Bravely Second: End Layer

Bravely Second: End Layer
Developer(s)	Silicon Studio
Publisher(s)	Square Enix
Distributor(s)	Nintendo
Director(s)	Kensuke Nakahara
Producer(s)	Tomoya Asano
Artist(s)	Akihiko Yoshida
Writer(s)	Tomoya Asano Shinji Takahashi Souki Tsukishima
Composer(s)	Ryo
Platforms	Nintendo 3DS
Release date(s)	JP 20150423April 23, 2015 EU February 26, 2016 AUS 20160227February 27, 2016 NA April 15, 2016
Genre(s)	Role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player

Bravely Second: End Layer (Japanese: ブレイブリーセカンド エンドレイヤー, Hepburn: Bureiburī Sekando: Endo Reiyā) is a Japanese role-playing video game developed by Silicon Studio and published by Square Enix for the Nintendo 3DS, and is the sequel to Bravely Default. It was released by Square Enix in Japan on April 23, 2015, and was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, and Australia in 2016.

Gameplay

The game, like its predecessor, is a role-playing video game, and reuses the battle system implemented in Bravely Default. New to the game is a chain-battle feature where a player who defeats a random encounter may continue to battle enemies in succession for greater risk and reward. The original game's sidequests have been revamped; players encounter two Eternian asterisk holders in an argument about an ethical dilemma, and the player must resolve the conflict with the reward being the loser's asterisk.

Story

Two and a half years after the events of Bravely Default, Agnès Oblige has been elected the Pope of the Crystal Orthodoxy. She and Grand Marshal Braev Lee of the Duchy of Eternia seek to formally end hostilities between the two with a formal peace treaty. However, the ceremony is ambushed by Kaiser Oblivion, leader of the Glanz Empire, and his cryst-fairy Anne. The two defeat Braev and abduct Agnès. Yew Geneolgia, leader of Agnès' bodyguard unit, the Crystalguard, awakens a week after the attack. He sets out with fellow Crystalguard leaders Janne Engarde and Nikolai Nikolanikov to rescue Agnès, However, Janne murders most of the remaining Crystalguard survivors and defects to the Empire. Guided by Agnès through a crystal shard she dropped when she was kidnapped, Yew assembles three companions to aid him in his quest; Edea Lee, daughter of Braev and leader of Eternia's Imperial Guard knights, Magnolia Arch, a young Ba'al Buster from the moon who is the sole survivor of an attack on her village by the Empire, and Tiz Arrior, a former comrade of Agnès and Edea who is awakened from the coma he has been in for the past two and a half years. The four are too late to stop Oblivion from escaping in his airship, the Skyhold, and discover that Nikolai, previously presumed dead, has also defected.

With Agnès' aid, the party pursues the Skyhold to the continent of Harena, making a stop at Al-Khampis, where Yew went to school. There, the party learns of a giant creature called a Ba'al who fell from the sky some time ago and currently lies dormant on an island north of Harena. Traveling to the island where it landed, they are shocked to find it is no longer there. However, Magnolia senses it may be on the Skyhold with the Kaiser. Upon returning to Al-Khampis, the party meets Professor Norzen, a highly regarded scholar. He explains that Oblivion is searching for a "compass of space and time" and implores the group to retrieve it before Oblivion. The group locates the compass, but are unable to prevent Oblivion's men from escaping with it. The group encounters Janne again, who reveals himself to be the last survivor of House Balestra, a family that served in the Crystalguard 16 years ago. He explains that during the war with the nascent Duchy of Eternia, House Balestra refused to surrender to the duchy's forces and was obliterated by House Geneolgia; Janne serves the empire in order to exact revenge. The Skyhold escapes again, and the party pursues them to Eisenberg.

In the volcanic continent, the party runs into a Yoko, who claims to be a princess in search of her brother. Yoko follows the group to the Eisen bridge where the forces of the Shieldbearers clashes with the Kaiser's army. A deadlock is caused by Aimee, a sniper under Kaiser's command. She injures the leader of the Shieldbearers, Commander Goodman, forcing the party to travel to Hartschild to seek treatment. The party spends the night in the city where Magnolia and Yew grow closer. The festive city turns empty in the morning when everyone vanishes into thin air, to the group's surprise. Deciding to head north pass the Eisen bidge, they are helped by Yoko's brother, a skilled swordman, who shows them an underground tunnel to get behind Aimee while he holds off the sniper by himself. The four defeats Aimee, but Yoko is injured shielding her brother, and everyone heads for Yonohana, the siblings' home. Yoko recovers by bathing in the town's hot spring, and shares with Yew her brother's quest for the Sword of the Braves, the acquisition of which will legitimate his inheritance of the family's lordship. Yew hesitantly gives up information about the item's location. Yoko goes missing to get the sword, and the group comes after her into the volcano's geyser. Reaching Yoko, she wishes the sword to keep her brother by her side at any price, and the demonic sword cuts off the sword arm of her brother, claiming that she were willing to pay "any price". Yew reveals that during childhood he had a similar encounter with the demon sword with his own elder brother, who went missing after his arm was disabled. Yoko then reveals herself to be a malevolent being behind both incidents. Edea is about to be attacked when Alternis intervenes, Yoko tells the group to go to the Fire Crystal temple to discover the Kaiser's true goal, then disappears. At the Fire temple, Tiz and Edea notice the Crystal is glowing too brightly, similar to the time they were tricked by Airy to open the Great Chasm in Bravely Default. Realising the Kaiser has been attacking home cities of the crystals, and aims to open the Chasm and summon the Pillar of Light, the group tries to prevent history from repeating and hurries to Florem, the home of the water crystal.

Development

As early as December 2012, talks of a sequel to Bravely Default arose, with producer Tomoya Asano requesting feedback from fans to be used for a sequel to the game. Talks of a sequel also arose again in June 2013, when game developer Yasumi Matsuno announced that character designer and lead artist Akihiko Yoshida was working on a Bravely Default sequel. In August 2013, Square Enix announced Bravely Default: For the Sequel, an updated version of the original that would implement new gameplay ideas developed for a sequel in the series. The name Bravely Second was trademarked as early as September 2013. The game's name was officially announced as Bravely Second in a December 2013 issue of Jump magazine. being named after a gameplay mechanic from Bravely Default: For the Sequel. Upon announcement, the game's only announced platform is the Nintendo 3DS. The game was approximately 30% complete around the time of its official announcement.

In December 2013, it was revealed that Yoshida had left Square Enix. Despite this, he states he still plans on continuing to work on the Bravely games, and Bravely Second will still retain the same anime art style established in the first game. albeit with characters having slightly more realistic proportions, being slightly less chibi. Initial brainstorming led to ideas such as having Magnolia wear a space suit or bunny ears, but this was ultimately scrapped to pursue a more "adult look", something the developers felt was missing in the first title. Asano also confirmed that the game will stay story driven as opposed to exploration driven, as with the first game. In April 2014, producer Tomoya Asano announced in Famitsu's Rumour Column that the scenario for the game was completed. In late July 2014, Famitsu magazine revealed that Revo would not be returning to compose the soundtrack for the game due to conflicting schedules, and that Ryo from the band Supercell would be taking his place.

On December 10, 2014, a trial version of the game was released on the Japanese Nintendo eShop.

Reception

Reception
Review score Publication Score Famitsu 36 of 40 (9/9/9/9)

Bravely Second received positive reviews. Praise went towards the innovative gameplay following on from the prequel, and criticism went mostly towards the story and lack of differentiation from its predecessor.

In their review, Famitsu gave the game the score 36 of 40, consisting of the sub-scores 9, 9, 9, and 9. Siliconera detailed and translated a series of responses from Japanese players including praise for the "Consecutive Chance" feature and criticism for overuse of memes and modern linguistics drawing comparisons to Hyperdimension Neptunia.

Janine Hawkins from Polygon criticized the lack of innovation from its predecessor but praised the world and the writing, saying "The world is beautifully realized, and the writing is enjoyable"; Hawkins summarized her review as "Bravely Second takes after its predecessor almost to a fault."

Mike Mahardy from Gamespot said "One could argue it feels more like an exceptional expansion than a true sequel" citing how "the combat, despite its sleek design, doesn't make any major improvements on the well established formula." Criticizing the writing, he adds "But in the end, Bravely Second transcends the limitations that its poor writing and redundant storyline create."

Sales

Bravely Second was the best selling video game in Japan during its debut week, with 100,047 copies sold and 53.6% of the initial shipment sold out. This was a lower debut than that of the original Bravely Default; during its launch week, 141,529 copies were sold, which corresponded to 85.68% of its first shipment. Roughly 154,000 copies had been sold by the end of June 2015.

In North America, the game was the ninth best-selling game of its debut month of April 2016, a feat deemed particularly impressive by Venturebeat, which noted was rare for a physical release of a niche genre like a JRPG. In the United Kingdom, the game debuted at #12 on the All-Formats chart and #9 on the individual format chart that ranks the releases of multi-platform games per console as opposed to title. During its debut week, it was the highest selling game on a Nintendo platform.

External links

• Official website