Games: Bravely Default II

2026-08-27

Bravely Default II is a modern Japanese Role Playing Game that pays tribute to the artstyle of JRPGs of yore (spoilers throughout). As is the case with practically every entry in this genre, you are in control of a bunch of kids, or nerds, or nerdy kids, or you get what I am saying, who have no business being stalwart warriors yet somehow are the world’s only hope of survival.

The Bravely Default II characters are colourful and the land looks as pretty as a watercolour painting. Good guys talk with a British accent, while even the bad ones are masters of etiquette. I am surprised there was no 5 o’clock kap-à-tee at any point in the adventure. Or, if there was, I missed it because us Greek savages only understand café frappé and have no sensitivity for that milky tea gimmick. And, of course, the dragons have Welsh-sounding names. This is the most believable part. Wales is truly inhabited by dragons. I know from experience. Just tell them they are English and see them breath fire!

It looks adorable. Yet underneath that thin layer of kawaii lies a primordial evil bent to subsume the entirety of existence. This is the final boss. It is the generic “darkness” that has no personality or backstory whatsoever. Sure, we must drive away the darkness with extreme prejudice because I need plenty of sunshine over here to take irresistibly attractive selfies. But games, especially of such high technical acumen, can do better. Compare this to Tales of Berseria, which has a nuanced antagonist and an overall interesting dynamic between the main characters: https://protesilaos.com/games/2026-06-11-tales-of-berseria/.

Generally, Bravely Default II is not strong on characterisation. Where it excels is in its gameplay, specifically, the battle system. Fights are turn-based, as is typically the case with JRPGs. The titular Bravely and Default mechanics form a credit system where you can play future turns in present time (Bravely) or defend and stock up your turns to spend them at a later point (Default). The credit system works on a per-character basis. One character can, for example, perform an attack three times at once and then just hang around doing nothing for another three turns while the rest are holding on to dear life on their normal one-action-per-turn basis.

It is simple and super effective! In the common base, this system lets you blitz through random enemy encounters. Go full Bravely on the monsters and you will most probably consign them to oblivion before they have a chance to fight back. A single turn is enough to win the battle, especially once your party grows in skill.

The Bravely and Default mechanics get much more interesting once you invest the time to specialise in the various “jobs” on offer. Each job allows your characters to learn skills they can bring to the battle arena. Many jobs complement each other nicely and can affect how turns are played out. You can, for example, have two fighters maximise the damage output with Bravely and then two spellcasters render everyone immune to all types of attack for a few turns. As such, you do not have to suffer during that downtime. Do it right and even the most fearsome boss will not stand a chance against you.

In addition to its fun and strategic gameplay, Bravely Default II also has settings to make fights more tolerable. You can control how often they occur and how fast they are played out. I like this because most fights require virtually no skill to be overcome and there is nothing interesting happening in them.

By contrast, the average JRPG opts for realism on this front: everything is a grindfest. There are random enemy encounters everywhere that take forever to overcome, the overworld has as much depth as a theme park, cities give the illusion of choice while your life still is on rails, and nobody is interested in doing that inane fetch quest they have for you. Bravely Default II understands it is an otherwise shallow game, so it has the decency to provide options to cut through the nonsense.

And, to be fair, the story is okay overall. There are nice parts to it and high points that can keep you invested until the end. I enjoyed it, while recognising that it is nothing groundbreaking either.

In conclusion, I have to highlight the exceptional soundtrack composed by Revo. Combined with the visuals and the underlying mechanics, they make Bravely Default II a piece of fine craftspersonship all around. Do not listen to the soundtrack if you have not played the game though. Do it after the fact to relive memorable moments, such as the intensity you felt while powering through the phase when the Urgent Tidings piece was playing.