Board 8 > Going to play Bravely Second. Anything I should know before starting?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Bump.
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Right, actually I took a detour and beat...uh, Mephilia.

Darn, I need to actually look for the summons now? >_> Are they hard to find?
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The NPCs in dungeons that gave you Katanas are the same ones that give you the summons. They look the same as the NPCs in Bravely Default that gave you the summons.
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I remember mephilia. Is she still as lovably insane as she was in default?
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No she's relatively sane now.
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Bump
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Beat the Jackal and probably let some people die of thirst. It's kinda funny how it doesn't get resolved even after we basically brought everyone together for the same cause. And understandably the somnial energy research is still going...oh well.
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Bump
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Thanks. Gee, I sure need a lot of time to get going. Haven't played yet.
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Bump
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Wow.

Thief is surprisingly good with the Bow. That hit count!
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Bump.
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Beat Artemia and Heinkel to get the Ranger and Knight asterisks.

...two of my least-used asterisks back then and I don't see it changing anytime soon.

Also traveled across the globe to get the available summons.

Now I'm ready to advance the story (finally).
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How many classes are you still missing at this point?
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Haven't checked. But I already got all the subquests. IIRC I've already gotten spoiled about the jobs and I'm missing Kaiser and Youkai.
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Bump
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Oh wow that scene where Edea got possessed and took the compass was kinda terrible. They just stand around like dummies until Revenant made a run for it.

Also, apparently Geist used to be a good man but blamed himself for the plague.
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Right, so we face off against the Kaiser's team, two by two.

This plot feels a lot like an excuse plot, as Kamiizumi asked us to help him at the Florem gardens south...and Aimee and Angelo were there, having opened a shop. What. In the middle of a forest. The housing regulation here is whack. Anyway, they were mobbed by a group of fan girls.

For some reason, their relationship seems to be better this time around. Good for them. I do like the ship. Yew abdicated his house to be turned into a bawdy cake shop, must be nice to be rich.

Then we found Kamiizumi and we had this plan to plant false information in the 'Informeowtion Superhighway'. When I saw that many cats gathered I thought we'd have to fight Minette but it was not time yet.

Next we went to Sagitta to shoot down the Flying Fortress, led here by the false information. Minette and Bismarck jumped down from the sky and we beat them (battles are still easy, maybe I should up the difficulty again). Minette told a sob story about how she was found by Kaiser and taken in.

And apparently Minette's mom was the researcher who found the cure for the plague, using Minette's blood and cats' natural resistance to it. ...sure, whatever. Kamiizumi invited Minette to become his loyal pet and that's kinda perverted but okay.

On to the Sky Fortress!
Oh no the Kaiser has already ran away like a coward, but we get to fight Janne and Nikolai Nikolanikov together. Man that was so easy. Yew gave a speech about breaking the chain of revenge and reforming the Crystal Guard. He wants to get on that sweet proletariat bandwagon and rescinded house Geneolgia's property and means of production to the masses (oligarchy actually).

Also why is my Learning not working?
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We confronted Kaiser and beat him in no time flat. (Fancy skills, this job is intriguing).

Then, we brought Kaiser back. He thought he'd get beheaded but THE JOKE'S ON YOU you companions are not dead. He's happy and we talked him into building the future together.

Welp. Death flag.

Just after the feast and while Yew and Dennys have some skinship bonding time, a pillar of light is seen. Apparently Anne controlled the Matriach and Sylvie (it's so 'funny' how everyone forgot about Anne).

Damn, the mirror ability is annoying af.

Anyway, Anne's about to call for her Master (where have I seen this before...), but Denys denies her and took the space-time compass to trap Diamante with him together or some such.

Chapter VI...Bravely Second!

Geez, I sure hope this is the last chapter.
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Oh hey this all seems familiar.

Did we get teleported to the beginning of Bravely Default?

Or not, Karl remembers Tiz. But yeah hahaha I forgot all about this as well. That darn Yoko!
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Bump
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Got sick. :(
But that means more playing time.

So yeah, there was a Ba'al at the castle and we defeated it.

We also went after Yoko...and she infodumped a lot of backstory like no one's business. It wasn't very interesting, unfortunately. Oh yeah, Ringabel was there and it was nice.

What IS interesting is the Yokai job. Not only do we have to go around the world to defeat the beasts to get the skills, but we can now unlock Lv 11 Skills! Whee!
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Bump
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Yeah, Yoko's trip through Vampire Castle really didn't hold a candle to DeRosso's. The plague just wasn't an interesting enough thing to attach so much backstory to, across so many characters.
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Bump
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We went on a tour around the world to kill the sin beasts!

It was rather fun. The skills were OP, but I just had to retry with the right set up and then they're not so hard. I think I had the most trouble with Leviathan (I hate skills that put you out of fight) and Asmodeus.

I also grinded to get the Level 11 skills for Summoner (Magnolia), Hawkeye (Edea), and Swordmaster (Tiz).

Now it's time to face Anne again!
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An Astrologian dedicated to blocking status and elemental attacks, with the help of a Catmancer or Performer tossing them BP every turn, makes the sin beasts relatively easy.
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I wasn't really used to using Astrologian until after I beat most of them, but yeah, I used abilities and equips instead. And like half of them had skills that canceled buffs :(

Anne was not hard. Though Acedia was annoying af and made Yew's Astral Magic and Magnolia's Conjuring basically worthless.

But anyway! After praying brage harder, the black mist that covered the portal to Celestial Realm dispersed and in we go! The background is like the one at the Baal fights and turns out they're based on Altair and Vega's shared memories. Also, I don't remember if I had posted about it yet, but Altair and Vega seemingly came from our world in the not so distant future.

If there's to be a mean twist, I think it'd be something like the memories are only based on Altair's and Vega is already gone or whatever.

As an aside, the enemies here are pretty brutal.
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I actually had a lot of trouble with that Anne fight. She kept setting 2 or 3 of my characters' max HP to 1 and I had trouble surviving from there. I eventually ended up spamming Undo Action to block the attack that sets max HP to 1 but it didn't really feel like a good solution.
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Oh yeah! That was the worst. I was lucky enough that she only uses it once on Magnolia...and I just let her die, eventually. >_>
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Bump
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Okay, after some grinding, I'm ready to face Providence!

He'd been sucking Nova's despair for eon and that makes him strong. Gulp, this is it! Everyone's got cool poses and lines and all! Here we gooo!

His attacks are...surprisingly weak, probably only taking like ~1k HP for one character at most. And good thing he's an Aerial with a weakness to the wind, so we can exploit that.

My final set up:
Edea - Kaiser/Ninjutsu
Mostly to support as Kaiser, with Ninjutsu to help with Utsusemi/Kairai/Shippunjikan/Ikkikasei as needed for extra damage or survivability.

Tiz - Astrologian/Confection (both Level 11)
As apparent, pure support. Buff up people with Astral Magic (+ Limit Breaker + Prolong Support) as well as debuffing Lord Providence. Also acts as healer together with Magnolia, as he's equipped with Items for All and Glace.

Magnolia - Yokai/Summoning (both Level 11)
Primary damage dealer with Spellcraft and M. Atk +20% and a bunch of MP abilities. Can also heal, primarily with Amaterasu + Mist. Self-buffing as well with conjuring.

Tiz - Hawkeye/Bushido (both Level 11)
Also damage dealer, only with physical. The Hawkeye skills should be good for cracking whatever annoying buff he's got, and Bushido's Eye For An Eye is very effective for constant 9999 damage.

And here it is. The decisive battle. Welp, I hope he won't be too diff--oh wait he's dead already. Thanks to Aeroja Rain + Eye For An Eye.

VERY SUSPICIOUS. It was far too easy. Even with him reviving once and that mandate of 'defeat me in 2 turns or less'.

But for now, it seems like Vega and Altair are reunited! ...is this a trap to lure Altair out then suck both their souls?
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See I KNEW it was too good to be true. Good thing I healed with potions and ethers.
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They're going to use the 'players are the real enemies' trope? Really? Ugh. It was cool when Undertale did it, but now it's just sad.
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Persist and they'll suffer again? What nonsense, no further sequel has been announced.
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Oh gee where's Toby Fox's contact? I can imagine the headlines already 'Square-Enix to Lose Millions in Landmark Lawsuit'.
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Send Player hahahahha.
Oh gee, End Layer because Yew uses up the SP.
And Agnes here now.

Man am I too old and cynical?
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Janne and Nikolai too. And everyone? Well I do like this trope. Should've gone all the way and included the other asterisk users and NPCs tho.
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Okay, that's more like it.

Tiz is dying, noooo.
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Bravely Second originally came out five months before Undertale. >_>
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Well, they should have said so in game.

But anyway, the traveler/merchant suddenly appears as a Deus Ex Machina and saved Tiz by taking the SP hourglass to the past and gave it to Agnes to fill it with prayers...ok. Nice point that the opening CG of her running is actually in the ending, when she rushes to meet Tiz.

And the traveler's name is...Deneb. Altair and Vega's friend. Makes sense.

It's epilogue time! Edea is busy strongarming people to accept the unification, with Alternis' help. Tiz and Agnes retire to Norende, Agnes abdicating the throne to the prepubescent Sylvie and assume the name Arrior instead.

Magnolia went back to the moon...but not really. Wait, what?! She forces a confession from Yew and they live happily ever after too.

Except for this ominous epilogue/sequel tease about the legendary sword...okay.

Well, that's it! Thanks for following! I'll post final impressions and all later.

Any noteworthy post-game content? I noticed that the Bestiary for Dragon is still practically half empty, what's up with that?
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There are three post-game dungeons with 7 or 8 extra dragon bosses protecting strong weapons.
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Are you planning on doing the bonus dungeons?
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Are they worth it?

...tbh I tried one already, the one at the Dimension Keep. I was doing pretty well but got wiped out at the last second.
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If I remember right, the strategy I used for the Sin Beasts basically worked the same against the dragons.
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You just fight the dragon bosses from Bravely Default hidden in treasure chests. At the end of the last one, you fight the game's superboss. I don't think there are any story scenes.
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Since I don't have other 3DS games I want to play, might as well. This'll be fun.
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Bump.
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How do I get to the superboss later on? Haven't got time to play since I'm out of town for my friends' graduation.
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It's at the end of the third bonus dungeon. At the back of the mythril mines, where the volcanic pathway to the Fire Temple was in Default. I don't remember if you can go right to it or if you need to actually beat all the dragons in the first two dungeons first.
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