Bravely Default: A rush of bosses to the head (spoilers!)

Well, I didn't expect that. So you wanna play it that way, game? Well, bring it on; I'm game!

Crappy puns aside, I actually did expect the (in)famous plot twist that takes place at the beginning of the fifth chapter. Since I'm too curious for my own good and tend to routinely ignore spoiler alerts, I've known for quite some time that Bravely Default forces the player to replay the main quest four times in a row before finally gracing them with a much-deserved ending. And to be honest, I'm quite glad I knew about that particular structure beforehand, because it allowed me to brace myself for it and get used to the idea. I'm not sure I would have taken these forced reiterated loops so good-naturedly if I had been totally ignorant about the matter—how knows, that may even have compelled me to give up on the game entirely.

Although I fully expected these forced loops, I didn't expect them to take the particular form of a boss rush; that, for me, was the real surprise rolled up in chapter 5. I quickly overcame my surprise to rejoice at the prospect of playing that fifth chapter and the ones following, because I happen to love boss rushes. And thus I enthusiastically threw myself into the deed, determined to purge these boss pests from the world map as many times as necessary.

This actually feels like a refreshing new start after the trudge I endured in chapter 4. The Eternia arc was a major pain that packed up annoying enemies, a claustrophobic and hard to navigate landscape and a smaller number of exciting Job sidequests than the other arcs. Level-grinding was made tedious by the narrow areas and the resistant foes; and although I managed to raise all my party members' Jobs to Lv. 9 before heading for the Pillar of Light, the task was far from being a walk in the park. Fortunately, this is all over now, and I have the whole world map and dozens of boss fights to level-grind senselessly. Joy and delight! It goes without saying that I'm firmly planning to take down every single boss available, including the complimentary ones related to Job sidequests. I have no idea if this is mandatory and/or if I will reap benefits from it, but a boss rush is a boss rush and I want to leave no stone unturned and no boss unbeaten.

Plot twist aside, I'm progressing smoothly and enjoying my run to the fullest. I now have 40 hours of play under my belt and my party members boast a hefty Lv. 70—blame this on the mountain of level-grinding I undertook to raise their Jobs. And talking about Jobs, I've done a bit of reorganizing in the matter: Tiz, Agnès and Ringabel are still Monk, White Mage and Black Mage respectively, but Edea is now a Templar, which is basically a stronger version of the Knight. Their current secondary Job Command are Acrobatics for Edea, Hunting for Tiz, Summoning for Agnès and Vampirism for Ringabel, and the combination of these secondary commands with their fixed Job Commands is quite stellar indeed. I also attributed the "Absorb P. damage" Support Ability from the Vampire Job to everyone and it's working miracles in battles—recovering HP when party members endure blows, what more could an RPG player ask for? Lovingly creating my ultimate specialized party through level-grinding and ability-combining is as fun as ever, and I can only hope that the ultimate Job to unearth will bring even more amazing skills.

With that, dear fellow gamers, I'll see you in a couple of boss rushes. Brace yourself, you foul bosses, here I come! Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!