Ever since I got my 2DS, Bravely Default was one of the main games on my list of games to get but when I was looking at it today deciding on what to get I chose to get BlazBlue instead because after thinking about it, I thought it might be too complicated for me to begin with. I have played the demo way back in like the start of 2014 and I kind of liked it but I don't think I know too much about it, especially the battling and stat system, which is what scares me the most. Heck, I haven't even gotten used to the Final Fantasy battle/stat system and I don't even know how to use X items and such in Pokemon. If anyone has played this game before, I could use all the info that I can get, namely what the battle, battle options, and stats are like.

One main concern that I normally have with games, especially expensive ones, is that I get a good amount of play time for the price. I bought Persona 4 Golden and Final Fantasy X remake for about $40 combined and each had massive stories, but Default alone is $40. I know it could be fun, but is there enough in the game to make it worthy? I like these kinds of games, but I feel that if I can't get a good understanding of the game in going to get turned away from the game like what happened with me and Final Fantasy for a decade.

zanderlex : Hello zanderlex! I have played Bravely Default Flying Fairy or the first Bravely Default game and it is amazing and hard at times. As for the battle system you get to just attack, use abilities, use items, use super (special) attacks, use support attacks (summon friends) from other players, or use brave and default. Each command you do uses brave points or BP at the bottom left side of each player's portrait. You can use default to spend a turn or use a turn to get 1 brave point (BP), but you do not get to attack that turn instead you get bonuses for using default like an enhanced defense or a defense state where damage is lessened for that turn you used default. Then you can unleash those extra brave points or turns due to having brave points to get more attacks in one turn of you whole party attacking with one character and all characters can use the brave points they have saved up to do extra attacks one turn. Also for a heads up, the brave points do not carry over to the next battle, so if you have negative brave points, you will begin a fresh slate next battle, or in other words you will have no negative brave points next battle, so you can just do a brave state or even multiple brave states to finish an easy battle without being penalized next battle from those brave points you used last battle. A very nice cheat of the system I have to say by the way ! 
     Now there are a lot of stats for each character too. I would say more than an average RPG (role-playing game) has in normal RPGs, but do not worry, some stats can be permanently increased by some items given by bosses (Nemeses) in Norende (your hometown). There is P. Def which is an indicator of your defense against physical attacks, "M. Atk" which is an indicator of your magical attack power, "AIM" which is an indicator of your ability to hit enemies with physical attacks, "EVD" which is an indicator of your ability to evade physical attacks and enemy attack hit counts on you, "HP", "MP", "STR" which affects physical attack power, "VIT" which affects physical defense ability, "INT" which affects magic attack power and chance to inflict status ailments, "MND" which affects magic defense, healing power, and chance to avoid status ailments, "DEX" which affects physical attack accuracy and Brave attack rate, and finally "AGI" which affects physical attack evasion, hit count, speed, and first strike rate. Then there are also immunities and elemental resistances to top the stats, so have fun in creating the best characters out there. 
       There are 24 jobs which you can assign your party members to, such as a Vampire or Salve-Maker. These jobs go up to 14 level and are trained in job points that you get along with money and experience points at the end of each battle. And you can turn of individual or all bonuses from battle in the "Config" of the game such as turning off from getting experience points, money, or job (JB) points in the "Config" to where if you want to just train the jobs or train for a bigger level on you characters, you can do so with those adjustments in the "Config". It is very handy if I must say especially when the "Freelancer" job's ability is named "Late Bloomer" which for every job mastered to their 14th level, you get extra stat bonuses for each level up of the main characters initial levels or levels. I think in the demo they let you level up your characters to level (Lv.) Ten (10) and then you can not go beyond that until you get the full game well those levels get stat bonuses for each job you have mastered in the beginning, so it forces you to think if I want really strong characters, I will have to train their jobs to max level in the beginning and turn off their experience points in the "Config" of the game at least that is what I got from the "Freelancer's" ability "Late Bloomer. So far I have 18 jobs and I am only on level 5 for all my characters excluding Edea because she joins you at level 6. You get the jobs asterisks or abilities to use a job when you finish off a boss specifically the "Eternian force" bosses in the game and they each have a lot of HP. Also about each job's abilities which is kind of a let down, is that you can only use their abilities including passive abilities by equipping them in you characters, like "Hasten World" of the "Time Mage" job which lets everyone in battle including enemies to gain one brave point (BP) at the end of every turn and that is a passive (Support) ability which you will have to equip on the characters in the "Unused Cost" slot of your characters. And I think that is about it I have to say or at least what you want to know about the game, so have fun with it if you get it. Also did you know they are making a new Bravely Default game or sequel called "Bravely Default: End Layer" (I think)?

happiness7 : Oh, that's right, there's multiple versions I think outside of where I am because of something that happened. I think this is technically the sequel because this is the 2nd version of the game that cane out in Japan, but I probably wont get the next one. I really like the idea for jobs, but the battling system seems tough. Thanks.

I've been playing Bravely Default as well, although I only have about 8 hours in it. One of my favorite things is that every weapon has Special Attacks attached. You need to unlock them through the Village upgrades though. Once you start unlocking them, you can create your own custom Special Moves. You can attach different elements to attacks, or status ailments, or for healing Special Moves you can increase healing, or remove status ailments, and much more. The combinations are insane. In addition, you can also name your attack, and what your character says after using it. You can then set that character and that attack and send it to your friends, who can summon them in their battles, and they get to see all you've done. It's not a major part of the story or anything, I just love that amount of customizing you can do for each character.

   The job system is really like FF: Tactics. Where you have a main job, then can attach a secondary job with all the skills you've learned, and then use them both in combat. So much creative freedom is my favorite part of the game.

   It's also cool that you can dual-wield any weapons your job is compatible with. You don't do as much damage as you would with one attack, but you do attack twice, causing more damage total, although a shield is also a good idea. Knights can eventually dual-wield shields too, making them super tanks. Lots of really cool classes and combinations you can do. I love this game.

   The rebuilding the Village thing is pretty unique. You assign villagers to certain tasks, like building a weapon shop, or clearing some trees to unlock the next area, then you have to wait a while. The more Villagers you assign to a task, the faster it gets built. There are some places that takes 99 hours to clear, so by using lots of villagers, you can cut that down by quite a bit. The waiting is in real time too. So, you assign them to build something, go back to playing the game, and when it's completed the Upgrade Village icon will have a flashing icon. Click on that, and boom! It's done.

   You can also increase or decrease the Random Encounter rate. It starts off on normal, but you can increase it 100% more, or turn them off completely. I sometimes turn it off when I don't feel like fighting too many things, and I just want to get to a town or something. In addition to that, you can always change the difficulty. It's has a Easy, Normal, and Hard. So, it really shouldn't challenge you too much, unless you want it to. It's really neat all the unique things implemented into the game.

   So, if you have the time, I'd recommend you definitely check it out. I'm having a blast with it. I hope this helps.

F.Starr: Yeah, you lost me at special attacks, all I know is attack and defense, for any game so it would take me a while to get used to that. I never played FF Tactics but I was actually about to get it yesterday. Luckily you got me back with rebuilding the village, that's something I would love.

zanderlex : I think the special attack corresponds with the weapon you have equipped. The special attack can also be enhanced with components (Parts) that you get from the stores you rebuild in your village. Also you acquire your special attacks by leveling up a specific shop or rebuilding a shop in your village (Norende). Not only rebuilding your village is a responsibility for the player to do, but also getting rid of Nemeses (unique enemy bosses) specific to Norende, but do not fret, the Nemeses do not prevent or discontinue your specific instructions to rebuild your village. They just are there to battle and hopefully get permanent stat boosting items from your encounters with these formidable opponents. Good luck!

happiness7 : That sounds like it can be fun, so I'm going to give it a try when I can.

I beat the game not too long after its release. It looks complicated on paper, but it starts to make sense once you get in-game. It isn't any more complicated than most RPGs, really. Just pay attention during the tutorial and you should be fine. The only thing you should be careful of, especially in the beginning, before you get a grip on your characters, is the default/brave system. You'll probably find yourself thinking that you can do 4 attacks in a row without consequence, but you're actually getting an advance, which means that for the next 3 turns your characters will be standing there while your enemies pummel you. At the start slow and steady wins the race. Once you start to understand each jobs' abilities and strengths and weaknesses then you can do more risky maneuvers with your braves and defaults.

Something you should know is that there are certain job combinations that make the game ridiculously easy. These combos don't really open themselves up to you until 2/3 of the way through the game, but even so, I recommend avoiding them because you can pretty much sleep your way through the rest of the game if you do that.

CthulWho : You beat it quickly?

zanderlex : It depends on your definition of quickly. I did in the sense that it didn't take me years to do so, but in game time it took 55 hours, but I'm pretty experienced with JRPGs and it wasn't a completionist run. Honestly, 55 hours is a perfectly respectable JRPG length. For someone like yourself, who is inexperienced with JRPGs, it may take even longer.

Now that you asked me about the length, I want to do a 100% speedrun and see how long it'll take me.

CthulWho : Did you know that for Bravely Default and its brave and default system you can go ahead and do the max braves of 4 braves if you enemies are weak enough that you can defeat them with one character? This method is only successful if you have high job levels in order to make 8 attack combos for each character attacking with their regular attack or from their attack command. Then if you are successful in completing the battle with your characters with negative brave points that when the battle ends and you begin the next battle you won't be penalized for those negative brave points from the last battle. That was what I was trying to explain to zanderlex. 

I guess 55 hours is a pretty good run for a game like that, if I can play for at least that long and still have stuff to do then it looks pretty worth it for the price.

happiness7 : I'm well aware of that, but it's not something which should be done at the beginning of the game because you won't be able to beat enemies in a single turn then you're a sitting duck. 

CthulWho : Okay just making sure. Anyways also did you know that if you wanted to do a lot of damage to all monsters in the beginning of the game after unlocking Norende to defeat bosses at low levels, you could use element items with the 4 brave states on at least three or two people and leave the other one or two people with doing normal actions not including brave or default for those two or one person and totally mutilate the enemy bosses with the element item that they are weak against to win a battle against a boss in one round?

happiness7 : I never really considered it, though it doesn't surprise me. I've never been a big fan of offensive items in RPGs. 

CthulWho : Well I used the element attacking items for the Eternian boss fights because my people are only level 5 right now and I have 18 jobs so far with 14 of them being completely mastered. I mostly use the element attacking items with one person doing a bow special attack. I think the bow special attack is maximum bow or something to that degree or saying, but mostly now the element attacking items do the most damage for my people ranging from 1,500 to 2,250 damage depending if the bosses are weak to the element attacking item I am using. It is actually a very good process with most of the eternian forces when you are low leveled . What about you? What level are your characters on and did you get all jobs at low levels for your characters to apply the Freelancer's class ability "Late Bloomer"?