2020 was not a good year for most, and the game industry absolutely suffered in various ways. Because while it’s true that games like Animal Crossing New Horizons, Fall Guys, Among Us, Final Fantasy VII Remake and more were highlights, a lot of games had their development stymied because of the pandemic. The virus made many development teams go from their high-tech work facilities to working remotely from home. This affected a lot of gaming pipelines, including for Square Enix with their games like Bravely Default II.
The game was supposed to arrive in the fall of 2020, but instead was pushed back to February 26th of this year. During an interview with Famitsu, Bravely Default II producer Masashi Takahashi talked about why the delay happened, a key reason was apparently the voice acting for the game:
We announced the release info at The Game Awards in 2019 and proceeded accordingly with that goal in mind. Development overlapping with the spread of the virus combined with the fact that we were unsure how long things would go on for had quite an impact on things.
As an example, progress on voice recording for foreign languages was slow. We had to coach the voice actors remotely, and they had to record in their own homes without background noise, then send the audio back to us – everyone involved really gave it their all, and we got it done. We’re a few months behind schedule, but we were able to get the voice work done without much trouble.
Takahashi also noted that the extra time given to them via the delays allowed them to go and improve the game via the surveys supplied to them by players.
We express our sincerest apologies to the fans who have been waiting for the game. However, we believe we made the right decision by choosing to delay its release.
We’ll find out when the game arrives in February.
