I am not someone who knows much about the Granblue Fantasy franchise. My action adventure JRPG experience has been limited to games like Scarlet Nexus and Tales of Arise, so that's where I'll be drawing some of my comparisons from. However, even as a complete newbie to the franchise, Granblue Fantasy Relink managed to draw me in with its colourful charm.
Granblue Fantasy Relink can be best described as an explosion of colour in the skies, mixed in with epic boss fights and some likeable characters that help elevate what is otherwise a safe main story mode. However, the real meat of the game lies in the endgame with multiplayer. I'll be covering each of these aspects individually in this Granblue Fantasy Relink review.
To start, let's talk about the weakest aspect of the game, the main story. Those of you looking for a ridiculously convoluted JRPG story might be a bit disappointed. Granblue Fantasy Relink plays its story safely and for the most part, you'll be on a "save the princess" type adventure. Each episode takes up around 2–3 hours, and it will take you around 30 hours to complete the main story if you don't get sidetracked too often. There's nothing wrong with the story itself, it's just safe and somewhat predictable which is disappointing if you were hoping for some twists and turns on your way to the endgame.
Each island is very well crafted and has a unique biome and atmosphere, resulting in a rich world packed with variety. This is where the art style elevates the game above others in the genre, as I'd find myself just stopping and staring at the scenery in awe. The same care is also given to the camerawork which adds a lot more personality to the more dialogue-driven story moments. The vibrant art style lends itself well to bringing this world to life while managing not to be too saturated and overwhelming during exploration and combat.
Speaking of exploration, the game manages to hit that fine line where exploration is incentivized just enough to be fun and rewarding rather than tedious. Due to all the various currencies you'll need it's always rewarding to find a couple of chests after a detour and Cygames make sure to reward players who go out of their way for it appropriately. The same principle applies to the side quests you get from citizens. They're somewhat basic but the rewards are worth it. I also need to mention that the load times in Granblue Fantasy Relink are phenomenal, and some of the best I've seen in recent memory for a game of this scale which is a huge positive if you're after a smooth gameplay experience.
At no point while exploring new islands does the gameplay ever feel repetitive, and it's clear that the team put in effort to make sure each episode brings with it some sort of new mechanics. There are enough fresh things in the game to keep you surprised well into the latter half of the story. Speaking of cool set pieces, the boss fights are phenomenal and one of the highlights of the game, but more on this later. This is only improved by the fact that the game has a threatening evil faction, so you're always anticipating what the next big fight will be like and how tricky the opposition will be to defeat.
The well-executed world-building manages to be immersive without the standard overwhelming info dumps. The game does a great job of guiding you through its dialogue-heavy sections with an active Glossary. The glossary, cutscenes, tips and character guides are always available, so you can check up on anything you might've missed earlier.
While I've given the story some slack, that only applies to the main plot. In terms of characters and world-building, Granblue Fantasy Relink does a terrific job at getting you accustomed and attached to everything. Character backstories are tied to a mechanic that helps boost their stats, which is incredibly videogame-ey and I love it. It incentivizes you to learn about these characters and in turn care for them. Not to mention that everything is fully voiced with good voice actors who seem to be having fun with their roles. The quips and banter during combat and personalised dialogue depending on your party members add a lot of charm and personality to your crew.
As of writing this, there are around 20 characters in Granblue Fantasy Relink, and it's clear that a lot of effort was put into designing them and making them fun. Each character has a unique playstyle, and you can swap through them before entering combat. Unfortunately, there is no character swapping during combat to generate a plethora of fun combinations in the heat of battle. This irked me initially, but there is enough depth in individual characters that you'll have a ton of fun mastering the entire roster. For example, learning how to play Siegfried has given me several hours of extremely fun and satisfying gameplay.
Not only do they have unique move sets and weapons, but each character possesses massive mastery trees with three categories for offence, defence, and weapon stats. It's extremely satisfying to put points into the characters you prefer and watch them slowly become powerhouses. As I mentioned, the mastery trees are vast, keeping you playing to build the ultimate character that's primed to tackle any boss standing in their way.
On the other hand, character customisation is lacking in depth. Your main method of creating a loadout consists of choosing weapons and sigils which are just buffs to various statistics. You can also pick through some fun skills, but they tend to have long cooldowns until you offset this in the late game. All in all, there aren't too many unique builds you can try and despite spending lots of time on your party's gear, they'll always be controlled by a CPU that struggles to synergise well.
This is where online play comes in, and it's simultaneously one of the best but most irksome parts of the game. Playing with friends or coordinated parties truly elevates the already amazing boss fights to the level of something like Monster Hunter or Final Fantasy. It's a lot of fun to master each boss with friends, and the developers have promised they'll keep up support and add new more powerful bosses and missions for endgame content. Where it's annoying is the fact that it's a chore to navigate.
Cygames has provided a lot of quality-of-life options for multiplayer filters, including a 'no spoilers' mode. Even then, there are not enough communication options for someone to figure out or create a purpose-built session that's visible to other like-minded players. It also takes a whole while to get set up, which can be annoying as you usually want to loop quests quickly or make your way to the next one immediately. This won't be an issue if you already have a dedicated party of friends, but it can be inconvenient for those looking for random sessions to chill in.
The base game already has tons of challenging content for single-player campaigns that are incredibly fun to overcome. The upcoming content might be balanced for multiplayer, and it'll become increasingly harder for those playing alone. Regardless, many might also see this as a welcome challenge. Safe to say I'll be looking forward to all the endgame content and the devs have my complete faith in their ability to craft fun and challenging boss fights. This is thanks to all the aspects surrounding that gameplay such as the combat mechanics, characters, art style and upgrade paths.
Granblue Fantasy Relink doesn't reinvent the wheel, but its commitment to quality makes it an easy recommendation to any JRPG fans out there and even to those who simply enjoy hack-and-slash combat.