Granblue Fantasy: Relink

You really don't have to reinvent the wheel to make a good game. Banger soundtrack, gorgeous visuals, stellar voice acting, wicked fun mechanics and gameplay loop, etc. Story makes you feel like you did as a kid watching anime for the first time. If I knew what being loved by a woman was, I'd imagine it feels a lot like playing this.

Great game to jump into, even if you havent played previous iterations. Story is pretty good, variety of characters is really good, and those who are min-maxing will be the only ones that care about which character is slightly better than others. End game is still varied and can be played solo or online co-op.

This game is significantly underrated. It took longer to be released, and when it finally came out, it did not disappoint me.

There's no other Action RPG out there where you can play as Djeeta! Main story is a bit surprisingly short but there's TONS of post-game content including online quests with others and many other characters to play with which you won't unlock on the default playthrough.

I think no one is playing the game anymore. I've been online for hours, wanting to play co-op - can't find any game sessions. It's more fun playing with somebody than playing alone

Game reminds me of a anime Monster Hunter. Worth a grab.

one of the best rpg in terms of gameplay that i have played, i really like that each character has its own unique battle style, not to mention the party system coordinate attack. for the story its somewhat predictable, especially if u have watch a lot of fantasy anime, but still entertaining, overall is gud yall should play it

Genuinely one of the most gorgeous games I've ever played. I hardly know a thing about Granblue as a franchise but now I'm completely engrossed in it. Katalina is the goat <3

From 400+ hours (completed all quests)
- Very fun, beautiful graphics
- Very difficult to finish the game, need to practice skills quite a bit and find information on character build more and more
- Need to farm a lottttttttttttttt
- When you pass the last quest, you will feel bored, it would be great if you have friends to play with
- If you need to collect all trophies I think 600++ hrs

9/10 Story
10/10 Graphics
8/10 Voice
9/10 Soundtrack
10/10 Gameplay
10+/10 Difficulty (at end-game but can handle it)

DLC, you will get a red sword for 1 main character, color and some support items in the early game, whether you buy it or not, it does not affect the content.

Warning: Your computer must be powerful to handle it.

Finally, if you like this kind of game, do not hesitate to buy it.
(This game also has a sexy character mod xD)

PS. Narmaya is the best!!
But my skills are not good enough, I finished it with Tweyen xD

The environments are beautiful, the gameplay is super fun, the characters play very differently from each other, and this game offers many hours of side-missions and post-game content. VFX, animations, SFX, and soundtrack are also superb.

Game's a lotta fun!
It's a shame we won't ever get to see the full potential it could've had had they decided to make it a live service game...
Introducing even more of the Granblue cast (which is massive) would have been really cool.

disclaimer: gbf player since 2016

this one is the best version of gbf out there, the story still sucks but the gameplay is top notch platinum stuff too bad they didn't get more time to cook with it because the pacing is horrid the story is too long the time needed to reach the good fights is eternal but when you finally get there the game is very good very enjoyable the co-op is fantastic would recommend, i got 2 copies for me and the fam

I have such an incredible love/hate relationship with Granblue Fantasy Relink. The story, albeit rather basic, is an absolute spectacle that I thoroughly enjoyed. The story is a bit on the shorter side, taking me about 30 hours while taking it incredibly slowly, but each boss battle throughout said story had me grinning from ear to ear - the majority of which felt very Monster Hunter-esque in its presentation.

The main draw for this game for me was that combat and I'm happy to say that out of the 22 available playable characters, the majority of them felt entirely unique with their own sorta gimmick. Personally I spent the majority of my time playing Charlotta whose whole gimmick is basically staying glued to the enemy and continuing an infinite combo that gets stronger by parrying attacks which then perpetuates said combo. I tried my hand at a few of the other characters and they all felt easy enough to pick up but with enough depth that I knew each one would take me dozens of hours to truly master.

That all being said, after the 30 hour campaign, I was met with the post game which has a lot of high moments and an obscene amount of low moments. Anyone who played this game will know about the Bahamut farming and it gets egregious. There are so many great moments in the post game that I absolutely adore, but it was marred by the fact that you have to spent a few minutes at a time fighting the same boss over and over again for a 5% drop for a weapon. It's made even worse by the fact that the weapon will drop for a random character that you own, meaning that each 2 - 5 minute boss run only has about a 0.2% chance of dropping what you're looking for.

I eventually did get said weapon and spend about a dozen hours farming materials to upgrade said weapon along with the weapons for the other characters in my party, but by the time I got to that point, I realized there really isn't much to do from there. There are a handful of other bosses that you can beat, but it felt like by the time I truly got the gears going in post game, the game sorta just ended, leaving me feeling like there was something missing. If you want to have a fun time with friends just blowing through quests, I highly recommend this game, but I very much would recommend ignoring the Terminus weapons and just moving on.

Super great quality of life, fun, relaxing, overall one of the best games i havbe played, keep in mind this is especially fun with freinds

Great game.

First the art, voice acting, and music, are incredible. Campaign took roughly ~15-20 hrs. With some cleanup quests. A bit more gear/character progression and missions you can farm. Did not do multiplayer so can't say how well that works.

Combat feels very good with the block and dodge very responsive. The combos are a bit repetitive but it's nice to feel that slowly lead to doing more damage overall. Lots of different party members you can swap out for a different play style.

My only few grips with it really. Wish the campaign was a lil longer. An it's very corny but that would be most things FF and JRPGS.

8.8/10 would play again or if someone I know wants a friend on their play through.

This game is amazing, the story part is kinda mehh but the gameplay part, an easy 11/10. Absolutely addicting and fun all around, but god the end game is grindy asf. Went for all the achievements because I was having a blast but proto bahamut is kicking my a$$ and each boss gets harder and harder, constant one shots near the end of the fight so it gets pretty irritating after a bit. I'd honestly love this game if the servers still had players because that would be a ton of fun and make stuff easier but every mission/quick quest I tried to do an open search, there was never any sessions. Overall a 8/10 game. It would be a 9/10 or 10/10 if the story was as good as the gameplay.

Combat system really great, play solo and AI partner are very good.
The game not too hard not too easy. and Loving this game so far. The story isn't that special but I do love the style, music, setting, mechanics, combat and gameplay overall!

One of the most fun Action RPG games out there, the story is ok too. Characters are great and fun to play.

優點
- 豐富的角色選擇
- 戰鬥方式多元，每隻角色都有獨特性
- DLC 非必要，每個東西都可以農出來
缺點
- 後期部分戰鬥用堆怪增加難度不可取
- 骯逼哩巴波
- 蘇勾以 蘇勾以

Loving this game so far. The story isn't that special but I do love the style, music, setting, mechanics, combat and gameplay overall!

Highly recommended even only at 10 hours I feel it has been already worth it's price tag.

Pretty fun gameplay. Story definitely falls into the so bad it's almost good category though.



My only concern was seeing you can buy some characters, but those characters cards can be unlocked later during missions.

When someone mentions Granblue, the first thing that comes to mind is the gacha isn't? What if I told that isn't the case with this one?
Quite surprisingly but hey! Let's take a look at Granblue Fantasy: Relink and see how it went, my personal experience and would I recommend the game?

I will admit and say that this game was always on my rader and I was curious about it for quite a while but did hold myself back as the first thing that comes to mind with Granblue is the mobile game which is a gacha title which did put me off but as I did finish all of the content in FFXIV: Dawntrail and was curious about Relink again. I decided to give the game a fair try and damn I wish I did so earlier.
Relink is entirely a very different game with modern day FF like gameplay and being fully featured ARPG, single player experience.

If I could describe the story of the game then it would be like going from A Realm Reborn to Endwalker in FFXIV but instead of taking 350 hours to do so. it can be finished within 12-15 hours. Which is indeed quite short compared to a lot of other RPG titles but it's also very direct and to the point. the MSQ of Relink mainly serves as an introduction to the universe and also teach the player some basic gameplay mechanics while providing interesting background story that starts at low stakes but increases quickly during our journey with our lovely cast of party members.

Gameplay? The gameplay of Relink is nothing like of the original. Real time combat that is similar to modern day FF games compared to Turn based of the original mobile game and also no gacha or anything as Relink isn't a live service.
As far the combat goes? It's fast and fluid with very flashy animations to behold and the experience will be dependent on the character you decided to play as cause for some. it might have interesting kit to go through while for others you can mash your face all over the keyboard and still achieve perfect results but it does have some relation to the fight encounters in the normal difficulty feeling way too easy which also leads into the feeling of being bored. once you finish the main story then you get the ability to play missions at Hard, Very Hard and Extreme which are indeed more challenging but even in that case you can mitigate it through a better build suitable towards endgame content.

Multiplayer and Coop support? Relink also does feature a Coop mode that you can play with friends and tackle the higher end fights but that's pretty much about it. You cannot play the Story missions in Coop Mode at all which seems such an oversight as it could be a good experience to play through the whole story with a friend or group but instead its limited only to the post MSQ content

Graphics and PC port? Relink is very aesthetically pleasing to look at across every aspect possible. Textures and such might look simple due to the art style but in reality, it does fit perfectly with the world of the game and looks detailed too with very vibrant color palette + lighting and effects for each area within the game. About the port itself? The game doesn't support high refresh rates or ultrawide monitors by default as Relink is primarily designed around the limitations of the consoles but thankfully that can be easily fixed through mods and you can play from start to finish with using a keyboard and mice but of course. its best experienced with a controller

My personal thoughts? Safe to say that Granblue Fantasy Relink has been a blast for me to go through and it has been a while since I played a game that gave me such entertaining value. Yes, it does have missed opportunities and quite a lot of them at that but they didn't really affect my enjoyment of the game. its a solid title by its own right and I would suggest people grabbing the game when it goes on sale as while the game does have a lot of value to offer. the 60$ price tag is off putting when the single player story is quite short and most endgame content revolves around grinding. Not to mention that Relink is no longer supported by its developer and gotten it's final content update as of Sep 15th, 2024

As far as the score goes? 9/10!

Personal Review

Just a personal review, nothing in depth.

Summary

Recommended. Fun Action RPG that offers a short, sometimes cheesy, but impactful single player story campaign and a multiplayer focused post-game. If you like hunting games (Monster Hunter, God Eater, Toukiden, Wild Hearts, etc.) and have a group to play with then give this a try, the post game will contain most of the game hours due to the grinds needed but the fights are fun to do, especially the first time. If you are interested due to the Single Player campaign, story is a bit on the shorter side and nothing to crazy with the quality but the stages are varied and the Art is great if you like anime aesthetics. Try to get this on sale as the original price can be too much.

Background

I know of the Granblue Fantasy games but never played any of them. Always appreciated the overall Art direction of the series. I am a fan of RPGs in general so I bought the game at launch and played it solo but never finished the post game. I was surprised when the gameplay loop felt a lot similar to MonHun than any single player RPG, a welcome surprise seeing that my favorite series of all time is MonHun. Played again a few months back, this time I pushed my hunting buddies to play the game with me. Started a new save and we finished almost all the missions available except for Zero Lucilius.

Mained mainly Zeta, Katalina, Percival & Cagliostro

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Details

Likes:
+ Gameplay loop is easy to follow (fight -> get mats -> build -> fight harder)
+ Combat is fun
+ Chain Burst is always fun to do
+ Characters have their own mechanics and gameplay. Good roster as well
+ Art Direction, backgrounds in the fields are especially great
+ Story beats are good
+ Story stages are varied
+ Creating builds are fun
+ Simple Weapon system
+ Character Sigils
+ Multiplayer fun with friends (up to 4)
+ Bosses are fun to do, especially the first time


Dislikes:
- Combat can be shallow depending on your character. I know there's a lot of tech that was removed/patched out since apparently they were bugs but I think this is a kind of game that benefits a lot if the characters have more depth and allows better player's skill expression.
- Combat can be too easy. Only the last tier of missions can be challenging, and majority of those missions' difficulty can be mitigated by a proper end game build
- Too much RNG, especially with the Sigils. I would appreciate if at least the character-specific sigils are locked behind a challenge for that character, sort of like a mastery reward instead of being locked behind RNG
- Single player only on the Story Missions. I understand the Captain requirement, but not being able to do Story missions with friends seems to be an oversight.
- Game design focus between Singleplayer and Multiplayer seems to be split right down the middle. First half of the game seems to be a Story driven Singleplayer RPG and the latter half is a Action Focused Multiplayer RPG. Both halves have their own merit but I think focusing more on whichever side will benefit the game in terms of identity.
- Lots of grinding involved
- Needs more content. I think this can be due to the mentioned split between the Singleplayer and Multiplayer aspect of the game, but overall even after a lot of hours I think the game needs more content. Game is fun, game is better with friends so why not have a lot more content we can chew on?
- Excavallion as a story gimmick fight is fine but is hell on earth to grind.
- Damage cap is a mixed bag for me


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Thank you!

It's been awhile since I found a game that I actually enjoyed. However, I'm in a bittersweet situation. I got this game to play co-op with my partner. Unfortunately the game does not allow for you to do the main storyline in co-op mode. So you can just do side quests and maybe level up by battling some beasts. However, this suggested it was co-op which I feel was falsely advertised.

The combat is so good, from the mechanics to the graphics its amazing. The only negative thing I can say about this game would be the story. In all fairness the story does have good moments, but its drowned out by the fetching quests, and boring dialog. Overall i recommend this game based off of the combat/end game progression

Seems like we've been waiting for this game for such a long time, It's finally here! Lol
The graphics are great, it's like playing the anime of this. The battle system is typical of what you find in action RPGs, attacks and jumps are linked to the face buttons, skills are brought out holding the RT with the face buttons. It's intuitive if you've played any game with a similar combat system.
So I checked a guide to get a sense of how many chapters there are and this is where I'm bummed. There are 11 chapters. I just finished chapter 6, logging in roughly 9 hours of gameplay and that is including most of the side quests. I know this game was built for post game play but I'm just sad with development taking as long as it did. The main story is only 11 chapters long.
This doesn't take away from the fact that it is an enjoyable game with fun and engaging combat. If you enjoyed the anime, you gotta take a look at this game. If you plan to play post story grab it at full price, but if you are only going to do one playthrough. Wait for a sale, it'll be a much better value