AlthoughFinal Fantasy 7 Remakemight be the big Square Enix RPG everyone is looking forward to, it’s not the only oneSquare Enix brought to The Game Awards tonight. In a surprise announcement, the company announced that a new installment in theBravely Defaultseries will be coming out next year, titledBravely Default 2.
That numbering might be a little confusing for longtime fans of the series, being as the 2014 original already got a followup in the form of 2016’sBravely Second: End Layer. Evidently, though, it appears that the third game will be enough of an evolution of whatBravely Defaultestablished that Square Enix is comfortably labeling its true successor (or maybe it’s just because the naming conventions for this series are weird in typical JRPG fashion).
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It might also do with the fact that this will mark the first time the series is hopping platforms. Whereas the previous games were exclusive to the Nintendo 3DS,Bravely Default 2will be coming to the Switch. This will no doubt please plenty of people, asBravely Defaultis high on the list of 3DS games that fans want to see get new life on the Switch.
Despite the platform change, it looks like the game won’t stray far from the 3DS games’ formula, as the announcement trailer Square Enix dropped tonight stressed that the development that worked onBravely Defaultwill be back for the sequel, while teasing locations and visuals that hew closely to the style of the original.
For those who haven’t dived into the series yet, theBravelygames borrow heavily from the classicFinal Fantasygames of yesteryear, right down to the four-character party and robust job system. Where it stands out, though, is in its battle system, which shakes up the turn-based combat by allowing players to either save up or spend multiple turns. This means it’s possible for a character to perform multiple attacks, spells, and other such actions in a single turn, but at the risk of leaving them open to enemies for multiple turns.
Bravely Default 2is not the only RPG its developers are currently working on. Fans will recall that the game’s creators also developed another RPG for the Switch last year,Octopath Traveler. That IPis currently slated toreceive two new games, a console sequel and a mobile prequel namedOctopath Traveler: Conquerers of the Continent, within the next few years.
