I’ve been playing Granblue Fantasy: Relink, a game that I was pretty excited for…when it was first announced. Back in 2016, it was a PlatinumGames joint, but they shuffled away from the project after a few years of development hell (not like they’ve spent the time since then doing any better, but alas). Relink ended up getting finished in-house at Cygames and released in 2024, with an expansion and a Switch 2 port earlier this year. Hopping onto this expanded version of the game, I was immediately struck by how close the game’s structure is to the original Granblue Fantasy mobile game.
When I messed with Granblue Fantasy Original Flavor in college, I enjoyed the characters, art, music, and pretty much everything besides actually playing it. The battles themselves weren’t the issue; it was the grinding, the item drops, and the pouring over Google docs to craft parties that could clear more and more difficult boss fights and raids, which I did not personally find any satisfaction in clearing. As much as I liked the story, I still didn’t feel like I was getting enough out of what I was putting in. I put the game down and said to myself “I hope that Granblue Relink game is good, I’d like to experience that world as a normal game instead of one based on gacha and grinding.” Relink doesn’t have the gacha, at least!!
Initially I thought this was neat. You’re going into short quests to get upgrade materials, you’re leveling up a variety of equipment to get stronger; it’s a standard loop that a lot of folks should be familiar with, especially in the RPG sector. Once I got close to the end of the story mode, I started to look into the post-game and what was added in the expansion. What I saw was mostly more grinding to eventually reach the ability to fight super bosses, which is, again, exactly what Granblue Fantasy on mobile is about.
I’m not calling Relink a failure of a game. It didn’t hit me the way I particularly wanted it to, and that’s because it’s an action RPG that’s still structured like Granblue. Applying this template one-to-one makes things far less interesting to me. I suppose my true desire is “a version of this game that has a definite ending”? Hell, I don’t even hate grinding for things, as my box of shiny Pokémon can tell you, but that’s more appealing because there’s a limit to the grind. I get the sparkly creature and I’m done, instead of grinding for the sword, the sword’s stats, the sigils on the sword, the character’s sigils, and on and on, which are then just used to do more battles for better swords/sigils/stats/etc.
The demo for Final Fantasy Resonance made it apparent that the structure of that game is a bit different compared to its mobile origins in Brave Exvius. It’s a standard JRPG with classic Final Fantasy characters as extra ability slots; they trimmed the fat, so there’s far less of the mobile game hooks that make a person return every day for years. Maybe I’d have enjoyed Relink more if Platinum had finished it, and it was a smaller, more focused character action game that told its story and was done.
I still dig quite a bit here, but I feel like I’ll finish the main story and move on. If Cygames wants me specifically on the Granblue train, they gotta make a game that feels like it’s going to end. I know it will, but it feels like the continuous treadmill climb that mobile games have, just in action RPG form. My friends can’t get me into Final Fantasy XIV because of this, and Granblue doesn’t have the combined effort of around ten people pinging me about the new Beastmaster class behind it.
I love Granblue VS, the ArcSys developed fighting game with Granblue characters! It’s got the characters and world I like, without the grind-focused gameplay structure I don’t care for. I suppose this entire article is me going “eh not for me”, but it was a personal bummer due to its initial concept. If you do love to do raiding in MMOs but want more active combat, you absolutely should play this game. Cygames has a good chance to mess with the formula though, so my tastes may still be met. Give me a Granblue game with a structure that doesn’t call to mind endless grinds, and I’ll be there!
