Dengeki Readers On Why They Didn’t Buy Bravely Default

Last week, Bravely Default celebrated its first year anniversary with some delicious cake and a special NicoNico Live stream featuring series producer Tomoya Asano, who talked about Bravely Default: For the Sequel. As a follow-up feature, Dengeki shows results of a survey they conducted, and some extra tidbits from the live stream.

Here are some charts from Dengeki’s questionnaire, for people who’ve played Bravely Default and those who have yet to try it out.

The first question is for those who’ve played the game: “How far did you get in Bravely Default: Flying Fairy?”

• Beat the secret boss—36%
• Beat the true final chapter—29%
• Beat the final chapter—12%
• Beat the fourth chapter—13%
• Didn’t get to the fourth chapter—10%

Next question: “What are your reasons for not having played Bravely Default: Flying Fairy?”

• There were other games I was playing or wanted to play—25.1%
• I didn’t have a 3DS—24.7%
• I didn’t have time—11.0%
• I didn’t have enough money—6.8%
• I waited too long to buy it—5.5%
• The demo version didn’t appeal to me—5.0%
• I was waiting for the “complete” edition—4.1%
• I read other players’ reviews—2.7%
• Because it was on 3DS—2.3%
• I was waiting for a price drop—1.8%

Finally, “Will you be purchasing Bravely Default: For the Sequel”? With answers from players who’ve played the original version on the left, and those who’ve yet to play it on the right.

Starting with those who’ve already played Bravely Default:

• Already pre-ordered—20%
• Will most likely buy—67%
• Unsure—12%
• Will likely not buy—1%

Then, those who’ve yet to play Bravely Default:

• Already pre-ordered—20%
• Will most likely buy—59%
• Unsure—12%
• Will likely not buy—1%

Interesting that nearly 25% of those polled said that they didn’t purchase the original Bravely Default because they didn’t have a Nintendo 3DS at the time. Well, if they don’t own one even now, they probably will own 3DSes by the time For the Sequel is available, thanks to Monster Hunter, Pokémon and a strong slate of other titles. Last we heard, Bravely Default had sold a whopping 300,000 copies—which is fantastic for a new IP—but there’s still plenty of room for the franchise to grow in the future.

Something to note, however, is that Dengeki are a publication with a reputation for catering to more enthusiast gamers, so naturally, the numbers above aren’t necessarily representative of what the audience at large thinks.