This remaster for the Switch 2 is the definitive way to play a classic Final Fantasy inspired rpg from Square-Enix
When Bravely Default hit the 3DS in 2012, it was hailed as an instant RPG classic. The new franchise was created by Square-Enix to give players a classic ‘final fantasy’ experience, complete with a job system and four heroes tasked with saving the world.
The 2025 remaster (and current exclusive) for the Switch 2 is now the definitive way to play the first entry into the Bravely series; upscaling the game to HD resolutions while fixing elements of the game’s social and streetpass systems that for many players - simply did not work as intended at release.
If you’ve played a Final Fantasy game, you’ll feel right at home in the world of Bravely Default. Originally conceived as a successor to a spin off of the original Final Fantasy from 1982, it leaned into the tropes of the genre while working to refine its systems for a new generation.
Bravely’s story kicks off in the Kingdom of Caldisla, as a young shepherd boy Tiz, witnesses his entire village of Norende get swallowed up in a massive earth-shaking event that leaves a large scar on the world. Rescued by the local King’s knights, Tiz awakens in the nearby inn and quickly sets out on a journey to discover what happened to his village and ends up entwined in a grander quest to save the entire world from an elemental apocalypse.
Along for the ride with Tiz are Agnès Oblige a vestal of the temple of Wind who is investigating the corruption of the world’s elemental crystals; Edea Lee, a knight who betrays The Dutchy of Eternia and their anti-crystalism orthodoxy; and Ringabel, a self-proclaimed womanizer with amnesia (sigh) who captains the team’s airship.
The story is workable. It’s fine. There’s enough twists and shifts within its main scenario that will reward you for putting up with some of the more groan-inducing moments, with a particular early sequence involving a lecherous old sage and Ringabel bonding over their shared appreciation of women being particularly being a true lowlight in the plot.
Thankfully, story is not the main drawcard of Bravely Default - it’s the combat.
And what an incredible combat system it is. Bravely Default pioneered the ‘Brave/default’ system in battle, mixing traditional turn-based menu combat with the ability to ‘brave’ up to 3 times, allowing you to use future combat rounds early (at the cost of having to rest and recover), or default - allowing you to adopt a defensive posture and store a ‘brave point’ to use later.
This core combat system proved so successful it went on to form the backbone of Square-Enix’s other throwback rpg series - Octopath Traveler, with both series using the brave/default system to create tense, interesting combat encounters that reward a careful interplay between knowing when to go on the attack and when to stay your hand.
The added spice to all of this is Bravely’s job system - a direct love letter to one of Final Fantasy’s most beloved combat systems from Final Fantasy V. As you defeat certain boss enemies throughout the game, you’ll unlock their combat abilities as jobs which your characters can equip, then earn experience in, unlocking abilities and passive powers from each job that they can mix-and-match into their own unique fighting style.
Bravely’s jobs run the mix of classic Final Fantasy staples such as the white mage, black mage and thief while also mixing in some more creative concepts including the money-focused merchant, the spell fencer and and the pirate inspired swashbuckler
Each of the four main characters has some base stats that align to certain playstyles, but they’re essentially a blank canvas - letting you pick and choose the jobs you’d like them to excel with.
Want your Agnes to be a hard hitting monk/swashbuckler that brings the pain while Tiz sits in the backline casting white magic and time-magic infused buff spells? Knock yourself out.
Finding interesting combos, team compositions and strategies becomes highly rewarding as you continue to play. Bravely Default offers a ‘set’ system, allowing you to save loadouts for your entire parties that you can actively swap in-and-out of to facilitate your goals at the moment.
Need to make money and experience fast? Build a team of merchants with different sub-abilities so you can grind to your heart's context. Have a particular boss come up with lots of elemental weaknesses? Swap your jobs around so you can capitalize on the strongest strategy.
It’s fun, addictive and is enhanced by Bravely HD’s grab-bag of quality of life features and improvements.
The Quality of life features in Bravely HD make it one of the easiest and fun games to get lost in a grinding session with. You have full control of a variety of options from the outset, including baked in difficulty settings for the game, the ability to turn-up or turn-down the frequency of random battle encounters and multiple toggles to led you speed up cutscenes and combat encounters.
One of the bigger drawcards of this remaster are the massive improvements made to the original 3DS game’s online-only features. Bravely Default 3DS featured a series of minigames, optional bosses and entire mechanics tied to its ‘streetpass’ system - requiring you to have your 3DS in rest-mode, with Bravely Default active. You’d need to be in physical proximity to other people playing (something virtually impossible in countries with smaller populations or for people living outside of big cities), to interact with several combat and side-story events throughout the game.
The Switch 2 version moves these features into your friends list and to online-mode. You’ll be able to run across ghosts of various players in the main towns of the world and recruit them to rebuild the village of Norende with ease. With some quick friend-code sharing on reddit or other community groups, you can quickly build up a friends list of other players to take advantage of the ‘summon/send’ system in combat (letting you send a big massive attack from your game online, so that someone else can summon it into their battle).
It breathes fresh life into old systems that were hampered as the 3DS’ lifecycle began to end and were unusable for large chunks of people playing outside of the USA and Japan around release.
Also baked into the new edition of Bravely HD are two switch 2 only minigames, both using the console’s new mouse controls.
The first is a dance-studio minigame, allowing you click and drag the mouse cursors across the screen to make the four cast members dance… to songs. It’s there, it’s fine. It unlocks some costumes you can use in the main game.
The second mini-game pops you on in the captain seat of Ringabel’s airship, as you use the mouse cursors to complete simple minigames to drive your airship to destinations. It’s there for the superfans, and I can’t say I enjoyed more than a few curious moments in it.
The last big feature of the HD remaster, is well - it’s now in full HD. This is not a full-blown remake, don’t expect a Demons Souls PS5 experience here. Instead, you can expect something similar to Square Enix’s recent remaster of Final Fantasy 8. Pre-rendered backdrops have received a glow up thanks to AI sharpening and menus are now crisp, clear and easy to read in both handheld and docked mode.
Bravely’s backdrops and towns are inspired by hand-painted water colour images, and were designed to convey depth using the 3D technology in the 3DS. They look wonderful in their upscaled HD version here, but do lose some of the magic that the original game had when played in 3D mode.
Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD is the definitive way to experience the first game in the now beloved Bravely rpg series. Gone are all the irritations and quibbles of being unable to interact with the game’s Streetpass systems outside of modding/pirating your 3DS.
What you’re left with is an absolutely tight and fun combat system. You’ll want to spend hours grinding, tinkering and playing around with your party and developing new combat strategies.
There’s a story here too - and it’s fine, but ultimately Bravely Default wins you over with its slick combat and tremendous strategic depth.
A copy of BRAVELY DEFAULT FLYING FAIRY HD REMASTER on Switch 2 was provided to SIFTER for the purpose of this review.
