Alright, let’s dive right in. Gotta admit something here—I’ve never touched the original Bravely Default on the Nintendo 3DS. Weird, right? Especially when all my friends can’t stop gushing about it, saying it’s up there with Final Fantasy. So, fast forward to PAX East 2025, and bam, Square Enix tosses a demo of Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster right at me. Talk about a stroke of luck, I guess? I can give you the lowdown from someone who’s basically stepping into this world as a newbie.
So, picture this: the HD Remaster shows up and… no dual screens. Bummer? Maybe. But then, they totally upscale the graphics. High-def magic! And there’s this fancy new UI. I couldn’t help but bug the Square Enix folks, asking if they’d revamp Bravely Second: End Layer the same way. One of their reps kinda liked the idea but stayed hush-hush. Maybe I planted a seed?
Anyway—oh, right, back to the game demo. Wasn’t the best setting for an RPG deep dive thanks to the timer ticking away. I zipped through dialogues and cutscenes like a mad hatter. But the combat? Now that was something. This game throws two moves at you: Brave and Default. A quick rundown: Brave lets you stack up hits but leaves you wide open. Default, on the other hand, is all defense and saving turns for a combo later. Pretty slick, huh? Me being reckless though, I went full Brave, hoping my reckless abandon wouldn’t end with me taking a dirt nap in-game.
I didn’t get to mess around with the job system—shame, I know. But what I did see? Pretty impressed. Yeah, it was kind of dumb skipping it on the 3DS, but hey, this version is right there for folks like me who missed the first train. Keep an eye out for it on Nintendo Switch 2, dropping June 5th. Same day the console’s up for grabs. Don’t sleep on it!