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Bravely Default's Strong Sales Continue, Reach 1 Million Worldwide

The bulk of those sales have come from outside of Japan.

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GS News Update: Bravely Default's Strong Sales Continue, Reach 1 Million Worldwide
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Well-regarded JRPG Bravely Default has sold more than one million units around the world, according to Square Enix.

The publisher revealed its 3DS RPG has topped 400,000 units in Japan and 600,000 everywhere else in the world, reports Japanese website Dengeki Online. That brings its total sales to over one million units, a number confirmed by the game's official Twitter account (via NeoGAF).

It's an impressive number for a game that--despite starting out as a Final Fantasy game--does not actually carry the name of the franchise, which many feel has been struggling for years. The game earned a strong response from critics and fans alike, who felt it returned to the core of Final Fantasy that has been lost in the series' most recent entries.

Bravely Default was developed by Square Enix but ended up being published outside of Japan (where it was released in 2012) by Nintendo. That proved to be a wise decision, as Nintendo announced earlier this year that it had sold over 200,000 copies in just the three weeks following its North American release in February.

The game's success prompted Square Enix to realize it may have been focusing too much on building games for a global audience, rather than its core fans. "For the new games we'll be developing from this point on, while this may sound a bit extreme, we've been talking about making them as heavy JRPGs," Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda said in March.

A sequel to Bravely Default called Bravely Second is currently in development, but neither a release date nor any confirmation about a western release has yet to be announced.

Are you happy to see a more traditional-style JRPG like this succeed? Let us know in the comments.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

Bravely Default: Flying Fairy
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179107199999

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179107199999

Best part about all of this. Lighting Returns had a bigger budget and sold a good amount of copies and yet Bravely Default did just as well with a smaller budget. Characters,story,gameplay,music. That's what Bravely Default had going for it and other cool things like getting help from across the world and little things like putting your town back together. FF13 was to over dramatic and lost that thing that was Final Fantasy. Not talking about gameplay wise but the overall feel. They added Chocobos and later on Moogles just to remind players it was Final Fantasy. In Lighting Returns they had old songs from past FF games as well but it was just for show.Bravely Default. Had substance and didn't rely on the name of Final Fantasy. It didn't rely on anything except its own charm which is what made Final Fantasy a major franchise.The problem with the 13 series was they tried to hard. Sometimes you have to remember K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Silly. I'm happy to see A Bravely 2nd is on the way. But I want to see more new RPGs published by SE just like they did when they were Squaresoft. Also more genre of games and less FF!! Gotta Branch out more. We don't need AAA games. Just good games. Budget as Bravely Default has shown doesn't mean anything. Much like with Call of Duty. Basically a small buget can give birth to a good game, while a large budget can give birth too an oversaturated overly shallow game. (CoD) As SE has seen you don't have to make a game tailor for everyone likings. A good game is a game that everyone will end up loving anyway. Sales do matter but at the same time for some games Sales just show a fad. Don't follow the fad sales. Just do what you do as the saying goes...didn't mean to make a short essay LOL just happy about Bravely Default and what it has done. Kinda like a David and Golitath thing

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daikkenaurora12

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<< LINK REMOVED >>Lighting Returns was terrible

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179107199999

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179107199999

<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> I wasn't trying to endorse it. And I believe I touched on what made the game the not a good FF game. and also I was pointing out its sales.

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FLEEBS

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FLEEBS

I hope these numbers prove to Square Enix that they need to start making real Final Fantasy games again.

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daikkenaurora12

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daikkenaurora12

Game needs to come out for the Wii U, along with Pokemon U.

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ArchoNils2

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It was a good game, I enjoyed it a lot but it did not keep me until the end, I left it somewhere after reactivating all 4 stones. Ringabel is annoying and the story extremly forgetable. Still better than FF13 1-3 cobined :S SE just lost it, nowadays the Tales of series took totally over, Xillia was brilliant

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179107199999

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179107199999

<< LINK REMOVED >> Ringabel is not Annoying!!! and the story being forgettable...really? I think it just isn't your type of game


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ArchoNils2

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Well, nice for you if you like it. For me it is just an average JRPG. I really like the job system. Brave system feels kinda weird, since you can kill pretty much all enemies in the first round if you go all in with all characters. Was at least like this in the part I played (until the 4th stone is saved). The story itself (so far) feels like a poor mans Tales of Symphonia which I recently completed again. But yeah, my opinion is based on a not finished playthrough, so I might be missing out on some important stuff, I just lost my interest

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abHS4L88

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abHS4L88

<< LINK REMOVED >>

It's the whole risk/reward thing because yeah you typically can kill regular enemies in one round, but if you're not careful and you don't kill them and for -4 BP, then you can easily lose the battle. The game ramps up in difficulty later on, making for more intense and strategic battles, especially against the Eternian officers.


Many JRPGs (from my experience) tend to feature stories that get really exciting towards the 2nd half since the major twist is usually revealed.

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ArchoNils2

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Yeah this is why I state exactly to where I played, in case it gets better later on. In my case it just wasn't interesting enough to get there. To be hones the Brave/Default and the job system are the only thing that get me going to this point. Maybe I'll continue one day, but right now I am busy playing other games I enjoy more

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abHS4L88

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<< LINK REMOVED >>

I hope you find the the time to finish it, especially since there is a sequel being made.

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ArchoNils2

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> I actually have no idea how much there is after that point. I have a lot of jobs unlocked at this point and several of them maxed.But yeah, looking forward to a sequel, hopefully they can build on the Brave/Default system

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abHS4L88

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<< LINK REMOVED >>

If you are looking forward to the sequel, then you best be finishing the first one since it leads into the sequel.

Anyways, do you remember the last job class you earned? It'll tell me basically how much left of the game you have or what the last thing you remember doing was.

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> SPOILER!!! Well that last thing I remember was saving the stone / crystal whatever in the town where they abused it for a hospital where Edeas mother (iirc) lies

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abHS4L88

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Oh wow, I would say you're around 35% finished. You've been defeating the Eternian officers right? At this point you should have the Templar class (the last class you automatically gain) which leaves 3 more classes (all of which you NEED to get since 2 of them give you some of the best abilities while the final class makes leveling up your classes and characters much easier, because you're going to need all the power you can get since the final boss is hard).

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> Well, it bored me after that point so I left it. I'm sorry, but are you sure I need those classes? After all I seem to already own the strongest spear with maxed Valceries and I can easely make max damage with this special attack or using the pirates damage multiplier skills. Killing enemies is sooo easy with 3 Valcs who just use the "attack all" skill which gets a damage boost because it targets all characters. I actually did not have any challenge at all, I killed even bosses in the first round xD

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<< LINK REMOVED >>

Wow, my Valkyries sucked, but I did like the Pirate class. The Dark Knight and Vampire classes give you awesome skills, especially the Vampire, which has blue mage skills, allowing me access to some powerful yet low costing abilities, coupled with a "Natural Talent" Monk, allowed me to dish out max damage to all enemies frequently. The Conjurer is not that great a class, but the skill "Oblivion" wipes out all enemies (I believe) 20 levels lower than you and when combined with exp+ items/abilities, made leveling up much faster.


The bosses do get progressively harder, especially the Eternian Officers since they start teaming up. The final boss is impossible to kill in the first round so if your party has no healer/tank/buffer, you'll definitely lose.

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> I pretty much use Agnes for everything else besides damage dealing. She has white and black mage both maxed ^^

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abHS4L88

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<< LINK REMOVED >>

Later in the game, black mages simply don't do enough damage or require expensive skills to be powerful enough. I typically had Agnes and Ringabel be my buffers/tanks/healers since Tiz and Edea naturally have higher attack power. The 2 were either a mix of White Mage, Spiritmaster, Performer, or Merchant.

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> Well it worked at least fine to the point I got to ^^

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OMG, through this conversation, I discovered that GameSpot doesn't allow the usage of words like be-at or phrases like "ki-cking bu-tt" like seriously?

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ArchoNils2

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> yeah, they have some weird rules around here :)

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abHS4L88

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<< LINK REMOVED >>

I stuck with the same strategy for a while also but when the game started destroying me, I started developing different types of parties for different situations so yeah, just be ready to change things up if your current party gets defeated.

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abHS4L88

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You should finish it, Ringabel has some great character development towards the end. I did really like the story but thought that it was ridiculous that I had to repeat the Awakening Ceremony 5 times -___- although I always enjoyed defeating the bosses repeatedly, which got super hard the last round since the Eternian officers teamed up.

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ArchoNils2

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Well I really lost the motivation for it, playing some Mario and Luigi Dream on the thing now (until the new Pokemon is out). Will the story actually make any sense later on? Like is Ringabells book explained? And why there was a huge hole in the hometown of Tiz?

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abHS4L88

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<< LINK REMOVED >>

From what I remember (it's been a few months since I beat the game), the game wraps up everything pretty well, and everything that isn't answered, well, there's a sequel, but what you're asking about does get covered.


I'm curious to know what your theories are.

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soulless4now

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soulless4now

Final Fantasy...that series is so foreign to me now....

Still need to get Bravely Default. Too many games I need to play and beat.

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Thank the Best Buy deal last week, which I couldnt get BD due to it being sold out.

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deactivated-64efdf49333c4

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Yay. I thought the game needed to sell a lot more to change Square's mind, but it looks like this is will be enough. When a Japanese CEO says they plan to make their games more like the JRPGs of old, they mean it.


Wish I could buy the game. I can't stand handhelds.

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AyatollaofRnR

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Still need to get this one.

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Thanatos2k

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Console and handheld are different markets, genius.


People do not buy third party games on Nintendo consoles, yes.

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<< LINK REMOVED >> What did I just read? Nintendo is the king of handhelds, which is why third party devs have been releasing games on their handhelds for over more than a decade. Nintendo home consoles? Thats another story. Ignorant tr0lls -err...I mean people.


Anyway, BD is perfect as a 3DS game.

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drsw36

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> You mad bro?

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> lol Funny thing is....the 1st part of my comment was toward the so called trolls. The 2nd part was toward you. lol smh

Also, buy Dragon Quest if gamers want a Square game on Wii U because that's all Square's giving Nintendo for their home consoles.

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Just to think that this beauty lost the GOTM award for a DLC....

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I really want to play Bravely Default but I'm just not going to buy a 3DS to play it.


Come one Square, port it to something else!

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abHS4L88

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<< LINK REMOVED >>

If you like JRPGs, especially hardcore ones, the 3DS is an excellent console for that.

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<< LINK REMOVED >> NEVER!! NINTENDO EXCLUSIVE 4 LIFE!!

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Was just thinking this myself. I would buy it if it was on GoG or Steam.

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ANUBISZER0

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ANUBISZER0

More RPG's like this one please.

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