Granblue Fantasy: Relink

Its okayishh,, Game is good but you are done with the storyline in like 2 days of playing. So if i would not give more then 10 bucks for this game. Just wait till its a bit older or if you have lots of money to spend.

Not much I can say about this game except that its a fun game to play solo or with friends. Visually stimulating for me.

buy it on sale, this feels like an unfinished game being padded out, it feels like you only got the firsthalf of a game, and the game makes you fight the same enemy for like 2 tiers of difficulty and by difficulty meaning bullet sponginess, and after that the game gives you the final difficulty and new enemies, like why, they made the game feels like a job a SINGLE PLAYER GAME! this isnt even a gacha/looter shooter like destiny or warframe, and they cook the game to function like a gacha. game devs please understand that tediousness does not equal to hard game mode. dont even get this game on 50%off wait for a 70% off

Wow...Just WOW. This game is amazing. I'm currently sitting at almost 51 hours in this game and I have to say this takes me back. I haven't played a game through, day and night, in a LONG time...like...FF7 black label long time. As a newbie to the series I was a little lost at first to the story but I will say this game doesn't disappoint. I would def recommend this one if you are a fan of JRPGs or Action RPGs in general.

I give this game a Solid 5/5!

NOTE to DEVS: Absolutely great work and thank you for listening to the community (I've since delved in in these last two days). I really appreciate you bringing this work of art to us and look forward for your future additions!

PROS

VISUALS: ++++

SOUND AND MUSIC: +++

STORY: +++

GAMEPLAY: ++++++

ACCESSIBILITY: ++++

CONS

SENSORY OVERLOAD: -

GRIND: --

NO MORE CONTENT: ---

OVERALL SCORE: 9/10 - My Personal GOTY

• JRPG fans (anime fans)
  
• Enjoyers of Monster Hunter, Phantasy Star, Soul Sacrifice…
  
• Enjoyers of Devil May Cry, Bayonetta and the like (booby shorty Vergil)
  
[*]Enjoyers of CGDCT, but in Stunning Sublime Style (booby shorty Vergil)

EXTRA: TIPS

U can't play the story multiplayer just the side quest like it's monster hunter.

this game reminds me of FF for some reason haha basically its between me and ascian/garlean all over again. what a great way to start 2025

I haven’t even finished the game yet, but I have to say it’s a huge recommendation from me. The game is visually stunning, both in cutscenes and combat. I never expected a random mobile gacha game to produce a spin-off with this level of quality. If you’re looking for a JRPG with a decent story that hits some great highs, excellent combat, a large cast of playable characters, and an enjoyable overall experience, this is the game for you.

It’s fully voice-acted, and the English dub voice actors did a fantastic job. Honestly, this game makes me want to check out their gacha mobile game just to dive deeper into the lore. So yeah, I highly recommend it—please give it a try!

I knew this game was going to be fun, but I didn't know it would be THIS fun. Seems like it would be a LOT of fun with friends, as it has up to 4 player coop with nearly everything. VERY fun mechanics, cool characters, a surprisingly good story, and a beautiful art style. Definitely pick it up if you are a fan of action RPGs, and/or have friends to play with.

Edit After Chapter 8 of Story Mode: Ok... this game is indeed peak.

Solid Gameplay, great endgame Conttent and great Art direction

Weak Story and some grind necessary for main Campaign

One of the best JRPG I've played in a long time. Main story wasn't super long but really good. Lots to do after beating the story too.

All that gacha money went to good use, because GBF: Relink is an exceptional AAA product.

This game oozes money and finesse with its combat, music, and presentation. The main story is about 15 hours, but that's just the tutorial. The REAL game is what comes after, as the game pits you against boss raid after boss raid after boss raid, pushing you to farm mats, level up characters, get stronger gear and become better at the game.

Playing alone is doable because AI can control your other party members, but actually playing with other people to do raids is WAAYYYYY more fun, especially if it's with friends. With co-op, this game feels like Monster Hunter, or instance-based MMOs like Vindictus or Dungeon Fighter Online. I LOVE IT for that!

With the 50% sale right now this is an incredible deal!

Amazing Game. It's like if Nier Automata had a baby with Monster Hunter.

Як для колишнього гравця оригінальної гачі гра дуже крута, музика і графічний інтерфейс навівають приємну ностальгію. Геймплейно це слешер з гарно відполірованими анімаціями, видовищними спецефектами і квестами в стилі Monster Hunter, що дає можливість багато грати в коопі і купу енд-гейм контенту, але на нижчих рівнях важко знайти гравців. Дизайн персонажів дуже приємний, можна грати за більш ніж 10 різних, і всі вони добре вписуються в навколишній світ а не виділяються, ще й один з антагоністів приємно здивував своїм зростом))

Графіка на висоті у більшості місць, інколи не розумієш чи це кінематографічні відео кат-сцени чи вже гра, але деякі побічні діалоги виглядають простувато. Ще з мінусів це трохи затягнутий кінець основного сюжету а також те що багато чого закрито поки його не пройдеш і жорстокий дизбаланс між рівнями гравців який перекочував з гачі (високо-рангові гравці можуть винести боса за пару ударів), але в цілому дуже якісна гра в яку можна надовго зависнути. Сподіваюся буде продовження бо всесвіт достатньо великий і є багато інших крутих персонажів які не потрапили до гри

I've played this game twice through off Steam, and it slaps. The story isn't anything mind blowing, but it's grindy in a nice Monster Hunter-like way with satisfying, flashy combat and fantastic music.

My only complaint is that the late game can get a bit frustrating due to strikingly similar reasons as Monster Hunter: World in that RNG plays a huge factor. Sigils are effectively the same as decorations in World, and you need specific sigils to get the most out of your characters. It's also mandatory to get a unique weapon from the endgame in order to continue into post-endgame update content, which is about a 10-15% estimated drop rate per kill, and early kills can take awhile if playing solo.

Crafting and upgrading weapons you won't use on characters is also necessary to unlock those weapons' passives and a pretty significant power spike, and it's annoying because the mat cost is ultimately very high when it comes to doing it for 4 party members.

Finally, the RNG rolling for overmastery (essentially just another layer of bonus passives once a character is max level) is crap. There are too many useless stats that don't help you in the end, and it's hard to get a set of decently middling or high rolls while also landing the 4 stats you'll want. Last I knew this can be save scummed though, which I shamelessly recommend you partake in if it's still viable.

The good news is that the weapon drop grind is finite: if a weapon does drop, it's removed from the pool of potential drops going forward. Later updates to the game also added a sigil fusion feature which makes it somewhat easier to acquire desirable sigils by using ones you'd get rid of normally in order to fish for more, making that a bit less of a grind.

If you're a sweaty tryhard, you can hire only the crew you intend to use throughout the entire game, which significantly alleviates the RNG nature of the endgame weapon grind, as well as minimizes the mat requirement for crafting and upgrading weapons since the mats will be going to only those characters anyway. This is entirely unnecessary though.

These RNG elements aren't a deal breaker, and I highly recommend the game to anyone who enjoys similar third person action games. I'm a big fan of the Granblue universe after having played Relink, and despite the story being just "fine" I still love the characters and their interactions. Some of the later, harder fights are also incredibly good, worth playing through the game for alone.

Finally, my advice for hiring new crew: just use the vouchers when you get them if you've been eyeing someone to hire. From what I recall, they were going to change how the to-hire crew was going to scale, so it may not even be a problem anymore (haven't got that far yet to find out). Regardless, just pick someone up and use them if you like their look. Don't even worry about whether they're "meta" or whatever, just have fun.

Edit to add: Forgot to recommend playing the story chapters on hard difficulty if you have any amount of skill at video games. The only challenge is the omen stone mobs, which are at some points simply too tanky to kill in time for your current power/level without attempting them multiple times to gain link/burst, but you're not missing anything important with those.

This game has exceeded expectations and has a lot of replay value. Very enjoyable solo and with friends, I'm excited to see if any more games like this arise from this franchise!

A fantastic Action RPG. Even as someone who has never delved into the Granblue series as all, Granblue Fantasy: Relink drew me in with its' cast of charming characters, an interesting world and really fun combat. The game does only slightly delve into past stories of the characters as told in Granblue Fantasy, which I never played, but there are some recaps and mentions, so it's sufficient to learn who was up to what and what happened so far.

The game itself is very short for an RPG; I think it took me about 20 or so hours to finish, though you can replay chapters to find collectibles and chests you may have missed or complete encounters you may not have been strong enough for at the time. There is also an epilogue "story" that takes place while you fight your way through the additional missions that unlock after you finish the main story.

Speaking of which, this could be considered the meat of the game: after the story, you can continue to go on premade missions, get specific loot, upgrade your weapons and characters and so get ever stronger and stronger. The game has an online component but sadly the player count has fallen drastically - I tried to find players to do quick missions (random) with several times and never found anyone even at prime time, which is a shame as I am sure playing with others could be fun. To be fair, though, you don't need it: the CPU is extremely competent and does a very good job dodging enemy attacks and dealing somewhat good damage. Maybe other players are needed for the absolute hardest of missions but I just unlocked the last mission difficulty and never had any issue so far.

The fighting itself is very active and fun. Throughout the game, you can unlock over a dozen of different characters that each play differently with their own skills, weapons, upgrade paths and so on. With a party of 4, you can fight your way through standard monsters and bosses, from generic Goblins and Rock Golems to Griffins and Dragons. You can block, dodge and some characters have other ways of avoiding and dealing damage.

The Game's namesake, "Relink", comes into play when fighting: you can unleash link attacks by dealing damage with then fills up a link gauge. When it is full, the next link attack done by everyone together in the party will slow down time and increase your stats by quite a bit. Further, dealing damage fills up the SBA gauge which then lets you unleash a very strong attack that is different per character. If your companions follow up with their own attacks (which can be set to automatically be done so if their gauge is full when playing with CPUs), at the end a strong burst attack of the corresponding element is unleashed. Very cool and flashy, and it doesn't get old and rewards good timing as bosses have Overdrive and Break gauges that reduce and increase damage dealt to them respectively and changes their patterns.

Long story short, the game looks good, plays fantastic and has a lot of content besides the relatively short JRPG-typical story of friendship, saving the world, forging bonds - you have seen it a million times, so it probably won't impress you all that much, but the gameplay is where it's at and it's good. You can play GBF:Relink as long as you want and there will always be something to grind for (and grinding you will need to, as later weapon upgrades and character perks cost a LOT of respective currency and materials), but it is the proverbial carrot on a stick that is fun to chase as long as you want to chase it.

I had and still am having a lot of fun with it and can recommend it to people looking for a fast-paced JRPG with a some depth in how you want to approach combat and character builds. If I had to look for a negative point, it would probably be that the game itself is relatively short, as mentioned, and most of the main game is easily outleveled so even Hard isn't much of a challenge, so if you just want to play the story, it might not be very challenging; but then again, there is a lot more to this game. A definite recommendation!

My GOTY 2024 candidate. Incredibly well-polished action JRPG with great audio and visuals, responsive Nier-like combat mechanics and Monster Hunter-style gameplay loop. There's 20+ playable characters with unique abilities and movesets that you can play as across ~20h story mode and then 100h+ worth of endgame content (either solo or through online co-op).

The game is a spin-off of the mobile gatcha game Granblue Fantasy but no prior knowledge of that game is required, the story in Relink is self-contained and the game clearly explains the lore, story and character backgrounds through character-specific side quests called Fate Episodes. There are no microtransations, battle passes or anything of sorts. It is not a live-service game and DLC section contains only alternative outfit colours, bundles with resources (that you can obtain easily by just playing) and shortcuts for instant access to 3 characters that have been added post release.

In my 250h+ with the game I haven't had a single crash or performance issue, a rarity nowadays.

TLDR this game was worth every penny. It's a super fun ride I'd recommend to anyone who is interested in Granblue or a Monster Hunter style game. The devs said that they'd consider adding further updates if there was enough demand, so every new player helps.

As someone who always had eyes on Granblue but never really got into it, Relink was my first proper exposure to the universe. Despite being so late to the party, the game did a decent job with introducing me to the various elements of the world, helped considerably by the fact there's a whole glossary for those who want to dig deeper.

With background stuff out of the way, time for the actual game now. Earlier I equated it to Monster Hunter in gameplay, and that's what it is. You take on quests to earn materials to upgrade your gear, rinse and repeat. Of course there's more to it, with various ways to augment your capabilities and become even stronger. Instead of maining a weapon, you choose a character. Each has their own unique moveset and gimmicks, plus various abilities and skills to choose from, so you can build each character to your liking. The game's combat is very fun as well, with you and your team usually combating large foes with big movesets and health bars. For the most part, it isn't the hardest game, as you are given a couple defensive measures and the enemies aren't the most complicated. However as you progress, they ramp up pretty significantly.

In a word, the story to me is good. Not a masterpiece, but I was quite enthralled from start to finish. This was in no small part to the absolutely gorgeous backdrops and spectacle moments. The bosses especially were fantastic. They alone were enough to have me grinning from ear to ear the whole way through. This doesn't even mention the absolutely wonderful soundtrack. The entire catalog is a treat to listen to and is one of my favorite soundtracks in gaming and has solidified Tsutomu Narita as one of my favorite video game composers (go listen to his works in the original Granblue, dude is amazing). Even as I write this I'm listening to the final story boss' theme and enjoying every second.

The writing for the game really shines in its characters. Each has an enjoyable personality amplified by the (mostly) great voice acting. There's tons of banter between each member and it really brings them to life and gives them that sense of teamwork that the game pushes for. The antagonists as well are quite enjoyable. With two members of the antagonist faction in particular being absolutely stellar and being outright the best written and acted characters in the whole game. Even with all my hours in the game, I enjoy hearing the back and forth dialogue every time.

The graphics of the game are mostly okay, with certain elements being rougher than others. The visuals are greatly assisted with the very pretty visual effects and Granblue's general character and environmental designs being top notch. This doesn't even mention the absolutely gorgeous character art they use in menus and such.

One of the things that could be frustrating to some is the very heavy grinding in the game. While its mostly negligible for the story, the post game is another beast. These hours I have are mostly grinding to get better gear to fight the toughest bosses, at the time of writing I haven't even beaten the boss added in the most recent update. Even so, the game is so good that I don't mind grinding in the slightest.

See you in the endless blue, skyfarers.

A thing of beauty. The visuals are so much better than video can communicate (the light and wind effects are especially cool), and the characters' animations are amazing. There is so much personality to this that it rolls over the top and becomes 'generic' or 'archetypal'. You can really feel the love that went into representing the world and characters.

really nice game until you get the help id with quest omg it was so painful but the rest of the game is really nice, i mained cag

Loved it from start to end. Visuals just hit a great sweet spot that made playing the game all the more fun even with the cliche story progression. Character variety is nice with move-sets being semi universal but with different applications. Much better with friends as per the usual. The game was definitely worth-it no doubt just wish there was just a little bit more especially in the endgame.

Arguably the best anime action adventure game that came out this year and visually very appealing next gen JRPG game. It's a pity that the game has so much more potential but it wasn't meant to be a live service game. The gameplay loop is more or less like Monster Hunter. Highly recommended for newcomers in the Granblue Series.

Granblue Fantasy Relink made an 8 year wait worth it and to say I enjoyed it would be an egregious understatement. Relink is everything I wanted from it and more. With a tight, action packed story (albeit nothing special but it gets the job done), amazing combat, a great OST, and insanely fun bosses, this game is jrpg perfection in my eyes. An easy recommend to anyone even slightly considering it. My only gripes are that the demo isn't available on Steam so that I could tell people to try that if they're still on the fence and that this game seems to have run its life cycle even though I NEED more Relink in my life.

It is simply peak!

Lots of playable characters with a whole plethora of equippable sigils to customize your build! It's a shame the online kinda died down, but all in all an extremely solid game!

Love the gameplay and graphics! Very fun being able to play many different characters

Granblue Fantasy: Relink is a fun and beautiful anime-style action JRPG.
It has a fast-paced and engaging combat consisting of you and 3 AI-companions. You start with 6 playable characters and unlock more as you progress through the content (total of 22 characters). After the 10-15 hour story, the endgame begins with a Monster Hunter-esque gameplay loop where you fight harder and harder bosses, get their materials, and upgrade your characters. You'll be spending most of your time farming for your weapons, masteries (skill tree) and sigils (accessories that will define your build). Ultimately, whether you end up spending 10 or 100+ hours in this game will depend entirely on whether or not you get hooked on this gameplay loop.

Pros:
+ Beautiful anime art-style
+ Great soundtrack
+ Fantastic Japanese voice acting
+ Exciting boss fights
+ 100+ hours of Monster Hunter-esque gameplay loop
+ A large cast of characters with their own unique fighting style
+ Smart enough AI-companions to complete all content with

Cons:
- Short 10-15 hour story
- Friends or online players cannot join that part of the story content
- Inactive online party finder for quests (you'll need a friend or find someone from the Granblue Fantasy: Relink steam/discord community to play with)
- Gameplay loop can be repetitive

Notes:
Review written based on Game Version 1.3.1

Great game during the peak of release, sadly this was a passion project by the devs so it probably wont see anymore updates, recommend it for a solo grind but the online coop is dead

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☑ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☑ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☑ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☑ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☑ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10

Beautiful art direction, great variety of playable characters, wish there was more content

story wise, I was hoping that we begin GBF: Relink from the very beginning aka Zinkenstill / Phatagrande arc
endgame repertoire isn't as good as monster hunter world but all in all, a really nice experience for 1 playthru
Both for casual player & GBF fan

Easily the best game compared to genshin impact, unique gameplay with the link attacks and also the attack combos. Brings a whole new depth of gameplay

Great game with fun combat when experiencing fresh content for the first time, but is brought down by end game being grindy needing lots of afk farming and hard to find other players with matchmaking due no new update.

Absolutely my GOTY, great introduction to Granblue for those who are not familiar with the world. Wonderful artstyle, banger OST, and satisfying gameplay - you get a pretty good story (which goes full ANIME and owns up to it) and endgame that's kinda similar to Monster Hunter where you want to farm specific mats for your character/weapon upgrades.

Simple and fun
Nice and engaging story with fun combat mechanics
Would probably work better for people who like grindy games like Monster Hunter

Beautiful game, but can be one hell of a slog

The good

The bad

Conclusion

A really good entry point for granblue as a franchise, story is very simple and short(around 15 hours) with enough gameplay variety throughout which is good cause you need to beat most of it to play a lot of the co-op missions. everything is co op besides the story so beyond that missions are either boss fights or kill a certain amount of enemies. Even while limited in that capacity each character brings different things to the table or you can just play the same person until there's nothing left. the sigil system is very fun in the start always getting small improvements to have your character feel stronger, but near the endgame it becomes kinda grindy needing specifically damage cap ups. (and if you want the best of the best you have to sell your soul to curios.) the whole game is fun to play with a friend and there's enough there to play before the grind consumes everything which some people enjoy

I may be a bit biased towards Granblue as a series, but I wouldn't have any issue with calling this my favourite game of all time.

Gameplay wise, it is one of the most enjoyable action RPGs I've ever played, with a large cast of characters, all of them playing very differently, from the speedy assassins, tanky brawlers, to the long range casters, this game has it all, and they are all fun to play. The boss fights are all incredible, especially the last few post game fights. To make things even better, all the non-story quest are playable with friends. The one gripe some people may have with it is that it can be pretty grindy in the post game (the story itself requires next to no grinding). While this may be true, I actually really enjoyed grinding towards improving my build in this game, but it may just be my gbf addict brain speaking. The game will ask you to run the same raid multiple times for some upgrades, but I enjoyed running the raids so much that it didn't matter, and I felt like I always grinding for some meaningful reward.

Story feels akin to an anniversary event in the gbf mobile game in terms of scale, characters and quality. It's definitely very good, but if you don't have much experience with the Granblue universe it may be harder to understand what is going on, but I feel like it's still a very good story regardless.

Graphics are clearly great, even though the game had some optimisation issues near launch.

The music goes hard, as is to be expected from a Granblue game (I am actually listening to End of Ragnarok while writing this).

Couldn't recommend this game enough, 10/10

(Please FKHR, the people yearn for a new update)

Game of the Year material and easily one of the best games i've ever played. It's just a shame that the developers don't update it because they "didn't expect the game to be so successful."

Fun game with a diverse cast of characters so there is a fighting style for everyone whether you want to be a ranger or a slow buff monster.

Only bad thing is that the online feature is region locked so if you are in anywhere but Japan the game has barely any online presence and the ones that are playing online are generally just doing end game content so not a fun time for newbies.

Great graphic and soundtrack. The gameplay is fun. However, the stories are very short. Also, the endgame is quite difficult and needs much time to invest for good equipments. Plus, there's no update news from developer anymore, so you will find coop match rarely.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink is a game that has never really been in my spotlight, but I decided to give it a chance and let me put it this way: "it was worth it". The game has well-written characters, the combat system is also good, we have a lot of characters here and everyone will find something for themselves. The plot may seem simple but it is very well written and that's important. The boss fights are also interesting and exciting. We have a lot of content to unlock after finishing the game, so finishing the storyline does not mean finishing the game itself. For me, the game was a big surprise and I really enjoyed spending time in it. However, I recommend buying this game on sale.

My overall rating is: 9 / 10

Good game Score 9/10

I think Granblue Fantasy: Relink is a wonderful game and a worthy addition to the rest of the IP's collection.

Graphics are beautiful and graceful. Spells and abilities have good clarity, so it feels really clean and easy to play. However, it's very hard to master, especially if you start with the harder modes in the Difficulty settings. As you progress through the game, enemies scale with you, and there's additional difficulty for missions and quests, so be careful!

The characters in the game all feel strong and have distinct differences between them, which I like very much. You can finish the base game with virtually any character or party configuration you prefer. However, once the story is complete and you begin tackling Hard Quests, the difficulty increases significantly. At this point, you'll need to carefully consider the skills and team composition you bring to each challenge. Fortunately, the developers provided the tools we need to save and switch between various team compositions.

Conclusion: The game has a very fun gameplay style, somewhat reminiscent of Monster Hunter, but with cute graphics and an even more colorful story. The dynamics between characters are great, although they can be a bit cheesy at times. However, this doesn't detract from the wonderful adventure you'll experience.

Kudos to the Developers.

Fun game, great character diversity. Gets a bit grindy toward the end, but that's what the end game for this genre is.

OK I know I may not have played for enough time nor played enough action games to write a review, but jeez the VFX of this game is gorgeous.

I just beat the desert boss and the visual design of that boss fight is just breathtaking and I just knew I have to leave a recommendation.

Decent story, huge amount of exciting characters, combat feels good. no online play unless you join the unofficial discord tho. I've been enjoying just playing by myself.

I've always been interested in Granblue Fantasy, but never liked turn-based gacha or fighting games, so Relink was my gateway into it, with the real-time ARPG combat as the main draw.

Negatives first: you can't play the story mode in co-op, which was my main disappointment. Multiplayer is relegated to the Quests, which are optional missions that you can do to get loot and EXP, and tie into the post-game. While extensive and very fun on their own, it doesn't scratch the same itch as playing through the campaign with a friend or two.

I have mixed feelings about the story, as the plot is a stand-alone story that takes place after the main story for the original mobile game. On one hand, it does make an attempt at onboarding new players, but at the start, you're just thrown into the crew with already established relationships, and have to rely on Fate Episodes to get to know them. These are visual novel style segments that give a brief summary of each character's backstory and how they joined the crew. It does a decent enough job that it got me curious to try the anime, which I recommend watching before playing Relink, since it's an adaptation of the original main story.

As for Relink's plot, it's pretty short and sweet, just stardard JRPG fare, but it's honestly kind of a vibe. It's very cliché in a comfortable, familiar way, and doesn't require any previous Granblue knowledge to understand beyond what the game gives you.

The art and graphics look great. It only gets a bit boring on the environment design, but the characters in particular translate really well from the art to the 3D models. It runs smooth at max graphics on my 3060 as well, which is always a plus for a good-looking game.

The combat was the main draw for me. It's an ARPG where dodging and blocking are your main defensive tools, as well as character-specific defensive skills, and then you can just wail on the enemies with flashy combos and abilities.

What kept me engaged was the fact that bosses are capable of handling four characters fighting them at the same time. They have hefty HP bars and lots of AoE and multi-target attacks that you have to at least consider instead of just spamming your stuff with no retaliation. It's no Elden Ring in terms of difficulty, you won't see the Game Over screen often at all, but the bosses are respectably challenging.

TL;DR: Get this game if you like ARPGs, or if you're like me and love JRPGs but dislike turn-based combat. Do watch Granblue Fantasy: The Animation to get to know the main cast.

This game mixes some of the worst parts about playing a gacha game and Monster Hunter-style game together. I would not recommend this anyone after spending 600 hrs on it. You may see my post-review hours continue to increase and that's because I personally like the game, but I know what type of gamer I am. I can be objective about what this game does well and what it does poorly, and that has nothing to do with my personal enjoyment.

So here's the checklist:
Are you into spending multiple hundreds of hours looking for BiS pieces for your build?
Do you enjoy anime-aesthetic games?
Are you willing to tolerate RNG until it yields and gives you what you need to progress?
Can you leave you computer on for long periods of time, running a game that locks your mouse to the screen while it auto-battles?
Do you yell "PARADISE LOSTO!" every time the boss uses his signature move, even though you've seen it 1000 times?

If the answer to all or most of these questions is yes, then game is probably for you. And as I previously stated, I enjoy this game a lot. Granblue is super fun, fast-paced, and the combat feels good, so I have a hard time putting it down. I think Cygames is great and has earned my respect for moving away from their name-sake gacha game and creating new games in other genres, like Relink and Rising. I also look forward to more Granblue games, but unfortunately, these gacha elements bleed into the game in places were it's not needed or appreciated, and I can say that if the devs actually played their game, they would know that some of these systems feel bad to interact with. So let's get into it...


This game is a "Monster Hunter"-lite at best. It plays like Tales of Arise, but has a MH-feeling hub and mission/quest oriented system. It shares some of the MH kinds of mechanics, but all the depth of crafting your set to enable unique abilities with different strength and weaknesses is gone. You can hit specific parts of bosses for drops, but all drops in this game are just meaningless individual pieces which are part of a checklist needed for the next upgrade, and it doesn't feel like you HAVE to break it because the drop it's not build-critical. You'll get it eventually cause you're going to fight these same 8 monsters 1000 times while you're leveling and maxing out your mastery boards.

There are too many gacha mechanics in this game. The sigil summoning, Over-Mastery, and Auto-battling. This game would have been solid without all these things present in the game. There's just a few too many annoying RNG layers you have to grind through, and this game already has a bunch of unnecessary tedium. The inventory limits and selling limits are going to make managing your builds a nightmare.

Now, you might be someone who thinks that you don't need to do all that stuff to beat the game, and if you're talking about campaign/main story completion and only a small handful of post-game content, then yes, none of the above mentioned stuff matters. That just means you're the kind of person who orders a 20$ meal when you go out to dinner, and you're okay throwing away half of it as long you're full. But for the people who want the full experience of the game, get ready to slog and spend a lot of time auto-battling.


If you want to glance over the gacha stuff, we can talk about system level issues as well, in no particular order.

1. They don't introduce "fast travel" until after you beat the game. This is not a game-breaking feature to needs to be locked for that long, you can literally only use it in the hub and no where else.

2. Aerial combat, auto-target, and camera movement are all ass. If you fight camera, you're gonna have a bad time because the devs want you to see the game the way they created it. Once the special sequences are over, you can move your camera without resistance again. I turned all automated camera features off, and it barely helps. The auto-target is gonna have you hitting stuff you don't want and air-combos are clunky compared to doing your damage on the ground. Just stay on the ground.

4. The biggest glaring issue in combat, was that there is no way to direct your AI to your target. Even though they will eventually be strong enough to carry you, they often trigger multiple back-to-back monster mechanics because they damage their HP bars evenly instead of focusing.

5. The micro progression I referred to several times above is a stat tree, filled with insignificant bonuses that will cumulatively improve your output. You are getting stronger, but it doesn't "feel" like you are because you add 5 attack here, 5 crit chance there, and you won't begin to notice your output has improved until you've amassed enough of these small bonuses. Your skills are unlocked from the tree, and there's no true build diversity. You just pick which 4 skills you want set, and that's it. That's your character. The rest is just sigils, weapon increases and stat increases.

Also, I will take a brief second to talk about damage cap. This is the absolute worst mechanic in the game, because it's a damage ceiling that can only be raised by having sources that increase your cap. If you use buffs, debuffs or increase the power of your equipment, you run into the damage cap quicker. Properly geared characters can hit damage without either, which is stupid to the highest order. There shouldn't be a cap mechanic that invalids parts of character's skill sets. They could have just increased the HP and let us enjoy the big numbers. It's here to stay, the devs did nothing about dmg cap but they should have removed it. It's horrible trying to optimize your gear around having cap increases.

6. Building and trying new characters is such an absolute chore in this game. Each character has 6 weapons (excluding the DLC characters) and you have to max out all 5 weapons in order to fully upgrade the 6th and final weapon. You will not be able to use a new character without upgrading those first, unless you are okay with just losing or doing weaker missions you've already cleared. I think they could have increased the drop rates for weapon enhancement materials, since it's basically required. The cast is huge and I would have liked to try more characters than I did, but I built 10 of them and could not find the heart to try anymore. This was a huge flaw of the game, especially when the cast is so cool.

Granblue has huge cinematic fights and sequences, an Excellent OST, lovable cast of characters, fluid combat (on the ground) and excellent visuals and art style. But it also has AI good enough to replace humans, auto-battling, micro-progression and RNG based mechanics which are required to complete the game in it's entirety. I stated in the beginning that I like this game, as many others have before me. However, there's a reason it's 40% off in the same year that it released, and it's because the Devs are done with it. 1.3 is likely the last update the game is getting, and honestly, the new post-post game quests they added were not that fun anyway. All they did was double stack bosses that don't have well balanced mechanics mashed together. I don't like being 1-shot by everything, including attacks that aren't properly telegraphed from off-screen. That shits not fun, nor fair. I beat Lucilius Zero with my AI team, but I had to max out basically every slot to get the job done. These Dev's idea of "more content" is just turn the numbers up to unreasonable levels, and I conquered these challenges cause I'm not a quitter, but it wasn't fun in the process. I hope Cygames continues to grow and learn, and I look forward to the games they release in the future. While Relink was not quite the experience I wanted, Rising is considerably better now than when I bought it and I'm playing Rising again. If my checklist applies to you, I hope you enjoy this game as much as I did. But if my checklist doesn't apply you, don't waste your money.

114 hours and I gotta said it's worth it. The story, gameplay, etc. It was perfect down to the last minute detail

Such a beautiful JRPG. I love the character designs and their personalities. I also really enjoyed the story and combat. I think my only complaint would be how much I had to grind in the epilogue to finish the story completely but overall loved it.