Huh. So this is what a Final Fantasy game is like.
This game's a very interesting beast. With its traditional turn-based combat, spells like Firaga and Blizzara, Phoenix Downs and Cait Siths, it's a Final Fantasy game in everything but name. Which is interesting, because the only other Final Fantasy games I've played are the first and the XIII games. The first game bored me due to its lack of personality from its main characters and its weak story, though being one of the first RPGs, you can't fault it for that. XIII and XIII-2 I enjoy to varying degrees, but we all know what popular opinion on XIII is, so no point beating that dead horse. I say this because this game, in both form and function, harkens back to older Final Fantasy games. For others, it may cause a wave of nostalgic emotions. For me, though, I'll be able to judge it objectively on its own merits.
Story
Our heroes in a rare, non-super deformed state.
Our four Warriors of the Light, as it were, are Tiz Arrior, a humble farmboy whose home village is swallowed up by a giant chasm that appears out of nowhere, Agnes Oblige, a young maiden who's tasked with awakening four crystals from their slumbering state, Ringabel, an amnesiac casanova who carries around a mysterious journal that tells the future, and Edea, the heiress of the antagonistic Duchy of Eternia who can't stand her home's crimes anymore. Together, they have to go across the world to awaken four crystals to save the world from darkness and fight an evil empire.
Sound trite and cliche? That's only because it is. The first good chunk of the game that centers around this plot is somewhat boring, since it's nothing you've never seen before. As time goes by, though, the story opens up, and plot twist after plot twist unravels to make the game much more interesting than it would originally seem. Specifically, Edea's concept of black and white morality is gradually challenged, until it's clear that both sides have varying shades of gray to them.
As for the characters themselves, they too vary in quality. Ringabel and Edea are the clear standouts, with Tiz and Agnes, our two "leads", being much more conventional and, as a result, boring. Unfortunately, everything seems against their favor. Ringabel and Edea start out with interesting characters, and as their story arcs develop, they become even more interesting. Tiz and Agnes start off pretty bland, and they don't really have any kind of character arcs to speak of, so they remain bland. Ringabel and Edea's voice acting are adequate, while Tiz and especially Agnes are tolerable at best. Ringabel and Edea's leitmotifs are awesome, Tiz and Agnes' are a touch lacking. Like I said, everything seems against them, which is unfortunate seeing how they're supposed to be the lead characters.
It's a good thing the supporting cast shines through. While some characters fit their stereotypes to a tee, the ones that show up later into the game are much more interesting and fleshed out, with one in particular being a standout.
The good thing about the game's twists, for the most part, is that they seem to go at the same pace as you do. As soon as you start picking up that something may be amiss, characters in the game realize the same thing. It's a great feeling when the characters are just as smart as you are. Unfortunately, near the end of the game, there is one major element that I feel was horribly fumbled. I won't be specific, but you may be able to surmise what the twist is from what I say, so if you're afraid of that, you can skip over this portion.
Spoiler
Despite that last major issue that almost personally crippled the ending for me, for the most part it's a well done story, even if it has its down moments and occasional hiccups here and there.
Gameplay
Note the BP numbers. In this scenario, Tiz and Edea can chain multiple actions together in one turn without consequence, while Ringabel is forced to sit out for one turn.
As most people have pointed out, though, the battle system is what steals the show. It behaves like a normal turn-based RPG, with characters having the option to attack or use an ability each turn, etc. You know the drill. Actions are based around Brave Points, or BP. Your standard attacks and skills each cost one BP, and every turn every unit gains one BP; so if everyone just attacked like normal, it would behave like a normal RPG. But the big change comes with the game's nonsensical title: Braving and Defaulting. The option "Default" is essentially "Defend", except it not only cuts down damage you take that turn, it stores up one additional BP. Then there's Brave, which lets you attack an additionally time that turn, or up to four times if you wish. Depending on how you play, you can either use the BP you've been stocking with Default to go on an all-out offensive, or you can feel free to spam attacks when you don't have that many BP to spare; just keep in mind that you'll be a sitting duck while you wait for your BP to fill up again. In addition, certain killer moves that you gain near the end of the game cost BP as opposed to Magic, so you really need to plan out if a certain attack is worth surrendering future turns.
There's also the friend summoning system. While normal summons do exist in the game, summons are primarily done via StreetPass and SpotPass. When you're about to perform a devastating super attack, you can choose to Send the attack out. The attack performs like normal, except now it's stored as Summon data. When you StreetPass with people, or connect with online friends via SpotPass, you'll swap Summons with one another. You can only use a received summon once (though can gain them again on future passing), and depending on how far along the game your friend is, they can act as emergency kill moves.
Another social system is the Abilinks system. If your friend owns the game, you can link up a character with theirs (e.g. you can link your Tiz with their Tiz, etc.), and while your level and stats will remain the same, you can use all the abilities that their characters knows. You can also switch which character you're borrowing from at any time if you feel like it. This system's a good idea, but in practice it is a bit broken; while you might not have the stats to back them up, being able to use ultimate skills from day one can be a bit much.
There's also the Bravely Second feature, added in the Japanese rerelease as a tease for the upcoming sequel...Bravely Second. At any time, you can hit Start to freeze the game (whether it's during your turn while deciding actions, or in the middle of a turn, it matters not). When you do this, you can select any of your characters and have them perform any move, regardless of their BP. Moves used during this state break the 9999 damage cap, which means a well-timed move can annihilate a foe. The catch is that each use of Bravely Second costs Sleep Points, which are gained by just that: sleeping. For every 8 (nonconsecutive) hours your 3DS is in Sleep Mode, you will gain 1 SP, and you cap out at 3. This makes Bravely Second a prized ability that must be saved for only the most dire situations. There's an in-game store where you can buy SP for real-world currency, but that's entirely up to you. Thankfully, that's the only case of micro-transactions in the game, so you don't have to worry about it pinching your pennies.
Another reason to leave your 3DS in constantly sleep mode is the reconstruction of Tiz's hometown of Norende. A Facebook-esque minigame that takes place in the background at all times, there are different parts of his village that need reconstruction. For instance, you might have a weapon shop that will take 4 hours, and an item shop that will take 2. You start with a handful of units, and you can spread them as you wish. If you had two units to spare, you could put them into each of those buildings to have them ready in that amount of time, or you could put both in the weapon shop to have its time divided by 2 and have it ready in 2 hours. You gain more workers each time you StreetPass/SpotPass, which you'll need when all the buildings start taking 99 hours. Eventually, your work there will allow you to buy unique weapons and armor from the Adventurer (your save station that appears all over the place), as well as grant you access to newer special moves.
One other thing worth mentioning, and probably the most significant, is the job system. At any time outside of battle, you're free to switch your characters' jobs. There's a multitude of jobs (capping off at 24), and while the ones you start off with such as Black Mage, White Mage, Knight, etc. are the same old same old you've come to expect, as you progress further through the game you, you'll get into the more unique and bizarre classes, such as Ninja, Vampire, and Performer, who dresses as either an Elvis impersonator or in a bunny outfit depending on the gender.
You love it, you know you do.
Outside of your basic job, which comes with battle abilities and one inherent support ability, you're given a wide variety of mixing and matching options. Each character can choose one job command, which lets them use all of the battle abilities of one class (e.g. you can have a Black Mage who can use all of their known White Mage spells, a Knight who can use all of their known Monk attacks, etc.). They can also equip support (passive) abilities that they learn from various classes, up to a certain number depending on how far through the game you are. This allows for a lot of unique combinations: you can be a Ninja skilled at dodging with the Red Mage's support ability that grants you 1 BP for each dodge. Or you can be a Pirate with the massive MP-consuming Amped Strike with the Swordmaster's battle ability Free Lunch, which negates MP cost for two turns. Or you can be a Spiritmaster using the ability Stillness which costs 2BP but negates all damage for two turns, in addition to the Time Mage's support ability Hasten World which grants everyone an additional BP each turn. There's a whole lot of creative possibilities out there, which each player will most likely only scratch the surface of, and the potential for that creativity makes it a great system.
One last thing to note is the ability to tweak difficulty. You have your standard Easy/Normal/Hard that you can change at any time, and then you have your sadism abilities to disable gold/experience gains. But then you have the random encounter slider, where you can go anywhere between force an encounter every two steps and disable them altogether. While disabling them may seem nice, you must keep in mind that grinding is a necessary evil to overcome those bosses. However, since you have the choice of when to grind, you can go through whole dungeons without fighting a single enemy, or walk in circles on the overworld to grind while watching TV in the background. This is assisted by the ability to fastforward battles or put it on autopilot to constantly repeat the last move you made. All of these together make grinding an incredibly simple matter. Whether this works or not is up to personal discretion; it creates a completely different rhythm that's alien from most JRPGs. While it does work better than forcing random encounters, I believe that the next necessary step is to make a game where the grinding element does not exist at all, or at least doesn't feel like grinding. As is, though, this is a decent medium that lets you decide where and when you want to do your grinding.
Aesthetics
This isn't concept art; these are your in-game graphics.
On the audio end of things, we've got the soundtrack, which is absolutely superb. Instead of your typical Nobuo Uematsu, Masashi Hamauzu or Yoko Shimomura, instead we have Revo (sometimes known as Linked Horizon), the same band that brought us the world-stopping opening to Attack on Titan. The result is a very rock-inspired soundtrack, which you would think may be at odds with a JRPG that is dug so deep into its traditional roots. However, it surprisingly works. It helps that the calmer themes, such as city themes or dramatic music, stays orchestral, which comes as a surprise from a band that is known for a rocking opening theme. Once you get into battle, though, things take an awesome turn. Even the traditional battle theme, which is often a bore and a chore to listen to in most JRPGs, has a really cool driving beat with drums smashing in the background and guitar riffs throughout to accompany the blaring trumpets. Personal favorites of mine include That Person's Name Is (mini-boss music played when battling Job holders, who you must defeat to obtain their job), Baby Bird and Love's Vagrant (Edea and Ringabel's respective leitmotifs that play when activating their special moves), The Civil War Country (the third country's map music, which is surprisingly forward for a town theme), and the final battle musics (the names of which may be spoilerific so I'll refrain from naming them here).
In fact, a year after the game's release in Japan, the band had a live concert playing the game's music. If you thought shows like Symphony of the Goddess were a big deal, this show blew them out of the water. These are guys in outfits, rocking out hardcore to video game music. It's pure bliss.
And that leaves us with the voice acting. It's...hit or miss. The side characters' voice acting is averagely good, which is fine since they only show up here and there. The problem comes with our main characters. As stated before, Ringabel and Edea are fine, and Tiz is acceptable, but to quote Agnes' catchphrase, her voice acting is "Unacceptable!". It's incredibly breathy, as if she's constantly on the back end of running a marathon. I get if they wanted to make her sound pure and refined and all that, but it comes off as artificial. And again, this is a problem since she's ostensibly the main character. And when your lead's voice acting is so horrid that you want to constantly skip past their dialogue, you're forcibly torn from the experience. While the voice acting by no means ruins the game, it is a rather large mar that can't be overlooked.
Value
This is a classic RPG, so you know what that means. That's right; it's long. Like, really, REALLY long. I clocked in at 84 hours, and while I wasn't ADD enough to collect every weapon and encounter every enemy and all that, I did take part in every sidequest (except one I accidentally missed, but it wasn't of major importance, so it's not a big deal), and apparently that's around the average, if only slightly above. At any rate, if you can't dedicate yourself to a long game, then this won't be for you. But if you're looking for a time vacuum, then look no further.
Unfortunately, a lot of that time is spent in tedious repetition. I'll refrain from explaining why because, again, spoilers, but let's just say that after the 40 hour mark, you're going to be doing a LOT of backtracking and repeating things you've already done. At least you can turn off the random encounters so you don't waste too much time in these old dungeons, but it can still sometimes feel like a chore.
There's plenty of sidequests, and for the first half of the game, they're incredibly significant. Not only do they provide some major character beats, but each one results in gaining new jobs, which opens up new options, which is a plus. In the second half of the game, the sidequests are more there for humor or character development, without any real substantial gains. If you care that much about the characters and the world, they're still fun to perform; if not, that will probably shave 10 or so hours off of your total playtime.
As mentioned in the spoiler section above, there's two different endings depending on a choice you make during the game. Thankfully, while your levels and stats are saved, the game drops you off before you make said choice after beating the final boss of one ending, allowing you to play out the other if you wish. There's also a New Game +, in which you can carry over your gear. After such a massive game, though, I'm not sure if anyone would want to play it again immediately afterwards, just from fatigue.
Conclusion
Overall, I'd say this is one of the better games on the system, and that's saying a lot, seeing how the 3DS has seen a massive boost in wonderful games. The combat is incredibly deep, the soundtrack is kickin, and while the tedious grind of the latter half and the mediocre voice acting can hold it back, it's still worth playing. It's no masterpiece that will change how you look at the genre, but it's easily one of the better entries in recent years. If you're an old-school Final Fantasy Fan[tasy], and the recent games have angered you due to their departure from the norms, then this is the game for you: reaching back for nostalgia while moving forward with new ideas that don't deviate from the formula, but instead progress it.
Story:
+ Gets interesting the further you get into the game
+ Some impressive plot twists, even if some are more predictable than others
- Starts off weak and stale
- One major twist fumble near the end
- Choosing different endings feels backwards and makes you feel like a tool
Gameplay
+ Brave/Default system keeps you on your toes, planning multiple moves in advance
+ Job system is well thought out, allowing for endless creative combinations
+ Social features, while a bit overpowered at times, are a fun inclusion
Aesthetics
+ Artistically stunning at times
+ Kickass soundtrack
- Voice acting leaves a lot to be desired
Value
+ Will last you around 70-90 hours
- Around half of this time feels tedious and repetitive, exhausting your patience and making you want it to just end already.
8/10