Bravely Second: End Layer Review

The Nintendo 3DS is filled with exceptional Japanese Role-Playing adventures. You really can't go wrong with a portable and meaty JRPG at your beck-and-call, whenever and wherever. Bravely Default is one of those games, and happens to be one of my favorites in the genre that I've ever played. So, you could assume how I excited I was to (eventually) dive back into the series with its sequel Bravely Second. I finally got my hands on Bravely Second: End Layer two years after its release in 2016 and recently completed the main story with a majority of the side quests done as well. Out of the 60 hours I poured into it, I came away from Bravely Second satisfied. A decent story, fun new characters, and great gameplay improvements are welcome additions even if this sequel didn't blow me away like Bravely Default did. I would even argue Bravely Second feels more like an epilogue expansion of the first game than a sequel.

Story:

The quiet world of Luxendarc is enjoying the moments of peace its been given from the victory of the four warriors of light from Bravely Default. One of these warriors, Agnes Oblige, has become Pope and hopes to continue this peace into a bright future. However, fate had something else in mind. When Pope Agnes is kidnapped, it's up to Yew, leader of the Three Cavaliers, to save Agnes. Along the way, Yew will come across familiar characters from the first game and meet a woman named Magnolia, the mysterious yet elegant warrior from the moon.

From then on, the story takes a few twists and turns early on that I didn't expect. For Bravely Default fans, you're in for a nice surprise with certain characters coming back or having some sort of inclusion in the sequel. One of the Bravely series' strengths is its main characters, so I was happy to see some make a return and be more fleshed out or add that nuance to your party that made conversations between them unique. While the story was mildly interesting, it was the interaction between the four party members as well as returning characters that kept me going. It was cool to see where certain people ended up after the great and climatic battle in Bravely Default.

After a certain point in the story however, the events start to become predictable. I was less surprised by reveals the more I kept playing. Now, that's not to say they're not enjoyable because they definitely are. I always appreciate the extra depth a side quest can go in terms of its impact on the story and world, and Bravely Second has tons of them. It's just the repeated cycle of these quests started to feel repetitive, something Bravely Default was also criticized for.

Some villains make a return in Bravely Second, but the main antagonist, the Kaiser, is... okay? The Kaiser and his sidekick fairy Anne never felt like an opposing force in the entirety of the game, mainly because the previous game did its villains so much better. The Kaiser or Anne certain certainly won't make any favorite villains list, but they're better than nothing.

This all may sound like I didn't like the story, but that's quite the opposite. I did enjoy my time seeing the mysteries unfold and how our characters would solve them, but I would be lying if I said every moment left me in awe. It was a fun ride with a new group of characters I liked, and that's just about it.

Visuals:

Bravely Second is back with its gorgeous 2D art backgrounds and cute 3D chibi character designs. Silicon Studio, the team behind both Bravely games, use an art style that is timeless to say the least. It's one of those 3DS games you wouldn't mind using the 3D feature from time to time, as it makes the 2D art backgrounds more immersive than any old-school JRPG can do. The same style and art tone from Bravely Default thankfully carry over into Bravely Second, making it instantly gratifying for fans. It's one of the better looking games on the Nintendo 3DS not because of photorealism or high-end graphics, but for using an art style that is so distinguishable and pretty to look at.

Gameplay:

Bravely Second revels in the classic style of JRPGs - a turn-based battle system, magic, job classes with unique traits and skills, and of course, a game-breaking mechanic of some sort. The Bravely series' evolution on the turn-based battle system is still one of the most engaging in the JRPG genre. During your turn, you can choose to Brave, Default, or just simply take up one turn. Choosing to Brave allows one character to take multiple consecutive turns (up to four). Defaulting lets your character take a guarding stance and adds one to their Brave Point pool (up to a total sum of three). It's a simple system of risk vs reward - Brave too much and your party is left open to attacks, but you also get a head start in fights. Default too often and battles can go on longer than they should. Strategic and fun!

However, this is where jobs come in and adds more to the Brave-Default gameplay. There are 25+ jobs to choose from in Bravely Second, each with its own personality that lends to countless team synergies. For my playthrough, I stuck mostly with Black Mage, Summoner, Thief, and kept the fourth job varied on physical or magical attacks. It was nice balance since a lot of enemies in Bravely Second vary between having physical or magical weaknesses.

Special moves are unlocked by meeting a criteria (such as Brave 10 times, Default 15 times, Heal 5 times, etc), and can really turn the tide in battles, Some will include attack and magic buffs while others can increase healing potency. Either way, it's good to have a balance since some of the end-game bosses can get really tricky. As I mentioned before, there is a game-breaking mechanic in the game called Bravely Second, but I barely used it in my playthrough. Pressing the start button during battle, either on your or your enemy's turn, will stop time and allow one character to take up to four consecutive turns before anyone else. Thankfully, Bravely Second is limited and can only be regenerated in real-world time.

Progressing the main story will you earn you more jobs to play around with, but the side quests will you give you a majority of the jobs offered in the game. All of the side missions in Bravely Second have well-thought out stories that make the world feel more believable and not everything revolves around the main issue. One side quest is a cool murder mystery with the help of a character named Sholmes (nice reference to London's fictional private detective Sherlock Holmes), while another will have you decide if cutting poor taxes should be done to decrease sale prices for a town. While each situation was different and significant enough to play, the rhythm was too constant - go to the blue check mark the on map, cutscene, decide what to do, fight a boss that opposed your choice, repeat.

One of the first blogs I wrote for my website was on Bravely Second: End Layer and how awesome the gameplay mechanics were. I wish every JRPG in the same style would adopt these mechanics because they respect the player's time. Not every gamer has the time or even wants to grind levels for hours on end, and the game recognizes this. To completely mitigate tedious level grinding, continuous 1-turn victory streaks will increase the average amount of experience and jobs points given. The more 1-turn victories, the bigger the rate, the more points earned. Along with a fast-forward feature in battles, an enemy encounter rate, and an auto battle mechanic, the innovative gameplay designs in Bravely Second: End Layer has the gameplay at its best, while magically keeping the original DNA of JRPGs. From this perspective, it's the perfect blend of old and new.

Similar to the base-building mini-game in Bravely Default, Bravely Second will have you rebuilding Magnolia's hometown on the Moon. In this mini-game, you assign a certain number of random individuals to rebuild a shop or base and the predetermined rewards for completion are more special moves, rare items, and more. Renovating these bases require real-world time, and the more people you assign to one project the less time it will take to finish it. The timer still counts down even when the 3DS is in sleep mode, so you can end up getting great special moves very early on (like how I did).

Sound:

Sadly, the music is disappointing at best and such a step down from Bravely Default, mainly because so much music was reused. While town themes I can see being reused, that shouldn't have stopped the development team from rearranging the tracks or mixing them up. I mean, even the Besaid Island theme song in Final Fantasy X got a great rearrange in the sequel, Final Fantasy X-2, so why couldn't Bravely Second do the same?

Also, I'm pretty sure the same dungeon theme song was used for every dungeon or taken trail in the game, which really bothered me. There was no solid piece of music to discern one forest or castle from another, which makes all of the exploring a blur.

On another note, the voice acting is absolutely fantastic. If characters weren't detailed enough in their designs, their voices lend to real, fun, and notably different personalities. As I mentioned before, the protagonists and side characters of Bravely Second really kept pushing me to keep going in the story, and their personalities emphasized by the voice work is a big part of that.

Conclusion:

I loved playing Bravely Second: End Layer. It's improvements on gameplay and focus on character-driven stories is worth seeing through until the credits roll. While I am disappointed in the lack of diverse music and mission structures, they don't deter the enjoyment of seeing familiar faces and fantastic introductions to new characters. Bravely Second: End Layer does feel more like a story expansion to Bravely Default than a true sequel, but it's still something I'll encourage anyone to play regardless.

7/10