Nintendo next reminded purchasers and would-be purchasers of recent 3DS blockbusters, Pokemon X and Pokemon Y that the cloud-based storage apps, Pokemon Bank and Poke Transporter, would be launching for the 3DS eShop in just over a week, on December 27th. As mentioned before, Pokemon Bank will allow players to store up to three-thousand Pokemon on the cloud, which will prevent them from being wiped out if you start a new file or lose your game card, and Poke Transporter will allow players to transfer their Generation V monsters from Pokemon Black Version, Pokemon White Version, Pokemon Black Version 2 and Pokemon White Version 2 on the DS.
The service was reminded to charge an annual fee of $5 to use, but will offer a thirty-day free trial period for first-time users. Nintendo sweetened the pot however by revealing that anyone who accesses Pokemon Bank before September 30th, 2014, even just via the temporary trial, will be given a free Celebi, an extremely rare Generation II Pokemon that can’t be caught in any of the games, and can only be legally acquired via special Nintendo promotions! That should definitely entice Pokemon fans to at least check out the service during the trial period!
One of the other inevitable 3DS games that was bound to show up during this Direct was Bravely Default, the very promising Square Enix-developed and Nintendo-published RPG that will come to the 3DS in early February. This Direct detailed Sleep Points, which allow specialized advantages like stopping battle to change equipment, using attacks that ignore the usual 9,999 damage cap, and revive/heal up your party without worry of enemy reprisal. Up to three Sleep Points can be stored, and one Sleep Point is earned for every non-consecutive eight hours that you leave your 3DS in sleep mode while Bravely Default is running. In layman’s terms, this means a combined eight hours, not leaving the 3DS in sleep mode for eight hours straight.
This sounds like an intriguing way to make use of the 3DS technology, but what follows is a decision that’s sure to be met with no shortage of controversy in both the Nintendo and RPG communities; Bravely Default will feature microtransactions. Yes, the dark, blighted evil of microtransactions has apparently expanded to Nintendo, and clearly, the industry is doomed now.
… Or is it? How these work is, players can opt to spend some of their eShop funds on Sleep Potions, which will immediately give them a full three Sleep Points. Sleep Points are not necessary to complete the game however, and Nintendo stresses that the microtransaction of Sleep Potions is entirely optional.
Honestly, the idea of a Nintendo-published 3DS game having microtransactions in it is bound to leave a bad taste in many mouths. On the bright side however, at least this is far from a pay-to-win scenario, and, as Nintendo mentioned, you can completely ignore Sleep Points if you want to, which seem to just allow less-skilled RPG players to have a trump card to pull out in battle if they’re in over their heads. Nintendo also reminded would-be players that they can summon the characters of other players that they StreetPass with to give them another added edge in battle.
Nintendo further appealed to gamers by claiming that Bravely Default will feature a free demo on the 3DS eShop, but not just any demo! The demo will be an independent side-story not featured in the main game, which helps to establish the world, characters, battle system, job system, and basically anything else that you would want to know about the game. The demo will also allow players to carry over up to twenty StreetPass tags that they register, as well as 3DS friends, along with exclusive item packs that can be transferred into the final product! Nintendo claims that their YouTube channel and website will offer even more information on this demo, which will be available to download from the 3DS eShop as soon as January 2nd!
Bravely Default having microtransactions seems like a bummer (even if they could very well have been Square Enix’s idea, not Nintendo’s, especially since Square Enix self-published the game in Japan), but the clever idea behind its extensive demo is definitely appealing! It should be a great way for avid RPG gamers to whet their appetites for Bravely Default’s long-awaited North American release at retail and the 3DS eShop, on February 7th of next year!