- 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - 19/Jun 03:36

Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster – Review

Cast your mind back to 2013. With the 3DS at the height of its popularity, Square Enix released Bravely Default for the handheld, an enhanced and expanded version of a JRPG that debuted in Japan a year prior. For a fairly niche title, it was surprisingly successful, selling 600.000 copies in the West, and spawning several sequels. One of those 600.000 copies ended up in our own hands. A decade on, we still have fond memories of the original Bravely Default. So, when the game made its return as a launch title on the Switch 2, now titled Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster, we were both excited to return to the game and cautious to see whether the game stood the test of time. How does Bravely Default hold up? Story Set in the world of Luxendarc, Bravely Default tells the story of four distinct heroes whose paths eventually cross as dark forces threaten their peaceful existence. The cast includes the mysterious Agnes, who is the catalyst of the story, meek farmboy Tiz, whose village was destroyed, charismatic womanizer Ringabel, who suffers from amnesia, and feisty knight Edea, who is facing moral dilemmas. The overarching end-of-the-world plot isn’t exactly groundbreaking or original. The biggest strength of Bravely Default’s writing comes from how well the distinct personalities of its cast bounce off one another. The optional Party Chat dialogue is always worth reading, as it helps with fleshing out the personalities of the inherently likable cast. Graphics For the Switch 2 release, Bravely Default got the HD treatment. The visuals certainly benefit from the bigger screen size and bump in resolution compared to the original release. Even so, Bravely Default isn’t the most impressive title when it comes to its graphics. While Akihiko Yoshida’s designs definitely retain their charm, the game’s 3DS roots are still very visible, with simple character models and rather empty environments. The watercolor art that is used throughout is clearly the winner here. Performance-wise, Bravely Default runs buttery smooth on the Switch 2’s more powerful hardware, although in all honesty, this game isn’t too taxing in the first place. Sound Over a decade has passed since we last played the original Bravely Default, but as soon as the first few notes hit, memories of Revo’s excellent soundtrack came flooding back. Bravely Default’s music is as memorable as it is beautiful. Thanks to the improved speaker of the new console, it has also never sounded crisper and deeper. The voice performances are great as well, especially when it comes to the four main characters. Spike Spencer’s Ringabel is the standout here, giving emotional depth to a character that just as easily could’ve been relegated to being the comic relief. The only bothersome aspect of Bravely Default’s audio is that the in-battle quotes are overused and get very repetitive after a while. Other than that, the game offers a near-perfect soundscape. Gameplay For the most part, Bravely Default’s Switch port remains unchanged from the 3DS version in terms of gameplay. It’s a fairly standard JRPG, where you take control of your party of intrepid adventurers as you try to save Luxendarc. The overarching story takes place all over this vast world, although the overworld itself is zoomed out, in classical JRPG fashion. Key locations like villages and dungeons are fully fleshed out. Both dungeons and the overworld are filled with random encounters that lead to turn-based battles against all sorts of monsters. It’s nothing you haven’t seen before, but that’s a testament to how well the formula works. The Switch 2 port did bring one major change to Bravely Default’s formula. One of the key aspects of the game is the village of Norende, where protagonist Tiz hails from. Early on in the story, Norende is destroyed, and it’s up to the player to rebuild it. Norende acts as a hub area, where you can find the obligatory shops and the like. In the 3DS version, your restoration efforts were tied to the Streetpass feature. In the Switch 2 port, this has been replaced by a pair of minigames that make use of the console’s mouse mode. These are fairly unremarkable, but it’s a neat little touch that some effort was put into this aspect of the game. As is usually the case with Square Enix’s modern JRPGs, Bravely Default mostly sticks close to the conventions of the genre, except for a standout gameplay mechanic. In the case of the Bravely Default series, said mechanic is the Brave and Default system. This risk-reward system lets you pick between guarding against enemy attacks or attacking multiple times in the same turn, at the cost of being disadvantaged in the next turn. It’s a surprisingly deep, yet accessible system that was fleshed out further in Bravely Default II. It also served as the basis for Octopath Traveler’s combat mechanics, so this alone makes it worth checking out if you’re a fan of that series, to see its roots. Combat is where Bravely Default shines brightest, with the game’s job system offering over 20 classes for your band of adventurers. This makes for a wealth of strategies. Given how varied the different bosses are, you can’t just rely on the same strategy and brute force your way through either. Experimenting with different tactics and combos really is key here. If that sounds like your cup of tea, you’re going to love getting stuck in the Brave and Default system. Being a Square Enix JRPG, it’s no surprise that Bravely Default is fairly sizable, clocking in at around 50 hours for main story completion. Unfortunately, those 50 hours end up feeling way too long, due to the way the game is structured. Without going into story spoilers too much, once you reach the midway point of the narrative, you’ll end up having to revisit the majority of the world again, backtracking through dungeons you’ve cleared before and fighting bosses all over again. It ends up feeling like repetitive, needless padding. Granted, being able to speed up the random encounters takes the sting out somewhat, but the awkward pacing of that latter half makes Bravely Default overstay its welcome. Still, with an RRP of €39.99, Bravely Default is one of the more attractive-looking options if you’re looking for something other than Mario Kart World in the Switch 2’s launch lineup. Conclusion While there definitely were some rose-tinted glasses involved when it came to our memories of Bravely Default, as a whole, the game has stood the test of time quite well. The biggest issue we had with the game was the overall pacing, especially with the game’s second half ending up feeling very repetitive. If you can get over that, there’s a fantastic little JRPG to be found here, with tons of strategic depth, an absolutely charming cast, and a for-the-time very innovative combat system. The minor improvements to the game’s audiovisual presentation are the icing on the cake.