Granblue Fantasy Relink is a bold game that excels in the majority of areas while being mediocre in others.
If you are involved in the gaming community at this time, there’s a strong likelihood that you have heard about Granblue Fantasy in some way. Based on the Granblue Fantasy universe from Cygames, Granblue Fantasy Relink is an action role-playing game. Together with projects like Granblue Fantasy Versus (and Rising), this is an additional attempt to expand the Granblue character universe outside of mobile gachas. Though I haven’t played the mobile game, Versus Rising has been fun for me. I am not too familiar with the nuances of the lore or planet, but I do have some background with the cast and the general atmosphere of the scene.
Let’s begin with the fundamental ideas. In the action role-playing game Granblue Fantasy Relink, you take control of a single character with the assistance of up to three other party members. The story of the protagonists traveling through the sky together is told through a combination of pre-rendered and in-engine cutscenes. They go from sky island to sky island, coming across bad guys and fighting monsters to save the populace. While Gran, Katarina, Lyria, and the others search for the enigmatic island Estalucia, new threats materialize and friendships are put to the test, complicating matters.
Here, the fighting takes center stage, and every effort is made to highlight the action. The mechanical setup is fairly familiar: you have link and super attacks to deal massive amounts of damage, light and heavy attacks that can be chained together to create combos, dodge and jump to avoid attacks or set up strikes of your own, and a unique skill bar with associated cooldowns for each character. If you have recently played any comparable action role-playing games, then most of this should sound familiar.
Throughout my playing, I found the combat to be novel despite its familiarity. The mechanics blended well together, and I discovered that I could execute powerful attacks that would win fights with ease and fluidity. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and even battles that many role-playing games would classify as relatively easy—like taking on a small group of goblins—were enjoyable and fulfilling. It’s easy enough that you can probably get by in most bouts without too much trouble even if you don’t understand all the underlying principles. However, important encounters such as boss fights are compelling enough that you have to be aware of specific attack timings and mechanics.
The frequency with which conditions appeared in the main story battles was probably my favorite feature. There were many fights where the only goal was to kill every enemy, but there were also many additional objectives to offer some variety to the conflicts. This occasionally involved having foes with distinct attack patterns or time-sensitive tasks that required completion within a set amount of time. Other times, things got more intricate, and I had to modify my play style to fit those circumstances. For instance, early in the narrative, other airships assault your ship, and the enemy ships are equipped with extraordinarily potent cannons. Things get intriguing after you repel a couple waves of boarders in regular battle. As enemy cannons fire, you attempt to demolish their turrets while simultaneously jumping atop one to launch projectiles out of the sky. A scenario where enemy hordes are more of a hindrance than peer combatants is created, highlighting your mastery of the movement mechanics and crowd control abilities. Then, waves of enemy boarders attack, and you have to board their ship and destroy the turrets and engines before they can bring down your craft.
Different scenes might be equally captivating. Perhaps it’s an extremely tough boss, but during some attack sequences, they lose their weapon, which you can pick up and throw back at them to deal a ton of damage. Other times, as you guard them, a friendly wizard is channeling to open a doorway; if opposing soldiers hit the wizard, the timer will pause and you will not be able to advance. None of these concepts are overly complicated. Simultaneously, the constant flow of new tasks keeps you interested in the game and forces you to reconsider things like ability choices, party compositions, and more. This versatility, when combined with the already excellent core fighting system, makes for an incredibly mechanically compelling game.
This is further aided by the diversity of the characters. The way your party is assembled affects how battles play out, and you have a wide range of options available to you even in the early going. For more diversity, as the plot develops, you will bring in additional individuals to the group. You can also bring in more characters by playing crewmate cards to summon them. I had more party guests than I knew what to do with even a few hours into the story. Granblue has such distinctive character designs that it becomes difficult to narrow it down to just four, and discovering their individual playstyles becomes an enjoyable experience. I was very happy to see that Charlotta, the main character of Granblue Fantasy Versus, hits as hard in Relink as she did in Rising.
There are a ton of extracurricular activities available. There are speed-running parkour challenges strewn throughout the stages to try your map-reading and platforming skills. Town vendors will give out missions that players can accomplish alone or online with three other players in order to earn treasure, experience, and mastery points that may be used to purchase skills. Of course, you may also just explore the world to acquire crafting supplies and item drops.
You will undoubtedly find yourself exploring anyhow since this game is so gorgeous, my goodness. Granblue Fantasy Relink had tough competition in this field, as evidenced by recent blockbuster action role-playing games like Tales of Arise and Final Fantasy XVI, all of which have stunning visuals. Nevertheless, this game manages to blend in with the crowd while yet standing out in certain instances. With its enormous, eye-catching environmental attacks, vivid color schemes, and obviously more cartoon-styled designs, this is more in line with the Tales of Arise end of the spectrum. The world’s breathtaking scenery and intricate character models make the entire thing seem to leap off the screen. It strikes the perfect balance between being really vibrant and without being overly so.
The presentation is excellent throughout the rest of it. The music is the perfect balance of grand, action-packed battle tracks and charming village melodies. The environments offer a great deal of detail as well as whimsical elements that enhance immersion. I was always engrossed in the performances because of the excellent voice acting. The story pieces were fairly substantial, and even with so much information, it never felt overbearing.
The performance of the game was also excellent, in my opinion. Even though my desktop PC is getting on in years, it was still able to run the game on medium to high settings in the majority of situations. I also spent a few hours using my Steam Deck, and it functioned flawlessly. There were never any crashes or similar issues, and the game was bright and fluid. Although I haven’t used the online play capabilities, I can’t comment on how good the connection is there. Since the multiplayer functions are optional, even a bad experience shouldn’t have a big influence on how I feel about the game.
Nevertheless, there are several issues with the game.
For me, Granblue Fantasy Relink falters most in the narrative and character development. Not so much in the story material as in the pacing from moment to moment. The events flow smoothly and make sense in relation to their subject matter. I was unable to fully comprehend the world around me. It’s not overly intricate, nor are the characters unlikable. However, I never felt that I was truly committed in the overall scene or particular character arcs. I’m not sure where the gap is either because, on the surface, I couldn’t find anything really wrong with what was offered, but I was also never really involved in the plot to any great extent.
The player’s first access to an extensive amount of content is a contributing factor in the issue. In the first part, you are just Gran, dashing around and bonking wolves. But before you know it, you’re in charge of several party members; you’re flying to far-off islands in the sky in an airship; deep lore phrases and proper noun nation-states are being tossed around; it’s all very hectic and never seems to stop. Though it wasn’t startling enough to make me feel cut out of the story, it was enough to overwhelm me with more than just the obvious elements.
Furthermore, the game makes an effort to encourage you to interact with the more intricate lore. You can read backstories and see cutscenes that offer brief glimpses into the lives of the characters outside of Relink’s events if you navigate into one of the sub-menus. Just simply interacting with this backdrop, the game will even give you in-game cash, build points, crafting supplies, and other benefits. That’s a fantastic method to give people even more motivation to become involved in the world. Despite the game’s best efforts, I found it difficult to remember much of the world and characters beyond their initial impressions. I wish the details had stayed with me. It is one thing to go through these experiences with the characters as they develop and change; that usually fosters meaningful relationships. Regretfully, watching all this character development unfold through essentially a slideshow and repeating the process seven or eight times to catch up with the whole cast isn’t as effective.
To be honest, I was taken aback by the persistence of this gap. I thought that having worked on Versus Rising, I would be better acquainted with the characters, at least in terms of their fighting styles and name recognition. Regretfully, I don’t think it really helped me here, and the mobile game might be the main distinction. If you’ve played the mobile game, you probably know that many of these backstories are already known, so you’re probably happy that additional information is being added. In my opinion, a more gradual increase in intensity would have been ideal.
The customisation was broad but not particularly deep, in my opinion. The equipment selections didn’t feel particularly interesting. The weapon upgrades, where you dump shards and materials into raw strength up to a specific level ceiling, clearly has influences from mobile games. To raise the level cap and get past it, you then invest more rare minerals. The mastery trees also piqued my interest at first, but eventually I lost interest in them. Every character can allocate skill points to one of several mastery trees, and each tree has various decisions to make. Unfortunately, there weren’t many build possibilities for any character due to the linearity of the trees. It seemed more like I was choosing a character to spend points on and purchase everything offered than I was creating a special or intriguing build. I didn’t think the construction or gear flaws were major downfalls because the fighting system is intriguing enough, but they were definitely less appealing than they first seemed.
Granblue Fantasy Relink is a fantastic game that excels in practically every aspect, despite some few hiccups. It has excellent presentation quality throughout and looks and sounds fantastic. The vast range of character options for individual builds and overall party composition keeps gaming timeless, and the sheer variety of combat scenarios keeps you interested in every battle. Those who are not longtime fans of the series may find it difficult to relate to the characters and plot of Granblue Fantasy Relink. Nevertheless, they all leave favorable first impressions, and perhaps that’s all you need when the gameplay is this fantastic.
