Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster

It's actually been twelve years since I last played Bravely Default for the Nintendo 3DS, and behind that very strange title was a fairly traditional Japanese role-playing game with an absolutely phenomenal battle system. After all this time, I now find Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster to be a rather nostalgic reunion as it's now been released for Switch 2 in remastered form.

I was going to focus this review mainly on what makes this version different from the original (the review of which you can read here), but when Bravely Default was originally released in Japan in 2012, it was with the ambition of creating a classic Final Fantasy, and in fact the game was originally called Final Fantasy: 4 Heroes of Light 2, but changed its name during development. And this is noticeable, in the good way. There are no trends and gimmicks being chased and in many ways this feels more like Final Fantasy than any of the recent games in the series. I'd go so far as to call it a love letter to Square Enix's older titles.

The story of Tiz, Agnes, Ringabel and Edea is full of ingredients that those with experience of Final Fantasy pixelera will surely remember: four heroes (being a young guy with the responsibility of the world on his later shoulders), crystals and a world on the brink of disaster. It's safe, but never boring thanks to well-written dialogue, unexpected twists and strong character development. I quickly remember why I liked Ringabel and Edea so much, whose personal conflicts and witty lines lighten the otherwise rather serious tone.

It's in combat that Bravely Default really shines and it was mainly for this that the game was so acclaimed at the time. The developers throw in a system that completely turns the way you usually think about combat in the genre upside down. And it's so clever that it'll be hard to go back to anything without it. The twist is that each character in your party can "borrow" future rounds or "save" their current ones. This means that, if you think you can sweep the enemy away right away, you can spend up to four rounds at once Boom, boom, boom. But are you wrong? Well, then you stand there, unable to act, while the enemy gets four rounds to smash you instead. And Bravely Default is not a particularly easy game, so this can really cost you.

But it works the other way round too. If you choose instead to play defensively and build up rounds, your characters get a defence strengthening mode and when you feel the time is right, you can explode with a whole battery of attacks. Four characters, four rounds each, that's sixteen blasts in a row! And it's so satisfying that it should almost be illegal.

Then throw in a brilliant job system that lets you combine two different classes, mix skills and build your own strategies (slightly akin to Final Fantasy V) and it becomes downright addictive. Do you want your healing mage to also be able to hurl swords with magical power? Or your thief to have access to dark magic? No problem. The freedom is impressive, and rewards creativity, and makes it fun to tinker with the characters.

So what about the remaster itself? Well, it's two screens becoming one, and there's undeniably some difference in performance between the Nintendo 3DS and Switch 2. The remaster work can only be described as gentle, which is not entirely a compliment. The backgrounds are beautifully hand-painted and have seemingly been remade for the higher resolution. Although the style is simple and clearly reminiscent of the Nintendo 3DS original, it's never primitive and the slightly simpler graphics also make everything clearer and less plodding, which I appreciate. I also like that you can still see the game's origins and it's nice for me who played the original to recognise them. The character models have also been overhauled, although the animation work could have been given more love. Then the two screens of the original release have been cleverly deployed here with features moved around and hidden menus added. There are even minor niceties like being able to run without button presses and a Heal All, which overall is good quality-of-life.

I also want to highlight the soundtrack (composed by Revo), which was absolutely superb already for Nintendo 3DS with everything from bombastic battle themes to melancholic piano pieces. Hearing it in high-quality stereo format is actually one of the highlights of this remaster, and I would spontaneously rank it as one of the best ever when we talk about Japanese role-playing games.

Unfortunately, there's not much else new in this remaster, which is a bit too spartanly designed. Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster offers no new material beyond two mini-games that are used to unlock currency for a kind of microtransaction (no real money is used, so you can rest assured). These are called Luxencheer Rhythm Catch and Ringabel's Panic Cruise, the former being a simpler rhythm-based game and the latter allowing you to pilot an airship. Both are based on using the Joy-Con 2 as mice, but there's little reward and therefore a lot of grind if you want to unlock everything. An approach I'm not entirely sold on, as I want to spend my time role-playing and not running minigames over and over again.

But still. The fact that I actually bothered to play through a 13-year-old role-playing game that also got two great sequels, says something about how entertaining Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster actually is. Sure, it could have used some new content and what little there is is unfortunately not very good, but we're still talking about a top-notch adventure that fans of classic Japanese role-playing games will love. So should you buy this game?

I think there are two answers. If you've played the original, you should really love it to re-run it, as the higher resolution and better fluidity are the only real innovations - but if you haven't played it and you like Japanese role-playing games... then it's a no-brainer. Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster is basically a conservative rehash, but it's a phenomenal adventure at its core that still holds up well today.