Bravely Default finally came to North American 3DS systems in early 2014, and it marked another in a long line of impeccable turn-based RPGs to grace Nintendo's last dedicated portable system. The launch of the Switch 2 has brought with it Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster, and it’s been a joy to revisit one of my favourite RPGs from the last decade or so. That said, the 3DS version was so tailored to that console and its features that the HD Remaster does feel like it lacks some of this charm, but that shouldn’t hold you back from playing through another solid Square Enix offering.

Bravely Default follows the journey of four heroes working to restore the faded crystals of their world: Luxendarc. The cast is largely likeable–the milquetoast Tiz aside–and grows together over the course of the adventure, and the villains they encounter have their own unique personalities and stories that make the side quests as worthwhile as the main story, both from a narrative and a gameplay point of view. The dungeons and overworld may lack character, but the city spaces are particularly attractive, although some of their pop-up book charm was lost in the transition to HD.

One of the standouts of Bravely Default is its turn-based battle system, which was adapted for the Octopath Traveler games. In Flying Fairy HD Remaster, you can Default (or defend) to store up charges to use in future turns. The Brave action allows you to cash in these charges to act up to four times in a row, making for a very engaging risk/reward mechanic. Many of the boss encounters turn into puzzles where you need to not only figure out when to Brave and Default, but which job classes and abilities to bring into battle. It’s not uncommon to have to adjust your party and strategy in major ways ahead of the more prominent boss encounters. Even the asterisk battles that allow you to earn new jobs can pose a noticeable challenge and can require a similar amount of customization before you can claim victory.

As you progress, your party of Tiz, Agnes, Edea, and Ringabel level up as characters but also earn job points to improve their prowess across more than 20 different job classes. You can even carry with you the primary ability of a second job class to pair alongside your current job, in addition to a handful of learned passive buffs from any of the classes you’ve dabbled in. It follows then that there is generally some required grinding as you level up your jobs to make them more powerful and effective, and the encounter meter is a helpful tool for this work. Initially, you can set it to one of four rates: 50, 100, 150, or 200%. It’s a bit annoying that in order to unlock further rates (such as 0% and 400%), you need an accessory that can be acquired by cashing in tokens earned from the two new mini-games added to the Switch 2 release, but these both require using the Joy-Con in mouse mode and aren’t terribly enjoyable.

One of the primary changes, as the title of the game implies, is that the graphics of Bravely Default have been made HD, and there’s a sharpness to the world and everything you see it in that I would characterize as clean. That said, the character models being in HD doesn’t do them any favors given their plain, empty faces; in that regard, the 3DS was better at doing them justice. Other additions include a Heal All function from the equipment menu, recommended character levels (displayed as a range) for each dungeon, and the ability to fast-forward event scenes. The city rebuilding mini-game from the original release is here, but the charming Streetpass functionality has been replaced with spirit NPCs who show up randomly in towns and can be added to the population of Norende (Tiz’s destroyed hometown) to assist with the construction efforts. The aforementioned Switch 2 specific mini-games are Luxencheer Rhythm Catch, which sees you moving both Joy-Con around to activate notes in rhythm game fashion, and the more involved Ringabel’s Panic Cruise. The latter sees you steering the airship through rings and engaging in ship battles as you manipulate various switches and mechanisms from the airships cockpit. Each mini-game feels like just an easy way to add in Switch 2 functionality and likely won’t demand much of your time unless they really hit for you or you want to collect more of the tokens to spend on extra items and equipment.

It’s imperative that I give a shout out to the soundtrack, because it’s incredible and filled with memorable tracks. The ones that play when you activate special moves in battle are among my favorites, but the whole set is worth listening to. Outside of the optional Party Chat segments, most of the dialogue is voiced and adds a nice depth to the at-times heavy story. There’s a nice balance between levity and humor, often surrounding Ringabel’s womanizing, and the dire plight of the world and its inhabitants.

Having finished Bravely Default multiple times on 3DS, it’s safe to say that the primary experience and story are intact with the Switch 2 release. If you’ve never played a Bravely Default game, this is a decent way to do so if you happen to have a Switch 2 and not a 3DS–although you can buy a secondhand 3DS and Bravely Default game for much less than the cost of Nintendo’s newest console. The visual upgrade is nice on the whole, but I personally prefer how the characters looked on 3DS, and how the cities and towns popped off the 3DS screen. The inability to set the encounter rate to 0 from the outset is a bit disappointing, and the added mouse-focused mini-games don’t offer much in the way of entertainment. Nonetheless, any turn-based RPG fan worth their salt needs to be able to say that they’ve played Bravely Default, and Flying Fairy HD Remaster represents a fantastic way to christen your Switch 2. If you’ve already played it through once or twice on 3DS, my recommendation is a little less resounding.