It's been a long time since Bravely Default first graced Japanese shores and worldwide soon after. Releasing to critical acclaim, Bravely Default not only ushered in new fans craving a more traditional approach to JRPG gameplay but revitalized interest in many long-time fans of the genre. Nearly nine years later, Producer Tomoya Asano and his development team (lovingly dubbed "Team Asano" by fans) have gone on to develop many other titles such as Octopath Traveler and the recently announced Project Triangle Strategy. Needless to say, expectations are high for Bravely Default II, yet I wanted to take a look back on a title that I felt was overshadowed in comparison: Bravely Second End Layer.  Truth is, we've already gotten our sequel to Bravely Default quite a few years back. Originally released in Japan in 2015, Bravely Second: End Layer presented itself as a continuation of Bravely Default's story that would recontextualize and follow up on the legacy of Bravely Default's world. The problem is, many of the criticisms levied against End Layer largely stem from this recontextualization and expectation as a follow up to Bravely Default given the fact End Layer suffers from many of the same issues that sequels in

Back in 2004, I had the perfect setup to play Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: three friends, four Gameboy Advances, four link cables, one Gamecube, and one sprawling weekend afternoon after a long week of high school. Looking back 17 years later, it seems like a wonder that any such confluence of events could transpire. They're fun memories. In previous years, I sequestered myself while playing through the single-player mainline entries on PlayStation, so the prospect of playing a Final Fantasy title with others was well worth checking out. Crystal Chronicles would dole out different roles to each player during each dungeon -- one might be navigating the map for the party, another on the lookout for treasure chests, and so on. You would constantly be communicating and cooperating, whether you were plumbing dungeons, wandering around your village trading items to craft, or sharing what kind of build you were thinking up. So much of the game was built around couch co-op, that it's disappointing to report that the online co-op that's replaced it feels ill-thought out and barely resembles the spirit of the original game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdt2og-xXlc In recent weeks, we learned that the Remastered Edition wouldn't have offline co-op, opting to move the

It’s been one year since Final Fantasy XIV celebrated the successful launch of its third expansion, Shadowbringers. With the finale in the form of Patch 5.3: Reflections in Crystal only a day away from emotionally crushing the community while simultaneously providing us adorable stickers for our screenshots in Group Pose, I had taken this time to fondly look back and reflect on what made Shadowbringers such a fantastic expansion compared to those that came before. I found myself asking: Why was it so good? What was done differently this time around? What made Shadowbringers rival previous Final Fantasy games, matching them in greatness and nostalgia? As I thought about these questions, I realized it was because the development team hit five major story-crafting elements that ultimately led to the game’s success. In this piece, I will be going over those five subjects in hopes that it not only puts my thoughts about the expansion into words, but also help others see what I believe made the story so incredible, and why Shadowbringers was, and is, an incredible work of art that will be remembered for years to come. A warning for those still new to the game: There are going to be some

Kingdom Hearts Dark Road is out now for iOS, Android, and Amazon-powered devices. Available from the updated title screen of Kingdom Hearts Union χ app, Dark Road follows a young Xehanort along a path that will see him become the "Dark Seeker". The game is free-to-play but includes optional in-app purchases with real money. Dark Road begins by introducing us to Xehanort entering a portal of darkness created by a mysterious robed figure. On the other side, he finds himself in Scala ad Caelum, a world where keyblade wielders train to become keyblade masters. They do so to fight Heartless that threaten the many worlds outside its borders. Xehanort's classmates: Eraqus, Hermod, Bragi, Urd, and Vor are tasked with a special mission when seven upperclassmen suddenly vanish during their Mark of Mastery exam. They are to venture out into the various worlds to find them and bring them home. You'll make a party of three, two of which will be Xehanort and Eraqus, while the third slot can be rotated between the four remaining students. In combat, five cards from a deck are drawn belonging to three different colors. Flicking or tapping three of them will trigger an action like attacking or

Caution: The following contains spoilers for Final Fantasy VII Remake. Once you complete Final Fantasy VII Remake, you get the option to skip around the game using a Chapter Select feature. You also unlock a new difficulty, "Hard," which prohibits the use of items in battle, and MP can only be restored by smashing crates, slowly regenerating it in battle by forgoing spells, or clearing the chapter you're on. Bosses also hit harder and more frequently, but the overall strategy isn't too dissimilar to Normal mode. However, you'll find yourself needing to prepare for various fights a bit more carefully. Luckily, if you've been using Assess in your first playthrough, it'll help you build a strategy ahead of time by carefully selecting your materia and equipment loadout. For bosses who have a vulnerability to one specific element, you can socket that corresponding materia while beefing up your party with HP Up, Parry, Steadfast Block, and so on. Also, having foreknowledge of how particular boss phases proceed helps too. Given that MP doesn't recover fully in any given chapter, you'll find yourself having to carefully consider when and where you use spells. Suddenly, busting out a Firaga spell against an enemy weak to fire magic seems

Caution: The following contains spoilers for Final Fantasy VII and Remake. Scroll below Aerith to continue reading! Nanaki speeds down an arid canyon followed closely by his pups. Ascending its walls, he effortlessly leaps from precipice to precipice as his children vault smaller gaps, perhaps dreaming of the day they could jump just as high. They emerge upon an incredible landscape: the ruins of a towering city, subsumed by nature. Roiling reactors, draining the Planet of the force necessary to sustain life, are now embalmed in roots and leaves. Nanaki reveals his 500 years in the tufts of grey that poke out of his fur. He knows the truth of this place, but only he can teach. All of his comrades have rejoined the ever-coursing Lifestream long ago. A flock bound for the metal peaks beyond cries out. This is our last glimpse at the world of Final Fantasy VII in the original PlayStation title released in 1997. It’s an incredible scene, one of my favorites in fiction. It provides as many questions as it does answers: did human society survive the after-effects of Meteorfall’s devastation? Was Midgar abandoned for elsewhere, where humanity could thrive without harming the flow of life and

It’s remarkable that I am still in disbelief about having played through Final Fantasy VII Remake. Not because it took its sweet time being made, but because almost everything I experienced in my 40-hour play-through of the game was surprising, rewarding and breathtaking all at the same time. For what this first entry of a larger saga covers, this is a game that clearly understands the characters, legacy and important moments from the original 1997 title, but it doesn’t end there. The remake uses its opportunity to expand the overall narrative of Final Fantasy VII’s opening hours, opting to flesh out more of what it has to work with than to rush through. With this approach follows some of the best writing in the entire Final Fantasy series. FFVIIR is set within the industrial city of Midgar, owned by a mega corporation known as the Shinra Electric Power Company. The story begins with Cloud Strife, a cool and skilled mercenary hired by the eco-terrorist group Avalanche to infiltrate and destroy one of Shinra’s reactors, which are sapping the planet’s life source to supply the city with electricity. This will sound familiar to anyone that’s played through the original RPG, and that goes

Today, the demo for Bravely Default II is available on the Nintendo Switch eShop, and we gave it a spin. What appears to be the next "numbered" title in the series succeeds 2012's Bravely Default, which saw a direct sequel named Bravely Second. Both titles released on the Nintendo 3DS. Bravely Default II takes place in a new world with a new cast of characters. The 2D background style from the original game remain to an extent, and can be explored in 3D using a fixed perspective. Developed with Claytechworks, the game features a new claymation-style look that brings a lot of of character models. Revo has also returned to compose the soundtrack. You can check out how it turned out in our video below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xoc_ZZPaKYY The new cast includes Seth, a sailor who washes up on the shore of one of five kingdoms in the land of Excillant. He meets Gloria, a princess of a kingdom destroyed for its crystal. Elvis and Adelle carry a mysterious book they intend to decipher and join Seth on his journey. The demo picks up some ways into the game where the four protagonists have crossed a desert to a submerged city of Savalon, and endeavor to find the cause of the

War of the Visions Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is the lastest freemium gacha game from Square Enix and developer gumi, based on the universe of another freemium gacha game: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. Currently, you can download and play the game on iOS and Android smartphones. However, this game is styled very much in the garb of Final Fantasy Tactics. It features a tile-based maps with a turn-based systems where characters move and attack. The story hints at political intrigue involving warring nations. Even the UI trimmings have noticeable similarities. Far removed from the the Ivalice Alliance's War of the Lions, War of the Visions takes place on the continent of Ardra in the world of Lapis. The kingdom of Leonis braces itself for invasion by neighboring nations seeking to harness their power over controlling Visions, a special power that corporeal thoughts to life. Visions manifest themselves as characters that join you in battle. We take a look at the Android version of the game in the video below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GvPwzACZPE Units have the ability to supplement their main job with sub jobs by unlocking abilities through a skill tree. They can be outfitted with equipment and esper stones that allow you summon entities like Ifrit

Trials of Mana, the upcoming remake of the 1995 Super Famicom title Seiken Densetsu 3, has a free demo out for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Steam. You'll be able transfer your save data from the demo into the full version of game. Only the beginning of the story is playable and characters' level is capped at 7. We gave the PlayStation 4 version a spin in the video below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pngh3qEEFQs After the introduction, you'll choose one of six protagonists, then two from those same six as your companions. While you only start out with your protagonist, the other two will eventually join your campaign. Making the jump from 2D to 3D has worked well in Trials of Mana, which is largely due to how the combat has been retooled to work in this new space. You can use R3 to lock on to enemies and maneuver around them, using light and heavy attacks where the timing is appropriate. Aerial attacking and dodging flows well, including an air-to-ground move. You can build up a meter below your health and mana gauges as you attack - this is reserved for Class Strikes, abilities compatible with a character's current class. They can be assigned to the right