Bravely Second: End Layer is the sequel to Bravely Default. Like the first game, it is exclusive to the 3DS. The story is set 2.5 years after Bravely Default. It follows a party comprised of two new characters, Yew and Magnolia, along with two from the first game, Edea and Tiz. Agnes is the Pope but she is kidnapped and Yew sets out with his companions to save her. The new villain, the Kaiser, who had kidnapped Agnes, is on top a floating base. Yew and the party travels all over the world in the hopes of catching up. As expected, the party's objectives become sidetracked in no time, and this feels really weird since their missions is supposed to be of the utmost urgency.
Unfortunately, the story lacks the seriousness of the original and it suffers greatly because of it. The story is disappointing with no real twists or drive, it feels pointless and dull as a result. The attempts at humor don't work much of the time and what are supposed to be endearing traits of each character just falls flat. Yew and Magnolia are simply boring protagonists, and even Tiz and Edea just isn't up to the same level as they were. Due to this, you'll more than likely become bored before the prologue even ends, and despite hoping that it'll pick up, chapter after chapter will pass without any uplift in quality. Just like the first game, there are excellent graphics and great 3D effects. The background art of the cities, world map and dungeons are so pretty, especially when it zooms out. The dungeons can be a bit more monotonous though with limited color palette and being fairly small. They have their own gimmicks such as switches and environmental hazards.
As this is a sequel, the world map and most of the cities remain the same as the first game. This can be boring and disappointing as you are returning to areas that are exactly as they were. There is a mixture of old dungeons as well as new ones. Bravely Second has turn-based battles with a twist. On your turns, you can store extra turns using Default, or spend extra turns using Brave. You can even spend turns you don't have stored up yet, however, this means your character cannot act until they gain them back. This adds a significant layer of strategy as you weigh the risks and rewards of going all out and attack up to four times in one go in the hopes of defeating your enemy quickly, or be more conservative and Default a few times, saving up turns and minimizing damage in the process.
There is a Bravely Second feature where you can freeze time and allows all your hits to be critical. You can store up to three uses and to restore the uses, you need to let the game sleep or run for 8 hours (or spend actual money to buy). The game provides enough options to never need to buy extra uses or even use it in the first place. The freedom to tweak the game's parameters returns. Here, you you get the ability during the Prologue to change the random encounter rate (from no encounters to twice the amount of encounters), change the difficulty at any time and set auto-battle. You can save up to three sets of auto-battle commands, which is perfect for grinding.
There is a Chain-Battle feature where if you defeat an encounter within one turn, you can opt to battle another set of enemies with bonuses if you win. The catch is that you don't get any BP you've spent back at the beginning of the next battle, so if you spent four BP to defeat enemies, you're more likely to not opt for the Chain-Battle as you'll start withe negative BP. Finally, characters can freely swap between the 30 available jobs. Defeating enemies earns you Job Points, which allows the character to gain job-specific abilities. You can set up to five passive abilities from any job onto your character, as well as utilize specialized abilities specific to the currently equipped job. It's fun and provides heaps of versatility. You slowly gain access to new jobs as you progress through the game and defeat the bosses. The jobs in this game are a mixture of returning ones (which are gained via sidequests) and brand new ones.
Bravely Second can be a challenging game especially if you play on Normal or Hard. If you don't want to level grind or strategically select your abilities, the bosses can easily wipe you out. As you are short on MP and money early on, completing a dungeon may leave you on the verge of death. There is also a tendency for various bosses to heal themselves, which is really annoying. In typical JRPG fashion, the dungeons rely on gimmicks which make them a lot more annoying to traverse. It is supposed to spice things up but it just makes them painful such as invisible paths and walls, various levers requiring backtracking if you so happen to not go the right way the first time, and all the while contending with the encounter rate. In later dungeons, you'll be tempted to just turn off random encounters to focus on powering through.
Unfortunately, dungeons will either fall into boring repetitive corridors or confusing messes of puzzles. Even worse are the ones with multiple levels using the same map in the bottom screen, making it really confusing to plot out your path as the higher levels block the view of the lower ones. The story has a twist around two-thirds of the game in, similar to the one from Bravely Default. However, it isn't executed as elegantly although the hidden message is still a nice surprise but you kind of expect it by this point. Perhaps it is because the game is living in the shadow of the original that it never feels like it manages to top it. Unfortunately, the developers have not learnt from the lessons of Bravely Default and ends up making a portion of the game very repetitive, especially if you want to complete the majority of the sidequests.
However, also like Bravely Default, the ending of Bravely Second exceeds your expectations and cleverly integrates the player into the game. It gives a deeper meaning to the subtitle and gives you a sense of satisfaction from reaching an emotional height. The final boss can be tough especially since it uses powerful (and cheaty) moves. It gives a teaser for what could be a Bravely Third but unfortunately that game has not surfaced as yet. The game is much shorter than the original, only taking around 30-50 hours. Of course, this depends on whether you change the encounter rate, the difficulty and how long it takes to find your way after you get lost.
Overall, Bravely Second has a weak beginning and middle. The pacing is slow, the story is bland and the reuse of so many assets dampens the enjoyment. The twist in the story however, coupled with the ending, helps redeem the game somewhat and manages to make the game still worth playing. Nonetheless, it has the enviable combination of a unique battle system and an addictive job system that perfectly complements each other.
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