The crafty minds behind behind Square-Enix and Silicon Studio’s Bravely Default: Flying Fairy revealed even more to intrigue players this week via volume 20 of Iwata Asks. Not satisfied with developing the gameplay separately from the writing, scenario writer Naotaka Hayashi and producer Tomoya Asano discussed how to create characters that everyone could connect with and love. While lively dialogue with interesting situations were top priorities, the question of how was decided by linking crucial aspects of the story and gameplay systems to each individual character that made up the player’s four-piece cast.
Each character has an aspect either related to their pasts or passions that facilitate certain gameplay functions. Agnes, the main character, is searching for crystals and is central to the happenings in the world. But what about everyone else? Hayashi was sure not to relegate them to be background or second fiddle entities. Tiz desires to rebuild a village, but that would be a daunting task for a single person. Instead, he recruits friends via the 3DS StreetPass system who help and speed up the process.
Edea, the daughter of one of the key villains in the game, divvies out sub-quests to our heros and heads the group’s job class system. Lingabel keeps a diary of every event and plot detail throughout the story to aid in his amnesia rehabilitation; somewhat similar to the case of Luke Fon Fabre in Namco Bandai’s Tales of the Abyss.
Bravely Default: Flying Fairy is set to release on October 11th, 2012 in Japan. There are currently no plans for an international release, though Kat Bailey, who wrote an article on Joystiq this July, seems assured that the game’s localization for non-Japanese gamers was likely.
