Tomoya Asano at Square Enix blames Bravely Second as to why the series took a break

[Maddox]

Famitsu: We think there are a lot of fans who were surprised by the title announcement at the end of last year and the sudden release of early demo at the end of March. First of all, we were surprised that the name of this title is not Bravely Third but Bravely Default II, so how were the details on this development getting started?

Asano: Before I talk about the title name in more detail, first of all please allow me to apologise about Bravely Second. Despite receiving a lot of expectations for Bravely Second, we feel like there were parts that didn’t live up to all fans’ expectations. The introspection from Bravely Second has taken a deep, strong root in production for all titles being worked on by our team right now.

https://japanesenintendo.com/2020/04/14/asano-takahashi-weekly-famitsu-interview/