So, once a week, I sort of spit out an editorial on a friend's gaming website. I warn you, should you click on that link and seek my words (also go by Java there), I've only had one formal class on journalism, and I rarely paid any attention to it. Just don't expect top-notch writing from me when it comes to trying to shape my thoughts into a thousand words worth reading.
Which, I guess, is kinda what I will likely be doing on this blog. Hmm.
Anyway, my last article was about Bravely Default for the 3DS, and I decided to sit down and make some predictions as to how the story was going to play out since, at the time of the writing, I thought I was nearing the end of the game. As it turns out, I was wrong, and I couldn't be happier about that.
I do like video games. I really do. However, in the last few years, I have lost most of my faith in the industry. It seems to be full of absolute garbage where unjustifiably demanding more money from consumers for broken or half-finished products has become a standard practice. This is simply not how things should be, and while I could waste time spouting my Puritanical ideals about what the gaming industry ought to be doing, I won't.
Bravely Default is the kind of game I want to see more of. It is complete, it offers more game than I feel I paid for, and it has some nice surprises when it comes to mechanics. Nothing ground-breaking at all will be found in this game, no, but at the same time, all the familiar JRPG aspects are there and put together in such a way that feels like home. This was a game I kept putting off buying because I felt like I'd already played it, and that was apparently what I needed to enjoy it. Within the first hour of turning it on, I knew what I was going to be doing for the rest of the game, which allowed me to make decisions about grinding and such things ahead of time based on previous experience with similar game structures. This eliminated the possibility of frustration for me, and augmented the joy I gained from it because I was able to progress through the story at a nice, comfortable pace without having to repeat a dozen parts due to party weakness or whatever.
I spent the entirety of yesterday (Sunday) thinking I was going to play for a few hours, and finally see the end. Nope. I also will not confirm or deny if my predictions in my article were correct or way off base, just for the sake of anyone who has not played it yet. One thing I will say is that things got a lot weirder than I thought they would, and as it stands, what I thought was end-game may very well have been a midway point. Bravo on this one, Square Enix. You and I have been at odds in the past, but I commend the work on this game, and I'm already salivating for the sequel.