Bravely Second: End Layer

Bravely Default harkened back to the classic era of JRPGs, for better and worse. A wonderfully diverse selection of job classes and the novel Brave/Default system breathed new life into the turn-based battles, but the adventure was dragged down by its abysmal exposition and a repetitive campaign that required playing through the bulk of the story five times in order to reach a satisfying conclusion. Bravely Second only manages to shore up some of its predecessor’s problems, but the rich combat continues to shine.

Bravely Second tasks players with saving the world from the villainous Kaiser Oblivion, but like its predecessor, the opening hours of this generic quest are a real drag. Grinding your way through random encounters is required almost immediately thanks to a few cheap boss battles, and without side missions to earn new jobs at this stage, you’re stuck using basic attacks and guzzling potions for health.

I enjoyed very little of my first six hours or so with the game, as I burned through tutorials and became reacquainted with the world and characters. Once Bravely Second started introducing new job classes, however, I quickly fell back in love with the combat.

The ability to mix and match a primary skill set, a secondary skill set, and a sprinkling of random support skills for each character allows you to design the party of your dreams, while also experimenting with new builds whenever you see fit. Assembling a crew of beastly warriors and wizards and then steamrolling your way through fights never gets old, and kept me interested in progressing even when the story did not.

Thanks to Bravely Second’s victory streak mechanic, thumping underpowered foes is also lucrative. This new system allows players to queue up multiple waves of enemies during random encounters, which doles out massive cash, XP, and job point bonuses at the end of the match. The streak ends if your enemies are alive to take their first turn, and figuring out how to game — or outright break — the system is half the fun. The victory streaks drastically hasten the grind for higher levels and new abilities, alleviating one of the major faults of the previous game.

Instead, the biggest grind in Bravely Second is the story. Quests still require you to backtrack all over the map only to listen to inane conversations that drag on for far too long. I don’t mind the series’ tongue-in-cheek humor, but it constantly undermines the drama.

It’s hard to take all the betrayal and tragic backstories seriously when Yew is constantly proclaiming that the next battle will be his “coup de gravy.” The side quests are even more absurd.

Each one puts you in the middle of a conflict between two characters sporting new job classes, then forces you to choose between them. You only receive the job of the character you defeat in battle, which creates a conflict between where you want the story to go and which job you want to add to your roster.

I would have loved to help the reformed thief protect the water supply of his poor, desert-dwelling brethren from an unscrupulous red mage, but I also wanted his Mug ability to relieve bosses of their high-end items, so down he went. After a few side quests, you realize your decisions don’t matter from a narrative standpoint, so you’re free to pursue the jobs that interest you most. As with Bravely Default, a mid-game event in Bravely Second resets the world, tasking you with completing all the missions a second time. That you only have to play through everything twice instead of five times may seem like little consolation, but the return trip is a drastically abbreviated and slightly enhanced experience.

Most side quests allow you to skip past the boring dungeons and get to the boss fights quicker, and the new choice format allows you to fight a different opponent and gain a new job. The mid-story reset is still a lame way to extend an already lengthy game, but everything comes together with a satisfying run of final bosses that are challenging without being cheap. As dumb as the story is, I couldn’t help but smile at where all the characters end up.

Even with 60+ hours’ worth of gameplay, some parts of Bravely Second’s skeleton are still surprisingly bare. The dungeons offer little more than a few treasure chests and basic switch puzzles, and a surprising number of environments — both dungeons and cities — are recycled from the first game.

At the same time, the story is bloated with sappy and often pointless conversations. While trying, these shortcomings did little to dampen my enthusiasm for creating the perfect party and charging them into battle. The Bravely series is still in need of a deft editor, but the combat systems reign supreme.

Bravely Default was a real surprise hit for me on the Nintendo 3DS so I was very excited when Bravely Second: End Layer was released in 2016. This is once again a classic JRPG and it is such a gem and a game that I feel everyone who has a Nintendo 3DS needs to have in their collection.

Yew, Hero, Or Coward?

I will admit that when I started playing Bravely Second: End Layer I thought that the story was not all that interesting. The game showcases the effects that the events of the first game had on the land of Luxendarc and we get to see many familiar characters, but the start of the game is very, very slow.

However, our main character Yew is rather interesting in that while he is the captain of a brigade of Knights, he is also a bit of a coward too. The story has many twists and turns with a ton of characters to interact with. I will say that the story does ramp up after the 3- or 4-hour mark and you will get into it then. The problem I see is people turning it off before then!

Give Me A Job!

What I love about Bravely Second: End Layer and the Bravely series in genial is the gameplay. This is one of the finest JRPG series that Square-Enix has ever created. This in many ways is your typical JRPG, but what I feel really makes this so interesting is the phenomenal job system that the game has. You are not limited here and you can mess around and combine aspects from various jobs to make something that is just super powerful and a ton of fun to use.

You have lots of battles to take part in and the battles are strategic, but they are also fun and require you to think on your feet. I will say that the side content they put in this game is not as interesting as the side content that was in Bravely Default, but the real main portion of this game is great stuff indeed. Fans of JRPGs will have a field day playing through this game.

The Finer Points Of A JRPG

You may be wondering just how good can a massive JRPG for the Nintendo 3DS look. Well, let me tell you that Bravely Second: End Layer is a fantastic looking game! the game has that typical JRPG style to the visuals, but everything is so finely detailed. The characters look great, but it is the different environments that really blew me away. There is one section you will go to that is covered in snow and it is amazing what they were able to squeeze out of the 3DS.

As you would expect from Square-Enix, the soundtrack in the game is great and fits the moments you are watching and playing perfectly. One thing that I feel the game does not get enough credit for is the voice acting.

Sure, it may be cheesy in places, but it is perfectly fitting and the way you can hear how unsure of himself Yew is when he talks in certain situations is very well done.

Pros:

• It follows on from Bravely Default very well
• The whole game has sky-high production values
• It features a tremendous cast of characters
• While slow, the story gets you very invested in what is going on
• Some of the best voice acting on the 3DS

Cons:

• The side content is not quite as good
• I wish that they would release this on the Nintendo Switch