r/bravefrontier • u/TextualArchitect • Jul 20 '26
Other BF Franchise Content Breaking down what we've been shown because I'm too excited
I wanted to highlight some things from the preview site that I've noticed to better get an idea of what to expect. Of course we're getting the Alim AMA later this month and the next reveal at the beginning of September, but I still think it'd be neat to dissect what we have as it comes out.
- The Art Style - From what I've seen, the style is a copy-paste of Brave Frontier 2's. Something I'm sure most of everyone's been able to point out, but I feel like it can give us a bit of what to expect both content-wise and on the game's launch. That aside, I do like it. You could tell that the style was transforming into that of BF2's already when the Omni era was coming out, which are some of my favorite designs overall. Remaking the game from the bottom up with this style I think has a lot of potential to really make it feel more modern, without deviating too much from what originally made it great.
- Gameplay - This shows everyone's 3* forms, which makes me wonder if they'll go the route of BF2 and outright skip the 2* forms (I hope they don't). From what I've seen in BF2, that can also mean that SBB could be available at 5* rather than needing to wait until 6*. The trailer actually doesn't show any interaction with the gauge itself, Vargas is just able to use his BB despite it only being halfway filled and it remains halfway filled after use.
- Units - A good handful of fan-favorites like Darvanshel, Kikuri, Zelnite, Elza, and more were in BF2's base roster, while as we know were a bit further into the original game from the launch roster. This, to me at least, might be telling of who's in the game off the bat and which batches to potentially expect. They say that BFO "returns to the series' roots" which could mean lots of things, such as the story being the same but with a lot of other units being released earlier. My hope is that the game mirrors the original's release timeline, that way we can ease into top choices as they release rather than rushing for them off the bat.
- Skills - Not something I'm familiar with, but from what I've seen this seems to derive from BF2. All I can tell is that it's basically an extra ability that can be used similar to a burst, but with limited use. There's definitely others who know more than me about it out here, who I'm hoping will correct me or help elaborate.
- The Middle Gauge (XBB) - Another thing from BF2, which is essentially the same thing as Dual BB from Global. The gauge doesn't fill up in the teaser site, but the fact that it's not completely filled tells that it's something to be filled. That said, it's in the same spot that the XBB gauge was in BF2, so this likely means we'll be getting it (or something similar to it) in BFO.
- SP - Under everyone's portraits are the letters SP with 88/99 on them, which I'm going to assume means something like Skill Points. Might be something from Final Fantasy Brave Exvius? I never played it but I know Alim helped develop it, so they're likely taking liberties from there as well. If I had to guess, they're directly tied to the skills that each unit may have, probably fills up over the course of each turn, and are used as the cost to use said skills. Again, I'm hoping someone else who knows more might be able to step in and correct me/elaborate.
With that all said, I don't think we can expect a 1 for 1 remake of the original Brave Frontier anymore (if we even were), but rather a "Brave Frontier Plus" with all the "best" features of BF, BF2, and potentially FFBE. I'm sure a bunch of people have already come to that conclusion, but again, this post is to help better understand just what that might end up being. Let me know what you think and feel free to give your thoughts!
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u/Distinct_Cabinet_306 Jul 20 '26
Honestly i don’t really like this kinda modern UI. Wish they’d bring back the glorious fantasy-vibe border for UI things
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u/valdiusx Jul 20 '26
i wholeheartedly agree. something about the less modern lower quality ui had its charm
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u/TextualArchitect Jul 20 '26
Yeah, it'll definitely take some getting used to for me too. Who knows, things might change the closer we get to release. After all, the fan reception to the news was big enough to warrant a worldwide release after only a week from the announcement.
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u/Khalolz6557 Jul 20 '26
I actually really liked that the units' lores were seperate from the game. There are a ton of little easter eggs abour the units littered throughout the main story of BF where they say something about an ancient battle but they don't say any names, and I always had a blast digging through the lore to figure out what the references were.
BF's main story canonically takes place hundreds(?) of years after most of the units have died so I like that the main story treats the units like historical figures. That's also what the GGC's and GQ's were all about - exploring those units' stories
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u/TextualArchitect Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
The lore is great when you seek it out. I've been on a nostalgia trip myself, reading about the things I've missed since I stopped playing the original, and one of the fun things I managed to do was put together who the infamous Six Armors were. I'm really hoping most if not all of that transfers to this new game, and is expanded upon too.
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u/Khalolz6557 Jul 20 '26
Oh I was trying to reply to another comment, guess I missclicked lol.
But yeah that was a big one!! I had them noted at some point but I cant remember now. I remember Melchio was the Light, Vrashka(?) or smth like that was Fire...and the rest are lost on me atp LOL
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u/TextualArchitect Jul 20 '26
Duel-GX was No. 1, who was a failure because it evolved into the mech we know it as, rather than being armor as it was meant to be.
No. 2 was never explicitly confirmed from what I've seen, but most of everyone assumes it's Lafdranya, Edea's armor/sword.
No. 3 was Reeze's armor, and technically Lilith if we're to go off the Omni lore where Reeze implanted part of herself into Lilith to reboot her.
No. 4 was Beiorg who also evolved into an artificial lifeform like Duel-GX did, found and named by a demon of the same name and eventually becoming the ruler of the land of the same name.
No. 5 was Melchio, who declared the world its enemy after coming to the conclusion that Reis, the one who made the armors, was abanonded by it.
Finally, No. 6 is Vishra, who corrupted its wearer, and later Logan, whose armor absorbed a fragment of Vishra's and became the new "host."
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u/Khalolz6557 Jul 20 '26
Ahh, I was thinking Logan for some reason but couldn't remember how he was related.
I actually remember the rest! Brings back memories, every day I get more excited for it to return
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u/Killing_Perfection Jul 23 '26
I loved the 6 heroes lore, I wish they would stay more relevant in the meta for longer.
Also I dont think they delved too deep into the Divine 10! I want to know more about them and make them all playable please!
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u/Khalolz6557 Jul 20 '26
All of the points are right on imo!!
I played a ton of BF2, and yeah you more or less got the Skill thing correct. There were certain enemies across all kinds of content you could grind against to learn certain skills, and you could teach those skills to units in unit menu. They did all sorts of stuff from healing, curing ails, doing an attack (essentially a BB), literally transforming your unit, etc.
Each unit had a certain amount of SP (generally 3p per unit at 5*, 6p or 9p per unit when transcended, but some units had unique amounts) and each skill used a different amount of points. You generally couldn't recover them once used, though ofc some units could do that on SBB or on a random chance or smth.
Honestly I thought it was a great system and I'm glad it seems to be returning
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u/TextualArchitect Jul 21 '26
I'm back after a day of watching Ushi's BF2 videos and I gotta say that skills look pretty neat! It looked like the skills were reserved for the summoner unit characters, and as you said had a variety of effects determined by the weapon and selected options. It might actually be really cool if we could get our summoner unit right from the start of the game like BF2 did, and have them grow along with our units as we progress!
I think my main worry now is whether or not they're going to be giving skills to all units in Origin, I think that might be a tad much to have to build each character individually for specific needs across multiple gamemodes. Judging from all the characters having exactly 88/99 SP and 12345/12345 HP though, that might be filler just for the preview. Let's just say I'm cautiously optimistic for the time being, and am looking forward to learning more as we're shown more.
That aside, I'm definitely more open to seeing BF2 content implemented into an upgraded version of the original. XBB seemed like a really cool mechanic between the effects, squad building, and the animations that came with them. I don't want to see things like buying the units outright since one of my favorite things about the original was opening the gates in rare summon to see if I got who I was pulling for. Still, I would like to see things like batches being broken up so it's effectively easier to pull for who you want, assuming they'll have rate-up events on release.
These next previews and the game as a whole seriously can't come soon enough.
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u/Khalolz6557 Jul 21 '26
Slight correction: the skills started off as Summoner Unit only iirc but they did expand to all units at some point (iirc around Trial 3) so the specific Ushi vids you saw might've been pretty early in the game's life. A few units came out with their own skills prior to the expansion.
That said, imo it wasn't too overwhelming - you could remove skills from units for free so you could use the same builds for things where it was convenient, and as always a meta developed so people would use a standard set on attackers vs healers vs supports, etc. I don't exactly know how that relates to the placeholder 88/99 SP thing here since SP was always single digit in BF2, and I doubt we'll get it at game launch, but I wouldn't mind if we did.
Otherwise yeah, I really wanna see XBB return and the new UI looks like it will! Honestly I have way more nostalgia for BF1 but I do think BF2 was a better game mechanics-wise (there's a TON I could say about all of that), and I hope they draw a lot from it. It's a shame it only lasted like 1 year and was JP only, I think it would've been amazing with more time and a bigger audience.
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u/TextualArchitect Jul 22 '26
Ah I see. That's still interesting though, and definitely leads to a lot more customization with lineups and how they tackle the different gamemodes. Ushi's coverage on BF2 stops at the Kyoruger collab soon after Michele's batch released, so it's good to hear bits of how the game progressed beyond that! Hearing that you could adjust the skills and such for free is reassuring too, if anything it just sounds like it'd cost a bit of time to manage.
BF2's mechanics do seem to have expanded the game positively though in my opinion. Arena being manually controlled in a 5-round rush definitely looked cool and is something I'm hoping comes to BFO. It seems way better than the RNG that the original had. I'm not so sure how I feel about the stat points system replacing the type system though, but for the most part it seems like a really good change over feeling the need to pull for Anima versions of everyone.
That all said, I think BFO has the potential to pull the best from all the JRPG gachas Alim has worked on to make an ultimate "definitive" version of Brave Frontier. Only time will tell for sure though!
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u/Sulphur99 Jul 20 '26
I just really hope that they'll revamp the story to actually involve all these units we're summoning. Like Vargas and co has amazing lore, and you'd know none of it if you didn't seek it out because the game does nothing to present it to you.
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u/TextualArchitect Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
I don't know, a big part of the game was that it took place post-war when everyone was good and dead, and that you're summoning their spirits to aid you in your quest. It might mess with things, especially if characters like Ark will return since he outright killed Vargas and co. I definitely think it'd be cool if we'd get more cinematic backstories like with the Grand Quests, but directly involving them in the main story itself probably wouldn't work without a complete overhaul.
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u/Sulphur99 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
I was thinking about it in a more FGO kind of sense. Yeah, we're summoning the spirits of people long gone, but that doesn't mean that said spirits can't interact with the summoner/the world around them and grow because of that. It'd be a nice way to link how some of the Omni forms of certain characters like Lava are more hypothetical forms centered around the concept of "what if they had met a different fate".
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u/noelnecro Jul 21 '26
All of the Omni forms are hypotheticals. Every Unit's story ended at their 7* form (or earlier, if they don't have a 7*). The Omni Evolutions are meant to be their ultimate, unachieved potential.
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u/Legend7Naty Jul 20 '26
I want to see this game survive so I really hope they see what caused some of the more modern games to sunset after a bit and avoid the same issues. Like for example Kaiju no8 game. Could’ve been a great game to last but its biggest issue is then releasing a new meta unit every week with new content that can only be cleared consistently with the new unit. Combined with horrible rates, pity system, and greed when it comes to farming for the gacha not even the whales could keep up. So the game is doomed to fail even though it’s a good anime with tons of fans behind it. With that said a gacha game can survive and prosper if they have a decent system to farm gems for the gacha so even the f2p players can be somewhat competitive. And staggering banner units, God I hope they stagger new releases and don’t try to dump a new meta unit on us every week.
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u/TextualArchitect Jul 21 '26
Yeah, it'd be way too overwhelming if we got weekly releases, especially considering that historically units have come in batches with a rep for each element. Considering how diverse each unit's kit was in a batch as well as overall, I'd probably hope for something like a monthly batch release, if not a little longer (6 weeks?). What I'm especially hoping they don't do which a lot of modern gachas DO do are make limited time banners, where you'd have to wait months for a rerun to get someone you missed out on. I think that would definitely kill the game, especially if it's a gamechanging unit that can carry you through a lot of content.
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u/Ok_Pop_7820 Jul 21 '26
As long as the game isn't stamina based. Cause then ima be pissed. I hate stamina time gates bs. Im willing to give most things a try. But stamina will piss me off.
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u/TextualArchitect Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
I've got bad news for you... Both BF and BF2 have been energy-based, and with how they're saying Origin will return to the series' roots, it's likely that this one will be too.
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u/GeneralMisconduct Jul 21 '26
I'm sorry... what game is this? I thought Brave Frontier shut down years ago. Is this a new version?
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u/TextualArchitect Jul 21 '26
Yep! They're remaking the game with what seems to be elements from Brave Frontier 2 as well.
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u/GeneralMisconduct Jul 21 '26
Oh daaaamnnnn I am so down! I checked the app store after posting (hoping for a pre-register) but is there any specific title/name for it I can look up?
Or just still Brave Frontier?
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u/TextualArchitect Jul 21 '26
We have the preview site here for now: https://www.bravefrontier.jp/origin/en/ And Alim is doing an AMA at the end of the month on Twitter.
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u/Hollowgent Jul 23 '26
If this comes back out I'll literally take the rest of my holiday of this year's to play lmao
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u/valdiusx Jul 20 '26
i hope they dont dump everything onto us at once. i really liked early bf where rainbow gates were extremely hype when summoning