Bravely Default
Not too long ago Nintendo announced they were bringing a very popular role-playing title over from Japan and localizing it for North America. I first saw a ton of content regarding this game, Bravely Default during a Nintendo announcement video and was pretty impressed. I was certain this was being announced for home console since the video showed content that was pretty high-end for anything less.
Turn out, it was to be released (and already was released in Japan) on the Nintendo 3DS, their handheld console. And even though handhelds like the Sony VITA and the 3DS have proven very powerful I'm still impressed since I'm stuck in the mindset that handheld game consoles are all big grey bricks with unlit 140x180 black and white screens.
Of course, Bravely Default is impressively far from that. I downloaded the demo they made available pre-release and I was absolutely engrossed. Though I was more impressed by the overall battle system and the ease of play than anything else. As it stands, Japanese style RPG games are not my cup of tea. Not because they aren't great, but rather that I am no good at them. Bravely Default however, reminded me of Final Fantasy Online, which I wasn't much better at, but it was familiar and that kinda got me started.
After playing the demo it was clear I was going to enjoy this game for many hours, and so with that I went ahead and actually pre-ordered the special edition of the game. Something I rarely do and have never done with a handheld title. Of course, it was well worth it in the end. Before I put the game down, which was before I had even completed about 60% of the game, I had hit over 50 hours of gameplay; most of which was on the commuter train to work and back. I really just couldn't put this game down.
Again I'll bring up just how amazing this game looks. Square Enix managed to come up with an incredible way to take advantage of the 3DS's stereoscopic 3D screen. The 'overworld maps' which you walk around in between battles and cinematics are basically all these incredible paintings which are perfectly overlaid onto 3D structures which means they properly move with the camera and have a strong depth to them. The results are something unlike anything you've seen before. The addition of a nighttime and daytime versions of each painting, the nighttime versions which feature some spectacular lighting really is the icing on the cake at that.
Bravely Default is yet another game that has so many incredible aspects to it that it can't be summed up in one post. The combat is fun and not overly complicated, the job leveling system is great and adds variety to what kind of team combinations you can come up with, but also allows the story to still feed from the primary 4 characters. Graphically the game is incredible and the soundtrack equally so. This is easily the most surprisingly impressive games I've played for a long time and I do highly recommend it if you can stand JRPG games in the least.
Turn out, it was to be released (and already was released in Japan) on the Nintendo 3DS, their handheld console. And even though handhelds like the Sony VITA and the 3DS have proven very powerful I'm still impressed since I'm stuck in the mindset that handheld game consoles are all big grey bricks with unlit 140x180 black and white screens.
Of course, Bravely Default is impressively far from that. I downloaded the demo they made available pre-release and I was absolutely engrossed. Though I was more impressed by the overall battle system and the ease of play than anything else. As it stands, Japanese style RPG games are not my cup of tea. Not because they aren't great, but rather that I am no good at them. Bravely Default however, reminded me of Final Fantasy Online, which I wasn't much better at, but it was familiar and that kinda got me started.
After playing the demo it was clear I was going to enjoy this game for many hours, and so with that I went ahead and actually pre-ordered the special edition of the game. Something I rarely do and have never done with a handheld title. Of course, it was well worth it in the end. Before I put the game down, which was before I had even completed about 60% of the game, I had hit over 50 hours of gameplay; most of which was on the commuter train to work and back. I really just couldn't put this game down.
Again I'll bring up just how amazing this game looks. Square Enix managed to come up with an incredible way to take advantage of the 3DS's stereoscopic 3D screen. The 'overworld maps' which you walk around in between battles and cinematics are basically all these incredible paintings which are perfectly overlaid onto 3D structures which means they properly move with the camera and have a strong depth to them. The results are something unlike anything you've seen before. The addition of a nighttime and daytime versions of each painting, the nighttime versions which feature some spectacular lighting really is the icing on the cake at that.
Bravely Default is yet another game that has so many incredible aspects to it that it can't be summed up in one post. The combat is fun and not overly complicated, the job leveling system is great and adds variety to what kind of team combinations you can come up with, but also allows the story to still feed from the primary 4 characters. Graphically the game is incredible and the soundtrack equally so. This is easily the most surprisingly impressive games I've played for a long time and I do highly recommend it if you can stand JRPG games in the least.
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