I don’t think fans really asked for a rehash of an artistically bankrupt mobile game selling nostalgia instead of quality and originality.
Yoko Taro’s Nier Reincarnation is an actual sequel to the franchise that SE treats like an accident they never wanted. This would be a much better option for de-gatcha-fication.
I feel like Bravely Default games are an actual spiritual successor to old school Final Fantasy games. 4 heroes of light, turn/class based system, chibi art style - it’s all there.
The BD games have the setting and turn based battles as homage to classic FF but they don’t feel like the same series.
BD is 100% satire of the old games. Dialogue is intentionally cheesy, goofy and over the top. The chibi art style is the intended character design. Nothing in the game feels serious.
Classic FF games had serious themes with goofy stuff sprinkled in. Characters had a chibi look only for technical reasons. The real character designs were beautiful drawings by Amano.
I don’t think anyone in charge at SE understands what a good RPG is. They are not gamers. They are investors chasing market trends and are chasing a shrinking market because they’re just using an old IP for name recognition just like Disney does with Star Wars.
I’m playing FFIX right now so I wonder if this is why my impression of BD is so different.
I definitely disagree on it being satire or even unserious. Yes, there’s comic relief and superficially it looks childish but it’s a retreat in style similar to FFIX and you can see they corrected every weak point from that one:
- Battles are faster, class and B/D mechanics are much more engaging, random encounter rate is adjustable. I don’t think I played any FF derivative that was more fun to play.
- They went more chibi in the art style at least in part out of necessity because FFIX character faces were a pixelated mess at 240p PSX display resolution, which is the same number of horizontal lines as 3DS.
- Comic relief is just simply better executed, FFIX jokes are cringe for lack of a better word. Ringabel isn’t that much more cheesy or over the top womaniser than Edgar from FFVI. You go to the moon like in every other FF.
To me BD is classic FF concept taken where it made sense. The only major difference is that the story took second seat to gameplay but I don’t think that’s what FF was about traditionally even if FFVI happened to be one of the best JRPG stories told.
Nah, nothing to do with being on FF9 right now. I have absolutely no idea where their read of Bravely Default comes from. BD is a subversion of Final Fantasy, not satire. The story works so well exactly because it leans so heavily on FF tropes. You don’t bring in a heavyweight like Naotaka Hayashi just to crack wise. Saying “nothing in the game feels serious” is “did we even play the same game?” territory as far as I’m concerned. Agnes’s voice actor is literally wailing into the microphone with grief at one point. They put that cast through hell.
On the art, BD’s lineage traces back to the Final Fantasy III remake. Three games removed from that, it stops being a technical decision at that point and just iteration. Like Final Fantasy Tactics, the game is Akihiko Yoshida’s take on the series.
I tried out the Resonance demo. I’ve got some (unpopular?) opinions on some HD2D games, so take my opinions on the demo with that in mind. It had a lot of what I dislike about Octopath in it. Characters that don’t fit in their environment (both because pixel and also everyone looks too small). Overuse of filters. A disappointingly plain UI with an uninspired basic font.
The actual game is much like any traditional final fantasy games with some additions (I haven’t played them all, so maybe these aren’t new).
- A stagger system for enemies which can shake up combat a bit.
- Summons last for a few turns rather than a one and done thing.
Personally, it feels like so many other current JRPGs on the market, and I’d put my money to an indie that’s trying something new or more interesting.
Guess it depends on one’s definition of traditional. Final Fantasy X had the multi-turn summons, and that’s the last game that fits the constant drumbeat of calls for returning to high budget, turn-based FF that persists in the fandom.
I suppose I meant everything pre VII, but you’re right, it’s not like they abandoned turn-based when they went 3D. I never got too far into X, but I’ll get through it eventually.
This unfortunately sounds like mobile garbage
Hell yeah. I hope it plays well
