Square Enix recently released a comprehensive trailer for Bravely Second, the sequel to the cult phenomenon Bravely Default.
This trailer offers a quick overview at the game’s features, characters, and gameplay systems. It could be broadly characterized as familiar with occasional dashes of something new. Core gameplay mechanics like the job system and the Brave/Default system return, however players will often be prompted to choose between two jobs to acquire with the new Barter system in place. The village restoration mini-game from the first game returns, only this time players will restore party character Magnolia Arch’s moon base home.
Also returning are character themes. These particular music pieces played whenever a character uses a Special Move in battle, and the additional effects that accompany that move (which correspond to your job) last for the duration of one loop of the song. The new, partial track samples for this game’s party characters can be found on the Japanese Bravely Second website. Go to the music player on the bottom right, and click on the up/down arrows to choose a new track. After the game’s main theme, the characters themes are in this order: Yuu, Magnolia, Edea, and Tiz. Wherefore art Ringabel’s beautiful character theme?
Bravely Default was notable for being a commercial success, especially outside of Japan. Bravely Default is a million-seller worldwide. This is interesting not only because few Japanese RPGs produce million-seller entries in recent times–and fewer franchises exist compared to the past–but also because it was the first entry in a franchise. Positive word-of-mouth and strong hype from gamers looking for a classic “return-to-form” stoked the initial demands for localization, as it was not apparent that Bravely Default would be localized at all once it had been released.
It will be interesting to see how Bravely Second shapes up after Bravely Default. I was of the opinion that it was a pretty great game marred by a couple of bad choices, the effects of which recurred throughout the game. I’m also interested in hearing more of the soundtrack; the composer for this game is Supercell’s ryo, while the previous game featured Sound Horizon’s Revo. Check out the trailer below, and tell us what you think so far!
