IGN's Mitch Dyer and Brian Altano spent some time in the world of Bravely Second , the sequel to IGN's February 2014 Game of the Month . The 30 minute Japanese demo introduced new characters in a familiar world, set against a beautiful backdrop that stands out as one of Nintendo 3DS's most gorgeous games.

Brian Altano says...

Mitch Dyer says...

Bravely Second might be the Nintendo 3DS' most beautiful game. With the 3D slider up, the town environments pop like beautiful little pop-up books or papercraft sculptures adorned with meticulous dashes of watercolor paint. It made me want to explore every little nook and alleyway of the ornate little village that our demo began in.When it was time to head out to the world at large to battle, a lush forest with winding paths, mossy stumps, fallen trees and hidden treasures awaited us. It was both dreary and whimsical and harkened back to the scene in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past where our hero first finds his master sword.The art direction at play here is absolutely wonderful, and once the random field battles start popping up, that sentiment is echoed in the character and enemy design as well. We've only experienced a tiny sliver of what the main game will offer so far, but everything we've seen is gorgeous.Confession: I sort of hated the pop-up book art in Bravely Default for a time. 3D characters against 2D backgrounds often looks out of place, but it eventually grew on me, and I started to appreciate the finer details of a hand-painted cobblestone road, castle, or inn. Bravely Second is a reminder that, against all odds, this aesthetic works — and yeah, it’s among the Nintendo 3DS’s best-looking games.Bravely Second is ambitious, artistically. It’s trying new things with perspective, putting gorgeous or blurred scenery in the foreground to draw your eye toward something, or to emphasize the architecture in a space. In the 3D spaces in which your party explores for treasure and fights evil apple-monsters in random battles, there’s a similar vision. The camera trucks along past objects that pop out, giving the environments a bit of personality, rather than letting them exist as flat, boring places.Of course, because this is a 3DS game, the texture resolution isn’t ideal, but the art direction outweighs Bravely Second’s technical prowess. Character designs, like Bravely Default, are mostly great as well — elegant outfits and exaggerated features (I love that dude’s big ol’ beard) are much better than the silly bikinis.Combat, like Bravely Default, relies on a sort of gambling system that allows certain party members to commit to longer, more powerful attack strings. Landing more blows in a row increases the likelihood someone will land a lethal critical strike, which is essential against certain enemy types, such as high-defense shield-wielders. The trade-off is that this uses a limited resource.The battle system remains one of this series’ strongest aspects -- I just wish I could read Japanese to better understand the new wizard class' skills. Customizing your casting with different elements and attack types led to a lot of different spells. It reminded me a bit of Magicka. A new story, set some time after the original game, is appealing here as well. It’s the same world, but a lot appears to have changed, and there are new conflicts brewing. Again, if only I could read Japanese to learn about who these new characters are.

Mitch Dyer is an associate editor at IGN. He hosts IGN Arena , a podcast about MOBAs, and is trying to read more. Here's his reading list . Talk to Mitch about books, Dota 2, and other stuff on Twitter at @MitchyD and subscribe to MitchyD on Twitch