A classic epic RPG brings a remaster and some new tricks for Nintendo’s Switch 2

Bravely Default, first released in 2012 in Japan and later in the US, was essentially born as a spin-off of the Final Fantasy series. Featuring turn-based gameplay, crystals and a job system, it was easy to get lost in the classic gameplay for 80+ hours. Now more than a decade and a few sequels later, that original game is being brought back in an updated version for the launch of the Switch 2.

Our PAX East 2025 demo focused on two aspects, playing the original adventure with the updated visuals and trying out the new minigames. The original game was multi-screen, but shifting here to a single screen doesn’t take anything away. The demo is essentially the start of the game, and even after a decade it still feels fresh in my mind, so I make it a point to only watch the CG opening movie for a few seconds before skipping and going to the main game. Movement with the Switch 2 controls are clean and exact, as they were with the release of Bravely Default 2 on the original Switch a few years back. We control Tiz as he awakens shortly after a catastrophe, making our way through town. BD’s towns and caves are designed like layered paintings, going so much as to utilize hand-painted art. This is the same 3DS art, upscaled and cleaned up for the Switch 2; though the original looked great on a smaller screen, because it maintains the size of the brush strokes and proportions and compositions here it tends to look slightly blurry by comparison. Upon leaving the town it’s even more apparent that this is still a 3DS game, as the trees are static and flat and the environment filled with repetitive textures. We only play on TV mode, so I wonder if the game will inherently look more at home when undocked. One thing is for certain, though, and it’s that the animation quality, bumping up the frames and even some added adjustments, really goes a long way in modernizing the game. I engage in a fight against some imps, and immediately notice how fluid they look. The demo ends in an early cave, with some intital tutorials for how the Brave and Default combat works in the game.

Beside the visual fidelity and QoL upgrades, the big selling feature of the game is the inclusion of new mini-games. Hands-on with this mode means detaching the controllers from the Joy-Con 2 grip and using them on the table in mouse mode. Now, it’s important to note that this clearly was’t launch hardware; the controllers themselves didn’t have the color coded sides and we were never allowed to see the unit this was all emenating from. It was likely some manner of a dev kit or pre-production unit, all of which means that using the mouse here wasn’t exactly 1-to-1 with release.

The two mini-games are interesting, with one being a sort of airship sim and the other a rhythm game. The rhythm game is pushing the necessity for mouse mode to be more accurate and fast, so trying this was important. It involves sliding the mice together to line up with bars, pulling them apart, and clicking within circles. It’s not difficult, but it its a little tedious because of the state of the mice themselves. We’re asked to use the mice on the black-cloth covered table in front of us, but the table isn’t at the best hieght (certainly not the same as my own coffee table at home) leaving the angle of my arms to be just slightly off. But mroeso, the mice didn’t seem like the most accurate, sometimes moving slowly and other times jumping off screen. Again, this is likely due to the dev kit state of the hardware we were using rather than the game itself, so I’m looking forward to actually play the game at home because, frankly, the mini-games were satisfying to play and nice extra additions to the game itself.

Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster very much is that original game, albeit with meaningful upgrades and some extras. It’s a good launch title, since so many missed that original game in the series, and could provide plenty of hours of charmm and nostalgia.

SideQuesting had a chance to play the game at PAX East. This video first appeared on The SideQuest LIVE for May 9, 2025.