Skip to main content

Bravely Second: End Layer Coming to North America April 15

Bravely Second: End Layer, sequel to the surprise hit RPG Bravely Default, will be released in North America for 3DS on April 15, Nintendo of America announced Tuesday. Nintendo had previously announced that the game, which was released in Japan in April, 2015, would make it stateside some time in 2016. Like the original, Bravely Second was published by Square Enix in Japan, but brought to the west by Nintendo.

To hold fans over, Nintendo said it will release a 10-hour extended demo for Bravely Second on the Nintendo 3DS eShop ahead of the game’s release. Bravely Second: End Layer — The Ballad of the Three Cavaliers is actually a stand-alone story that will feature a “new jobs and areas to explore.” Streetpass tags and other data from the game, however, will “carry over” when players start End Layer.

Bravely Second and takes place more than two years after the resolution of the original Bravely Default, and will see the return of the game’s original heroes, though not all as playable characters. According to GamesRadar, the story will primarily focus on a new character, Yew Geneolgia, a royal bodyguard on a quest to save the person he was meant to protect, Bravely Default heroine-turned-queen Agnes Oblige. Nintendo released a new trailer teasing the game’s story in the U.K., where it will be released February 26.

Nintendo also announced there will be a North American collector’s edition of the game, which will include the game, a 250-page art book and a CD with the game’s soundtrack. The collector’s edition will cost $69.99.

In addition releasing news about Bravely Second: End Layer, Nintendo announced it will release a special edition 3DS XL for another upcoming RPG, Fire Emblem Fates. The $199 console features a silver top and black bottom, representing the two versions of the game, Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright and Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest. The two games, however, will be sold separately.

bravelysecondcollect
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Mike Epstein
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Michael is a New York-based tech and culture reporter, and a graduate of Northwestwern University’s Medill School of…
Volgarr the Viking 2 will take you back to your Ghosts ‘n Goblins days
A viking slashes a tree in Volgarr the Viking 2.

Developer Digital Eclipse is working on a surprising project: Volgarr the Viking 2. The 2D retro sequel will launch on August 6 for PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

The news is an out of left field reveal. The first Volgarr the Viking game released in 2013 and was made as an ode to 1080s classics like Ghosts 'n Goblins. Despite being a small release, it sold over 1 million copies over the past decade. As revealed during today's Guerrilla Collective stream, the series is coming back with a new sequel by Digital Eclipse, the team behind this year's Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story.

Read more
3 Days of Play PS Plus games to try this weekend (June 7-9)
Key art for Streets of Rage 4.

June 2024 is shaping up to be a pretty great month for PlayStation players. Not only are we coming off an entertaining State of Play showcase, but a new Days of Play initiative surrounding all the video game showcases this month is bringing a lot of new PS Plus additions with it. Many of those games hit PS Plus this week, and three in particular stand out to us.

For owners of Sony's oft-neglected PlayStation VR2, the first game is one of its rare exclusives that take full advantage of the headset's eye-tracking by seeing how often players blink. The next is a new PS Plus Essential game that's a revival of Sega's classic beat-'em-up series for the modern gaming era. Finally, the last title is an atmospheric and eerie fishing game that should entice fans of Lovecraftian horror.
Before Your Eyes

Read more
3 first-party Xbox Game Pass games to try this weekend (June 7-9)
Gears 5 Kait Hero Close Up

Microsoft will hold an Xbox Games Showcase and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Direct. this Sunday. These shows will provide a much better idea of what to expect from Xbox over the course of the next year or two. That's really needed right now, as Microsoft has struggled to keep online discussions around Xbox positive as it went multiplatform with some games, laid off thousands of developers, and outright shut down the developers of Hi-Fi Rush and Redfall. Based on leaks and my personal expectations for the showcase, there are three games you can play on Xbox Game Pass this weekend to prepare for the event.

The first is the latest first-person shooter in a long-running series by id Software that might be getting a medieval-set spinoff. After that, we have the fifth entry in a sci-fi Xbox series that still looks fantastic on Xbox Series X/S even though it came out in 2019. Finally, you can prepare for Avowed with the latest RPG from Obsidian Entertainment, a satirical sci-fi game where player choice is critical.
Doom Eternal

Read more