GameSided Game of the Year 2014 | Rebekah’s Picks
6 – Bravely Default
I spent a lot of time unsure what to feel about this game. It begins as a typical JRPG, but the tropes are turned on their head and laughed at about halfway through the game. For a while, it almost seems as if the payoff at the end won’t be worth slogging through to, but then in this strange, meta way…it is.
The music, the graphics, and the interesting combat system all make this game very good. What makes it great is the turnaround at the end, the loud statement that this is everything we loved about old JRPGs, yet modern at the same time. Bravely Default welcomes the player in as a character in the story, one who can be hurt and betrayed by the characters just as he or she can laugh or cry with them. It teaches a kind of patience that isn’t found as much in newer games, and is an active experiment in the philosophical lessons the game attempts to convey.
Bravely Default is a good RPG, and a great story. Its biggest weakness was some clunky translations, and hopefully that will be fixed if the sequel makes it to North America.
Next: '8' For A True #5