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Bravely Default |OT| For the Americas

Labadal

Member
Hey guys, so, I just bought this game -- super fun so far.

Quick question re: Norende reconstruction. I have a bunch of friends from my 3DS, but is there anyway to also get them in Streetpass for Norende reconstruction? I guess I'm just confused about the whole thing. Thanks!

Update game data once per day. You will get a few villagers per day.
 
Just bought this game. Anything I should absolutely know?

You can grind a lot faster later on, especially around act5, so don't spend too much time grinding early on(though you might want to grind a bit). Also in the options you can set encounter rate to 0(if you're just looking for a chest or whatever) or to 200%(if grinding).
 

Conezays

Member
You can grind a lot faster later on, especially around act5, so don't spend too much time grinding early on(though you might want to grind a bit). Also in the options you can set encounter rate to 0(if you're just looking for a chest or whatever) or to 200%(if grinding).

Cheers, thanks.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
As far as grinding goes you can pretty clearly tell when it's no longer worth it at each point in the game. JP accumulated increases as you reach new areas so when you get to a point where there is a big jump in the amount of JP required to level up your jobs it's a good idea to stop there.

The story is terrible. If you are playing the game for that prepare to be disappointed. The battle and job systems are really fun to play around with though, and if you are enjoying those then make sure you go through the whole game. Chapters 7 and 8 have some fantastic boss fights that will test your mettle.


The Blessed Shield is one of the best items in the game, get that from the Norende armor shop as soon as possible. Using it in battle uses Cura with no cost at all, single or multi target. And you can boost the healing effectiveness abilities from Salve Maker and White Mage.

Speaking of Salve Maker, don't sleep on that job. It has one of the best innate abilities in the game, doubling the effectiveness of restoratives (including the Blessed Shield). Combine that with the compounding ability and you have the best support job in the game, that a lot of people unfortunately overlook in favor of White Mage (which is much worse IMO, the only thing that job does that Salve Maker doesn't is multitarget status restore with Esunaga).
 

Conezays

Member
As far as grinding goes you can pretty clearly tell when it's no longer worth it at each point in the game. JP accumulated increases as you reach new areas so when you get to a point where there is a big jump in the amount of JP required to level up your jobs it's a good idea to stop there.

The story is terrible. If you are playing the game for that prepare to be disappointed. The battle and job systems are really fun to play around with though, and if you are enjoying those then make sure you go through the whole game. Chapters 7 and 8 have some fantastic boss fights that will test your mettle.


The Blessed Shield is one of the best items in the game, get that from the Norende armor shop as soon as possible. Using it in battle uses Cura with no cost at all, single or multi target. And you can boost the healing effectiveness abilities from Salve Maker and White Mage.

Speaking of Salve Maker, don't sleep on that job. It has one of the best innate abilities in the game, doubling the effectiveness of restoratives (including the Blessed Shield). Combine that with the compounding ability and you have the best support job in the game, that a lot of people unfortunately overlook in favor of White Mage (which is much worse IMO, the only thing that job does that Salve Maker doesn't is multitarget status restore with Esunaga).

Thanks for the post. What are yours/others' opinions on the Street Pass/Online features of the game. Are they necessary/advantageous to me? Street Pass seems a little unlikely for me given I rarely ever get them, Lol.
 
I thought the story was good until the end of Chapter 4, then took a nosedive until Chapter 8.

Streetpass helps in getting villagers/Nemeses but you get free villagers every day anyway. Some of the Norende items are pretty useful lategame but aren't required in the early going.

Another point is not to treat it like a traditional RPG. If you're losing battles you can grind levels but it doesn't help as much as figuring out each job's strengths and weaknesses and using strategy rather than brute strength. The Freelancer skill "Examine" is actually really useful (too bad Freelancer is a mediocre job for most of the game; use it as a secondary).
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member

Conezays

Member
Liking it so far. When's a good time to start changing jobs (besides freelancer)? Have my party as two monks, and 1 white mage, 1 black mage at the moment. Job levels around 3 and 4 for each character.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Liking it so far. When's a good time to start changing jobs (besides freelancer)? Have my party as two monks, and 1 white mage, 1 black mage at the moment. Job levels around 3 and 4 for each character.

Whenever you feel like it, really. Just remember that job level impacts your stats so you don't want to take a lower level job into a boss fight.

As you get further you'll have more jobs than you know what to do with, so you can either grind them out on everyone or specialize different characters with jobs that should have good synergy, i.e., Anges with magic/support jobs, Edea with more powerful offensive jobs, etc.
 
Whenever you feel like it, really. Just remember that job level impacts your stats so you don't want to take a lower level job into a boss fight.

As you get further you'll have more jobs than you know what to do with, so you can either grind them out on everyone or specialize different characters with jobs that should have good synergy, i.e., Anges with magic/support jobs, Edea with more powerful offensive jobs, etc.

well to be fair the actual stat differences are minimal, so feel free to make Agnes a physical attacker if you really feel like it :p
 
Liking it so far. When's a good time to start changing jobs (besides freelancer)? Have my party as two monks, and 1 white mage, 1 black mage at the moment. Job levels around 3 and 4 for each character.

Basically when you feel like it, I always waited until I felt my current job was leveling very slowly, then I'd rather change to another job than keep that one. Still is important to keep a balanced team and try not to bring all lvl 1 jobs to a battle, even normal battles, especially later in the game.

Also consider that you dramatically get more job exp when you change chapters, so no need to get crazy with farming job exp.
 

Conezays

Member
Characters are Level 21...just grabbed some Blessed Shields. They are indeed awesome, Lol.

Grabbed the Thief and Merchant jobs recently...not sure who's best for those (currently Lv 6 Knight, Lv 7 Monk, Lv 6 Black Mage, Lv 7 White Mage with some support abilities from others sprinkled in).
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Characters are Level 21...just grabbed some Blessed Shields. They are indeed awesome, Lol.

sogood.gif

Used one as my primary method of healing for almost the entire game. With Healing Lore + Epic Group Cast it can restore the full HP of even a level 99 party. All for the wonderfully low cost of 0MP and a single turn.

Granted, that requires Salve Maker as a primary job for someone, but that's hardly punishment.
 
sogood.gif

Used one as my primary method of healing for almost the entire game. With Healing Lore + Epic Group Cast it can restore the full HP of even a level 99 party. All for the wonderfully low cost of 0MP and a single turn.

Granted, that requires Salve Maker as a primary job for someone, but that's hardly punishment.

Oh no, I'm in a broken class, what will I ever do! /s
 
finished the game with all characters at 99.. (honestly after i got the conjurer asteriks it was pretty easy to level up)

still dissapointed about the second half of the game but the game overall is one of the best games on 3DS for sure. also thinking about it i kinda liked all the enemy characters quite a bit more after chapter 5

I thought the story was good until the end of Chapter 4, then took a nosedive until Chapter 8.

Streetpass helps in getting villagers/Nemeses but you get free villagers every day anyway. Some of the Norende items are pretty useful lategame but aren't required in the early going.

Another point is not to treat it like a traditional RPG. If you're losing battles you can grind levels but it doesn't help as much as figuring out each job's strengths and weaknesses and using strategy rather than brute strength. The Freelancer skill "Examine" is actually really useful (too bad Freelancer is a mediocre job for most of the game; use it as a secondary).

freelancers imitation + superstars BP+1 ability is absolutely incredible

also freelancers JP+ is needed for grinding
 

Velcro Fly

Member
Picked up the game again midway through chapter 3. I think I'm about to finish it. Really loving the gameplay all over again. I have no idea why I stopped playing. I think once I got the village rebuilt I got burnt out a little. Trying to clear my 3DS backlog and this game was the next one up!
 
Just got this on a whim while waiting for the new Pokemon. Really love this artwork in the towns and dungeons. Seriously makes me wish the lighting was better on the 3DS though. Something I keep getting reminded of lately since I started playing it again.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Is this game really that bad after chapter 4?

Not really. The story kind of falls apart, but if you are playing for story it is bad long before that.

Chapters 5 and 6 are bad because they offer basically no new content, but 7 and 8 have some amazing sidequests if you like the battle/job system. The main story components of those chapters can be done very quickly though.
 
Not really. The story kind of falls apart, but if you are playing for story it is bad long before that.

Chapters 5 and 6 are bad because they offer basically no new content, but 7 and 8 have some amazing sidequests if you like the battle/job system. The main story components of those chapters can be done very quickly though.

I thought 6 was ok, had enough new stuff to be interesting, 5 is the really shitty one. Or maybe it was the contrary it has been a while, but one of them was really boring, the other had a few interesting twists. 7-8 are fun because of the combat.
 
I'm currently at the end of chapter 4 and I have a few quick questions. I am doing the Vampire side quest and I've already beaten the fire dragon but the rest are kicking my ass (I know about the way you can cheese these fights using ninja but I don't want to do that) so I was wondering:

1) What order should I fight them from easiest to hardest?
2) If I chose to finish the chapter and save them for later will I have to refight the fire dragon?
3) If I chose to finish the chapter and save them for later when is the earliest that I'll be able to attempt it again?

Thanks in advance.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
I'm currently at the end of chapter 4 and I have a few quick questions. I am doing the Vampire side quest and I've already beaten the fire dragon but the rest are kicking my ass (I know about the way you can cheese these fights using ninja but I don't want to do that) so I was wondering:

1) What order should I fight them from easiest to hardest?
2) If I chose to finish the chapter and save them for later will I have to refight the fire dragon?
3) If I chose to finish the chapter and save them for later when is the earliest that I'll be able to attempt it again?

Thanks in advance.

They're all basically the same apart from their elemental attack. I suppose the ones that inflict status ailments would technically be the hardest. IIRC all the remaining ones except maybe the air dragon do.

I'm not sure about the second question. I'd guess you probably would, but I don't know for sure.

Third question, I'm pretty sure you could do that sidequest right from the start of any of the remaining chapters if you chose to.


If you know what you're doing they are really, really easy though. I'll leave it in spoiler tags in case you would prefer to not cheese them.

The dragons use physical attacks exclusively. This means the Ninja's level 4 Utsusemi ability will let you dodge every attack they use. You can combine this with a variety of other abilities that give bonuses when dodging:

Turn Tables (Red Mage level 4) - Gives +1 BP when you dodge
Comeback Kid (Ninja level 5) - gives attack boosts when you dodge
Transience (Ninja level 2) - when you use this and dodge, you will counter attack

Utsusemi + Turn Tables alone is enough to win because you can attack and re-input Utsu every time you get attacked thanks to the extra BP. Adding the stat boost just make it go quicker.

Less likely you will have this on everyone and grinding it out would take significantly longer than any of the above.

BP Recovery (Red Mage level 9) - Gives +2 BP when hit by a status ailment, in this case the dragon's "eye" attack which gives you an elemental weakness.
 
They're all basically the same apart from their elemental attack. I suppose the ones that inflict status ailments would technically be the hardest. IIRC all the remaining ones except maybe the air dragon do.

I'm not sure about the second question. I'd guess you probably would, but I don't know for sure.

Third question, I'm pretty sure you could do that sidequest right from the start of any of the remaining chapters if you chose to.


If you know what you're doing they are really, really easy though. I'll leave it in spoiler tags in case you would prefer to not cheese them.

The dragons use physical attacks exclusively. This means the Ninja's level 4 Utsusemi ability will let you dodge every attack they use. You can combine this with a variety of other abilities that give bonuses when dodging:

Turn Tables (Red Mage level 4) - Gives +1 BP when you dodge
Comeback Kid (Ninja level 5) - gives attack boosts when you dodge
Transience (Ninja level 2) - when you use this and dodge, you will counter attack

Utsusemi + Turn Tables alone is enough to win because you can attack and re-input Utsu every time you get attacked thanks to the extra BP. Adding the stat boost just make it go quicker.

Less likely you will have this on everyone and grinding it out would take significantly longer than any of the above.

BP Recovery (Red Mage level 9) - Gives +2 BP when hit by a status ailment, in this case the dragon's "eye" attack which gives you an elemental weakness.

Cool thanks man, I prefer not to cheese them, but if worse comes to worse I might have to.
 
The controversy surrounding this game's final chapters somehow kept me from playing this all year, but not anymore! I'm giving this game a shot.

Anyway, can anyone provide any tips/strategies/things to keep in mind moving forward? Ringabel just joined my party, and I'm wondering--are any of these characters better at performing certain jobs than others?
 

Niraj

I shot people I like more for less.
The controversy surrounding this game's final chapters somehow kept me from playing this all year, but not anymore! I'm giving this game a shot.

Anyway, can anyone provide any tips/strategies/things to keep in mind moving forward? Ringabel just joined my party, and I'm wondering--are any of these characters better at performing certain jobs than others?

It doesn't really matter too much what jobs they do, but Ringabel has the highest Dexterity and Agility, Agnes has the highest MP, Intelligence, and Mind, Tiz has the highest HP and is generally well rounded, and Edea has the highest strength and vitality. The point differences are very negligible though. Like 1-3 point differences later on at higher levels. It might make a small difference earlier on, but not enough to worry about.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
The controversy surrounding this game's final chapters somehow kept me from playing this all year, but not anymore! I'm giving this game a shot.

Anyway, can anyone provide any tips/strategies/things to keep in mind moving forward? Ringabel just joined my party, and I'm wondering--are any of these characters better at performing certain jobs than others?

Characters have different base stats, but most of your stats are going to be determined by your job/equipment. IIRC Edea is more of a powerful physical character (knight, monk, etc), Agnes is the mage (black/white mage, etc), Ringabel is the fast one (ninja, thief, etc), and Tiz is kind of an all-arounder. Mixing it up and making Agnes a knight or something isn't really a problem though.

Character level is kind of irrelevant. Your job level directly impacts your stats while in that job. So when fighting bosses it's much better to be in jobs you are competent in and not fresher ones you are trying to level up. Additionally, your tactics matter more than level. In the last parts of the game even at max level and max job level, there are still battles where bosses will crush you mercilessly if you aren't well prepared and know what you're doing against them.

JP increases a lot between chapters. So if you get to a point where the next job level seems like it will take eons to grind out (i.e., level 3->4, or 6->7) start working on other jobs and return to it in the next chapter. Plus it will help give you a more diverse set of abilities for each character, which is useful.

Blessed shield from Norende is amazing. Can carry you through the whole game if you work around it.
 
It doesn't really matter too much what jobs they do, but Ringabel has the highest Dexterity and Agility, Agnes has the highest MP, Intelligence, and Mind, Tiz has the highest HP and is generally well rounded, and Edea has the highest strength and vitality. The point differences are very negligible though. Like 1-3 point differences later on at higher levels. It might make a small difference earlier on, but not enough to worry about.

Characters have different base stats, but most of your stats are going to be determined by your job/equipment. IIRC Edea is more of a powerful physical character (knight, monk, etc), Agnes is the mage (black/white mage, etc), Ringabel is the fast one (ninja, thief, etc), and Tiz is kind of an all-arounder. Mixing it up and making Agnes a knight or something isn't really a problem though.

Character level is kind of irrelevant. Your job level directly impacts your stats while in that job. So when fighting bosses it's much better to be in jobs you are competent in and not fresher ones you are trying to level up. Additionally, your tactics matter more than level. In the last parts of the game even at max level and max job level, there are still battles where bosses will crush you mercilessly if you aren't well prepared and know what you're doing against them.

JP increases a lot between chapters. So if you get to a point where the next job level seems like it will take eons to grind out (i.e., level 3->4, or 6->7) start working on other jobs and return to it in the next chapter. Plus it will help give you a more diverse set of abilities for each character, which is useful.

Blessed shield from Norende is amazing. Can carry you through the whole game if you work around it.

Thanks, y'all.

I still don't feel like this game is clicking for me, though. Is it weird that I'm always incredibly short on money? I can hardly afford anything substantial aside from the first few spells. And is it worth having anyone be a Freelancer this early in the game? I'm tempted to make everyone but Agnes a Monk, but that also seems weird. It's a little unclear to me how I should balance out class usage.
 
I've got the game but I started to play the demo for the bonuses. Worth it? Doesn't seem like I will be able to get more villagers.
 
I've got the game but I started to play the demo for the bonuses. Worth it? Doesn't seem like I will be able to get more villagers.

There's only a few starter item bonuses, pretty good for the beginning. Also look up the villager bug to get the count to 20, which is really as many as you need in the main game.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
You can get more villagers every 24 hours. Using the update thing it will give you 3-5 additional ones. The 20 from the demo (if you use the glitch thing) are a nice start though.

Other than the villagers, the demo bonuses are pretty throwaway. Some basic items (potions, etc), and some beginning-game gear you'll be tossing within an hour or two.
 
Played through most of the demo, gave up when I got to the dragon boss. Just started the game proper. Opening cutscene wasn't too promising. Talk about a rushed intro. Some strong Disney vibes.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Played through most of the demo, gave up when I got to the dragon boss. Just started the game proper. Opening cutscene wasn't too promising. Talk about a rushed intro. Some strong Disney vibes.

The story only goes downhill from there, I hope you weren't expecting anything remotely decent out of it. Bravely Default is all about the battle/job system.
 
The story only goes downhill from there, I hope you weren't expecting anything remotely decent out of it. Bravely Default is all about the battle/job system.
I haven't gone in with high expectations. That said, the voice acting and dialogue is poorer than anticipated. They must have grabbed a bottom of the barrel voice director. Tempted to turn it off.

Edit: Turned on the Japanese voices, they're more bearable.
 

Lunar15

Member
For some reason, I felt compelled to finish this after dropping it somewhere in chapter 3 earlier this year.

Pros:

Battle System - At first it was weird, but once it clicked, it clicked. I liked the different stuff you could pull off, and everyone loves job systems.

Convenience - Being able to turn off encounters is great, as is speeding up battles and setting macros for filler battles. Kind of makes you wonder what you're actually doing in the game, though.

Individual Character Writing - This is a little tough because the characters aren't very good for the first half of the game. However, they eventually became a pretty fun cast. This is mainly just dialogue I'm talking about, mind you. Some of the bonus boss fight conversations between the asterisks were really great.

Art: This game is really beautiful, and I love the art style. It's a very cohesive package, and I'm all for it.

Music: The soundtrack is so incredible, it might be the best part of this game. Easily in my top 3 favorite OST's from 2014. Heck, this might be the sole reason I felt compelled to finish the game.

Cons:

The Story: It's borderline offensive near the end. The characters outright talk about what's going on, and they KNOW who's behind it. Yet, to get the best ending, they still go on with their mission. It seems very, very backwards to have your game repeat the message "have the courage to disobey", and then tie the best ending to a path where you are constantly obeying, despite knowing what's going on. Whole story felt like they wrote the twist first and then scrambled to get a story behind it. Every plot point that was revealed made the main characters look even dumber. As someone else mentioned, the story gets bad long before the twists start popping.

Padding: Y'all know what I'm talking about, so I won't harp on it. I knew you'd have to repeat stuff, but I didn't realize just how many times you would have to do it in the end. I was OP by that point, so it didn't take too long... but it was still pretty outrageous. Leaves a pretty horrible taste in your mouth. Didn't really help that there was severe asset reuse in later dungeons. I also felt like maxing out jobs felt a little unnecessarily padded.

Honestly, the cons are so close to outweighing the positives. The game does so much right, but also so much wrong. Also, all the time/friend/money based systems seemed really unnecessary and kinda sketchy, but I barely used them so I'm not throwing it in there as a con. Really, it's like they made a solid framework for a game but then only made half of a game out of it and tried to pass it off as a full one by using some weird tactics.

Can't quite say for sure if I'd be incensed to get Bravely Second after the feeling this one left me with.
 

MilkBeard

Member
I just decided to pick up the game; there were still copies at my local Fred Meyer. I had played the demo a while back, but I have to say that so far I'm enjoying the actual game much more than the demo. I'm only like an hour in, but the music and visual style has me hooked. The battle system is pretty fun too, with the tactical advantages of going brave/default.

Again, I can't express how much I enjoy the music in this game. Also the cutscene directing really reminds me of older Final Fantasy games. For all intents and purposes this is classic Final Fantasy with a new skin.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
The Story: It's borderline offensive near the end.

It's almost offensive the entire time. The only reason the story "works" at all is because the antagonists never give you their perspective. Your characters have their goal and it makes sense with the information they have. The antagonists try to stop you, but it's not until near the end of the game they actually tell you why.

The earliest you can get some real details about what's actually going on is
after you first beat DeRosso.
But that's mid-chapter 4 at the earliest, which is already 2/3 or so through the game.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
One opinion I've heard a lot is that the story/plot/etc. would have been a lot more serviceable as an anime season. Even if some things are pretty much hinted at already early on, you're not engaging in moving it along while constantly yelling at the cast for not catching on while controlling them to do things you don't want to do because you already figured it out. The one choice that is left up to you
breaking a crystal
probably seemed like a stroke of genius 'taking advantage of the interactive medium of video games' in theory but ended up pretty obtuse in practice.

Kinda unsurprising considering who wrote the game!
 

Ourobolus

Banned
I'm in Chapter 7, I'm level 99 now (I refused to turn battles off...until now). I got the first ending.

Man, is there a bunch more explanation given between Chapters 7 and 8? Because I knew that this shit was repetitive, but they could have done it with maybe like 2 reps. I know about the Airy Wing Counter which is basically propelling me forward now, but damn.

At least the battle system is fun.

It's almost offensive the entire time. The only reason the story "works" at all is because the antagonists never give you their perspective. Your characters have their goal and it makes sense with the information they have. The antagonists try to stop you, but it's not until near the end of the game they actually tell you why.

The earliest you can get some real details about what's actually going on is
after you first beat DeRosso.
But that's mid-chapter 4 at the earliest, which is already 2/3 or so through the game.
THISTHISTHISTHIS

The entire time I'm thinking - you know what, if you fuckers just actually TOLD me why you were fighting me, maybe we could have thought about it on the first repetition (the first time through, no one would believe them, etc.). It's such a kick in the balls.
 
Still in chapter 1 and I find myself with little motivation to continue. The story is so goddamn boring and the humor irritating. Pervy old men and women that can't cook is so hilarious.
 

Ourobolus

Banned
Finally beat this last night. First off,
Airy_____
was WAY more difficult than
Ouroboros
. Acedia+Spell was kicking my ass unless I paid careful attention, and I had to do some Brave point management since I didn't have BP Recovery on my healer. Recover removing the boss's debuffs was annoying.

Last boss was brutal with Disaster, doing almost 9000 damage to some of my characters (I was level 99, and estimates online were saying it would do 5000-7500, which was definitely not the case sometimes). Once I got my character's HP doubled, it was a much easier fight.

Agnes:
Pirate/Spell Fencer

Tiz:
Templar/Salve-Maker

Edea:
Time Mage/White Mage

Ringabel:
Performer/Spiritmaster

Overall, can't wait for the sequel. Provided they don't repeat the ridiculousness of Chapters 5-8, it should be great. The battles and difficulty were spot on.
 
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