Granblue Fantasy: Relink (2024)

In case my comment from this morning didn't catch.

Interestingly, Nintendo privated their announcement trailer video that was posted in the morning, I wonder why. Anyway, I'm very excited about this. The base game was tons of fun with friends, and while this trailer didn't show it, it seems we'll be going up to Beezlebub which should be quite interesting. Really excited to see more of the mobile game's raids implemented into Relink. Mayhaps the Four Primarchs? Belial? Somehow even more Bahamut? Definitely more Bahamut. Also hoping for more character additions. (Cygames please add Mirin and my soul is yours).

I only played the Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising before, that was a fighting game, but this is rpg.

I am somewhat familiar with the characters, the story would have been a lot better if I knew them better, liked them, cared about them. I think this is a good game, but those who didn't play the original, won't enjoy it as much.

The story was repetitive.

Graphics: I loved it, beautiful game.

Fight: Amazing, we can fight as a dragon, shoot reptiles from the air with cannons, and the fight against the giant machine was exciting!

I did not save Rolan, I only watched it on youtube. After the game ended I was done, I know there are more content, but I didn't care enough.

What it is: This is an action game with some light RPG elements, often compared to Monster Hunter in the sense that you are put into zones (not too linear and not too open world), you have to kill monsters over and over to get materials, and the action system has some complexity to it without being overwhelming. It is based on the Granblue Fantasy IP, the grandpappy of gachapon mobile games that you can still play to this day (though it is no longer an app here in the West so you play it in a browser on your phone). So expect bloated and convoluted world building that has little bearing on the gameplay, a variety of waifus and husbandos, and some tacked-on randomization.

The good: I consider this to be something of a cozy game for people like me. It is not too difficult, the story is predictable in such a way where it doesn't trip up the game too much, the characters are all tropes while they are also still attractive and fun, and the appearance of the world is rich and colorful and enjoyable to explore a bit without obsessive exploration being the focus. If you are not looking to 100% this game it is a breezy 20 hours, with some replayability based on the relatively large cast of characters you could spend time mastering if you wanted to.

The bad: While this game was exactly what I was looking for right now, there are some drawbacks to keep in mind if you are on the fence. It doesn't take too long to realize the game is a little light on content. An extra year or two of development and maybe another 5-10 hours of gameplay would have been perfect, though probably not really viable for a slowly shriveling IP. The pacing can sometimes be a little off, with the ability to abandon the main quest at any point to go back to town which is basically just a side-quest hub, as well as some awkward moments of discussion among the characters. They will occasionally reference story beats from the mobile game that all sound ridiculous to someone who has never played the mobile game. There are also moments where the game feels a little like a mobile title or even an under-baked MMO, with some online elements that feel tacked on, some randomized elements that pad out gameplay, and a strangely large amount of materials (like a plethora of mobile game currencies) that only result in a very small number of craftable items.

The verdict: As I said, this was perfect for what I'm looking for in this season of gaming. It is a title you should go into with a somewhat relaxed mindset similar to a mobile game. Look at the pretty colors, pick your favorite character to spend 20 hours with, and make pretty sword out of shiny rock. That's it. This is not a deep experience unless you really want to master the action combat, and even then there are definitely better titles to sink that kind of time into.

Update: I was reluctant to leave this game after the credits rolled, so I decided to push into the post-game content. This revealed a whole new side of this game that was, in many ways, pretty different to the loose 20 hour campaign. Post-game focuses completely on the quest system that was introduced during the regular game. Quests are basically battle scenarios you play through, such as beating a harder version of a boss you already faced in the main game, defeating as many mobs as possible in a time limit, or defending a structure from being damaged. You play quests at increasing levels of difficulty, using the resources you find in those quests to build your characters up in order to tackle harder quests which in turn give you resources to build your characters up for even harder quests, and so on. The battle system is enjoyable enough that this wasn't bad in itself. But the further you go the more the grind becomes the focus, and I eventually hit a wall where I would likely have to grind for an hour or two (or perhaps more) just to beat a single challenge, and ultimately this is where I had to let the game go without completing that post-game content. So take that as a gentle warning. When you are supposed to find 8 things (I won't say what due to spoilers) to complete the end-game content it might be good to decide if you want to put in the 20-30 extra hours of effort to get those 8 things and really dedicate yourself to this game or emotionally separate from it and play until it's not fun before moving on.

It really shows that PlatinumGames worked on this. The boss battles are awesome and full of hype spectacle. For the combat, it looks like they took Xenoblade Chronicle's battle system and made it fully action. It works surprisingly well. At first, I wasn't feeling it that much. The boss battles were always great as I mentioned. During those, the team and I can unleash everything we have creating thrilling highs, but fighting the smaller enemies were either uninterestingly easy or annoying. That was on me though. As I explored my characters abilities more, got a set of arts I felt good about, and got more thoughtful on when and how to use them, the smaller fights got much more satisfying. There was more depth to the game than originally seemed, and I grew to love it.

The story was decent. I wasn't expecting this to be a continuation of an existing story, so I was a bit lost. Also, the hyper cheeriness of the characters was too much for me. The fate episodes helped flesh out some of the characters. The story is standalone at least, so I could eventually get into it. It's big on the power of friendship and redemption which is like plenty of anime stories.

The game isn't the most graphically impressive, but it looks gorgeous because of the art direction. It also runs really smooth. The developers know how to create big moments in and out of cut scenes. I was in awe of what I was seeing often throughout the game.

This is definitely one of the best action RPGs I have played. It's a genre I've never cared for that is now the most exciting genre to me because action game masters like PlatinumGames and Team Ninja have jumped in.

And with that I am ready for the upcoming Lucilius raid. I still need to get at least one Supplementary V sigil but man curios kinda stink. Great game. Really scratches an itch to just mindlessly grind, though I'm not sure if I could or would want to max out another character, but we'll see what stuff they announce after the Lucilius raid. Really, really hoping for an expansion of some sort at one point.

I like everything about this game,.. Almost.

Luckily u dont have to play the prequel, which is the gacha game that has been running almost 10 years now. They provide fate episodes to let u know the backstory of each charcaters so u can connect more.

everything from visual, gameplay, animations, voice acting etc are superbsssss

why not 5 from me? Coz there is crucial elements that cause me to be slight irritated.

-You cant change characters mid battle.. why the hell not? how suppose i beat the flying thingy with my short melee? (sorry charlotta). hope sequel can be like tale of arise. its important who u bring to battle rather than AI

-The game easy even on hard mode...... bosses die before i can unleash skyarts.... more difficulty only for online coop it seems

-NO MAPS. come onnnn this is not dark soulsss, maps with markers are appreciated... but area kinda small n straight forward

thats the gist of it. but Dont get me wrong, i still enjoy the hell out of it.

Cool Weapons that have their own model and art ✅

Deep cast of characters with their own mechanics and each with progression depth enough that focusing on just one is legitimately fine, but exploring all very satisfying ✅

Single player and not always online ✅

Economics and system design to encourage exploration ✅

Rewarding boss fights ✅

Innovative level design with attention to detail, fighting on flying ships, the frozen tundra, and so on ✅

Game lets me sprint ✅

Coming to this after FF15 is refreshing, because this has everything I wanted the final fantasy series to keep. And it is so, so nice to play a game focused on gameplay over cutscene marathons.

I would like to say many things about this game, but the only thing I can say:

-This game had me a bit speechless.

The ANIMATION, the really POWERFUL bosses, with their unique POWERFUL MOVES, in short I don't want to exaggerate with words but I really enjoyed this game.

It ABSOLUTELY deserves to be played, both for the story and for the gameplay. I found it even more fun playing the story on the highest difficulty.

Really good, it deserves a 10/10 for me.

P.s. Lyria deserves to be protected at all costs.

I thought I hit a wall in the post game earlier today, and was getting close to deciding I wasn’t going to be able to push through and then I realized I hadn’t checked in with the blacksmith in a while and had enough mats for a few upgraded weapon tiers. It’s amazing what a few weapon upgrades will do in this game.

But I do think I will eventually hit a wall that will require that I either invest a lot of time in upgrading my roster of characters or jump into some co-op sessions to get past.

I genuinely quite like this game, but I do wonder how many people are going to feel the same. Structurally, it's an odd game. For one, unlockable characters don't seem to interact with the main story. Only the first six characters, including either Gran or Djeeta generally participate in story dialogue. So if one of your Granblue Fantasy favourites is not one of those six initial characters, they will have very little input other than an opening line in each new area and dialogue pertaining to things like discovering treasure. Effectively, they feel like they are there for the co-op and end game aspects that lean toward the multiplayer action aspects of the game.

Secondly, there is no overworld, per se. You have two main types of areas, towns and dungeons. Even repeatable quests have their own instances that are based on those dungeons. So you're never really travelling from town to town through vast wildernesses. You're flying the Grandcypher between locations on the map instead, and all action is isolated in numerous dungeon locations. It definitely creates the illusion of one giant world made up of floating islands, but traversal is generally only really necessary within dungeon and town locales.

Combat is a lot of fun, however, with a lot of depth thanks to the large roster of characters and abilities. I think there is basically something for everyone here. And boss fights will delight anyone who likes a bit of a dance. There hasn't been anything particularly difficult so far, but they do have satisfying mechanics to learn.

The game could use better outfits. Colour variations are fine, but I'd really like a bit more fashion instead of mere palette swaps. I also wish hair colour was independent from outfit colour when swapping palettes.

I've noticed that a few people have already rated the game, but I haven't seen any discussion of anyone's experiences so far. I'm wondering if anyone else is having a good time with this.

For those interested in this but who haven’t decided to buy the game, do yourself a favour and play the demo. It’s a great slice of the game that provides lots of insight into combat. It also earns you some minor bonuses for the main game if you do eventually purchase it.

A hot tip, while you are locked to the main protagonist in the demo story mode, you aren’t in quest mode. Do yourself a favour and select different party members to try all of their combat styles out. While I like the protagonist’s style, and enjoy the game, my enjoyment skyrocketed when playing with other characters as the party lead. It helps that I already like some of them from the other Granblue Fantasy games, but the different skills will interest different players.

It’s not immediately clear you can swap party leader in the demo, so once in quest mode just delve into the settings menu and navigate to “Party” and swap characters. And you’re not limited to the four party members that are available in quest mode, you have ten separate mainline characters form the series, all with different weapons, skills and magic styles.