YMMV / Bravely Second

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Is Yoko truly a demon that simply wants to destroy the world, or is she a Tragic Villain, betrayed by those she trusted? While Ringabel and the Planeswardens seem to think she only wants to spread chaos, her entry in Yew's Journal suggests that the main cast is quite sympathetic towards her.
  • A very weird example where the character in question is yourself. Depending on how much you actually care about the characters over the gameplay, you may really be a Jerkass God who's only helping the party for kicks.
• Anticlimax Boss: Providence, especially when compared to his predecessor Ouroburos. Once you figure out how to get around his Mandate of Heaven + Divine Punishment gimmick, he becomes laughably easy. The Spellcraft + Ectoplasm + MP Free in a Pinch combination and the myriad of strong magic-based classes available (especially Yokai, which gives access to the strongest wind spell in the game) is enough to send this False God packing.
• Awesome Music:
  • Despite the Broken Base, the soundtrack (composed by ryo of supercell) is awesome in its own right:
    • The game's opening Hopeless Boss Fight plays out to this epic track, Battle of Oblivion.
    • War Bells Toll / The Battle Bells Toll, the generic battle music, is a high-energy anthem that pumps you up for the fight to come.
    • Battle of Tribulations is the battle music for fights against the new asterisk wielders. In contrast to the almost heroic "That Person's Name Is...", the intensity and dark, despairing chords fits the Glanz Empire to a tee, especially after learning of their interlinked backgrounds on the tragedy of the Great Plague and corrupt Crystalguard.
    • Altair and Vega's theme is a sombre, haunting piano piece that perfectly matches the Celestials' tragic relationship. What's more, listen closely to the melody - there's a reason why the Ba'al theme sounds very much like a Dark Reprise of this...
    • Battle of Anne, the flamenco boss theme for this game's resident fairy, is especially fitting for facing off against the one who was really pulling the empire's strings, As well as the player's, from the beginning of the first game.
    • The second version layers on the heavy electric guitar, Ominous Latin Chanting, and even Dubstep, to show that she's not taken to kindly to you returning the favor.
    • Diamante's theme, full stop. Dark and twisted, complete with pounding bass, great guitar work and that haunting choir in the background. Highly appropriate for the KING of the Ba'als.
    • As is becoming standard for the series, the theme for the Final Boss incorporates melodies from the entire game. Battle of Providence opens with a blaze of Ominous Pipe Organ and Ominous Latin Chanting, before settling into a somber melody that contrast's well against Ouroboros's from the previous game. As happened with the previous theme, just when all hope seems lost, the four heroes' melodies cut through, accompanied by the game's title screen, and a Triumphant Reprise of Battle of Oblivion.
  • The fact that some of the music back from the first game is used once more is quite pleasing for several fans:
    • Most notably, the Nemesis Ba'al theme is upgraded from a Secret Boss theme to match the increased presence of the Ba'als, making every battle with these monsters a sinister, heart-pounding joy to play through.
    • Furthermore, the track everyone loved, He of the Name/That Person's Name is from the first game is back in full force.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Magnolia's rescue of Tiz has her use abilities from jobs the party hasn't yet unlocked, as well as abilities that would take far more grinding than the average player would likely do. Not only that, her personality and way of speaking are completely different from her normal accent and mannerisms. This can be justified that the cutscene of her saving Tiz is reused from Bravely Default's secret ending.
• Broken Base:
  • Some people think the new soundtrack composed by Ryo is actually pretty good. Others think it's complete trash and will never live up to Revo's composing for Bravely Default.
  • There are those who find the story interesting and better compared to the previous game's Ending Fatigue plus the many points addressed in Author's Saving Throw, while others are annoyed with the references to Japanese memes in the dialogue, which they think downgrades the story, at least for Japanese-speaking players as this was more downplayed in the western releases. Some of the Japanese players also criticize the story because the tent events are out of place from the main story. Also, there are players who think that the story is a step down from Bravely Default due to several points (One being the ending and the Romantic Plot Tumor to some players) though there are players who enjoyed the story in both games as a whole.
  • There are also those who liked the ending for being much happier than the previous while others think that the ending is too cliche and too happy, preferring a Bittersweet Ending like the first game.
  • When rumors began circulating that the Tomahawk class would be replaced by a Cowboy class in the non-Japanese releases, opinions were quite mixed. Those not in favor of the change accuse the localization team of trying to be too "politically correct," and say that people who are in favor of the change are "supporting censorship." Those in favor of the change say it was a good idea on the basis that it helps avoid any accusations of racial stereotyping from select groups, and say that the people who aren't in favor of the change need to "get over it." And then you have a third group who doesn't care either way since it doesn't involve any changes to the story or gameplay in a huge way. And a fourth group is in favor of the change on the grounds that the new Hawkeye is a far more thematically-appropriate name and design for a firearm-focused class.
  • On the release of the localization, the removal of so-called "bad endings" from the side quests caused controversy. Some people were furious that the localization is removing content from the game, while others are glad they won't have to Save Scum for all cutscenes, especially since some of the decisions render some content Permanently Missable. The debate died down somewhat after the reasons for the removal became more well-known, namely that it was a request from Square-Enix because Japanese fans hated the original sidequests so much the game was received far worse than its predecessor. (See Scrappy Mechanic below)
• Complete Monster: Lord Providence is the ruler of the Celestial Realm and the source of all the game's misfortune, with all of Anne's evil tracing back to him. After his takeover of the Celestial Realm, Providence nourishes himself off the utter despair of a woman named Vega, feeding off her depression over being separated from her lover Altair in the Celestial Realm while perverting her good memories to twist them into the monstrous Ba'al. Providence's plan to keep Vega as a food source for him forever is to allow the Ba'al to ravage Luxendarc before he plunges the world into despair and annihilates it, all for the purpose of permanently breaking Vega's lingering hope. After the death of Anne, Providence personally confronts the heroes and tries to obliterate Luxendarc himself, merrily noting that Luxendarc's destruction would be "pointlessly absurd"—a sentiment he considers amusing. With the worst master plan in the series, Providence manages to beat out even Ouroboros in sheer, unmitigated sadism.
• Creepy Awesome: The Ba'al battle theme combined with the Ba'als themselves. It's safe to say that it wouldn't be too out of place in Madoka.
• Game-Breaker: See the Bravely Default page.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Daisuke Namikawa is the Japanese VA of Yew. A few years ago, he also voiced a similarly named JRPG protagonist: Yu Narukami.
  • At the end of this game, the Greater-Scope Villain tries to screw with you by deleting your save data. At the end of Bravely Default II, you screw with the Greater-Scope Villain by deleting her save data.
  • The Final Boss of the game messes with your save files, can attack while you're on the menu screen, and breaks the fourth wall to call out the player for messing with the game's characters for their own sick amusement. Undertale, which came out a few months after this game, has route-specific final bosses that also do these things.
• Ho Yay:
  • While Yew and Janne have a fairly brotherly relationship, it isn't difficult to see how some fans might read into some scenes. Janne admits in the third fight that no matter how much he tries, he can't bring himself to hate Yew.
  • Yew in the Hot Springs Episode in Yunohana, admiring Danzaburo's abs.
• I Knew It!:
  • Fans had predicted that Anne is actually Airy's sister as part of The Stinger for Bravely Default. The first and last battle with her reveals that she is indeed Airy's sister. Though the fact that Anne is The Dragon to Providence brought a shocking swerve to even those who predicted this.
  • Some also correctly predicted that the title screen would change into Send Player based on what the first game did.
    • Not as many predicted what it meant though... You can win the opening boss fight if you have a party from Chapter 4...
  • When the Fencer and Bishop asterisks were revealed, many people believed that Janne Angard and Nikolai Nikolanikov would be their holders, making them villains and forcing you to fight them. They were right.
• It's the Same, So It Sucks:
  • Despite all the new jobs and features in this game, some fans are complaining that it plays almost exactly the same as the original.
  • A more specific version of this trope is the Bishop job, which doesn't do all that much to distinguish itself from the first game's White Mage job (which can still be obtained, but is optional). This is especially glairing when you consider how radically different Wizard Job is from black mages of the first game.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Whitson is a criminal from a long family line of assistants who've served detectives in the past. He conspires with Madame Goldiga to murder her husband Lord Gulliver for his fortune, using a hidden passageway that no one was able to find quickly enough. When Argent Heinkel and Konoe Kikyo investigate the murder, Whitson lures one of them into a trap and impersonates them, fooling almost everyone who was familiar with them. Despite failing in his goal of deterring aspiring detective Sholmes from his desired career, Whitson manages to escape justice, clashing several times with Sholmes in the future.
  • Yoko is the holder of the Yokai asterisk who hides her true nature behind a simple-minded personality. Developing a habit of testing the resolve of whoever she comes across, Yoko creates a fake older brother named Danzaburo to gauge whether Yew Geneolgia has the guts to reveal his Dark and Troubled Past to the party. Although Yew fails his first test, he passes the second one which has him learn more about the bloody history of his family line. Finding enjoyment in seeing others pass her tests and grow as people or suffer more than what death can bestow, Yoko leaves the party without any repercussions for her actions.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Friend Slayer" ^Explanation Upon release and the First-Episode Spoiler of Jean and Nikolai leaving the party, many joke that the subtitles of the game is actually "Friend Slayer". This ends up being a Discredited Meme once they reach the climax and the full subtitle is revealed to be Send Player
• Misblamed: Because Nintendo is the co-publisher for the non-Japanese releases of Bravely Second, some people blamed them for the changes made to the localization. Nintendo themselves later came out and said the changes to things like how side quests play out were actually made by Square-Enix, and it was because Japanese players complained about the way the side quests played out in the original release. Some people also used Nintendo of America's Treehouse division as an easy scapegoat in light of controversy surrounding the localization of Fire Emblem Fates, but the localization company for Bravely Second is actually an Italian company named Binari Sonori.
• Narm:
  • At one point, Magnolia modifies her Gratuitous English catchphrase "Good Gravy!" into "Bad Gravy!" The actual moment though is Anne attacking her home and cruelly gloating about it, and Magnolia's line is actually a very serious threat. The bizzare English sort-of ruins the dramatic moment for English-speaking players.
  • In general, the straight faced and constant use of the term "Ba'al Busters" for hunters of potentially world destroying monsters is pretty cringe-worthy. Yew gets a lot of use out of "gravy" as well, often in awkward or bizarre places.
    • Though at least in respect of the localization, even the party show some acknowledgement of how silly/unfortunate the name "Ba'al Buster" is.
  • Edea's "Mrgrgr" returns, pronounced exactly as awkwardly as it was in the first game.
  • Minette is an assassin and a top informant of the Kaiser. Minette is also a little girl wearing a furry cat suit, who speaks in cat-related puns. While there is a legitimately sad backstory that explains her behavior, her design has a hard time conveying any semblance of threat. There are several occasions during which she controls cats to have them attack the heroes. Plain regular house cats. Yet, they are somehow able to wound a formidable warrior like Kamiizumi. At one point, the four main heroes are confronted with two mind-controlled cats, and are intimidated into retreating. They can apparently fight against fully trained soldiers and giant monsters, but two cats are too much for them to handle. While there is the implication Minette's mind-control makes the cats more powerful, it still stretches the credibility that mere pets would be on the same level as the adventurers who defeat monsters routinely.
  • While the Patissier asterisk is an original choice, the idea of using pastries to fight can look too silly to be taken seriously in the eyes of some.
• Player Punch:
  • Anne reprising her lines from the opening of the first game, since this proves that she was just Playing The Player.
  • You completed Chapter 4... and abruptly you're stuck in a dead world, with a powerful monster roaming outside, Kaiser Oblivion having fled. Of course, there IS somewhere he can be fought and defeated. If only you could start over again...
  • The sub-scenario sidequests involve not only needing to pick between asterisks but also needing to pick a moral standpoint, as the asterisks holders are all in conflict over various issues and want you to side with them and fight you if you don't agree with them. Defeating an asterisk holder results in receiving their asterisk as well as preventing their plans from succeeding. This means that there's a chance that a job you want to have requires you to side with an opinion you don't agree with.
  • The finale to the game, which reveals that you were playing into this game's villain's hands as early as the first game and culminates with the villain almost deleting your save data.
  • Janne and Nikolai's betrayal can be somewhat jarring to those that got attached to them in the demo.
• Romantic Plot Tumor:
  • Not as bad as some examples, but the final chapter and dungeon seem dedicated to Altair imploring Yew and Magnolia to looking at the parallels between his relationship and theirs and confess their feelings for each other so it doesn't end in tragedy.
  • In general this game plays up the romantic ties between the protagonists more than the original game did, crossing over into Sickeningly Sweethearts at times. The only exception is Edea, because she still has feelings for Ringabel, who isn't in the game. Though they do get a brief moment to reconcile, and Ringabel promises to return.
• Scrappy Mechanic: The sidequests were infamously this in Japan, to the point where Square-Enix had the localization smooth them out. Presented as moral choices between two Asterisk-bearers, you had to side with one and fight the other, obtaining their job. On New Game Plus, you could re-do the quest and pick the other option to obtain the other Job. The problem was that the first time you chose a path, the game would guilt-trip you for the choice, with Edea doubting whether she made the right decision. In order to get a more optimistic outcome, you have to pick the same option on New Game Plus, which would have Edea more sure of her decision... at the cost of missing one Job permanently. In the localization, you'll always get the optimistic outcome, meaning you don't have to choose between story and gameplay, and don't need multiple playthroughs to see all the content.
• Sequel Difficulty Drop: Due to there being fewer chapters, the endgame of Second doesn't really carry the expectation of a full party in the Lv 90s with most jobs mastered in the same way that Default did.
• Shocking Moments:
  • Almost everyone reacted to this with The Reveal of the game's finale. To clarify, the REAL Big Bad of the game tries to delete your save files, then comes a Big Damn Heroes moment from the game's characters, and the biggest surprise of all, is the fact that the adventurer is a "she", not only that, she is also a celestial and placed a Stable Time Loop of giving Tiz the hourglass that ends up saving his life in Bravely Second. "Holy shit!" indeed.
  • The way Chapter 5 begins. At the end of Chapter 4, Kaiser Oblivion is nowhere to be found, and you unlock the ability to start a New Game Plus. Then you remember the game starts with a Hopeless Boss Fight against Kaiser Oblivion, and it suddenly hits you what you have to do. You start a New Game Plus, and the opening fight plays out as normal... until you use Bravely Second, which brings in the party from your other file into this world, and now you're finally able to win the Hopeless Boss Fight and change history. That's right, they managed to make New Game Plus a case of Gameplay and Story Integration!
• Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer: Bet you didn't think it was possible to get sidetracked by doing (almost) absolutely nothing, did you? Let Chompcraft prove you wrong. One Party Chat even lampshades how addicting it is.
• That One Attack:
  • The first form of the final boss has Mandate of Heaven which forces a party member to hurt either an ally, or himself in two turns or less, or it will cast Divine Punishment, a spell that deals 99,999 to all party members. This can easily lead to a party wipe if you weren't paying attention when it was used.
  • Its second form has New World Order which is a mildly damaging attack that it can use while you're still choosing commands, ala Bravely Second. It's not actually that dangerous but it can be used without any warning and is guaranteed to surprise you the first time it's used.
  • Said second form has a power called Ruin or Salvation?, which amplifies the attack of the hands immensely; this means you need to kill the hands as soon as possible, or you will face a wipe. Thankfully, the effect is lost when the hands respawn in the next turns, but that's your only consolation.
  • Denys's Flash/Blinding Light, which deals damage to the enemy party equal to half the user's current HP. He tends to use it when his HP drops to around 10000, making it do about 5000 to each person. Unfortunately, each person's maximum HP at that point will only be around 3000-3500 if you aren't overleveled. And since it's a Fixed Damage Attack, Defaulting and stat manipulation won't help.
  • Diamante can use Diffusion, which locks one party member out of any actions except Default and Friend Summons for several turns. Pray that it doesn't hit your best attacker...or your healer...
• That One Boss:
  • Norzen, who also doubles up as an early Wake-Up Call Boss. It says something when his constant boosting of stats can easily knock out a party member defaulting at full health if not properly leveled. His only all-party move Thunder Arrow can become a Total Party Kill if no one is defending at the right time.
  • Each of the Ba'al is designed to be deliberately unfair to fight against normally, each one requiring a different strategy to successfully defeat.
    • No VI. Snowcap constantly boosts it's stats each time it uses Blizzard, and if allowed to reach full size, attacks with Avalanche, a move capable of being a Total Party Kill. The basic strategy is to constantly attack, which reduces its size and power to manageable levels. However, it can prevent this by freezing party members solid, or attacking with Ice fang, a move that drains BP. The following brave attack is almost guaranteed to end with Avalanche.
    • No V. Urchin can boost its defenses to 9999, becoming immune to attacks that can't pierce defense. It will also summon shadow clones of the party that attack whenever the person being copied makes a move.
    • No IV. Goldie will spawn enemies called comets to aid it. Goldie can devour a comet at any time, absorbing its health and statuses. The comets can buff themselves with regain, adding to Goldie's self healing. However, the most difficult part of the fight is the move Festival Music. This move has a chance of confusing everyone in the battle, Goldie included. If Goldie is confused, it can Devour party members for a One-Hit KO. A confused party member will perform actions at random, to random targets, and may even RUN AWAY, ending the fight.
    • No III. Aparatti will attack with Flame Test, a fire move that makes the party weak to water, Electrolyte Solution, a water attack that makes the party weak to Electricity, and Electrolysis, an electric move that makes the party weak to Fire. In addition, at the end of each turn, its ability Action Reaction will inflict the damage it took onto one of the party members at random, most likely resulting in a One-Hit KO. Finally, Pole shift will reverse all buffs and debuffs on the field, turning your own status moves against you.
    • No II. Redshirt will inflict the status Gluttony. Gluttony will make it so that taking damage will instead heal, but will KO party members if their health goes above full. It also has a move that will fully heal the party, which is an unavoidable Game Over if everyone has Gluttony. This means that, at any time, the battle can be over in just two turns. If a party member falls, they must be revived with the highest priority, otherwise Redshirt will Devour them, permanently removing them from the battle.
    • No I. Turtle Dove can make Party members fall in love with each other, mimicking the actions of whomever has their affections. If two party members are fixated on the same person, they will instead fight each other till one of them is KO'd.
    • Diamante will build up a mirror shield each turn. This shield will reflect all damage back to the party member currently attacking. You must Cherry Tap until this shield breaks, then unload with as many heavy attack as you can magnate, but Diamante just won't stay dead. Every time it's defeated, Diamante revives itself with full health. The fight would be unwinnable, if Denys didn't sacrifice himself to take it to the end of time.
  • She's just early enough to count as a Wake-Up Call Boss, but Aimee falls more into this than a Wake Up Call. Her gimmick is that she is a Glass Cannon; she hits incredibly hard but does not take hits well, either. So, the logical course of action would be to start spamming default to tank up damage and then overwhelm her with your strongest attacks. Except she will always open the fight with the skill Condor. Condor is a nasty ability that, for the next ten turns, not only gives the user the ability to pierce defaults, it also does more damage when it hits someone defaulting. Aimee thus forces the player to play her fight more like a standard-issue RPG game that's fully turnbased, which can catch a lot of people who have gotten used to the battle system of the Bravely series off guard. This also means you're all the more susceptible to her attacks. It's advised you bring an Astrologian to this fight so you can beef up your allies' defenses.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The sub scenarios require you to be the deciding vote in arguments and conflicts between asterisk holders. Sometimes the game presents legitimate moral quandaries, but other times one side is clearly a better option than the other.
  • Kamiizumi's event has the player choose whether they want to support Gho's decision to leave his current job or tell him to keep at it. The problem is, Gho has absolutely no reason to stay. He took the job under the impression that he would be using his knowledge of magic to improve the energy output of Ancheim's windmills. Instead, he spends the next month pushing a Wheel of Pain with no evidence that he'll ever do anything else. What's his employer's excuse for this? They would let Gho do the job they hired him for, as long as he put up with them mistreating him for long enough. And if you tell Gho to take the entirely reasonable step of not working for an employer that considers hazing a vital part of worker orientation? Kamiizumi, the guy who's supposed to be a harsh but ultimately good-hearted mentor, tries to kill his former pupil Edea and her friends so he can make Gho go back. This example is especially egregious for two reasons. First, Kamiizumi has a deep personal bond with Edea, so seeing him resort to violence for such a trivial dispute looks very out-of-character. Second, he is also aware of the bigger conflict at stake with the Glanz Empire, which can make one question his priorities when he seems more concerned with Gho's deicision than with stopping the main antagonist.
  • As pointed out on the main page, the absurdly high poor taxes that Alternis supports would result in the Grand Ship's economy collapsing while the tax reforms that Khamer proposes are not all that unreasonable. If you pick Khamer, it results in the Grandship flourishing and the citizens using their new wealth to help support the children who previously benefited from the taxes, but if you choose Alternis you get no such assurance that the Grandship won't go broke like Khamer predicted it would. Just a tacked on ending that reveals an increase of exports is allowing Grandship's citizens to make enough money just to get by, which would still lead to eventual stagnation. Plus, like the aforementioned Kamiizumi example, Alternis both is aware of the main conflict against the Kaiser and has a deep bond with Edea, yet he's ready to resort to violence against her.
  • Holly Whyte during the Hartschild sidequest. You are supposed to sympathize with her because her father was always at work and left her alone all the time, and that she doesn't want the little girl in that side quest to go through the same thing. However if you really think about it, Profiteur's plans (Making a trade route) could save BOTH the country and the little girl, plus there's no guarantee the same thing will happen again. What's worse is that Hartschild is never brought up again if you side with Holly, Profituer just runs off and you don't even confront an NPC and tell them that things will get better. Hell, the little girl will probably have to repair the wreck of a house all by herself, and take care of herself and her grandfather, who will probably die in a few years, and leave her all alone. Which makes Holly look like a selfish brat who is willing to doom entire countries all because she hasn't moved on from her past. Even worse, Profiteur seems to be genuine this time; one of Holly's ways of defending her views is bringing up that Erutus is shacking up with pirates and former criminals, and giving them money. The party immediately realize Profiteur is trying to help the economic recovery by hiring former cons and pirates as a workforce so that they not only get an honest living doing actual work as dockhands, construction workers, and ore miners, something those rough-and-tumble types would be good at, but also so they can defend the burgeoning trade route from other pirates. Given the very first sidequest in the game had Jackal, a rather sympathetic character, doing just that, it's hard to see Profituer as the villain this time. The economy is also stated to practically be in the toilet, as the wars the country is facing prevent trade by land and there's a shortage of everything but gems and minerals, which is something that could be easily solved by trading the valuable-but-worthless materials they can get. At worst, Profiteur's being pragmatic and will make a tidy profit while saving a country, and at best he's undergone a genuine Heel–Face Turn, and just happens to still love money. The scenario is supposed to be a 'the needs of the many versus the needs of the few' scenario, but when Profiteur's plan will still help the few, it's hard not to side with him.
  • Finally, the Florem school sidequest. The overwhelming majority of western fans are in agreement that, the potential educational merits of gender-segregated schooling aside, the idea of setting up a "separate-but-equal" school system in the immediate aftermath of a gender apartheid (one which was implied by Alternis's backstory to be royally messed up) is pretty much morally indefensible. The revelation that Rhea Veeling is only using this policy as a means to get into politics doesn't help matters.
• What the Hell, Costuming Department?: Like the first game. Special mention goes to Yew's Dark knight asterisk costume as the helmet makes him look like a Shiny Mega Charizard Y cosplay.
• The Woobie: Yew has some moments, even though things tend to get better for him once he starts his journey with Edea, Magnolia and Tiz. However, the prologue seems to enjoy throwing bad things at him. First, Agnès is kidnapped. Then, most of the Crystal Guard - his companions - is slaughtered during the operation to rescue her and his best friend Janne turns out to be a traitor and tries to kill him. When he returns to Gathelatio, his other best friend Nikolaï seemingly dies with the few survivors of the Crystal Guard. Then he discovers a few hours later that Nikolaï is also a traitor and faked his death. Poor guy really deserves a break...
• Woolseyism: "Hawkeye" is definitely a better name for The Gunslinger class than "Tomahawk", which implies the use of axe-like weapons.

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