super rambly bravely default centric doodle post!!

May 14, 2014 01:46






drew this when i started playing BD. oh man, surely everyone anticipated the D jokes





done based on a shindan that gave you your job class, weapon, realm, and support skill based on your username. i got an bow-wielding pirate from caldisla with counter as a skill. super chuuni, but i doodled it out, kind of.



the reality of me trying to use a bow and arrow



worked on this whenever i got fed up with the game past chapter 4... i suppose it gets frustrating for everyone past that point, huh?;;;


everything below this point is spoilery i guess? It will grow increasingly spoilery the further one reads?!

end of chapter 3








WOW this seriously MADE ME MAD?? EXCUSE U I DON'T NEED TO PAY TO REST IN MY OWN HARD-EARNED ISLAND SHIP

whenever i am in the area of florem or anchiem or caldisla, i'd stay there, or in sage yulyana's house because HE DOESN'T MAKE ME PAY TO HANG OUT WITH HIM IN HIS RIGHTFULLY OWNED HOUSE....

i always make use of edea's room in eternia as well, even if i have full-ish hp and mp U_U;;











"look, this crystal has also reverted!"
"wait, something lurks nearby!"
"another creature back from destruction!"
"HERE THEY COME!"

it pains me to know i know these wordsO T L

it got to a point where i would say the lines along with the characters... and mock-imitate airy's "HURRY UP AND AWAKEN THE CRYSTAL BEFORE WE ARE BESET BY MORE BEASTS"+"NOT YEEETTTT" "JUST A LITTLE LONGER!!!" "STOP THAT'S IT!!!" U_U;;;;;

one thing i really like about the characters in BD are the bro pairings!!


He’s winking at a girl, of course



It looks like they’re discussing strategy, but behind that map of luxendarc, braev is showing off baby photos of edea



Tea time for the elderly

Tiz+Ringabel: i really like that bit in i think chapter 7 when ringabel confides in tiz, and tiz believes ringabel and basically has his back TT__TT and how ringabel covers too for tiz after he and agnes return from the cave!! Ahhhhh I really like this two together as travel-mates/buddies/room-mates and all that TvT I can only imagine ringabel stumbling back to the inn room late at night, and tiz (the light-sleeper who had trouble sleeping in the early chapters of the game) tolerating this every night

Swordmaster Kamiizumi + Braev Lee: SWORDMASTER KAMIIZUMI SU♡TE♡KI
I didn’t think I’d like kamiizumi but then he started TALKING AND I REALISED I REALLY LIKE HIS VOICE….ヾ(:3ノシヾ)ノシ
He’s a really cool guy too waaah/// I really like the relationship he and braev share! Something like… birds of a feather flock together? Since they let their swords do the talking more. I do feel like it would have been really interesting if kamiizumi and braev both loved mahzer; it would have complicated the relationship kamiizumi shares with edea as well, but oh well, it’s fine that that particular plot development was debunked. I still don’t quite get what he and braev were fighting about in the gossipmonger’s story though;;;

Lord Derosso+Sage Yulyana: what I REALLY LIKE about this pairing is that these two both don’t seem very likely as bros when you encounter the two of them, but end up being probably the tightest bros in the whole of luxendarc and time and space and all that. The history they share, as MORTAL ENEMIES first, then fellow conspirators and finally close friends really… hits the spot, somehow! I like how they like to poke fun/make snide remarks about each other to tiz and his party too haha. I think their personalities feel really different, too different for people to normally associate one with the other, so it’s amazing how the game writers make it work so well!

I quite like lord derosso too. His voice sometimes sounds a little bit monotonous, but I suppose it goes well with his weary, jaded personality. There are times he sounds really good with it, I’ll admit ^p^b
at the end of the game, when he made that sacrifice, I was crying out NO NONONO NO; I anticipated this happening, but when it did…. I WASN’T READY ;____________; he truly is the hero of the game uuuuu


When he said these words (which COINCIDENTALLY, I had heard 4/5 times because of the side quest), it gained a sort of tragic, bitter layer of meaning TT________TT



UGH ;____________________________________________________;

I generally like the story of bravely default, and the concerns it raises. The initial themes which I thought were recurring themes (but later turned irrelevant past chapter four) were the question of clear-cut morality, of black and white portions (as raised by edea), and the role of religion in a world where it is fast becoming quaint in the light of consumerism (florem) and technology (eternia). of course, the twist that you are actually working for the DARK SIDE is really interesting too, but it really is a shame that the cyclical “ENDLESS EIGHT” nature of the later few chapters really KILLS the storyline for a while;;; the truth about awakening the crystals becomes so blatantly apparent to everyone but the four main characters, to a point where you, as a player, feel really frustrated playing the game;;; sure, you learn a little bit more about the different characters in the side quests in every chapter, but somehow... I feel like this information could be combined into a single chapter. and yes, I understand if we need to awaken the crystals once, twice or maybe even thrice because you want players to understand the cyclical trajectory the characters are going on, but FIVE TIMES is just overkillOTL;;; that being said, chapter 7 and 8 were a marked improvement from chapter 5 and 6, with hilarious character interaction and plot development? The side quests also became markedly more difficult, which broke the monotony of AWAKENING CRYSTALS and waiting for side characters to offer tiny slivers of new information.









Some character interaction moments I really like! The chapter 7 and 8 side quests were all really interesting ;v; a great pick-me-up! In terms of fighting the bosses in groups, they were all challenging in a fun way except whenever they featured QADA OR ALTERNIS…. UGH THOSE MOVES WHICH DEAL DAMAGE BASED ON MISSING HEALTH….. later in the game, though, I learnt about the Giant’s Draft, which I’m REALLY SURE would have been useful when trying to beat off these two.









Lord derosso’s reaction to being in the team of psychopaths was GREAT.

Ah, about job classes and skills, I really like the super extensive and varied job customisation here! Lots of strategies and ways to beat the different bosses *v* by chapter 4, I was pretty sure I wanted my final party to consist of:

Tiz: thief/ninja
Agnes: white mage/salvemaker
Edea: Valkyrie/ Templar
Ringabel: pirate/swordmaster

It’s really interesting that I ended up with a team like this instead!

Tiz: Dark knight/vampire (support abilities: angelic ward, gloom, dual wield, drain attack up)
Agnes: Spiritmaster/ white mage (support abilities: angelic ward, holy one, hasten world)
Edea: Templar/ Salvemaker (support abilities: angelic ward, dual wield, revenge)
Ringabel: swordmaster/spell fencer (support abilities: angelic ward, drain attack up, dual wield, adversity)



(about their final outfits, i meant to put everyone in plain tunics for the final battle, but kind of forgot to put it on the girls, so only tiz and ringabel had their original outfits on;;)

Favourite job is the swordmaster class (kamiizumi bias TOTALLY has nothing to do with this >v6)!! The feeling when you anticipate an enemy’s move and they trigger "before swine"/"know thine enemy"/ "nothing ventured" is SO SATISFYING…. Especially when fighting boss(es) that do physical damage that keeps triggering “nothing ventured”…. KIMOCHI II DA ^p^ later in the game, I realised that swordmasters have the ability to use the drain ability (didn’t know it existed as I stopped using a black mage early in the game) and WOW LIFE BECAME SO SUBARASHII

SWORDMASTER MASTER CLASS!!!!!!11121!!

To be honest, I wasn’t planning to use the dark knight and spiritmaster class; for the former, I didn’t like the idea of sacrificing health to make an attack, and for the latter, I just didn’t see the point in support classes, but I’m glad friends convinced me to give them a try!! Never thought they would end up in my final team TvT I’m also really glad I managed to keep a swordmaster in my team for the endgame fight, since I really do like the class a lot.

About the worlds, I love anchiem, caldisla and grandship! Caldisla has that quintessential JRPG medieval city feel to it, which is lovely. And I love the concept of grandship. A ship island… how marvellous, I’d love to live in something like that too! I wish there were more parts of the ship to explore, but oh well TvT;;; The music reminds me a little of some of chrono cross’ music, which is fantastic too

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Ancheim - wow, a city with a lot of character! I love the idea of the windmill, tying it in with agnes being the vestal of wind. The windmill is incorporated so well into the whole concept of the city with the giant blades forming the skyline, and the cogs in the buildings, and even the music! It’s really ingenuous, using the ticking of a clock as part of the song (also, goes great with the king being a time mage)!!

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It gave me a strong Magi vibe as well haha. The only problem with this city is that it is always a pain getting around, since it’s a very… linear town. Still, it’s evident a lot of thought went into this city; it’s the sort of place I would love to visit in real life too, aha TvT//;;;

Florem was not bad, but I didn’t quite like eternia and hartschild. I guess incorporating armour into the design of hartschild is pretty neat, but… geh I wish they used another song for the city. Yes, I know eisenberg is a war-torn land but it would have been nice to have some respite from that very strongly… military-esque song? It would work fine with commander goodman at the bridge, but I feel the whole of eisenberg became too one-dimensional, music-wise;;;

Florem’s music is really appropriate for the city as well! It gives off this vibe of antiquated gypsy charm, but also brassy sleaze?! Mood-wise, it oozes sensual allure, and yet at the same time, tragic heartbreak?! Mmm it just feels like there’re lots of layers to this song, which is really good.

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Oh, and i love the party chats! Character interaction is always the best *v* I love how you learn about the different food in the different countries too; a very smart way to help us learn more about the world of luxendarc *3*

Revo did a really good job with this soundtrack! The battle music is really good, and the asterisk boss music too, and travelling on land, flying in grandship, and sailing in the eschalot in the ocean, and fighting the PURVEYORS OF DOOM ahhh!!!! Such great music.

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I really like how there are recurring rifts that cross over to different songs too. And airy’s boss music; love how each time you fight her, the music changes and grows more intense! Speaking of airy’s boss form, man, I don’t understand how her mid-form looks so AWFUL compared to her first and last form. Anyway HISSES i stopped trying to like airy after she kept going on and on about the crystals

The final boss music is really good too; I like how they incorporated A LOT of music from other battles into this, so it felt like an epic medley; a most fitting way to end the game.

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in terms of character songs, I like edea’s the best!

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dungeon-music-wise, this is really good!

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will always associate this with lord derosso’s castle, where I died COUNTLESS TIMES, especially trying make it past level 6.
Geh I can go on and on about the music!;;

Oh right, one thing about the storyline that REALLY IRRITATED me was that the alternis-ringabel loophole was never resolved. How on earth could edea not RECOGNISE the face of her childhood friend?? I went through the story hoping this would be resolved but there was never any mention of it. Some forum posts attempted to close the loop hole by arguing edea was really young when it happened, alternis is older, they went off their separate ways to train and serve the lord marshall respectively, puberty happened, they changed, etc, and I guess those are perfectly legitimate reasons but I JUST DON’T BUY IT COMPLETELY MAN… NOT WHEN THE STORY DOESN’T MENTION IT OR ATTEMPT TO ADDRESS IT AT ALL……

Some great quotes from aforementioned forum posts though:
Then when the moment on the ship occurs, this is where you need to flip your thinking. She doesn't think Ringabel looks like Alternis, she thinks Alternis looks like Ringabel. So the party's not going "OMG Ringbel, you are Alternis from a different dimension or whatever!" They are thinking more along the lines of "OMG, Alternis person guy thing, you look just like our traveling companion Ringabel! How can that beeeeeeee?"

He always wears his armor... stupid? YES

They weren't childhood friends from birth. There could've been time to: loathe the world, find a helmet to hide your face, discover hidden powers that have an S Rank in helmets.

I was actually expecting that to show up in the storyline to chalk up the differences - they did talk about him getting injured horribly in the journal so at the time I thought "Oh, maybe Alternis looks different when unmasked and that is why Edea doesn't recognize him" - but nope, amazing pompadour and all emerges out of that helmet.

Actually, the other part that baffled me once I got over the "he must wear that helmet all the time" is I'm not exactly sure how Alternis was expecting Edea to get married to him any time in the future if, like, she doesn't even KNOW what he looks like. He seem so awfully shocked when she was all "Hellll no" to him.

did Alternis wear his helm his whole life?

He was born with it.

In some concept art pictures, alternis is depicted with his hair in a ponytail; maybe that would have been a more fitting hairstyle given his personality and also for a slightly different appearance from ringabel? Oh right, speaking of alternis, I really enjoyed reading his journal! It was fun reading and trying to anticipate what was the next course of action the party was going to take! I really like the snarky and deprecating way he writes tooLOLL he’s such a misanthropist.

The alternis-ringabel gaping plot hole aside, I really like the way ringabel handles his past identity. Maybe people were expecting to see ringabel struggle to reconcile his past memories and his present identity, but I like how he refers to himself in the past as “alternis”, a different person from the ringabel that he is now. he doesn't try to be that brooding "alternis" guy he was; he's happy being the ladies' man ringabel ;v;


He’s not TRAGICALLY WOUNDED or burdened by his memories as dark and brooding alternis; the only times he is distressed is when he realises that his past memories can save his friends from a seemingly imminent future. And I guess I like that about him. He’s the character with the most character development?? And edea too?? Bumpkin Tiz and crystal maniac agnes remain the same almost throughout (to me at least), which is a little disappointing;;

I was actually anticipating the expected boy-girl pairings to get together at the end of the game but I guess I set myself up for disappointment;; oh well! And speaking of the ending, the secret movie at the end uses the functions of the 3ds really well! oh right, and some people on the BD reddit talked about how the celestial being that houses itself within tiz is the player; a very smart meta idea. I didn’t notice it, but apparently when ouroboros speaks about revealing the celestial realm, the 3ds camera captures your face?? Making the celestial realm our world is a really interesting touch; seeing how our world is at stake as well if ouroboros wanted to invade that realm.


Rest now, Warriors of Light


art, games, ponderings

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