I became acquainted with the Granblue Fantasy universe relatively recently, having watched the anime series and played the role-playing action game Granblue Fantasy: Relink. By the way, we have a review of the latter on our website. For this reason, I decided to delve even deeper into the material and played the fighting game Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, and now I’m going to share my impressions.
The project was released back in December 2023, and the original version appeared in 2020, so the review was not entirely relevant. But, firstly, there are very few reviews of this game in Russian on the Internet, and secondly, it continues to receive updates and additions. Therefore, it’s still not too late to play Rising.
There are 31 characters to choose from in Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, if you count the 3 from the DLC. 3 more will be added before October 2024, and in the future there may also be season passes with new heroes. Yes, this is a fact of fighting games, which will surprise no one – having purchased the full version of the game, you will also have to buy add-ons if you want to receive all the new content.
I praised Granblue Fantasy: Relink for its variety of heroes – each of them offered not only their own abilities, but also their own gameplay. In Versus: Rising the situation is different. Some play approximately the same, others have several interesting “tricks”, and others are completely unique in their kind. For example, 2B has a special gauge that is spent on moves, and Nier fights with the help of a ghost.
The combat system in Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising is simple and complex at the same time. The game is quite easy to learn, since you don’t need to twist the sticks in a zig-zag pattern and press 5 buttons at the same time, which is the sin of some representatives of the genre. All techniques and movements are performed without any problems, so even for beginners the battle will not look like a slow exchange of simple attacks. On the other hand, this does not mean that the game has no depth, because achieving mastery here is not so easy.
Each character has their own abilities, which are used by pressing R1/RB and one of the buttons. Some of them have a cooldown displayed under the health bar, while others can be used without restrictions, but are quite situational. Dash allows you to quickly approach the target, and moving back activates the block – everything is classic here. For combos, only three attack buttons are used.
Characters also have an SBA gauge, which is spent on using powerful Skybound Arts abilities that deal great damage. They are activated by pressing R1/RB and L1/LB at the same time, but they are easy to block, so it is important to find the right moment. There are also special versions (Super Skybound Arts), and to use them you additionally need to hold down X/A. However, they are only available at 30% health and below. If you don’t want to wait for the SBA scale to fill, you can spend only half to use Ultimate Skills – they are not as powerful, but much stronger than regular abilities.
Finally, the last mechanic I would like to talk about is Bravery Points. Players are given three courage points at the start, which are only restored once the next round begins, so they must be spent wisely. They are consumed when using Raging Strike, powerful moves that can penetrate enemy defenses. But don’t worry, this can also be countered – just perform the same attack while holding block. By the way, if you use Raging Strike two times in a row, this technique will turn into Raging Chain – it not only consumes two points instead of one, but also consumes 25% of the aforementioned SBA scale.
In fact, all of the above is quite enough for you to decide whether to buy the game or not, since the combat system is the defining one in a fighting game. If fighting in a project like this isn’t fun, then nothing else can save it (thankfully, this is not the case). However, it would be strange not to talk about other aspects in the review, so let’s briefly go over them.
Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising features a story mode divided into three parts. It is presented in the form of a visual novel, between which battles take place against ordinary mobs or bosses. I was pleased that the developers do not just force us to fight with other playable characters controlled by AI, as is often the case in games of the genre, but constantly offer new opponents with their own mechanics. Although, to be fair, there are also battles with heroes, but they differ from the usual ones at least in the presence of an Overdrive scale, which makes enemy attacks stronger.
Moreover, in story missions we often fight not alone, but together with someone else. This is even the basis for the mechanics of support skills, which affect the entire team at once. They are selected before the start of the match for each hero and are activated when holding RT.
Despite the uninteresting decisions, the presentation of the plot turned out to be not very convenient, although familiar to fighting games. During the passage we move along the chain of missions, and after completing each of them we return to this screen. Moreover, the mission often consists of an ordinary minute-long dialogue in the same visual novel style.
However, the story is only a relatively small part of Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, since most of the time you will be involved in PvP battles. You can choose a bot of any complexity as an opponent or invite a friend to visit you to play with him on the same monitor, or you can go online and fight in casual or ranked mode.
In casual mode there is no progression, so wins and losses do not affect the statistics. However, don’t think that you can choose it from the very beginning to relax. Since there is no division by rating, both complete beginners and those who have played more than 3,000 matches can face each other in one match. However, it feels like no one is playing it, because if I found a match, it was always with the same opponent.
In ranked mode, you play against people of the same rank. At the beginning, you are given the same newcomers, but as your rank increases, your opponents become stronger. There are more players here than in casual mode, and matches are found faster. The average online game for a game on Steam cannot boast of impressive results at all – only 500-1000 people, which is very small for multiplayer. Luckily, there is cross-play support, allowing you to play together with PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 owners.
Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising also has a Grand Bruise mode, but, unfortunately, I was never able to play it. I searched for a match for half an hour several times, but to no avail. Therefore, consider that this mode is not in the game. However, judging by what I’ve seen in gameplay videos, this is a kind of Fall Guys analogue, in which we play as chibi versions of the characters.
Perhaps the most controversial feature in the game is the presence of a battle pass. You can purchase its premium version for about 530 rubles to unlock character skins, weapon skins, icons, and more as you level up. The rewards aren’t that many and they’re nothing special, not to mention the free version of the pass. And the very presence of battle bass in a paid game with a season pass is not very encouraging.
To sum it up, we can say that Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising is a really fun anime-style fighting game with a lot of diverse characters and an easy barrier to entry. The game offers an interesting and sophisticated combat system that can captivate both those who like to play against bots or with friends on the same screen, as well as those who prefer online battles.
