For those who haven’t played Bravely Default, the story goes something like this: the world is going crazy because four giant crystals have been covered in darkness. So the party goes around the world and cleans all the crystals. Somehow, instead of healing the world, this just throws them into another world where they have to repeat the whole crystal-cleaning process. They do that. They get thrown into another world again.
See, right around here a red flag should have gone up. Didn’t someone say “Insanity is doing the same thing over again but expecting a different result”? But I’m not here to debate the finer points of the story today. All I’m here to say is that after four iterations of fighting the same bosses over and over again I’ve hit my limit and will now quietly drop the game.
Or, on second thought, not so quietly drop the game. First I must get this off my chest: FOUR repetitions? One, two, three, four?! Of the same bosses? I don’t even know if it’s four total, all I know is I quit after four. Couldn’t they at least have warned me I’d be doing that many loops in advance? So that at least I wouldn’t bother fighting the side bosses? All the looping + same old scenery + same old bosses made me burn out totally and completely.
I love a good boss fight, so the first time I had to redo the crystals I was pretty happy. Went round, killed everybody, learned a lot of skills, yay! Second time… what? B-but this must be the last time, right? So I killed them all again. Killed the keystone dragons. Did the Vampire Castle sidequest, learned a bit of story so that’s okay. …Third time?! You’ve gotta be kidding! Uh, well, they do say the third time is the charm. And at least I got the key that opens all those blue-and-yellow chests. I skipped the side bosses and went straight to crystals. Ugh, four more boring fights. A promising sidequest opened up with Saga Yulyana, but I was too tired at that point. Let’s just go to the Holy Pillar and finish the game…FOURTH TIME. I didn’t say anything. I just turned the 3DS off. And here we are.
Bravely Default’s gameplay made me miss the 7th Dragon games. It takes a special kind of battle system to make you fight 666+255+255 dragons and still long for more. BD’s system wouldn’t even get me to fight 20.
The story, on the other hand, made me miss Arc Rise Fantasia. Ryfia in ARF and Agnes in BD are both sheltered innocent ‘nuns’ from a persecuted religion trying to save the world (they think). But whereas Tiz and co. just go along with whatever Agnes is doing, L’Arc puts the brakes on pretty quickly. When Ryfia goes “You’re the chosen one and you must follow me because I have boobies” L’Arc is more like “Whoa whoa whoa! I like a damsel in distress as much as the next guy, but is this really the right thing to do?” That’s a protagonist thinking with the right head for a change.
The actual details of ARF’s story aren’t much to write home about, and some events are downright laughable, but the general concept of thinking for yourself and not progressing with any course of action until you (both the gamer and the in-game character) fully understand what you’re doing and the consequences thereof is highly commendable. Not to mention I wouldn’t have minded fighting 16 bosses over and over again in Arc Rise Fantasia because the system had you doing more than just spamming the same skills over and over again. Boo hoo hoo, Imageepoch, I miss you ;_____;
Right, got that off my chest. I feel a little better. As usual I’m going to spoil the story as a final courtesy. Because you can tell very early on that cleansing the crystals isn’t going to save the world like the party thinks it is, but no one stops to actually talk about it until waaaay late in the game. There are all these in-game characters who know the full deal but refuse to tell because, I dunno, maybe they like being killed by rebellious teens with sharp swords and dull intellects. Or something. Dunno. Anyway, don’t be like them. Just read my spoilers and call it a day.
Bravely Default Story Spoilers (consider yourself warned)
Behold the face of evil!
Releasing the crystals won’t save the world, it will destroy it. Airy the Fairy is evil, and she’s plotting to destroy all existence by having Agnes and co. release the crystals on multiple worlds so she can release her master, the final boss. Stepping into the Holy Pillar is what causes the Great Chasm to appear in the next world over. There are all kinds of details beyond that, but those are the basics you need to know.
The reason your party keeps releasing the crystals even when they realize Airy is evil is so they can lure out the final boss and beat him once and for all. No explanation is given of how they even know of his existence in the first place. Most likely they were just going along with Airy to see what would happen once they’d been through all the worlds. Morons.
NPCs Sage Yulyana, Braev Lee and Lord DeRosso know the truth and try to stop it by destroying the Crystal Orthodoxy and seizing the crystals/vestals. When that fails, they decide to do nothing else/kill you guys because just explaining the situation to Edea and Agnes and seeking a diplomatic solution would have made too much sense. Besides, the writers really want you to fight the final boss instead of just going “I quit” and going back to your village to start a new life. Btw Braev/Yulyana/DeRosso never explain what their plan was for getting the world back in order after the crystals were covered in darkness.
Also Ringabel = Alternis Dim from another world. This is heavily hinted at from the start, so no points for figuring it out. Tiz = was supposed to die with the rest of Norende but a fairy (Airy’s good sister) gave him a special soul or something so he could survive long enough to help the gang. That’s what the internet told me anyway. There are quite a few RPGs where the main hero is dead/not human all along, but I have yet to play a game where this is treated as anything more than a minor inconvenience.
Any other questions? The ending? Uh, I think Ringabel goes back to his own world to try to save his original party members. Or maybe he stays with the gang, nobody knows. Tiz survives the loss of his not-soul somehow. The girls are all fine. Everyone who survives lives happily ever after, the end. I should have just googled all that from the start and saved myself 50 hours.
Right, what’s next on my agenda? There’s still about 2 months before Summon Night 5 + Legend of Legacy + Stella Glow come out. My body + wallet is ready. In the meantime I guess I’ll just putter around and play a few things on my PSP and DS while I wait. I won’t bother saying what, because I always end up playing something other than what I said I’d play. Most likely VP: Covenant or Izuna 2, but don’t hold me to either of those. See you later!
Yup, knew it was coming.
I think it was funny that between the period where the game was already out in Japan and being super hyped by English speakers, they were all “this is the greatest 3DS RPG ever” before they actually got it and experienced the “plot twist” themselves.
Oh well, the one thing I hear about the sequel is that everyone who has played the JP version goes “Nope, it doesn’t have that same stupid plot twist, thank god”
Good for it. I’m probably not going to play it though. Not until I’ve recovered from this trauma.