Prior to Relink, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around Granblue Fantasy. It’s easily one of the most gorgeous mobile games, with a beautiful watercolor aesthetic and having been early enough in the gacha gold rush that a lot of its characters are fairly memorable.
Despite that, I’d never quite been able to get into the mobile game itself- while my Twitter feed would be full of people asking for help with raids and from the comments of my own high-level friends I’d gotten a bit of a picture of what the Granblue experience was supposed to be- a kind of simplified MMO experience as you take down big enemies.
Despite this, the timesink nature of the game really did just have me bounce off the game like it was a headboard and I, a free-thrown basketball.
Fast forward several years- while I could enjoy Granblue Fantasy Versus purely on the merit of it being a good fighting game, Granblue Fantasy Relink seemed to be hinging its appeal on your love of Granblue as an IP, boasting its big cast of characters and flashy combos.
Granblue Fantasy Relink launches later this month, but I’ve now had two great opportunities to try the game- once at Comic Fiesta and once more in the much more character-endowed Demo on PS5. Having conferred with those same Granblue-loving friends I’ve arrived to one conclusion: This is the Granblue game I’d actually wanted.
Top Parse Onee-San
So as a bit of background info, I love the concept of Monster Hunter. The idea of working cooperatively to kill big bosses without the hotbar and cooldowns of an MMO is inherently attractive to me.
This is basically Relink’s thesis statement in a nutshell- it’s that same cooperative spirit of Granblue Fantasy but presented in a way that those of us whose heart echoes “DO COMBO” can find solace.
However, I wouldn’t call the game a clone either- Relink has a heavy, and I mean heavy emphasis on cooperative play, so much so that if you’re playing solo the game throws in three CPU party members. This is thanks to the Link Attack and Chain Link systems, which have you doing powerful follow up attacks together to stagger boss enemies.
I actually really like this system for inducing cooperative play- you don’t have to be overly coordinated, and for the most part monster fights will still feel like you just solo-styling on them. But when the game says it’s time to work together, you need to pray that everyone’s paying attention if you want to get some big openings.
I mean it all really comes to a head with the Skybound Arts- these are your big super moves, and chaining all yours together create a big elemental attack. While Link Attacks are considerably more chill in their execution I do suspect the higher level bosses will hinge on your ability to decide which finisher you want since there’s an elemental system to it.
DO COMBO
Of course, there’s also the question of the actual combos in the game. While things like Link Attacks and Chain Links are for opening up the bosses there’s the actual, normal combat. Long story short? Excellent.
While I feared that every character would be the same moveset with minor tweaks, Relink really puts a lot of love into each character feeling unique, from mages to ranged fighters to oneesan-types with comically large nodachi.
These mechanics are all tied to the inherent Granblue rules, too- Narmaya has her two stances based on whether or not her sword is sheathed, Katalina has the ability to summon her stand, et cetera. It’s one of the things the Granblue spinoffs do really well- adapting mechanics from the original game in ways that feel meaningful rather than just being lip service.
As a character action nutter I can definitely feel some kind of sauce going on too- air combos are dash cancellable, meaning it is possible to do air resets. I await real combo beasts to discover how to get even wilder with this, though until one of the game’s many upgrade items includes some kind of Enemy Step I probably shouldn’t get my hopes up.
Still, you can feel the RPG roots show up in the character archetypes themselves- while Zeta and Narmaya might be more conducive to aggressive play, characters like Io can totally sit back and support their allies. It’s definitely something that’s going to be fun on voice chat- whether you’re sharing valuable tactical information or simply chewing out someone for floor-tanking.
Ah, So This Is Granblue
I really hope Granblue Fantasy Relink succeeds in its mission to steal the hearts of people who hadn’t yet tried out the mobile game. From the demo alone you can tell it’s clearly an excellent cooperative action experience, and the confirmation that you’d be able to unlock characters in any order means that my biggest worry- that I’d have to play as Gran for more than a day before possibly getting anyone I like- is firmly buried.
It’s almost like looking at the mobile game combat and going “Ah, so this is what people are seeing in their heads as these sprites jump up and down”. The inclusion of MMO-like tropes like floor markers and invuln states on bosses really does sell its message: this is the same Granblue core, but translated for people who like their combat much flashier and on a bigger screen.
From my snooping around the demo the biggest concern looks like it’s going to be the customization- skills look limited to just “Damage Up” vs “Cooldown down” but with the game launching February 1st, there’s always time to turn that around.