#agnes from bravely default
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There's something rather ironic about Agnès being the WIND Vestal but her special attack theme doesn't use wind instruments, isn't there?
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guide to team asano games!
this is a spoiler-free quick look at all* games produced by tomoya asano from 2012 onwards. all games on this list have voice acting in both japanese and english.
*not including mobile games, which includes various daylife despite it now being on consoles because i don't have enough experience with the game to speak on it.
genre: fantasy, adventure gameplay: turn-based rpg platforms: 3DS (original) and switch 2 (HD remaster)
the one that started it all! bravely default: flying fairy is a turn-based rpg with a rich story that uses unique battle mechanics: "brave" and "default" which allow you to use or accumulate BP to do multiple actions in one turn. it also features 24 "asterisks" or jobs that any of your characters can use for a huge mix of potential strategies
in terms of story, you follow the 4 main characters - tiz, agnes, edea and ringabel - throughout their journey around luxendarc to free the four crystals that will return light to the world.
with character designs by akihiko yoshida (final fantasy xii, xiv, nier series) and soundtrack by revo (sound/linked horizon of attack on titan opening fame), the game combines 3d sprites with beautiful 2d painted backgrounds, with an incredible soundtrack to accompany it.
why you should play it: if you're a fan of the classic turn-based rpg style, i highly recommend BDFF! it's an engaging story and the interactions between the main team is a lot of fun. the asterisk system and being able to adjust difficulty/encounter rates makes for a highly tailorable experience. why you might not like it: it's quite a long and difficult game, and can feel grueling at times. some story/character moments did not age very well and the series has famously had some parts censored overseas.
genre: fantasy, adventure gameplay: turn-based rpg platforms: 3DS
bravely second: end layer is the direct sequel to BDFF, with returning characters and the same region of luxendarc with new regions to explore. the gameplay is also the same with 30 asterisks in total, many of them returning from BDFF but with 12 new asterisks included. BSEL also adds chained battles, which are consecutive encounters that grant you boosted exp and rewards.
the story takes place 3 years after the end of BDFF, with new protagonists yew and magnolia joined by tiz and edea from the previous game. yew journeys to rescue agnes from the clutches of the glanz empire, a mysterious new force with a floating stronghold.
akihiko yoshida returns as character designer but the soundtrack this time is handled by ryo (supercell, composer of the one and only "world is mine" ft. hatsune miku).
why you should play it: it's more of BDFF, both in terms of gameplay and story! the new asterisks are a lot of fun and if you care about story continuity, you'd definitely want to play this one after BDFF. seeing returning characters in their new roles is really fun to see! why you might not like it: BSEL is more divisive in the community largely because of the story, which is somehow both goofier and darker at different parts. if you're a gameplay-first type of person this might not bother you, but note that the writing and music are often seen to be inferior to BDFF's.
genre: fantasy, adventure gameplay: turn-based rpg platforms: switch, steam, xbox one, PS4/5
octopath traveler is team asano's new take on the turn-based rpg genre, with BP returning as a similar but revamped mechanic compared to the bravely series. battles are focused around exploiting your enemy's weakness and "breaking" them to do massive damage. with 8 protagonists and 12 jobs in total, OT follows its predecessor in strategic possibilities with job combinations. each character also has unique "path actions", special ways to interact with every npc in the game.
OT has 8 protagonists with separate stories, which you are able to pick and choose when to progress as you wish. all of the travelers journey in pursuit of a goal - ranging from an adventure to find treasure to a lifelong pursuit of revenge throughout the land of orsterra.
character design and artwork is by naoki ikushima and soundtrack by yasunori nishiki, with both being most prominently known for their work on team asano's games. OT was also the first game to feature HD-2D graphics, a combination of classic pixel sprites and modern technologies to create an immersive experience.
why you should play it: again, i think fans of the turn-based genre would enjoy trying this game out! the boost and break system makes for exciting battles with an amazing soundtrack to accompany it. the different stories make for a varied experience, with the format allowing for a wider pool of character archetypes to have a story to call their own. why you might not like it: OT is sometimes criticized for lacking the character interactions between the protagonists that often form the heart of many other rpgs - while the travelers do interact, these are uncommon and have no bearing on the story. if you're someone who really values that kind of character interaction, you may find yourself underwhelmed by OT.
genre: fantasy, adventure gameplay: turn-based rpg platforms: switch and steam
bravely default II is the next installment in the bravely series, with an all-new cast and region and a familiar battle system. BDII's gameplay also focuses on the "brave" and "default" mechanics and 24 asterisks in total, with chained battles also making a comeback from BSEL. the protagonists all have the same base stats this time, allowing for even more flexibility. while the game is still turn-based, it now features an active time battle (ATB)-like gauge that determines when characters make their move.
taking place in the new land of excillant, gloria, a princess from the now-destroyed kingdom of musa, must journey with her companions seth, adelle and elvis to recover the four crystals of light that were stolen from her homeland.
naoki ikushima (octopath traveler) takes over the character designs while revo (bravely default) returns to do the soundtrack, with the new battle arrangements being a real standout. the graphics follow in BDFF's footsteps with 3d models in a 2d painted world - BDII also features an interactable overworld where you can encounter monsters and find items.
why you should play it: if you enjoy the battle system of BDFF and BSEL, this is a newly refined and polished version of it! battles are challenging but lots of fun and revo absolutely outdid himself with the ost. it features a touching story with similar twists and turns that made BDFF so memorable. if you've never played the 3DS bravely games, i think this is a great way to try out the series since this one is standalone! why you might not like it: bravely fans might not be happy with the fact that this is an entirely new entry with no connection to the existing world and lore. other than the lack of continuity the same drawbacks from BDFF apply, with the game sometimes feeling grueling at times - this is heightened by many the new counter ability that many new bosses have.
genre: fantasy, political gameplay: tactical rpg platforms: switch and steam
triangle strategy is team asano's first take on a tactical rpg, with HD-2D graphics returning in isometric form for an entirely different strategic gameplay. the game has you take charge of an army of 8 characters with 22 additional recruitable ones, and the gameplay has an emphasis on height and terrain conditions to spice up battles.
TRST follows serenoa of house wolffort in his quest to bring peace back to norzelia amongst the three warring nations. he is joined by his friend and the crown prince of glenbrook, roland, his fiancee frederica and the house wolffort strategist benedict. the player's choices can greatly impact the story as you test your sense of morality, liberty and utility to see the war through.
naoki ikushima returns to do the character designs (with in-game illustrations by tatsuaki urushihara) while the ost is composed by akira senju (fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood) for a more moody, dark overtone in the game.
why you should play it: fans of the tactical genre will find this a fun challenge! there are plenty of difficulty options to suit your preferences (even a "very easy" mode). the story structure made it one of the most immersive games i've played, with each choice feeling heavier as the game continues. why you might not like it: if you're someone who cares primarily about gameplay in srpgs, you might be put off by the amount of dialogue and cutscenes in the game between battles. each chapter has one battle and each route has up to 21 chapters, with story segments before and after every battle and additional optional stories focused on certain characters.
genre: fantasy (individual chapter genres include sci-fi, historical, western, martial arts and modern) gameplay: turn-based rpg platforms: super famicom (original) and switch, steam, PS4/5 (remake)
live a live is team asano's first remake in the HD-2D style, starting with takashi tokita's classic 1994 rpg! the game features a unique battle system with turn-based battles taking place on a 7x7 grid. each part of the game also features a couple of unique mechanics, depending on which character you control.
LAL's story is split into 8 parts, each taking place across different time periods and regions. each character has a unique goal and gameplay style, ranging from more battle-heavy chapters to one that is clearable entirely through stealth alone.
LAL's characters were originally designed by 7 different manga artists, the most prominent being gosho aoyama (detective conan) who designed the "twilight of edo japan" characters. composed by the legendary yoko shimomura (kingdom hearts, xenoblade, mario & luigi) who also returned for the remake, the new illustrations are done by naoki ikushima.
why you should play it: it's a fun twist on the turn-based rpg format, and the various chapters with different protagonists and vibes keeps the game new and exciting. it also features a story with some very interesting ideas, which all comes together at the end. why you might not like it: similarly to OT, both the gameplay and story can feel disjointed since each chapter is kept short and simple. being a classic game, it's also fairly short, with even a completionist run being shorter than any other game on this list.
genre: fantasy, adventure gameplay: turn-based rpg platforms: switch, steam, xbox one/series, PS4/5
the second installment in the octopath series, octopath traveler II is a new take on the original formula, with new characters and stories. the same battle system from OT returns with revamped jobs and 4 new "advanced" jobs in addition to the main 8. protagonists also have unique "latent power" abilities and an extra path action that can only be used during the nighttime to add extra flexibility and teambuilding possibilities.
OT2 follows the same story structure as the first game, with 8 individual stories but now features additional stories with certain travelers paired together as well as a dedicated epilogue. the range of stories is similar to OT, but characters are no longer stuck in a 4-chapter structure to better suit their journeys.
naoki ikushima (character design) and yasunori nishiki (composer) return for OT2, with the soundtrack now boasting additional nighttime versions of all overworld and town themes. the HD-2D style has also been improved to allow for more camera angles and animations.
why you should play it: whether you loved OT or found it a bit underwhelming, you will likely enjoy OT2's refreshing improvement on everything that OT laid the groundwork for, be it gameplay, story or graphics. since OT and OT2 are not connected, this is also a great way to get into the series as it offers a more polished octopath experience. why you might not like it: many of OT's original criticisms still apply to OT2, so if you're someone who's looking for a very close team relationship amongst the main cast then the octopath series isn't exactly the rpg for you. OT2 also has a grander scale than OT, so i have seen people prefer the first game for its more grounded protagonists.
genre: fantasy, adventure gameplay: turn-based rpg platforms: famicom, NES (original) super famicom, GBC, iOS/android, wii, PS4, 3DS, switch (remake) switch, PS5, steam, xbox series (HD-2D remake)
dragon quest III is the latest rpg to be remade in the HD-2D style, with DQ1&2 to follow later in 2025. this game is chronologically the first in the erdrick trilogy, and features classic turn-based gameplay with a few additions in the remake like battle autoplay and a new class.
the story follows the hero, child of the legendary warrior ortega, on their journey to defeat baramos after their father's disappearance and return peace to the world.
DQ3 features work from series veterans yuji horii (creator, designer), akira toriyama (character design) and koichi sugiyama (composer), who have been with the series since its inception. the HD-2D remake had its cover illustrated by naoki ikushima.
why you should play it: dragon quest is a series that has solidified many jrpg staples throughout the years, and the HD-2D remake is a great way to experience it yourself, with or without previous experience with the franchise. the world is charming and has plenty of content to keep you interested. why you might not like it: many of its aspects naturally feel a bit outdated if you're not someone who's used to older games, with its simpler story structure and UI/system that can sometimes feel clunky. while the story is a highlight of the game, characters in your team don't have personalities or interactions like many other rpgs, so that may be off-putting if you are a character-first type of gamer.
that's all for now! i tried to keep it brief but i don't think that worked very well (lol) i may add to this list as more games are released!
also this may be fairly obvious but most of the criticisms i mentioned are not my own, i just wanted to mention them since many of them do have a very vocal minority who have issues with the games.
i'm not a very gameplay-first type of gamer so i can't help too much on that front but feel free to ask me about any questions you have about these games!
#the ones on steam are 50%+ off until 13 may!! and some are on sale on other platforms until early may as well#i wrote things vaguely enough that i don't think i made any mistakes but please let me know if i did...#i wrote this instead of working all day#satsusays#octopath traveler#octopath traveler 2#bravely default#bravely second#bravely default 2#triangle strategy#live a live#dragon quest 3
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little known bravely default series facts
I noticed a couple of comments about the Bravely Series on Twitter last night that made me realize some folks didn't know some of what I consider common knowledge of the series (like why the ba'al theme wasn't on the Bravely Default soundtrack).
Contains spoilers for all three games. Also this got longer than I thought, thanks in advance if you make it to the end and find something you didn't know! I'm sure most of this seems obvious to long timefans.
Here is a compilation of what I know that may or may not be common knowledge to newcomers?
I had to split this into three parts because of Tumblr's character limit and I'm honestly too tired to fix the numbering. A much more readable version can be found on Google Docs here.
First part:
The version of Bravely Default that was received in the West is the second version of the original Bravely Default game, released in Japan in Dec 2013. This version, called "Bravely Default: For the Sequel" came with a massive (80ish) amount of improvements based on player feedback, such as: additional sidequests for the Asterisk Holders in later parts of the game, difficulty and encounter settings sliders, battle speed, redrawing the cities, and the Bravely Second mechanic itself.
This means some tie-ins to Bravely Second didn't exist with the first version - the Adventurer being green when you first encounter her, the end AR movie with Magnolia, the Ba'als and their theme. All this was added later.
The Japanese version does include different languages, including English, so if you can't understand Japanese you can still easily play this version of the game on a hacked or Japanese 3DS!
The first release in Oct 2012 was called "Bravely Default: Flying Fairy" and a lot of JP folks still use BDFF to refer to it.
While BDFTS and BD: Where the Fairy Flies (the Western release) are functionally identical, some changes between JP and West include but are not limited to:
Costumes were censored (such as the Vampire having a bodysuit under the belts and the Bravo Bikini)
The ages of Agnes, Tiz, Edea, Alternis and the Venus sisters was bumped up 3 years in their journal entries (or anyone whose age is written out instead of written as numerals).
Japan had merchandise that had codes for the extra costumes. The extra costumes made it into the Western version of the released game for in-game currency with the exception of Tiz's Dimensional Officer, Edea's Military Cadet, Agnes's Bravo Bunny, and Ringabel's Wakoku Warrior.
You can summon friends from Japanese versions and those costumes will be visible EXCEPT the Bravo Bunny is censored (the cut-out is covered) and Wakoku Warrior is replaced with Freelancer.
These codes expired after like 2 years.
There are 4 novels called "Pocketbook of R" (2 books) and "Pocketbook of R Second" (2 books). I'm including all the translation information I currently have.
Pocketbook of R is a first person journal from Ringabel in what is commonly dubbed "Infinity World" between the events of Bravely Default and Bravely Second.
Ellen translated the first book here (note that she did largely 'summary' translations as she hated the writing in the novel).
Bill translated most of the second book (page 70+) here. (Bill's native language is French and while I did some proofreading, there may be some clunkiness of translating from a third language into a fourth.)
Ellen started translating the third book here. This and the fourth book take place at the same time as Second, for the most part.
No solid English translations of the fourth book currently exist though I know the gist of it thanks to an older Tumblr fan who gave me the rundown. I'm sure RNT will make a video.
Second Part:
There are an additional 2 novels that are based on two of the spinoff games.
One is "Bravely Default - 200 years later" based on Praying Brage that was released in the Japanese Bravely Second collector's edition ONLY.
One is "Bravely Default Fairy's Effect - Rinne's Miracle" based on Fairy's Effect that was released as a standalone novel.
Very little information has been released about both. One day we'll have a summary/translation.
There are (currently) 4 spinoff games, all currently shut down.
Praying Brage (Nov 2012 - Apr 2017) was a browser game and was based on the premise of Edea going 200 years into the future to save Agnes. RedNovaTyrant has a great video on it here!
Bravely Archive: D's Report (Jan 2015 - Oct 2017) was a mobile game that centered around an alternate/future Luxendarc with crystal memories and a new main character who is revealed to be Deneb
It released in Australia for about 6 months in 2018
Bravely Archive Fairy's Effect (Mar 2017 - Aug 2020) was a mobile game released after Bravely Second that took place simultaneously 8000 years in the future and between the events of Bravely Default 1 and Bravely Second. There's a lot of lore for both games in FE that can be seen in various videos on the internet (such as info on the Kaiser/Glanz Empire and Agnes's transition into Pope, Ominas having a role in saving Mahzer and the newborn Edea from Eternia during Braev's coup), but Bill translated some of the remaining website summary here.
Bravely Default Brilliant Lights (Jan 2022 - Feb 2023) was a crossover mobile game in a new world that combined Luxendarc and Excillant characters and setting. It lasted 13 months and I archived as much video as I could on Youtube but as of now, first person "reports" can be found here that summarize each board of each story.
It explains why "First Born" Ba'al was a thing in Bravely Second.
An 'offline' version was released but pulled from the app stores in July 2023.
There are 2 audio dramas for the first game!
First one is called "Festival of Reunion" and a translation of all four tracks can be found here.
Second one is called something like "Bracelets of Eternity" and so far no English translation seems to exist (though I know the gist of the first track).
The Ba'al theme was released with the first audio drama.
There's a Luxendarc / Linked Horizons concert that took place in Japan in 2013, you can find video of it on Youtube and Amazon Prime Video, and they released music CDs specific to it.
Square released an X-mas Collections Music CD that has wintery remixes of some of the Bravely Default music.
There is a Bravely Default 4 volume manga that's a retelling of the first game. Red made a video about it here. You can find scans online and most of the translations were done by Ellen.
There is also a manga anthology that serves to tie together Bravely Default and Bravely Second (released around the same time as Second, if not earlier). Red also made a video about it here. Ellen scanslated the third story in the anthology, I reuploaded it here after her imgur account got nuked.
Bravely Second was changed between the JP and Western releases based on feedback from Japanese players:
Sidequests were streamlined so that players could get a "good ending" based on their decision even if they chose the opposite Asterisk after the time reset
The Black Mage/ Ranger sidequest had its endings completely rewritten, as the Japanese version ends with either Bahamut being eaten or the wounded NPC dying depending on who you sided with.
Some costumes that were DLC were added to be bought with in-game currency (same as Default)
Fort Lune was made more easily available instead of being locked behind a SE Member account (along with some other things like costumes).
Some of the writing was tweaked as there were complaints about the memey/modern references/references to other media like Dragonball.
Aimee/Hawkeye costume was changed (there was also minor censoring of other costumes, like adding a bra to Ranger for Magnolia).
The fox companion was moved to different locations instead of sitting next to the Adventurer, lessening some complaints of "mood whiplash" between tent scenes and serious story events.
Some JP preorder-exclusive weapons were excluded (as far as I can tell, some weapons were just very hard to get).
The controversial apology for Bravely Second was in regard to the large amount of negative feedback the team received from the JP fans in regard to Second (though some Western fans also had a lot of negative things to say, it was largely only because of the costume censorship to the point at least one mod was released).
Third Part:
Magnolia and Pope!Agnes had large plushie prototypes made of them that were never released.
There's an official MMD figure of Agnes from Second.
2 types of large Edea plushies were released, one with closed eyes and one with open eyes.
Only 200 of the open-eyed Edeas were made/released but now there apparently there's only 199 in existence because I tried to buy one and the seller told me she was damaged in by a wild animal getting into the warehouse, rip Edea...
Large plushies were released of Edea, Ringabel, Agnes, and Tiz based on their Default appearance. Tiz's plush had an unfortunate hair style in the prototype that they changed in the final version. Images of this bowl cut have been lost forever.
Gloria got a smaller plushie that's in the JP SE Store.
A set of even smaller Default 1 cast plushies, among other things, are in the 10th anniversary set.
The European Collector's Edition of Bravely Default Where the Fairy Flies included this unfortunate figure of Agnes.
The Bravely Second artbook has three versions:
Original Japanese version, scans of it exist online
Bravely Second (Western) collectors edition version, which removed several images - sketches/concept art of Agnes tied up in the ribbon and a couple of images of Geist as well. This version had translated captions but any text on the images was not translated.
The fully English translated version which also restores the images removed from the CE.
Sales data has indicated that the Bravely Series reached 3 mil in Nov 2021. No word on 4 mil or 5 mil, but maybe we'll find out this year?
Bravely Default 1 (all versions) hit 1 million in July 2014 (21 months from initial BDFF release)
Bravely Second (all versions) hit 700k in April 2017 (2 years from BSEL release)
Bravely Default II (all versions) hit 1 mil in Dec 2021 (10 months from BDII release)
So much JP only merch was released through the years, especially in the years before Second.
Some through the SE Cafe collab with BDII
Some through Artnia (here's Default and Second's collabs)
10th anniversary stores with Hakabanogarou in person and online (now closed)
10th anniversary collab with Super Groupies for watches, Agnes's pendant, a stole with Airy's pendant.
Stuff on the SE JP store
Limited edition rubber stamp sets for Default and Second
Linked Horizon branded BD merch was released with the concert like pins.
Magnolia figure.
Official D's Journal
The messaging Line app released Bravely Default/Bravely Second stickers drawn by a fanartist made official artist named Satokivi! I think they were like 3 dollars per set.
She also drew the mini series of 4koma called "Praying for Miko" for Praying Brage
Physical versions of these stickers are on the JP SE Store.
There's a vinyl record
Pop-up Parade figurines of the main four were released in 2023 for the 10th anniversary of Bravely Default.
Bravely Default II had two demos, the first one specifically made difficult to get feedback from the fans. They implemented some feedback to change the final version of the game (but not everything). This was the first time they have asked for feedback from the West instead of just Japan.
Team Asano has released Lunar New Year art every year except 2016 with Bravely characters and the zodiac animal
They do Christmas cards every year, and it seems that this year they included a special card for a special fan with an extra character in the dragon art. If you know you know.
The woman on the cover of Bravely Default II isn't Gloria.
Bravely Default II has several secrets in the names of Chapter 5, 6, and 7. Spoilers for BDII below:
Twin AGES refers to both the first initials of the known Heroes of Light (Adelle/Gloria/Elvis/Seth and Aileen/Godric/Emma/Sloan) as well as the repetition across the two eras of Heroes. Also, you’ll notice that the initials are shared between the folks who inherited the same blessing from the crystal (assuming Emma got the Earth Crystal and Godric the Water Crystal). This is most noticeable in the final fight against the Night’s Nexus when the spirit of the old Hero of Light is standing behind the new to help them. - Adelle/Aileen - Gloria/Godric - Elvis/Emma - Seth/Sloan
Twin CAGES refers to the ‘cage’ that Adelle locks herself into, and the ‘cage’ that Elvis is forced into without her
Twin PAGES references back to the twin eras of the known Heroes of Light, but now with the Player - whose help is needed for the cycle to end. This is why “P” is the last letter to fade in the ending credits when the player is thanked.
I'm sure there's a lot more I'm forgetting, and this isn't even including the Bravely Default original concepts that were revealed in a booklet in the 10th anniversary exhibitions.
If you made it to the end, I applaud you, and I hope there was at least one or two things you didn't know!
Also one day I'll finish the video on the English fan survey.
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Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster announced for Switch 2 - Gematsu
Publisher Square Enix and developer Cattle Call announced turn-based RPG Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster for Switch 2. It will launch alongside the platform on June 5.
Here is an overview of the game, via Square Enix:
The Story of Light and Shadow That Never Fades is Reborn
The Bravely series, an RPG franchise surpassing three million units (cumulative total of packages shipped and download sales.) worldwide—Bravely Default, the first title in this series and later the point of genesis for Octopath Traveler, comes to Nintendo Switch 2 on June 5, 2025, remastered in high definition. In addition to its classic tale of crystals and warriors of light, job-based party customization, and the series’ patented Brave & Default battle system, the game’s conveniences are further modernized for even more comfortable playability. The story of light and shadow that never fades is reborn.
Make for the Distant Land of Luxendarc as a Warrior of Light
Without warning, the Great Chasm opened a hole in the world. Tiz is the sole survivor of a village swallowed whole by the chasm. In the depths of his despair, he encounters a young vestal named Agnes. Together they set off on a journey with the goal of closing the chasm and freeing the crystals swallowed by darkness…. They set off, entirely unaware of the significance of that goal.
Characters
Tiz Arrior (voicdd by Bryce Papenbrok in English) – A kind, young man hoping to rebuild his home.
Agnes Oblige (voiced by Erin Fitzgerald in English) – A vestal seeking to awaken the crystals.
Edea Lee (voiced by Cassandra Lee Morris in English) – A young woman in search of her own sense of justice.
Ringabel (voiced by Spike Spencer in English) – A man relying on a strange book to uncover his past.
System
Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster includes all the helpful features from the original Nintendo 3DS version, such the ability to speed up the pace of battle and adjust enemy encounter rates, plus new enhancements, like high definition graphics, a redesigned user interface, the ability to fast forward event scenes and two new minigames. The networking features used in the original version on Nintendo 3DS have been retooled for the Nintendo Switch 2’s free network connectivity.
Battle
Managing the brave points (BP) that determine the number of your actions is the cornerstone of battle in Bravely Default. Two commands bring a new dimension of enjoyment to battle: brave to expend BP and increase the number of actions taken in a turn, or default to shore up your defenses and accumulate BP for later. Mix and match the various jobs you can obtain through battles against powerful foes to create even more strategic options!
Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery. Visit the official website here: English, Japanese.
Announce Trailer
English
youtube
Japanese
youtube
#Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster#Bravely Default: Flying Fairy#Bravely Default#Bravely series#Square Enix#Cattle Call#RPG#Gematsu#Youtube
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youtube
BRAVELY DEFAULT FLYING FAIRY HD Remaster | Announce Trailer
youtube
Japanese version
Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster will launch for Nintendo Switch 2 on June 5, 2025.
Title logo


Key visuals

Character artwork




















Screenshots
The Story of Light and Shadow That Never Fades is Reborn
The Bravely series, an RPG franchise surpassing three million units (cumulative total of packages shipped and download sales.) worldwide—Bravely Default, the first title in this series and later the point of genesis for Octopath Traveler, comes to Nintendo Switch 2 on June 5, 2025, remastered in high definition.
In addition to its classic tale of crystals and warriors of light, job-based party customization, and the series’ patented Brave & Default battle system, the game’s conveniences are further modernized for even more comfortable playability.
The story of light and shadow that never fades is reborn.
Make for the Distant Land of Luxendarc as a Warrior of Light
Without warning, the Great Chasm opened a hole in the world. Tiz is the sole survivor of a village swallowed whole by the chasm. In the depths of his despair, he encounters a young vestal named Agnes. Together they set off on a journey with the goal of closing the chasm and freeing the crystals swallowed by darkness….
They set off, entirely unaware of the significance of that goal.
Characters
Tiz Arrior (voiced by Bryce Papenbrok in English) – A kind, young man hoping to rebuild his home.
Agnes Oblige (voiced by Erin Fitzgerald in English) – A vestal seeking to awaken the crystals.
Edea Lee (voiced by Cassandra Lee Morris in English) – A young woman in search of her own sense of justice.
Ringabel (voiced by Spike Spencer in English) – A man relying on a strange book to uncover his past.
System
Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster includes all the helpful features from the original Nintendo 3DS version, such the ability to speed up the pace of battle and adjust enemy encounter rates, plus new enhancements, like high definition graphics, a redesigned user interface, the ability to fast forward event scenes and two new minigames. The networking features used in the original version on Nintendo 3DS have been retooled for the Nintendo Switch 2’s free network connectivity.
Battle
Managing the brave points (BP) that determine the number of your actions is the cornerstone of battle in Bravely Default. Two commands bring a new dimension of enjoyment to battle: brave to expend BP and increase the number of actions taken in a turn, or default to shore up your defenses and accumulate BP for later.
Mix and match the various jobs you can obtain through battles against powerful foes to create even more strategic options!
#Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster#Bravely Default Flying Fairy#Bravely Default#Cattle Call#Square Enix#video game#Nintendo Switch 2#late post
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Gloria and Agnes from Bravely Default!
#star’s art#bravely default#bravely default 2#agnes oblige#gloria musa#traditonal art#copic markers#jrpg games#square enix
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I have been revisting Bravely default lately
I still love the game but I remembered that (like many people) I had issue with the big plot twist : Airy lying. Thing is that I remembered that I had gripes with it but I also found myself disagreeing with what people said about it.
I took these from a story recap made by Clemps, it's kinda old : https://youtu.be/Bj4pvZlQgKg?si=Z2duKA_gumYqS3Mw
But I am briging it up for a specific reason. As you can see in this part of the summary, he states that the party knew of Airy's nature and in fact, if you search for discussion about the twist, most people seems to believe the same, that they knew she was evil before they enter the last world when the countdown reached 0 and are asking themselves why the party is surprised
After refreshing my memory, I finally realized why I had an issue with people approaching the issue of the twist like that
See my problem with the twist comes down to one first issue being that Airy isn't that well fleshed out as a character, she comes off as the annoying loud voice fairy but we don't see her intereact with the party in any meaningful way which compared to how many relationship are well done between the cast just feel flat
We are talking about a game that makes you invested with the freaking innkeep dang !
However, the reason why I disagree with the statement that the party knew that Airy was evil was because I noticed something in the many dialogues people are refering to that I didn't noticed before
So the first dialogue about the twist is Braev telling Alternis something
The lines quite explicitely refers to Braev's motivations and a secret knew by only him, De Rosso and Yulyana
The dialogue ends here and you are back to your exploration of Eternia
When we go back to these two this is Alternis's reaction
We aren't given the convo but by Alternis's reaction, what Braev told him as to do with the truth behind the crystals. Braev tells him to not question the truth and to put an end to the vestal's party
This line explicetely reference the pillar of light before the game does
In the first world, Alternis never peep anything about the conversation that he had with Braev to Edea so what we the audience knows of this conversation seems to be strickly limited to the crystal and the pillar of light. What exactly regarding them ? We don't know.
It takes the second world for Alternis to say something different
Now we can connect this to the bit we didn't heard : when Braev told Alternis about his motives, the thing only 3 people knew regarding the secret of the crystal, it was linked to Airy deceiving the party into letting the power of the crystal run wild which should in turn end the world, meaning the only reason they tracked down Agnes was to capture Airy. Agnes replies it's not possible because the scriptures say otherwise and Alternis claims it was deceptions created by the Orthodoxy. After that Ringabel finally begins to regaing his memories.
in the 3rd world, things go as always except that Ringabel starts to question Airy, Ringabel bringing up Alternis words and the fact that Edea's father was also doubting the fact using the crystal would be a good idea, this leads to Agnes mostly to deny that. Ringabel also mentions fragments of his memories : the number 6 and Edea being killed by a monster.
When Ringabel and Tiz are talking together, Tiz questions what he thinks of Airy and Ringabel simply argues he meant that Airy can make mistakes however when question about Alternis, Ringabel say "I kept my silence in front of Airy" implying to the audience that the fact the group might be in a paralel world is somehow something that shoudn't be said in front of Airy. It's worth noting that in the party chat Tiz tell Airy that Alternis threatened to kill her but he doesn't say a word about Alternis claiming she is deceving them.
By this point in the story you need to awaken 3 crystals to unlock of Ringabel's memory : for the first one, he will say nothing, the second one he will ask Airy questions, then Agnes
The first memory he gain is him dressed as Alternis mourning the death of Edea, the second time Ringabel ask Airy what would happened if Agnes continued to pray even after Airy ask her to stop, this would lead to the crystal's destruction, the second memory involves Airy gathering light and Ringabel saying "this isn't a cure to rid the world of darkness" (the party convo has Airy scold Ringabel), the thrid time, Ringabel ask Agnes about the crystals and make a comment about the templar notes, then we unlock the final memory : it focuses on Airy's wings changing a pattern, saying "and after you'd come so far ? a pity" Ringabel begging forgiveness and remembering Edea among others, another close up on Airy's wings and that's it
After this Ringabel tell Tiz about the fact he remembers everything : he is Alternis, they are in a parallel world and
Tiz asked him dejected if he was sure it's not a dream, but Ringabel insist it's memories of an alternate past and then he asks Tiz to make his memories work
Tiz seems to agree and ask him about the "world before the last" where Ringabel answer that it was a 5
Tiz ask "it's ... decreasing ?" and Ringabel makes a remark about her wings bearing a pattern that looked like a 6
Then Ringabel expressed regret over his lack of action
Then Ringabel tells Tiz to tell all that to Agnes away from Airy and the boys plans to go to the Sage's house
Like in the last world, the party meets the Sage, he tells Agnes to go to meet him with one ally she trust, she chooses Tiz and off they are gone, and after endless ship teasing of Tizgnes Tiz tell Agnes that Ringabel regained his memories and that he told Tiz to tell Agnes "in private", Agnes express surprise upon the idea that Ringabel would be secretive and Tiz argues that "he believes Ringabel had his reasons", Agnes ask him further but Tiz wants to question the sage about the "angel"
In the previous world, the "angel" made revelations about the crystal that shook the party so here Tiz ask if she talked about something else
Tiz ask "was this a hypothetical future she saw" but the Sage answered that no, shefought against the evil won with her allies but they died. Yulyana shares the last words of the angel
He answer yes, Agnes react with shock and the sage argues he couldn't bring himself to harm Agnes
Tiz is interrupted by Agnes saying she can't bear to hear anymore
Now this might sound like a digression but I'll teach something I have only noticed recently despite having read that at least 10th times. In act 1 scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet, Romeo never tell the audience the name of the girl he pines for. It takes us scene 2 to learn that from Benvolio. I hadn't noticed it earlier because of the fact that Benvolio knew this meaning Romeo had to tell him yet in act 1 he never mentions it
Why am I bringing this ? Well because not once is Airy refered to as the Evil one in this conversations.
In the first world, there is no mention of airy, only the crystal and the pillar. In the second world, Alternis explicetely accuse Airy of deceving the party and making the crystal run wild which would endager the world. In the 3rd world, Ringabel starts to suspect Airy, when he recovers his memories he tell Tiz about her wing pattern changing. The sage never tells us who the Evil one is and when Tiz wants to ask he gets interupted by Agnes.
Not once is Airy being explicitely refered to as the Evil one, as a matter of fact in the way of the true ending in the last world, the party only recognizes her upon her second form, not even her first evil form.
Speaking off, I checked and the party didn"t go "HOW COULD YOU DECEIVE US", the only one who did was Agnes, the rest was simply shocked that the Chasm was still there. The other one to be shocked is Edea who has never been filled on about this knowledge (like I kept mentioning Ringabel, Tiz and Agnes, not once did I mentioned Edea)
So having paid close attention to the dialogue I could only came to this conclusion : the party didn't knew Airy was the Evil one, we, the audience do.
We do because the game is sprinkling hints but the characters don't. You have to keep in mind that in the first world Alternis doesn't try to warn Edea and co mainly because (at least to my understanding) Edea's deflecting meant to Braev and him that she wouldn't believe them since Edea grew up believing Agnes was evil until she changed her mind. Not to mention that at the moment this dialogue plays, the hints given to us are about a secret lurking with the crystals and light pillar, which are being answered via De Rosso's side quest and the visit to the sage's cave in the second world.
This was meant to tell us the audience that the crystal might be dangerous if used in a specific way. This is at the end of the second world when we awaken all crystals that Alternis shows up and start to explicetely threaten Airy. When Edea questions him, he attacks saying "you aren't Edea, you are trying to deceive me !!!" and then starts to tell what Braev revealed : Airy is lying, she is trying to let the power of the crystal run wild and lead the world to doom. We are naturally drawn to think that this is what Braev revealed in the first world however the characters are skeptikal. Agnes says it's not possible because what she believes in says the contrary and Alternis claims it was lies crafted by the Orthodoxy.
The thing is that we were shown in the previous world that the Eternian knights were wrong about Agnes and that this was this realization that led Edea to change sides, so we can suspect Alternis to be believing Braev because of his contempt for crystalism, so idealogical differences. Besides, we have been waking up the crystals for quite sometimes now and Airy always stop Agnes at some point. Lastly, if it was the case, then why do the party always end up waking up in another world ? Keep in mind, by this point the party doesn't know it's parallel world so there is a lot of elements that might make them not believe Alternis. In both world they don't have a reason to suspect Airy.
The third world is another story, this is chapter 5 the chapter where the alternate ending also known as "false ending" is avalaible. Ringabel is the only one who gives credit to what Alternis said because he was starting to get his memories back. You have to awake 3 crystals for him to recover all of them. for the first one everything goes as usual, but Ringabel starts to remeber something after that. First is the death of the party, then it's the idea that Airy giving light to the Holy Pillar isn't a cure to darkness and the last one is the memory with the wing pattern. None of these indicates that Airy is the evil one. When Ringabel tell Tiz about the wing thing, we understand it's a countdown but Tiz doesn't seems to understand it as being a bad thing seeing as per how when he reunites with Agnes he argues that "ringabel had his reasons", meaning Tiz doesn't understand his reasons for not wanting Airy to hear about her wings. Ringabel also never finished his sentence in regards to Airy. "Airy is... She's..." She is what ? WHAT ? never told him.
Then we move on to the sage. Putting aside for a moment the fact that Tiz made up this meeting with the sage to tell Agnes about the wing thing and he ends up not telling her for a second, when he asks the Sage, the Sage never explicetely tells that Airy is the Evil one. Not even once. In fact, when Tiz was about to ask more informations about the Evil one, Agnes begs them to stop. And that's the end of the convo.
So the party never had any idea that Airy was the evil one. None.
What makes it worse is that the false ending is basically confirming this. See, I had never unlocked the false ending so I have no idea upon which point of chapter 5 you can unlock it but I do know that logically, given Ringabel's question and the fact that you need at least 3 crystals to be awake to unlock all his memories, the player will very likely try to unlock it by breaking a crystal at the 4th temple, so after Ringabel remembered and that Yulyana told them about the evil one and crystal regeneration.
And here is the dialogue
I think this scene makes it very obvious that the party only realized in this moment that Airy is the evil one. Not before, not after. Now. In this moment. They are starting to understand. This necessarily means that back then, despite all the informations we received : they had no idea !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And the reason comes from the fact that at no point is Airy explicetely refered to as the Evil one. The first accuser is a former enemy and everyone but Ringabel brushes that off, in the first two worlds they had no reason to suspect her and we the audience not so much. It's the 3rd world, in transition with the end of the second that introduces the theme of questioning Airy and there we begin to see some cracks such as the fact that she is incapable of really explaining why letting the crystal be destroyed is bad or her getting so mad at Ringabel for simply asking questions, even if we are also meant to find it a bit strange as to why he ask such specfics questions. If you stop there and break a crystal, the party is able to realize that she is the Evil one.
But if you don't and you continue as always, you have to go through it two more times. And in the 4th world, the only real time the dialogue will be copy pasted for the 5th world, this is where we can really begin to question Airy since she is incapable to deliver an answer, as for Edea, she calls out Airy on that in the party chat but Airy still acts like she usually does.
I have already said earlier that Airy wasn't really as fleshed out as the others character but this also means she doesn't do anything very suspicious, the most suspicious things she does is being unable to answer to certains questions. This might alert us, but will that be the case for our party ?
By world 4, they don't visit Yulyana or even De Rosso anymore and they don't really tell us how to fix things. Yulyana in particular, heck he even tempts the party with the idea of staying in the 3rd world. So the party's choices are limited to 1) either break the crystal and take realization of Airy's true nature 2) go through with it and realize Airy was lying about fixing the Great Chasm
Because again, I cannot stress it enough, the party's shock was the fact that the great Chasm wasn't fixed, the only one who is shown to be shocked at Airy's words is Agnes. Whom in the fake ending is shown to not want to believe Airy is evil and almost fall for another of her ruse.
In world 3, when we're in the pillar of light, Agnes ask Tiz for forgiveness realizing it's the pillar of light that destroyed Tiz's village, Tiz reply they are doing this to destroy the source of the darkness, Edea ask how much longer they have to go through this and Ringabel replies, until the countdown is over. In the 4th world, when they are still trying to get done, the party has a chat where they argue that they should awaken the crystal to help this world environement. In the 5th and last world, they begin to wonder if they weren't dreaming after all.
None of these conversation ever hints at them knowing of Airy's nature, rather the 3rd convo seems to imply they interpretted Airy's countdown as meaning they have to do this until it reaches a 0 for the great chasm to close.
This right here means we players have been fooled. Much how I didn't realized that Romeo never told the audience about Rosaline but it was Benvolio who did in scene 2 because of my brain connecting the dots, we completely forgot that the party was never told or shown making explicit deduction about Airy, therefore that there was nothing indicating they did knew of her nature. We were lead to make that conclusion because of the hints the game gaves us : first starting lightly with the first world with a truth regarding the crystals.
That is answered in world 2, then with Alternis accusing Airy to want to let the power of crystal run wild which might end the world. This is something the party is skeptical of save for Ringabel, but we realize there is something wrong with Airy, that the party should be wary of her, that the Evil one was apparently with Agnes on the first meeting and that her wings pattern changes.
Given how Alternis explicetely accuses her of trying to unleash the power of the crystals to wild degree, then that that Evil one, although undefined, used deceit to drive the crystals out of control to open the world's barrier and that according to Braev, De Rosso and Yulyana knew of what he told Alternis, we can easily make the conclusion = the Evil one is Airy, and that her countdown wings is refering to something linked to great harrowing.
Now, you might be wondering : does pointing this out changes something ?
Well yes. See, to go back to the Romeo examples, the fact he doesn't even mentions the name of the girl he years for and that we learn it in scene 2 through his cousin makes his crush towards Rosaline seems even stranger. Like, you'd think that seeing how crazy he is over her he wouldn't shut up about her name yet it takes us the following scene to hear it. Therefore it's weird.
Here however, this means we have to reconsider what the audience knows vs what the characters knows. We know that what Braev told Alternis was also known of De Rosso and Yulyana and by corrolation that the truth about the crystal and the pillar of light in world 1 is linked to the truth Alternis of world 2 claims to hold. But the party doesn't know that. Alternis in world 1 never tell them anything and in world 2, he only says he heard that from the Marshall but he never said anything about De Rosso and Yulyana knowing it too. De Rosso doesn't make mention of that. As for Yulyana, in world 2 he only speaks of the crystals. In world 3, mean to corrolate to what Alternis claimed, Yulyana never name Airy, he only talk about the Evil one so while we are able to make the connection because of world 1, the party can't because they aren't aware of this information, moreover Yulyana seems to realize only know that the world traveling would be due to the Evil one successfully deceiving the party but ultimately he never reveal the identity of the evil one as being the fairy.
This means the audience's knowledge of Airy's evil nature was divorced from the party !
And now I finally understood what I was trying to convey, why I couldn't agree with the fac the party "knew" Airy was evil while also having issues with the twist : the real issue isn't that they knew, the real issue was that the game dropped too heavy hints for us to assume that the party wouldn't come to the same natural conclusion as us !!!!!!
Again, I can't stress this enough, the party doesn't realize her nature as the Evil one and it never shown to come to that realization, the only time we effectively see them piecing elements together to reach that conclusion is when we break the crystal and get to the false ending. We see Edea recalls her father's words, we see Agnes opnely tell Airy she suspects him and recall her convo with Tiz and the sage and then Ringabel accuses her of being the evil one. Tiz's dialogue confirming that he didn't knew before Ringabel brought that up !
This means that if you choose to continue with the next 2 worlds, the party never came to that conclusion !!
And now what I mean by "too heavy hints". We clearly were able to make the connections but it might be weird for us that the party didn't when we are able to realize that in world 3 and clearly the game wants us to take awareness of that, to start suspescting Airy however there is severals issues in the way the hints are handled
1- Braev and Alternis
In world 1 Braev never tells Edea, and as I said before, it's likely she doesn't believe him. She saw the ritual work at least 3 times and Airy didn't do anything to make Edea suspect her of anything. But neither he nor Alternis try. I get that doing this in world 1 would have made Airy potentially suspcious too early, that being said the issue it raises goes beyond that
2- De Rosso and Yulyana
Accoriding to Braev, what he revealed to Alternis in world 1 was something De Rosso and Yulyana knew as well. Because of world 2 where Alternis reveals more, we are compelled to make the logical conclusion that Braev also told Alternis that in world 1. However, Alternis doesn't mention an evil one, only Airy, yet Yulyana when ask, never mentions Airy but only the evil one and De rosso says nothing about it. The issue is that based on these fragements alone and how they were received by the character : Braev believed that Airy was evil when in reality, according to Yulyana that would have been the Evil one that would do that. That is based on the party's pov, these informations feels like different and unrelated lest they try to connect the dots. But us, the audience, because we knew in world 1 that the reveal Braev made was also known by these two and that this reveal is the same as in world 2, this means that Yulyana at least knew that Airy was the Evil one. In fact, the fact he tell Tiz and Agnes that the Evil one was with them when they meet means that he recognized the Evil one, which he wouldn't have been able to do had he not known it was Airy. So this begs the question : why didn't Yulyana warned them in private when he could ? Likewise, given how Ringabel was able to remember Airy in the fake ending, does that mean Ringabel suspected her of being the Evil one ? Then why not tell Tiz
Also, I precise that Ringabel never mentioned the Evil one, the first one to ever call Airy that was Yulyana which further supports the idea that this ending is meant to be unlocked after speaking to Yulyana (if it is available earlier)
The problem of knowedlege isn't the party, it comes from the character that drops hints, Braev and Yulyana. These two know too much so as a result, hints meant to guide the audience ends up putting the audience in a position where they believe the character have reach the same conclusion because they haven't been given enough reason not to do so or to ask why the characters aware of it don't speak up. The reason is simple : the knowledge of these characters was solely meant for the audience to be able to pick on things before the characters could but unfortunately it went too much and thus it just created two types of questioning : why can't the characters comes up with this realization ? and why can't Braev and Yulyana tell them the truth in private ?
Given this whole "prophecy thing" and the instruction of Og Agnes, I am tempted to explain Yulyana's decision as "he did what was told" whereas with Braev, I already explained.
As to why the party can only realize this in the fake ending, I don't think it's stupidity, I think it has to do with the themes
1- Infinity
Ourobourous is a reference to infinity, the snake that eat his own tail. The multitude of world in Bravely default is meant to reflect that, however infinity also means repeat hence why we are put in a circle. This could also tie to the notion of Wheel of life in a way, the party is repeating an infinite circle over and over again. We luckily have to do it only 5 times, but in universe it happened 6 times. To make sense of Ourobouros, obviously it has to link to the idea of infinity hence why the true ending is more relevant
2- Trust
I have already said what were my issues with Airy and that's because, I can't stress it enough, BD built solid relationships between out 4 leads. During world 1, the whole story is about them trusting and doubting each other, trusing each other again etc. The more they travel, the more their solidarity and closeness grows. Agnes is initially reluctant to let Tiz comes but quickly come to rely on him, to ask himw whether or not they should trust X or Y person. As the journey goes on, they all come to trust one another, the Eisenberg arc is the occasion for some tension among the group but they quickly tie once more. This continues in the following world as well, in fact the discussion in world 3 specifcally involves Agnes saying she will trust Ringabel because Tizz trust in him and the side quest involves the 4 of them saying they don't want to stay in that world, they want to stay together and finish what they started. It's important to remember they all are isolated : Agnes lost all of her friends, Tiz's village got destroyed, Edea turned back on her country and everyone she loved and Ringabel is amnesiac, he has no home. So their boudning and trusting one another matters to them immensely. By that token, it would only make sense they extent this to Airy.
In fact, Airy's deceiving nature is meant to foil the honesty of the 4 warriors.
That's why I can't bring myself to agree with people thinking the false ending is better or should have been the true ending. Thematically speaking, Airy showing her true colors so quickly because of the group's distrust makes the whole "trust and we'll go through this together" sound much weaker. That's why thematically wise it makes more sense for it to be happening much later.
Furthermore, the idea of tying the true ending to Airy goes against the pun of (F)Lying (F)Airy mean to point to her nature, she is associated to deceit and even her defeat is still deceitful. She even barely talks about Ouroboros in this one compared to the true ending.
So the reason why the party might or not take awareness depends on whether or not the player choose to make them trust Airy or mistrust her
3- have the courage to disobey
It's a notion that comes back and people call it the "main theme of the game".
Some argued that since the only ending where you do that is the fake ending then it means the true ending is useless and messes up the theme.
And here is why I disagree. Yes, this ending is what happens when you disobey Airy through disobeying the game's instruction and her boss dialogue makes it very obvious you did what the sage told you. However there needs to be some context here.
Agnes is a wanted woman and anyone who allies with her would be considered a criminal. Edea herself disobeyed the orders and became a traitor based on her desire for justice. In Ancheim, Agnes goes against the king of the country to make herself heard. In Florem, she goes against the rules of fashion when partaking in the beauty contest. In Einsenberg, we face a civil war, we also see disobediance via Egil's refusal to listen to Tiz. But we also see disobediance from the enemies : the eternian knights behaving badly, the thiefs of Ancheim, the girls of Florem, the Black blades in Einseberg etc.
Disobeying itself isn't a good thing it's only a matter of when, of context, nuance (something Edea has trouble accepting)
But in this context, regarding the saving of the world, the people we fight, the Eternians are constantly insisting we are wrong. At first they are a bunch of cartoonish villains so not listening to them is easy, but the more we progress the more we meet Eternians that aren't "black as pitch" to quote Mmgrgr girl, and the more we travel worlds, the more we are meant to ask ourselves : were we right to disobey in the first place ? This is why the game is trying to slowly makes us come to conclusion that maybe we didn't.
In fact, if we changed PoV, it's likely we'd be the villains and the Eternians the heroes, especially when turns out they were right
However, in this context, disobeying to Airy means we did what we didn't do back then, we aren't disobeying the Eternians anymore. In fact, the realization taking place comes from a recollections of flash back including the Marshal telling us to stop before he faints.
Ergo, by disobeying Airy we do have the courage to disobey her, to suspect her... but that's not limited to this ending
If we do that, we go for the easy way, the short way we just have to defeat her but there is no guarantee Ourborors won't try again
However, continuing the circle, the thing people argue doesn't make sense, we are choosing to disobey the game
Other example : there is this horror game called The Path where there is only one rule "go to grandmother's house and stay on the path". If you obey, you get the bad ending, because you choose the easy way. If you disobey, the game gets longer and you get the true ending. Other example : slay the princess. You have one goal : go to the cabin and kill the princess there. You can choose to go for the easy way and get the "happy ending" or disobey and get to the truth of the story.
Bravely default operates on the same way : The ouroboros ending is the true ending because it's the most difficult choice : continuing to place trust in someone that becomes diffucult to trust in and having the courage to continue to disobey not just to our enemy and the people who told us we were wrong, but to the game itself. That's why the game bombs us with hints leading the audience to suspect Airy might be lying, to the point it is in the very title of the game. The game makes it clear that the party is at wits ends, they can't bear it anymore as well. The game has given you in world 3 all the hints : about what can happen when the crystal get destroyed, about the fact you can at least do it to 1, about the fact Airy and the Evil one are the same, something our party didn't seemed to realize yet. It's encouraging you to got for the easy way, giving you keys to do it, to help the party realize the truth before it's too late.
But what if you don't want to do what the game is telling you ? what if you want to continue to put through these innocents characters through the same pain again, and again, an existential nightmare fuel ? What if you want to disobey the game itself ?
The true ending is a reward for the player daring to disobey it, for having the courage to trust in a path that is constantly being doubted endlessly, this is the main reason why I think reducing BD to this aspect is uncharitable when this also incompasses faith, confidance in yourself and trust, things that Agnes learns through her acts of defiances and resistances
So again, the twist is very clumsy in it's technical aspects but at the same time, the rest of the story is enjoyable to me, I think there are aspects when people criticize it they seem to misunderstand which distract from the real issue of the twist (the hints being too heavy) but I also don't really like people arguing that the false ending is the better one and the most logical one when it is ... unsatisfying imo
It's cool and it inscribes itself in the themes but it doesn't feel like a finale, it doesn't have the same satisfaction thematically, narratively, mechanicaly as the true ending. The true ending is grandiose, it's a perfect tie of BD's themes and characters arcs. The false ending isn't as satisyinf narratively
Is the way leading to the true ending clumsy ? Yes, and I don't blame people for not being as forgiving as I, but the way some seems to prop up an ending that feels much weaker to it in many aspects... I just can't get behind it
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Agnes in Bravely Default: Brilliant Lights (originally from Bravely Default)
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20 questions for fic writers!
I was tagged by @firebatvillain (over here). (No idea where this meme comes from originally because the chain is broken somewhere.)
1. How many works do you have on AO3?
119 on my main account.
2. What’s your total AO3 word count?
302k. Omg, that's a lot... My sock has about an extra 200k words, so... 500k total.
3. What fandoms do you write for?
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (28), ASOIAF (20), Bravely Default (14), Trials of Mana (10), Soulcalibur (6), Final Fantasy VI (6). (I don't actively write in ASOIAF anymore, though -- I've tried on multiple occasions and nothing comes out.)
4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
You've Got Subspace Communication [DS9, Quodo] - I wrote this as a treat for Unsent Letters, an epistolary exchange. Odo and Quark are so perfect for penpals who hate each other IRL but are falling in love online...
[Art] Basket-weaving [Brother Bear, Denahi gen] - Not fic, but it deserves a shout-out because weirdly it seems that a lot of people are familiar with Brother Bear even though the movie flopped/is super underrated and it has no active fandom (fan community) as far as I can tell. As such, the amount of love this art gets always surprises me!
Written Correspondence [DS9, Quodo] - This was actually also written as a treat for Unsent Letters but there were a couple of points where I was worried it hit a DNW so I didn't end up gifting it. But I always imagined Quark would write Odo (unsent) letters post-canon.
Accidental kiss [DS9, Quodo] - One of my first Quodo fics, I wrote this as a treat for the first Quodo Mini-fest, because someone was requesting a cute first meeting and these two deserve so many pre-canon meetcutes, lol.
Dinner Together [DS9, Garashir] - So far my only Garashir fic. Written for Pine 4 Pine (a pining exchange). I'm not sure what I think about this one. I don't really have a good handle of either Bashir, Garak, or their dynamic, to be honest, but it seems people enjoyed it well enough. (It's always a strange experience writing in a fandom that has such a clear juggernaut, which doesn't happen to be my OTP.)
5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?
Yes, I answer all comments. The only exception is that sometimes when someone has left multiple comments on a multichapter work, I might skip a few. I do try to respond to the last comment someone left on a work, though. Also, occasionally, I lose a comment in my inbox and so don't reply because I never saw it, but it's a mistake/not intentional. I don't get a lot of comments even across all my fic on both of my AO3 accounts, so it's not really hard for me to reply to all of them.
6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
A Two-Changeling Link [DS9, Laas &/ Odo], maybe? Killing a character who didn't die in canon is a pretty downer ending, especially because I didn't plan on that character dying when I started writing!
7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
Not sure whether to go for a fic where the ending is happy because the characters go through so much (and so the ending is super cathartic) or if the fic itself is just generally happy. For the first, Snowmelt [Trials of Mana, Angela & Valda]. For the latter, maybe Written Correspondence.
8. Do you get hate on fics?
Haven't gotten any on the fic itself. Occasionally I get commenters replying to (arguing with, correcting, etc.) OTHER commenters in a somewhat aggressive manner.
9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?
Yeah, but it all goes into a different account. I write all kinds of things. It skews non-con heavy, but I like to write a lot of different flavors.
10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?
Not generally, but I have written a wild one, Priestesses of Wind [Bravely Default x Soulcalibur, Agnes/Talim]. It's so rare to see someone in exchanges requesting either of these fandoms, so when I saw someone requesting a crossover between them, I jumped on that prompt SO fast.
11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
Nope. I am just not a big enough deal for that.
12. Have you ever had a fic translated?
Yes, if into emoji counts. XD I can't share it here because it's for a fic on my sock, but feel free to DM me if you want a link.
13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?
Not full co-writing. I have done some collaborations that get close but not to the point where I would call it co-writing. When I was young, though, I used to co-write original fiction with friends, which mainly consisted of them coming up with the characters and ideas and me typesetting it because I have good SPAG and typing speed.
14. What’s your all time favourite ship?
Quodo just for the sheer intensity of fannish feelings. Mi-na/Yun-seong is probably the OTP I have had for the longest time and which I'm still actively fannish about. Plus, I've had strong enough feelings about it to make a fansite for it, so that should count for something.
15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?
I have some older ones on my hard drive that I don't think are getting done, all for older fandoms I don't write anymore. Probably the one I regret not finishing the most is an ASOIAF BTVS fusion fic where Sam Tarly is dealing with vampires in Oldtown (because he's the Slayer, get it?). (Of the fic I've posted to AO3, I fully intend to finish them all, and I get pretty obsessive about keeping my promises so I don't think any of those will stay unfinished.)
16. What are your writing strengths?
I'm good at writing highly-structured fic and good at writing action scenes, which includes sex scenes. At least I think so. Also, I'm good at SPAG.
17. What are your writing weaknesses?
I hate describing settings/buildings/objects and I hate worldbuilding and inserting OCs. I think my fic often suffers as a result. Also, I am a very slow writer.
18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?
I am so bad at other languages (can't even learn fictional languages to any degree of confidence), so I largely avoid this, and rarely do I feel like my fic would suffer if I cut the foreign language words themselves and replaced them with English translations, because I don't think multilingually and so don't have (e.g.) wordplay that would get lost in translation.
19. First fandom you wrote for?
If fan comics count, probably Sailor Moon. If this means actual fanfic that I uploaded to the internet, it would be Harry Potter.
20. Favourite fic you’ve written?
Every 16 Hours [DS9, Quodo, 58k words] is my masterpiece. I still don't believe I wrote a finished fic this long, and it has a lot of things I like or want to see in fiction.
Tagging (if you haven't done this before; no pressure): @weaver0fwords @tinyron @corpsebrigadier
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28!
TALK ABOUT MEME || ACCEPTING
28 - Your First Muse
I'm going to focus on my first muse I ever wrote on Tumblr specifically -- Edea Lee. And oh, Edea. You got done so dirty by your canon. Well okay, it's not that bad but in my perspective she was very disrespected by both the creators and the in-game characters.
Lemme just copy-paste something from my oldest archive blog --
Edea Lee is a playable protagonist from the “Bravely” series — Bravely Default and Bravely Second. Depending on the version you play, she is either 15 or 18 at the story’s start. In the case of this blog, Edea is portrayed as the North American game’s age of 18+. The daughter of the Grand Marshal of the Duchy of Eternia, Edea is a courageous young warrior with a strong sense of justice who isn’t afraid to fight for what she truly believes in. Originally ordered to arrest the Wind Vestal Agnes Oblige, she defected from her country’s army once she learned that her father’s orders were causing more harm than good to the people of Luxendarc. Over time, she came to understand that the concepts of good and evil are not so polarized that they can be seen as “black” or “white”, and overcame great difficulties— both externally and within herself.
So the tl;dr is that Edea ends up betraying her homeland, and most importantly her father, by realizing Agnes isn't an evil witch and wanting to help the main party fix the world. She tries to make her comrades, former friends, and even family members see the truth -- and ends up having to kill all of them. They then go into a timeloop thing and do it 3 times.
She has a father who doesn't communicate and neglects her. A sickly mother who's been in hospital since she was born. A father-figure mentor who is clearly in love with her mother, enough to turn on Edea who was like a daughter for him (because by Edea changing sides she is now the enemy). She has an older foster brother figure who is clearly obsessed with her and her parents thought his romantic feelings for her were cute.
And then her actual love interest spends 80% of the game hitting on other girls (INCLUDING HER FRIEND AGNES) while insisting he's in love with her, but is actually in love with an idea of her he made up in his head. Then at the end of the game, he leaves.
Then in the sequel when all of the above is kind of resolved/smoothed over, Edea is still so torn up about love interest. And then he comes back, says he's not leaving her again, AND LEAVES AGAIN. And EVERY OTHER ROMANTIC SHIP IN THE GAME IS PRETTY MUCH OK (or dead together) EXCEPT FOR HER.
There was an implication in one of the time loops in I believe the second or first game that hinted at Edea becoming a villain. I was REALLY HOPING that was the case, because at least it'd make narrative sense rather than her being miserable good girl who takes on everyone's burdens. But then they made Bravely Default II and as far as I know, there's no connection.
OH, AND DID I MENTION WHERE SHES ORIGINALLY 15 AND PUT IN A SKIMPY BATHING SUIT AND AN OLDER DATE-RAPEY RED MAGE MAN DRUGS HER? ONE OF HER FATHER'S GENERALS? AND HE'S NOT DEAD IN THE SECOND GAME FOR DOING THAT?
I just... AGH. Justice for Edea Lee.
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this actually really bothers me like the game in question is Bravely Default, which i love dearly, but in the JP versions the characters are all about 15-16. in the NA versions they're all aged up to 18-19, despite it being the same story and timeframe
the issue is that in the NA versions there are outfits for the two female leads, Edea and Agnes, that are less sexualized (ie, Edea has a bikini outfit in the JP version but in the NA version is like a tube top and hot pants. not great but they tried at least)(NA/PAL left, JP right)

with the announcement of the remaster for the Switch 2, people are whining that the game needs to be "uncensored" but this is all they're talking about. giving Edea and Agnes their ever so slightly sexy outfits back. on girls that are 15 in the source material
to be honest the characters are so chibified that its not even noticeable but it's how adamant people are about it at all. like if we didn't constantly have people telling me "localization is bad" every single time a game is translated from japanese to english, i wouldn't even be as concerned. but the fact this is a discussion people have been having for 12 years, and people suddenly not caring about "source material" when said material says "15 years old girl" really rubs me the wrong way. hell, being so overtly worried about an 18 year old is just as bad to be honest when the people making these arguments are in their 30s now
very weird to constantly have people in jrpg spaces argue about "localization bad!" and "respect the source material" yet i have to point out a character is 15 in the source material and to not sexualize children, regardless of if the na version says she's 18
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#official art#agnes oblige#bravely default#gloria#maybe#i think the other girl is from#octopath traveler
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BRAVELY DEFAULT: FLYING FAIRY
I'm definitely planning to replay the game again, the characters were so beautifully developed and memorable
Left to right: Tiz, Agnes, Airy, Edea and Ringabel
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Original (old) image that I redrew can be seen here
#bravely default#bdff#this is actually a redraw of a piece from 4 years back!#art#bravely default flying fairy#tiz#agnes#airy#edea#ringabel#fanart#game fanart#my art#artistdaura#squareenix
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10 Anni Booklet
So I got the 10th anniversary booklet and it is full of VERY old original concept ideas for Bravely. So old that the characters don't even have names.
Bravely Default seems to have been the project name that they just never changed... as they seem to be doing a lot over in Team Asano. Hahaha.
Anyway.
Copying/pasting from my twitter thread:
The AR movie Agnes IS confirmed to be the Agnes from Ringabel's world.
Airy was originally supposed to have (help) started the Crystal Orthodoxy 3000 years ago. Lester "looks" 20, and Yulyana "looks" 70. Victoria was originally stated to be 10. (Updated/official timeline says she's 17, born the same year as Agnes and Praline.)
Alternis was originally 18, changed to 20. Braev was originally 50, changed to 45. Agnes was made vestal when she was 12 (5 years before the start of the story). In the updated/official timeline Alternis was 7 and Edea was 2 when Braev found him. Also Braev found Victoria 2 years later in Florem, as well.
(There's an official timeline in the book that starts 32 years before the beginning of the game, 2 years before the mountains in Eternia began to move (it starts with Ominas Crow being born). It is so tiny I need to scan the page to be legible.)
(In the confirmation that AR Agnes was from Ringabel's world, it says Tiz was already dead and Edea was being "bludgeoned" to death by Airy while Alternis watched fro the shadows. Also there's a helpful diagram of this event.)
Some country concepts were COMPLETELY different. Ancheim was meant to be a country completely ruled by "time" and "schedules". There was a country of magical/endangered animals. Florem was... pretty bleak. Children were raised in an institution and people lived literally underground. Very few marriages for love. Hard to tell in the google lens translation, but men came to Florem specifically for wives.
Orignal Concept Tiz had a sister, not a brother. Anti-Crystalism was a SECRET. Edea had no idea it was a thing! Eisenberg's conflict was over orichalcum, over swordSMITHS and shieldSMITHS, as in... who wanted the materials.
Official timeline says Einheria, Agnes, Jackal were born in Ancheim. Artemia and Mephilia were born in Eternia though (though we knew about Artemia).
Some bad phone pics as highlights:




Anyway here's the twitter thread that contains some blurbs in regard to the planning/concept of each game too:

Seems BS's issues really hurt them.
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I do love how the Final Fantasy couples are usually named, though.
You have Cloud and Aerith (apparently Aerith was supposed to be like “Earth”. And Clouds are in the sky, so perhaps it was supposed to be like Sky and Earth). So Cloud and Earth
Then Squall (which is a kind of storm and whatnot) and Rinoa, who’s name means Light... Which works for them, because Rinoa is a light who cures the storms in Squall’s soul. So Squall and Light
Sun and Moon with Tidus and Yuna
Night Sky and Moon with Noctis and Luna. Though to be honest, since we already have a “Moon” for Final Fantasy, I kind of wish they would have kept her name Stella, so we would have had Night and Star. Though now I guess Yozora and Nameless Star will probably get that treatment in Kingdom Hearts. Though I know Lunafreya--Luna’s full name--actually references something that brings out the moon.
And then in Kingdom Hearts--that’s a Final Fantasy and Disney crossover--we have Sky and Sea with Sora and Kairi.
#and part of me wonders if originally there was going to be no Serah in ffxiii and snow and lightning were going to be paired#perhaps they split lightning into two characters in the final product#and I just did a bit more research#and apparently Vaan can mean full of life and penelo means perfect. so they kind of go hand-in-hand with each other#and Ashe's name sounds like ash#while rasler's means self-assurance and stability#and Zack's last name 'fair' was meant to mean 'fair weather'#so you could also pair Aerith's up with his fair weather. fair weather on earth when they're together#apparently Tifa's name can mean the revelation of God. and it can maybe go with cloud's somewhat#I tried to figure out if Zidane means anything but no dice#and I'm not seeing much for tiz and Agnes and ringabel and edea. since bravely default was originally supposed to be an ff game#rosa's is like rose. and Cecil can mean blind which is interesting#I don't think there was anything note worthy about the ffvi ships#Neku can mean unbreakable and Shiki can mean pottery's clay which is interesting#and I'm hearing firion from ii maybe liked Maria? his name means mortal man and hers can mean of the sea#and if the warrior of light and Sarah--meaning princess--or shipped at all. their names kind of work together#I wonder what the name of Joshua from xvi's love interest will be#and noel and yeul both have near christmas/christian names
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Cherry blossom season’s here, so I can post this without looking dumb.
#agnes oblige#airy#bravely default#my doodles#(redraw of something from a year and a half ago)#i'm trying to get better at backgrounds
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