Bravely Second: Nintendo’s statement about the side quests changes

Bravely Second: End Layer came out last month in Europe (on February 26th), and will be released on April 15th in North America. The Western version features quite a few changes compared to the Japanese, including changed costumes, but also something a bit more substantial involving side quests.

In the Japanese version, you have to settle dispute between two Asterisk holders. You can chose to side with one of them, and if you manage to defeat the other, you will get their Asterisk. Your team would then lament the choice made, which was originally designed so that players would empathise with the characters’s situation. But in the European (and North American) version of the game, this was changed.

Here’s Nintendo official statement about this change, which was made by Square-Enix in conjunction with Silicon Studio, and based on players feedback:

Based on feedback received after Bravely Second: End Layer’s release in Japan, the development team at Square Enix, in conjunction with Silicon Studio, decided to implement a number of revisions to the game for the purpose of improving its quality and creating a more enjoyable product.

 

One such change affects the game’s optional side quests, where players encounter a conflict between two opposing parties and choose which party to side with.

 

When the game was released in Japan, each side quest would end with the team lamenting the decision they made, regardless of the player’s decision. This was intended to help players empathise with the characters’ situation, but overwhelming feedback from players indicated that they felt an unsatisfying disconnect between their intentions and the characters’ reactions. In response, these side quest endings were amended to show the party readily coming to terms with their actions in a manner that does not cause the player undue regret for their decisions.

 

These changes do not affect the gameplay or the course of events in the game, and were made with the intention of improving the game experience for players.

Bravely Second: End Layer (3DS) comes out on April 15th in North America. The game can already be pre-loaded on the Nintendo eShop, and a playable demo is also available.

Source: NintendoLife