The original game was brimming with charm and adorable character designs by Akihiko Yoshida. The gameplay premise had you either Defaulting (guarding) each turn or Brave attacking multiple times, which would put you at a disadvantage on the following turn.

It was an intriguing risk-reward system that played with the traditional turn-based mechanics of modern role-playing games. Combined with the beautiful art style, Bravely Default possessed a unique charm that is unfortunately quite rare these days.

Therefore, the announcement of Bravely Default receiving an HD update for the Switch 2 was very welcome news. Although the stereoscopic 3D features of the original 3DS version would no longer be present, an enhanced version would now be accessible to a much wider audience.

That would indeed be the case—if more attention had been given to the remaster.

This isn’t to say the game is bad—far from it. It runs smoothly, and the main characters look great in their updated HD visuals, but regrettably, many of the enemies don't fare as well.

This is due to the fact that the original Bravely Default was built for the 3DS, complete with all the graphical limitations that platform imposed.

At the time, the polygon count for both main characters and enemies was heavily restricted, especially considering the game also had to support the 3D effect of the 3DS, which essentially doubled the rendering workload.

All of this was perfectly acceptable for the 3DS, but when transitioning to a more powerful console like the Switch 2, which has significantly greater graphical capabilities, more effort should have gone into upgrading the character and enemy models accordingly.

Unfortunately, despite being a launch title for the Switch 2, not enough time or resources were invested in improving the visual quality of the enemies and certain main characters.

While the background environments look stunning and most of the main characters appear decent, the enemy designs feel extremely basic, and the contrast is quite noticeable.

One of the standout features of Bravely Default’s appeal was its presentation of characters. Given that the original game launched on the 3DS, the art style embraced those graphical constraints and worked beautifully within them.

In this new HD version, however, the aesthetic feels off—especially when compared to Bravely Default II, which was released on the Switch and offered a much higher level of graphical detail.

As a result, while this new HD edition of Bravely Default plays just as well as its 3DS counterpart, it visually lags behind the previous Switch installment.

Which, for a flagship launch title on the Switch 2, is quite unfortunate. If only more effort and funding had been allocated toward updating the game models to match or even surpass those seen in Bravely Default II, this could have been a truly remarkable release.

Although it's great that Bravely Default is once again widely available, the HD treatment feels somewhat underwhelming upon closer inspection.

Overall, Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster remains a solid experience in terms of gameplay, but it required more investment and development time to fully realize its potential as an HD remaster. Because of this, it comes across as a missed opportunity—one that deserved far more care and attention.

Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster

Platform: Nintendo Switch 2

Developer: Cattle Call

Publisher: Square Enix

Released: 5th June 2025

Price: $39.99

Score: 7/10

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