Granblue Fantasy: Relink
Last updated: 2025-06-22
- Diverse characters with unique gameplay styles.
- Visually stunning graphics and anime aesthetics.
- Extensive post-game content is rewarding.
- Generally good performance on PC.
- Excessive, repetitive endgame grinding.
- Generic, uninspired, cliché story.
Emotions
Emotion: satisfaction
Emotion: excitement
Emotion: frustration
Emotion: disappointment
Emotion: joy
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 85% · Negative 15%. Score: 15 / 100
Positives:
- The game features a diverse and expansive character roster, each boasting unique playstyles, skills, and progression trees. This variety encourages experimentation and caters to different player preferences, making the game accessible to newcomers while offering depth for experienced players to master.
- The game boasts stunning visuals, detailed character models, and vibrant environments, creating an immersive and aesthetically pleasing experience. The art style is often described as a high point, with many reviewers praising its unique blend of 2D and 3D elements.
- The game offers a substantial amount of content beyond the main story, including challenging post-game missions and character-specific side stories. This extended gameplay loop provides replayability and a sense of accomplishment as players continue to progress and optimize their characters.
- The game features impressive voice acting in both English and Japanese, with well-known voice actors bringing the characters to life. The character animations are also well-done, adding to the overall immersion and enjoyment of the game.
- The game features a story and characters that are generally well-received, with many reviewers finding them endearing and engaging. While some find the story to be somewhat cliché, the execution and character interactions are often praised.
Negatives:
- The game's story is frequently described as generic, cliché, and uninspired, often relying on overused anime tropes. Many reviewers found the plot predictable, the characters lacking depth, and the overall narrative unengaging. Some reviewers skipped the story entirely due to its poor quality and lack of originality.
- The game suffers from excessive grinding, especially in the late and post-game content. This involves repeating the same quests and boss fights for hours to obtain materials, upgrade characters, and acquire rare items. The grind is often exacerbated by low drop rates and heavy reliance on RNG, making progression feel tedious and unrewarding.
- Boss fights are criticized for lacking variety, often involving repetitive mechanics, reskinned enemies, and unavoidable one-shot attacks. Many bosses are considered damage sponges with artificially inflated stats, leading to tedious and prolonged encounters. Scripted invulnerability phases and unskippable cutscenes further contribute to the frustration.
- The game has been criticized for lacking sufficient content and updates, with some reviewers feeling that the developers abandoned the game shortly after release. This lack of long-term support and new content leads to a repetitive endgame experience and a dwindling player base. Comparisons to games like Monster Hunter highlight the perceived shortcomings in content and post-launch support.
- The game's camera and lock-on system are frequently described as poorly designed and frustrating to use. Issues include erratic camera movement, targeting the wrong enemies, and difficulty controlling the viewpoint during combat. These problems can lead to disorientation and make it difficult to react to enemy attacks.
Gameplay:
- The game features a diverse roster of over 20 playable characters, each with unique move sets, playstyles, and abilities. This variety allows players to experiment and find characters that suit their preferred combat approach. Some reviewers noted that mastering each character requires time and effort, similar to learning new weapon types in Monster Hunter.
- Boss battles feature distinct mechanics, including break gauges, Overdrive/Bloodthirst phases, and destructible parts. Players must learn boss patterns and utilize strategic team play to succeed. Some reviewers noted that the boss fights require high damage output and strategic use of Link Time or SBA to manage enrage timers.
- The main story is relatively short, lasting around 15-20 hours, and can be completed solo. However, the game truly opens up after the main story, with access to more challenging missions and co-op gameplay. Some reviewers felt the main story was too short and served primarily as a tutorial for the endgame content.
- Players manage a team of four characters, customizing their skills and weapons. In single-player, AI companions support the player, and are generally competent. The game allows for various party combinations and settings based on the player's style.
- The game features smithing and sigil systems that allow players to customize their builds. Sigils are passive skills that can be equipped to improve damage, survivability, or provide utility. Crafting and upgrading weapons is necessary to unlock passives and increase power.
Performance:
- The game generally runs well on a variety of hardware, with many players reporting smooth performance at 1080p and 1440p resolutions, even on older or mid-range PCs. Some players have reported needing powerful hardware to run the game. Most reviewers did not encounter crashes or freezes.
- While the game performs well overall, some players experience frame rate drops, especially in towns or during specific boss fights. These drops can occur even on high-end systems, suggesting potential optimization issues in certain areas of the game.
- Several reviewers have reported poor performance on the Steam Deck, particularly during intense battles. Some attribute this to poor optimization, considering the game is not open-world.
- Some players have reported experiencing red screen errors and black screens during gameplay. These issues can be disruptive and may indicate instability problems.
- Some reviewers have noted issues with graphics settings, such as low shadow render distance at maximum settings and confusing naming conventions for graphic performance options. This suggests a lack of polish in the game's graphics settings.
Recommendations:
- The game is highly recommended and considered an amazing, unforgettable, and fun experience, especially for fans of action RPGs, anime, and the Granblue Fantasy series. Many reviewers rate the game highly, some even considering it a game of the year contender. Some reviewers express a desire for more games like this in the future.
- The game involves a significant amount of grinding, especially in the endgame. Some reviewers find this enjoyable, while others recommend avoiding the endgame or using mods/cheats to alleviate the grind. This point is mentioned frequently, but opinions on it vary.
- Many reviewers suggest waiting for a sale before purchasing the game, citing the full price as too high for the amount of content offered. Some reviewers provide specific price points at which the game becomes worth buying. This point is consistent across many reviews.
- Some reviewers express concerns about the story, stating that it is awful, inconsistent, or not a priority for them. They hope for improvements in future installments or suggest that players who prioritize story should avoid the game. This point is a significant drawback for some players.
- Many reviewers express hope for future updates, sequels, or DLC to address issues and add more content. Some suggest specific improvements, such as reducing the difficulty of farming, optimizing the matching system, or improving the UI. This point indicates a desire for continued support and development.
Miscellaneous:
- Prior knowledge of the Granblue Fantasy universe is helpful but not essential. The game provides enough context for newcomers to understand the story and characters, though familiarity with the anime or previous games can enhance the experience. The story is self-contained and doesn't require playing the main source game to understand the story or characters.
- DLC content is largely cosmetic or can be earned through gameplay. While some reviewers recommend specific DLC packs like character expansions or color packs, the general consensus is that DLC is not essential for enjoying the core game experience. Unlocking DLC characters through gameplay does not transfer weapon upgrades and skill trees.
- The game is no longer receiving major updates, with the latest patch likely being the final one. This lack of ongoing support may disappoint players hoping for continued content and improvements. This point is important for setting expectations about the game's future development.
- Reviewers report a wide range of playtime, from under 50 hours to over 600, indicating varying levels of engagement. Some reviewers encountered technical issues requiring workarounds. The lack of certain language translations was also noted as a negative point.
- The game has a large file size, requiring a significant amount of storage space. This could be a concern for players with limited storage capacity.
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