It may have took 14 months of uhm-ing and ahh-ing since it’s Japanese debut, but Square Enix has finally worked their localisation magic and released Bravely Default in the US last month. The good news? It looks like the gaming giant’s move to cater to western JRPG fans has paid off.
According to a Nintendo PR Email, Bravely Default has sold 200k units in just three weeks, which is impressive, considering that it’s a JPRG on a portable console that also happens to be a new IP. This gives Square Enix all the more reason to bring the sequel, Bravely Second, over – hopefully without 14 months’ worth of agony this time.
Incidentally, Nintendo has also shared that this is a 10% improvement over the sales which last year’s 3DS strategy darling, Fire Emblem: Awakening, has managed in the same time frame, which also released in the quiet early February period. The release for both these games were notable as they had Nintendo’s full backing in the marketing department – website splashes, magazine adverts and TV spots leading up to the launch for them were surprisingly common. For a JRPG that doesn’t start with the letter F (and ends in –inal Fantasy), that’s incredibly rare.
For those who don’t know, Bravely Default is an old-school-style JRPG which first released in Japan in December 2012 to spectacular reception, and has often been compared to the PlayStation era of Final Fantasy games (VII, VIII and IX). If you’re not one of the 200k in the US who’s picked up Bravely Default, and is wondering if the game is for you, just ask yourself these three questions:
- 1) Do I like JRPGs?
- 2) Do I like my main game mechanics to be traditional as hell, but in a familiar and warm way?
- 3) Do I like dressing up my characters with stupid wolf masks and red pimp suits?
If your answer is yes to the above, what are you waiting for? Grab it on the eShop right now and contribute to those sale figures!