Granblue Fantasy: Relink Review

After eight years, Granblue Fantasy: Relink has finally arrived. This title adapts Cygames’ hit mobile-and-browser RPG for global console audiences, and stands alongside the fighting game Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising as a strong introduction to the franchise. Granblue Fantasy: Relink’s development has been fraught with setbacks since its 2016 announcement, with 2019 even seeing a developer switch from Bayonetta creator Platinum Games to an in-house Cygames team. However, now that the dust has settled, it's clear that no development time has been wasted.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink incorporates every feature from Granblue Fantasy that it can, alongside a full single-player hack-and-slash campaign and an MMO-lite multiplayer RPG. The result is 20 packed hours of painstakingly polished single-player story chapters loaded with variety, and some impressive replayable content to keep fans busy afterward. With features accommodating casual and hardcore action fans alike, Granblue Fantasy: Relink has something in it for everyone.

That is, after a slow start. A thorough tutorial takes up the first hour as it struggles to give a strong first impression of Granblue’s main cast without their browser game origins. Fortunately, optional Fate Episode visual novels fill in everyone’s backstories, and their strong personalities and dynamics build momentum regardless. The campaign goes on to impress, presenting a tight thrill ride through a corner of Granblue Fantasy's skies where plot developments and set pieces are never more than a few minutes away.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink would still be an exciting and lavishly-produced adventure telling a well-acted and charming fantasy plot if the main story was all it had, but that's only scratching the surface.

As the story progresses, a Monster Hunter-like quest system creeps in. Granblue Fantasy: Relink has over 100 quests to tackle with AI companions or groups of online humans, even if they also take their sweet time rolling out. The bulk of Relink’s tough replayable content is in its post-game, and everything before then takes it easy on players who don't even have the game's full mechanical spread yet. Depending on a quest’s type, campaign chunks get repopulated with enemy hordes, boss fights, and more creative tasks like defending a point or surviving waves of enemies. Quests do a good job of encouraging replays, especially with a well-designed grading system that ensures S++ ranks are always tough to get.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink Appeals to All Types of Gamers

Having multiple gameplay variations that feed into each other enables Granblue Fantasy: Relink to cast the widest net possible. Casual appeal takes precedence, coupling set pieces and densely-populated levels with side activities like treasure-hunting, platforming challenges, or timed optional fights to ensure the story never gets dull. Relink isn't unlike Final Fantasy 16 in that respect, but there's a huge gulf between each title's RPG components. Non-gamers and RPG fans can benefit from automated Assist and Full Assist modes without them affecting harder content, while hardcore players are drip-fed promising bosses, trophies, and upgrades leading up to a much harder post-game. Upon seeing the full breadth of what’s offered, it's hard not to be hooked by something or someone in Relink’s repertoire.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink’s quest design and progression borrow cues from Monster Hunter, but the playable characters directly challenge it. Despite their move sets being less complex than Monster Hunter World and Rise's fourteen weapon classes, the difference is made up by Relink launching with over sixteen Granblue characters able to equip different Skill and Sigil loadouts. Apart from the Captain and Katalina, the campaign's default 6 characters feel completely distinct, and they diverge further as players gain new equipment and progress down everyone's Mastery trees. The multiple archetypes each character can fill ensure that players will find the right style for them.

A game built around fighting would all be for naught without good combat, but fortunately Granblue Fantasy: Relink delivers. Moving, attacking, and defending all feel great, even if the camera can be troublesome and the rare light platforming segments are hampered by frustrating jumps. Well-integrated quick time event Link Attacks that charge a party-wide power-up and Skybound Arts that can be chained together for elemental bursts sell the feeling of fighting in a tight-knit crew, even if every fighter also needs to focus on their own offense. Complete with helpful area-of-effect markers for both players and enemies, Relink has a combat system that can support a full campaign and the endgame loop it builds up to.

Granblue Fantasy Successfully Adapts the Mobile Game

Relink's RPG side also translates the browser Granblue Fantasy’s mechanics in smart ways. From many status effects to boss mechanics like Overdrive states, no expense was spared in making Relink a faithful adaptation of Granblue. The same can be said for weapons and character progression, with things like uncapping weapon levels multiple times, wishlisting items, and trading for rotating materials punctuating Relink’s downtime. Weaker Sigils cluttering the player’s equipment menu are the only real weak point of the game's loot systems. Otherwise, everything funneling into something else is represented without any random gacha rolls or mechanics like pity systems attached, ensuring players always have clear goals for growing stronger.

The stellar presentation is another major draw. Even though Granblue Fantasy: Relink was conceived as a PS4-exclusive, its art style holds up in 2024. Special effects and hit markers look great while being legible in heated fights, and the amount of detail in every character's distinct emotes is impressive. Even the menus, including the chibi art exclusive to Lyria’s Journal, look good. Running at an internal 120 FPS on the highest settings available enhances the visuals even more, but a high-spec gaming PC is necessary for that. Granblue Fantasy: Relink also holds a stable performance online and offline, with only a couple of small bugs, like timed monster-slaying challenges without functioning timers, not affecting the experience.

Relink also has an enormous soundtrack that gradually unlocks for casual listening in Lyria’s Journal. A full soundscape of satisfying noises, plus a star-studded English dub and original Japanese vocal cast, complete the package, even if voices are often mixed too low in cutscenes. The number of voiced lines bears mentioning, as not only are there multiple barks for every combat and field action, but also personalized lines for more niche features like the Mastery menu and fully-narrated Fate Episodes. It's no wonder that the character profiles in Lyria's Journal list everyone's voice actor for the current language track.

It bears repeating that Granblue Fantasy: Relink is a huge game with overwhelming variety, and everything feels good to do. Withheld mechanics and a reserved party slot for the player-insert Captain last until the post-game just to mitigate choice paralysis, and more content is already on its way. Cygames has announced at least three months of updates, including an additional endgame raid boss, two new fan-favorite Granblue characters, and more. It's unknown how long post-launch support will continue, but the infrastructure is there for it. Even if it doesn't last, the two characters alone will add lots of value to Relink’s already-stacked postgame.

With plenty of quests, collectibles, bosses, cutscenes, and more, there's never a dull moment across Granblue Fantasy: Relink’s 20+ hours of play time. Relink effectively sells itself to casual and hardcore gamers alike, and saturates even its towns and menus with extra details. All the animations, ambient dialogue, Easter eggs, and the sheer energy of the whole package demonstrate how Granblue Fantasy: Relink’s extended development served its eventual release. Cygames has finally delivered the promises Granblue Fantasy: Relink made a long time ago, and it should join its RPG and fighting game counterparts in pleasing fans for years to come.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink

Set in the same universe as 2014's Granblue Fantasy, Cygames' Granblue Fantasy: Relink is an action JRPG that was announced in 2016. Although primarily regarded as a single-player experience, Relink also supports co-op.

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