Galactic Fork
A little fluff between the ears never did any harm...
OK, so I finally beat Bravely Default this weekend. I stopped playing a few months ago at the point just before awakening the Earth Crystal for the first time, and just now got back to it.
Gameplay: I really enjoyed the gameplay, historically, with games using a job system I'd pick a few classes I like and stick mainly to them, but with Bravely Default it really rewards you for shifting jobs and trying different combinations. For example, I really didn't think I'd ever use the Pirate class, but it kicks ass, especially when teamed up with Swordmaster (another class I didn't really find interesting at first glance). Comboing Free Lunch with Amp strike was glorious.
Character Design: Aside from a few cringe worthy and stupid class deisigns, the different jobs were cool looking. I was glad when I could afford the plain tunics, then I could wear the default clothes when I wanted Edea or Agnès to be a Ranger.
Overall Design: On the plus side, the game had two of the prettiest towns ever.
Sadly the later towns didn't match those, and there were so few cities and towns, the world felt pretty small.
Story: Eh, pretty standard. Airy being evil was interesting. I liked Edea's story most of all. Turning against her own people and all. Up until you Awakened the Earth Crystal, there was a lot of cool themes of moral ambiguity, and the fact that the Archduke was doing horrible things for what he thought was the right reason. But really, I think he was doing more harm than good. He could have achieved his goals without wars, and chemically brainwashing a whole culture.
My thoughts about the second half of the game (After the first pillar of light):
First of all, I was spoiled about Airy from the very beginning, and I knew there'd be alternate world hopping, but that was about it. That said, now that I beat it, frankly, I kinda regret picking it back up to finish beyond the first world.
The alternate world idea was cool, but it was so incredibly lazily executed. Just repeatedly going to the same 4 temples over and over with the option of visiting old bosses. A lot of the time I felt like a serial killer going to the optional bosses over and over. It felt more superfluous than most optional side quests. Well, I did enjoy repeatedly killing DeRosa and Qada, but it was pretty pointless to visit other places, except for the Sage's quest.
There is so much more they could have done. Especially considering there were alternate versions of your party running around, and with the exception of Alternis, you never see them (Actually a couple could have had Amnesiac Alternis since he was on the Grandship with you, only without the journal). They could have intertwined the continuing story with the alternate versions of your party, meeting them at times. Possibly the writers could have not given you the grandship immediately, but require you to find the one that crossed over with you and repair it while figuring out what's up with this new universe.
(It also bugged me that all the treasure chests were open... who was opening the treasure chests considering I could fly anywhere immediately, and alternate party couldn't...)
I don't expect anybody to share this particular annoyance, but it got my hopes up only to dash them by following the same formula as before. With the earlier Final Fantasies (especially 3), the theme was the Warriors of Light. There was mention of the requirement of balance between Light and Dark, and in FF3 and 4 Heroes of Light it was Darkness trying to rise up, and the Light side had to step in and bring the balance back. When I was spoiled that Airy was the villain, I was hoping she was being honest about her goal of Light destroying the Darkness. I thought maybe this time it would be the Light side trying to take over and get rid of Darkness, and as the actual Warriors of Darkness, you had to bring the balance back. But no. Airy was wanted to spread Darkness and destruction. Boo.