Bravely Default 2 Producers On Bravely Second's Influence, Artstyle, OST

Famitsu published an interview withBravely Default 2Producers Tomoya Asano and Masashi Takahashi. The duo previously worked together on theBravely Seriesand onOctopath Traveler. The interview focuses on how past games of these series influencedBravely Default 2’s development.

Note that as I’m writing this, Famitsu only published onlinean excerptof the interview. As a preview. The full version of the interview will be published in Famitsu magazine releasing on April 16 (officially titled Weekly Famitsu Magazine July 05, 2025 Issue). We might update this article or publish brand new ones when the full interview is available.

Tomoya Asano started the interview by apologizing aboutBravely Second:

Tomoya Asano:“Before explaining Default II’sname in this interview, I’d like to apologize to the fans aboutBravely Second. There were parts of that game that didn’t meet the many expectations fans had. The development team deeply reflected onBravely Second’s problems and it showed in all our following projects.”

Asano continued, mentioning how this influenced the development of the 2018 releasedOctopath Traevleras well. Back then, he thought the future of theBravelySerieswas pretty bleak. However, their mobile development team was given the opportunity to make a newBravelygame, the 2017 releasedBravely Default: Fairy’s Effect. That game was pretty popular, and was the tailwind the franchise needed, leading to the development ofBravely Default II.

Producer Takahashi also explained the game’s title. He mentioned they needed a name displaying howBravely Default IIis a departure from past games, with brand new characters, story and a new outlook. This means anyone can grab it, even if they haven’t played the series before. The rest of his explanation was omitted from the preview.

As for the illustrations: We also learned via this interview thatOctopath Traveler’s Naoki Ikushima is the sole character designer working onBravely Default II. Naoki Ikushima did all the Jobs' designs. This was quite an hard task, doing everything alone. Asano explained they took this decision to giveBravely Default IIa better sense of unity.Tactics Ogre’s Akihiko Yoshida isn’t returning fromBravely Default.The rest was omitted, but this part focuses on the game systems and the Job system.

As for the music inBravely Default II, it’s still handled bySound Horizon’s Revo. According to Takahashi, unlike the previous games, the OST ofBravely Default 2is more mature and has painful, lonely feelings encompassed within it. The two producers also didn’t give particular indications to Revo for what they want for the game, only giving him a document with all the details on the characters, the scenario etc. As such, they believe the OST will 100% reflect Revo’s feelings of the game.

Bravely Default 2will be outexclusively on Nintendo Switch in 2020.A demo is available. Producer Asano previously shared more comments you may readhere.