Whatever you might think you know about Granblue Fantasy: Relink, you’re probably not actually prepared for it. An all-new action RPG set in the Granblue Fantasy franchise, central hero Gran travels the skies in the Grandcypher, facing off with his friends against a new evil that’s set to plague that lands. So far, that won’t sound like a great leap from what’s gone before, but Granblue Fantasy: Relink has turned out to be one of the most enjoyable anime games of recent years, and one that does the franchise proud.
You’re dropped into Relink with very little context, and perhaps that’s why Cygames have made the opening episodes of the Granblue Fantasy anime available for free on their YouTube channel in the lead-up to launch. This new adventure takes place in a new region known as the Zegagrande Skydom, so you don’t necessarily have to be completely clued up on the wider story, but it’ll definitely make the whole thing more meaningful if you are.
Gran, Lyria and a host of recognisable faces are thrust into this new Skydom, and soon find themselves at odds with the mysterious Church of Avia, a shadowy organisation led by the strangely terrifying Lilith. They kidnap Lyria, believing her to be the Shaman of Salvation, and your crew sets forth in pursuit, visiting a variety of new islands, biomes, and locations while stomping a host of enemies into the different coloured ground.
Each of these areas is punctuated by intense boss battles, and these are reliably amongst Relink’s biggest highlights. And when I say biggest, I mean biggest, with screen-filling bosses that have multiple attack stages and forms. Primal Beasts crash down from the sky, or rise up from lava pits, though an incredibly epic multi-stage battle in the desert remained my personal highlight.
Mechanically, and functionally, Granblue Fantasy: Relink is closer to Final Fantasy XVI than anyone could have expected. The action-heavy combat relies on timing for dodges and parries, and controlling the arena is your primary aim, utilising all your skills, and those of your party, to achieve that. There’s certainly some of the shared DNA to be found with other anime adaptations, especially the Sword Art Online titles, but Granblue Fantasy: Relink takes a major step beyond what we’ve come to expect from such tie-ins.
I’d go so far as to say that Granblue Fantasy: Relink outdoes Final Fantasy XVI, with more meaningful progression, more options to personalise your character’s loadout, and full control of your party as well. There are some annoyances – Vaseraga is huge, and seems intent on running directly behind your player character at all times, and cutscenes only feature your original group of adventurers – but the option to switch up your team, unlock new characters from the series, choose from a host of skills, and then play as them too really puts it above Square Enix’s headline franchise.
It’s a great time to be a fan of anime gaming, not least because we’ve reached an era where the video game adaptations of our favourite shows look nigh-on identical to what we’ve seen on the screen. Granblue Fantasy: Relink looks fantastic, from the detailed and characterful roster to the different islands you visit. Some are given more scope than others – lava, sand and ice are pretty standard tropes – but the cities, towns and ruins that you come across also have bags of character.
While the main narrative captures the same levels of drama that we’ve come to expect from the anime, the side quests here are generally more functional, with townsfolk requesting certain items, or the death of a particular creature, in return for a reward. You need to do as many of these as possible, especially early on, as they’ll grant you some important loot to help you progress.
The exception to this is the game’s Fate Episodes. They serve as a bit of Granblue Fantasy history, giving you a rundown on each character’s background, a side story or two, and in some cases unlocking important Sigil slots which let you install additional boons to each character. It’s not the most exciting way of delivering this information – you’ll be clicking through a bunch of pages if you’re not as interested in that character – but there are playable moments amongst the exposition that bring something fresh to proceedings.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink isn’t just a single-player adventure, as you’ve got the option of taking part in a series of multiplayer quests via the Monster Hunter-like quest counter. It’s a shame that you can’t play through the main story in co-op, but Cygames clearly feel like bringing together the Granblue fandom for some battling. Joining up with others is relatively straightforward, though you’re going to want a team of friends to get the most out of it as matchmaking is reliant on other players wanting to take a run at the same quest.
Playing with others is enjoyable, and working together to take down a massive creature is as much fun as you’d expect. I’m hoping for some major Capcom-like support to keep things interesting in the long term, though Cygames promise up to 100 hours of ongoing multiplayer action at launch. Earning rewards and levelling up your character, their skills and their weapons is meaningful to a point, but I came away feeling like Relink is just not quite there as a game you’re going to be playing with your squad for months to come, despite its obvious charms. More weaponry, armour and an ongoing feed of new quests to take part in? Well then you’d be talking.
