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[Fou-Lu]

I bought BD on release day, but only got to chapter 3 before dropping it for other things. I decided to return to it and am enjoying it much more this time. I am currently in Chapter 5 and redoing everything over again, which is both interesting (the story is finally getting unique and I love fighting stronger versions of battles in games) and kind of annoying (it's a lot of padding)!

I have been using dual wield, katana lore, and sword magic on two of my characters to deal massive damage, a black mage/arcanist and a white mage/spiritualist, and it has really shortened battle times, but I would love to hear about interesting job combinations other people have. I am only level 56, which I think might be a little low for the point I am at, but things seem to be going smoothly still.

While I am talking BD, is the sequel better or worse or more of the same? Now that I am actually liking BD the sequel is looking more attractive.

 

[Aaronrules380]

I remember cheesing the final boss fights with Dark Knight's magic absorb ability, but I can't really remember my actual setups much

 

[Nemofio]

The second game is less repetitive and adds a lot of improvement at battle system.

 

[jorgejjvr]

I loved BD, and the sequel is actually even better

 

[HiroTSK5]

I got the game at launch as well and have played through it a few times, and I'm with you that that repetition is unique but does get weary.

I would say the game play of Second is improved with tweaks to the abilities jobs get and the new jobs, but the story feels like a step down from the first game and while I like Ryo the music in Second just doesn't compare to Revo's music in the first.

 

[themagicalkitsune]

Dark Knight + Sword Magic is too OP.

Add the Mimic ability of the freelancer to it for the other characters and pretty much any battle is over, if memory does not fail me.

 

[Frost Walrus]

BD has an interesting idea for a story, but the execution makes me think that they should have rewritten the back half of it for the sake of the gameplay. Pretty fun RPG otherwise.

 

[Dot-N-Run]

Ninja has an ability that dodges a single physical attack. Red mage gets a passive that gives you 2BP when you dodge. Since everything from cannon fire to dragon breath is considered physical, putting the two together makes certain fights a breeze.

Dark Knight + Sword Magic is what to use when you just want to win however.

 

[Fou-Lu]

What makes Dark Knight work so well with Sword Magic?

 

[themagicalkitsune]

What makes Dark Knight work so well with Sword Magic?

A lot of Dark Knight's abilities sacrifice your character's HP for increased damage, so having sword drain (for example) to sacrifice your enemy's HP instead = overkill (and you still get to keep your HP). Essentially you can spam a lot of OP Dark Knight attacks in a row, like Dark Bane.

Here's a demonstration (nemesis battle)

 

[Yohane]

Love BD. Second half is not nearly as terrible as people say.

I have mixed feeling on BD2, tons of content is recycled from BD1 and the story/dialogues feels like a bad fanfiction.

 

[SciencePilot]

I love, love, love Bravely Default so much (and its sequel).

There are a ton of broken strategies. An easy one is Pirate + swordmaster which has amped strike + free lunch. Amped strike is a super powerful attack that costs like 100+ MP, but free lunch gives you free MP.

Another great combination is having one character a spiritmaster and your other characters are ninjas. Give your spirit master all speed buffing equipment so it's super fast and casts stillness at the beginning of the turn all the time. This makes it so that your party can never take damage. Then your ninjas use their move that allows them to act at the beginning of the turn, allowing them to attack before stillness takes effect! This strategy makes you completely invincible.

On Bravely Second compared to Default:

• Story and music are better in Default
• Graphics are better in Second
• There are some gameplay tweaks/improvements that subtly but significantly improve Second
• Second does not have anything bad like Default Chapter 5+

Overall, I would say Second is the slightly better game, technically speaking. Absolutely worth playing if you liked Default. However, I think at the end of the day, I slightly prefer Default.

 

[ZombiePlatypus]

I love the art, music, characters and atmosphere in this game. But, I felt so burned by the story and "twist" that I still can't bring myself to try the sequel yet. Maybe after more time passes.

 

[Glass Rebel]

In retrospect, the only thing I disliked about Bravely Default was that it din't go to far with the twist. They should have consulted with Yoko Taro to make something really special. It was still a great game though.

 

[Fou-Lu]

At the true final boss now. This music is incredible! The amount you need to loop to get here is kinda dumb, but I had fun anyway.

Poor Tiz suffers from Vaan syndrome, he is the 'main character' but the story is much more about Edea, Agnes and Ringabel to different degrees.

 

[yanipheonu]

I'm not one to cry fowl at reused assets and levels very often, but that last third of Bravely Default reeaaaly pushes it with reused content, it's one of the more egregious examples of it I've seen.

The ending and final bosses are awesome (those Boss Themes!!!) and worth muddling through the last parts of the game for sure.

 

[Sinh_Magnus]

It seems you liked the game OP, Do you plan to play the second game?

While I can't recommend these games for their story/characters, I do think both games make use of interesting plot points. The second one specially has some cool stuff going on for it.

I think that the combat is really good and what really shines in both games. So many posibilities and combinations.

 

[wizard341]

Like others have mentioned, Dark Knight + Sword magic is a great combo, especially boss battles with multiple enemies you want to kill (using Black Bane + drain life)

For healing, I used the Salve-Maker + White Mage combo (you can res your entire party with 1 action and 1 curaga should heal your entire party if you add the Arcanist's Holy One ability).

I also used a dual-wielding pirate/freelancer combo. Get that character up to 4 bp, use amped strike once, plus 3 mimics + 4 more mimics next turn and do 69993 damage (9999 * 7) in 2 turns to 1 target.

 

[KHlover]

I actually like the second half more than the first half. The fights are *way* better.

 

[Fou-Lu]

I will definitely get the second game now, I liked this one more than enough to want to play the sequel. In the long run the combat and job systems really came into their own and I would like to see what happens with them. Plus the story was interesting enough and did some unique things that make me excited to see what's next even if it was rough.

 

[Reki]

At the true final boss now. This music is incredible! The amount you need to loop to get here is kinda dumb, but I had fun anyway.

Poor Tiz suffers from Vaan syndrome, he is the 'main character' but the story is much more about Edea, Agnes and Ringabel to different degrees.

Big spoilers from after the true final boss, don't read if you haven't finished the game yet:

Spoiler

I mean Ouroboros, just to be clear. I found it amazing that the Celestial Realm was basically the real world, as you can see in the use of the camera in the final battle. At the very end it also confirms that Tiz actually died in Norende, but then he "revived" with the soul of the player. So the end of the game is also the end of his life as the player won't be there anymore. That's resolved in Second of course, but I haven't played it yet.

And I agree; as someone who loves to complete everything in games, the padding was terrible.

 

[Fou-Lu]

I was just going to comment on how cool I thought the celestial world and Tiz connections were. Also love the Bravely Second trailer at the end. Good use of gyro.

 

[sotojuan]

Many mixed feelings about this game. I was one of those people who really could not stand the repetition in the last half of the game :-( Almost dropped the game because of it, but I was glad I beat it. Everything else ranges form decent to awesome. Dialogue could've been better - some characters just kinda repeated the same few lines over and over because "that's their personality!".

I did like that the game is not a cakewalk, the music, and overall presentation.

 

[Szadek]

If you liked the first game, you should defiently play the sequel.
Maybe not right away, but it's worth coming back for.

 

[ZeroX03]

I will definitely get the second game now, I liked this one more than enough to want to play the sequel. In the long run the combat and job systems really came into their own and I would like to see what happens with them. Plus the story was interesting enough and did some unique things that make me excited to see what's next even if it was rough.

Yes play the second game, but don't do it immediately. Give it some time.

 

[Galactic Fork]

I got the game at launch as well and have played through it a few times, and I'm with you that that repetition is unique but does get weary.

I would say the game play of Second is improved with tweaks to the abilities jobs get and the new jobs, but the story feels like a step down from the first game and while I like Ryo the music in Second just doesn't compare to Revo's music in the first.

I really liked the idea of the second half, but I felt they just sort of phone it in after

Spoiler

the first reality jump. They could have continued the plot line more, have your interaction with those worlds be more fleshed out. Have you interfere with or be interfered with by the alternate versions of yourself. But no, all the points of interest were laid out, it amounted to just some interactions with alternate versions, if you even wanted to do them. I just never felt engaged. It all just felt like padding because they made Airy wings start with 6, so we had had to go through several worlds before she reached 0.

 

[watershed]

I wanted to like this game a lot more than I did in the end. I put some 15 hours or so into the game but never finished it. It has a lot of classic JRPG elements but it just never hit that sweet spot for me.

I do want the series to continue beyond 2 though. I'd love a 3rd game on the Switch or something.

 

[Exentryk]

Also, don't forget to fight the optional boss. Great fight and lets you use the combat system to its fullest.

The Bravely series is my favourite turn based combat system of all. The amount of depth and variety is insane! The second game also introduces a new combat mechanic, which after you experience it, will feel like every RPG should have that mechanic.

I am really looking forward to seeing what the devs do with BD3 (more so about what device it will show up on).