Guest Otaku Review. Brave Story PSP

BRAVE STORY NEW TRAVELER 

A massive thank you to JayJay Davis from J(ust)RPG Gaming on Facebook for this review.
If you can

Ok so this is my first proper review (go easy on me)!.

Brave story is a jrpg released in Japan and America on the psp it a very difficult game to get a hold of in the uk especially in English as a psp fanatic it was high on my list of games to get as a rpg gamer I find the psp is king so many sequels and spin offs but I digress back to the review.

The game opens up with the main character sitting on a bench near a fountain playing on a hand held game console as his friend bugs him to enjoy the outdoors more and states that though he may be playing a knight in shining armour he's anything but.

As this happens the dog that is meant to be on a walk/Been played with instead of focusing on your game chases after a frog with your female friend in toe.

Shortly after this you notice the two are missing and go looking for them you quickly find the girl unconscious on the floor, the next screen opens up to you on hospital visiting her but before getting the chance to see her you over here a conversation between her parents and the doctor saying they can't find anything wrong but she won't wake up upon hearing this you run to the roof and have a breakdown of sorts, hearing a voice as you slouch there on the ground the voice continues to say if you want to save your friend you must prove your bravery you can choose to stay down or stand of course  you choose to stand and as recognition of your bravery you are awarded the travelers necklace and the door appears.

You now get control of your player as the world around you has now changed to what you'd expect of a jrpg less modern world more let's say rustic hahaha you arrive at a hut with no one about but birds (I'll get back to them).
There's a few items about but the main point here is to get the map in the house and the birds move out your way allowing you to travel to the temple it's the shortest walk iv ever made in a rpg but you again have to go through a lot of talking in arrival 4 giant statues await you who ask you some questions your choices will determine how you play the game as it affects your stats dps , tank , Mage rolls ext it's not all that difficult to get a roll you like for instance I'm a highly physical resistant high hp heavy hitter and I'm not talking balanced melee I'm talking fall blown powerhouse of death.

The downside to this is you lose your rather cool looking appearance and become dressed in the ugliest rpg armor I have ever seen and given a damn ugly sword however as you collect the orbs that fit in the sockets the sword evolves it's still ugly but it looks a little cooler at the very least.

This is not the only advantage to getting the orbs for each one you find the traveler (you) are entitled to return to the real world to see the one you miss most but must return when you hear the bells or risk been cast into the void and lost for eternity never to see the real world or vision again though you don't have to do much to that effect yourself.

This is then followed by a small dungeon and puzzle you need to work out with the aid of the bird as a hint it shouldn't take more than a few minuets to have a taste of game play again including your first battle before being followed up with yet another bout of talking however this time explaining the games plot a little better and a slight hint at another traveler recently appears ....

The games focus is a traveler (someone from the outside/real/other world) comes to the world of vision
The traveler is there to travel to the goddess tower and meet the goddess of destiny to be grated a single wish, In this case to save your friend however the goddess dose not give her favor to anyone oh no you must prove your are brave that ugly sword you were given has 5 sockets that must be filled by overcoming challenges and showing your resolve to create a new sword witch unlocks the way to the goddess tower.

The game has now official begun and you can enjoy the world of vision a world that as a psp title is rather surprising graphically

The battle system is made up of many aspects.
As well as the standard attack
You have Barveara witch is your skills and uses bp (brave points).
And unity this is a great feature where two members (or more in some powerful tech) team up to attack these skills are not learn by level ups skill books ext but instead by bond the more you work with a member of your party, the more skills you will learn the ones that require more than two need all 3 members to have bonds this is coupled with the usual other skills flee defend items ext but that is not all,
As you fight you will notice things like like extra attack were you will obviously attack again but it also deals additional damage over your initial base value this chance increases dependent on your condition,
the condition of your foes and your bond with allies however this extra feature is not only physical or offensive it is also defensive were your allies and yourself will jump infront of each other in a defensive stance taking attacks at half damage if you care for them enough.

Consecutive attacks will cause your bravery to increase which charges your bp as you fight to allow you to continue using skills this multiplier starts at one, this usually increases by point one per attack attack regaining bp each attack however critical attacks and over damage increases this a lot quicker and even after 4 attacks you can have a recovery multiplier of 5 early game if you understand it.
You'll never need any items as you can heal fully and regain all your bp your next fight however don't think this makes you unstoppable using any skill in battle will reset the counter.

As well as all this there are also guests from the other brave story games that make appearances that you can also learn skills with all in all there squeezing a lot into one come for any one that tries for 100% completion of a game you have a lot to do, they are not very strong and short as using them as cannon fodder or a meat Shelled there's not a lot of point to there existence.

Moving on to another topic that makes the game annoying for those going for completion crafting you can equip 3 accessories however you have to craft them to do so is not as simple as gathering the items.
There are also very rare items which you can only get for defeating crazed monsters monsters that go crazy and grow increasing in strength and size as a bonus to extra rare items you get more exp, these items which in itself is annoying but all the items in the world won't help you without the diagram that I found mostly in pots & despite all the work you put in to make them the earlyer increases don't even give that that a lv up would yet it dose still help and the hp up acc help incredibly with the difficulty curve iv mentioned.


The next feature I got very exited about as I loved the chocobo breeding in ff7 and type-0 shortly into the game you are introduced to SNOB (social network of bird catchers).

SNOB basically they catch these little multicolored birds and pit them against each other in battle,

To catch the birds you defend to find a goldfinch clove (a nest for the birds kinda looks like a forest on the map) inside you engage in random battles with a twist you are in a big square pen with the cute little birds running around and you are holding a net you have to chase the birds, catch them you run a lot slower than you do on the field but turn faster facts that make it more difficult to be honest each bird changes the end results stats and the amount the stats increse as you catch more birds and also depending on the birds size witch you increase by feeding them.

You can make them too big and they won't fit in your net, After the time elapses all the birds you catch will fuse into one giving you the end result however on rare occasions they will mutate into a rare more powerful breed.
You can then use them in fights the purpose of this is to collect goldfinch feathers when you win a item that falls under the material tab but is also hinted at as having another use.

I don't want to give too much away as I believe you should all enjoy it yourself all in all the art style is brilliant and is visually stunning,  the battle system is intricate and if used well can help you overcome foes outside your skill level between the classic jrpg style and the story put together. Each party members personality and quirks the game had me hooked early on as well as pushing me to continue to find out what will happen next the only down side is if your new to this type of game the difficulty curve can be quite intense when foes can go from dealing 1 to 20-30 damage as something as simple as crossing a bridge it doesn't sound much by when you stay the game with 40ish hp and in 10 levels only increases by 20 hp 2-3 hits can kill the weaker members if your unlucky or fail to plan ahead.
Experience gain is also a pain despite foes more than dribbling in strength the xp gain is 15-40 points early on while requiring 100s to lv up and this doesn't get any better my last boss fight gave me less than 4% of the exp I needed to lv up

People who will enjoy this game

• Jrpg fans
• Psp games who like good graphics
• Story driven gammers
• Fans of other brave story games
• People who like a challenge

People Who Should Avoid This Game

• Difficulty spikes
• If you don't like RPGs
• If your not intreated in side events
• If you want a quick paced game

7/10