We had previously heard from Nintendo on Twitter that Australia and New Zealand’s release date for Bravely Second: End Layer (3DS), the sequel to Bravely Default, would line up with that of North America. We’ll get the game on the 27th. But along with a release date confirmation, Nintendo has revealed a little bit about a new risk/reward system for its combat.
As if February wasn’t already crazy enough for games. If Bravely Second is anything like Bravely Default, the full run of its campaign (including the “kill all the same bosses again” trick) could take you 100 hours to finish.
But the new combat system Nintendo is talking about could save you some time, if you’re good at said combat:
Bravely Default’s innovative Brave and Default tactical battle system returns with even deeper layers of strategy. As before, players must balance risk and reward in turn-based battles: characters can make multiple moves in one turn, but this leaves them unable to move in subsequent turns. One new feature in Bravely Second lets players put their skill and their nerve to the ultimate test: after winning a battle in a single turn, brave warriors can immediately start another, more difficult encounter for the chance to earn increasing rewards. Chaining these battles together is a swift way to level up characters and jobs, but defeat means losing everything earned during those battles, so discretion should always be the better part of valour.
So after you win a fight, you can basically continue to say “double or nothing” until you’ve been worn down enough to need to head back to town. It could be a faster way to level up just by hitting trash mobs right outside the town; if you’re game enough to do it in a dungeon (or against a boss? Is that possible?), full respect.
That said, it will undoubtedly be a very complicated game, so who knows if there’ll be another infinite/invincible strategy like the Four Valkyries:
Check out some of the screenshots below. One of them shows the double or nothing system. Fighting again for 1.5 times the reward? Hmm, I wouldn’t risk it vs a tough enemy.
Comments
11 responses to “These Screenshots Show Bravely Second’s New ‘Double Or Nothing’ Combat”
No, just no. That was an incredibly bad design decision and should never have been part of the main game. If they include it as an end game arena mode or something optional that doesn’t artificially extend the length of the game then that’s fine but if they pull the same stunt again then they’ll burn a lot of good will with fans.
I do like the idea of extending combat though. I’ve played several games that have similar ideas (although most weren’t optional) and it’s been great for grinding. My solution in Bravely Default was to just manipulate the enemies that call reinforcements so they kept calling reinforcements. Worked a treat.
+1 on the bosses thing. It’s why I haven’t finished Bravely default yet. I don’t want to go through and kill the same bosses over and over again, despite having the jobs maxxed out. Just can’t be bothered with it.
To be honest, I would have been happy enough for the game to have finished the first time through. Felt like most things had some resolution and anything else could have been left as some sort of post game content.
I hated the writing, the big twist at the end of the first time through regarding one of the characters I’d seen coming long before it happened.
The twist about the Airy actually being evil, not the Ringabel/Alternis twistGrinding in the first game was ridiculously easy though. There’s a couple of awesome spots for it and you can wipe everything out first round for high Money / XP / BP. Combine it with various abilities and items to boost gain, increase the speed, set everything to auto and just wander around in circles for an hour or two hammering the A button to skip through menus. Took me about three hours doing that to get everyone to level 99 and max out all the jobs.
Should I tackle the first game, or just this one? It always seemed like a Clayton’s JRPG in the way everybody talks about it. I like playing modern RPGs made in Japan just fine, apart from being ‘retro cool’ what is the appeal here?
It really depends. To use as an example, jumping into Bravely Second first would probably be the same as starting the Kingdom Hearts series with Kingdom Hearts II. It will probably assume you knew what happened in the first game, so it won’t hold back with making massive spoilers.
First game has a pretty neat story and the battle system is turn based, so think FFX (but with the ability to attack 4 times in one turn… though best be careful with that), but with a Job System.
Only having theories about how the second game handles the events of the first then I’d say you could probably get away with not completing it though there will be certain key things that make a lot more sense if you do.
It’s basically a throwback to SNES/PS1-era FF, but with some modern design added (turn off all random encounters, increase game speed etc) so whether it’s worth it or not for you depends on how you feel about classic Final Fantasy I think. I loved the game but I’m a big fan of the main artist and I really miss old turn-based FF and don’t like the might-as-well-be-an-action-rpg-if-it-weren’t-for-these-menus approach they moved to after X.
Thanks all, I think I’ll go ahead and grab the first.
I’m playing through Virtual Console versions of FF games as well, I wonder how I’ll go from here 😀
> That said, it will undoubtedly be a very complicated game, so who knows if there’ll be another infinite/invincible strategy like the Four Valkyries:
Oh don’t worry. Players will find a way to break the game. I still remember the reaction on my friends faces when they saw my streetpass damage was 999999.