To this day, it still appalls me that Square Enix were surprised by the original Bravely Default’s reception in the West – it shows a clear lack of understanding of their audience, and of what made their older games so popular. That Tomoyo Asamo felt the need to apologise for Bravely Second also shows this. Sometimes it feels like blind luck that Square Enix actually make an enjoyable experience, because they clearly didn’t intend to if they can’t recognise when they did. They’ve been wholly swallowed into this ridiculous notion that the JRPG genre is dead – and oh my god, isn’t that ironic – and their repeated attempts to “modernise” their games over the years have been more embarrassing than Sonic’s repeated re-designs.

But I think if we get an apology for this game in the not-too-distant future, it won’t be entirely undeserved.

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