The chance to try again...

Heads up, this review contains spoilers !

Unlike its predecessor, the CGI opening is handled quite differently. Instead of showcasing the main cast one by one and their motives. here you get what is esentially an anime opening version of that, and it is awesome.

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay part is largely the same as before, navigating dungeons and towns, exploring the overhead map etc. There are a few minor tweaks however, such as dungeons having two tiers of height instead of one and collectibles being laid on the ground instead of in a chest. Aside from that it's pretty much the same.

COMBAT

Now this is where most of the QoL changes are present, and for good reason considering combat is the highlight of the game, just like Default.
For one the command box is decently bigger and has much smoother animations. This may not sound like much, but it definitely makes the experience more fluid in my opinion. Next is a minor one; every weapon type is more effective when used against a certain family.
For example knuckles are effective against inorganic creatures, katanas against aquatics etc.

JOBS

The list of jobs has changed noticeably, with some being cut (no spiritmaster sadge) and new ones being added. This leads to them being more specialized, but also slightly breaking the balance (if you know what you're doing of course). The overall lineup of abilities of previous jobs is also an improvement.
Freelancer now has Halfsies, a move that lets you group-cast any item with half effect. Monk has Crouching Tiger, a super powerful move that absorbs 1 BP from every party member and unleashes it on all foes.
The new jobs are also excellent additions to spice up the gameplay. One of my favorites being the Excorcist, enabling you to undo values such as HP and MP to their values from the previous turns (works on bosses too), and Hawkeye, which is basically like Spell Fencer, except a lot stronger and more versatile, enabling you to pierce P.def or imbue your weapon with the element of choice.

SOUNDTRACK

Now, I am sad to say that Revo, the previous composer, wasn't involved with this game's OST, BUT ryo did a fine job nonetheless. Certain tracks have different vibes from before but still fit their situations really well. A good example is the new asterisk battle theme; it's not fast-paced like the previous one, but instead goes for a more imposing vibe.
The overworld theme went from a super-adventurous style to a relatively chill walk-in-the-park vibe.
Just like before there is still plenty of variety, offering a track for any kind of situation. My only gripe is that the special themes all rely a lot on electric guitars, and while they are still very good themes, they lack a lot in variety and you'll only really be able to distinguish them if you actually play the game, but oh well, at least every character now has their own non-battle theme at least.

STORY
The whole story (including side quests) revolves around the main mechanic of the game : Bravely Second, Or as Magnolia explained it; the chance to try again. As the name implies, it means that everyone deserves a second chance regardless of who they are or what they did (of course applying this to the real world can be iffy but whatever it works here).
The first 4 chapters of the game you try to chase down Kaiser but fumbling most of the steps leading to the demise of your party, asterisk holders and the whole world essentially due to it being frozen in time.
BUT if you pick new game +, you'll get thrown into the scene from the beginning where Kaiser Oblivion storms the Gathelatio Sanctum. Only this time, you have a chance to try again. After a series of new shenanigans, you set out to correct the fails you've done before, drastically altering the plot.
One cool side effect of this is you can redo side quests like in Default, except this time you can get different outcomes depending on your decisions. And best part, this world loop happens only once
unlike Default's tiring 5.
However the single greatest thing in this game is possibly the best 4th wall-break in history of fiction, not even exaggarating.
Though I recommend seeing it for yourself for the best experience.

OVERALL RATING

10/10
Pros : already great combat upgraded, great cast of characters, general player friendly gameplay and vastly improved side quests.

Cons : Rebuilding the moon base (think Norende from Default) is a bit difficult considering Square abolished the online service making getting new villagers nigh impossible unless you homebrew your 3ds or such. Rest easy tho, it won't really hinder your experience much.

A lightning strike. A scared town. A friend in peril. A mysterious duo. A tragedy.

Golden Sun quite literally opens up with a bang in the prolouge I've just summarized. It's also an interesting way to give you a bit of time to see what the basic gameplay is like such as inventory management, moving around, combat and the like.

GAMEPLAY

GS is an RPG meaning it follows a lot of gameplay tropes such as; a large overworld map, dungeouns and settlements being explorable and generally being a road trip kind of story. However, what it does do to stand out from the rest is relying on puzzles as a major component of the gameplay. During even the most simple of caves, you'll find a puzzle you can solve and these usually have 3 types. One is just progression, getting from point A to a new room. Second is creating a shortcut for easier traversal later on (these 2 are usually linked or the latter being optional). Third is accessing hidden treasures and other goodies. This is also where the majority of the replay value and general sense of completion comes from. I highly encourage new players to complete as many dungeouns as they can find, not just for completion purposes but also because that's where the best gear in the game is, and also finding hidden Djinn to aid you. You must be wondering what Djinn are I assume.

DJINN AND CLASS SYSTEM

Once you leave your hometown of Vale to set out on an epic journey, the first thing you'll encounter is an odd looking creature. This cute little fella is named Flint and is a Venus Djinni. Djinn are essentially the embodiment of the four main elemental energies in the world; Venus (earth), Mercury (water and ice), Mars (fire), and Jupiter (wind and electricity).
Once you acquire a certain number of Djinn you'll gain access to new or more powerful versions of your current abilities. For example you can have Diamond Dust turn into Diamond Berg or Ragnarok turn into Odyssey. Setting them and putting them on standby also affects your stats with their own trade offs. Once you acquire all 4 party members, you're most likely gonna put corresponding Djinn type to their user; Jupiter adepts are gonna have Jupiter Djinn i.e. Now while that is a solid strategy that still lets you experiment with Psynergy, the true depth lies with mixing and matching them. For example Isaac has the Slayer class when he has all Venus Djinn set, but you can also make him Swordsman if you put 1 Venus and the rest Mercury Djinn or a Ninja with 4 Mars and 5 Jupiter Djinn. The point is you're free to experiment however you like, you can have the party all be half-healers half-attackers or make every member specialized, a healer, an enfeebler, a tank etc. And one extra thing to note is that, every Djinn comes with an inherent ability of their own; Flint is a good attack Djinni, Flash reduces damage you take etc. Once you use them you can either set them to regain your stats or you can use for summoning.

SUMMONING

Once you use a Djinni, you'll see a new tab in the battle UI. This is called summoning which gives you a secondary use for Djinn once you've used them. And just like classes, they get more powerful the more Djinn you have. Ranging from just 1 Djinni which is just pure elemental attack all the way to 4 Djinn which allows you to call upon the might of gods like Boreas (god of the north wind) and Judgment (the might of the apocalypse). These are not only the most powerful moves in the game, but they also give you a buff for that
corresponding element you used; wind based summons will make your wind psynergy stronger i.e. Your Djinn will be in recovery mode after this however, rendering them unusable and unable to give you any stat buffs, so be wary of when exactly you want to use them.

WORLBUILDING AND LORE

The continent of Angara is filled to the brim with towns, villages and other structures you can explore and discover interesting tidbits about. Every town has a small backstory to it and a current event taking place in it. Mount Aleph has been the home of Elemental Stars, Imil has a healing water spring, Lamakan Desert is an infamously hot desert that has mirages you have to brave through etc.
My favorite part about the world as a whole is how connected and alive it feels, no two places are alike and yet they none of them feel alien. This feeling is further emphasized by how the story is essentialy a road trip with some anime vibes sprinkled on it.

SOUNDTRACK

The soundtrack, composed by Motoi Sakuraba, is pure goodness, with variety in theming and instruments. Some of my favorite tracks being Elemental Stars, Isaac/Saturos' Battle, Hopelesness, The Angarian Journey, The First Book, and the best one of them all, Venus Lighthouse. It has tracks for every kind of mood you can imagine; happy tunes, adventurous, imposing and mysterious. Highly recommend trying out these tracks, great and catchy melodies.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

I've been trying to get into the RPG genre for the longest time, but to little success which led me to having this as my least favorite genre. After playing Golden Sun however, I can confidently say it changed my view completely. This game is, as quite a few people said including myself, the perfect introductory game. It covers the familiar tropes while also having original takes on it's own. Whether you've been wanting to get into the genre or are a seasoned RPG veteran, this will be a great journey to experience. And with that, I give this game an 8.5 out of 10.

My first review.

Right from the start you get a CGI intro showing the motivations of all 4 main characters; Agnes Oblige, a Vestal of Wind who sets out to save the world from darkness by awakening the 4 Crystals. Edea Lee, daughter of the grand marshal of Eternia who seeks out his approval by capturing the wind vestal and becoming a skilled soldier. Ringabel, a charmer who has no memory and seeks to recover it with the help of an intriguing future-telling journal. And lastly Tiz Arrior, a young shepherd who lost his family to a mysterious pillar of light that swallowed his village.
With that out of the way, onto the gameplay.

GAMEPLAY

The world of Bravely Default (also known as Luxendarc) is like most other RPGs; a large overworld map with settlements and dungeouns you can explore. This part of the game is relatively simple and mostly serves just to connect all the places into one vast world.
However the true meat and potatoes of the gameplay is the combat.
BD serves an interesting take on the traditional formula, in more ways than one.
First is the very name of the game, Brave and Default mechanics. Defaulting makes you defend during that turn, reducing damage taken and storing up BP. Brave lets you spend those Brave Points by allowing you to perform multiple actions in the same turn. For example if you used Default 2 times, you'll get 2 BP which you can use in the next turn by Braving 3 times and performing several different moves at once. Bear in mind however that you can go into negative BP, making you unable to perform any actions and essentialy making you a sitting duck so choose wisely on what actions you'll perform.

JOB SYSTEM

Next change is the job system. Throughout the game, you'll encounter bosses known as asterisk holders, powerful foes that have their own unique abilities. Once you defeat them, you'll obtain their asterisk and their job as well.
This'll get lenghty so buckle up.
When you equip a job, there are multiple things to know; every job has unique base values. For example Knight has good vitality, Monk has good strenght etc. Next is arms proficiency. This tells you how well you can wield weapons of that certain type. Black mages are good with rods, thieves are good with daggers etc.
Lastly you have the specialty. Every job has one and it's an innate ability you get when equipping a job. Arcanist has Absorb magic damage, Ninja has Dual Wielding etc.
Now while you can equip a certain job and just leave it that, you can also equip a side-job. This means that you can have 2 different commands ready to use at any time; and this is where the combat truly shines.
It allows for some wild experimentation, regardless of your stats and arms proficiency. I won't say much more because it's more fun and engaging to just try it for yourself.
Next up are support abilites; these are pretty much what the name implies. When you upgrade jobs, you'll get abilities that have an active effect, rather than using it as a command. When you start out, you can only equip the ones with a cost of 1 slot (don't worry though, you get more as you progress), and this is where a good chunk of the strategic value lies.
A lot of these abilities are simple stuff such as Magic Defense 20% up, Physical Attack 10% up etc. However you also have some interesting ones like Holy One; reduces physical attack but increases effectivness of recovery magic or Zero, increasing the power of magic if the last digit of your current MP value is zero and so on.
Last but not the least we have Bravely Second.
The name might be confusing at first but the mechanic itself is really simple. Let's say you're having a hard time with a certain boss that's kicking your ass and your party is at critical HP. Well simply press START and you can pause time! This essentialy lets you perform an action at any given time, even during a turn. Of course this kind of freedom isn't free ironically, because every action you perform costs SP or Sleep Points. Once you spend one SP, you can put your 3DS to sleep mode and after 8 hours you'll gain SP. However the best use of Bravely Second is with the special moves.

SPECIAL MOVES

Early on, Tiz will meet the king of Caldisla, a kingdom where his village Norende was. He will name him the chairman of Norende restoration efforts, and despite the boring sounding title, this also one of the keys to fully enjoy BD. You'll get access to shops that sell recovery items, new weapons and such. Most of these shops however are centered around these special moves. These are the most powerful commands in the game which can let you cheese bosses IF you have it all planned out. Firstly every Special Move is centered around a weapon type; Staves, Knuckles, Katanas etc. Each of these moves can be customized with 4 kinds of parts; one lets you inflict elemental damage to a foe like Water, Fire etc. 2nd part is a simple power boost, ranging from 10 to 50%. 3rd part lets you make the move extra effective against a family of monsters such as Aquatic, Beasts etc. The last part infuses the move with a status ailment like Poison, Blind etc.
This is just for one type of moves, the others are Recovery, Enfeebling and Support, but we'd be here all day if i was listing those.
Now why did i mention Bravely Second for these?
It's because during regular gameplay the max possible damage is capped at 9,999. However if you stop time, that cap is removed, allowing you to deal ridiculous damage all the way up to 100K. Of course you still have to plan carefully to reach that level.

WORLDBUILDING AND LORE
Given how large the world is, you'd expect a good amount of lore to flesh out the locations and make them feel connected; in that case I'm happy to say it does indeed deliver on that.
All of the cities feel unique and part of one world at the same time. As for the lore, not only is the world and characters rich in it, but it's also delivered in many ways, subtle and obvious.
It can be delivered via simple exposition during the main story, talking to citizens of the towns, completing side quests, listening to the party chat, examining points of interests or just good old ludo-narrative storytelling.
Oh right about the side quests-

SIDE QUESTS

Side quests, or sub-scenarios as the game calls it, are optional missions you can do to either get to know the characters more or better yet, to obtain new jobs. I highly recommend doing them all because all of them are either self-contained sub-plots with their own nifty scenarios or something connecting directly to the main story. Basically you'll get some kind of bonus to your playthrough either way.
However after a certain event things become a bit of a mixed bag.

!SPOILERS AHEAD!
After Agnes awakens the 4 crystals, the Holy Pillar appears and you set out into it. After an intense fight on the ship's deck, you find yourself back in the spot the game started out from. At first it's confusing as all hell, but after a while you find out you've in fact visited another of the many Luxendarcs that exist in this universe. Now what does this mean for side quests? Initally, nothing really cause the events still play out basically the same, except you have the upper hand in having the memories and knowledge of the last time, and I will admit it is fun seeing everyone be confused on how your party knows everything. However this cycle is repeated multiple times, this world loop as it's called, which did drag down the experience for a lot of the players, especially considering even the main bosses get reused. The reusal also makes them feel lesser due to them reusing the same strategy and barely noticeable scaling. So if you want to experience the game in the best way, my advice is to beat every side quest in the first world, and then ignore them the next 2 worlds. In the 2nd to last and last world they get much better, shorter but also much harder.

SOUNDTRACK

Oh man, time to talk about this OST. Being composed by REVO (or Linked Horizon if you will), it is nothing but phenomenal, bangers all the way through. I'm gonna list some of my favorite tracks just to get it out of the way. Serpent eating the ground, That person's name is, Silence of the forest, all 4 special move themes, Horizon of light and shadow, Wicked battle/flight etc.
I highly recommend trying these out for yourself, even without the context it's a guaranteed bop. The OST as a whole has plenty of variety in theming and instruments. For example Tiz, being a shepherd, has the flute as the main instrument while Ringabel, being a ladies man, has the harmonica and castanets as the main ones. The music also knows when to be energetic, calm, melancholic and intense exactly when it needs to be. Oh and remember the special moves I mentioned? The best part of those is that, when you use them, that character's theme starts playing and you get a certain buff that lasts as long as the song does. Not only do you get to jam out, but it also encourages you to think fast in order to use those buffs to the max. You can also interrupt a song with another one and combine those buffs if you really wanna finish off your enemy.

ACCESSABILITY AND QoL
This might seem like an odd thing to include next to something like gameplay, music and such, but I must talk about how player-friendly this game is.
Starting off simple, when equipping a new job, your arms proficiency changes as you may remember. This means it can be a slog to change equipment every time, but fear not for these features make it a simple task. Firstly there is Optimize, a command that automatically equips the best possible gear for that character, and secondly you have a Favorites tab which allows you to save the job sets you have created and further simplifying the chore of job changing and saving you precious time.
Next up we have QoL stuff for battles; there is the option to speed battles up 2 or 4 times or to pause them, Auto-battle, which repeats your action from the last turn (great for grinding), Encounter rate meter that allows you to walk around freely when you want to progress the story or make grinding last a lot shorter. And my favorite of them all, the option to use left and right on the D-pad for inputting commands (right for yes, left for no).

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Bravely Default was an enjoyable ride throughout all the 96 hours I put into it (well, maybe not every single hour) and a must-play for everyone who's into RPGs or just recently got into them (like me). Overall rating i'd say is 9.5/10. Excellent writing, great story, phenomenal OST, always engaging gameplay etc.

P.S I haven't talked much about the characters and plot because to be frank, I don't really think I'd do a good job retelling it, but just to be sure
Ringabel best boy :)