It seems if Akihiko Yoshida is not actually the character designer so apologises for getting that wrong. I had read a Forbs article that either made the assumetion or got it wrong themselves and thats where I got that info Naoki Ikushima is still the character designer in that case so my argument still stands as between octopath and the concept art for Bravely Default 2 I'd say the torch passing from Yoshida to him was done very well

My opinion is that the models became too high Def, while the environment became more painter-ly, with a global illumination effect thrown in. Makes it feel like 2 different companies making the assets for 1 game. I think Kingdom Hearts 3 had this plastic look thing going on in it's 0.2 trailer too, but the team managed to overcome it just in time for KH3. I think it's too late for BD2, hopefully BD3 will be better

i agree being so attached to the previous look this was jarring. Now i'm actually more open to it though.

Somthing about that plastic look to me feels almost soulless

What I didn't like so far on bravely default 2 (I'm at 100 hours playtime as of now) are the designs of towns/city/kingdoms. Felt like bravely default 1 had very creative designs

I know why people don’t like it, but I do kinda like that they look like little dolls...mostly cause I’m a doll collector. One small change I didn’t like was not being able to change the order of your party. I don’t wanna be stuck with Seth as the leader.

I'm super scared the Bravely Default series will become a one hit wonder The first game was such a breath of fresh air, both being innovative and nostalgic for JRPGs The second has decent, but not as polished as the first. But this game.... I'm seriously worried

Bravely Second definitely has the perfect character models

The backgrounds look amazing and the high poly armours look fantastic. Problem is they clash, bravely 1 and 2nd had a set art style across all aspects of the game. This honestly feels like the work of 3 different art teams working on 3 different games :/

One of the most upsetting thing about BD2 is the fact they made it sound like all the things we became attached to in BD and BS is just gone. Like come on man, the teaser at the end of BS

I was also pretty confused by that apology interview about Bravely Second since I felt it was generally an improvement over BD in most aspects. I read somewhere that the doll-like look is to complement the hand-drawn look of the towns, which I think is pretty cute. You cited a lot of people complaining about the art-style, but I've seen plenty of people, myself included, that think it looks great.

I've heard read some opinions that the apology for Bravely Second was aimed at the Asian version of the game because alot of the Quality of Life changes they made for the release was given to the European and American versions of the game, but left out in the Asian releases. If i ever find the information again i will post it here for your consumption, but i wrote it the opinion piece off as something someone was hating on him for, arguing that "we know where his loyalties lay."

I agree with you on the character models 100%. The rendering, proportions, and details just don't mesh well with the old school chibi art style. I feel like use of color (which is partially due to lighting) is also a factor. The colors in Bravely Default and Bravely Second are more muted, like a watercolor painting in a storybook. The colors in BD2 look a little too close to real life in many areas, which for me spoils the overall tone. The city looks beautiful, so why do the natural landscape the characters not have the same textures or warmth? Personally, I was a huge fan of the first Bravely Default, but I actually felt Bravely Second fell flat in comparison. Apart from Magnolia, I found myself not liking most of the new characters in Second, including the Asterisk holders. The dynamic between the main party felt off, without a good balance of personalities between them. Tiz and Yew have extremely similar personalities in particular. The absence of Revo's music also saddened me. So I actually am glad they apologized. Good work on this video! I will absolutely play the game, but I share your anxiety.

The first thing that stood out to me when I saw the 3d models of the cast is the color and texture.... they just looks.... weird and not that pleasing. I like how they did the color scheme of the first 2 games better. Adelle's bright blue and Elvis' bright yellow rose just clash somehow especially with the sheen plastic-like light reflect on the model, and it looks kinda bad oppose to the greenery in the background.... Don't get me wrong. I think the models themselves look nice individually and so do the background.... but when put together... it just clashes. I'm starting to get used to the new proportion and nose now... but the color and the plastic sheen is just... no...

Models are definately a little 'shiny', which is mostly ok but really obvious on the armour.

What makes things so uncanny, at least at first was them now having noses and defined lips/mouths. But I quickly got over it the more I played the demos. Then again, I'm easy to adapt to changes after accepting things as they are and noticing the issues. Of course if they polish things more to make them look less uncannily, then that's fine too. All I know is that it can't get any worse than this at least. Also I actually like how the armor looks now. On the first demo it was way too shiny and now it feels just right, like some real armor that do shine the same or looks as such. Besides, I want to know more about the story and how much I can bend the game with OP class combos like in the 2nd game. The menu thing does feel clunky but I think that's more of a UE issue with the system. I know of few games that behaves the same.

I don't want to put the game art down too much either, it's obviously still made by great artists, but I was a bit saddened too that BD2 didn't make the jump to HD quite smoothly :( I do remember some old eastern re-run doll shows kinda looking like that on tv when I was a little kid, so maybe that was the style they tried to go for? Then it'd be more understandable. It's nice that they're trying something else at least. But anyhow, if they were going for the old doll style, it still kinda clashes with the somewhat too realistic environments and armour (not the cities obviously). Plasticy and/or doll style is fantastic when it's done right, like in zelda link to the past remake, animal crossing new horizons or pokemon brilliant diamond / shining pearl remake etc. but something here fell a bit short. As mentioned in other comments here, it seems the art style isn't consistent enough between armor / cities / characters. There's a clash. Really, really hoping they'd dare go for the "less is more" approach in BD3 and some even much more stylized graphics.

This was such a great video, i don't understand why you have so few subscribers You basically described all of my worries for this game in a way i was searching for myself but couldn't describe properly, especially about the artstyle I'm super excited Revo is back, but the artstyle and gameplay of the demo really bothered me, i don't have high hopes for the release

Just played a bit of the demo and I loved the majority of it. Like the town, being able to zoom out and appreciate the locations. I also think that the game is really beautiful (except for some textures here and there, but nothing to bad). But while I was playing the game I noticed that the characters looked off to me? The eyes, the shiny skin and I reaaaaalllyyyy hate the Armour, it looks so shit. But I couldn't put my finger on it, this video is great in explaining it! Played the first bravely default when it came out (never the second, just missed it) and loved it. So I am still excited and hopeful that this one will give me the same feeling, with a grain of salt, something is off, but if the story and game play is great, I can look past these character models :D Love you video!

Really nice video. Another thing that was weird to me is that now that the city is also 3D the game has a mix of more realistic but still try to be 2D chibi with the characters. To me the characters looked like was trying to fit with a art book style, and this really worked with me. Bravely Default 2 just kinda looks that was tried what OT did with more magical and surreal scenarios, and I also loved that art style, but, again, the mix is what I think that makes a little off to me. But still really looking forward to the game. Also, I just like to see people talking about the Bravely Series

So I add point 3... The battle field wider than BD and BS, it give a feel of empty 😓

I usually don’t mind older characters in jrps, but I don’t want to play “dress up” with some old dude. I’d keep him in one outfit the entire game

Now that I've seen this and read some comments it all make sense why I don't feel some emotions from the characters here I thought it was only poor writing but apparently I can see emotions from the first two games compared to this one

After playing the game for a bit over 3 days, and I did share the concern of the art style, it slowly managed to grow on me as I kept playing and now I don't mind it at all. However, BD and BS do look better in comparison imo.

When you mentioned at the start that some pdople thought this game was perfect and you were being fussy, I thought to myself that it seems perfect to me, but I'm happy to listen to your thoughts. Now I'm noticing the things you mentioned. Great video though. I hope the game ends up being fun for you when it comes out.

I want silicon studios back

I was excited to try out this series, these graphics really are unnerving. Normally I think I could overlook bad graphics but there's something about these that just are unsettling and make me not even want to look at the characters.

I prefer the old style too. But I expect Ill pick it up anyway, play it for 30 hours and never finish it. That’s the JRPG way.

One of the things I never understood about the art work of them all together is why is almost in all of them elvis in the black mage outfit. I'm already under the assumption hes like the airy of this game or something like ringabel

Nice video. What stick to me the most about the artstyle are the skintones. If you go to 4:39 you can see how the skin color seems a bit more vibrant and also uniform. The original had the are surrounding the eyes and mouth clearer, while the neck and even arms got a darker shade. The new game seems to have one color for all skin and leave the lighting to the game engine. It looks somewhat like a plastic doll. However I don't seem to have this problem with darker skinned character like in 6:19. (P.S: I felt like such a nitpicky guy writing this)

Finally someone who talks about this. I agree with you. I was really happy when I knew they were going to do the BD II but I this the original art style and vibe were better. Despite having good jod desings the characters look a bit off to me. Besides some monsters are also strange. I also don't know why some poeple say Second was bad. I think it was a great sequel and I love the new jobs, characters, locations etc.

The texture of these char models kinda reminds me of the wonderful 101, the thing is in that game it was intentional it almost gave a toy like feeling that fits the super hero vs villain theme of the game while here, it feels out of place

You know why the characters stick like a sore thumb in towns? Because towns and field areas have completely different art styles, and the models seem to have been made with the field areas in mind. Those look like dioramas, with blurred edges like we are looking at it through a macro lens, which fits the character materials way more. And the character’s mouths are pretty horrible IMO. I’m liking the game so far but the inconsistency is really sad, considering how amazing BD and BS looked, with way less horsepower under the hood. It does take a bit of the fun out of it for me. It feels cheap. Like a mobile gacha thing (ironic since SE has better looking character models in war of the visions)

Yeah, I never played the first 2. I thought BD2 looked fine, but then I saw BD1 and my opinion changed. The shading appears to be a big part of it. I used photoshop to remove the nose and it does help a bit. They relied a lot on the engine to dfine shapes through lighting. BD1 had more of the shading subtly baked into the texture. Also, the eyes don't seem to be modeled in BD1, but rather like textures that are swapped out, which works way better for the style. The mouth has the same thing going on. I don't think the proportions really matter that much. Although having the smaller details in the hair for example, instead of the big defining shapes also looks odd. It's a pity, but ultimately not a dealbreaker.

I only find the problem with eyes, the line of sight is dead center, straight ahead. On BD 1, white portion of eyes isn't visible, so even if they don't move, them being pointing straight ahead isn't noticeable much

I also felt the new visual looks oddly plastic when I first saw the trailer but I couldn't put my finger on why. Having seen this vid I think i know a bit about what is bugging me. You have inconsistency with how things are rendered... the crystal look hyper realistic with light and refraction and depth... then you have items of close that are super shiny but like you said more in a plastic way then a realistic way... and finally you have the skin which just looks... wrong. it's almost like it's not affected by light at all, there are little to no highlights or strong shadows/cast shsdows... it's not refracting light properly.. it's actually something i think were if they did have a cell shade just for the skin it would help so much. I think if they had taken the almost paper texture of those lovely backgrounds and applied it to everything you would have gotten this kind of story book look that would have hit it out of the park. but yeah very inconsistent style overall makes the game look... off

Say do you recon you need to play the previous games to understand what is going on in the story?

Are you sure Yoshida did the character design for BDII? It looks very much like the work of Ikushima, and I havent seen anything saying that Yoshida was involved in this game at all. In any case, I agree with your points about the textures and proportions. I'd also say that I think the towns looks less detailed and stylized and thats a little disappointing. Overall Im getting more and more used to this "style" though, and I think the lighting and textures are the last details theyve been working on. I already saw a big improvement in the second demo, so the final will probably have it the most polished.

fully agreed

fair points, but if gameplay/mechanics can overlap its aesthetics, its good

I'm hoping the apology refers to the story. Bravely Default was this awesome, twisted in-depth story. Bravely Second was cheese, slapstick, and ball jokes with completely out of place 4th wall breaking. Hard agree on the art style (and voices) in Bravely Default 2, but I'm still very excited for the game. I'm excited for the boss difficulty (as you've alluded to) and the possibility of returning to more of an original Bravely Default story theme.

For me the biggest thing is the child like bodies with adult features. It's unsettling and off putting and just feels a bit weird. I'd sooner they kept them completely stylised or went with something similar to Xenoblade where they look quite animated but they're clearly proportioned properly. I can't see past some of the characters tiny feet either...just looks comical in a distracting way.

My biggest problem is the Unreal Engine. The effects and the reflection of everything is so bad

I agree, the models look kinda off, but look on the bright side! At least they didn't go the Pokémon route, and have Wingull float like a UFO, Charizard staring off into space like he just got his brains harvested by aliens, that one scene where Piers is singing but there's no voice acting, Hop moving exactly like Hau, and so much more..........

I personally don't mind it at all, tho I can see why others would. I do like the original games' character models more tho, but just by a bit.

The characters are a blur of pixels in the first game....it looks waaaaay better. In my opinion at least.

the models actually look creepy when up-close, the mouths should have been animated textures and not fully 3d, it makes them look uncanny

The big thing u missed is how they attack air and not make physical impact with enemies. Its as if kids are playing damaging each other then acting as if it hurt

Tbh I like the art style for bravely default 2 it’s just that they look weird up close.

It reminds me of little big planet now

I actually liked it.

It's those dead soulless staring eyes and weird lips. I can't sense any personality from these character models.

30 hours in and this game is fire.

I like this video. I personally like the new designs more then the previous game, but i liked all the points you made.

A few comments: Akihiko Yoshida didn't do the character designs for Bravely Default 2. I'm unsure where Forbes got that idea, but they're incorrect. They may have either assumed or googled "Bravely Default 2 Character Designer" which, prior to BD2 coming out would have said Akihiko Yoshida because the google engine assumed you were asking about Bravely Second. You already know of course, but yes, you're not alone in thinking the art direction's uneven and kind of just... not good. I personally think all the towns they've shown off in the trailers are more visually interesting than the towns in the previous games, which were already fantastic, but outside of towns, everything else is very dicey. I know it's not because a chibi, toy-like artstyle doesn't work in HD though; you need only point to another game that Square Enix produced years ago, World of Final Fantasy. That game features both Chibi characters and Semi-Chibi characters similar to Bravely Default and used a Tilt-Shift effect with its depth-of-field blur to make everything look like a toy set. BD2 also has depth of field blur and it's using it, so it's not even a hardware limitation that would lead to them not doing the same thing with it. Maybe they were going for that and it's just ultimately failed? I can't tell. I think a lack of experience is part of the problem. As I understand it most of the dev team came from the Bravely Mobile game, so it seems to me HD game production is not something they're familiar with. So you get stuff like needless motion blur and lighting that really isn't being used properly.

Of course I don’t want to invalidate your thoughts about it, but I seriously don’t understand why they look bad. They just don’t look bad to me. Maybe because I’m new to the series? Remember how pissed everyone was about Wind Waker’s style, and now it’s highly regarded? Maybe this will end up that same way?

I always thought the game looked weird or not as pretty and this made me realize what the issue is. I think the lightning and shiny aesthetic looks good on monsters but bad for the characters. SuperFlat is still the best. Luckily for me I found out I quickly got accustomed to it in the demo. Your menu nitpick is indeed nitpicky though, I thought it was ok. Even the menu in FE Three Houses freezes for a second, so its most likely just a switch thing.

I'm confused. It's like when someone tries to show me how much better something looks running at 120fps vs 60fps. I just cant see it. When I first saw the reveal trailer for BD2 I legit didnt see anything off about the character models. It felt very fitting for the bravely universe. The word "nitpick" comes to mind when hearing the criticisms of this game. Idk man. Game looks basically exactly how I imagined bravely would look like on console vs handheld.

Nice upload man, Not gonna lie, I seem to be in the minority here, I adore the backgrounds in bravely default 1 and 2 but always hated the character designs, big bobbleheads and chibi, I hate it lol. I actually prefer the look of bravely default 2 character models but they are still really bad. I only bought bravely default on 3ds for the first time last year because the characters turned me off for so long but the game looked so good otherwise. Hers hoping bravely 2 is awesome :)

Looks fine to me. I'm not even necessarily planning on getting the game, but this all seems like pretty extreme nitpicking to me.

It's not really the lighting but more so the texture of the object/models, the character models has a mix of matte and glossy look which caused a weird shading on characters, like it ok for some things but I feel that for chibi style, a more flat look would have been better. Also the biggest problem is the use of ambient occlusion, its done pretty badly in this game or imo it doesnt really fit the aesthetic of it, unreal uses of AO is mostly for realistic games but in a fantasy and especially chibi game, it just makes it seems off

I love the clay motion look on the enemies wow ! Just played final Demo looks and plays amazing... I think this will be one of the best games of 2021

It seems like they lost so much of their core team that made the bravely games special.

The best game in the series, completed BD 1 5 times and second 3 times - bravely default 2 is a huge improvement on both games, art style is much better and the story is so gripping, jobs are better, thats literally the only way to summarise how much better BD 2 is than the others. I dont understand the problem with the art style its better:-/

The Big heads look on older Charakter with kinde smal heads realy creepy

I played it all the bravely games and absolutely loved them and the art style. Maybe I’m an oddity but I actually am okay with this art style and the way everything looks. I understand not everybody’s going to feel that way but, I’m very much looking forward to this game. I will say that the creepiest part about the characters is their faces though

The UE4 environment in some scenes looks extremely bad

i never played any of the previous games but i really really like the characters' art style. it looks modern but also classic. also i really like the way the backgrounds and mosters look

Eh I have gotten used to the designs

I like the demo but the art style is very off putting, can't even lie. The look plastic and somehow less alive and animated as a result. Hopefully the game can compensate and if there is a Bravely Default 3 the art can be updated. I think it's the faces though overall, they're not emotive enough.

It looks like a mobile game

I like the idea of the art style but some of the characters just don’t look good. Like some of the asterisk holders look rly bad Also there is very little diversity in the characters especially the main four lol

This game looks farking terrible and Im glad you went into detail about it. I really really REALLY just hate how everything looks.

Game looks and feels good to me. Been playing an early copy for about 4 days now and it's on the same level as the first game (if not better) in my opinion. The graphics grow on you quick and the story is a bit cliché at times, but has a lot of of twists and turns that make it feel fresh from time to time. About 33 hours in and haven't had a dull moment yet. If you're second guessing the game, don't, it's amazing and well worth the play through. Don't let this video discourage you from a great RPG. It's worthy of being the true sequel to the series and has some epic moments and boss fights so far.

that lips, I can't with their lips, who have that Idea to give them a freaking lips?

I liked them, got your point but still like them, like dolls, cool. Feel them quite similar to the original B. D

I guess I’m blind as I like how it all looks 😂

For the most part, I do like the art style of this game, but I do get where you are coming from because in some shots they do look a little uncanny. Take 7:02 - 7:06 for instance.

Eh. It’s cute. ☺️

I really loved Default and Second, but I had no interest in "2" because of how ugly I thought it looked. Plastic graphics and almost no sex-appeal, I bet its because they were afraid of westerners.

I truly think this game looks leaps and bounds better. It reflects a generational upgrade from its predessors. The height of the characters could mean cause they are all 20 years old or older. But just me, I want see advancement like this. I have the first 2 that I can enjoy, im excited to see how this one goes. Small improvements can be made, but overall very pleased. Long as their is no annoying cryst fairy then I'll be happy lol

I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion, but I actually like how BD2 looks more than the first two games. Something about the lack of noses was just offputting to me.

I live how they look in bd2

This is probably the worst nitpicking video I've ever seen.. Do you enjoy life at all?