The Complete Saga is one of the first games I can recall playing with my siblings, alongside things like Wii Sports and Rock Band. I thought about just emulating that version instead but I figured the original GameCube versions would be less intensive to stream with friends, so expect the sequel to this one soon.

You could argue it's a little insubstantial, but LEGO Star Wars for me is tons of casual, low-stakes fun. The Minikits turn it into somewhat of a collectathon and bring a bit more to the table, but not necessarily challenge. I'm more than fine with this game being easy as it is, likely being a game aimed for children and all, but I can see how it would be a detractor for some.

The only major problems are with the flying stages, which are apparently nerfed in The Complete Saga anyways. Here, while you still have infinite lives, they're noticeably more strict than the rest of the game. Gunship Cavalry is especially bad, an isometric shooter reminiscent of the really shit one from Earthworm Jim 2. The controls are both far too floaty and yet also kind of limited, in the sense that there's only one plane of movement and it isn't conveyed well visually. You'd think from the way everything is laid out that you would be able to raise or lower yourself, but such is not the case. Either way, probably the only outright crap level in the game, as the other two flying stages throughout definitely feel a bit less awkward.

While it isn't quite the same as my childhood memories with just one player, I had a lot of fun revisiting this. The Original Trilogy is up next, and as far as the movies themselves go I've always been much more fond of those. Looking forward to that.

Bravely Default is one of my favorite games of all time, and it’s had a massive influence on me generally. This isn’t my first go around with the game’s proper sequel, Bravely Second, but it’s been an absolutely long time since I last played it. And at the end of the day, I find it to be a flawed sequel. It improves upon a lot of gameplay aspects, though in some areas I think it’s worse. The major flaws of Bravely Second, however, come in its story, it’s not the worst story ever made, but it’s following Bravely Default, whose story is one I adore to no end.

As I said, gameplay is where I think Bravely Second most improves. While general combat is about the same, most of the noticeable changes are applied to Jobs. Some jobs were removed, and they will be missed, I love Arcanist and Spell Fencer, though I understand why they were removed, especially the latter. Even with the jobs that were removed, Bravely Second has a total of 30 jobs, 6 more than the original. Some of them take the roles of jobs from Bravely Default, though to me at least, they’re not as interesting as the ones prior, or in the case of some, significantly nerfed. However, the jobs that introduce new mechanics are really fun. The Fencer has a simple stance mechanic, but it’s really fun. And the Charioteer is one of my favorite jobs in any of the games, being able to equip more weapons instead of armor, and being able to deal massive damage is awesome.

Though with that in mind, there were a couple changes to gameplay that I didn’t particularly like. Mainly it was tied to things with encounter rate and how EXP/PG/JP modifiers worked. To begin, while you can change the encounter rate in the same way that you can in Bravely Default, there’s a small handful of dungeons where you’re not allowed to, and you’re forced to the regular encounter rate. I just simply don’t like that the dungeons override your options, even if they explain it away. On the other hand, I miss how EXP/PG/JP modifiers worked in the first game. Back in the first game, it was determined by how you performed in battle. For example, if you won a round in the first turn, you’d get an EXP boost, gradually increasing as you get the modifier in consecutive battles. In Bravely Second though, it’s just a chain that runs out until it takes more than 1 turn to beat a group of enemies. The main issue with this system is just length, it takes so much longer than it needs too, especially if you need to grind JP. JP gain per battle seems to max out at 999, so having to do 4-5 battles only to cap out early is just a big time sink. I’m insane though, so I did max out every job, but I can easily see people not doing what I did.

As I described prior, many of the major flaws I have with Bravely Second come with the story. I think it’s probably best to section it off into three major themes: Worldbuilding, Side Quests, and Yew.

The world of Luxendarc in Bravely Default is so well-defined. It feels like a purposefully crafted world, with information and its history going back centuries, even longer. Bravely Second on the other hand is… odd. There’s of course a 2-year time gap between Bravely Default and Bravely Second, so it would make sense for things to change. But things feel too drastic in a way, multiple gigantic cities appear, seemingly out of thin air. There’s changes to specific aspects of Bravely Default’s lore that I don’t really like, but can’t express because it would spoil major aspects of both games. As well too, the game seems to try and set up more than the game could properly handle, leaving the game at a somewhat inconclusive conclusion. There’s some stuff that I like, and think is interesting, but it just needed a bit better execution.

The Side Quests are… weird. They all have the same structure to them: An NPC tells you about some trouble that’s happening, you meet 2 returning characters from Bravely Default who have opposing opinions on the trouble, you make a choice, fight the one that disagrees with you and get their job. This structure alone would be fine, and there was potential I feel. There’s an interesting balance that could’ve happened here, where you had to weigh whether or not the job you got, or the morally right choice mattered more. However the game allows you to make both choices, and get both jobs from each side quest, which removes any weight that these side quests had to begin with. And that’s also not to ignore that some of them have absolutely gross writing. For an example of one, you had to make the choice whether or not to segregate schooling by gender. As the game expects you to make both choices in order to get both of the offered jobs, it’s kind of gross.

And lastly, and this may be a controversial opinion, I’m unsure, but I don’t like Yew Geneolgia. At least, not with how the game overly puts the spotlight on him. He is a new character, and one of the playable four, but he overshadows the other characters so much that the other new character, Magnolia Arch, doesn’t have as much time to shine. She feels primarily just like the love-interest for Yew, the game doesn’t allow her enough time to be her own character in isolation of Yew. Aside from this, Yew Geneolgia, alongside the whole Geneolgia family is suddenly the most important family in all of Luxendarc. Some of the history back in Bravely Default is somewhat rewritten to include the Geneologias, which I particularly don’t like. I don’t think Yew Geneolgia is a bad character writing or personality wise, but he’s too much of a focus. Bravely Default’s main cast was really well balanced, giving a near equal amount of time for Agnes, Tiz, Edea, and Ringabel. Bravely Second however really focuses primarily on Yew, which makes both Yew, and the other playable characters suffer for it I feel.

But that’s not to say that I dislike the story generally. The Kaiser is a really fun villain, and the dynamic between Yew Geneolgia and both Janne and Nikolai are really good. I think Chapters 5 and 6 are really good from an emotional and thematic perspective, especially with what happened in Chapter 4. However I can’t lie when I say that I think this story is as far from strong, as it’s hard not to compare this to its predecessor. In isolation, without Bravely Default, it’s likely that I would look at this game with a different perspective, I’m unsure.

Yet again, I think Bravely Second is still rather solid. When looking at the Bravely Default “sequels” I think this is still the better of the two. Gameplay wise it’s improved a lot, and some of the new jobs are really fun. However the story is noticeable weaker, and it just doesn’t have the same magic as the original. I think my expectations are set way too high though, I’ll acknowledge. Bravely Default is one of my favorite games ever, I think it’s absolutely perfect. I still think Bravely Second is a game worth experiencing, especially if you do like Bravely Default, you may see some worth in it that I didn’t see.