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.