Bravely Default

Bravely Default is a role-playing game by Square Enix for the Nintendo 3DS. Although the game has an original title, it is considered a spiritual successor of Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, or "spin-off" of the main Final Fantasy series, by its creators.

The story follows the journey after the fateful meeting of four protagonists–Agnes, Tiz, Edea and Ringabel–to unravel the mystery of bizarre happenings.

Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure

Rhythm Thief is a rhythm, puzzle and adventure video game co-developed by SEGA and Xeen and published by SEGA for the Nintendo 3DS.

Raphael, together with his pet dog–erm...partner, Fondue, go on secret missions following the mysterious disappearance of his father by switching to his alter ego Phantom R, an infamous thief who steals significant artworks from museums but returns them in a few days without a scratch. During one night, the duo meets Marie, a talented violinist who lives without parents, just like Raphael. She shares a similar goal with him so she, Raphael and Fondue travel to places and tackle quests together.

The Breakdown

GAMEPLAY: 7/10

The player will navigate areas across Paris conversing with NPCs, solving puzzles and playing mandatory and optional rhythm games encountered along the story.

If the rhythm games get too hard for you, you can purchase items that do different things like boost the rank gauge faster or help prevent deplete it if you make a mistake; the latter I like to use on difficult levels. If the gauge reaches 0, you fail that round and will have to restart. If you succeed, no matter which rank you get, that rhythm game will be saved automatically in the gallery where you can replay to your heart's content and beat current high scores. You unlock one of the three bonus chapters if you get all rhythm games at A-rank!

The contents of the gallery, such as the background music tracks and whatnot, relies on you collecting them by tapping objects you see around the areas and checking if they are hidden there. While on your hunting spree, you will come across mostly coins (used to purchase movie cutscenes, items, etc.) and many other things for, what you could call, a collect-the-parts mini game. It’s a tedious task but can be rewarding. Tap away!

I personally didn't find most of the rhythm games worth replaying, if it wasn't for the music. For one, they're too repetitive. In some, the markers lack guidance, appear abruptly and relies too much on your memory skills unlike in some rhythm games where the plots are all mapped out. The visuals, however, are gorgeous and in 3D. I love Raphael's dances and Marie's violin performances the most!

STORY: 7/10

The running gag of the story is that nobody ever recognizes Raphael’s face when he slips into one of his disguises with only very subtle changes, such as wearing a waiter's uniform and glasses.

The whole story is so short that you can finish it in one sitting. No, seriously. XD I wish there were more scenes about the characters' past and lifestyle just to pad it out a little.

The ending is quite a bit of a cliffhanger rather than an open-ended one. Here's to hoping SEGA makes a sequel?? *^*)9

PRESENTATION: 6/10

The 2D sprite artwork aren’t the best, and while they did make an effort to animate them, they consist of only 2 frames per expression (mouth open and close). The backgrounds are neat and embodies a pleasant-looking Paris. During exploration, the top screen shows the map with Raphael as the marker, all in 3D.

There are also plenty of 2D cinematics that appear often at every chapter. Don't expect much though; They don't have the best effects and voice acting is distractingly bad! Fondue, the dog, sounds too human and Marie sounds like she's always uninterested. You would think everybody recorded their lines absent-mindedly at 3 in the morning! XD

MUSIC: 10/10

The music is my favorite part of the whole game! The soundtrack is composed of many different genres like pop and classical (some even a medley of both) that can get your feet tapping to the rhythm as soon as you hear it.

Moon Princess is so beautiful it makes me well up a little. :')

POST-GAME: 7/10

The game is really short! I clocked in 7.5 hours to the end and I took my time with that!

Only after the ending when I realized you can skip your tapping sprees because you can totally do those quests even after finishing the main story. Three quests lead to their respective bonus chapters, short but sweet stories about the characters, that will unlock after the ending so in my opinion, it saves time to do them later on.
 

OVERALL

    +   Music is excellent, yo!!

    –   Rhythm games lack variety

    –   Overall game is very short

This game was released some years ago when I didn’t have a 3DS yet. I checked my local game store and they didn’t have it anymore so eShop was my last resort. I read that SEGA released limited physical copies of it so if you plan to get this game now, don’t be surprised if you have to download or order it online!

This game is also available on iOS as an unabridged version but most people recommend getting the 3DS version for some reason.

*Images from Nintendo.co.uk