jerec's Bravely Default review

This is a terrific review that reaffirms my decision to put it on my "games that I want to buy soon" short list. It sounds like a JRPG that is not to be missed. I liked your references to Final Fantasy X. You had a good way of giving me a feel for the dynamic of actually playing the game, rather than providing just a bland summary of game functions. I liked that quite a bit. It's nice seeing another review from you, and like you, I hope it won't be the last that we see in 2014. Thanks for submitting it!

I've actually spent more time with the demo for this game than for any other single-player demo I can ever recall. It'll be a day-one purchase for me, for sure. I absolutely love the battle system, and hearing that the story and characters are great is reassuring, because the demo doesn't do a very good job of contextualizing them.

So thanks for writing this, and it's good to see you back in action! One question: The demo seems to put a big emphasis on StreetPass functionality, which I have no use for, since I live in Amish country. Will it significantly hurt my experience if I never use it?

I'm gonna have a pretty major conflict in February, by the way, since this game releases in North America the same week as Lightning ReturHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Thanks for the feedback!

Suskie, the StreetPass gives you some extra villagers for your town and more moves, but not having it won't impact you too much. You can connect to the Internet once per day in game and usually pick up 3-4 random people. I get a fair few streetpasses, but Bravely Default players are pretty rare anyway. I had a hell of a job tracking down a copy of this game.

I haven't actually tried the demo because I only heard about the game about 2 days before it released, so I didn't bother, but I've been hearing it's quite different with fetch quests and stuff (there's none of that in the main game).

Oh yeah, I'll definitely be picking up Lightning Returns on Day 1. Or when it's in the bargain bin... 2 months?

Apparently, at least in the demo, there's an exploit of sorts that you can use to get StreetPass villagers, even if you don't actually live in a populated area (something that holds true for me). The cheat is posted at IGN and elsewhere. Maybe not ideal, but it could help solve that issue if it really felt like one. I'll probably just play it straight and not worry much about the StreetPass side of things, though, assuming I get the game as planned. I will likely also wind up playing it well after I buy it, as seems to be my mode of operation... but maybe I'll surprise myself. Jerec did sell this one quite convincingly!

Yeah, I've heard that the demo is actually way worse than the actual game, which is good to hear since I loved the demo. I wouldn't have minded just running quests like this given how much fun the battle system is.

It did seem to me like it takes FOREVER to restore the town if you don't use StreetPass, but I didn't pay too much attention to the feature anyway, so whatever.

Nintendo has set up these relay points, which are actually quite easy to spoof with Linux. I've got a Raspberry Pi set up as a HomePass machine which broadcasts an SSID and Mac address of one Relay Station and changes to another, so I can potentially get unlimited hits.

You should be able to find some instructions on google and set it up if you're good with computers.

Damn, great review. I loved the conclusion of it. This is a game I'll have to buy at some point. Joining about half a dozen other 3DS titles I'd consider 100% essential.