I am not one for playing demos. Demos seem to raise expectations, which color the final opinion of the full game. The most recent example with this for me was the demo for Sonic Lost World, which started covered the first level, when the game was still hiding it's many problems. Don't worry, I'm not opening that can of worms again, but I figured an example was required to prove my point. As such, I've been avoiding many demos, particularly on Nintendo systems. One for the expectations issue mentioned above. Second for them having limits to how many times you can play the demo. That is just dumb. When I decide to go into demos when I'm feeling particularly bored of the recent Animal Crossing adventures, I either try to play a demo for a game I have high hopes for, like Metal Gear Solid 3, or a game I don't particularly care for. The ladder is the case for Bravely Default. I had heard of this game countless times before, but nothing was really selling me on buying the game. Eventually the chatter on my Twitter feed got to the point that I entered the demo with not really high expectations. But having played the demo, it might have convinced me to get it. This writing will be recapping what happened to me while playing this demo, while covering the mechanics of the game when the time comes. Good? Then lets jump in.
When I jump in, I notice the plot. Or rather, the lack of. Or maybe it was that I wasn't paying attention because I knew this plot probably won't come back in the full game. Either way, I pick up that I should go around the area getting jobs from people. I also gain access to the ability to rebuild a village, representing this games Streetpass abilities. There are multiple areas you can interact with in the area around your village. In order to interact, you must send a worker to do the task, which will take a certain amount of real world time. Like the first thing you do, building a potion shop, takes about fifteen minutes. This is where multiple workers comes into play. You can have more workers working on the same job, reducing overall work time. Those fifteen minutes can potentially be cut in half with the right amount of workers. How do you get more workers? Well building up your village attracts attention, but the main way to get workers is via Streetpass. However if my hi-jinks during National Streetpass Weekend are any indication, getting those bloody tags is not something that I can easily do. So I just sent one worker to build a potion shop and went out on my merry way to find a job.
Though I found it strange that a 3D RPG had a 2D town that allowed movement in the Z-axis strange, I didn't think too much of it while I searched for a quest. The quest that I later found from a kind lady told me to head out to the desert and defeat enemies while collecting beast liver. 5 of them. Okay, so the game was taking hints from the typical MMO. Hey I'm game. After obtaining my quest I entered my menu to discover a job selection. When experimenting to change a character to a knight, I was surprised to see that it yielded a result with nothing for me to lose. Before long I had a knight, a black mage, a sword-master, and an entertainer, feeling like this was an all-around team that would get me through the demo. I would later learn that this was false. Now decked out with all new classes, I head out to the desert and begin the typical RPG grinding method of running around in circles until your protagonist suffers a spontaneous seizure. Not long after beginning the method was when I ran into my first battle of the demo.
Seeing as this is an RPG, the first thing I noticed about the battles was the music in that it's fantastic. Curious as to who composed this battle theme, I set out to the internet to find my answer. As it turns out, the composers for the battle themes in this game are none than Linked Horizon. Who's that you may ask? The people who made Guren no Yumiya. What's that you may ask? The theme to Attack on Titan. Okay, so the battles immediately have a plus. It's also here where I learn of the Brave and Default battle system. In order to perform an action, you must have at least 0 BP. Performing an action makes you lose 1 BP, and you regain 1 BP at the end of a turn. Fairly standard stuff. Then comes the Default command. In doing this, you won't be able to perform any action for the current turn. However, you'll also gain 1 BP, without having to spend 1. Then comes the Brave command, which lets you use multiple BP points to perform multiple commands at once. So you can attack an enemy for two commands, heal an ally, and then attack once more for good measure. You can perform the Brave command up to 4 times per turn, but this also comes at a set back. If you go below -1 BP, you'll have to wait a certain number of turns before you can attack again. So there lies the choice. Do you want to wait first and then use your multiple commands? Or do you want to use your commands first at the cost of being a sitting duck for a few turns. And I think it's a really interesting system. Granted the extent of my experimenting was using all of my BP for all of my party members to try to end the battle as soon as possible, but I think the full game would hold more than enough time to experiment with this system. However it was this battle where I realized that my class choosing's we're very flawed. I had an entertainer who couldn't do much entertaining. And I had a black mage with no magic. Realizing my flaws, I quickly change the classes again, leaving me with two knights and two sword-masters. With that, I set out yet again to new adventures.
Heading the typical RPG overworld direction of south, I stumble upon a neat looking tower. Though poisoned from an untimely run-in with some snakes, I felt I was strong enough to best whatever was in the tower. So I head in ready for exploration when I'm immediately blocked by a dragon. Based on recent interests, running into a dragon really surprised me, but I still felt that I could take it on. One turn later three of my party members are on the floor and my last one was near death. I'm a man who will always continue to fight a losing battle if there's a small chance for victory. This was not one of those times however, so I quickly turned around and ran. Thankfully, Lady Luck and Madame Fortune were in a really good mood, because I managed to make it back to the town with one poisoned party member barely hanging on with 1 HP. One quick trip to the inn and one saving of the game later, I set out to hopefully finish the first quest in the game before I bit the dust. After multiple battles, I started to get a feel for the Brave Default gameplay, and soon felt like I could take on anything. Then a group of green imps showed up. I thought I could use Brave to defeat the enemies in one turn, but that was not the case. The poison from another battle still slowly dwindled my health away, and the imps managed to deal a large amount of damage while I was helpless. The floor needed sweeping, and it looks like I was the broom. In laymen's terms, I died.
However I refused to end this demo without completing at least ONE quest, so I proceed to reincarnate and set out one last time to complete my quest. But not before upgrading my potion shop in the village (yeah remember that?). Multiple battles with many close calls later, I have all of the beast liver that I need to collect. Now I just need to hope that the game doesn't pull the plug and sic a dragon on me. Thankfully I made it back with no difficulties, and proceed to find the woman who gave me the quest to receive my award. Said award turns out to be a big stack of gold. Thanks lady! I begin to sweep the town looking for another quest, learning all of the mechanics of the game again because half of these people tell me how the game works, and eventually reach the other end of the town. With no other quests to find, I begin to set out again, but with no idea what to do or where is safe for me to go, I decide that the demo has satisfied me enough.
So thoughts? A really solid demo. It looks great, sounds great, and has really interesting gameplay. However, I'm still not quite sold. Moneys not easy to come by for me, so I have to be careful about what I buy, and the demo though raising expectations, still hasn't done enough to warrant a buy. Perhaps its because I didn't care too much for the story, or maybe its because I didn't give the demo enough time. Regardless, I'll just hang in the shadows for now and see how the game does and decide if I should get the full version. BUT, I do recommend the demo to just about everyone. It takes up a lot of blocks sure, but what you get for just a demo is pretty amazing. Heck, even if you already have the game, download the demo anyways, as it has plenty of content that is excluded from the main game. So get on that. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go get ready for Forever Alone Day.
The Silent Protagonist can have his 3DS on all weekend and not get any Streetpass tags. But then he goes to McDonalds and manages to get 4 tags. How?
All images are the property of their original owners. I wish I could make stuff that looks this good.
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