Cygames has really surprised me. I had no clue how much of a big deal they were in Japan, their country of origin, but when they released their first premium title, Granblue Fantasy Relink, it immediately caught my attention. After playing through the game, it left me wanting more as its satisfying combat and fun high fantasy story had me feeling like I was playing a PlayStation 2 classic that I hadn’t heard of. With the announcement of the DLC expansion Endless Ragnarok, I had the opportunity to play the beta for the DLC through the upcoming Switch 2 release of the game.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink initially skipped out on a Switch release but has returned in full force for Switch 2. This is a welcome addition to the Switch 2 library and feels like it fits well on the portable system. The pick-up and play gameplay of the mission mode feels right at home. Performance of the game is fairly stable, sitting at a solid 30 FPS most of the time. It can dip down in framerates when the action is particularly intense, and there are multiple graphical effects all going off at once. I’d say it’s comparable to the PlayStation 4 version of the game. It was a bit disappointing that there was no fidelity/performance toggle in the options that would bring it to the standard that the PS5 has.
What makes up for it, though, is the quality of the picture. The game outputs at a beautiful 4k resolution, which just makes the already fantastic art design of the game pop even more. The game also ran very stably in handheld mode and still looked fantastic on the built-in 1080p screen. While 60 FPS would’ve been nice, this definitely isn’t bad and showed me just how nice a game running on Switch 2 can be.
The Beta contains the game’s tutorial to teach you the controls and 3 missions in the game’s online mission mode. Online has been greatly improved primarily through the inclusion of crossplay between all versions of the game. Finding people to play with has never been easier, and the experience is as smooth as if you were all playing on the same platform. I never experienced latency or any sort of disconnection from the game. It’s all pretty impressive and really lowers the bar of entry for players to get their friends together and crush some bosses in style. The 3 missions included were 2 boss fights and 1 short linear stage. You have the choice of playing with a majority of the characters included in the base game and one new character: Beatrix.
Beatrix’s playstyle is not unlike that of a majority of the other hack-and-slashers you can play as, but her main difference lies in her unique “Delta Clock” mechanic. Delta Clock lets you cycle between personal buffs, such as raising attack or defense, by holding the attack button. Through doing combo finishers, you build up a meter that, when filled, activates a mode that increases attack speed. She fits right in with the other characters, all having an individual character mechanic that makes switching between all the playable characters so much fun. Once I played as her and later played through the missions again as some of my favorite characters in the base game, I was left a bit disappointed since that’s all there was to do within the beta. You do have the ability to mix and match weapons and sigils to find a combo that works with your playstyle, and there are mission ranks you can try to max out, but I was left wanting more.
There are other things to note in this beta, most notably the revamped menus and the added accessibility features the game brings, but overall, I was left wanting more. There are a fair few things to look forward to in the full release that I would’ve loved to get a taste of. There’s the new single-player content called “The Conflux” that sounds like it’s going to be a roguelike mode, the new skills and masteries characters can learn, more new playable characters, and the new summons that you can command. You tell me that a taste of the single player and being able to control a dragon wouldn’t make you more interested in the game.
At the very least, adding a few more missions would’ve been very nice since the ones we have now can be played through very quickly. The original game featured six different quest types; there could’ve been a great opportunity to contrast how each one has been changed and adjusted to stand out from their base game versions. From playing this beta, there’s not much I can see that couldn’t have just been added into the base game. While showing off the Switch 2 version is a positive, Cygames shouldn’t be afraid to let people get their hands on all the new stuff they’ve got in store.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Endless Ragnarok is something to look forward to, especially if you’ve played the base game. Those who have are going to be treated to more of that addictive hack-and-slash action, but for those who haven’t, this beta should’ve done a bit more to grab the interest of prospective players. Base game is always going to be there, but having that hook, that satisfying moment of being able to see what makes a major DLC stand out, should grab the admiration of anyone who plays it.
In an era of online multiplayer gaming, lowering the bar of accessibility is key. “Friendslop” games are able to thrive because of low prices and low hardware requirements on PC, and I think that if Cygames really showed off the crossplay capability of this game, they could have quite a hit on their hands.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink rules, and the more people play it, the better. The original game was able to sell over 2 million copies, and Versus Rising has managed to make itself a staple of fighting game tournaments of all sizes. We’ll just have to see how Cygames can pull people in when the DLC releases on July 9th.
For more, check out our review of Granblue Fantasy: Relink and Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising.
