Granblue Fantasy: Relink is a pretty deceptive game. If you look at the official trailers and screenshots, you may get the impression that this is a familiar story-driven jRPG, designed to take 50-100 hours to complete the main campaign. However, not much attention is actually paid to the story here, and the main content is tucked away for the endgame. In this belated review I will try to explain what the game is all about.
Let’s start with the plot, since it was this that caused conflicting emotions in many. Granblue Fantasy: Relink can essentially be called a continuation of the anime series Granblue Fantasy, two seasons of which were released in 2017 and 2019, respectively. From the very beginning, the entire core team is assembled and knows each other well, which can be confusing for an unprepared player. The backstories of the characters are somehow revealed in the so-called communication tasks (more on them later), but there is still a feeling of understatement. Therefore, watching anime, although not mandatory, is still desirable.
The plot itself turned out to be quite banal and not particularly interesting to follow. Predictable twists, typical cliffhangers and just a huge number of “pianos in the bushes”. Every now and then enemies become friends and help us in the fight against common evil. We spend the entire game trying to save one character, and then immediately start saving another. And you will have to fight the final boss several times, and each time he will shout something like “This is not all!”, starting a new phase. In general, the plot of the original anime was not particularly exciting either, so you shouldn’t expect any revelations here either.
The single-player campaign in Granblue Fantasy: Relink takes about 12-15 hours to complete, although I personally took more than 20 hours to complete it, as I was playing on high difficulty and was constantly distracted by side quests. Even so, the game length for jRPGs is quite short, but this is necessary to get you to the endgame as quickly as possible. Because, as mentioned earlier, this is where all the main content lies.
Side quests are nothing interesting. Usually you are asked to kill certain monsters or bring certain items. There is no interesting lore hidden behind them. Luckily, you don’t have to purposefully complete them – most of them are completed on their own as you simply participate in the missions. It even happens that you just take a quest and can turn it in right away, since you already have the necessary materials.
Regarding the previously mentioned communication tasks, which allow you to find out the backstories of the characters, they consist of voiced text against the background of a static picture. You simply read what is written (or simply “skip”), and as a reward you receive an increase in attack and health values. Only in two missions out of eleven (for each hero) are we also offered to fight with someone.
Reading all of the above, you may get the impression that Granblue Fantasy: Relink is a complete failure. However, in reality this is not the case at all. Such a long introduction about the shortcomings is simply necessary so that you do not get a false impression of the game. After all, if you buy the full version just to enjoy the story, you will most likely leave disappointed. Nevertheless, I liked the game, and now I will tell you why.
Despite the fact that the plot of Granblue Fantasy: Relink itself turned out to be boring, I can’t say the same about the main tasks. Each of them is really interesting and offers some unique conditions or tasks. Often it’s not limited to a simple corridor with monsters, so the game doesn’t get boring. In addition, the developers have hidden many secret places with chests and full-fledged tests. By the way, even if you miss something, you can return to it after completing it.
The bosses in the game turned out especially well. There are many of them, they are varied and, most importantly, they are fun to fight against. They differ not only in appearance, but also in abilities that are better remembered. Essentially these are mini-raids from MMORPGs, but with a more active combat system. All bosses have a durability bar that allows you to stun him. They also have an overdrive gauge that, when filled, triggers something like a berserk mode. In this state, the enemy goes berserk and gains new enhanced abilities. Simply waiting until the overdrive goes away will not work, because in order for it to return to normal, you need to deal a certain amount of damage.
In story mode, you play as a group of four people, three of whom are controlled by artificial intelligence. You can also fill in missing players in the co-op with bots. What surprised me is that the bots here are really good. They constantly deal damage, try to avoid being hit by AOE attacks, and can revive a fallen ally. It even happened to me that the bot received MVP for the best score after completing an additional mission.
The respawn process here works in a pretty interesting way that I haven’t seen in other games. The entire group has a common scale, which is gradually spent after knocking out any character. During this time, you need to revive it as soon as possible. But if during the mission someone falls again, the scale will continue to decrease from the moment where it stopped. Although initially there is a lot of time for revival, it is extremely important to quickly raise an ally, especially in multiplayer.
After completing each mission of the storyline, additional tasks are unlocked for you, which take place in the same locations. These are the ones you will have to grind in the endgame. They have additional conditions, for example, to complete in time or destroy enemies with environmental objects. Also at the end a grade is given for the entire group, up to S++. If for story missions you can choose the difficulty yourself, from easy to hard, then additional ones have a preset difficulty. Completion gives you experience for leveling up, MSP for upgrading passive and active skills, as well as materials for improving weapons and signs installed in them.
There are a total of 19 playable characters available in Granblue Fantasy: Relink, 6 of which are unlocked from the very beginning, and another 1 is given for completing the campaign. The remaining 12 are unlocked using cards that are given as you progress through the story and for completing certain tasks. The developers also promise to add new ones as updates are released. For example, Sophon and Tveyen are waiting for us in April, and Sandalphon will appear in May.
The main character is Gran, but in most cases you can play as any other character if there is no restriction on the mission. The developers did a really good job of making each one feel different. Sometimes the changes are not that drastic, and sometimes the gameplay changes completely. Therefore, it makes sense to play for different people and level them up.
If after reading the review you are inspired and decide to buy the game, then you should know a few more things. Firstly, Granblue Fantasy: Relink does not have official support for the Russian language (although there is machine translation and a normal one is currently being prepared). Secondly, the game is inconvenient to control using a keyboard and mouse, so you will have to stock up on a gamepad if you don’t have one. Finally, thirdly, the game’s hype train has long passed, and the average online has dropped from 100 thousand to 10 thousand. Most have already played enough and gone to other games or are waiting for an update, and only the most passionate fans with a power of 20,000 and above remain. Therefore, for a beginner who has just completed the plot with a power of 3000, it is very difficult to find a team of equal strength in multiplayer. However, difficult does not mean impossible, it just takes much more time. Ideally, of course, it is better to find friends with whom you will play on a regular basis.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink is unlikely to greatly please fans of large story-based jRPGs. However, if you like exciting boss battles, a dynamic combat system, a variety of characters and grinding for the sake of leveling up, you can spend dozens of hours in it.
