- For the continuance of the first game, see Bravely Second: End Layer.
Bravely Default II is a role-playing game, the third main game in the Bravely series for the Nintendo Switch, following the original Bravely Default and its direct sequel Bravely Second: End Layer, both for the Nintendo 3DS. It features a separate story, setting, and cast of characters from either previous game. It was first revealed to worldwide audiences at The Game Awards 2019 and released on February 26th, 2021.
Gameplay[]
Job system[]
Like its predecessors, Bravely Default II utilizes the job system. Asterisks are still used as the catalyst for changing jobs. In the demo only five jobs (freelancer, white mage, black mage, vanguard, monk and thief) were playable with a level cap of seven for mastery.
The demo also boasted a new turn based style of fighting that differed from the previous two games. Originally players would give all their party members fighting or defending orders and then after pressing GO, the turn would commence. This game now has the player give each character orders only when it is their turn.
Random encounters with enemies in game have also been altered. Now the enemies are visible so the character can choose to fight or run away from a potential battle. Depending on your characters' levels monsters will do one of two things upon noticing your party. If you are a weaker or similar level to the enemy, they will charge at you to engage in battle. However, if you are a higher level the enemies will panic and try to run away from you.
The characters now also have the choice to walk or run in their adventure, and can look for hidden items by using a weapon to cut grass and bushes down.
Along with your main mission side quests are also available. NPC's will have blue thought bubbles above their heads if they have a task they would like you to complete (collecting wolf pelts, gathering snake venom, fighting beasts etc.) upon taking on these tasks a marker will appear on the map to guide you where you will need to go to complete the tasks.
Characters[]
The main characters Seth, Gloria, Adelle and Elvis (from left to right).
- Seth, a young seafarer from a distant land who was washed ashore on Excillant after the Wind Crystal saved him from an unseasonal storm.
- Gloria, princess of the lost kingdom of Musa. Having escaped her homeland's destruction at the hands of the Holograd Empire, she set out on a quest to retrieve the stolen Crystals and restore them to their rightful place.
- Elvis, a larger-than-life scholar from Wiswald who possesses the Black Mage Asterisk. He joins Gloria’s quest while on his own to collect the other Asterisks to decipher the secrets of a book he inherited from his mentor Emma.
- Adelle, a skilled mercenary who accompanies Elvis on his quest for the Asterisks in hopes of finding her sister.
Antagonists[]
- Adam, the possessor of the Hellblade Asterisk and leader of the Holograd Empire who seeks the conquer the world with force.
- Edna, Adelle’s estranged sister and Adam’s benefactor who provides the Holograders and other parties with Asterisks to sow chaos across Excillant for her own agenda to break the seal on the Night’s Nexus.
- Night’s Nexus, an eldritch horror sealed away by the previous Heroes of Lights who is an avaricious collector of knowledge whose goal is to both destroy and become "everything".
Story[]
Three years prior, the kingdom of Musa fell against the Holograd Empire with three of the Crystals stolen during the chaos as the surviving member of the royal family Gloria seeks to regain the missing Crystal to prevent a calamity from befalling the land of Excillant. Drowning after his ship sank, Seth is stirred back to life by a Voice who guides him back to the surface towards Excillant.
Prologue: The Inner Ocean’s Call[]
After washing onto shore, Seth awakens to find himself in Halcyonia. He was brought there by princess Gloria of the ruined nation of Musa and her royal man-at-arms Sir Sloan. While visiting the beach where he was found to remember what occurred, he protects an old woman from Goblins when he receives aid from Elvis and Adelle while the two were searching for asterisks. The three return to Halcyonia and learn that Sir Sloan was attacked by mercenaries Selene and Dag, who Gloria surrendered herself to save her companion and a boy they took hostage. Explaining he is to give the sellswords the Wind Crystal for Gloria’s safety, he reluctantly accepts the group’s help as they reach the Outlaws Hideout to make the trade. When the rescue mission goes array, Seth suddenly finds himself chosen by the Wind Crystal and recognizes it as the one who saved him while learning that someone tried to kill him. Seth used his gained power to defeat Selene and Dag, obtaining their asterisks while Sir Sloan recognizes the youth as a Hero of Light. Soon after, the old woman thanks Seth by allowing him to borrow her boat and acquire a mysterious item.
The group proceeds in traveling to Musa’s allied nation of Savalon through the Vale of Sighs, Sir Sloan telling Seth his life story while asking him to protect Gloria. Following a visit to the resting place of Sloan’s wife, the group is ambushed by the Halcyonian king’s aide Horten, revealing himself to hired Selene and Dag in a scheme to hand the Wind Crystal over to Holograd so they can help him take over Halcyonia. But Horten is defeated as a consequence of his inexperience with the Monk asterisk and is then swiftly killed by the Holograd lord commander Adam, who then defeats and takes the Wind Crystal from the party. Sir Sloan sacrifices himself to cover the group’s escape while giving Gloria his sword. The group later gives Sloan a proper burial before they proceed to Savalon.
Chapter 1: Chasing Mirages[]
The group arrive to Savalon and deduce it’s flooding is the result of the Water Crystal, reaching to the palace to meet the king following an encounter with Orpheus. But Gloria learns that Savalon is being overseen by Prince Castor, who explains that his father mysteriously disappeared and that his younger brother Pollux is traveling aboard. Castor joins the group and explains that the flood is connected to Bernard, a former thief who gained a position in Savalon’s council of elders and calmed it to be the result of his men digging too deep. Following an encounter with Orpheus in the Sandswept Ruins, which Castor lamented over, the group meets Bernard’s helper Anihal who felt indebted to Bernard for taking her and her animals in after bandits slaughtered her troupe. Despite her loyalty to Bernard, the group convince her that she is being used and she gives them the key to an area in Bernard’s mansion where the Water Crystal is located.
Though Castor offers his help by summoning Bernard to the palace while they sneak into Bernard’s mansion, with Gloria receiving the Water Crystal’s blessing band words of guidance, the group find themselves betrayed by the prince as he killed Bernard and frames his death on them. Ending up in the dungeon and finding Pollux there, they are freed by Anihal and confront Castor over his change of behavior. Following their fight with Castor and gaining his asterisk Elvis's book interacts with the asterisk and presents everyone present with a vision of Castor murdering his father in a fit of rage over the king’s refusal to steal the Water Crystal from Musa to replenish their land. Castor ends up falling to his death while evading his guards, with Pollux succeeding their father as king. The group soon leaves for Elvis’s homeland of Wiswald after Anihal reveals seeing a Crystal there. Elsewhere, Adam receives a report from his assassin Marla that Holograd’s alliance with Savalon has been dissolved.
Chapter 2: In the Garden of Magic and Madness[]
The group arrives at Wiswald, finding the town also consumed by forest that erupted in Elvis’s absence, finding that entry into the Treetop Tower blocked by Elvis’s friend Galahad who is acting strange and refusing to let anyone enter. Elvis learns his other friends Roddy and Lily are also acting odd, learning that their daughter Mona died in a freak accident while he was away. As they learn Lily moved to the woods with a doll in Mona’s image while Roddy barracked himself in his lab to resurrect their daughter, the group learns that someone is requesting tree bark and Roddy’s experiments are polluting the water while numerous adults have gone missing. After the group restores sanity to Roddy and Lily as they were being manipulated by paintings of Mona, they and the couple travel up Treetop Tower and find Galahad under the same spell before they defeat him. But the victory is short lived as the Earth Crystal is revealed to be a fake, and that the mastermind is a painter girl.
When the group eventually find the girl’s lair, learning her life’s story through her works and the atrocities she causes as she murders the adults for use their blood in her paint. The painter, named Folie, is confronted by the group while working on her masterpiece and reveals her role in Musa’s destruction along with causing the trees’ growth for yellow pigments and also murdering Mona to manipulate Roddy into providing her with materials for blue paint. A livid Elvis finds himself receiving the Earth crystal’s blessing as the group defeat Folie, though the fight causes a cave-in. Folie dies remaining behind with her masterpiece while Seth, guided by Mona’s ghost, leads the others to safety. Soon after, Roddy and the others give Elvis a natter ring to keep in touch with them. As the group travel to Rimedhal which Folie mentioned contributed to Musa’s destruction. Meanwhile, Edna receives a report from Vigintio that his experiments during his time in Wiswald bore fruit while the undead mage questioned her reasons for giving him an Asterisk and makes it clear that he does whatever he wishes.
Chapter 3: The Fire of Belief[]
As the group makes their way to Rimedhal, they are joined by a young dragon Adelle recognizes as Gwylim, who explains he came to investigate the scent of death coming from the city. The group arrive as they witness a woman falling to her death after being convicted by the Rimedhal Orthodoxy of being a fairy and forced into taking a leap of faith to be judged by the Lord of Dragons. Soon after, the group meets the Orthodoxy’s archbishop Domenic whom they deduce is in possession of the Fire Crystal. But this places them in the crosshairs of Domenic’s right hand and chief inquisitor Helio as Gwylim, who kept silent in her bag, tells them they need to see his father Gwydion who is the Lord of Dragons. The group arrives at the Serpent’s Grotto and is welcomed by Gwydion’s protector Martha who brings them to the old dragon, who reveals that Domenic is acting in his personal interests, forsaking his duties as the archbishop and beseeches them to represent him to learn the truth. The group accept that task, and Martha’s request to fight them to hone her skills.
The group return as they find a woman named Margaret being accused by Helio of talking against the Orthodoxy’s actions, the group deducing this accusation is politically based since she is the daughter of a priest whom they seek assistance from. As Martha arrives at Domenic’s summons, revealing Gladys’ hatred of fairy’s stems from her parents being murdered by them, the group fails to save Margaret and follow her father to the Jaws of Judgement ravine where those who fell end up. Helio follows them alongside Gladys, seeing their trespass as just cause to kill them and attack. In the end, Helio escapes while Gladys learns that she was a accomplice in a mass murder rather than weeding out fairies. The group returns to Rimedhal and find Martha being condemned, Adelle is forced to reveal her true nature as a fairy to save her friend. The group then go into hiding, Adelle revealing that her sister is the one who is bestowing the Asterisks to Holograders and wishes to know why. With Rimedhal falling into chaos due to Adelle’s reveal, the group sneak into the church to confront Domenic with the archbishop furious that Adelle received the Fire Crystal’s blessing instead of him.
After Domenic is defeated by the Heroes, he is murdered by Helio as he reveals himself to be a Holograder who infiltrated Rimedhal to remove any opposition while terraforming the area so the Holograd army can invade. He escapes after stealing the Fire Crystal as Holograd attacks, the Heroes helping in the city defenses alongside Gladys as they search for Helio. Helio makes his presence known to Gladys after she was fatally stabbed by a Rimedhalian whose sister was condemned by her, gloating over her demise while revealing himself as her parents’ killer. Gladys musters enough strength to take the Crystal from Helio and dies after handing it over to the Heroes. At that moment, Gwydion arrives and proceeds to incinerate Helio and some of the Holograders before Adam arrives. Adam proceeds to overpower and gravely wound the dragon before taking his leave, the Heroes arriving in Gwydion’s final moments as he entrusts Rimedhal to Gwylim who leaves with Martha back to the Serpent’s Grotto. With Gwydion dead, Adam orders his generals to invade the other cities of Excillant while momentarily inquiring of Edna’s goals.
Chapter 4: Ill Winds[]
Learning of Holograd’s invasion of the other cities, the Heroes first travel to Halcyonia which fell under the jurisdiction of the honorable Holograde general Lonsdale who finds himself in a predicament when receiving orders from Adam to execute King Vernon. The Heroes save the king and defeat Lonsdale, who surrenders on the condition that his men are allowed to safely return to Holograd. The heroes then travel to Savalon where Marla, revealed to be the daughter of the one of the previous Council member Lupus, infiltrated the Council as a spy intending to destroy Savalon to avenge her father's betrayal. After being exposed and defeated by the heroes she commits suicide. Finally the Heroes go to Wiswald only to find it nearly deserted and find Roddy tied up at the top of the tower. Roddy explains that Lady Emma's old foe Vigintio had returned despite being killed by her in the past and had taken the townspeople to the old institute to turn them all into undead out of vengeance, and he tells them that in Vigintio’s undead state, they can only kill him by enchanting wood that possesses strong healing energies. After collecting and enchanting the branch, the Heroes defeated Vigintio, impaling him with the branch to kill him for good, and saved the townspeople. With all three countries aided in their own struggles against Holograd, and the their respective leaders all having pledged to help the Heroes make their way to Holograd, the Heroes and their allies from each realm finally amass together to march on Holograd to regain the Wind Crystal to maintain the seal on the Night’s Nexus.
The Heroes use the distraction their allies cause to enter Holograd undetected, entering Adam’s fortress as he uses the Wind Crystal as power source to make it airborne. The group travel through the Flying Fortress to the core where Adam is, with the lord commander revealing his actions and influence have been part of his plan to unite the world. Though the group manage to defeat Adam, they are unable to prevent Edna from draining the Wind Crystal while revealing she used Adam to exact revenge on humanity before taking her leave as the fortress begins to descend. Luckily, the Heroes are saved by Martha and fully grown Gwilym, Adam remaining behind while ordering the Heroes to stop Edna as the Night’s Nexus begins to stir.
Chapter 5: Twin Ages[]
After sprinting the Heroes to the Serpent’s Grotto, having inherited the knowledge he and the previous Lords of Dragons amassed for ages, Gwilym explains the Night’s Nexus was originally a human whose desire for knowledge turned her into a all-consuming entity bent on consigning everything to oblivion. The previous Heroes of Light sealed the Nexus away with the Crystals, which required a recharging every two centuries to maintain the seal until Holograd attacked Musa. With Gwilym wounded from shrapnel damaging his wings when the Flying Fortress crashed, Gloria takes the Heroes to Musa through a passage she and Sire Sloan used to escape her homeland’s destruction. Once at Musa, the Heroes proceed to place the Crystals in place before Elvis’s book shows a vision of the previous Heroes of Light fighting the Night’s Nexus. The group proceed into the ritual chamber where Edna opposes them and fights them before being devoured by the fully revived Night’s Nexus. Gloria proceeds with the ritual and reseals the Night’s Nexus, only to collapse as she reveals the ritual her to sacrifice herself to restore the Crystal’s power and dies moments after.
This is later revealed to a possible future that Elvis’s book presents to the group, with Seth refusing to proceed if is there an alternate way to stop the Night’s Nexus without sacrificing Gloria. Adelle suggests traveling to Wayward Wood where her homeland of Mag Mell is hidden, the Heroes taking their leave as Edna oversees the uninterrupted revival of the Night’s Nexus before being turned to stone.
Chapter 6: Twin Cages[]
Despite slight hostility before explaining why they came, the Heroes arrive to Mag Mell and meet with its acting warden Esmerelda who was hesitant to trust them before Elvis convince her otherwise. Esmerelda proceeds to reveal that the human who became the Night’s Nexus came to Mag Mell long ago in the search of knowledge, but she transformed into her current state from the forbidden knowledge she acquired from drinking waters of the Fount of Knowledge. After seeing the Asterisks the group acquired, the group proceed to the Fount where the Night’s Nexus would likely appear. Prior to the confrontation, the group receive a vision of their predecessors that reveals Sloan was an Asterisk bearer whose Asterisk was shattered into two pieces with one half ending up in the void, forcing Godric to sacrifice himself.
Should the party proceed in fighting the Night’s Nexus, they find themselves in a losing battle due to her ability to resurrect endlessly before Esmeralda is forced into sealing Mag Mell from the rest of the world in a final ploy to trap the Night’s Nexus with Adelle staying behind. But should the group investigate the whereabouts of the Bravebearer Asterisk, they are tested by the ghost of Sloan who reveals Gloria and Seth already possess the fragments and reunite them. If all the Asterisks, including the two optional ones from Savalon and Enderno have been obtained, this allows Elvis to fully translate the book, revealed to be an Asterisk that the Night’s Nexus imprinted her memory into to become eternal.
The player must then take care of the Nexus's memory. Once this is completed, another memory is shown, this time of an island with the Nexus, and the old woman who loaned Seth her boat, standing on the shores of Halcyonia, who states that she senses that the time has come for the heroes to confront the Night’s Nexus once and for all.
Chapter 7: Twin Pages[]
After seeing her image in the Nexus's memories, Seth realizes that he knows the boat-lending woman. He approaches her back in the nearest town, where she reveals herself to be the Fairy Queen Aileen, who fought alongside Godric, Sloan, and Emma 50 years ago. Informed of the Heroes’ intent to destroy the indestructible book to stop the Night’s Nexus for good, Aileen loans them her boat so they can travel across the ethereal Outer Ocean to the Isle of Nothingness where the item can be destroyed. There, the group face the Night’s Nexus as she assumes her true form and siphons the other Heroes’ memories, with Seth restoring them while resisting the entity’s enchantments as the Heroes finally kill her with all the pages destroyed save one. Though the Nexus’s death causes the Island of Nothingness to come undone, the Heroes are saved by the Crystals which can resume their true purpose in maintaining the balance of world. Gloria, Elvis, and Adelle find themselves on the beach with Seth nowhere in sight. The trio were about to leave when Seth, given another chance of life by the Wind Crystal, appears with Gloria welcoming him home.
Production credits[]
Staff[]
| Director | Shunsuke Iwami |
|---|---|
| Producer | Tomoya Asano Masashi Takahashi |
| Lead Artist Main Character Design |
Hajime Onuma Naoki Ikushima |
| Scenario Writer | Yura Kubota Tomoyoshi Nagai |
| Music | Revo |
Voice cast[]
| Character | Japanese | English |
|---|---|---|
| Seth | Shunsuke Takeuchi | Chris Lew Kum Hoi |
| Gloria Noi Musa | Yū Shimamura | Charlotte Ritchie |
| Elvis Lesley | Kazuhiko Inoue | Steven Cree |
| Adelle Ain | Yukana | Samantha Dakin |
| Sir Sloan | Hideyuki Tanaka | Rufus Jones |
| Adam Holograd | Rikiya Koyama | Gyuri Sarossy |
| Edna | Mamiko Noto | Nina Yndis |
| Selene | Tomoyo Kurosawa | Lyla Schillinger |
| Dag Rampage | Junichi Suwabe | James Corrigan |
| Horten | Cho | Roger May |
| King Vernon Halcyonia | Kento Fujinuma | Mark Healy |
| Prince Castor | Satoshi Hino | Adam El Hagar |
| Prince Pollux | Shōgo Sakata | |
| Anihal | Yukiyo Fujii | Rosie Day |
| Bernard Alfard | Takaya Kuroda | Elliot Cowan |
| Orpheus Tragoidia | Nobuo Tobita | Thomas Coombes |
| Shirley Clarence | Junko Minagawa | Cassie Bradley |
| Folie | Yumiri Hanamori | Lucy Montgomery |
| Roddy McGranate | Yasunori Matsumoto | John Mackay |
| Lily McGranate | Miki Narahashi | Amy Lennox |
| Galahad Kelly | Hiroki Yasumoto | Rhys ap Trefor |
| Archbishop Domenic | Hiroshi Naka | Michael Cochrane |
| Helio | Fukushi Ochiai | Rhydian Jones |
| Gladys Kelly | Mitsuki Saiga | Kezia Burrows |
| Martha Lancer | Aya Endō | Kimberly Nixon |
| Glenn Booth | Sōshirō Hori | Conor MacNeill |
| Maddock Lonsdale | Shigeru Ushiyama | Christopher Godwin |
| Marla | Ruriko Aoki | Olivia Vinall |
| Vigintio Isaac | Taisuke Nishimura | Adam Diggle |
| Boat-Lending Woman | Sayaka Ohara | |
| Dromed | Shōzō Sasaki | |
| Lady Emma Odilia | Masako Katsuki | Sara Stewart |
| Gwilym | Hiroki Tōchi | Matthew Gravelle |
| Gwydion | Allan Corduner | |
| Esmerelda | ||
| Night’s Nexus |
Packaging artwork[]
