10 Demos BETTER Than The Actual Game

The Bravely Default series is a wilful throwback to the golden days of the JRPG genre, what with its crystal-obsessed plot, turn-based battles and baffling numbering system (this is a series that called its third game Bravely Default II).

Unfortunately, the first game went a step too far in its nostalgia act by bringing back the worse part of '90s JRPGs - grinding. Getting anywhere in the game required excessive amounts of trawling back and forth through a dungeon, bashing your way through cannon fodder until your stats received a big enough boost to overcome the boss at the end.

This was doubly frustrating because the demo didn't have this problem.

Bravely Default's demo sees your party gain new levels and abilities at a rate of knots, as the developers trip over themselves to make sure your party gain enough tricks to show off the game's battle system. Unfortunately, this generosity is nowhere to be found in the actual game, as the pace is slowed down to a rate that would make even the stingiest gatcha game blush.

Tip for JRPG developers - if the player makes it to the boss of a dungeon, having fought through every encounter along the way, they should be strong enough to win. "Hero fights through dungeon and beats big bad!" is a much better story then "hero fights through dungeon, gets arse handed to them, spends two hours thumping disposable minions, then beats big bad".