Bravely Default II, the last entry in the Bravely series of JRPGs released on the Nintendo 3DS, released on Friday on the Nintendo Switch and I have devoted a lot of time to this over the weekend. If you can overcome (or appreciate) the game’s chibi art style, BD2 is a great classic JRPG with dozens of hours of content to keep you busy. These are some tips to help you get started.
Anyone can be anything
THE Bravely games feature work systems similar to the classics Final fantasy games like Final Fantasy V or Final Fantasy Tactics and all characters can use the tasks you unlock as you progress.
What is different in BD2 when compared to some other games that offer work systems like this is that each of your four characters has exactly the same statistics and there is no increase in work status when you level up. Gloria is no better healer than Seth, and Elvis is no better Black Mage than Adelle. The characters will not differ in their statistics based on the jobs they equipped during leveling, etc.
In short, create your party however you want and don’t stress about it. Professional tip: if you like a job, but don’t like the appearance of your characters, you can disable work appearances in the settings menu.
Bold / Standard
The Brave and Default system is the secret sauce of the gameplay in this JRPG series and should not be overlooked. Using Brave in battle allows you to perform multiple actions in a single turn in exchange for Brave points. If you don’t have enough BP, you will go into the negative and have to skip turns to pay the debt.
The default, on the other hand, will skip a turn (and increase your defense) in exchange for granting you a Bravo point. You can stack up to three BP by doing this and if you do, you can trigger a complete set of actions on a single curve without going into the negative and skipping a curve.
You can also earn BP in several other ways. Some skills will allow you to donate BP from one party member to another, for example. Another method is to cut an enemy by attacking him in the upper world. This will start your entire party with 1 BP.
Knowing when Brave and when Default is the key to success in the game, especially when fighting some of the BD2’s more difficult enemies and bosses.
To explore
If you pay attention to the side missions (blue speech bubbles over the heads of the NPC), you will unlock a boat at the beginning of the game. Using the boat, you can sail for up to 12 hours while the switch is in standby mode. This feature allows you to earn money, experience and JP orbs and other treasures while you are away from the game. It is a useful resource, especially for those of us with limited time to play.
Farm Early
If you like experience like me and want to master the initial set of jobs you acquire at the beginning of the game, be sure to do so before heading to the second city. Sir Sloan is an incredibly useful companion who will do a lot of damage, heal and resurrect your party members while he is with you, but he will be gone as soon as you complete the prologue.
The easiest method of grinding in the prologue is to go northeast towards the dungeon of Colinas das Hortênsias and cultivate the two spawning of Vesp (bees) near the waterfall. Vesps will drop a monster lure called Insect Nectar, which you will want to use while growing them. The monster bait will allow you to chain up consecutive waves of battles while fighting the type of enemy associated with the bait and you will gain up to 2X JP in a maximum of five waves.
I recommend leveling your entire group as Freelancers until you unlock the JP Up and JP Up and Up liabilities, which when equipped allow you to accumulate an additional 70% JP bonus on top of the bait bonus when grinding. I increased the limit on all available places before leaving the prologue doing this and it only took a few hours.
Freelancer is dominated
Initially, I wanted to maximize Freelancer first to get the JP liabilities mentioned above, but after I did that, I also unlocked the job’s hidden liabilities, which gives you a bonus to statistics based on how many other jobs you’ve mastered. This bonus, even with only the initial set of available works mastered, is absolutely huge. It is so significant that I am finding it difficult to justify defining other jobs as main jobs now. I’m not far in the game, but I hope that the inherent liabilities offered by other jobs later justify equipping them as main jobs, but I can only see that imbalance getting worse as more jobs are mastered.
Fodder, a skill available to the Freelancer, is another ridiculous aspect of the job. Forage will allow you to search for items in the battle and the items you find are based on your level of work. With a group of Freelancers at the maximum limit, you can simply engage in combat and pick up tons of items, including experience and JP orbs, which can be used to raise your group’s level.
That’s all I have for today. Do you have any tips for Bravely Default II? Share with us in the comments below!