Developer: Cygames, PlatinumGames Inc.
Publisher: Cygames, Xseed Games
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5
Tested on: PC
Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Review
It has not even been a month since we took a closer look at Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, and we already have a new Granblue Fantasy adventure lined up. This time, however, we are trading in the old-school 2D fighting game action for more traditional JRPG and adventure game gameplay. In Granblue Fantasy: Relink we traverse the skies and discover many new Skydoms in our search for Estalucia, an island that is only spoken of in legends. We would be lying if we didn’t have this title on our radar for quite some time, and now that it’s finally here, we weren’t disappointed one bit.
Story
Granblue Fantasy: Relink starts with a great introduction to any adventurous tale. You’ll be playing as the so-called ‘Captain’, who commands a group of Skyfarers that go from one Skydom to another. After already a handful of adventures, you are now trying to get to the mythical land of Estalucia, but you have no real indication as to how to get there. Even so, you and your crew of well-seasoned adventurers head out nonetheless. Sadly, after a weird occurrence with Lyria, with whom you have a soul link, things go awry. Lyria loses control of her summoned Primal Beast after fending off monsters that attack the Grandcypher, your flying ship. Due to this, Lyria, the Captain, and their witty companion Vyrn are thrown overboard and plummet down onto a new Skydom. They survive the fall, and they are soon reunited with the rest of the crew. Their travels then soon lead them to a neighboring town, Folca, where they meet Rolan, the local Mr. Fix It. When they hear Rolan has to deal with a rampant Primal Beast, the Captain suggests tagging along. While the crew seemingly has things under control, Lyria soon gets kidnapped by Lilith and the Church of Avia, who intend to use Lyria for their evil misdeeds.
After the main story, there is still a small narrative to explore that motivates you to keep grinding through the endgame content. Outside of that, you’ll also have the Fate Episodes, which tell a short story for every playable character. These small stories are often lighthearted with a satisfying conclusion, and each Skyfarer has ten short episodes they can listen to or play through. These Fate Episodes allow you to get to know the unlockable characters better, as they don’t really play any significant part in the main story.
Graphics
Granblue Fantasy: Relink is a gorgeous game. Don’t get us wrong, the game never pushed our system to its limits, but the different Skydoms and their areas are just a delight to explore, even if the paths laid out in front of you are quite linear. The backdrops are stunning, and the two main cities feel alive and are full of decorations that truly show the daily hustle of the digital townsfolk. We did notice a few repeated NPCs here and there, but nothing truly broke our immersion. The captain and her allies are all wonderfully designed, and it’s amazing to see proper 3D-rendered models of the Granblue Fantasy characters, compared to the slightly rougher 2.5D character models in Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising. We realize the latter also had 3D-rendered models, but you would always experience the game from a 2D perspective.
The enemy designs are also great, and encountering many of the bosses for the first time was also quite impressive. We did notice that the game does only have a limited number of enemy models, as the bosses started to repeat at a certain point, especially after the main story is finished. Even so, everything meshes well together and as a result, it all ends up forming one of the best-looking JRPG games out there.
Sound
Similarly to Relink’s graphical prowess, the sound design is also superbly handled. You’ll experience a soundtrack that goes from more tranquil tunes when visiting the main towns to action-packed music when battling massive boss monsters. The occasional sad story segment is also accompanied by a few tracks that help tug at the heartstrings. The sound effects also pack a proper punch and provide great feedback for the onscreen action. That being said, it’s probably the voice acting that truly steals the show here. The game can be played with both English and Japanese-voiced dialogues, and nearly every piece of text is voiced in the game, except for the archives. We were treated to a proper cinematic experience from start to finish.
Gameplay
Granblue Fantasy: Relink is a JRPG with free-flow action-packed combat that plays itself out in the Granblue Fantasy universe. The main story itself is fairly linear and will have you exploring small enclosed areas as you make your way to the next objective. The game does offer a lot of side objectives in the form of additional missions, side objectives, and a lot of grinding to get all your characters to max level. The offset is very straightforward, and the game offers different difficulty settings for the story, making sure everyone can enjoy what’s on offer here.
Combat is almost always done with your party of four Skyfarers, and you can choose what members tag along. During the story you are sometimes limited to who you can bring, but for most missions, you’re able to freely choose your party members. You’ll always take control of the party leader, and you can only swap members around in town before you head out. This means there is no option to switch on the fly during battles. Of course, with the possible party members on offer, you can still easily swap before every mission to see what character suits you best. Combat itself is fairly limited in terms of commands, as you have two main attack buttons with which you can create combos, and then you have a slew of special skills at your disposal. You can only equip four special skills per character at a time, and there are plenty of skills to unlock. This again allows you to try out different character builds. You can opt to create more defensive builds or support builds if you decide to go all out with your chosen character. You’ll notice that the combat itself is quite entertaining, but after a while, you’ll be happy that the game offers this many different playable Skyfarers. Grinding does get a bit repetitive after a while, especially after you have beaten the main story of the game.
The gear and level systems are actually a lot more expansive than we initially thought. Each Skyfarer has access to different weapons with different base stats, even though your attacks will remain the same. Weapons are unlocked over time and can be crafted, and the further you progress through the game and collect more materials, the more you can upgrade said weapons. You’ll also have to unlock higher difficulty levels to further upgrade each character. To unlock more skills to raise your power level, you’ll have to earn and spend MSP, which are so-called Mastery Points. The further you upgrade a character, the more MSP you’ll need to unlock more offensive and defensive boosts, and you’ll also be able to spend these MSP on your weapons and additional stat upgrades. If you want to level up all your adventurers, you’ll have your work cut out for you. All of this is further complemented by Sigils you can equip for passive boosts and other upgrades. During the endgame content, even more options will become available.
Outside of the normal side content and the additional missions after the main story, you’ll also be able to unlock quite a few additional characters. As stated above, all side characters also come with their individual story arcs you can read and play through. Their playthroughs are limited, however, as each character simply gets two playable missions to unlock an additional Sigil slot. You’ll need to earn Crewmate cards to unlock the additional characters, and upon using a Crewmate card you can choose which character joins the team. You’ll probably be leveling most of these characters after the main story is completed via higher-difficulty missions. These higher-difficulty missions are more of the same content you’ve seen throughout the main story, but you’ll get better rewards. From this point onwards, the game does turn into somewhat of a grindfest if you want to level and upgrade all characters.
As our review was written before the game was fully released, we were unable to give the online co-op a go. This new Granblue Fantasy title focuses on online cooperative play, and we can imagine this does make certain battles even more interesting. That being said, the AI of your CPU-controlled allies is actually amazingly good, and when you are incapacitated, your allies come to the rescue.
Conclusion
Granblue Fantasy: Relink is an amazing entry in the Granblue Fantasy series, and we loved every minute of the game’s main campaign. While the endgame content is a bit grindy, we can imagine this is a whole lot more fun when played online with friends. The game has all the right ingredients to become a hit, as you’ll have a cast of extremely loveable characters, a great narrative to play through, simple combat mechanics, an expanded upgrade system, and an amazing presentation that truly makes all these elements come to life. We hope for more titles in the Granblue Fantasy series such as this, and for now, you’ll find us grinding away to fully level up our characters.
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