillaware side view. More games should do art like this. Music is pretty catchy. Party chat reminds me of Tales skits.
 
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D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
That's fine, but the point I'm making is that Default doesn't work as well in this combat system compared to the previous games. For example, in previous games, if I'm up against a boss, I can default for all 4 characters and it will get executed before the boss attacks, thus making Default very useful. In this game, Default will only execute when the character gets their turn, which might mean the boss has already attacked and killed a few characters and they didn't even get to Default. An example of this can be seen below:



What the hell? Is this at all a common occurrence?
 
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