It’s been out for a few weeks now, and though I haven’t been enjoying it right off the bat as much as I did the first game, Square Enix’s Bravely Second has been an entertaining RPG. There wasn’t anything the game needed to change in order for it to be another solid turn-based game, but the developers still added some extra stuff into that mix. Some stuff are welcome additions, and others are things I didn’t know I wanted or needed! If you’ve somehow never played either game and own a 3DS (shame on you!) then here are some changes you can look forward too when you pick it up and start one of the best RPGs on the 3DS!

Leveling Up Jobs Late-Game is a Whole Lot Easier

Changing jobs is what the game is all about, and finding the right makeup for your team means having to change jobs all the time! In Bravely Default when you changed to a new job your base stats would be altered drastically since you’d be starting out at level 1. But here you keep a much higher threshold for your stats, meaning you won’t be utterly useless later in the game when changing jobs! This can be especially useful if you find yourself in a situation where you just need more healers and you haven’t trained anyone else: now you can make one of your party members a White Mage or Bishop and you’ll be set!

String Together Battles for Major Bonuses

With the first Bravely it was exciting to be able to turn up (or down) the encounter rate, making grinding a whole lot easier (or manageable). With the second game, they’ve one-uped that by allowing you to fighting consecutive battles with increased rewards. If you finish a battle without completing a full round, which means defeating the enemies before each of your party members have taken an action and recovered, you can go directly into another battle. Doing so brings on more enemies, but gives you a multiplier to the EXP, Pg (Money), and Job Points earned! It’s entirely possible, and simple, to connect five fights and have a total multiplier of 2.5%! I racked up hella points fast and earlier than usual, making job leveling much easier!

Buy All the Spells You Can When You Can

It might go without saying to veteran RPG players, but when you enter a new town you need to check out the shops. In Bravely Default and Bravely Second, most spells are purchased through magic shops, and once you have them you can cast them freely. It might seem wise to pass on the spells you don’t have a use for yet, like Black Mage spells when you don’t have a black mage, but grabbing them while you can will save you a headache later. Also, with multiclassing a main component of the entire game, you’ll want those spells down the road. Above buying new weapons and armors, buy new spells first.

Use Your MP Freely; Ethers are More Common

I felt like ethers, which replenish MP in Bravely Default, were fairly hard to come by (at least their more potent Turbo Ethers were). But in the sequel I don’t feel that way. I’ve run into a ton of ethers early on. Plus, earning Pg is much easier, meaning you can purchase them from shops whenever you’d like. So get out there and use your magic classes! They have more abilities than before, and they’re easily the most exciting classes to watch on screen!

Play the Plushie Game!

So when you’re not out saving Agnes and/or the world, you can make an unlimited amount of Chomp plushies! Though it may seem silly, this small minigame is an incredibly easy, fun, and effective way to earn an absolute buttload of money! You need to wait until you get to Chomper Village, but if you level up your abilities in the minigame before then with all the sweetest tools, you’ll be able to rack up a lot of Pg in no time! Also, I just found this game to be really additive and essentially did everything in it I could do in a couple of straight hours!

Norende Village is Gone, but the Moon is Here

Returning albeit in a new location is the series’ excellent use of StreetPass. As you connect with other Bravely Second users via the 3DS’ StreetPass function, you’ll unlock more villagers to populate and restore the Moon Base. Doing so unlocks more items to buy in shops as well as more enhancements to pump up your team’s special abilities. More importantly though, there are things to do in the village after you have upgraded everything! The big bad demons you’d find and fight in the first game are replaced by Ba’al, story-centric bosses that are way stronger than normal enemies. This time around though, you can upgrade your battleships on the Moon Base to attack these Ba’als and lower their level while the 3DS system is in Sleep Mode. Have your ship attack, wait a couple hours/days, and that level 60 Ba’al is now a level 1, but still comes with significant exp, item, and battle bonuses! Sweet!

Don’t Skip Through the Dialogue; The Voice Acting is Great!

It’s tempting to just read the dialogue boxes faster than the characters speak them in the game, but you’ll be missing out on some quality voice acting as well as comical punch lines! Everything in the humor department seems to be ramped up the second time around, with characters spouting one-liners, puns, and ball jokes almost nonstop. The lines are delivered in such a way that you’d forget the world was actually in danger! This makes for a lighthearted adventure even in the eyes of danger, and it’s a nice change of pace for RPGs that take themselves too seriously sometime.

I’m still a ways from the end of this one, and while I admittedly don’t enjoy it right off the bat as much as I did the first game, it’s still a wonderful RPG with a lot of neat features and changes for any RPG fan to enjoy! What do you guys think of Square Enix’s second Bravely game? Is it as good as the first, or even better? Let me know, and I’m gonna get right back into killing enemies or making Chompies!

Laters,
Jsick