Cygames’ Granblue Fantasy: Relink is now out after over seven years in growth. The JRPG goals to observe years of established lore and character background with an all new story and new real-time gameplay parts. After enjoying via the sport. I can say that the builders do a fantastic job with the title however it has clear pitfalls.
A New Grand Journey
Granblue Fantasy: Relink encompasses a new story that takes place within the mystical Sky Realm, which hosts a number of floating islands. These islands are guarded by highly effective creatures referred to as primal beasts, that are worshiped by the mysterious group referred to as the Church of Avia. Within the sport, gamers management The Captain, who could be both a male character whose default title is Gran or a feminine whose default title is Djeeta. You and your crew, consisting of a younger woman, Lyria, who has the flexibility to seize and maintain these primal beasts and a slew of different attention-grabbing characters, sail the sky as Skyfarers and go on adventures. Unsurprisingly, throughout their newest journey to a fabled land referred to as Eustalucia, the group will get blended up with the church, and Lyria will get captured. As such, it’s as much as Gran and his crew to rescue her.
It’s value noting that Relink serves as an oblique continuation of the earlier video games within the collection. Whereas marketed as a derivative title, gamers leaping into the sport will expertise an all-new story however with the identical characters from the already-established collection. As such, when you’re new to the collection, there are a variety of particulars you’ll be lacking. Lots of the character relationships, like Lyria’s life-link to the protagonist, and the way that occurred isn’t defined within the sport moreover from the in-game glossary. The sport additionally options many returning characters whose backgrounds and origins aren’t lined, so new gamers who care about this may seemingly be confused in the event that they don’t learn the aforementioned glossary.
An unsurprising Story
When you can look previous this, Relink’s narrative is extremely partaking. Whereas the story begins gradual because it begins like most generic JRPGs, it shortly will get extra thrilling with the introduction of the mysterious Alvia group. Nonetheless, whereas the plot has its justifiable share of partaking moments, the majority of the story is spent making an attempt to rescue Lyria. The sport doesn’t give attention to the origins of the church and their motivations, not less than not till a lot later, which is unlucky. Regardless of this, the narrative continues to be charming, and the characters are endearing, albeit a bit tropey at occasions.
Apart from that, it’s additionally value noting that Granblue Fantasy: Relink is extremely linear. Far more linear than anticipated, particularly in comparison with most JRPGs. When you can quick journey from the sport’s foremost hub city to the present mission’s location, firstly of every chapter, every location is giant however nonetheless extremely linear. These areas are the place every chapter begins and ends earlier than shifting on to the subsequent. As such, gamers who need a grand world to discover freely and overtly with no obstacles won’t discover that with Granblue Fantasy: Relink.
Extremely Partaking, Extremely Simplistic
By way of the meat and potatoes of the sport, the gameplay, Granblue Fantasy: Relink sports activities extremely partaking parts, particularly its fight mechanics. Whereas these parts are removed from advanced, they make the gameplay expertise very pleasant and stress-free. Gamers discover a number of distinctive places and biomes in every chapter, traversing and scaling platforms and combating enemy mobs and managers in real-time fight. Like most RPGs, gamers have entry to a number of weapons, a ability tree to enhance outdated expertise and acquire new ones, and a blacksmith to improve weapons. Studying to make use of new expertise is an extremely painless course of, and utilizing talents throughout battles is all the time thrilling. Moreover, you don’t need to reattune spells or expertise everytime you get a brand new one, as the sport will allow you to use any of them when their cooldown is up. That means, you’ll all the time have a ability you should utilize each few seconds.
Actions in Relink are additionally swift and exact, which vastly enhances the fast-paced fight. Assaults and expertise are flashy, and so they all have mesmerizing particular results. The sport’s bosses are one in all its main highlights, as every is well-crafted, distinctive, and extremely enjoyable.
Nonetheless, sadly, whereas being enjoyable to battle, these bosses are additionally extremely spongy regardless of not being notably robust. A lot in order that many boss fights typically find yourself being over twenty minutes lengthy. And since they scale with every chapter, leveling up and upgrading your weapons does minimal enhancements. And since the sport is extremely linear, there aren’t methods to grind out ranges besides by enjoying via the sport.
The Good and Dangerous of Gameplay
By way of problem, Granblue Fantasy: Relink is disappointingly straightforward. It’s extremely exhausting for a median RPG participant to get a sport over display screen even on medium problem. And because of the sport’s linear nature, you gained’t have time to grind however you’ll all the time get therapeutic objects firstly of every chapter. To make issues even simpler, every character can heal and revive you once you’re about to die, and you too can simply revive your self again to full well being by mashing buttons. What’s extra, you additionally get two revive potions firstly of every chapter, simply in case you end up struggling for some absurd, extremely unlikely purpose. As such, when you intend to have a fairly difficult expertise, it’d be finest to crank up the issue to essentially the most difficult, and even then, nothing lower than a celebration wipe will make a seasoned motion participant battle.
Moreover, whereas the AI in Relink is admittedly superior and useful, it might have been good if gamers might freely change between characters with a easy push of a button early on as an alternative of switching celebration leaders via the menu in between battles. This could make fights, particularly boss fights, rather more organized. Lastly, one other painfully noticeable side of Relink’s gameplay is that typically fight feels unsatisfying. Assaults really feel means too floaty and lightweight, and lack the influence and weight you’ll see in most different motion RPGs. And since bosses are fairly cumbersome, it all the time feels such as you’re chipping away at a block of metal with a toothpick, which by no means feels good.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink can also be probably the greatest trying JRPGs of the 12 months to this point, because the fashions are extremely detailed, the reflections are impeccable, it sports activities wonderful lighting with charming colours, and a tremendous artwork course. Whereas some character fashions are much less detailed than others, the character designs make-up for it. By way of efficiency, the PlayStation 5 model runs very well with a constant 60FPS on and nice visuals of their respective settings.
Closing Ideas
General, Granblue Fantasy: Relink is much from good however it’s additionally a effectively crafted sport that gives a stellar RPG expertise. Whereas mentioned expertise would’ve been higher with much less linear gameplay and a extra fleshed out story, the gameplay is entertaining and simple to know making it probably the most enjoyable JRPGs lately.
The Assessment
Granblue Fantasy: Relink
PROS
- Nice visuals
- Enjoyable and direct gameplay
- Enjoyable story for many elements
CONS
- Inconsistent character fashions
- Predictable narrative
- Too linear