Bravely Default Review - Damn Fine RPG

[Icehearted]

This is one of those really rare moments when I find myself pausing to seriously consider getting a 3DS. I'm still furious about my DS busting a hinge, thinking about it makes my blood boil; it was a gift and I'm sentimental. if I weren't so paranoid about that I'd probably be watching this system more closely, games released would decide.

I will say that the reviews for Bravely Default have been strongly compelling, not because of their numbers but because of the content of the reviewer's comments. It sounds like the kind of game I've missed playing for a very long time, I get kind of oddly nostalgic just reading about it.

Spoiler: kaboom...

I now find myself at a crossroads; I promised never to buy another full priced game with forced Micro Transactions after the debacle that was Dead Space 3, but I really want this for my 3DS.

I really can't stress enough how *COMPLETELY* pointless the microtransaction is. You *GET* SP from just leaving it in sleep mode, and you can't have more than 3 at a time...they're really just 'emergency' turns, like if someone *REALLY* needs healing. The only thing you could do with microtransactions would be to literally brute force your way through the game by spamming turn after turn after turn, but that would be so prohibitively expensive as to require insanity to try it.

That's not my point, though. It could be the most ridiculously useless ability ever conceived by man, and it would still trouble me if there was some form of micro-transaction attached to it. Its the principle of the whole thing. Why are publishers forcing devs to add micro-transactions to a game that I already have to purchase in order to play? Are they insecure that the game may not make enough money off sales alone? That seems awfully insecure for SE.

I don't want publishers to think that micro-transactions in any form are okay in a game that you have to pay for anyways,and the only way I can effectively show that is not purchasing their game.

I totally get where you're coming from. All I can offer is that you keep in mind that principle isn't one of the video game community's strong suits, take for example "boycotts". It's unusual to find someone that chooses to stand their ground on something because it's wrong, especially in video games. I may not agree with your reasoning per se, but I definitely agree with being principled about this.

 

[crispskittlez]

The Japanese player base asked for the ability to buy SP. How is having micro-transactions in a game you have to pay for already when you can get your money's worth out of a game without ever spending another dollar?

Like I said, its the principle of the matter; Micro-transactions of any form in a game with a retail price is not okay. I paid for the software, I shouldn't have to keep paying in order to use a specific part of it for any reason, no matter how worthless that content is. Publishers cannot be allowed to think that any form of micro-transactions in a retail game are okay; if they do, then we will begin to see more and more intrusive forms of micro-transactions, more and more gated off content, and more and more attempts by publishers to snake their hands into our wallets even though we already shelled out money for the game.

What about that is so hard for you people to understand?

Saying micro-transactions should not be in retail games full stop for any reason is such a closed-minded way to think of it, though. Playing the game without ever purchasing additional SP is only different from lacking the option to purchase any in the sense that those who really don't want to wait don't have to. I'd dislike it as much as you if suddenly publishers locked tons of content behind arbitrary pay walls in games with retail pricing. In this specific case, though, there's nothing unethical going on here. If it did begin to happen to a larger and more worrying degree, you can be guaranteed the consumer base will have something to say about it. There won't be tons of intrusive, gated-off content, because this isn't like the mobile scene. On mobile there are too many people who don't realize they're getting screwed for games like Candy Crush or Clash of Clans to begin losing significant money.

But we're not mobile gamers; if they try and screw with us, they will hear from us. In Tales of Vesperia, which came out in 2008, you could buy levels through micro-transactions if you really wanted to. How many people were talking about it with such disgust then? Barely anyone. And in the 6 years since it's release, I haven't heard any stories of Namco Bandai screwing people out of their money with paywalls.

I get where you're coming from, but it won't happen. Developers won't want to make games for publishers who use such horrible tactics, and enough people will stop buying the product to make an impact.

 

[Slycne]

This is one of those really rare moments when I find myself pausing to seriously consider getting a 3DS. I'm still furious about my DS busting a hinge, thinking about it makes my blood boil; it was a gift and I'm sentimental. if I weren't so paranoid about that I'd probably be watching this system more closely, games released would decide.

I will say that the reviews for Bravely Default have been strongly compelling, not because of their numbers but because of the content of the reviewer's comments. It sounds like the kind of game I've missed playing for a very long time, I get kind of oddly nostalgic just reading about it.

I held off on getting a 3DS for quite some time as well. I still think the DS Lite was almost perfect in terms of size, battery life and no-nonsense functionality, but I finally bit the bullet for Fire Emblem Awakening and it's been worth every penny. And the 3DS has been having this great little resurgence of RPGs lately: Fire Emblem, Pokemon, Persona, Monster Hunter, Etrian Odyssey, Crimson Shroud, etc.

 

[crispskittlez]

And this is why the gaming industry is going to shit. Every major problem in gaming started because gamers said "It wont happen" or "It doesn't matter currently because this doesn't affect us yet". You consistently let yourself be slowly more and more screwed until its so common place that no amount of bitching matters BECAUSE YOU STILL FUCKING BUY IT ANYWAY.

Gamers always end up screwing themselves because they use the "Well it doesn't affect my game" reasoning. If you buy it, you have shown support for the business model, and companies love to push business models as far as they can go until theres no going back.

Really? because last time I checked, the cultural acceptability of playing games was at an all-time high, and I think you underestimate how much consumer outcry can accomplish when it gets really loud.

You can't convince me everything sucks without giving me any sort of example. Last time I checked there are tons of fun games to play on all platforms with varying amounts of micro-transactions. If you want to draw a line of what you will not by on ethical grounds, do so by all means, but when developers are wondering why sales for a new IP are dwindling, they won't attribute it to the one inconsequential piece of extra purchasable content, they'll think nobody wants them to do anything more than what they've been doing. Then they'll get really confused when people ask why they never do anything new.

 

[themilo504]

I bought the game and so far I?m really liking it even If I do have two big issues, the first one is the lack of tents which comes across as very cheap difficulty, and the second one is that side quest bosses take very little damage from non magic attacks.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

I really love this game a lot! I figured it was only going to be yet another tired remake of the first Final Fantasy under a different name, so I'm really glad I gave it a chance. I have felt compelled to play more of it every time I'm forced to put it down.

It's a shame the microtransactions are there at all, since I feel like that works against the integrity of this title, even if the microtransactions are for an item that is 100% ignorable as long as you put your 3DS in sleep mode. I really hope no one out there has paid for one of those SP drinks, because that would make me sad indeed.

 

[MoD1212]

Like I said, its the principle of the matter; Micro-transactions of any form in a game with a retail price is not okay. I paid for the software, I shouldn't have to keep paying in order to use a specific part of it for any reason, no matter how worthless that content is. Publishers cannot be allowed to think that any form of micro-transactions in a retail game are okay; if they do, then we will begin to see more and more intrusive forms of micro-transactions, more and more gated off content, and more and more attempts by publishers to snake their hands into our wallets even though we already shelled out money for the game.

What about that is so hard for you people to understand?

But wouldn't the best course of action be to just buy the game and not use the micro-transactions? If you think about it from how the publishers will see it, if no one buys the games it was a bad game no one wanted; however if the game sells well but they make no money off the micro transactions then maybe they'll stop wasting money putting them in future games.

Square won't know why you didn't buy Bravely Default so not getting it, b/c of the micro-transactions only hurts you. If you get it and never use the transactions I think that would send a clearer message to square.

 

[Icehearted]

This is one of those really rare moments when I find myself pausing to seriously consider getting a 3DS. I'm still furious about my DS busting a hinge, thinking about it makes my blood boil; it was a gift and I'm sentimental. if I weren't so paranoid about that I'd probably be watching this system more closely, games released would decide.

I will say that the reviews for Bravely Default have been strongly compelling, not because of their numbers but because of the content of the reviewer's comments. It sounds like the kind of game I've missed playing for a very long time, I get kind of oddly nostalgic just reading about it.

Get a 2DS, I'd say. Specially if you have no interest in the 3D effects anyways. I leave the 3D off on my 3DS simply because it becomes such a bloody hassle to try and keep your head in that right spot for it to work, only to lose it a second later because it's a handheld system and not something rather stationary like a TV and console would be.


Plus, no hinges to worry about! Which, I'd argue, would be the only real downside for a 2DS because it doesn't fold up which doth not makes for the most travel-friendly system.

I remember reading that it was in other ways quite inferior to the 3DS, aside from it's inability to fold. If I go in I'm going all in, probably get one of their larger models or a LE version of some sort should one come again in the future.

But yeah, the D-pad, sound, screens, all inferior if I've read things right. Just wish they had some kind of reinforced hinge version or something. If it's like the DS Lite it'd be a pain to play when it's flopping around like a broken arm.

 

[Rattja]

Even though this game is good, it also make me sad to see what they forced into it.
"A friend system? Well I want to play alone so I'll just ignore that" I thught.
NO! said the game, and made 3 bots for me... And can I ignore those? Nope! It tells me about em every time I save, yey.

Then it goes ahead and tempts me with good equipment and whatnot in a town, then tells me it will take months to get it all.
You can speed it up, but even if I wanted to do that I know no one who even have the game. So it's been just sitting next to my computer for a month now, and only got weapons maxed..

The game is good and all, I really like the job system, but why the hell do they have to cram all the other stuff in there?
Can't they just do minigames like back in the day? At least that had you do something, mostly fun.

I'm really starting to miss true single player games these days..

 

[crispskittlez]

So your saying we should buy games that fuck us over with new types of unlubed fuckery "So that developers will try something new"?!! That is madness. Truly madness.

Oh and cultural acceptability has itself hurt many many games. How many games would have been utterly fantastic ideas had they had some challenge? And while wanting SNES level hard in modern day is retardation, wanting no challenge is even worse.

The more and more this industry goes mainstream, the rarer and rarer the great games become. I would very much have trouble finding 20 great games in Gen 7. I'd probs get around 15 or 16. Gen 6, I could name 40-50. And Gen 6 was right before games really started to go super mainstream for the sake of the dollar.

Again, you're screaming at me, but not really saying anything. Give me examples, and I'll assure you that a lot of what people remember fondly about older games haven't aged well. That doesn't make them bad games by any standard. And for goodness sakes, I didn't tell anyone to buy games that blatantly screw the users, you just chose to read it like that. I'm saying that not buying Bravely Default because of its near inconsequential micro-transactions will be disinterest in this new IP in the eyes of the developers.

Name 50 great games from Gen 6 right now. Not everyone will agree.

There's no lack of challenging games out right now, either. A lot of games may not challenge you or many other people on these forums, but I'd argue that we've all been playing games so long here that a challenging game for us would be brutally ridiculous for someone else.

 

[Jimalcoatl]

While I agree that the SP in Bravely Default are pointless, I can't get behind the micro-transaction hate in this case. The game makes zero attempt to sell them to you. I was told about them once and that is it. Hell I'm not even sure how to buy the SP drinks. I'm sure I could figure it out easily enough, but since it isn't thrown in my face, I have absolutely no temptation to buy them. Hard lines and absolute statements like "There should never be any micro-transactions in a game you have to buy" don't convince anyone of anything. All they do is get you worked up over something you have no power to change.

As for the social networking shit, that's a bit more of a problem for me. I don't care for it and wish it wasn't in there or that it was easier to just ignore. I understand that there are likely players that want that type of thing in their game, and I have no desire to deny anyone anything that they enjoy just because I don't, but the game really should have allowed for a complete disabling of social features for those that bought the game because they wanted a traditional single player JRPG experience.

 

[Qvar]

Bravely Default is a joy to play for old school JRPG fans.

Nuff said, I'm not even interested on taking a look at it.