I've seen plenty of people posting about how it is an "old school Final Fantasy that is better than the series has been in a long time" or something along those lines. That should get you interested. Now my thoughts on how certain elements compare to existing games:
1. The game does have a bit of an FFX feel, one of the four main characters Agnes - pronounced An'yas in the game - is very much based on Yuna. She is on a quest to re-awaken crystals. She also has that same sort of timid voice. Another factor is the frequent voice acted segments, which are highly reminiscent of FFX.
2. The job system is fairly simple, you level jobs up and then gain a skill - it's not as robust or impactful as Dragon Quest 9's Vocation system, but there are more jobs in Bravely Default.
3. The framing of the story is classic Final Fantasy style - first you do the intro story segment, then the Wind Crystal, then the Water crystal segment, etc... Although there's WAY more dialogue and character development than one of those games. Which gets on to my next point.
4. Similar to the Dragon Quest titles, there is a party chat. The difference is that Dragon Quest party chats change with each room, each person, each event you do, and they're typically short and sweet. Bravely Defaults are long exchanges of 12-15 dialogue windows, and only occur at certain points of the game after certain events.
5. The battle system is an improved version of Xenosaga episode 2; except Xenosaga episode 2 does turns better (FFX style) whereas Bravely Default is more FF1-3 style. You can stock attacks, and unleash up to 4 moves per turn. The improvements come in auto-battle, and the fact that you can speed battles up to 4X, so random battles are extremely short.
6. You can also turn random battles off, or turn them up to 200% encounter rate - this is a very welcome addition; and is the only game since FF8 that I can recall doing this.
7. Towns and world is very much like Final Fantasy 1, 4, or Final Fantasy Mystic Quest; simple, this part of the world is one country which has a crystal, this part is another country which has a crystal. The enemy has an airship armada.
8. I have read comparisons to FF9, but I don't really think there is much similarity at all, other than the fact that the game kind of looks like FF9 graphically.
9. Classes are similar in theme to FF1, 3, and Tactics. Although Dragoon became Valkyrie, even for male characters.
It's actually quite a good game, and the second best RPG on 3DS after Fire Emblem: Awakening, which makes Bravely Default the best traditional RPG on the system. I really hope this is a sign for future things to come on the platform; the DS, in its later years beginning in 2008, had a horde of fantastic RPGs and equally as fantastic remakes of classic RPGs rivaled only by SNES's and PSX's collections.
If you have a 3DS, you should get this game.
1. The game does have a bit of an FFX feel, one of the four main characters Agnes - pronounced An'yas in the game - is very much based on Yuna. She is on a quest to re-awaken crystals. She also has that same sort of timid voice. Another factor is the frequent voice acted segments, which are highly reminiscent of FFX.
2. The job system is fairly simple, you level jobs up and then gain a skill - it's not as robust or impactful as Dragon Quest 9's Vocation system, but there are more jobs in Bravely Default.
3. The framing of the story is classic Final Fantasy style - first you do the intro story segment, then the Wind Crystal, then the Water crystal segment, etc... Although there's WAY more dialogue and character development than one of those games. Which gets on to my next point.
4. Similar to the Dragon Quest titles, there is a party chat. The difference is that Dragon Quest party chats change with each room, each person, each event you do, and they're typically short and sweet. Bravely Defaults are long exchanges of 12-15 dialogue windows, and only occur at certain points of the game after certain events.
5. The battle system is an improved version of Xenosaga episode 2; except Xenosaga episode 2 does turns better (FFX style) whereas Bravely Default is more FF1-3 style. You can stock attacks, and unleash up to 4 moves per turn. The improvements come in auto-battle, and the fact that you can speed battles up to 4X, so random battles are extremely short.
6. You can also turn random battles off, or turn them up to 200% encounter rate - this is a very welcome addition; and is the only game since FF8 that I can recall doing this.
7. Towns and world is very much like Final Fantasy 1, 4, or Final Fantasy Mystic Quest; simple, this part of the world is one country which has a crystal, this part is another country which has a crystal. The enemy has an airship armada.
8. I have read comparisons to FF9, but I don't really think there is much similarity at all, other than the fact that the game kind of looks like FF9 graphically.
9. Classes are similar in theme to FF1, 3, and Tactics. Although Dragoon became Valkyrie, even for male characters.
It's actually quite a good game, and the second best RPG on 3DS after Fire Emblem: Awakening, which makes Bravely Default the best traditional RPG on the system. I really hope this is a sign for future things to come on the platform; the DS, in its later years beginning in 2008, had a horde of fantastic RPGs and equally as fantastic remakes of classic RPGs rivaled only by SNES's and PSX's collections.
If you have a 3DS, you should get this game.
-Insert Inspiring Quote-
