Bravely Default 2 Discussion/Demo Feedback

[vanguard333]

So, in addition to the new trailer for Bravely Default II, the developers have also released a player feedback video, going over the changes that they've made to the game in response to feedback from the survey:

What are your thoughts?

Personally, I'm glad that they've now added indicators for the turn order; the guesswork involved for whose turns were next was one of the biggest issues I had with the demo. 

[Shrow]

I'm glad they're fixing a lot of the gripes I had with the demo.
Though there was something else about the game that turned me off from playing it. Not anything I can put my finger on. It just felt... off.

Edited October 31, 2020 by Shrow

[avensis]

I wasn’t gonna buy the game before this, but all the changes they’ve made is getting me very excited for the game 🙂 im definitely going to be buying this now thank u square enix!

Edited March 2, 2022 by avensis

[Etrurian emperor]

Its nice they admitted they made something of a mess of the difficulty in the demo.

[Fabulously Olivier]

The difficulty settings in particular are much appreciated. And I laughed at the idea of them "encouraging experimentation" with inflated difficulty in the demo. That is the opposite of how you encourage experimentation; if you make a game too difficult, players will either opt out or look for meta builds.

 

My main gripe now is with the visual style. It shouldn't be emulating the art of a game limited by the 3DS. The Switch is capable of much more than that. And when you compare it side by side with such titles as Xenoblade, it just falls flat.

[null]

The fact that they're actually listening to their fans is quite impressive, honestly.

I had been interested in the game before, but I probably won't pick it up until it drops in price, if it does.

[Shrow]

On 11/1/2020 at 8:57 AM, Fabulously Olivier said:

The difficulty settings in particular are much appreciated. And I laughed at the idea of them "encouraging experimentation" with inflated difficulty in the demo. That is the opposite of how you encourage experimentation; if you make a game too difficult, players will either opt out or look for meta builds.

I disagree, a harder game forces players to get creative and think of better strategies. If the game was easy you could just run through it with whatever build of characters you want.

Personal example, I had a balanced team in the demo which was effective at first. The first problem came up when I entered the ruins and started fighting those flying bug things that attack very fast and do lots of damage, they destroyed my team. However I did find out they were weak to fire but magic damage wasn't very effective due to their high magic armour, so what was my solution?

I decided instead of a balanced team, I would reclass 3 of my characters into a monk, the monk has a skill which hits all enemies with fire damage. Not only that but the monks don't need weapons of shields either so I don't need a big budget. The team worked and I was able to clear the ruins and get to the boss.
If the game was easy, I would still have a balanced team and wouldn't have done anything clever to beat the problems in front of me, but because of Bravely Defaults difficulty and team options. I was faced with a problem and through creative or clever solutions I was able to overcome it.

This is why I'm a fan of the Bravely Default series.

[vanguard333]

On 11/1/2020 at 8:57 AM, Fabulously Olivier said:

The difficulty settings in particular are much appreciated. And I laughed at the idea of them "encouraging experimentation" with inflated difficulty in the demo. That is the opposite of how you encourage experimentation; if you make a game too difficult, players will either opt out or look for meta builds.

On 11/2/2020 at 10:04 AM, Shrow said:

I disagree, a harder game forces players to get creative and think of better strategies. If the game was easy you could just run through it with whatever build of characters you want.

I think it's really a balancing act; you definitely want things to be challenging enough that players are encouraged to experiment, but not so difficult that it actually limits the number of viable builds. 

This is the reason I personally consider challenge and difficulty to be two separate things: for me, "challenge" means how much you have to learn and understand the mechanics, think creatively, and otherwise engage with the system. "difficulty", however, just means how technical skill and such is required. Difficulty without challenge is usually just tedium. 

 

On 11/1/2020 at 8:57 AM, Fabulously Olivier said:

My main gripe now is with the visual style. It shouldn't be emulating the art of a game limited by the 3DS. The Switch is capable of much more than that. And when you compare it side by side with such titles as Xenoblade, it just falls flat.

I'm honestly torn; I love that they kept the hand-drawn look of the places, but I'm not a fan of how the characters look. For me, it's definitely the character models and such that feel off.