In their interview with Famitsu, the minds behind Bravely Default II went as in-depth as they could as to what their plans are for the upcoming Nintendo Switch RPG. There were a number of tidbits dropped in the interview. One such tidbit is that they are going back to the series’ roots. Their work on Octopath Traveler was an extension of the work they did on Bravely Second, improving on what worked and what didn’t, and led to the development of Bravely Default II. The game is named Bravely Default II because the developers want to give the series a fresh start and make it more accessible to newcomers to the series, as opposed to the former installments in the franchise. While the first game had younger characters, this game has older protagonists and a much more mature story; for instance, Elvis is 35, and the rest of the characters are in their 20s. This also reflects the ages of the development team, as most are in their 30s.
Another cool aspect is that it has the same character designer as Octopath Traveler, which if is anything to go on, means the design will be superb. There is a fresh feeling to the game for those who have played the first two; it’s a game that stands all on its own. When asked about online functionality, the designers would not comment on it, which gives hope that there may be some online functionality. What that would be is anyone’s guess though. The number of musical tracks is much more than in previous games, and they hope to put out a demo that will allow you to transfer your save data to the full game, such as with Octopath Traveler.
Bravely Default II is coming out later in 2020, which cannot come soon enough.