Granblue Fantasy is expanding to a fully-fledged action JRPG with Granblue Fantasy: Relink. Create a party of your favorite characters, immerse yourself in gorgeous environments, test your mettle against droves of beasts, and bring peace to the skies! Check out our Granblue Fantasy: Relink Demo Impressions to get an idea of what’s to come!
Granblue Fantasy is one of the world’s biggest mobile RPGs, featuring tons of characters and an expansive story that has kept an ever-expanding player base engaged for a decade. The universe of Granblue Fantasy is expanding. Granblue has already made the jump from mobile with the Granblue Fantasy Versus fighting games. However, fans have been excitedly waiting for something a little closer to home.
Demo Coffers
The demo isn’t absolutely huge in scope like Dragon Quest XI S‘s 10+ hour-long demo, but there is a good chunk to sink your teeth into. You get a little over an hour of content (unless you just go crazy replaying a small story mission and a few quests). There are multiple characters to test out in the Quest Mode as well.
While save data doesn’t carry over to the full game, as you don’t really play through a story prologue or anything, you do get rewards that carry over to the full game. You get these rewards by doing the three available quests in Quest Mode and by completing the Story Mode.
Story Trial – A Taste of What’s to Come
The first thing I tackled in the demo was the story excerpt. I did skip the tutorial, but the story segment introduces players well enough, in my opinion. Plus, you get an actual feel for the game’s flow and structure this way, making it more than suitable as an intro to the game.
It appears that the basic flow of story missions is running between objectives in the area while indulging in fun character interactions and plot beats. Your objectives in the demo include saving bystanders, slaying monsters, and challenging bosses. This game is extremely combat-oriented, although there are still some exploration elements. There are chests, items you can pick up, and even locked chests that require you to quickly grab up some glowing crystals within a time limit to unlock a good chest.
The combat is flashy and satisfying. It’s not super technical or anything, but it’s a good time with plenty of options to consider. Using Link Attacks, planning out Bursts, properly timing your special attack, and utilizing skills are the key to victory! There are tons of characters and abilities to equip! Pick a character you love playing (you can’t do this in the demo’s story mode, sadly) and choose abilities that bring out your latent potential. I honestly would call the combat skeleton of this game similar to that of Final Fantasy XVI. Just way faster with more characters.
I find this to be a simple and satisfying formula. Solid combat, beautiful landscapes, and some light exploration. This is what the demo offers, but I do have some doubts. I really hope the full game has some spins or evolution on this base gameplay. Some more interesting exploration would be nice. The demo also doesn’t offer enough story for me to be able to say if that part will be worth it, though I do think the story will be satisfying. Variety isn’t really packed into this section of the demo, giving me some worries. To be clear, even if the game doesn’t go in the direction I want, I do think that the overall package would still be good, just lacking.
Quest Trial – Manic Multiplayer
Another large aspect of the demo is showcasing what’s to come in the multiplayer. In the full game, there will be tons of quests that you can tackle alone with a party of your choosing or with other players online. I think this is really great! The quests I played were fun, and I can see a lot of potential in coordinating party composition with friends. I also recommend trying out as many characters as possible, as this mode is the only one in the demo that lets you play as different characters. Plus, there’s treasure at stake! Who doesn’t want to be handsomely rewarded for their effort?
These quests are basically gameplay-extending missions that involve completing a specific objective. In the demo, the available quests are a couple of boss fights and a mission where you fight waves of monsters. I’m going to assume most quests in the full game, if not all, involve combat challenges. Quests also have ‘Side Goals’, which give you more points for a higher score. Trying certain quests over and over for certain items and ranks could be fun. Would also explain the Monster Hunter-esque hub.
Speaking of the quest hub in the demo, you can use emotes! There are all kinds of little stickers, and character emotes available to communicate with your fellow Skyfarers. Characters even have distinct voice lines for certain emotes. I hope more emotes can be unlocked.
Another interesting thing about this hub is that the demo contains functions and facilities that are unusable. These are reserved for the full game. There looks to be a blacksmith at bare minimum. Good thing these places are all in a handy, condensed package. I wonder if I’ll get super into the questing and upgrading loops.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink Demo Complete!
Granblue Fantasy: Relink excites me, and the demo provides sufficient evidence to justify my feelings. It’s gorgeous and fun! The combat isn’t groundbreaking, but it doesn’t have to be. Character playstyle variety offers players plenty to experiment with, along with what I think will be a really well-done multiplayer mode. The demo’s story trial didn’t exactly have enough to get me invested, but I trust Cygames. Granblue Fantasy: Relink appears to be on track to deliver a remarkably solid JPRG!
Be sure to give the demo a shot!
