50 best Nintendo 3DS games right now

Best Nintendo 3DS Games – #5 Bravely Default

Developer: Silicon Studio

Release Date: February 7th, 2014

Synopsis: In an attempt to provide a combination reboot/counter to the Final Fantasy franchise, Square Enix handed the reigns to Silicon Studio to create Bravely Default. It’s an RPG that made use of the same turn-based battle system that made Final Fantasy famous, but used new characters, a new world, and a unique Brave/Default system that allowed players to either risk everything in a few turns of battle, or conserve their energy in defense for several turns to unleash their power later. The new take on an old battle system served to carry the game both thematically and mechanically as Tiz, Agnes, Ringabel, and Edea traveled the world of Luxendarc guided by a fairy named Airy to restore the four elemental crystals and save the world.

Why It’s One Of The Best Nintendo Games: It turns out that when you take Final Fantasy, “reboot” it essentially, and throw in a slight variation on the battle system, things turn out pretty spectacular. The ability to save up or excessively spend turns in battle added an entirely new element of strategy to a battle system grown stale, along with the numerous job asterisks available to customize your party in hundreds of different ways as you mixed and matched abilities and equipment. This wouldn’t have been so extraordinary were the boss fights not so well-designed. While many decried the monotony of the final four chapters of the game, we loved the twists and variations on the battles as asterisk holders mixed and matched their combat partners for devastating combos, forcing the player to strategize well with their lineup in each match.

Then there was the matter of the plot, which followed the traditional RPG formula for the first half of the game, but broke into meta mind games in the second half, all leading up to an epic finish that left us hungry for a sequel. Though we hope that Square won’t milk the Bravely series quite the way they’ve done with Final Fantasy, we certainly wouldn’t mind a third title to wrap up the few tantalizing loose ends left by Default and Second.

Next: 4 - Shovel Knight