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

Is she interesting? From the trailers, I'm getting a "standard anime waifu" vibe.

Honestly I'd say she has traits that would normally be considered moe, but they're so extreme with her it goes beyond moe in to "you have some issues you need to get over" territory.  Case in point she's not just shy, she's literally terrified of public speaking.

Balladeer wrote:

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

I also just noticed something -- the sequel's name is named after The Bravely Second itself, which (I didn't realise before) is the name given to that battle mechanic introduced in For The Sequel where you stop time and use SP gained from 8 hours' of sleep time or SP Drinks from the eShop.

Now that's got to be more than a mere coincidence, and I'm really hoping that if the Bravely Second becomes the main feature of the sequel's battle system much like Bravely Default did the first, it's not tooled in such a way to sell us those SP Drinks.

I have faith they can incorporate it in a way that doesn't harm the quality of the game. As it is bravely second is rather useless so I wouldn't be surprised if they're just going to buff it in to something worth using.

I beg to differ. Square Enix didn't seem to be happy that the Bravely Second was selling less than expected, and there was acknowledgement that it'll be integrated differently next time around. Given Square Enix's track record with IAP and microtransactions (see FF: All The Bravest) I'm less than optimistic.

Bravely Default did them 'right', I'll be disappointed if Bravely Second changes the balance (literally).

Here's an interview with Default's (and hence Second's) developers, Silicon Studio. They have a development thing that looks like it comes out of an old camera, and they also talk about briefly about Second and Default.

They also want to make "a really realistic game, not like Bravely Default which is really cartoonish, but a more realistic game." Which can sod off as far as I'm concerned.

Bah. I get the feeling they mean 'realistic' as in 'dark', as I can't see how fighting some weird rainbow fish things (Bals?) is realistic. The teaser trailer seems to make things seem more grounded than the first game, though that could just be the first person perspective speaking!

I'm looking forward to this (I really enjoyed Bravely Default, and my problems with it were really based off those *optional* sidequests in the later chapters, though that was a drag of a story mechanic) but I'm still cautious.

Behold a look at Agnes in the new game.

I hope that her voice isn't as UNACCEPTABLE as in the last game.

For those not in the know, revo is not returning for bravely second.  Instead composer this time is ryo of supercell fame.  

I'm in two minds about this, on the one hand revo absolutely nailed default's score with a perfect mixture of tribute to the old style of jrpg music and his own mental style of rock and it's a shame to see that won't be returning.  On the other I'm really excited to see what second's ost is going to be like now.  It'll be a shame we won't see anything like these two themes serpent eating the ground and the ba'al theme again, but I'm confident whatever we get is going to be rockin awesome.

There was a livestream for this last Monday which I ended up watching, though only a few minutes of gameplay were shown off, and nothing about the battle system, of which I'm curious of given the game shares its name with the last game's "Bravely Second" mechanic.

But the town's look lovely, a more zoomed in camera when you're walking about helps accentuate the details, and given Square is now aiming at an older audience, the characters seem less chibi now too.

But yes, they actually spent more time showing off merchandise (like this Magnolia figurine) than showing gameplay footage. And, judging from the Nintendo Direct trailer, the soundtrack by Ryo just isn't as good as what Revo did. Or maybe it's just that we might associate the series with Revo's compositions so much that anything else just isn't going to sit well.

Nintendo Life play the demo. Want more of the same? You've got more of the same.

I... would kind of like to see them evolve the series, rather than just stay where they are. But I'll let them off if they fix the second half.

I have demo but me no play demo yet..

Should change that

I forgot to pop in here after trying the demo, which didn't really leave much of an impression on me at all. Those forgettable three muskateer characters which join you also seem like a cop out for the team not thinking up enough proper party members to keep Magnolia company. Sigh.

Ryo's music, while alright isolated from the game, just feels out of place when we've come to expect a crazy sweeping score from Revo. A lot of tracks that I heard in the game just made me think "what???", and combined with a visual style that is pretty much exactly the same (minus less chibi heads) it just felt wrong.

So far, then, is that it feels like a game cranked out in a year after For The Sequel development completed. Which it probably is.

Looks like I'm fighting the tide by still being interested for this, especially after BD was slammed in the Annual Awards.

Regardless, new trailer. Most interesting for the return of You Know Who. And no, I don't mean Edea, who seems to have followed the tiresome trend in JRPGs of having her outfit slit down the middle for no good reason.

One of these days I might, might play the original.

I've been getting DANGEROUSLY close to returning to this again recently, then I remember that MH comes out in 10 days and I know it'll get dropped again.

How far through are you, Andy?

I think I was about to finish the bit before it makes you repeat everything (from what I've gathered) I had a side quest involving killing tough dragons for the vampire class that made me sort of forget it exists.

Whilst I am interested, it's going to take more to persuade me in to this one than the original. andy, you are quite right to put it off - it sounds like you're many hours from the end.

I never even bothered with the vampire class personally, saw what it entailed with the overly long quest of tracking down the stones and then heard about the asterisk holder himself and just thought "eff that I just want to finish the story".  I never got the final spellcaster job either, probably could have got that one but I just got lazy and didn't feel like leveling up my job classes for the skills I'd need.

And you sure that's It That Shall Not Be Named Balla?

Major Fairy Flying spoilers:

I still haven't seen enough of this to be excited, sadly. Looks like more of the same, but put together in mish-mash kind of way. I did enjoy my time with Bravely Default, though, so I'm sure I'll get some enjoyment out of this one.

I'm more interested in finding out how Legend of Legacy turned out, though.

I'd completely forgotten about that thing you mentioned in the spoiler, Athrun!

New trailer is anime as anything. Also: breathtaking. Do want!

That was a nice looking trailer. It really makes me wish it was a fully fledged Wii U game instead of the 3DS.