Granblue Fantasy: Relink Review

Grand Blue Sky Of Possibilities

HIGH Combat, quests and core gameplay.

LOW Enemy variety, difficulty, and lack of story co-op.

WTF Why can’t I play the campaign with my friends in a co-op focused game?

I’ve been anticipating Granblue Fantasy: Relink (Relink for short) since I first got my hands on it for a preview last year. It’s the new realtime Action RPG game by Cygames and it feels like a mix of Final Fantasy XIV and Monster Hunter — yet as much as I want it to, in its current state it doesn’t surpass either. The director, Tetsuya Fukuhara, has worked on several Platinum titles and has nailed the combat that makes each character a joy to play... The fast-paced, yet tactical action kept me engaged well into the endgame hours of questing with friends. However, while GBF:R was a ride I loved, it ultimately left me wanting more of what it could be.

The game’s (short) story picks up suddenly and places the player in the role of Gran or Djeeta as captain of the Grandcypher airship. As a successor to Granblue Fantasy, Relink expected me to be familiar with the cast and story of the original mobile title which has yet to be released outside of Asia. There is an anime — available on Cygames’s YouTube channel for free — for those who want to know the preceding story and characters, though. Having watched part of it myself, it did help somewhat, but isn’t necessary as one can understand the characters and their motivations relatively quickly thanks to Relink’s standard plot.

Frankly, there was barely a single breath of character development throughout the story, and nearly all character beats were relegated to text-based “Fate Episodes”, which I feel should have been seamlessly integrated into the plot. Not having actual conversations between characters during the story was disappointing. Some localization choices made in the style of a Saturday morning cartoon was odd, and didn’t help engage me either.

While Relink’s story never surprised or felt deep, it was charming enough and did entertain until the end of its 10-hour run. At that point, it turns to its real focus — questing. Questing and action setpieces are where Relink shines, and playing with friends felt like how the content was meant to be experienced. Once I realized what the actual goal was, I was more okay with the scant script. The misstep, though, is that the narrative is not co-op. This meant that I was forced to have my friends rush through their own story modes to join me in the ‘postgame’ of Relink, as most content unlocks upon completion.

Each character controls in a snappy and polished way, though I was disappointed that I couldn’t change or remap the controller, and it somehow only shows Xbox controls. This is a small gripe, though, as Relink’s character roster and gameplay gave me enough fast-paced action to last another ten or twenty hours after the credits rolled.

Quests function similarly to Monster Hunter in that they revolve around the player undertaking increasingly powerful foes and boss fights to gain XP and materials to upgrade characters. The game currently hosts 20 playable characters, and more are already planned. Thankfully, the developers skip out on gacha-like random draws to unlock more characters despite its gacha roots. After over 30 hours in, I was able to unlock almost all of them and could have earned the last one had I tried harder to obtain him in my endgame grind.

Speaking of endgame, the quests here are both the best and worst part of Relink. The best because they’re legitimately enjoyable, and fighting bosses with friends was something I wanted more of. The worst, because the enemy variety is severely limited. I only encountered one unique boss that wasn’t in the campaign, and many encounters felt like recycled palette swaps. This trend continued throughout the “difficulty” modes I unlocked in multiplayer, though they never felt like they got harder.

Technically, Relink ran well for me on PC. Outside of crashes while loading endgame quests, I never had any issues, and with some tweaks it ran great, even on my Steamdeck.

The player base seems to be growing quickly on Steam, but for it to succeed in the long term, I believe it needs to focus on expanding the endgame considerably, with harder difficulty settings and a wider variety of monsters and bosses. I can see some potential as a long term co-op multiplayer experience with raid groups and serious challenges, but whether it will receive that content remains to be seen.

As a nine-year-long passion project of its developers, Granblue Fantasy: Relink oozes promise and style boosted by addictive action gameplay, a large cast and engaging mechanics. However, without more to offer endgame players and perhaps a bit of buffing in the narrative side, it’s likely to fizzle out and be eclipsed by larger titles. I can only hope the developer shows the same labor of love in supporting it, as they have in crafting it.

Addendum: After the original text of this review was written but before it was published, many people — myself included — have found that Granblue Fantasy: Relink has been corrupting, overwriting or otherwise deleting save files. This happened to me after almost 40 hours — suddenly all my saves were simply gone. I contacted support and also attempted to restore the files, but it wasn’t possible from my end. The devs said that they would have no information to share with me, and that they would not make any efforts to restore saves. Losing so much time invested without recourse or support from the dev side just isn’t acceptable.

Until the issue is solved I absolutely can’t recommend this game.

Rating (prior to losing my data) : 7.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Cygames, Platinum Games Inc. and published by Cygames, XSEED Games, and Plaion. It is currently available on PS4/5 and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 37 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. 26 hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, and Violence. The official description reads: This is an action role-playing game in which players assume the role of an airship captain battling monsters across a fantasy realm. From a third-person perspective, players control their character and other party members through melee-style fights against various enemies (e.g., wolves, goblins, robots, boss characters). Characters use swords, magic, and guns to kill enemies in fast-paced combat; fighting is highlighted by light and slow-motion effects. Some sequences allow players to control mechanized armor suits in battle; these scenes depict frequent gunfire and explosions. Some female characters are designed with revealing outfits (e.g., deep cleavage); camera angles can focus on characters’ revealing outfits and/or anatomy (i.e., upskirt detailing). The words “sh*t” and “a*shole” appear in the game.

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are present.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. The game can be played entirely without sound, and everything relevant is conveyed through visual cues. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Mouse and keyboard are remappable, the controller layout is not.

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Nikki Waln

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