In the most recent issue of Famitsu (translated by Dualshockers), producer Tomoya Asano apologised for 2015’s Bravely Second not living up to fan expectations and how he hopes to do so for Bravely Default II:

Before getting more into Bravely Default II details in this interview, I’d like to apologize to the fans about Bravely Second. There were parts of that game that didn’t meet the many expectations fans had. The development team deeply reflected on Bravely Second‘s problems and it showed in all our following projects.

Asano further elaborated on how this influenced the development of Octopath Traveler as well. Back then, the future of the Bravely Series seemed pretty bleak. However, their mobile development team was given the opportunity to make a new Bravely game, 2017’s Bravely Default: Fairy’s Effect, which was met with positive fan reception. This gave the franchise some much-needed momentum, leading to the development of Bravely Default II.

Bravely Default II is once again being produced by Team Asano and will be developed by Claytechworks (Bravely Default) and feature music composed by Revo (the composer of the original game on 3DS). It will be out exclusively on Nintendo Switch in 2020, with a demo currently available on the Switch eShop.