Bravely Default Sells a Million Copies

[Briantb]

Only have one issue with this game its only for Nintendo.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

Bravely Default is a great game, so I'm not surprised to see it doing well. Anyone with a 3DS and a penchant for JRPGs gets it recommended to them by me. It's traditional enough with all the right tweaks and the intensity of the story really caught me off guard. It proves to me that deep down inside there is still a little sliver of the magic Square Enix used to work. If they can tap that potential and stop trying to ram FFXIII and their basically-female-Cloud-protagonist down our throats they'll definitely get more of my money.

If Final Fantasy becomes way too much like Braverly Default, it will fall into a MUCH worse rabbit hole in the long run.

The CoD and Assassin's Creed route. This is a much worse problem and here's why. Braverly Default lacks a single entity that every FInal Fantasy (save for FF14, FF2 and FF3) have. Identity. This is not a Final Fantasy game. It's a game PRETENDING to be a Final Fantasy game. It bases itself on nostalgia and nostalgia alone when it comes to it's work.

People keep saying:
"Oh the story is SO good!" but it falls into overused cliches every now and then.
"Oh the characters are so developed!" but they fall into overused cliches.
"Oh the battle system is so good!" but it's just a higher quality version of FF5's battle system.

FF12 and FF13 are more true to the Final Fantasy name than Braverly Default ever will because they don't rely on THE NOSTALGIC OUTLOOK OF PEOPLE IN THE 90'S. Braverly Default might be selling just as much or even more than Lightning Returns, but that's not really impressive when you think about it. It's selling equal to that of a spinoff console game that his a fraction of the cost, production and promotion compared to a number title game.

BD is a decent game, but it's not a Final Fantasy game. Instead of holding itself up on it's own achievements, it takes FF4-FF6's work and calls it it's own. If I want to play a game with FF4-FF6 features, I will play FF4 THROUGH FF6, not Braverly Default.

Imagine what would happen if Square Enix basically took Braverly Default and implemented it for their future Final Fantasy titles for now on. It would start to get stale and people would say "Why should I buy the next game if that game is going to be the same as the last"? It's not a long term solution, it's a short sighted one. And this is what happened with Ubisoft and Infinity Ward.

The problem isn't in the number titles of Final Fantasy, it's the direct sequels for getting too far away from the source material. Braverly Default does the exact opposite but equal problem of getting too close to the source material that it doesn't try to shake things up and implement a unique identity. And that goes against what the franchise stands in of itself.

No, not at all. I don't disagree with that, since for as much of a great game as it is, Bravely Default certainly does not hold up to Final Fantasy days of past. It's certainly a nostalgia piece, but I don't think that classic JRPG mechanics are at all a bad thing even in the modern era, but I think it's important that Square does actually look to give their fans more of what they want, which is something that others may consider a bad thing, and I don't pretend to be ignorant of why.

I merely mean to say that if Square were to go the route of using mainstay series to evolve the franchise, and then use the Bravely Default franchise for the classic JRPG fans, and to stop giving us a moderately - okay entry in the Final Fantasy series with multiple spin-offs and give us one good solid entry in the franchise and not drag things out, I would definitely be more apt to not only buy their games, but actually hold on to them.

 

[Baresark]

Wow, turns out giving your customers what they want results in sales. Whoda thunk it?

Though, I thought 13 was pretty damned good. I'm surprised to hear it didn't sell as well as SquareEnix hoped, since 6.6 million for the first one and 3.1 million for the sequel is quite a few.

ACtually, the creator of FF13 (Toriyama) only wanted to sell 5 million copies and it oversold to being 6.2 million in a year. FF13-2 sold 3.1 million and was the second best selling game on the PS3 in Japan. It's basically the journalist trying to get more views by implementing controversy.

True, but Toriyama isn't SquareEnix. The company wanted to sell more than they ended up actually selling.

If that was the case, then explain this:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Square-Enix-Reports-Record-Breaking-Profits-142494.shtml
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/14/square-enix-sees-6-billion-yen-profit-in-fiscal-2012-thanks-to-d/

If that was the case, then they would have lost money like they did with Tomb Raider and Hitman.

What relevance does that have to anything? SquareEnix wanted to sell more of those games than they actually ended up selling, that's all there is to it.

You were literally arguing that Square Enix wanted to sell more, yet they got record profits for the game anyway and the creator (Toriyama) stated that they wanted to sell 5 million for FF13. If the company was hoping to sell more, then they would have raised the bar. If the game failed to sell at that bar, there would have been a financial loss instead of a profit. And the "record sales" FF13 pulled would never have even happened. Get it?

Making record profits is not the same thing as meeting financial or sales expectation. Expectation are not tied to profit, they exist independent of that. A common misconception is that they are set to a level where they just start to break even or more, but they are not. Their is a minimum expectation, but the expected sales of a given franchise are typically above that by a pretty wide margin.

Edit: I forgot to add this. The journalist is not talking about the entirety of the Final Fantasy 13 games. They seem to have left off that the comparison that has been happening since Day 1 was this and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13. That game got slammed hard while this one was critically acclaimed. In the US and west, the release of the two in was nearly simultaneous. In Japan, Bravely Default was released in 2012, adding to that years record profits.

 

[BarkBarker]

Anyone else feel it does well if only for the fact its NOT the shit that Enix had been sending out till that point? Like, I enjoyed it, but it wasn't THAT great, in fact it almost bored me because it felt so uncharming, it just didn't persuade me to be a part of their story.

 

[AuronFtw]

I wonder how many people got to the ending.

Spoiler

Once it started the Groundhog day loop thing I thought I could finish it but after the fourth runthrough or something fucking ridiculous I just gave up on it.

Decent game otherwise.

Even worse, IMO, is how poorly it was handled. If your characters showed even a little bit of frustration, or the dialog was changed in any meaningful way, or the NPCs changed drastically each time, I could totally see it. But the dialog was like 99% the same - the worst part was in DeRosso's castle, where you can view each painting every time you visit, and it's THE SAME DIALOG EVERY TIME. Like, really? Who goes to a castle in 4 different worlds and says the same line, verbatim, every time they see a painting?

That totally destroyed my desire to finish. I did anyway, but I was not having fun by then.

Edit: also, Airy's fucking terrible voice acting. "Not yet! Just a little longer!" in the same overdone, amateur high pitched squeal. Literally no variation in the 20 times you hear it. Awful.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I played the demo on my 3DSXL, and found the random monster fights too much like Pokemon to be good, so I bought Pokemon Y and enjoyed it much more.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

i wonder if theres any chance for a console/PC port, i have a 3DS, but games be expensive for dat shit yo

 

[Super Cyborg]

I need to buy the game at some point, but I have so many other stuff to play at the moment. I keep hearing various opinions of it, on this article, and well as from comments on reviews and other stuff. Sounds like it's good for a while but then the ending stuff gets really monotonous. I guess I'll pick it up when it gets a bit cheaper, or I can try the demo first and see how it works. Either way, sounds good that they've sold 1 million copies, and are seeing it as a good thing. Hopefully other companies can look at this and try to make cheaper games that don't have to sell as much, kind of like Far Cry Blood Dragon.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

I wonder how many people got to the ending.

Spoiler

Once it started the Groundhog day loop thing I thought I could finish it but after the fourth runthrough or something fucking ridiculous I just gave up on it.

Decent game otherwise.

I had a hard time keeping on when the second half of the game happened, getting to be on my way to the 3rd crystal. Then I heard about the stuff in your spoiler tag. UUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGH, what a horrible idea! I'm glad I stopped playing. I'd be so mad if I had to go through all of *that* ... It's too bad though, I liked the game. Just got a little boring after awhile. Its battle theme is still #1 on my battle theme top 10 though. I can't get enough of it~ (Hell, props to its soundtrack in general. It's lovely <3)

 

[deth2munkies]

I've been having more fun with Bravely Default than with any other game in a long time. It's a refreshing take on the old forumla, and it can actually get really challenging at times (currently strategizing on how to beat the Chapter 8 Black Blades)*. My only regret is that I can't get the soundtrack and fucking awesome live concert DVD [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nB2kz8VlB4] without $30+ in shipping...damn imports...

I wonder how many people got to the ending.

Spoiler

Once it started the Groundhog day loop thing I thought I could finish it but after the fourth runthrough or something fucking ridiculous I just gave up on it.

Decent game otherwise.

For the record, the game strongly, STRONGLY hints at what you're supposed to do to bring about the ending and you can do it from chapter 6-8 (and 8 forces you to do it).

Spoiler

Blow up one of the crystals and the final boss shows up, you don't get the "true" ending unless you blow up the last crystal in Chapter 8 though.

*For the record, the fight is literally 5 bosses at once and they all do physical damage so you can't cheese it with Enigma.

 

[Something Amyss]

ONe of these days, I'ma have to break down and buy it.

You should. It has its flaws, but it is an overall enjoyable experience.

Yeah, I've heard. I couldn't really dig the demo, but I've been told it's not really representative of the overall game. Still, it's made me drag my feet. Despite a number of people I trust pretty much raving about it.

 

[Uriel_Hayabusa]

I didn't particularly like the first game (and got bored of it well before the dreaded chapters) but it did have potential. Here's hoping the modest success will encourage Square-Enix to really turn this into a franchise.

 

[xyrafhoan]

I wonder how many people got to the ending.

Spoiler

Once it started the Groundhog day loop thing I thought I could finish it but after the fourth runthrough or something fucking ridiculous I just gave up on it.

Decent game otherwise.

I agree with you there. But still, I got to the end and the very last stretch was very enjoyable AND tough, so it was worth it. I can definitely see room for improvement and this is not the ultimate game-of-the-year material like the FF games of old were for their time period. But it's a start. It means I don't mind that FF has veered off into its own direction, because Bravely Default as a franchise is there to take over for the classics.

And maybe while they're reviving old styles of JRPG, they'll be inspired to do another game with the amount of heart and gusto as Chrono Trigger? Pretty please?

 

[Zeraki]

I really need to finish this game, I was really enjoying it but stuff came up and I stopped playing it not too long after starting chapter 3. It's a fantastic game, although I keep hearing that chapter 5 and on gets kind of 'meh'.

Still from what I've played of it, it's the best "Final Fantasy" game to have come out in a decade, so I'm glad it's doing so well.

 

[Dominic Crossman]

The game has microtransions so it is automatically evil, even though I hate them I still enjoyed the game.

Spoiler

At a certain point bosses start teaming up and that can crank the difficulty up to ridiculous levels, especially teams including the enemy singer who gives her whole team extra turns.

You will be leaving your 2/3ds on sleep mode alot during the final battles, because you will need the edge the hourglass thing gives you.

Wow, that sounds a lot like a really early game boss of SMT. So you mean they have made a JRPG that isn't piss easy for once!?

It a bit like Chrono Trigger in the sense that you

Spoiler

can fight the final boss at several points of the game.

The game is split into several sections, you can beat at the end section 4, but to get the TRUE final boss you need to complete something like section 7/8 (I forget) and it has old bosses teaming up in extremely difficult combos and beating you up, I haven't managed to finish the last day and I almost never leave a game uncompleted (did the 4th section end game but doesn't count for this game imo.

 

[bluegate]

Now if only the game didn't look so damned ugly and generic, I might have given it a try. I just can't get over the aesthetics of this game, it's just... yuck.

 

[FFMaster]

Making record profits is not the same thing as meeting financial or sales expectation. Expectation are not tied to profit, they exist independent of that. A common misconception is that they are set to a level where they just start to break even or more, but they are not. Their is a minimum expectation, but the expected sales of a given franchise are typically above that by a pretty wide margin.

Edit: I forgot to add this. The journalist is not talking about the entirety of the Final Fantasy 13 games. They seem to have left off that the comparison that has been happening since Day 1 was this and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13. That game got slammed hard while this one was critically acclaimed. In the US and west, the release of the two in was nearly simultaneous. In Japan, Bravely Default was released in 2012, adding to that years record profits.

Your right, making record profits is not the same as meeting financial or sales exceptions, its the act of EXCEEDING the exceptions. This has pointed out to you, twice already but you still carry on parroting what you said before. The numbers they are giving are given to investors as well and so will include profit expectations. They cleared the amount they expected to sell by a million.

And you can say that this game was critically acclaimed, a lot of people who say its great have not actually finished it. I can guarantee that cause if they saw the bullshit it pulls in int he latter chapters they would be slamming it for being cheap and light on content.

Regardless stop arguing against the expectation of sales thing with regards to FF13, it cleared square enixs expectation of the sales from the look of it, the fact it didn't clear YOUR expectation of sales (or most likely the one the media put onto it) doesn't change how much profit it made for the company.

 

[Baresark]

Making record profits is not the same thing as meeting financial or sales expectation. Expectation are not tied to profit, they exist independent of that. A common misconception is that they are set to a level where they just start to break even or more, but they are not. Their is a minimum expectation, but the expected sales of a given franchise are typically above that by a pretty wide margin.

Edit: I forgot to add this. The journalist is not talking about the entirety of the Final Fantasy 13 games. They seem to have left off that the comparison that has been happening since Day 1 was this and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13. That game got slammed hard while this one was critically acclaimed. In the US and west, the release of the two in was nearly simultaneous. In Japan, Bravely Default was released in 2012, adding to that years record profits.

Your right, making record profits is not the same as meeting financial or sales exceptions, its the act of EXCEEDING the exceptions. This has pointed out to you, twice already but you still carry on parroting what you said before. The numbers they are giving are given to investors as well and so will include profit expectations. They cleared the amount they expected to sell by a million.

And you can say that this game was critically acclaimed, a lot of people who say its great have not actually finished it. I can guarantee that cause if they saw the bullshit it pulls in int he latter chapters they would be slamming it for being cheap and light on content.

Regardless stop arguing against the expectation of sales thing with regards to FF13, it cleared square enixs expectation of the sales from the look of it, the fact it didn't clear YOUR expectation of sales (or most likely the one the media put onto it) doesn't change how much profit it made for the company.

First: You are extremely confused because this is the first time I commented on this article.

Second: I don't have any expectations at all, once again you are confusing me with someone else.

Third: Just because they were highly profitable does not mean that all games they made sold to expectation. Once again, these things are independent of each other. We are also talking about a company wide outlook, not just anything involving Final Fantasy. To clarify, I don't know if all of the games met sales goals or not. I wasn't implying they did not, simply pointing out that one does not equal the other, which is what your argument sounded like.

 

[Story]

Well duh.
That game was part of Best Buy's buy one get one free in the United States last week.
I'm sure that helped at least a little bit.

I tried to buy it myself but it was sold out very quickly. Ended up getting Mario Party (which sucks pretty hard btw).