Bravely Second: End Layer - Nintendo 3DS

[NO SPOILERS HERE] I've been waiting for this game since it's initial release in Japan over a year ago and so far I have not been disappointed. I fell in love with the Bravely series because it seemed to bring back a lot of what made Final Fantasy successful originally. I'm not talking about the jRPG style, job classes, and crystals (although those are some fun throwbacks to a time long gone), but in the quirks of the characters, the goofy situations, and the ability to put the story first. No spending 45 minutes hammering buttons for 10 minutes of story. Now I get 45 minutes of story and hammer buttons for 10 minutes. In that, a lot of the positives from the first game come to the second game. Here are my list of pros and cons. Please note, t's actually difficult to write a review for this game since it borrows so many elements from the first one. City building, the job system (along with skills and abilities), magic scrolls, and even the graphics engine and parts of the soundtrack are recycled. I won't be mentioning these in my pros and cons list unless it directly relates to the new stuff :) Pros 1. A lot of the same things that made the first game great also make the second game great. The job classes give you a ton of options for combat, strategy, and out-of-combat scenarios. Much like the first game, you battle special bosses to get new jobs and level up jobs to obtain new abilities and skills. I won't go in-depth with it since it is, essentially, the same mechanics as the first one. Thankfully, the first one was awesome, so no complaints here because it's not old yet. 2. The story line is, I think, a little better than Bravely Default. The characters are a bit more believable this time around and the voice acting seems more competently done. I'm not talking about in terms of sheer content or quality, but the kind of "okay, now we understand what we're doing better" polish that comes with making a sequel. Yes, this improvement also translates to the characters from the first game as well. The whole thing feels more "grown up" and polished, which definitely contributed to an improved experience. 3. The graphics are, again, just lovely. Towns, dungeons, and landscapes have that "hand drawn" quality to them and they work well with 3D (even on the older 3DS and 3DSXL). There are a few recycled locations from the first game, but much of it is new which kind of expands the world. 4. The soundtrack is phenomenal. I was worried because they didn't bring the composer from the first game back. However, they actually blended the first game and the second game soundtracks together and the new composer did a great job making his new compositions fit into the world. Quirky when needed, epic when needed, and good experience overall. 5. I actually really enjoy that the next story took place soon enough after the last one to where the characters could come back and make an impact. The old cast of characters gives it a solid foundation that the new characters can grow from. This gives SE a route to slowly phase out old characters and add new ones over time, giving the series itself a "moving parts" feeling that gives me hope that there will be more games. 6. Despite it borrowing a lot from the first game, a lot of the mechanics were improved slightly. Auto-battle is now configurable, the "diary" aspect is more streamlined (I think), and little tweaks (like being able to brave a single move by pressing the button while selecting the monster to hit) takes away a lot of the clunky feeling that Bravely Default had. You can, in fact, play this entire game with only your left hand. 7. They made grinding even faster by allowing you to chain battles quickly. Yay for less grinding and more story line. They've also included more ways to grind for various things. For instance, the Chomp maker game is a great way to farm gold. It not only gives you the ability to get super high leveled super fast, but it opens up more ways to play the game. For instance, when I get to a new location, I grind until I complete the bestiary in that region. Then I turn battles off and walk around blissfully. Cons 1. Because the game borrows so much from the prior title, there isn't a lot of "newness" that comes with this game. I'm not too upset at this because it's still a very well written game and the mechanics are solid, but I didn't realize that they were going to borrow so many things from the first game. On top of that, you immediately get the "start where you left off" feeling which kind of nullifies the "I just bought a new game" feeling lol. 2. I guess some of the content was altered or censored for North American markets. Censorship from Japan to North America happens on virtually everything that comes from Japan so this is no surprise to me. As far as I can tell, it's like 95% aesthetic changes. Less skin showing and stuff like that. Since that stuff literally doesn't matter at all when it comes to story line, I didn't remove any stars. I don't like it anymore than anyone else, but I think acting out like this is some new thing that started happening yesterday is disingenuous. The Siren summon used to be naked in Final Fantasy 6 and she got covered up in the NA release. These things happen. Calm down, folks. Overall, I'm very happy with this game. It feels like a natural continuation of Bravely Default and the blend of old stuff and new stuff seems to hit almost all of the right areas. I do wish there'd been a little more "new" and a little less "recycled", but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy hearing the Land of Immortality song or Edea's theme when she made her character entrance. Make no mistake, the Bravely series is a fresh drink of water in the continuously stagnating pool of jRPG options. In fact, if Pokemon didn't exist, the argument could be made that the genre would've died out years ago. Thankfully, there are still developers willing to explore what it has to offer and the Bravely series exists. I couldn't be happier.

This review is unbiased towards the censorship that occurred. Purely because I really didn't buy the game for it's politically correctness... I just wanted to play the game and I just so happen to not be able to read Japanese. TLDR: I consider it to possibly be my favorite game on the 3DS. This, accounting for the bias that I actually didn't watch any videos. I have almost no idea about the overall story (aside from what I was able to pick up). So my review is purely on the gameplay. That being said, with rushing through the game without watching videos, you're looking at about 28hrs (Which justifies $40 IMO). It also should have fairly good replayability, not to mention many hidden dungeons and mega bosses. Having played the first one, I was a bit apprehensive about the grind-to-come. This sequel brings a few things to the table that make huge improvements on the first one. With so many different classes, it'd be a pain to train them all (4 times each), and they fixed that with chaining. That being said, the chaining can get you maxed out pretty quick. That also being said, you can max out pretty quickly, which makes the game easy. As for improvements, I'd say that is the best because it actually gives you an incentive to train things up. And with so many different classes, you actually CAN play using many different techniques. This is great because it actually gives the game a lot of replayability. Aside from those changes, the game is VERY similar to the first. So if you loved the first but hated the grind, then I'm sure you'll like this. As well with the grinding, it almost becomes your own fault if you can't be a boss. (this is a jab at how the last boss on the first one could 1 hit TKO you at any moment, which made your builds have to be very specific). And that is where I'll leave my review of the game specifically ***General comments/complaints that may spoil*** - I found that team became overpowered fairly quickly. The bishop/spellcrafter is quite ridiculous. I found that once Yew was maxed on those, I had no reason to change him. This is slightly due to the chaining system. - Speaking of overpowered, that same team that I had for probably 70% of the game lead me to beating it without ever using Bravely Second, or summoning a friend, or even using magic items. - Because of the chaining system, I would just sit there and grind for a while and then turn off encounters when in dungeons. This way I could explore without worry, but still keep my levels up. This surely wasn't how things were intended, but it worked for me. - I never really had any massive damage moments unless I criticaled, which still only net me about 4,000 damage. All of my physicals had triple wield and multitask though, so my net damage was usually 4-7k later on.

I was excited when Bravely Second was announced a while back, and even more excited when the game was actually released. Using basic and traditional JRPG mechanics and elements, this game takes customization and strategy to a whole new level. Much like its predecessor, Bravely Default, the traditional Brave and Default commands have returned to help you plan your battles and wipe out your foes efficiently. Although it is not entirely necessary to play Bravely Default first, it is a direct sequel to the game, so there might be a little misunderstanding for some parts of the story even though the game does its best to explain everything to newcomers. The StreetPass features are also wonderful to have, since as you progress throughout the game the village system also returns, where you must help reconstruct the MOON with the help of your fellow StreetPassers! In addition to reconstructing the moon, you are all Ba'al Busters, where Ba'als will invade the moon and you and your friends can attack the Ba'als with... Well, Ba'al Buster ships. Unlike Bravely Default, where you obtain a specific class through side quests, this time side quests provide an option between one of two classes that you can obtain through a series of dilemmas where returned party member Edea solves through several conflicts between both sides of the party with valid reasoning. This can make for an interesting mix for your playthrough, and often times a way for you to really alternate your party a little. Not only can you customize your class, but the battle system customization has also returned, where you can set the encounter rate to either grind, or to completely evade enemies. Don't want to grind EXP? pg? JP? You have the option to turn those on and off as well! Overall, Bravely Second: End Layer is a greater success than Bravely Default with more features slapped onto the game done in a proper manner. If you're looking for something that feels like an old school JRPG with an interchangeable class system, I would highly recommend picking up Bravely Second today!

So I am about halfway through the game, but have decided to give a preliminary/initial review for those who may be wondering if it is worth getting this game. I will try to avoid spoilers, but I'll bring up tropes and common things I see from other JRPGs, which I guess could be spoilery to some? i will not spoil any actual story/plot from this game though. So, first things first, do you need to have played the first game to play this one? Some say yes, some say it doesn't really matter. I'd say yes. You do get a little re-cap of the first game with a slideshow of sketches from the first game's major plot points, voiced over by some mysterious female voice, but once you start playing the game, you might feel left out. For those who have played this and are wondering whether or not to get it, say you aren't big on sequel games, well, if you only sort of liked the first game, then this may not be for you. It pretty much plays the same as the first game. They change things up a little, you have more options when it comes to fighting battles, but so far out of laziness, I have been pretty much been playing this the same way I did the first game. While this is a sequel, I would describe it more like a Bravely Default 1.5. You are still in the same world, you re-visit all the same towns and worldly places from the first game. While optional, you can get all of the same asterisks from the first game, which I think is a big plus, and I'll get into why later. You revisit the same dungeons from the first game, but only when getting those optional asterisks. Lots of same enemies you fight, but some new ones. So far I have been enjoying this game, but I don't find myself as emotionally invested in it as I was when I played the first game, but, since I'm only halfway into it, hopefully that will change. Now for the cons of the game: *The new asterisks. While most of them are useful, the best ones you don't get until much later in the game. So far I have used a combination of the new asterisks and the old ones, but a few of the new ones I've gotten, are completely useless and I have never used them. Had the asterisks from the first game had not been made available to you as you progress through the main story, you probably wouldn't be having a good time. The best thing about having the new and old asterisks is making combos with them that break the game and allow you to cheese through boss battles. It may be cheating, but it is pretty satisfying. **The story-So far, the story is just kinda meh. The 4 characters on your team are good though. They have good personalities and you get emotionally invested into them. I will say though, the writing for this same is kind of silly? It relies on lots of puns too, yeah, it's mildly amusing, but a lot of the times I find myself just skipping through the dialogue. The bad guy's motives are pretty dumb and uninteresting. The main villain is your typical, cardboard cut-out type of bad guy, and his plan to take over the world, follows a tired-old trope that I have seen done in so many other JRPGs. I won' spoil it, but if you have played Tales of Graces f you might know what I mean. Having just come from playing The Fire Emblem Fates games, where the bad guys were that same, card-board cut out, Saturday Morning Cartoon-Villain, 1-dimensional, who were evil just for the sake of being evil, I was hoping for a little more. The first game had a lot more going for it, it was much more complicated as to why the bad guys were doing what they were doing, it was not as black-and-white. Now, this being a JRPG, it wouldn't surprise me if there is some major plot twist with the bad guy's motive behind his plan, yadda yadda. I feel like this game was more geared towards a younger audience with it's story and writing? It is much more light-hearted. Those awful puns and dilly banter between your party contribute a lot to the silliness. The first game had some pretty dark elements to it, such as, war, genocide brought on by chemical warfare, children murdering each other with their bare hands, the villains driving a all-female village insane by poisoning them, one of them taking advantage of those same women and torturing them in a dungeon, religious persecution, a evil monster trying to tear apart and destroy worlds across different dimensions. Again, I am only halfway through the game, but so far it has been pretty bland. ***Grinding/lack of money early on in the game/hard to level up asterisks on-Now, some people hate grinding, others don't mind it. I don't mind it all that much, while it is tedious, I have never had an issues with grinding in JRPGs, and I have done it in pretty much every one I've ever played. With this game however, you really have to grind. The best way to do it is to grind in-between dungeons and do the optional missions to get the asterisks from the first game , which require you to go through a dungeon first. One major addition to this game, is that in every dungeon you go into you, you are given a range of what level your party should be at. The optional asterisk dungeons are always at a lower range tan the main story dungeons. For example: An optional asterisk dungeon may be at a 15-19 lvl range , while the main story dungeon may be a 17-21 lvl range. At first I would get my party to 2 levels below the highest suggested lvl, and was able to beat the bosses OK, however, once I got to the next set of dungeons, I'd be way under-leveled, and would have to grind longer. Unless you are playing on casual mode, the bosses and even some of the monsters can give you a hard time, so if you don't grind, and are under-leveled, you'll get your but kicked. The nice thing is though, that you get the same exp and money no matter what difficulty you are on. Switching it to casual mode makes it almost too easy though, especially if you are using those game-breaking asterisk combos I mentioned earlier, which makes it even easier to cheese through a battle. --As for the money, yeah, getting money early on in the game is a pain, the spells, weapons, and armor is not cheap. I had to money grind a few times just so I could afford stuff I needed from the shops. This game does what pretty much every JRPG does, you go to a town, feel the need to upgrade all your stuff, then when you go into the next town, you need to upgrade all your stuff again, because your current stuff is now too weak. ----Leveling up your asterisks is pretty tedious too, you get very little job exp from fighting monsters. There is one plus about getting around this though, is with a new feature of this game, where you are able to fight another round of monsters if you take no hits, or cream through the monsters quickly. You can accept or decline the challenge, but if you accept and win, you have almost double the exp, money, and job exp. Sometimes another round of monsters comes at you where you have no choice to fight them. Sometimes you may be able to fight 3 rounds of monsters. The thing to do, is fight certain enemies where you can wipe them all out in one hit, which will trigger getting another round of monsters to fight. if you do this a whole bunch, grinding will go much faster which is nice. I've started to go on way too long with this review, so, should you get it or not? I'd say yes. Despite all the cons I just listed, I have been enjoying this game so far, After putting over 100 hours into the Fire Emblem Fates games, it's nice to go into a JRPG like this one.

Loved the first game. It is a good sequel but just different enough to not get me the same feeling as the first one.

I bought this game recently and have just awoken Tiz, so I'm not that far into the story. Even though I haven't played that much, I can already tell that I will absolutely love this game as much as I did with Bravely Default. The game is pretty much the same which was nice, because it still feels like Bravely Default. Of course, there are still a good number of new features, some of which I probably haven't experienced yet. The art is still unique and beautiful with its hand drawn look and the maps are similar, but they also have a new feature added onto them that you'll just have to find out yourself. The battle systems are also almost exactly, but in Bravely Second, after awakening Tiz, you will have the option to keep fighting after defeating one group of enemies. And each time you continue to fight, the amount of experience and pg you gain is increased. This will make it a lot easier to grind for levels before an important fight. So far, I believe that the party that you fight with throughout the story will be Yew(New Character), Magnolia(New Character), Tiz, and Edea. Tiz and Edea also get updated looks which I like a lot. Especially Tiz's. His hair grew very long and it gives him more of a mature look. The best part of the game so far was something that happened during the awakening Tiz chapter. It was called a gyroscope movie and it was by far, the most amazing thing I've experienced on the 3DS. The best way to describe is a first person perspective through Tiz's eyes as he gets rescued by Magnolia. The cool thing is, you can move the 3DS around and the pictures moves with you, almost like virtual reality. Hopefully, the game will include other scenes like that further down the story.

It's good, but not as good as Bravely Default. At times the game seems lazy. Grinding monsters is a mainstay of RPGs. Many of the common monsters get reused at many different locations in the fifth act of the game. This to me is lazy. I want to go to different locations of the world and see new things to fight. It wouldn't be bad, however the new system of prolonging fights to get more experience doesn't lend itself to some of the cheap attacks many of these monsters are capable of. Engulfing your characters till the end of the fight. Making themselves un-attackable for two to three turns so you're left there defaulting till they become attack able. They're basically just enemies that any RPG'er would declare un-grindable. Many of the JOBS in this game are also fairly worthless. All JOBS should have one or two things in them that tell you they are worth grinding. Lazy JOB system. Another lazy aspect of the game is the end of act four. The world could have gone through more changes than a new monster population and a chance to get the rest of your asterisks. Heck, I think they probably should have redone the entire game. I did like Chompcraft for a few hours, and some of the boss battles have fun in them once your work out the party. That said there is very little new stuff here, and what is new seems lazy. The system should be balanced enough to allow people like me to want to max out the characters (Like I did in Bravely Default).

Excellent. As described. Great game. Recommended.

Game came in good condition, very happy with this purchase

El juego llegó en perfecto estado y muy rápido. Uno debe saber lo que compra, yo ya sabia que este juego era bueno y me esta gustando. No se por que hay gente compra sin saber de que va el juego y resulta no les gusta, creo que no por eso deben opinar negativo. Es un gran Rpg, con un sistema de pelea un poco diferente a otros, sin sacarte de lo cotidiano de Square Enix. Una gran historia. No puedo decir en tiempo de juego cuanto ofrece, yo llevo apenas 2 horas pero me esta gustando mucho. Si te gustan juego estilo Final fantasy, Dragon quest, Suikoden, debes comprarlo y si aprovechas alguna oferta de Amazon pues mucho mejor.

Todavía no lo juego, me falta terminar el primero, pero comentaré después que me pareció. Actualización 1: Llevo 50 horas de juegos y la verdad me está encantando, los nuevos trabajos, los personajes agregados, la música, qué a pesar de ser diferente a la del primer juego, igualmente es épica, lo único que podría criticar del juego es que recicla ciudades y modelos, en parte me recuerda a las secuelas de Pokémon Blanco y Negro. Seguiré jugando y espero el final no decepcione. Actualización 2: Terminó siendo un gran juego y buen cierre de los protagonistas, hubieron una que otra cosa que quedó inconclusa, en verdad me gustaría una tercera entrega.

Extremely quick shipping. Exactly as advertised.

Game works, spend a lot of time playing it and completed it without issue! Had a lot of fun!