Bravely Default II

 Switch
User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 317 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 230 out of 317
  2. Mixed: 46 out of 317
  3. Negative: 41 out of 317
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  1. funkyloolipop
    Mar 23, 2021
    1
    Was really looking forward to this game but i found it too hard. I'm not a hardcore gamer, but i have played a considerable number of RPG games. I feel that every boss battle always amount to 1 hour of your time. Its tiring to fight bosses with such high hps and i feel angry everytime i lose a battle because i have just wasted 1 hour of my life. Its very tiring to just keep pressingWas really looking forward to this game but i found it too hard. I'm not a hardcore gamer, but i have played a considerable number of RPG games. I feel that every boss battle always amount to 1 hour of your time. Its tiring to fight bosses with such high hps and i feel angry everytime i lose a battle because i have just wasted 1 hour of my life. Its very tiring to just keep pressing attack and repetitive after a while. From the start, the normal enemies have a higher damage than your characters. Even after grinding, the gap between my damage and the opponent's damage is still really big. It's tiring to keep playing. UI is really bad for this game too. Really disappointing for a square enix game, i want my money back… Expand
  2. MrBum
    Mar 2, 2021
    4
    The actual combat system is still as solid as ever, but somehow they've managed to muck up just about everything else.

    Poor changes from the original two: -No more encounter rate! This is huge, it was genre re-defining and a big part of what made the first two games in the franchise so good. -No more saved move-sets. An annoying inconvenience. -Really clunky UI. They moved to a    The actual combat system is still as solid as ever, but somehow they've managed to muck up just about everything else.

    Poor changes from the original two:
    -No more encounter rate! This is huge, it was genre re-defining and a big part of what made the first two games in the franchise so good.
    -No more saved move-sets. An annoying inconvenience.
    -Really clunky UI. They moved to a larger, higher resolution screen and somehow managed to make the UI worse?
    -Massive difficulty spikes. This one is just annoying and forces a lot of grinding... which I might add is adversely affected by the removal of encounter rate change.
    -The story was never the selling point of this franchise, but this one manages to be the worst of the three in my opinion... by a lot.

    The first game was a genre re-defining masterpiece. Its sequel (Bravely Second) was not quite at that level, but still very good nonetheless. The Bravely Default franchise has somehow managed to transition from an easy 9/10 must play, to a mediocre slog in only 3 installments. I was so looking forward to this as well; disappointing.    … Expand
  3. robogiraffe
    Mar 17, 2021
    3
    The battle system is atrocious. Not only is it different from BD/BS in all the worst ways, it's not even fun. Plus they dropped all the good QoL stuff the series was known for. The only good thing about this game is the 9/10 OST.
  4. lalahand
    Feb 28, 2021
    2
    The grinding part is annoying. Characters too small when you use handheld mode. Does not feel like a modern game.
  5. peterk426
    Mar 9, 2021
    3
    This game definitely seems to have a lot of potential, but I am in the second town and I have to keep reloading because I can't step inside buildings and see inside them. I have to close the game and re-open it to see it. Big Glitch right here.

    Second, this card game. Absolutely horrible. Whoever made the card game, fire them. a 5 year old can make a better card game. The one thing I    This game definitely seems to have a lot of potential, but I am in the second town and I have to keep reloading because I can't step inside buildings and see inside them. I have to close the game and re-open it to see it. Big Glitch right here.

    Second, this card game. Absolutely horrible. Whoever made the card game, fire them. a 5 year old can make a better card game. The one thing I really hate about the card game is you don't see what cards your opponent put down, making it trying to understand what just happened even harder.

    The loading times in between battles, towns, is like i'm using a HDD. SUPER SLOW. Half the time im stuck on loading screens.

    Elvis sounds like fat bastard from Austin powers. Maybe next time beta test the game and get input from americans.

    The story, garbage. blah blah blah, most people playing this game are least in their upper 20s

    Battle system, job system, and battles are fun, dont get me wrong. but it seems Square enix didn't want to pay people to beta test and just released it.    … Expand
  6. EmCza
    Mar 1, 2021
    1
    At first, the game seems quite enjoyable, but after a few hours of playing it turns out to be very repetitive. I can't feel her at all. While the first part on 3DS seemed quite nice, this one is extremely boring.
  7. jsh710
    Mar 7, 2021
    1
    It's definitely an overrated game. Otaku story. A crappy boring old game...
  8. BeeBoss
    Feb 28, 2021
    0
    very poor game, apart from beautiful graphics, it offers nothing but a continuous and repetitive grind
  9. SylvaConnect
    Mar 5, 2021
    3
    Played into chapter 4 and I just cant do it anymore.
    + Starts off hopeful and engaging, drops off.....quickly.
    - Horrific story, CS skipping worthy. - bad graphics, even for a switch, jaggies all over no matter how expensive your tv is and tries to upscale. - -4 points for this one >>> Worthless filler or A to B quests, and tons of them.... this isn’t WoW. Im not bringing your idiot    Played into chapter 4 and I just cant do it anymore.
    + Starts off hopeful and engaging, drops off.....quickly.
    - Horrific story, CS skipping worthy.
    - bad graphics, even for a switch, jaggies all over no matter how expensive your tv is and tries to upscale.
    - -4 points for this one >>> Worthless filler or A to B quests, and tons of them.... this isn’t WoW. Im not bringing your idiot husband a fork in ruins, then a plate, then his food ALL SEPARATELY......even if the reward was a legendary weapon (its not)....this would be easily skipped in a decision on “what should i do next”
    - I have to waste 10 seconds of my life JUST to see icons on the map by zooming out, show them when Im running the heck around too. So stupid.
    - Hard mode doesn’t add much challenge. Game is too easy. A boss may surprise you here and there or a rare world enemy, but all of the bosses are more or less following the same rules with different counters, avoid the counters or just buff passed them with a bard and all is too easy again.
    - Environments, after the desert, are outright depressing from being so dull ugly disorganized messes. Graphics and performance are already poor, but once in ch3+ it feels like everything went back to ps1 days. Utter laziness.
    - Specials lasting the length the music plays (and not actual time/turns) is ridiculous. Some people dont play on x4 speed, and others like taking their time to plan moves even if they do.
    - Job systems should be fun, usually are. BD2’s is limiting, nearly no purpose of leveling some roles as they're just poor clones of others.
    - Card mini game is easy and outright stupid, for how confusing they start you off in it, its insanely simple and tactless once you figure it out with zero depth or enjoyment.
    - Normally I wouldnt dock for anti cheat but considering most wont put in over 40 hours in this game, breaking your sailboat for changing your switches system clock should NOT be a thing in SINGLE player games. Imagine the outrage if that happened in Animal Crossing.
    - Pales in comparison to bd1, while I dont give the first one a 9 or 10 either, i finished it and all its postgame, I will not be doing that in bd2. It honestly puts me to sleep.

    - + points for grinding, its the only fun part in the game

    Someone wrote something about p5r, remedial. P5R blows this game out of the water in every way imaginable. I really was hyped for this game. My advice, don’t be.
    This is 100% one of those “Im bored, MAYBE, just maybe, Ill play bd” games    … Expand
  10. kosterix
    Mar 7, 2021
    2
    The UI and playability in the switch demos (there are two, try them out if you don't believe me) are far worse on the switch than on the 3ds. Best advice is get a 3dsxl, download the bd1+bs demo while you can - then play it to completion, buy bd1 then play and finish it, then play the bs demo. Make sure to not play bs before finishing bd1, because the intro spoils the game otherwise.
    BD2    The UI and playability in the switch demos (there are two, try them out if you don't believe me) are far worse on the switch than on the 3ds. Best advice is get a 3dsxl, download the bd1+bs demo while you can - then play it to completion, buy bd1 then play and finish it, then play the bs demo. Make sure to not play bs before finishing bd1, because the intro spoils the game otherwise.
    BD2 plays on a different universe, but storywise doesn't come close to the 3ds version. Switch versions are usually far worse than the originals, but you already knew that.    … Expand
  11. ExplosiveBolts
    Dec 26, 2021
    0
    Horribly boring story, gives you zero motivation to care about anything that's going on. Overall bad character design and voice acting. The FFV-esque Job system is absolutely not enough to save this game. I wish I could get a refund.
  12. toshimik
    May 3, 2021
    2
    Casual mode should be a LOT easier. With limited time there's no fun in grinding. Casual only slow monsters down but they still have a crapton of hp and still hit hard.

    Sad I paid full price for this. Can't refund, that's why I tried to finish the game but I can't. It's torture.
  13. Wheatar
    Dec 19, 2021
    0
    Game is unplayable. While the art, story, pacing, and class systems are a 5 at best, the amount of grinding is absurd, and the boss battles are not able to be completed without large time investments killing “rare mobs for hours” in between each boss. The bravely series games have always been lazy, but this is a stain upon the entire jrpg genre. Avoid this game, avoid this series.
  14. DoctorZack
    Feb 27, 2021
    4
    It's a very long winded and ugly looking game. Its sadly just another JRPG with nothing substantial to contribute to the genre. If you're a diehard wait for a sale.
  15. juljul
    Mar 10, 2021
    0
    Beautiful game with interesting story. Music is very enjoyable. Definitely love it!
  16. Eerokina
    Mar 26, 2021
    0
    Worst game in series 0/10

    1) the plot is **** of the level of Evil Attack GET THE 4 CRYSTALS AND KILL HIM)) in 1990 it was a channel, now it's stupidly ridiculous. Compared to the 1st bravely default where twist the **** out is heaven and earth. 2) Imbalance. It's everywhere. At first the game seems cool and challenging, the bosses are beating you up on hard. And then you grind for 3    Worst game in series 0/10

    1) the plot is **** of the level of Evil Attack GET THE 4 CRYSTALS AND KILL HIM)) in 1990 it was a channel, now it's stupidly ridiculous. Compared to the 1st bravely default where twist the **** out is heaven and earth.
    2) Imbalance. It's everywhere. At first the game seems cool and challenging, the bosses are beating you up on hard. And then you grind for 3 hours levels of all the professions, muffins for speed, and take out the bosses 2 skils in 3 moves.
    3) Imbalance again. Even without the grind, 3.5 abilka in different professions just break the game. Godspeed strike thief, counter defense ranger, attack all berserker. The second skill freelancer. In the end, you just with the right build (which is intuitive to understand) take out everything alive on any difficulty, even without a grind. Do you want to use 100500 other discounts from other professions? Or **** it, they're ****.
    4) Completed sidequests with no idea go to the ruins take away the apple, save the kitty, kill 10 wolves. With rewards on the level of 10 powwows. EVEN IN THE PENULTIMATE CHAPTER OF THE GAME!!!
    5) Flawed ux. Just a point: all sidequests are numbered. BUT YOU HAVE NO SIDEQUESTS JOURNAL. you don't know which ones you've done and which ones you haven't. They are not saved anywhere. It's just ux level b.
    6) single-cell card game in the style of ff8 and ff9(there they are good), which at the same time is complete **** and won by one deck you get almost at the start
    7) no idea dungee, 100500 redrawn the same mobs in 2021. Levels: BLUE GOBLIN at FIRST LOCATION, RED GOBLIN at SECOND LOCATION, GREEN GOBLIN at LOCATION 3, RED at LOCATION 4.

    And thats not all of the problems!!! Thus game is awfull. I played 50 hours and can tell it for sure - THIS GAME IS BAD.    … Expand
  17. JAGUAR10
    Mar 2, 2021
    1
    I've just played the Demo and the game is bad. Poor writing, stupid characters, same old, same old. Don't waste your money.
  18. arcanum2240
    Apr 3, 2021
    0
    This game is ducking impossible rofl. I'm no stranger to rpg's, but this is ridiculous. It's hard to the point that it's not really fun to play. Save your money for a better designed game. Uninstalled and moved on. Wish I could get a refund for it because I'm never playing it again.
  19. d4haxor
    Mar 10, 2021
    0
    Game would be solid if it wasn't for the awful card game. Best part is, you HAVE to play it in order to unlock a class.
  20. MrTusks
    Oct 25, 2022
    3
    Why does every encounter have to feel like a final boss fight? I don't have that kind of time anymore.
  21. Hooker21
    May 23, 2021
    4
    I adore Bravely Default and Second (3ds), but this...
    This is a very mediocre game.
    Weak writing job,
    Faded characters, nothing interesting happens between them.
    Ugly faces and costumes.

    If you are looking for an exciting modern RPG, then i insist!
    Go take a look at Trails of Cold Steel. (Vita, ps3, ps4, steam)
  22. HunterSeeker
    Mar 30, 2021
    4
    One of the intriguing things about this game is the job system. There's a great ability to level up multiple jobs and figure out how best to customize your characters. The story is very lackluster... The characters aren't that interesting and the plot devolves into characters saying "Oh! I had amnesia! So I have no idea who the culprit is who is causing all this bad stuff to happen!"One of the intriguing things about this game is the job system. There's a great ability to level up multiple jobs and figure out how best to customize your characters. The story is very lackluster... The characters aren't that interesting and the plot devolves into characters saying "Oh! I had amnesia! So I have no idea who the culprit is who is causing all this bad stuff to happen!"

    The boss battle design is fairly atrocious. Every one of them has a percentage chance to counter a specific job skills. Oh? Did you bring a Bard to the party? Well, get ready to get counter attacked for 40% of your HP. That isn't skill based gameplay. That's just guesing and testing. Battles on the overworld are quite long and tedious. For most RPG's, you will do fine if you fight almost all your encounters until you get to the end of the dungeon and fight the boss. This is not true for this game. The best way to gain levels is to either bunch enemies up or use the lure food.

    The side quests are also uninteresting fetch quests or "Kill X a set amount of times" quest. This game found a way to make fetch quests even more tedious than any other RPG I've ever played. There are some quests where you have to go talk to an NPC, return to the quest NPC, then walk all the way back to the NPC, return to the quest NPC, then go all the way back to the NPC, then finally return to the quest NPC.

    Overall, skip this game unless you really like games with tons of classes to choose and level up from.    … Expand
  23. Chell_R
    Mar 29, 2021
    3
    Boring. OBNOXIOUS, annoying dialogue, and REALLLLLY: (unfitting) disturbing f**ked up storylines... that make Bravely Second: look like it's for 10 yo's... (Child murder, public execution... am I playing BD, or Silent Hill Default...?

    Character dialogue and voices, have to quite literally... be the WORST I've ever heard/ seen: in the past 10 years... Obnoxious, loud, REPETITIVE,    Boring. OBNOXIOUS, annoying dialogue, and REALLLLLY: (unfitting) disturbing f**ked up storylines... that make Bravely Second: look like it's for 10 yo's... (Child murder, public execution... am I playing BD, or Silent Hill Default...?

    Character dialogue and voices, have to quite literally... be the WORST I've ever heard/ seen: in the past 10 years...

    Obnoxious, loud, REPETITIVE, disjointed: and ohhh yeeees... BRITISH/American VA'S...

    *Everywhereeeee...!!!

    Job's/Classes are the worst, and linear, they've ever been... Not to mention the most LIMITING,

    in strategy...

    All in all... a MASSIVE* step down from it's predecessors... and honestly... I hope they Remake the Original Bravely games: with BD2's graphics...

    because quite honestly... That's the only thing worth taking away, from this godawfully...

    BORING game.    … Expand
  24. scriabin
    Jul 17, 2021
    4
    I rarely write negative reviews, but this might be the most disappointing game I've ever played. I LOVED the original on 3DS and was hoping for something similar.

    This game was a huge letdown both in terms of story and in terms of gameplay mechanics. Gameplay: the boss fights are ridiculous, almost like a puzzle game that doesn't mesh with the rest of the gameplay. The experience    I rarely write negative reviews, but this might be the most disappointing game I've ever played. I LOVED the original on 3DS and was hoping for something similar.

    This game was a huge letdown both in terms of story and in terms of gameplay mechanics.

    Gameplay: the boss fights are ridiculous, almost like a puzzle game that doesn't mesh with the rest of the gameplay. The experience of fighting weak enemies along the way in no way prepares you for the extreme "strategizing" the the bosses require. Because of the limited information we are given about said bosses, we are apparently just supposed to try a million things out until something sticks. Given that an average boss fight can last for an hour if you haven't yet figured out "the trick," this trial and error process is incredibly time-consuming. Fine for gamers who don't have social and professional commitments away from their consoles, but for the rest of us, we have only so many hours we can put into a game, and the idea of spending HOURS randomly trying out strategies to beat bosses is a huge waste of limited leisure time.

    Usually, when I encounter this sort of thing in a game, I'll give it my best try for a bit and then switch to "easy" mode so that I can just get on with the game and story. In BD2, "easy mode" is still punishingly hard, requiring hours upon hours of either grinding or randomly trying out new strategies on each boss. The latter would be more forgivable if you could change classes/equipment mid-figh to speed up the "testing" processt. At least that would be more honest about what the game is asking the player to do: try random techniques until something starts to stick. Instead, you have to completely settle your jobs/equipment before each attempt, which again can result in hours of wasted time trying to guess the magic number. No worries if you have 40 hours a week to play games, but not all of us do.

    Generally, when a game is just too hard for casual players, they go online and ask the strategy guides to just give the darn answer to each boss "puzzle." In BD2, these solutions tend to be woefully stupid. For example, the first "final boss" at the end of Chapter 5 (the first of two bland "fake" endings) - can ultimately be taken down with a few contagion bombs. Just get the Salve-Maker Job and buy some ingredients from any local store, and you can deplete said boss of all MP relatively quickly. She just floats there for the rest of the fight, lamely shaking her wings trying to cast magic that never comes. Cheap and unsatisfying—the kind of thing that you would only come upon by trial and error. And yet without this trick, expect your party to get wiped out an HOUR into the fight when the boss suddenly starts spamming you with party-kill spells. At this point, it becomes a story issue as well. Because honestly, wouldn't this boss realize that she didn't have any MP left and... I don't know, try something else? Or run away? Nope, she just keeps wiggling her wings lamely for the rest of the battle, which by the way still lasted the better part of 30 minutes because she had such a ridiculous number of hit points. It stops feeling like a fight. It feels meaningless.

    Same with the final "final" boss at the end of chapter 7 - the "trick" is just using the ranger's paralyze ability and then you get to spend 20 minutes just slowly hacking away at her mountain of hit points while she is helpless to respond. It's not challenging, it's cheap. And it's not particularly fun.

    And don't even get me started on the side quests. Carry a lunch from the town to the ruins. Oops forgot the fork, gotta go back to the town. Oops forgot the drink, got go back to the town. Oops, another inane thing, gotta go back to the town. Is running back and forth 4 times between a town and a dungeon supposed to be fun? I found myself asking the "supposed to be fun?" question far too many times playing this game.

    I continued to slog through this mess because I wanted to believe the story was going somewhere. After investing 40 hours, you want to see it through, and you want to believe that it will be worth it to do so.. BD2 has its moments, for sure, but not enough of them. (spoiler alert for the original) I found the story in the first game quite compelling, when the entire quest was turned on its head and the cutest sweetest character turned out to be a genocidal maniac—disturbing stuff, a compelling portrait of betrayal in the midst of a story about friendship. In BD2, I kept waiting to the twist, but it never came. There's basically zero character development. Everyone ends up exactly the same as when they started. By the end, the story has devolved into a series of platitudes about friendship and choosing to do the right thing. It would have meant a lot more if these characters ever had to actually make difficult decisions or change their perspective.

    72 hours gone. All in all, a terrible investment.    … Expand
  25. Dadpops
    Aug 31, 2021
    2
    Probably one of the more disappointing games I have played in a long time.

    Performance - Awful. Stuttering and lagging constantly through the game while everytime you move, the screen blurs so much it looks like your playing in a sauna and can't defog the screen. Voice Acting - If you go with the Japanese, then very good and enjoyable. If you go with the English, oh my god make it    Probably one of the more disappointing games I have played in a long time.

    Performance - Awful. Stuttering and lagging constantly through the game while everytime you move, the screen blurs so much it looks like your playing in a sauna and can't defog the screen.

    Voice Acting - If you go with the Japanese, then very good and enjoyable. If you go with the English, oh my god make it stop. So many terrible performances by the English VAs especially Adam. One of the worst, if not the worst VA I have heard in a game.

    Gameplay - The only reason I even put up with this game. I love job systems and this game, yet again, delivers on the joy of making as many kinds of teams as you would like an levelling them up to unlock their full potential. Switching to inidividual turns instead of team turns has slowed the pace down and made it feel odd, but you forget about it soon enough.

    Graphics - The city art is killer and so incredibly well done. The models for the characters are really bad though and how they contrast so much kills it for me. They look like shiny, rubbery, lifeless dolls. Wish they had gone with a different style for the characters but whatever. Also, the open world would look cool if you could even see it while moving.

    Story - I honestly cant even remember. This is one of the few JRPGs that I put down before I could finish. Felt like a chore playing this and at a certain point I just asked myself 'what's the point' and stopped. Will never pick this back up.    … Expand
  26. Oldones
    Mar 27, 2021
    1
    Mises en scène inexistante, graphisme 3ds, le jeu ne demande que de farm , histoire au ras de pâquerettes fait le minimum syndical pour un rpg.
  27. Jofe
    Apr 30, 2022
    2
    Bad script, bad writing, completely uninteresting characters from start to finish. Lore has no substance. The game is a game-design failure.

Awards & Rankings

15
#15 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2021

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 111 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 80 out of 111
  2. Mixed: 29 out of 111
  3. Negative: 2 out of 111
  1. CD-Action
    Oct 12, 2021
    85
    I wanted to both scold Bravely Default II for its many flaws and kiss it for some stellar moments when it shone like a diamond. At the end of the day the latter decisively outweighed the former. The game boasts one of the best combat systems I’ve seen in jRPGs, towns that are a work of art, and a breathtaking soundtrack. If you like the genre, there’s a chance you’ll fall in love with Bravely Default II. [04/2021, p.48]
  2. GameByte
    Jun 1, 2021
    60
    There is so much potential here that doesn’t quite reach the mark, and it’s quite mind boggling as to why some of these problems exist when they didn’t in their previous work. However, with that incredibly addictive gameplay alone, along with the plethora of side-content, I can see traditional Final Fantasy fans having a lot of fun here, even if it’s a bit of a shallow adventure. Now that this engine has proven it’s worth in terms of gameplay, I am very excited for their next project if they have more time to spare in the writing room.
    Read full review
  3. Nintendo Force Magazine
    May 17, 2021
    90
    Bravely Default II is one of the Switch's best RPGs, and that's not small praise for an RPG on a system that's already home to some of the genre's best. [Issue #52 – May/June 2021, p. 69]
See all critic reviews »