You get a handful of beginning-game tier items and equipment for completing stuff in the demo. You can also abuse an oversight and get 20 early villagers for Norende which is probably the best demo "reward." Gives you a really good head start on that.
Demo has a few hours worth of content, you might not feel like it's worthwhile if you already have the full game sitting in front of you.
Thanks for the tips! I did play the demo in Jan but only for 30 minutes. When I went back in I couldn't figure out how to create a new game or delete the one I started (As I have no idea what happened).
I'm not planning on playing until I finish up Link Between Worlds so I don't mind starting with the Demo.
And then in world 4 through 1, nobody knows who they are, but there isn't a World 4 Tiz/Agnes/Edea. I do like the idea that coincidentally, maybe Airy killed them all really early in their adventures (Tiz in particular is easy to kill off without Arternis to rescue him from the canyon), but wouldn't the templar or arternis say "Hey by the way, you're still alive Edea?"
Thank you Sweet Baby Jesus for the beginning of Chapter
4
and the first town in
Eternia
. I've got serious "gaming-OCD" when it comes to job/class based RPGs like this one and I just *have* to max out all jobs ASAP. Thank goodness for Crescent Moon and the enemies right outside that first town because now all my characters are Lvl. 99 with all available jobs at max level.
Didn't even take me all that long and I'm beating down the fools at
Thank you Sweet Baby Jesus for the beginning of Chapter
4
and the first town in
Eternia
. I've got serious "gaming-OCD" when it comes to job/class based RPGs like this one and I just *have* to max out all jobs ASAP. Thank goodness for Crescent Moon and the enemies right outside that first town because now all my characters are Lvl. 99 with all available jobs at max level.
Didn't even take me all that long and I'm beating down the fools at
I did. It took me about 4-5 hours with a Growth Egg right outside that first town in Chapter 4. The enemies there give around 400JP and 4.5K exp. per fight with all the combat bonuses maxed.
It helped that I was already around level 55 on my characters before I got there.
I did. It took me about 4-5 hours with a Growth Egg right outside that first town in Chapter 4. The enemies there give around 400JP and 4.5K exp. per fight with all the combat bonuses maxed.
It helped that I was already around level 55 on my characters before I got there.
I honestly have no desire to grind to 99. It takes away the challenge. Being OP in an RPG removes a lot of the fun for me, because you don't have to think much.
I honestly have no desire to grind to 99. It takes away the challenge. Being OP in an RPG removes a lot of the fun for me, because you don't have to think much.
I honestly have no desire to grind to 99. It takes away the challenge. Being OP in an RPG removes a lot of the fun for me, because you don't have to think much.
Level 99 does not seem to provide much of an advantage in the last couple chapters of this game, since the fights can no longer just be "powered through". You can still get utterly destroyed in the blink of an eye at 99, if you're not prepared.
That said, being 99 in, say, Chapters 4 through 6, really does make things a bit easy. I haven't tried on Hard mode, though.
Level 99 does not seem to provide much of an advantage in the last couple chapters of this game, since the fights can no longer just be "powered through". You can still get utterly destroyed in the blink of an eye at 99, if you're not prepared.
That said, being 99 in, say, Chapters 4 through 6, really does make things a bit easy. I haven't tried on Hard mode, though.
Yep, you can't brute force the last two chapters of the game and the ending. Especially Chapter 8, at level 99 with some of the best equipment, you will still get wrecked if you aren't well prepared for a fight.
Why the heck does the final boss do so much damage to my characters despite wearing Genji Armor and Lordly Robes??? (specifically Disaster and Armageddon). I hate to think cheesing with Giant Drafts are the only answer...
Why the heck does the final boss do so much damage to my characters despite wearing Genji Armor and Lordly Robes??? (specifically Disaster and Armageddon). I hate to think cheesing with Giant Drafts are the only answer...
Yep, you can't brute force the last two chapters of the game and the ending. Especially Chapter 8, at level 99 with some of the best equipment, you will still get wrecked if you aren't well prepared for a fight.
Why the heck does the final boss do so much damage to my characters despite wearing Genji Armor and Lordly Robes??? (specifically Disaster and Armageddon). I hate to think cheesing with Giant Drafts are the only answer...
Just don't worry about it and expect to tank it IMO, unless you don't have a healer (perhaps two?), a Spiritmaster or Salvemaker in your party. I had good equipment and still the boss would take me down from full health to mid 1000 or so but I'd never die. Yeah,
Ouroboros
is doing big numbers but he should usually be moving last and won't attack more than once so you can manage his attacks more easily than it might seem. I did have a Spiritmaster but never used Stillness. I just stuck to Curaga and Epic Group Cast
than Ouraboros. That Sloth attack really hurts, removes all my buffs, makes me weak to all elements and is usually followed up with a Braved elemental attack. Only defense is Stillness or doubling your health somehow.
So did the 2nd half of the game drive anybody to quit playing before the end? I knew there was an issue with the 2nd half but didn't know what it was as I've been avoiding spoilers while slowly progressing thru the game over the past couple months.
I just started chapter 6 and the thought of progressing thru the same content three more times seems, frustrating, to say the least. I've even considering dropping the game all together and moving on since I have such an extensive backlog.
Did anybody else struggle with this? Did you drop the game or continue on? Was the final dungeon/boss worth grinding the last half of the game?
So did the 2nd half of the game drive anybody to quit playing before the end? I knew there was an issue with the 2nd half but didn't know what it was as I've been avoiding spoilers while slowly progressing thru the game over the past couple months.
I just started chapter 6 and the thought of progressing thru the same content three more times seems, frustrating, to say the least. I've even considering dropping the game all together and moving on since I have such an extensive backlog.
Did anybody else struggle with this? Did you drop the game or continue on? Was the final dungeon/boss worth grinding the last half of the game?
It's a grind, sure, but I'd say it's worth it, especially for the Chapter 8 sidequest fights.
General idea is do the Chapter 6
Summoner
sidequest and then the
4 crystals
, then do the Chapter 7 sidequest fights so you can steal the best gear in the game from the bosses, then do the Chapter 8 sidequests because they have the best fights in the game.
You can do it later, but there isn't really any reason you shouldn't be able to do it now apart from not having a good strategy. To be fair, that is a rough area to get through.
Regardless of level, you should have access to good enough axes that one Amped Strike will OHKO a dog. Pair it up with Free Lunch, and you should be good to go. Of course, this strategy assumes you have a Friend that you can ablink for the complete Swordmaster and Pirate job set.
Otherwise, you'll have to rely on your strongest magics to fight the dogs since they won't counterattack magic spells. Or you can use a Salve-maker to compound Dragon's Breath to take them on (assuming you have an easy access to Dragon's Fangs).
Regardless of level, you should have access to good enough axes that one Amped Strike will OHKO a dog. Pair it up with Free Lunch, and you should be good to go. Of course, this strategy assumes you have a Friend that you can ablink for the complete Swordmaster and Pirate job set.
I just got to Chapter 5 and upon realizing what I was facing, I read up on the remaining chapters (without spoiling the story for myself) and I have very little incentive to play on. I really would like to see the ending and wrap things up.
Is it possible to just blaze through the last 4 chapters and still stand a chance against the final areas, also without missing out on jobs or important story details?
Honestly I prefer my RPGs around 30-50 hours tops and I've already put 55 into this thing.
Chapter 5 is definately a bummer. I didn't know what was going to happen at the end of ch4, so when it said "are you ready?" I chose no and did a ton of grinding and errands and town building, leveling up jobs etc. Now I'm in Chapter 5 I've done almost everything on the map including Vampire castle and mastering Vampire on all 4 party members.
Assuming I'm extremely overleveled at about lvl85, I turned off encounters to blaze through all the bosses again. This was so cheap of them to do, it soured me on any interest I had in the story and have since skipped every dialogue and cutscene (and oh how many there are! Chatty, chatty, chatty!)
So all I have left is the yellow marker at the portal bottom right and one in the desert town I think - something to do with going there at night? Not sure.
75 hours on the clock by the way! In my defense I was just grinding whilst watching TV and did leave the game running a full day once doing the big pharma trick.
tl;dr - How much more is there to the game for me?
Chapter 5 is definately a bummer. I didn't know what was going to happen at the end of ch4, so when it said "are you ready?" I chose no and did a ton of grinding and errands and town building, leveling up jobs etc. Now I'm in Chapter 5 I've done almost everything on the map including Vampire castle and mastering Vampire on all 4 party members.
Assuming I'm extremely overleveled at about lvl85, I turned off encounters to blaze through all the bosses again. This was so cheap of them to do, it soured me on any interest I had in the story and have since skipped every dialogue and cutscene (and oh how many there are! Chatty, chatty, chatty!)
So all I have left is the yellow marker at the portal bottom right and one in the desert town I think - something to do with going there at night? Not sure.
75 hours on the clock by the way! In my defense I was just grinding whilst watching TV and did leave the game running a full day once doing the big pharma trick.
tl;dr - How much more is there to the game for me?
If you just want to beat it you could probably get to the end in less than five hours without much trouble (and way less for the "bad" ending).
There is still some worthwhile optional content though. Chapter 5 had none, really. Chapter 6 has a sidequest for the last job. Chapters 7 and 8 (especially 8) mix things up quite a bit and make them a lot more fun, plus the ones in Chapter 7 have some good steals.
I think the best way to approach it is more or less as follows.
First, get the easy-to-get ("bad"/normal) ending. That'll take you like two hours; after you get through that you'll see the credits and you can say you beat the game.
Then think about the rest as the postgame, the reward for pushing through everything up to that point. As soon as you come back to Chapter 5, put Encounters to -100%, and don't turn it back up until you're looking to rapid-grind money or levels. Skip all the sidequests in Chapter 5 (there's some minor story content, but you can just do like I did and Youtube it later); skip everything in Chapter 6 but the one brand-new quest that opens up the final class. You're looking at another 3-4 hours for this.
After that you get to the fun stuff. The sidequests in Chapters 7 and 8 are some of the most inventive, difficult, and fun boss fights I've ever played in any RPG. They'll test your mastery of the system and make all the effort up to now feel worthwhile. If you have your party all set and your strategy in place, you could probably get through all of these in 5 more hours, but in reality you're going to die... a lot. So call it 10.
(Unfortunately you will have to repeat
the elemental crystal bosses four times
, but you'll get really fast at it.)
Then you'll just go through the final dungeon again and fight the true end boss, which might take you another couple hours.
Goodness me! I forgot to say I hated the button mashing too at those parts too, I know it's relatively short but I felt I was too old for that shit!
OK thanks for the answers guys, I'm going to definately unlock the remaining class (think I might have two blank slots still I'm not sure). I've moaned about the repeating content, but I've enjoyed the game a lot so far, and I wouldn't have invested the time in it had I not. It has been one of my favourite RPGs of recent years.
OK thanks for the answers guys, I'm going to definately unlock the remaining class (think I might have two blank slots still I'm not sure). I've moaned about the repeating content, but I've enjoyed the game a lot so far, and I wouldn't have invested the time in it had I not. It has been one of my favourite RPGs of recent years.
Seriously, the later sidequest boss battles are worth any amount of irritation in getting to them. Head and shoulders above any Final Fantasy bosses; on par with some of the best Megaten boss fights. Not beatable by grinding, but very amenable to system mastery and a clever party setup. So good.
Seriously, the later sidequest boss battles are worth any amount of irritation in getting to them. Head and shoulders above any Final Fantasy bosses; on par with some of the best Megaten boss fights. Not beatable by grinding, but very amenable to system mastery and a clever party setup. So good.
In complete agreement here; tons of fun and frustration. In the end, I managed to finish off nearly all of those boss fights
mainly by spamming Sleep with the Group Cast All and Status Ailment Amp abilities, keeping most of the bad guys out of commission until a couple of them were defeated. (The all-magic fight took extra attempts and planning, though. Ouch.)
I've read about much more interesting ways to get through those fights. And there's no way my Sleep tactic would hold for the entire massive boss rush (which I have NOT bothered trying yet), but it was sufficient to make it to the end boss. I'll take him on when I have an hour or two to strategize and fight him.
mainly by spamming Sleep with the Group Cast All and Status Ailment Amp abilities, keeping most of the bad guys out of commission until a couple of them were defeated. (The all-magic fight took extra attempts and planning, though. Ouch.)
I've read about much more interesting ways to get through those fights. And there's no way my Sleep tactic would hold for the entire massive boss rush (which I have NOT bothered trying yet), but it was sufficient to make it to the end boss. I'll take him on when I have an hour or two to strategize and fight him.
Withering Ripple with Sleep Res Down and Slow World to one of your characters. Then supplement that with a BP battery character. Think one of the FAQs said that the only enemies that are sleep immune in the game are the Automaton and its variants.
1. Not sure if you're underleveled, doesn't seem like you should be, but a little grinding never hurts. Oh, have you been keeping on top of buying better armor, etc?
2. You should definitely already have access to water already (Blizzard), so not sure what you mean there.
If Norende is far enough along, the Blessed Shield is the best investment you can make. It is possible to use it as your primary method of healing for the entire game.
At that point in the game it should be a full cure for your entire party.
Is it just me, or does the game jump in difficulty in Chapter 5? Previously I was demolishing stuff, I'm talking 3-5k. Now, not only am I getting wrecked by all of the side bosses, but I am also noticing that my damage per turn has drastically lowered. Barely getting over 1.5k...
Is there something I'm missing, maybe I'm underleveled (Party is at lv 51/52)? If so, what are some places to get some worthwhile JP and EXP?
Is it just me, or does the game jump in difficulty in Chapter 5? Previously I was demolishing stuff, I'm talking 3-5k. Now, not only am I getting wrecked by all of the side bosses, but I am also noticing that my damage per turn has drastically lowered. Barely getting over 1.5k...
Is there something I'm missing, maybe I'm underleveled (Party is at lv 51/52)? If so, what are some places to get some worthwhile JP and EXP?
Is it just me, or does the game jump in difficulty in Chapter 5? Previously I was demolishing stuff, I'm talking 3-5k. Now, not only am I getting wrecked by all of the side bosses, but I am also noticing that my damage per turn has drastically lowered. Barely getting over 1.5k...
Is there something I'm missing, maybe I'm underleveled (Party is at lv 51/52)? If so, what are some places to get some worthwhile JP and EXP?
Rafflesia in Florem is the go-to battle for JP, and the EXP will just come as part of it. You'll want to go to the beach just off the east side of Florem below the crescent isle for the best place, but be careful in case enemies other than Rafflesia show up because they can screw you over (the worst Rafflesia can do is copy your HP/MP/BP, the others are either strong or can inflict sleep/ doom).
I didn't quit but it honestly ruined the game for me, not just by repetition but also in story. I saw the twist coming a mile away, before chapter 5 even. My first suspicion was when
Airy started acting too controlling and pushy about reviving the third or fourth crystal, iirc. Then DeRosso explained the angel. The first sidequest boss fight with the monk and white mage sealed it, when the party talks about how they didn't feel evil.
At that point I could tell what was coming, so I used the shortcut to skip to the ending halfway through chapter 5.
It's not like the game had a brilliant story up to that point though. The plot is an expository mess. Everything is belabored, explained to unnecessary degrees again and again
(just like the second half of the game's boss fights)
. There's way too much tell and not enough show. Nor is the dialog well written. It's like reading message board fanfiction.
There was too much repetition in the first half gameplay as well. By the 3rd chapter I was tired of the "go awaken a crystal, get 3-4 new jobs, grind out some job levels, repeat". Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and other games generally succeed by slowly providing the player more freedom to explore the game world. By the middle of the game the player is completely off the leash, free to explore, to find secret dungeons, secret characters, secret items, and so on. It's at that point, when they have mastered the game's mechanics, that the player can participate in defining their own game experience, discovering and tackling the game's content in the order and depth they wish. In contrast, Bravely Default is painfully, repetitively linear, a grind in almost every sense. Even when the player gains the airship, there's really nothing to do but go to fly without deviation to the next boss fight, helpfully guided by huge exclamation marks telling them where to go.
I loved a lot of things about Bravely Default. The game mechanics are very thoughtful, interesting, and fun. The music and art are stunning, just really beautiful stuff. But there's too much that goes wrong, also. After 45 hours, I looked back and most of my time felt like it was just grinding job levels and listening to inane jokes about Ringabel, not doing anything interesting.
Hopefully, the sequel improves a lot on the concept.
Rafflesia in Florem is the go-to battle for JP, and the EXP will just come as part of it. You'll want to go to the beach just off the east side of Florem below the crescent isle for the best place, but be careful in case enemies other than Rafflesia show up because they can screw you over (the worst Rafflesia can do is copy your HP/MP/BP, the others are either strong or can inflict sleep/ doom).
I am at an optional boss in an ice castle at Chapter 4, and he is kicking my butt. The first boss to make me game over more than once. I have tried numerous setups against him, and I think I just need better healing. I'd like to cut down on how much grinding I have to do to earn a level 12 White Mage right now, though.
Are there any folks out there with most of the classes maxed that could add me as a friend on the 3DS so I can have better Abilinks? Mine are all worthless save one. I already have 2 classes mastered per character, I just want to cut down on grinding time so I can enjoy the gameplay. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything by doing this.
The patience of some people who have posted here! I hope that means you haven't neglected other jobs, the game really doesn't expect you to have jobs beyond level 8 or 9 at that point in the game, but does expect you to have a variety of abilities to choose from. I guess that's what you are using abilink for though (I never messed with it so I don't know how it works).
If you want to improve your healing try using Salve Maker, if you haven't. Innate healing lore doubles the effects of restorative items and magic without needing to use an ability slot.
The attack pattern for that fight is also pretty simple, I believe. Once you get that figured out it shouldn't be too hard, just make sure you keep your HP up. Heal big after Energy Burst, and as long as your HP is high Bone Crush should do little to no damage. He favors Energy Burst after Battle Thirst IIRC so you can default across the board after that to reduce damage taken. Those are about the only three attacks he uses.
