Bravely Default Review by: mlb789 - 10/10
Bravely Default - Where the MLB Cries You know how sometimes you say you hate something when you really think it's really really good? Well I hate Bravely Default. I hate this game with a burning passion. The fact that I couldn't play it on anything but the easiest difficulty makes me cry. Maybe it's just JRPGs in general, but this game killed me. I spent longer on this game than I did on Pokemon Sapphire when I was 6 and got stuck in Victory Road for hours. I even got so desperate that I bought SP drinks with micro transactions, then promptly beat the game without them to just prove the point that once I spend money on something I think I need I come to find out that I really didn't need it. I really don't hate this game, to be honest. Really, this is one of the best games I ever played. But it wasn't easy like Pokemon, so it made me cry (note: Bravely Default did not actually make me cry).
Graphics - 10. This game is fantastic graphically. I know that the characters don't look too terribly realistic at all, but that doesn't mean the graphics are bad. It just means that the game was meant to be that way. All of the graphics in the game a extremely good. The battle animations are pretty fantastic, the character sprites both in game and in small cinematic sequences are great, and the detail in the game is just fantastic. I wouldn't have done anything different with the graphics in the game because they fit it just perfectly.
Sound - 10. Bonus points for using an orchestra, or orchestral sounds, like most games do now. I really like classical instruments, and while they don't always play classical pieces, I think that they make the game sound BETTER than stuff like popular music. However, with this game I find myself in LOVE with the music, especially the special move music for the characters, mainly Edea. I like how the music for those create a kind of theme in my mind, for example I think of a pirate when I hear Ringabel's special music. While this music is used for every special the character uses, it is important to note that it didn't get repetitive for me, which means there weren't any deductions for that. Overall, a fantastic use of music.
Addictiveness - 10. I played this game for hours when I got it and made sure I left my 3DS in
sleep mode to get SP when I wasn't playing it. It pried me away from games like Pokemon for a very long time until I actually beat the game. There's nothing else to really say about how addictive it was because I don't know how else to say I couldn't stop playing for DAYS.
Story - 10. This story made me cry. I did not cry because it was a sad story, mind you. I cried because it was so painstakingly complex and interesting that it just made me want to... Yeah. To make a story like this you have to be really creative and think outside the box. I can see the argument that it can get really repetitive and I actually thought that too for a while, but I changed my mind once I finally got the full picture of the game. The basis of the story is that you have 4 heroes that try to get rid of a pillar of light with the help of a cryst fairy named airy, who tells the group that they must awaken the 4 crystals of the world in order to make it disappear. Naturally, that's nothing close to the depth of the actual story in the game, but it's enough to have you start to form your own thoughts.
Depth - 10. It took me 40 hours to beat this game on the easiest mode fully (I know, I'm new to these types of games). On top of that, there is new game plus which allows you to do it all again with all of your items from before, which makes grinding for levels so much easier when you have a growth egg at the beginning of the game. On top of the long story, you have the job system where you can level all your characters up to max job level, and you can mix and match those many times on each character to create new strategies for beating the game. Once you get right down to it, this game is very, VERY deep.
Difficulty - 10. Read the review above. I cried.
Overall - 10. I'm very glad I picked up this game a while ago. I never really played a game in the series fully and didn't know if I could make it all of the way through, but I'm glad I did. On top of that, I find myself picking the game up still and playing it a little bit here and now. I wouldn't recommend this game if you don't want to spend a lot of time grinding and crying, but if you like JRPGs, RPGs, or want to have a new experience, this game is definitely one you should check out.
Graphics
10 Sound
10 Addictive
10 Depth
10 Story
10 Difficulty
10
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