The JRPG has its place in videogames. The likes of
Final Fantasy,
Dragon Quest, the
Tales of series and so on, have all filled our lives with countless hours of tutorial, team-management and either turn-based or real-time combat. But has the style of game that typically floats a traditional JRPG finally outstayed its welcome? We took on
Square Enix's
Bravely Default II to answer just that question.
The answer, in our opinion, is an emphatic yes. And like a number of other games before it, Bravely's attempt at 'mixing things up' is lite-on and unmemorable at best... here's a snippet from our review:
But make no mistake, you will be putting your team to work with all of the above, as the term “grind” feels almost too generous here. I honestly hope you’ve got some professional gaming gloves to combat the callouses coming your way. Enemies react to your power level though, so you’re not always forced into an encounter, and there are side missions outside of the main narrative and the game’s overabundance of encounter opportunities, but it’s not driven wholly by player agency, and you’ll more often than not find yourself at the mercy of the game’s directed cadence, repetition and entirely redundant ‘decision-making’.
Click here for our full Bravely Default II review.