Bravely Second - or, "Yay, No More Microtransactions!"

So at the moment, there's only really this teaser site, which caused me several minutes of agony as to whether it deserved its own thread.  It is a different game, though, so here we go.  

Bravely Default: Where the Silly Names Go is getting a proper sequel (not For the Sequel, which is a remake - it's about as clear as a Squeenix battle system, appropriately), starring Magnolia, who ONM says is a "devil buster from the moon".  Of course.  Anyway, the first game looks great (something I'll be able to verify come Christmas), so assuming that this makes the journey westwards, I may well pick it up.  Better English voice acting would be appreciated, chaps.

The first one appears to have tanked in the UK charts, landing somewhere between Actua Soccer 2 and Rugrats: Search for Reptar. Even if there's just one person working on this, I regard it to be a complete waste of time and resources. Nintendo should be encouraging the development and publishing sports games, racing games, shooting games - you know, stuff that people give a f**k about. And shame on Square Enix - they acquired an absolutely excellent variety of Eidos franchises (like Tomb Raider, Hitman and Legacy of Kain), but they're still festering this pish on us Nintendo gamers?

Deserve it's own thread? This game doesn't deserve it's own box.

Needed to vent, and now I depart.

I hope this comes westward as well, I'm getting the 1st for Christmas.

Also calm down TCK just because you don't like JRPG's doesn't mean there shouldn't be any also the big N might not publish the sequel square might do it there self's. Also it has a Meta Critic of 86, are very own Fronk says it's excellent.

Also looking at the Chart Top 40, it's missing but look where Mario 3D World is 30 & Zelda is 27th (highest Nintendo game) it might not of actually done bad seeing the nichenuss of it compared to those two. It's 7th on the 3DS Chart and only noun Nintendo game in the top 10.

Couldn't have put it better, Mas.  If we take popularity into account, why are Nintendo bothering with the Wii U?  That's wasting resources they could be devoting to making more games for third-parties, the selfish bastards!

The idea that advertising resources should only be put into games that will likely sell well is a sad take on what the gaming industry should be. If there's a chance that a game that would otherwise be completely forgotten about could make more of an impact then it's nice to see that chance be taken. I'm pretty sure Nintendo are absolutely fine even without pushing the sports, racing or shooting games. It gives them the freedom to support titles that otherwise would likely not have made an impact at all. There are so many games that deserve to be noticed that never will be - for Nintendo to do something to make sure that doesn't happen to some of them is a good thing. Do you really think that if Nintendo had pushed franchises like Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed on their devices that it would have made the slightest bit of difference? It would just mean more homogeneity in the market and it's so obviously not a niche that Nintendo feels the need to pursue. It hasn't been for years now.

In essence: popular games ≠ games people give a fuck about. The charts would be even more tedious than they are now if you didn't get bigger companies occasionally trying to push less obvious titles to the forefront.

(Remember when you'd never consider a JRPG to be remotely "niche"?)

I think that's grossly underselling today's gamer - have a swatch at this week's UK top forty and call that tedious. http://www.chart-track.co.uk/index.jsp?c=p/software/uk/latest/index_test.jsp&ct=110015

I'm all for diversity in my gaming (quite honestly, I think one look at my collection would emphasise that I'm more about different types of gaming that most of the people who'll probably slaughter me once they read that post above), but it just seems to be a constant onslaught of JRPGs this decade. They're the new space marine shooter. Except these don't sell in any meaningful quantity. That's plenty. Stop giving the masses what they don't want. I just don't get it.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

but it just seems to be a constant onslaught of JRPGs this decade. They're the new space marine shooter.

I guess that's where I don't agree. Or at least I don't agree that it's a bad thing that they're promoted. Operation Rainfall showed that there is a devoted fanbase out there and I think Nintendo is just recognising that they exist and catering for them is a good thing.

As for "today's gamer" - I think there are a phenomenal number who have no real interest in much past your Fifas and your CoDs. I don't mean that in a patronising way, but I don't think the stereotypical image of a modern gamer is based on nothing. Stereotypes rarely are. Concerning that list specifically, I would say the top 10 is tedious.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

They're the new space marine shooter.

What, you mean they're a genre that people think is massively oversubscribed, but really isn't?

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

but it just seems to be a constant onslaught of JRPGs this decade. They're the new space marine shooter. Except these don't sell in any meaningful quantity. That's plenty. Stop giving the masses what they don't want.

Definitely not the case - JRPGs aren't abundant in any case. I think calling it "a constant onslaught" is ridiculous when there are far more shooters, platformers, puzzlers and sports sims out in the market today.

I know you don't like the genre, but as you said, you're for "diversity in gaming", so regardless of the fact they aren't top sellers (I'd argue that's exclusive to Europe and the US, J-RPGs unsurprisingly sell bucketloads in Japan) they still should be made available to those that want them. I'm not a massive fan of puzzle games, but I'd never deny someone the opportunity to play one just because Puzzle Quest 5 doesn't sell as much as your latest FIFA or Call of Duty.

My two penn'orth? Cap is both right and wrong. The genres he mentioned are lacking on Nintendo consoles: getting more of them out there will appeal to more gamers, which can only ultimately help Nintendo. However, gaming needs to keep its breadth of genres going, as Rum says. It's a fine balance, which at the moment seems to be going a particular way... only time will tell if that's a sensible way.

I'd question if there were more JRPGs than Puzzle games. There aren't nearly as many puzzle games as there should be! JRPGs definitely are a smaller genre though. Looking at this year the only ones that I can remember coming out are Ni No Kuni, Tales of Xillia (both PS3 exclusive) Bravely Default and Pokemon (just about).

Tempted to shift these posts into a "Cappa thinks there are too many JRPGs" thread.

The only thing that bothers me here is the "if it isn't made for the masses it shouldn't be made" mentality.  I don't see why both audiences can't be catered to, there's plenty of room in the marketplace for both.   

I agree with much of what you're saying (balance, availability, etc), but find it a bit unfair that I'm being ostracised because I've spoken openly, firmly and honestly about how I subjectively feel about a genre many of you are quite plainly biased towards.

I wouldn't say I'm biased against Bravely Default and the rest of it - I've just seen or played nothing on offer that makes me think, from any sort of perspective, they're worth any time or effort. Fine if they're there, and that's grand if a few thousand people in the West get to enjoy them. Great. But many of us would like to see Nintendo to get behind something else, something new, something different. Disagree? Ah well. That's how I feel.

If we were talking about the first DS, I would be 100% behind Cap on this one. There was a huge number of JRPGs getting pumped out and they weren't doing huge numbers. That being said, I don't think the 3DS has had too many so far, so if Ninty want to put their weight behind one or two great ones, I'm all for it. I'm not a massive fan of the genre but I enjoyed xenoblade and I'll probably pick this up if nobody gets it for me for Christmas. I think putting their weight behind two or three decent examples of the genre per console is a sensible move by Nintendo.

If Nintendo go on to pour cash into Bravely 2, 3, 4 etc at the expense of games that would sell consoles, that would be a dumb move. Bringing one over its not a crime, and saying Square Enix should stop making them is like saying Michael Bay should stick to thoughtful depictions of life in Soviet gaming communities.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

I agree with much of what you're saying (balance, availability, etc), but find it a bit unfair that I'm being ostracised because I've spoken openly, firmly and honestly about how I subjectively feel about a genre many of you are quite plainly biased towards.

I'm not ostracising you - for all I know Bravely Default could be a pile of crap, I've never played it - but you can't say you're not biased against J-RPGs based on your own experiences and to make these broad, sweeping statements about the genre is unfair. Hell, at the end of it all it's all opinions and none of us are "right" in any sense of the word. I just took issue with you calling J-RPGs an oversubscribed genre.

Still, as Buska said, there isn't an abundance of J-RPGs on current Ninty hardware, so what's the harm in Nintendo throwing their weight behind one that's received good critical scores and then seeing how performs worldwide. If it shifts 10,000 here, 20,000 in the US and 400,000 in Japan, then yeah, it'd be a little daft to release the sequel outwith Japan. But what's the harm in testing the waters with (and this is the important bit) a new IP?

We're probably even overestimating Nintendo's involvement with Bravely Default. I'm getting the impression that Square Enix handled all the localisation and voice work, and Nintendo's just publishing it. There aren't really any bigger games Nintendo could bring over from Japan that would warrant higher priorities, with the exception of Tomodatchi Collection (The Sims with Miis, and I think Reggie or someone else hinted that may be on the way), or Monster Hunter 4 (that would probably do better than Bravely Default but I reckon Capcom has plans to bring it here(, or Band Bros P.

Phillips isn't being farfetched at all though. Outside of the JRPG hate, it would probably be in Nintendo's best interest to bring over the games that'll boost 3DS's sales over here in time for the Christmas period, I just believe Bravely Default was probably the best thing they can do without resorting to paying off third parties to specifically make a new game aimed at this market, something Iwata said he isn't doing (though I still believe Monster Hunter 4 was a paid exclusive myself).

There's also likely the issue of the game being released at such a busy period, where the PS4 hype train and the big winter games are engulfing everything else. Even Mario 3D World has yet to chart in the top ten, and I could see Bravely Default doing well in the charts if it were released next year during a quieter time (Monster Hunter 3U did pretty well even on the Wii U with a smaller install base). Nintendo of America's decision to release in February 2014 makes better sense (but is worse for us diehards).

His hate was directed at Second, though, not at the Christmas release for Default.  The 3DS should do fine this season, anyway: any other major release would get eclipsed by Zelda, surely?  And indeed all those waiting until Chrimbo for Pokémon?

I have one question, like Fronk said Nintendo only Published Bravely Default which is in the top 10 3DS Chart.

Nintendo also published Srcibblenauts which came out on the 6th as-well, which is no where to be seen on either Wii U or 3DS chart. Surely that's a bigger waste of money from Nintendo.

Also I think the JRPG genre has been lacking if you look at the current/last gen of console's, not so much on the PSP & DS but I think the rpg genresuits handhelds better then most genre's apart from maybe puzzle & platformers.

Square are known for RPG's TCK they only own one of the most historic gaming franchises there is in Final Fantasy, and they've done thing's with eidos IP's they now own. Deus Ex Human Revolution, Hitman Blood Money (I think that's what it's called), Tomb Raider and we know there's a Deus Ex game in the works, a Tomb Raider Definite Edition and Squeal in the works, There's a free to play multiplayer game set in the Legacy of Kain universe coming.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

I agree with much of what you're saying (balance, availability, etc), but find it a bit unfair that I'm being ostracised because I've spoken openly, firmly and honestly about how I subjectively feel about a genre many of you are quite plainly biased towards.

I wouldn't say I'm biased against Bravely Default and the rest of it - I've just seen or played nothing on offer that makes me think, from any sort of perspective, they're worth any time or effort. Fine if they're there, and that's grand if a few thousand people in the West get to enjoy them. Great. But many of us would like to see Nintendo to get behind something else, something new, something different. Disagree? Ah well. That's how I feel.

To be fair, you did say "Deserve it's own thread? This game doesn't deserve it's own box." Which suggested you were a bit biased towards it :p

I would love to see Nintendo get behind other stuff. What I took against with what you were saying is that stuff like Bravely Default shouldn't get that kind of attention and publicity. But when you boil the argument down, I can't see how it's any different from the decades-old "Nintendo should support third parties more" spiel. Any major publicity they lend other companies is at least distancing themselves from that stereotype a little.

New Trailer

She looks much more interesting than Tiz, or whatever his name is. Also, that sounded like a Pokémon battle theme at the end.

The new character has a pretty neat design, good stuff.

Have been a little wary though recently after reading this: http://www.siliconera.com/2013/12/23/bravely-second-producer-aims-release-new-bravely-game-year/.

And it's not even the yearly sequel thing that's made me wary, but the producer spending a while talking about those SP Drinks, where it's implied that Square Enix aren't too happy about the sales of those SP Drinks and seem to be urging the development team to try and integrate them a bit 'better' into the game. I hope that doesn't amount to tinkering with game difficulty to urge us to spend them, because Bravely Default's SP Drinks were a great example of offering a paid service that doesn't mess with the game itself.

masofdas wrote:

I have one question, like Fronk said Nintendo only Published Bravely Default which is in the top 10 3DS Chart.

Nintendo also published Srcibblenauts which came out on the 6th as-well, which is no where to be seen on either Wii U or 3DS chart. Surely that's a bigger waste of money from Nintendo.

I'd defend the Scribblenauts publishing effort in that we're only criticising it thanks to the benefit of hindsight, since it was always meant to launch in January and provide Wii U with another launch window game before problems arose.

Bit unrelated but it's a real shame Nintendo Europe never picked up Trauma Team to be published here. I guess Trauma Center: New Blood sold badly.

There haven't been many buyers of the paid-for items in your £40 game? My heart flipping bleeds for you.  

Balladeer wrote:

She looks much more interesting than Tiz, or whatever his name is.  Also, that sounded like a Pokémon battle theme at the end.

Tiz isn't really the main character of the first game from what I'm seeing, Agnès is.