Bravely Default 2’s Beastmaster job is basically a Pokemon

Create your party in Bravely Default II is less about the characters you use and more about the tasks you equip them with. It’s a smart strategy to always have base healers and damage dealers on hand, sure, but when it comes to my party, I never plan on ever having at least one Beastmaster behind the scenes.

I unlocked the Beastmaster last week, several hours later Bravely Default II playthrough. While it pains me to tear apart the Asterisk crystal, which provides class, of the soft-spoken, animal-loving Anihal after his boss battle (a story for another time, maybe), all guilt stubbornness that I had was erased as soon as I changed the main character Gloria away from her duties as a more offensive archetypal white mage.

Beastmasters, who debuted in Bravely Default II, are exactly what they sound like: beast masters. During battle, they are able to capture monsters for later use with special and job-specific skills, and each trapped enemy increases the functionality of the job. If used effectively (or, in my case, obsessively), the Beastmaster changes the dynamics of each battle with an emphasis on trapping as many monsters as possible, rather than killing them outright. .

As with most tasks in the game, I jumped into the Bravely Default II menu to check the Beastmaster right after unlocking it. While its paper description and skill progression didn’t appeal to me, I was quickly struck by the potential of the Beastmaster after trying it out in a few Random Battles. I set out to add every Orc and Killer Rabbit I could find to Gloria’s Virtual Petting Zoo, each giving her a new skill or spell to use in future battles.

Gloria quickly became the most powerful and trusted member of my party. While fight Bernard in chapter 1, for example, the hordes of Minotaurs I captured in the dungeon leading up to the battle allowed him to deal thousands of damage every turn, thanks to their brutal Pound attack. Depending on the monster, the Beastmaster can also grant access to skills that I haven’t encountered with any other class yet, like the Aerora wind spell from Fresh Foliole, useful for hitting weaknesses the dark mage can’t, and the Disembodiment of Restless Souls, inflicting Stop for multiple turns. I’m sure future jobs will have parallels with these useful abilities, but for now the Beastmaster is proving useful in expanding my tactics.

But of all the Beastmaster’s talents, I was most struck by his ability to turn Bravely Default II in Pokemon. Capturing monsters early is a balancing act that involves depleting their HP as much as possible without killing them. The weaker they are, the easier they are to trap. Upgrading the Beastmaster with continued use, however, unlocks skills like Mercy Strike and Mercy Smash which, much like Fake sweep in the Pokemon series, never kill targets, but instead leave them at 1 HP, offering the perfect chance to add them to your arsenal. Most of the time, turning an opponent into an ally is just a matter of giving the Beastmaster multiple actions with the Brave mechanic, hitting a monster with a few safe attacks, and then capturing everything in the same turn.

Bravely Default II is, in the opinion of all, a huge game. I have already spent 12 hours exploring his world and have not yet completed Chapter 1. With all of its intricacies, Beastmaster’s work is a perfect microcosm for him. Bravely Default II experience, an example of how a single class can open up endless possibilities in party creation and strategy refinement. And hey, even if the Beastmaster loses some of his versatility later on, the cute, hairy outfits he bestows on the main characters should at least give morale a boost during tough battles.