Just kill me now

[Elpizo]

Spoilers for chapter 6 and beyond!

I've just reawakened all four cyrstals, AGAIN, beating the same four bosses AGAIN, while doing every side-quest on the screen, which leads to me beating 20+ same bosses AGAIN, to be rewarded the last time with one new boss who was reasonably challenging (if cheap).

So we head to the light again.

And now I have to reawaken those same. four. damn. crystals. AGAIN. Beating those same four bosses. AGAIN. Facing those same side-quest bosses AGAIN. (No, I don't give a fairy that they're in different parties now, they're STILL the SAME bosses!)

And, if a guide is to believed, even when I do ALL THAT, AGAIN, I have to do it all over AGAIN one more time?!

...

Gentlemen, just kill me now. Bravely Default up to chapter 4 was one of my favourite games of all time. I loved the characters, the story, the combat, the world, everything.

Then chapter 5 and beyond arrived and were determined as all hell to make sure I would regret picking up this game and loving it in the first place. What. The. Hell. were they thinking when they came up with this story-structure. I've heard of rehashing content but this is of such insane proportions it is downright hysterical.

Oh, Bravely Default, will I ever see your ending?

I swear, if Bravely Second does this, too, I'm not even gonna bother picking it up.

Discuss here how everything after chapter 4 made you cry tears of blood and despair.

[Polnareff]

I thought everything after Chapter 5 or so was optional? You mean to tell me it's not?

I just bought the game today and am about 5 hours in, so......

[Fynn]

It technically is.

If you want to end everything, you can just keep pressing X and see what happens, still, it's not the full ending that you get then.

All I can say is, hang in there. Chapter 7 and 8 have a bit more variety, and in 6 you can at least enjoy the Conjurer sidequest!

[Polnareff]

I'm nowhere near that point yet, I'm just about to go to Yulyana xD

[Skyblade]

Seriously, stick with it. Chapter 6 is easily the worst part of the entire game. Chapter 7 is ridiculously awesome. While it holds to the same basic concept, it varies up the characterization and story enough to be an absolute blast to play through (and it involves another massive nostalgia trip back to Square's golden era). Chapter 8 isn't quite as good, but it's nowhere near as bad as Chapter 6.

I actually took about two months to finish Chapter 6 because I just didn't want to keep going with it. Then I hit Chapter 7 and I suddenly had my second wind and beat the game in a week or so.

Just stick with it. It pays off. At least we didn't get the original version.

[Elpizo]

I'm currently just mastering all my jobs. Characters lvl 75 + Obliterate + Running around just in front of Florem + Growth Egg = 999 job exp in 5 seconds. Think each character has 3 jobs left to master now. Been at it all afternoon. It's ridiculous how easy and fast it goes now. x)

EDIT: Scratch that, make it two jobs per character.

[Dat Matt]

I did that in the earth temple with the flans I think. Instakill everything is so useful.

I got bored of the story around that point, but stuck with it cause it was such a good game xD

[Elpizo]

All jobs mastered and I did the fake ending. Still not too thrilled doing the crystal awakening and side-bosses again. I wonder if I'm just doing something wrong. I'm lvl 75, playing on normal, and I still feel utterly weak and underleveled to deal with the combination bosses in chapter 7.

[Dat Matt]

I was level 100 with several jobs still to master by chapter 6. I think you can pick up and EXP doubler in the streetpass town.

If not kill the Black Puddings in the Earth Temple near the crystal. Sure it was 999 exp per fight there.

[Fynn]

All jobs mastered and I did the fake ending. Still not too thrilled doing the crystal awakening and side-bosses again. I wonder if I'm just doing something wrong. I'm lvl 75, playing on normal, and I still feel utterly weak and underleveled to deal with the combination bosses in chapter 7.

Oh, you will get destroyed even on Lv. 99, don't worry XD

[Skyblade]

All jobs mastered and I did the fake ending. Still not too thrilled doing the crystal awakening and side-bosses again. I wonder if I'm just doing something wrong. I'm lvl 75, playing on normal, and I still feel utterly weak and underleveled to deal with the combination bosses in chapter 7.

Oh, you will get destroyed even on Lv. 99, don't worry XD

Seriously, this game is not easy. Levels are there to let you survive longer. Solid tactics are there to let you win. One of the things I adored about this game was how out-thinking boss fights was far, far more important than out-leveling them.

[Ayen]

Just kill me now

Okay.

Vanish

Just give me a minute for my ATB gauge to fill back up and I'll cast Doom.

[Elpizo]

Well, I figured out a really effective strategy for dealing high damage, effective enough to quickly let me down Yulyana+Mephilia+Barbarossa and Victoria+Artemia+Kikyo. I had Edea go Templar with Conjurer as back-up ability, with boost crit, mp-recovery and buff as support abilities. Then, in battle, have her cast Susano-o to boost her crit to 600%, then use Desperation (I think that's what it's called). Her damage was consistently 4800, or 7500+ when critical. And she hit critical a lot. Suffices to say, she quite efficently wrecked Mephilia before her Susano-o summoning became too much of a problem. Yulyana was next, though either his meteor was less powerful than in chapter 6 or I got lucky.

When fighting Victoria+Artemia+Kikyo, I employed the same strategy, only I gave Edea one of my three Excaliburs to make her attacks holy-elemental. She was dealing 9999 damage to Victoria consistently. Frankly, what made that fight hard was Ringabel needing so much tries to steal everything (even with all steal buffs equiped) to the point I had to hold Edea back from killing Victoria too soon. Didn't help that Kikyo kept killing Ringabel before he could mug, too. I took down Kikyo first (since I stole her item first and she had the least HP). After that, the only real threat was Artemia's multiburst. Victoria's Corpse was annoying, but manageable and with poison immunity she was pretty much powerless while Edea tore her a new one.

It helps that, with all jobs mastered, you have every support-ability available and can mix and match them to suit upcoming bosses. Lightning Amp + Iceflame shield (or whatever they are called) effectively crippled Black MAge Crowe in my fight with him. Poison Immunity on everyone makes Victoria so much easier. I'm sure others could name other effective strategies.

On this I agree with you, Skyblade. It is rather refreshing to play an RPG again that's actually challenging and where finding the right setup of abilities, support abilities and equipment can really mean the difference between victory or defeat. It's a lot of fun. (Would be more fun if the game didn't rehash the same content for 4 chapters, but eh, can't have everything.)

[Skyblade]

On this I agree with you, Skyblade. It is rather refreshing to play an RPG again that's actually challenging and where finding the right setup of abilities, support abilities and equipment can really mean the difference between victory or defeat. It's a lot of fun. (Would be more fun if the game didn't rehash the same content for 4 chapters, but eh, can't have everything.)

Spoiler for people who haven't beat Chapter 7 yet. If you didn't enjoy the Eternian Board of Girl Power, there is something wrong with you.

Past Chapter 6, it's not really the same content. Putting the bosses into groups makes the battles play out very differently from the original fights. Techniques that were used to stop a single boss aren't much good when they have friends. It makes you rethink your entire setup and strategies. And the story for the encounters also radically shifts. Those changes make it well worth the extra time, in my mind. It's Chapter 6, where you're doing the exact same fights with (almost) the exact same story that really brought down my interest.

In the original version, these chapters were all DLC that essentially were exactly the same. The For the Sequel remake of the game changed them up a little, and the Western release version actually changes them further still.

[Fynn]

Spoiler for people who haven't beat Chapter 7 yet. If you didn't enjoy the Eternian Board of Girl Power, there is something wrong with you.