Granblue Delusion Relink Video Sport Assessment
With great ambition comes Granblue Fantasy Relink, a game that excels in most areas and at least holds its own in others.
By now, everyone with even a passing interest in the game industry is likely familiar with Granblue Fantasy. Based on Cygames’s Granblue Fantasy world, Granblue Fantasy Relink is an action role-playing game. Aside from Granblue Fantasy Versus, this is yet another endeavor to expand the Granblue characters’ horizons outside the mobile gacha realm (and Rising). Though I have loved Versus Rising, I am not familiar with the mobile game. While I am familiar with the main characters and the general atmosphere of the location, I am not an expert on the story or the world’s mythology.
First, we will go over the fundamental ideas. The action role-playing game Granblue Fantasy Relink allows you to command a single character with the help of up to three companions. Storytelling takes place while the protagonists soar through the air in a combination of in-engine and pre-rendered cutscenes. As they go from sky island to sky island, they face villains and fight monsters to save the people. The quest for the enigmatic island Estalucia becomes increasingly challenging for Gran, Katarina, Lyria, and the others as they face new dangers and put their friendships to the test.
The fight scenes take center stage, and the film makes every effort to highlight them. The basic mechanics are the same as in previous games: you can chain light and heavy attacks to create combos, you can dodge and jump to avoid or set up attacks, each character has their own skill bar with cooldowns, and you can use link and super attacks to deal massive damage. For those who have played action RPGs like this recently, you may recognize much of this.
The fighting seemed new every time I played, even though it was all quite old. The mechanics were well-integrated, and I had no trouble stringing together powerful attacks or setting up decisive strikes. The comments were great, and I had a great time engaging in battles that most role-playing games would consider easy, like taking on a tiny band of goblins. I don’t think you’ll have much trouble smashing through most battles if you don’t understand all the underlying mechanics; it’s that straightforward. However, you’ll need to pay close attention to certain mechanics and attack timings during substantial confrontations, such as boss bouts.
The frequent use of conditions in the major plot combats was perhaps my favorite feature. Fights often had simple aims, such killing all the foes, but they also included additional goals to make them more interesting. This may take the form of opponents with unusual patterns of attack or timed tasks that required swift action to complete. On other occasions, I had to modify my approach to play since the level of difficulty had increased. As an example, your ship faces an early onslaught from other airships in the tale, and those ships are armed with very powerful weapons. Once you successfully resist many waves of border guards using normal fighting, the action starts to heat up. While attempting to demolish enemy turrets, you may jump atop a turret and blast enemy cannon balls out of the sky. Your understanding of the game’s movement mechanics and crowd control abilities will be put to the test as you face hordes of enemy boarders who pose more of a threat than your fellow players. The objective is to board their ship and destroy their turrets and engines before they can bring your craft down.
You can find equally interesting sequences elsewhere. Perhaps you’re facing a particularly challenging monster who, during certain attack sequences, loses their weapon, which you can then retrieve and use to do devastating damage. At other times, you’ll be guarding a friendly wizard who is channeling to open a gateway; if opposing troops strike the wizard, the countdown will halt and you won’t be able to proceed. There is no need to be intimidated by the complexity of any of these notions. Simultaneously, you’ll be reevaluating your party composition, ability choices, and more due to the constant flow of new goals. The combination of this variation with the already excellent core fighting system makes for a mechanically compelling game.
In this sense, the diversity of characters also helps. You have a large cast to choose from right from the start, and your party makeup has a major influence on how combat go. As the plot develops, you’ll meet additional individuals to round out your group, and you may level up even more by using crewmate cards to call even more characters. I was overwhelmed by the number of party members even after only a few hours of playing the tale. Granblue has so distinctive character designs that it’s interesting to explore their various playstyles, which made picking only four much more of a challenge. Charlotta, the protagonist of Granblue Fantasy Versus, delivers a devastating blow in Relink, just like she did in Rising, which made me more happier.
A plethora of optional pursuits are also available. To put your platforming and map reading skills to the test, there are speed-running parkour challenges strewn throughout the stages. You may buy abilities, treasure, and experience from merchants in towns, and you can perform these missions alone or with a maximum of three other players online. You may always just go exploring for more crafting materials and item drops.
The beauty of this game is so overwhelming that you will likely spend yourself aimlessly exploring it. Even while I was aware that Granblue Fantasy Relink faced formidable competition in this area—for example, graphically stunning action role-playing games like Tales of Arise and Final Fantasy XVI—I was nonetheless pleasantly surprised by how well Granblue Fantasy Relink held its own. Clearly more cartoon-stylized, with bright color choices and enormous spectacular environmental assaults, this is closer to the Tales of Arise end of the spectrum. With its stunning visuals and intricate character models, the whole universe leaps off the screen. Being very vibrant without being overwhelming is its accomplishment.
The remainder of the presentation is equally impressive. Just the appropriate amount of dramatic fight music and more melodious town tunes make up the soundtrack. The extensive variety of details and whimsical touches in the environments contribute to the sense of immersion. The voice acting is superb, and the performances had me engrossed the whole time. There was a lot of information, but the story pieces were strong, so it never became boring.
Additionally, I thought the game’s performance was top-notch. The game ran well on medium to high settings in most circumstances, even though my desktop PC is getting on in years. On top of that, I dedicated a lot of time on my Steam Deck, and it performed well. The game seemed smooth and lively, and there were never any crashes or such issues. I can’t comment on the connection quality since I didn’t try out the online play elements, but because they are optional, I don’t think they would change my opinion of the game much, regardless of how bad my experience was.
The game does have some problems, however.
In my opinion, Granblue Fantasy Relink’s plot and characters are its worst points. Not in terms of the story’s overall structure or the rapidity with which it unfolds. The plot develops at a good, steady pace, and everything fits together well. The world was too much for me to handle. The plot isn’t convoluted, and the characters are likeable. However, neither the larger context nor any of the individual character beats ever really captivated me. I too don’t see where the gap is; on one hand, I didn’t find anything particularly wrong with the offering, but on the other hand, I was never really invested in the plot.
An issue is the extensive content provided to the user at the beginning of the game. In the beginning, you play as Gran, who is just going about bonking wolves. But before you know it, you’re juggling numerous party members, boarding an airship to faraway, exotic islands, and a plethora of lore terminology and proper noun nation-states. It’s an overwhelming and never-ending barrage of information. It was abrupt enough to make me feel immersed in the story, but not so abrupt that I was pulled out of it.
Not that the game makes no effort to have you delve into the backstory, either. Cutscenes and backstories, accessible via a submenu, giving players a glimpse into the characters’ life beyond the events of Relink. Simply interacting with this backdrop will earn you in-game cash, building points, crafting supplies, and more from the game. I think that’s a fantastic approach to get people even more involved in the environment around them. Even though the game did a good job of making the setting and people memorable, I still can’t recall much beyond first impressions. I wish the details had stayed with me. Experiencing these experiences with the characters as they develop and evolve is one thing—it usually leads to deep ties. Unfortunately, seeing all of these characters develop via what amounts to a slideshow seven or eight times just to catch up with the whole ensemble isn’t as impactful.
I must admit that I was taken aback by the persistence of this disconnection. After my experience with Versus Rising, I thought I would be better able to identify the characters and grasp their fighting styles. I don’t believe it helped me much in this case, and maybe the main distinction is the mobile game. If you’ve played the mobile game, you’re probably sick of hearing about these backstories and excited that they’re adding fresh content. A more gradual buildup would have served me better, in my opinion.
Even though it wasn’t complex, I thought the customizing options were rather extensive. The available equipment seemed less interesting than exciting. The weapon upgrades, which involve dumping shards and resources into raw strength up to a specific level ceiling, clearly drew inspiration from mobile games. After that, you may spend rare minerals to increase the level cap and go beyond it. Similarly, the mastery trees piqued my curiosity at first, but I eventually lost interest. There are a number of mastery trees available to each character, and each tree may make a decision with the points you put in it. Unfortunately, there were only few building possibilities for each character due to the trees’ linearity. Rather of crafting a unique or interesting construct, I felt like I was just picking a character to spend points on and purchasing all the available items. I didn’t think the construction or equip flaws were major downsides since the fighting system is intriguing enough, but they were considerably less appealing than they first seemed.
Despite these little issues, Granblue Fantasy Relink is a fantastic game that excels in almost every aspect. The presentation is top-notch all the way through, and it sounds and looks fantastic. The game’s depth in character customization choices (both for individual builds and party composition) and the sheer diversity of battle situations ensure that players will be engrossed in every encounter. For individuals who haven’t been following the series for a while, Granblue Fantasy Relink’s characters and plot can be a bit of a stretch. But on the surface, they all seem nice—and maybe that’s all that matters when you have gameplay this fantastic.
