Bravely Default Flying Fairy
The game starts with a CG opening cutscene of all the main four characters introduction: Agnes Oblige a vestal for the crystals, Ringabel an amnesiac man who likes to flirt, Edea Lee a warrior and daughter of the leader of Eternai, and Tiz Arrior a sheppard boy of the small town of Norende. The cutscene ends of Norende being destroy by an unknown force with Tiz as the only survivor. The age of these characters in the Japanese version are between 15-17 save for Ringabel whose age is unknown, but in US and European its 18-20. I usually always prefer to original Japanese voices, but the voice acting in this game is pretty decent. It was a little odd since they talked a tad slow. Tiz is the main character and the one you control though the importance is quite equal among the four characters. The opening cutscene is the only full cg cutscene and the only time you see the characters in normal form. The rest of the game the cutscenes uses the game model which is in polygonal 3D styled.Though the backgrounds in the game are mostly hand drawn styled which fits well with the art and style of the characters, but it does make the world look awfully flat.
Like with the first FF games, the story's main plot point is the elemental crystals and reviving them. It is not all the new so you'd think that since there's already several games with the same kind of plot that Bravely Default would seem redundant, but its not. There are chapters to the story which gives it a storybook feel. I won't go into detail in this post about the story to prevent spoilers. The battle system is like the older FF games though you can adjust the random encounter chances which is nice, and you can speed up the battle which is such a time saver. The new feature to the battle system is the Default and Brave action where you store up points so you can attack for than once. The game brings back job classes as well where you acquire an asterisk of a job by defeating (killing really) a enemy/character. The job classes is how you learn moves and abilities. and the game offers so many jobs! In addition there is a minigame where you rebuild Norende and this is where you build shops to get unique weapons and get special moves.
Overall this game is pretty great though I wouldn't praise it as much as others would. Its a great game for young people since the story is quite innocent. Though I do dislike the skirt chaser personality of Ringabels plus he's the comic relief in the game. And he's not the only skirt chaser in the game either! It does bother me that the majority of Ringabel's dialogue is about women and seducing them plus people like him since he is fun and funny to watch as well as the other skirt chaser character. Its not really a big deal, but it just bugs me that there's such a lack of variety of personalities in male characters. Tiz has the typical kindhearted protector personality he's pretty beta for a main character and awfully innocent which the game does point out. He is a cutie so it is a refreshing to see that he isn't obnoxious nor the cold and cool type male character. I have no issues with any of the females which is a step up from the usual bland females in most JRPG games. All in all I recommend this game and would encourage to try it out! I have a separate post on the story and will have spoilers.
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