Granblue Fantasy: Versus – Review

For some reason, fighting games have been flooding our site for the last few weeks. We tried our hands at the One Punch Man game, as well as the new My Hero One’s Justice game, which were both based on anime series. Now we have a more traditional fighting game lined up, Granblue Fantasy: Versus. The game is an authentic 2D fighting game, but it tries to distance itself from other similar titles by adding an RPG based storyline to the game. We were not only impressed with the story crafting of the game, but also by its magnificent visuals.

Story

The game’s story brings us to a somewhat traditional anime plot. You’ll be playing as a good young knight, who is bound to Lyria, a young girl that has special powers. She once was a tool for a fallen empire, but you were able to break her free, together with one of the high-ranked soldiers, Katalina, of said empire. Now things have been holly-jolly, as you have been exploring the world together. Nonetheless, something is amiss, as your trusted friend Katalina seems to remember nothing of your journeys together and is now trying to capture Lyria for the revived empire. It becomes clear that there’s more than meets the eye, and you’ll have several hours worth of story content to figure everything out.

Granblue’s Story mode is a bit different than the actual fighting game, as you’ll have some different gameplay mechanics, as well as exclusive bosses to battle. The story is presented through small and short cutscenes and visual novel segments.

Graphics

While we won’t state that this is the best looking fighting game out there, it certainly is the prettiest. The character models are phenomenally handled and they just look amazing. The backdrops are a bit more static, but you’ll be watching the characters and the action on the foreground anyway. The game also allows you to alter the colors of your characters, which creates a few fun combinations, but in the story mode, this doesn’t alter your characters in the cutscenes, which is a bit of a shame, as the visual novel portion of the game doesn’t do much in terms of character movement anyway. The latter feels a bit like a missed opportunity for a game that wants to be something new with its expansive story mode.

Sound

The sound design is certainly serious, but many tracks are constantly looped. We reckon this is by creating certain signature tunes you’ll sync with certain events in the game, but even so, a bit more variation would have been nice.

We loved the game’s voice acting, be it in original Japanese or the English dub. There was one minor setback for those wanting to play the game with the original voices, namely the subtitles are so tiny it doesn’t provide a pleasant experience.

Gameplay

Granblue Fantasy: Versus is pretty much a traditional 2D fighting game with a fairly big story mode incorporated in the gameplay. The story can also be played in a multiplayer format, which is quite fun, but for the most part, the AI does a formidable job backing you up.

Granblue’s meat can be found in its rather lengthy story mode, which spans over several hours. The game will pit you against low ranked grunts in 2D battles, as well as other characters for regular battles. The story mode also incorporates a gear system, that allows you to deal more damage, have an HP boost, or equip certain support skills. We were impressed with the detailed story mode, even though the gear system’s mechanics aren’t overly clear for the most part. You unlock new weapon skins for your characters to use outside of the story mode, which is also a nice motivation to press on.

The game’s mechanics and controls are fairly straightforward and simple, but complex enough to be interesting for veterans in the genre. Your basic combos can be performed with the normal attack buttons, and special moves are done with a two-button combination. A finisher is done along the lines you would execute a simple move in games such as Street Fighter. There are proper blocking and dodging mechanics in place, as well as a decent recovery system. The campaign does add a few extra skill and gear options to this equation, but nothing overly complicated. We have to state that the game is overly sensitive when playing with the left stick, as it’s nearly impossible to sprint, and you’ll more than often jump, rather than simply move. We advise playing with the D-pad.

Conclusion

Granblue Fantasy: Versus is a great game, that seemingly will get more content in the future when we check out the main announcements every time we boot up the game. Nonetheless, as it currently stands this game is a wonderful fighting game for both single-player enthusiasts, as well as those looking to battle other players or do something cooperatively. This might just be one of the better 2D fighters we’ve seen in a long time.

Ibuki

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Aspiring ninja.

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