Though the aesthetic most closely resembles Bravely Default 2, Brilliant Lights is an original story which sees several worlds throughout the series crossing over. Of course, along with familiar characters, players can also expect some new ones to also appear. The combat system has also been described as optimized for smartphones but more details have yet to be revealed.

Square Enix also confirmed in its press release that the Bravely Default series has crossed three million shipments and digital sales worldwide since the first game launched in 2012. A release window for Bravely Default: Brilliant Lights hasn’t been provided yet so stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

Octopath Traveler is out tomorrow, and by all accounts, it will be a hell of a game, and a gorgeous, amazing throwback to classic 16- and 32-bit JRPGs that so many may remember as having defined the genre in the industry’s early years. But how did the game even happen? How did Square Enix, a company that has diluted its own brands over the last few years in an arguably misguided attempt to chase the western market, end up making a game like it at all?

Speaking to Eurogamer, producer Masashi Takahashi talked about how the game was born out of a realization, following the unexpected global success of the Nintendo 3DS exclusive Bravely Default, that Square didn’t need to make games catering to the west for them to do well in the west- they could just make the games they wanted to, as Japanese creators, and still see success worldwide.

“You might have noticed that at one point Square Enix tried to make games for the whole world – not just for the Japanese market,” Takahashi said. “We tried to make global games for everyone. On the opposite side, though, with Bravely Default – we really thought it’d just be for Japanese people. But when it was released, Nintendo got in touch and said many players outside of Japan would like to play the game. So what could we do? Together we released a game, even though at first we had no intention of selling it outside of Japan. Finally, it did well! The sales were good outside of Japan.

“That’s when I realised that we had no need to try and fit to the tendencies of western users. I discovered that, I’m Japanese, and with Octopath Traveler we just wanted to make a game we’d like ourselves, and if we like the game maybe western people would also play this game. When we started development of Octopath, we decided that it’d be a worldwide release. We didn’t put in any features for western gamers, though – we just created the game that we wanted to play as Japanese developers.”

The gambit seems to have paid off, and Octopath, loving homage to the heyday of JRPGs that it is, is apparently primed for success when it launches exclusively for the Nintendo Switch tomorrow, on July 13. My only question is how Square forgot this all-important lesson, of creating the games they wanted to, not the ones they thought would bring them the most commercial success, in the first place.

The remaster of the classic Koijima title that nobody played because it wasn’t Metal Gear, Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner M∀RS should look even nicer now, thanks to the game now implementing Silicon Studio’s Yebis middleware to boost post-processing effects.

Revealed through press release released by Silicon Studio, the remaster will use the Yebis software, which strives to accurately emulate real life camera effects like depth of field and glare, as well as many other post processing effects and updates to HDR. Yebis is widely known in the industry and used by many studios, such as From Software in Dark Souls III and Bloodborne.

The game, currently in development as a collaboration between Konami and Cygames, was first revealed at the Tokyo Game Show earlier this year, with a trailer showing off the enhanced visuals. Players can look for it on PS4 and PC with PlayStation VR and Steam VR support in spring of 2018.

It’s pretty obvious, then, that its sequel Bravely Second: End Layer has been one of the most highly anticipated JRPGs this year. However, a poor story, annoying writing and grating voice-work drag the experience down a few notches, and one cannot help but feel a little disappointed.

You play as Yew Geneologia, a naïve, idealistic knight who has been tasked with assembling a team of warriors and then rescuing Pope Agnès Oblige (fans of Default will obviously be familiar with her), who has been kidnapped by the game’s villain, Kaiser Oblivion. It’s a fairly simple setup, and its unfortunate that the game never tries to do anything meaningful or daring with it. In fact, End Layer mostly treads old ground, revisiting places and story arcs we’ve already seen in Default, giving the entire narrative a sense of predictability.

"For as much as Bravely Second gets wrong- and it gets plenty wrong- there are also areas where it shows off moments and sparks of brilliance that frequently characterized the original game."

What’s worse is that the terrible quality of writing does nothing to help the generic plot whatsoever. The game often tries extremely hard to be funny with its little quips and character-specific catchphrases, but it almost always falls flat and comes across as corny and, to put it bluntly, annoying. It often feels like the story and the writing are working towards different ends, with the narrative often trying to drum up dramatic situations that are ruined by poorly written dialogue between bland, uninteresting characters or poor fourth wall-breaking puns. It’s not even as if the narrative itself is conceptually strong enough to withstand poor writing. The one good thing that can be said about the game’s overall setup, however, is that it does not mandate the kind of broken pacing and relentless backtracking that characterized the waning chapters of the first game. The pacing in End Layer is much more consistent and the game benefits from this consistency a great deal more than you could imagine.

Bad writing, though, can sometimes be salvaged by good voice over performances. Unfortunately, Bravely Second falters even on that front. Default itself was never too well known for its voice work either, but it had generally stronger writing- not saying a lot, admittedly- which made it easier to put up with the poor voice work. End Layer’s double whammy of underwhelming writing and mediocre and often grating voice overs doesn’t do the game any favours to endear it in the players’ eyes.

For as much as Bravely Second gets wrong- and it gets plenty wrong- there are also areas where it shows off moments and sparks of brilliance that frequently characterized the original game. The extremely strong mechanical base from Default has made its way into Bravely Second, and though there’s little to distinguish between the two games as far as game design is concerned, it has to be said that the core of the game itself- the battles and the job system- remains as strong and addictive as ever, with new additions and tweaks refining and improving it along the way.

"The Brave/Default system is what helped Bravely Default garner the amount of praise it did, and it’s present here in End Layer in top form."

The same nuanced and tactical battle system from Default shows up in End Layer. Battles are turn based and in general restrict each party member- of which there are four- to performing one action per turn. However, players have the option of using the Brave/Default mechanic to be able to extend their turns. By Defaulting, they enter a defensive stance, which means they cannot do anything else for that turn, but allows them to stockpile those turns for future use. Using the Brave option, on the other hand, allows you to chain your stockpiled turns and use them together in one go. This adds an interesting risk to battles and keeps them engaging- which is something that most turn based battle systems in JRPGs cannot claim.

And you have to actually think about what you do in battles- use up too many of your turns in the beginning of a boss battle, and you might make yourself vulnerable to crippling attacks later on, whereas Defaulting and storing up turns can allow you to unleash devastating attacks in one go, or use your healers to heal your entire party in a single turn. The Brave/Default system is what helped Bravely Default garner the amount of praise it did, and it’s present here in End Layer in top form.

The Brave/Default mechanic, though, is only half of what makes up the game’s battle system, with the other half being the job system. There are thirty jobs in the game this time around, ranging from your regular healer, mage, warrior and dark warrior classes to obscure ones such as singers and bakers who provide statistical buffs to your party. Just like Default, which itself drew inspiration from Final Fantasy V, you can switch between jobs anytime you want, and characters are able to equip two jobs at a time. Each job provides different advantages and disadvantages, as you can probably guess, and testing new job combinations to see what buffs and debuffs you get makes this system that much more compelling. It’s a great system that promotes replay value, and chances are you’ll go out of your way to tackle side quests in order to get access to new jobs and level them up.

"The visuals are complemented by an excellent soundtrack- just like the original- which simultaneously evokes classic Final Fantasy games and also helps the game maintain its own distinct sense of identity."

Bravely Second builds upon the strengths of Bravely Default in other areas too. The strikingly beautiful visual style from the original game is back, however this time around it benefits even more from the 3DS’ stereoscopic 3D feature, making it one of the few games on the system to truly take advantage of the oft-neglected function. Be it the steampunk like urban locales, the archetypical fantasy cities or the arid deserts, the game’s visual style always packs a punch and makes the world of Luxendarc a treat to look at. The visuals do an excellent job of helping sell this world, which, to begin with, has been built and developed very well by Square Enix across the two games.

The visuals are complemented by an excellent soundtrack- just like the original- which simultaneously evokes classic Final Fantasy games and also helps the game maintain its own distinct sense of identity. It is suitable grand and epic, alternating with more somber, personal melodies, ensuring that the music always complements the action appropriately. Where the game’s writing and voice acting fail at selling its story, the music comes through and makes a far more convincing case for the players to invest themselves in the game’s world.

Ultimately, Bravely Second: End Layer’s biggest strength and weakness are both one and the same- the game adheres too much to Default’s template. From the visuals and the music to the mechanics and the narrative style, Bravely Second too often feels more like a re-imagining of the first game than it does its own outing. That can be a double edged sword- if you enjoyed what Bravely Default brought to the table, you are going to appreciate End Layer too, even though you may be ultimately disappointed at its extremely flawed narrative and conservative approach.

This game was reviewed on the Nintendo 3DS.

Complete Bravely Second: End Layer with help of this HD video walkthrough and game guide. Bravely Second: End Layer is the sequel to the 2013 hit Bravely Default  which introduces new gameplay mechanics and re-introduces the original’s battle system. Although the game’s setting remains similar, the story picks up two and half years after the events of the original game.

Bravely Second: End Layer is now available exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS The game was developed by Silicon Studio and published by Square Enix. This game will be distributed by Nintendo.

Check out the video walkthrough of Bravely Second: End Layer below and let us know if you have any questions in the comments section below. For video game guides, tips and wikis, check out our gaming portal here.

Silicon Studios’ Bravely Default: End Layer is now out in Europe for the Nintendo 3DS. It’s the sequel to Bravely Default, if that wasn’t obvious enough. Check out the launch trailer for the game below which showcases some of the story.

Bravely Default: End Layer employs three different mechanics this time around – along with Brave and Default is Fight On. Though it recycles the combat system, there have been plenty of improvements and changes. The Job system has also seen some changes.

The story takes place 2.5 years after the first game and brings us more of the land of Luxendarc. Tiz Arrior awakens from his coma and is joined by Magnolia Arch, Yew Geneolgia and Edea Lee on a quest to find and rescue Agnès. Got all that?

US gamers will have to wait until April 15th until Bravely Default: End Layer is out for Nintendo 3DS. What do you make of the launch trailer and will you be picking up the game? Let us know in the comments below.

Bravely Second End Layer was announced as coming later this year and now we’re getting some more information about what you can expect to find in the game. The new trailer shows off the jobs that players can take on with their characters. Even better than seeing what “jobs” are available for characters is that each position has a little explanation of the powers of the character in order to help people make a decision.

Among the jobs that are offered in the game are positions like the Charioteer, who apparently is able to become better in battle as the game goes on. There is also the Catmancer, which can pick up a number of animal magic moves. While there are other jobs that people are bound to guess at in the game, such as the wizard and the necromancer there are also some pretty crazy jobs such as the Patissier. The video says this particular position allows players to “undermine foes with deadly deserts.”

In all, the video says there are 30 jobs in the game and 12 of those are brand new. There has also been a couple of screen shots go live over the last couple of days, including the one in this post that show of just how pretty this title just might end up being. Bravely Second has been out in Japan since last April but its finally coming to the United States on April 15. That is still two months after Europe gets its hands on it.

Bravely Second: End Layer, Square Enix’s latest addition to the Bravely Default series, finally has a release date for North America. According to Nintendo of America on Twitter, the sequel will be out on April 15th. There will also be a special edition which was teased in the tweet.

It’s not yet known whether there will be a demo for the same on the 3DS eShop (progress of which can be imported into the full game) so keep your hopes up. Despite the name “End Layer”, this won’t be the last Bravely Default game. If the sequel sells well, producer Tomoya Asano promised a Bravely Third title for the future.

Bravely Second: End Layer has already been out in Japan since April 2015. Europe will be getting it on February 26th, roughly two months before North American audiences. What are your thoughts on the English version finally heading to North America though? Let us know in the comments below.

Bravely Second: End Layer, the sequel to the critically acclaimed Bravely Default, finally has a release date for Europe.

According to Nintendo of Europe’s official Twitter, “Return to Luxendarc for new adventures in Bravely Second: End Layer on Nintendo #3DS, coming to Europe on 26/02/2016.”

Bravely Second: End Layer takes place 2.5 years after the original game with Tiz Arrior awakening from a comba and embarks with a group of companions to find Agnès after her abduction at the hands of Emperor Oblivion and the cryst-fairy Anne. Bravely Default: End Layer will showcase more of Luxendarc, the game’s setting, as Tiz searches for Agnès.

The 3DS title is already available in Japan as of April 23rd 2015 and has sold about 154,000 copies as of June 2015. Will you be picking it up next year when it releases in Europe? Let us know in the comments and stay tuned for more information on a North American release date as well in the coming months.

Square Enix’s spiritual successor to Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, Bravely Default, has managed to sell more than one million units worldwide according to Square Enix (via Dengeki Online). While 400,000 units were sold in Japan, the 3DS RPG also managed pretty good numbers worldwide with more than 600,000 units sold.

The move is interesting because Bravely Default is Square Enix’s most “hardcore” RPG in a while. It received universal praise from critics on being released here and actually caused Square Enix to reconsider its stance on dumbing down RPGs to fit a global audience. Because strange as it may sound, the global audience actually like an in-depth and intricately developed RPG. What a novel concept!

Square Enix is currently working on a sequel titled Bravely Second for the 3DS but no release date or other information has been provided as of yet. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months.