Bravely Default

Bravely Default (North American title and the title used on Wikipedia; known as Bravely Default: Flying Fairy in Japan and Bravely Default: Where The Fairy Flies everywhere else) is an Eastern RPG for the Nintendo 3DS developed by Silicon Studio and published by Square Enix. It is a Spiritual Successor to Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, and in fact was early in development conceived as a sequel to it. The game stands out from the crowd with its eponymous Bravely Default battle system, wherein the player and enemies can choose to use Braves to get extra turns or Defaults to delay and store them for extra effects, adding a new layer of strategy to your usual turn-based RPG fare.

The plot follows Agnès Oblige, a young woman chosen from birth to be the protector of the Wind Crystal, one of the four elemental Crystals that grant prosperity to the land of Luxendarc. When the Wind Crystal and its fellows are consumed by a sudden darkness, Agnès must embark on a grand journey across the world to purify them with the guidance of a magical Cryst-Fairy called Airy. Aiding her on her journey is an eclectic group of characters: Tiz Arrior, the only survivor of his Doomed Hometown; Ringabel, an enigmatic Casanova with no memories; and Edea Lee, a chivalrous knight from the country of Eternia who was originally sent to capture Agnès. Opposing them are the Job Masters of Eternia, who aim to shatter the Crystalist religion and seize the power of the Crystals for their own use.

It was released in Japan in October 11, 2012 for the Nintendo 3DS, and an Updated Rerelease called Bravely Default: For the Sequel was released on December 5, 2013. A localization of For The Sequel was released in Europe (under the title Bravely Default: Where The Fairy Flies) on December 6, 2013; a North American version was released February 7, 2014.

The lead writer is Naotaka Hayashi, who also wrote Steins;Gate. In addition, the game's score is by Revo of Sound Horizon fame.

A browser Spin Off called Bravely Default: Praying Brage and a proper sequel entitled Bravely Second: End Layer have also been released in 2015 and 2016. The sequel takes places several years after the events of the original and features a new protagonist named Magnolia Arch. The series became a trilogy with the release of Bravely Default 2 in 2021.

Tropes used in Bravely Default include:

Absurdly Low Level Cap: With the right items and abilities, it isn't difficult to reach level 99. However, endgame material is tough enough that you'll be recommended to have a team of at least low 90s, ensuring the player always has a challenge. For better, or for worse, depending on skill.
Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: A gradual example. At first, Karl's inn in Caldisla is completely free thanks to your being friends with him. As the world-jumping goes on, however, he'll no longer recognize the party and his inn becomes one of the most expensive in the game.
Addressing the Player: Airy does this when the player starts the game.
Age Lift: In the Japanese version the ages of Agnès Oblige is 17, Tiz Arrior is 16, and Edea Lee is 15. Whereas in the international releases their ages are ramp up a bit (20, 19 and 18).
All the Worlds Are a Stage: The Dimension's Hasp. Its floors are replicas of floors from several prior dungeons, starting with Vestment Cave and ending in Everlast Tower. Its locations are also a hint to the identity of the Bonus Boss: wouldn't you find The Adventurer in each of these areas?
Anti-Frustration Features: Quite a few are present to make the weaknesses of RPGs less pronounced:
- Random Encounters rates can be boosted or turned off entirely. This makes backtracking out of a dungeon to heal much more forgiving, and grinding less of a wait.
- The Brave system allows you to spam attacks to quickly get through random encounters, and even rewards you with extra money, EXP and JP if you meet certain conditions (which generally favor eliminating enemies as fast as possible anyway).
- The Adventurer shows up in almost every dungeon, usually right before encountering a boss. He doesn't offer any healing, but he does give you a chance to save and buy healing items.
- The game's auto-saves your game every time you move between areas/dungeon floors, and even immediately after boss battles. The feature can be disabled if one so chooses.
- If a character can't complete an action for that turn, the BP they would have spent on that action is saved and available at their next turn.
- One of the abilities unlocked by the Conjurer job is "Obliterate", which instantly kills enemies twenty levels or more below the party. This makes grinding so much more convenient.
- Every dungeon, and even the seal on Derosso's door (assuming you already did the sidequest), will already be completed once you arrive in a new world. It doesn't make sense in story terms, but considering the alternative of doing them all over for 6 or so iterations, it's doubtful anyone will complain.
- If you're interested in seeking out Streetpass with other players, but live in an area largely devoid of other people playing 3DS's, updating your Streetpass data daily in the Save menu will send out 3-4 net invites on your behalf and find other players, which will guarantee a steady supply of villagers for the Norende minigame and get some options for summoning friends in battle. Many attacks players send online tend to be horrifically powerful.
- Brewing/Mixing is normally a frustrating process to figure out without resorting to Guide Dang It, but Compounding as a Salve-Maker has the courtesy to tell you what each combination of items will do. You can also cancel and re-try as many times as you wish, so you don't waste the ingredients either. While this still requires you to try lots of combinations to figure it all out, it is much less annoying than having to actually make every single Compound just to find out what it does. Your compounds are also recorded in D's Journal.
Antiquated Linguistics: Characters mostly speak fashion of England a century or more ago.
Arc Words: "Have the courage to disobey."
Augmented Reality: It's an optional feature and uses AR cards to see mini movies about Tiz, Ringabel, Anegus and Edea.
Bare Your Midriff
Beauty Pageant
Black Mage
Breaking the Fourth Wall: Whenever starting a new game, Airy gets up in the player's face about The Call.

Oh, hello. I see fire in those eyes!

Class and Level System: What the game's gameplay revolves around; this applies to the enemies too.
Cleavage Window
Childhood Friends: Anges and Olivia, both would become Vestals.
Cool Airship: The Eschalot.
Cool Old Guy: Somehow despite his age, the Sage, makes extremely far trips to buy supplies, especially for making and sewing clothes.
Demo: It's demo doesn't reveal any spoilers, but it made potential buyers think it's just a level grinding game and with little to no story.
- Once the gamer buys the actual game, all the items, Friend Summons, Abilink, and recruits to Norende Village that the gamer did during the demo can be transfer.
Diegetic Interface: When a gamer opens up the D's Journal, also it gives the appearance as one is reading a book. In addition, the D's Journal is a record keeper, informs of stats, and is also a secondary hub of sorts that:
- Keeps track of items.
- Monsters, foes, and bosses that the party encounters.
- Keeps track of the Jobs and weapons.
- Tells stuff about all of the characters (after unlocking story aspects about them).
Doomed Hometown: Norende.
Dude in Distress: The King of Caldisla.
Egomaniac Hunter: Artiemia Venus.
Elemental Powers: The Summons for the Summoner are these:
- Girtablulu (Earth).
- Hresvelgr (Wind).
- Ziusudra's Sin (Ice).
- Deus Ex (Lightning).
- Susano-o (Non-Elemental).
The Ranger Class, who uses the bow and arrows as their weapon of choice.
Gaiden Game|Spin-Off: Bravely Default is regarded by its creators as a gaiden game and a "spin-off" of the main Final Fantasy games.
Gratuitous English: The title, which makes close to zero sense in English. According to The Other Wiki, Naotaka Hayashi, the game's writer, has stated that the title means "have courage and renounce the promises and responsibilities that are expected of you."
Grimy Water: Played straight with certain areas in certain locations, like some parts of Miasma Woods and the Florem Gardens have purple flowers, which gives the party ingame effects, unless they equip special armors. So, no short cuts.
Heroes With Bad Publicity: The Vestals, since it appears to the public that these holy ones didn't do anything when the four crystal were darken and also assumed that the Vestals don't care.
I Just Want to Be Beautiful: Most of the Florem residents desire this.
Impossible Mission: Tiz wants to rebuild Norene.
In Game Currency: PG.
It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY": PG is pronounced as "Pig".
Lady Land: Florem, there's a strict rule that requires that all its residents are supposed to be women.
Loading Screen: While the game is being booted up, instructions appears and gives tips, like how to get more SP or using the Streetpass and Abilink features.
Lovable Sex Maniac: The Sage he still likes young women, despite his seniority.
MacGuffin: D's Journal.
Magic Knight: The Spell Fencer Class.
Meaningful Name: Many of the characters have these names, like Artiemia Venus (who name is referencing Artimas, a Huntress goddess, and Venus, a goddess who is renown for her beauty).
Microtransaction: Real money is used to buy SP.
- Subverted, the player can also put the 3DS on sleep mode for several hours to restore lost SP.
Optional Bosses: The monsters that came from the Streetpass passerbyers.
- Also, the wielders of the Asterixs.
Punny Name: "Luxendarc": "lux" is Latin for "light", and "darc", well...
Random Drops: Either by defeating foes or waiting for the new Norende residents to make and give ya much needed supplies.
Random Encounters
Red Mage
Ring Menu: Of the Type-1 variety.
Scenery Porn: The attention to detail and lighting of the gorgeous backgrounds makes them the star of the released screenshots.
Shifting Sand Land: Ancheim, the Land of Sand and Time.
Skill Slot System: Similar to Final Fantasy V.
Spell Blade: The weapon of choice for Spell Fencers.
Spiritual Successor: Of Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light.
Special Moves: These special attacks are powerful finishing moves that are based on weapons.
Sidequests: The Sub-scenarios, which will give the gamer Job Asterisks to learn new jobs.
Streetpass Bonus: Some of these bonuses are:
- Recruiting to populate Norende, where once the gamer upgrades the shops, the new residents makes and gives essential yet rare items (Which are otherwise pricey with buying them from a merchant or the Adventurer).
- Friend Summons - Were gamers can bring out a character that the passby shares to do actual pwn-age on foes.
Spoony Bard: The Performer Class.
The Summoner Class.
Super-Deformed: How the in-game presentation of how the characters are drawn as.
Swamps Are Evil: Aptly named Miasma Forest.
Take Your Time
Talking Animals: Some of the animals do talk, like the Fox merchants.
Thigh-High Boots
Teleporter Stones
Technicolor Toxin: It turns out that Petalhue hair dye are made of Woodland Orochi, whose toxins are brightly colored and will poison the wearer, making them insane.
Thirsty Desert: Harena Desert.
Trauma Inn
Warrior Monk
White Mage
World Map
Zettai Ryouiki