2014’s Bravely Default was a great callback to the days of Super Nintendo role-playing games. The Square Enix-crafted adventure was humorous and colorful with an overall fun, vibrant feeling that seems to be absent from modern JRPGs. The sequel, Bravely Second, is just as good as the original game, and in fact even better, as it fixes issues of repetitiveness that bogged down the second half of the original. While the game’s story is less compelling, Bravely Second is still a fantastic RPG totally worth your time, continuing the glory of the original’s likable characters, strong writing, and great battle system full of fun new jobs to master.

The game takes place two and a half years following the events of Bravely Default. Agnes, one of the original main characters, ends up getting kidnapped by Kaiser Oblivion, who has her locked in in the Skyhold, a moveable fortress in the sky. Yew, Anges’ bodyguard, feels it’s his moral duty to save her, and with the help of some of her old friends, as well as a new one, he sets out on an adventure to stop the Kaiser, who has sinister plans far beyond just kidnapping.

It’s a weird situation in that I love the characters and the world of Bravely Second, but the story itself is often clichéd and boring. It offers nothing really new in the world of role-playing games; essentially, the story is just the usual JRPG trope of someone’s in peril and it’s up to you and your group to stop it. Of course, there are twists and turns along the way, but they’re kind of obvious as they go along. What saves the story is the writing, which is really top notch. All of the characters you meet along the way have their own personal charming quirks, and I always liked coming across new enemies or characters as they always added something new to the game. The dramatic moments come across strong, and the banter between the four main characters is great. Their conversations are filled with humor and a lot of charming mainstream references. The game’s voice acting also adds nicely to the script, as I found most of the voices to be acceptable. I rolled my eyes over one or two, but this isn’t a Final Fantasy XIII situation where every voice is annoying.

Like its predecessor, Bravely Second is a beautiful game. In fact, the world is pretty much the same as it was in Bravely Default, though there are a few new locations. If you played the first game, traversal and exploration feels very familiar. The world map is colorful and bright, and the locales you visit are wonderfully drawn and amazingly detailed. All I kept thinking about as I played the game was just how colorful it was - the vibrancy of the world to me feels like such an important part of the game. It reminded me very much of the Super NES era of RPGs that were just as colorful. The nostalgia value is very high in this way, but at the same time, it retains a modern feel – though that might be because of the micro transactions and other online aspects of the game (you can buy “SP” drinks with real money that give you an extra turn in battle without any repercussions, as well as summon friends who also have the game to attack for you) – but it still feels like a game released in 2016 in a good way. Any game can rely on nostalgia value fully, but Bravely Second’s best quality is that it takes it and blends it into a more modern feel.

The best part lies in its battle system, which has a new dynamic that makes grinding so much easier to manage. If you can clear all of the enemies on a battlefield on your very first turn, you’ll usually be given the option of facing another round of enemies. The more enemies you clear in a round, the higher the multiplier goes as you go to the next round. Once your turn finally ends and the enemy starts to strike, your multiplier ends and you get to reap the rewards following the conclusion of the battle, sometimes doubling your money, experience points, or job points. It cuts grinding time to a very manageable degree and lets you focus more on bigger issues than just running around on a world map for an hour. For someone who always felt bored whenever he had to fight endless amounts of enemies, this was a very welcome change. Add in the fact you can change the encounter rate and set auto battle options any way you like it, Bravely Second’s battle system is not only deep, but one of the most accessible in any RPG you’ll find on the 3DS.

Lots of new jobs are available at your disposal. Working very much like the original, you level up a job in parallel to your actual character level, giving you new abilities as you level up. You can be anything your heart desires, ranging from the typical Final Fantasy jobs of Black Mage and White Mage to “is this really in an RPG?” kind of jobs like Pastry Chef and Catmancer, which gives you cat powers (Since Daan didn’t spoil this in his review, neither will I). Some of the jobs are totally out there, but tons of fun, and add to the lightheartedness of the game.

Many of these jobs can be found in side quests that pop up frequently as you journey around Luxendarc, where both Bravely Second and the original game takes place. It’s kind of amazing just how little has changed since the original, but it is fine as there are still new experiences to be had. With these side quests, you’ll come across enemies from the original game. All of them have a dilemma that requires you to choose a side, and whoever you don’t agree with ends up battling you, with their job at stake. Each side quest is different than the others, but is also structured the same exact way each time you go through one. I didn’t mind this too much, as the way they handled each story was very well done, but it was obvious they were all structured the same way each time I started one. I wish they were a bit more varied as I shouldn’t have needed to make a choice every time, but I enjoyed each story as they unfolded.

Bravely Second is one of the stronger role playing games that’s out there today on the 3DS. It’s not perfect, as the overall story has been done before and the structure of the side quests is a bit repetitive. But the experience I had with the game was a great one. I grew to like all of the main characters and their friends (and even some of their enemies). The battle system is fantastic, mixing classic Final Fantasy with modern day mechanics. And the job system, always a fun fixture in the world of role-playing games, is just as strong as ever, with many jobs to choose from ranging from typical fare to the utterly bizarre. It’s one of the best 3DS role playing games to date and manages to outdo its predecessor in many ways.