Ever heard of Granblue Fantasy? You’d be forgiven if you haven’t, as the mobile game has a much larger draw in Japan. While it is a free-to-play game, it has nonetheless grossed hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue since its release in 2014. That kind of lucrative success naturally lends itself to expansion into other forms of entertainment. While a 2.5D fighting game dubbed Granblue Fantasy Versus released in 2020, developer Cygames has been busy working on a more traditional RPG, called Granblue Fantasy Relink. MP1st was invited to be among the first to get some hands-on time with this upcoming title, and fans will want to check out our impressions.
Co-Op Friendly, Easy to Play
Granblue Fantasy Relink is a real-time RPG, with co-operative options for up to four players. While we couldn’t check out co-op this time around, we did play a good chunk of the game which included regular enemies and a couple of bosses. Combat mostly occurs with regular moves, but each character also has at least four special moves which have cooldown timers, and are executed by holding a shoulder button and pressing a face button. Occasionally, two characters can pair up to perform a combo move, while much less frequently all four characters in the party can sync up and unleash an ultimate move against their foes.
It’s unclear what difficulty level we were playing at, but we get the feeling that Cygames is aiming to make this an accessible, relatively straightforward RPG that anyone can pick up and play, and enjoy an original story set in the Granblue Fantasy universe with both new and returning characters. Maybe it’s something you play when you’ve beaten any new content released on the mobile game, to help pass the time until the next drop. It should also be fine for those unfamiliar with the franchise to pick this up, as the story will stand on its own.
Experienced Audiovisual Teams
The demo ran for about twenty minutes or so, and was also likely the same build as what will be seen at Gamescom. With the game due out later this year, there appeared to be plenty of polish, with a good art style befitting of Granblue Fantasy and a soundtrack that reminded me of classic RPGs. With the likes of Composer Nobuo Uematsu and Artist Hideo Minaba closely involved, if nothing else, Relink is all but guaranteed to look and sound great.
We played the demo on a PS5, and things ran pretty well. With Cygames using the older Unreal Engine 4 (perhaps due to the fact that development started on this game as far back as 2016, if not further), it’s not exactly a cutting-edge, showcase-worthy game, but it’s more than serviceable as a smooth-playing JRPG that’s easy to get into.
A Well-Established Universe
Not much of the story was revealed during this play session, but we do know that it takes place in a location that is separate from the world that has been built up in the main mobile game. Some characters from that game will appear here, though which ones have yet to be confirmed. Gran and Djeeta, the main playable characters from the mobile game, will be here, which is sure to please fans.
I’ll admit I have not played Granblue Fantasy before, but after having played a bit of Relink, I will say my interest in the mobile game is piqued. The soundtrack and art style are enjoyable, and even if the game itself ends up as a safe RPG with only a combo system as is main differentiator, then fans of the nine-year-old mobile franchise should be pleased.
Granblue Fantasy Relink appears to be a fairly standard RPG combined with the popular franchise, in an easy-to-digest format that most gamers will enjoy. The combo system may help add some variety to combat, and the inclusion of notable characters will no doubt please fans. If Cygames can deliver a solid experience, then perhaps more Granblue titles will be on their way before we know it (and, ostensibly, sooner than seven years after the initial announcement). Watch out for Granblue Fantasy Relink when it launches on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Windows later this year.
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