Oh man, this demo is difficult, was struggling taking down one set of wolves for the sidequest, I feel id done the battle better if I actually worked up to all this job freedom
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Bravely Default II - Embark on your journey Trailer (Demo [And Survey] Available Now)
- Thread starter Xavi
- Start date
I'm honestly conflicted. I played and loved the first two games and was hyped for this. But something just feels off.
Not a fan of the battle changes. I liked the previous style where you input all commands at once. Also not crazy about the sword swinging mechanic. It's too slow to go around cutting grass everywhere, and whatever bonus it gives you in battle isn't worth it.
The backgrounds look gorgeous, but one of the things I liked about the previous games was how compact the cities were. I took it as a QoL improvement that (for the most part) I didn't have to go searching through every random room in a town looking for stuff. Everything was there on the screen. Character models, eh. I preferred the old style, but it isn't a deal breaker.
I'm also interested to see what they do with the available jobs. Bravely Second had some interesting ones that made for same crazy combinations. The spell crafting mechanic of Second was also interesting.
Hype has diminished some. I'll submit feedback and see how it goes.
Not a fan of the battle changes. I liked the previous style where you input all commands at once. Also not crazy about the sword swinging mechanic. It's too slow to go around cutting grass everywhere, and whatever bonus it gives you in battle isn't worth it.
The backgrounds look gorgeous, but one of the things I liked about the previous games was how compact the cities were. I took it as a QoL improvement that (for the most part) I didn't have to go searching through every random room in a town looking for stuff. Everything was there on the screen. Character models, eh. I preferred the old style, but it isn't a deal breaker.
I'm also interested to see what they do with the available jobs. Bravely Second had some interesting ones that made for same crazy combinations. The spell crafting mechanic of Second was also interesting.
Hype has diminished some. I'll submit feedback and see how it goes.
Huge fan of Bravely Default and FF in general. I spent about 4 hours leveling everything to max and completing the 3 sidequests. The optional boss did give me a fun challenge, but the battle system is definitely janky. I probably went a little overboard but here are the notes:
Equipment menu:
After equipping, don't make the player wait for the character animation to complete before allowing them to switch to another character.
Quick equip with recommended equipment should show the recommended equipment and stat changes before any confirmation/equipment swap is made. Also why is my Vanguard auto equipped with black mage staffs with an E rating? And don't let auto-equip modify the accessory setup.
Equipment menu needs to show stat summary at all times, not just when selecting a piece of equipment; maybe show most important stats summarized at bottom left corner. Item menu readily shows these stats and is clearer and better for equipping than equipment menu!
The weight mechanic debuff display needs some work. It's very difficult to figure out what the best equipment setup is when you're pushing the weight limit, as once you go overweight the stats reflect the overweight debuff so you can't tell if the equipment would be an increase/decrease if you were actually within the weight range. I'd recommend showing the normal stats at all times and if they're overweight showing the debuffed stats separately from the normal stats.
Equipment descriptive help text is disorganized with the stats listed in a run-on sentence. Consider stacking these in a list for easier reading.
Ability menu:
Why not summarize abilities the same as equipment instead of forcing an annoying "+" button press? Have the subtext appear automatically under the current selection.
Battles:
Selecting Default in the middle of a bunch of Braves immediately Defaults the entire turn and cancels everything, which is too easy to accidentally trigger (and is confusing). Either have the Default selection cancel the last Brave only, or have a confirmation box before cancelling all the Braves.
Why can't we see enemy info and status at all times and instead have to press the annoying "+" button? Seeing when an enemy is defaulting in their stats would be good too, not always easy to tell.
I'd prefer being able to see the turn order. I love the strategy it adds.
Overworld:
Camera in overworld is terrible! Always behind mountains, can't see anything. Rotating it while trying to surprise attack enemies is impossible and endlessly frustrating.
Enemies run up too quickly and my sword attack is unreliable and too short of a distance.
Enemies respawn on world map WAY too quickly! I would enjoy it more if they disappeared permanently after killing them until reloading the map.
I didn't enjoy exploring the world map in general until I leveled up enough for the enemies to run from me. Right now it's worse than having random battles, but it could be better with changes.
Towns:
Should be able to skip through NPC dialogue faster if desired.
Equipment menu:
After equipping, don't make the player wait for the character animation to complete before allowing them to switch to another character.
Quick equip with recommended equipment should show the recommended equipment and stat changes before any confirmation/equipment swap is made. Also why is my Vanguard auto equipped with black mage staffs with an E rating? And don't let auto-equip modify the accessory setup.
Equipment menu needs to show stat summary at all times, not just when selecting a piece of equipment; maybe show most important stats summarized at bottom left corner. Item menu readily shows these stats and is clearer and better for equipping than equipment menu!
The weight mechanic debuff display needs some work. It's very difficult to figure out what the best equipment setup is when you're pushing the weight limit, as once you go overweight the stats reflect the overweight debuff so you can't tell if the equipment would be an increase/decrease if you were actually within the weight range. I'd recommend showing the normal stats at all times and if they're overweight showing the debuffed stats separately from the normal stats.
Equipment descriptive help text is disorganized with the stats listed in a run-on sentence. Consider stacking these in a list for easier reading.
Ability menu:
Why not summarize abilities the same as equipment instead of forcing an annoying "+" button press? Have the subtext appear automatically under the current selection.
Battles:
Selecting Default in the middle of a bunch of Braves immediately Defaults the entire turn and cancels everything, which is too easy to accidentally trigger (and is confusing). Either have the Default selection cancel the last Brave only, or have a confirmation box before cancelling all the Braves.
Why can't we see enemy info and status at all times and instead have to press the annoying "+" button? Seeing when an enemy is defaulting in their stats would be good too, not always easy to tell.
I'd prefer being able to see the turn order. I love the strategy it adds.
Overworld:
Camera in overworld is terrible! Always behind mountains, can't see anything. Rotating it while trying to surprise attack enemies is impossible and endlessly frustrating.
Enemies run up too quickly and my sword attack is unreliable and too short of a distance.
Enemies respawn on world map WAY too quickly! I would enjoy it more if they disappeared permanently after killing them until reloading the map.
I didn't enjoy exploring the world map in general until I leveled up enough for the enemies to run from me. Right now it's worse than having random battles, but it could be better with changes.
Towns:
Should be able to skip through NPC dialogue faster if desired.
Hopefully you can change the party leader in the full game. Small little thing that made me like the previous games more. Definitely will note it on the survey.
I like how the environments look but something about the character faces looks unsettling to me :(
Still will play cause I'm a huge revo stan.
Still will play cause I'm a huge revo stan.
Haven't touched the demo yet but this is criticism after my own heart. Usability shit is SO IMPORTANT for JRPGs and I wish all devs of JRPGs put special attention to it.
They're very meta aware in a way that some people really hated cause it also bled into the gameplay. The first game stayed memorable with me for basically all these years despite agreeing with people about how that metaness was really rough gameplay wise but also disagreeing that without it the game would have been better. To me that was almost like a Death Stranding/Red Dead 2 kind of deal where the tedium was kind of the point.
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I wonder if they can even fix the faces even if a lot of people give that back as feedback.
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Sorry, the artstyle is so ugly i can stand to play this demo.
I can't believe they thought this was ok, the first two games are among the best looking games in 3ds.
Also the performance it's not good at all.
I'm kind of sad, i was waiting to play this but didn't want to see the previews, maybe i should've, at least that way i would be less shocked by this.
I can't believe they thought this was ok, the first two games are among the best looking games in 3ds.
Also the performance it's not good at all.
I'm kind of sad, i was waiting to play this but didn't want to see the previews, maybe i should've, at least that way i would be less shocked by this.
I'm also wondering what the hell happened art wise, I LOVE how the characters look in the 3DS games... just why?
Took a few close calls and near party wipes, but that is the demo cleared. It is rough around the edges, but it is still very similar to the last two Bravely games, and I had fun with it.
Various issues:
This demo is seriously missing a LOT of the little quality of life details from the last game, particularly with the UI. Equipment information is inconsistent, you can't quickly repeat the same command with R, it is hard to see who is selected in the ability menu, and so on.
It really needs a turn order indicator. This has been standard for this kind of battle system since FFX, and it feels really weird that it is missing.
It would be nice if it was clearer which enemy was attacking, and the camera stayed more zoomed out in battle. Or maybe at least not do that little sway left and right.
The enemy symbol system in fields and dungeons needs a lot more tuning. Right now I'm fully in favor of them just going back to random encounters, since nothing about this system was fun, and getting ambushed while mountains blocked the camera made it even worse. The devs need to get rid of the whole attack the symbol to not get ambushed part, and then play Romancing SaGa 3 a lot more to see how to make this kind of system actually work.
Weird demo balance aside, battles were fun! The boss battle in the ruin did a great job of showing why I still reslly like the Brave and Default mechanics, and how well teams can synergize to good effect. Giving Revenge to Monks is such a great change. I'm a little bit worried by the Black Mage, but I'll have faith that the battle system will turn out as good as before.
The graphics really are a strange mix of good and bad. Some things look good, but others look too much like misshapen plastic. I don't know how much this might change before release, but I hope the graphics get some good adjustments.
Various issues:
This demo is seriously missing a LOT of the little quality of life details from the last game, particularly with the UI. Equipment information is inconsistent, you can't quickly repeat the same command with R, it is hard to see who is selected in the ability menu, and so on.
It really needs a turn order indicator. This has been standard for this kind of battle system since FFX, and it feels really weird that it is missing.
It would be nice if it was clearer which enemy was attacking, and the camera stayed more zoomed out in battle. Or maybe at least not do that little sway left and right.
The enemy symbol system in fields and dungeons needs a lot more tuning. Right now I'm fully in favor of them just going back to random encounters, since nothing about this system was fun, and getting ambushed while mountains blocked the camera made it even worse. The devs need to get rid of the whole attack the symbol to not get ambushed part, and then play Romancing SaGa 3 a lot more to see how to make this kind of system actually work.
Weird demo balance aside, battles were fun! The boss battle in the ruin did a great job of showing why I still reslly like the Brave and Default mechanics, and how well teams can synergize to good effect. Giving Revenge to Monks is such a great change. I'm a little bit worried by the Black Mage, but I'll have faith that the battle system will turn out as good as before.
The graphics really are a strange mix of good and bad. Some things look good, but others look too much like misshapen plastic. I don't know how much this might change before release, but I hope the graphics get some good adjustments.
You need to open the menu and save from it while standing on the glowing circle. It's just like the old-school Final Fantasy games.
I've been messing very crudely in photoshop with the character heads to find out why it looks so wrong. I think part of it is just the shader(since they're not going for the watercolor/painterly look anymore) cause I was brushing away the noses to make it more like bravely defaul/second and that didn't really help.
What made it better for me though was making the heads 5-10% smaller to have less exaggerated proportions.
What made it better for me though was making the heads 5-10% smaller to have less exaggerated proportions.
Finally beat both post demo bosses. The Ai is kinda cheap in how it builds BP and waits for an opening to wipe your team. I ended up playing slowly, even defaulting at 3 bp stored several times. Maybe there is a more optimal build instead.
The demos for the previous games were insanely hard, too. I guess this is just something they like to do lol
I actually dig the harder difficulty if this is their 'normal', which most likely not sadly. I haven't play much with the demo, but one thing I really like is they're making towns more explorable. Most buildings actually have explorable interior now, so that's good. But the camera zoomed out way too much in town, making it hard to see and navigate around. Same goes to world map really. Too small, and enemies chase after player so quickly. So that's quite frustrating.
Also they have a winning formula with random encounter that can be toggled for their spawn rate at will. It's weird to see them ditch it in favor of visible encounters. Swinging sword on the overworld is also a complete unnecessary mechanic. Just have players touch the enemy from behind for advantage, that's enough, no need for the extra step. Finding hidden items in bushes can be replaced by treasure chests, don't have to be more. Taking turns individually instead of whole party taking turns is also quite different, not sure if I like it or not. Why did they get rid of L for default if R for brave is in? Strange omission.
Also they have a winning formula with random encounter that can be toggled for their spawn rate at will. It's weird to see them ditch it in favor of visible encounters. Swinging sword on the overworld is also a complete unnecessary mechanic. Just have players touch the enemy from behind for advantage, that's enough, no need for the extra step. Finding hidden items in bushes can be replaced by treasure chests, don't have to be more. Taking turns individually instead of whole party taking turns is also quite different, not sure if I like it or not. Why did they get rid of L for default if R for brave is in? Strange omission.
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Overall it seems better.
Playing each character one by one is much better than all at the same time and "see what happens".
I might get interested in the series again now.
Gonna play more of the demo.
The difficulty mostly seems to be about which areas/enemies you try to tackle too early. Pretty standard.
Btw, what's the point of normal attacks when skills are just stronger anyway and cost nothing ?
Playing each character one by one is much better than all at the same time and "see what happens".
I might get interested in the series again now.
Gonna play more of the demo.
The difficulty mostly seems to be about which areas/enemies you try to tackle too early. Pretty standard.
Btw, what's the point of normal attacks when skills are just stronger anyway and cost nothing ?
Hopefully people don't ask to them lower difficuly in the feedback.
BD1 wasn't that hard AFAIR (it was a dragon, right?). Didn't play the Bravely second's demo. Was it THAT bad?
BD1 wasn't that hard AFAIR (it was a dragon, right?). Didn't play the Bravely second's demo. Was it THAT bad?
Normal attacks for freelancer adds to the counter to their special skill. Some class skill like monk's default one has low hit rate but always crit if hit.
Thank you. I'd hope it has some use like in Xenoblades, to build something at least. It should always give a bit of MP back (more with skills added on top), to add some taste to it.
After playing all the way through to the end of the demo, I've come away with a much more positive impression of it!
The class system really starts to sing after unlocking a few skills. The strategy I had settled on by the end was to have Seth tank hits as a Vanguard to generate BP, then use Freelancer's Lucky Charm skill to turn that BP into MP for my mages, who could then spam their powerful spells and heals.
These kinds of fun class combinations are what Bravely is all about, and it definitely feels like a good start here. I'm excited to see how things develop as you unlock more classes.
Also this level of difficulty felt good to me... I hope this is at least kept as an option for the main game. The past Bravely games had difficulty modes and I think this would make a good "Hard".
Also for people struggling with the difficulty... don't forget to buy equipment in town. I was totally getting destroyed until I remembered to do that, it made a big difference.
The class system really starts to sing after unlocking a few skills. The strategy I had settled on by the end was to have Seth tank hits as a Vanguard to generate BP, then use Freelancer's Lucky Charm skill to turn that BP into MP for my mages, who could then spam their powerful spells and heals.
These kinds of fun class combinations are what Bravely is all about, and it definitely feels like a good start here. I'm excited to see how things develop as you unlock more classes.
Also this level of difficulty felt good to me... I hope this is at least kept as an option for the main game. The past Bravely games had difficulty modes and I think this would make a good "Hard".
Also for people struggling with the difficulty... don't forget to buy equipment in town. I was totally getting destroyed until I remembered to do that, it made a big difference.
Yeah, I find it so off-putting that I don't think I will get the game unless something drastic changes. I really liked how the 3ds games looked too...
It's been a while since I've played the 3DS games, somewhere around Second's release, but yeah, there's just really weird step backs in terms of how the UI and things are handled. I know this demo will see a ton of feedback and likely doesn't have features they already plan, but man. Just some stuff about how equipment and things are displayed or loadouts for certain job setups would be nice. Also the camera not freaking out in battles would be cool. The list above is pretty comprehensive for the most part.
Also I'd like to see an actual good strategy for beating the big super duper boss. It really just felt like a battle of attrition of defaulting a lot because if I don't then I'll get murdered with 4 braves and a full wipe from full health. It was almost obnoxious how he'd just go on a murder brave rampage after hitting half of his health. If poison didn't work I'm really not sure how I would've worked that out. My setup was just 2 black mages to Fira, white mage, and Vanguard to provoke. Give or take extra sub classes for MP regen and more healing.
Also I'd like to see an actual good strategy for beating the big super duper boss. It really just felt like a battle of attrition of defaulting a lot because if I don't then I'll get murdered with 4 braves and a full wipe from full health. It was almost obnoxious how he'd just go on a murder brave rampage after hitting half of his health. If poison didn't work I'm really not sure how I would've worked that out. My setup was just 2 black mages to Fira, white mage, and Vanguard to provoke. Give or take extra sub classes for MP regen and more healing.
Minor thoughts while starting the demo and running around a bit - there are a few janky transitions during cutscenes. Elvis flat out disappeared halfway through his talking, and there are some weird inconsistencies between the characters talking but their models doing something else. Also everyone never shuts up during battles
Edit: I do hope the characters deviate from the original BD quartet in the actual game ... cause right now Seth, Gloria, Adele and Elvis feel like obvious reskins of Tiz, Agnes, Edea and Ringabel in that order (Seth even has amnesia lol)
Edit: I do hope the characters deviate from the original BD quartet in the actual game ... cause right now Seth, Gloria, Adele and Elvis feel like obvious reskins of Tiz, Agnes, Edea and Ringabel in that order (Seth even has amnesia lol)
How did the creators of Octopath make something so gross looking. The environments look great, but shit everything in 3D models looks awful. Chibi style works well when you have shit graphics (well no it doesn't even then, still looks stupid), but with the Switch's power it just looks terrible. Not even a stylistic choice at this point, just looks outright bad and has put me off from actually playing the game.
Movement in over world is floaty and janky. Combat is strikingly similar to Octopath, but seems less interesting from what little I got to experience.
Ehh, not impressed. Might check out the original, but will be waiting for reviews anyway.
Movement in over world is floaty and janky. Combat is strikingly similar to Octopath, but seems less interesting from what little I got to experience.
Ehh, not impressed. Might check out the original, but will be waiting for reviews anyway.
The feedback I intend to give out:
+: Gorgeous game, fantastic artstyle
+: the small changes to the battle systems are really good
+: UI is top notch apart from a few issues
+: top tier soundtrack etc
-: some minor framerate issues
-: it's annoying to have to stay pressed on + to display details in some part of the UI
-: UI in battle could display better the amount of BP left to the enemy and weaknesses without having to press +
-: pls bring back the option to adjust the amount of random encounters (even if they aren't random anymore)
-: the character is sometimes difficult to spot when roaming in city due to how far away the view is
-: absolutely need an option to view the full map of the dungeon
+: Gorgeous game, fantastic artstyle
+: the small changes to the battle systems are really good
+: UI is top notch apart from a few issues
+: top tier soundtrack etc
-: some minor framerate issues
-: it's annoying to have to stay pressed on + to display details in some part of the UI
-: UI in battle could display better the amount of BP left to the enemy and weaknesses without having to press +
-: pls bring back the option to adjust the amount of random encounters (even if they aren't random anymore)
-: the character is sometimes difficult to spot when roaming in city due to how far away the view is
-: absolutely need an option to view the full map of the dungeon
Can the 3D models be changed with feedback or is this demo more to highlight gameplay changes? Because while this game's backgrounds and world look stunning, the characters not so much.
I'm guessing 7 wont be the max job level in the full game? Seeing as black mage doesn't have the -aga spells
My immediate impressions are that they need an option to have npc dialogue appear at once and that there's something I dont like about the character movement, it feels very imprecise.
Nice UI
My immediate impressions are that they need an option to have npc dialogue appear at once and that there's something I dont like about the character movement, it feels very imprecise.
Nice UI
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I think 13 was the max in Default and Second but I think the job level/spell progression has been changed for the demo because in the predecessors you unlocked spell levels and had to buy the spells from a shop.
I haven't played the demo (probably won't, I'm sold on the game anyways), but I personally really like the way the game looks. The character models still look a little off, but they look much better in gameplay than they did in that original CGI reveal trailer and all the rest of the models look fairly good to me. The background art also looks good, and in-battle the game looks really nice.
I also like what I'm hearing about individual turns instead of selecting all actions at the start of your turn. I think I'll like this game significantly more than the 3DS games off of that alone (and I still enjoyed those). If they allow you to see turn order after demo feedback, that'll be even better.
I also like what I'm hearing about individual turns instead of selecting all actions at the start of your turn. I think I'll like this game significantly more than the 3DS games off of that alone (and I still enjoyed those). If they allow you to see turn order after demo feedback, that'll be even better.
Never played the first games. Backgrounds are great and I don't mind the characters (altho Elvis looks a little funny) but the battle system feels like a huge downgrade from Octopath. Doesn't feel very good to play. There's not enough feedback or weight to your actions.
Also the attack animation and sounds hella dumb.
Also the attack animation and sounds hella dumb.
I agree that it feels like you're operating blindly, but the old system was definitely not more strategic. The new system is more strategic because it is more reactive. There was no turn order in the old system either (you could guesstimate based on speed, but there was variance), so you'd just queue up your inputs and hoped your DEF debuff came before your massive attacks and so forth. For these scenarios, the new turn system is strictly better. It's slower, because you can't just queue everything up and watch, but you can adjust your strategy on the fly as the turns unfold.
Do you think perhaps it was because it was starting as a 3ds project than switched to Switch?