All About Bravely Default’s Job Change System (And How To Make A Super Mage)

While this is technically the fourth Bravely Default: Flying Fairy demo, this is only demo that lets players explore a dungeon and try out the combat system. I’d say it’s the first real demo since the other hands-ons had a small slice of the game.

In this demo, Tiz, Edea, and Lingabel explore a cave filled with monsters like giant beetles and conjurers (with owl heads). I was eager to tryout the new jobs so I made Tiz a Superstar, Edea a Magic Knight, and Lingabel a Red Mage. Instead of the standard red cape and hat, Red Mages look like flamenco dancers with frilly shirts accessorized with roses. Mystic Knights have an Arabian style and Superstars dress like Elvis Presley impersonators. If you make Edea a Superstar she gets a bunny costume.

None of these classes are new, but Square Enix made some changes to them for Bravely Default. Let’s start with Superstar, which essentially a souped up bard. The Superstar class starts off with a song that restores one BP (brave point) for an ally. One way to use this ability is to "pass" your turn to another attacker who went over the limit and used all of their Brave. (Check out this post for an explanation of the Brave & Default battle system.) Superstars aren’t a slouch, though! They fight with swords instead of harps and like all class can dual wield too. Level up Superstar and you’ll learn a tune that boosts the entire party’s defense and Power of Life, a melody that boosts attack. Yeah, they’re a buffing class, but the true usefulness of Superstar is their inherent ability to cut MP cost in half.

Now if you pair that with a Red Mage’s ability to use white and black magic… you have a super mage.  Like Final Fantasy V you can equip a command ability so you can have a Knight that can cast white magic or a Thief that can sing. Players also have three support ability points to select skills like Aspil Sword, which makes your standard attack deal less damage, but absorbs MP. You have to learn that skill from the Mystic Knight class. Just like in Final Fantasy V, Mystic Knights can enchant their weapons with spells so you can hit enemies with fira, blizzara or negative status spells like fear with each attack.

Magic in Bravely Default is tiered to different levels so when you start with a Mystic Knight you can only use level two sword magic – poison, silence, and sleepel. Mystic Knights have an innate skill to increase magic damage, so if you want thundara to hurt more this is your class. Red Mage has revenge as their class ability, which awards them 1 BP if an enemy strikes them. Knight has cover which automatically protects allies on low HP and Freelancer has "Late Bloomer" an ability that increases your character’s strength depending on how many jobs you mastered.

That’s right, Freelancer has specific skills in Bravely Default. They can learn an ability to restore an ally’s HP, scan (let’s you see an enemy’s HP and weaknesses), endure (you may survive a fatal attack with 1 HP), and an ability to boost the encounter rate. Speaking of the encounter rate, Bravely Default has a lot of random battles, but since you can fast forward animations and overload on brave points it’s possible to finish most fights in 10 seconds. Major enemies like the Land Turtle that blocks you from moving forward appear on the field.

Knights are a tank class with Chivalry skills that let you ignore an enemy’s defense when you use a physical attack. They also have support abilities that allow you to equip a sword in both hands or a shield in both hands. While you can double your physical attack strength with the "Both Hands" ability, dual wielding seems equally as effective.

I think the ultimate magic using class in the demo is a Superstar with Red Magic as a second ability. Overlimit (boosts magic attack damage if your BP is less than 0), Fire Wall (a chance you’ll counterattack with a fire spell), and Aspil Sword are good support abilities. I turned Edea into a super fighter by making her a Knight with the Mystic Sword ability and giving her two swords to wield. Her support abilities are Voltage (boosts defense and attack) and Endure.

Wow, that’s a lot of customization options and we’re just talking about a demo. I think Final Fantasy V fans are going to dig Bravely Default: Flying Fairy when it comes out on October 11.