2024 promises to be a banner year for role-playing games and Granblue Fantasy: Relink is certainly part of that conversation. In our first look at the game, I found it difficult to gauge the scope of Granblue Fantasy: Relink. In our second, and final preview, I was severely mistaken – this game is huge. It became apparent that there was more to uncover in this large-scale RPG when I had the chance to play through the first three chapters of the game and a couple of multiplayer rounds ahead of The Game Awards festivities this month.
To recap, Granblue Fantasy: Relink is a party-based action RPG and features a solo story campaign along with optional multiplayer quests (online co-op playable up to four players) and unlockable endgame content that promises over 100+ hours of overall gameplay. The story campaign aims to be around 20 hours, with optional side quests around the 20 to 40-hour range, and endgame content that unlocks after completing the story extending the playtime further with challenging quests and equipment to prepare against the hardest bosses in Granblue Fantasy: Relink.
You’ll start with selecting the main player character, Gran or Djeena, and after learning the basics of combat be quickly led into the town of Folca which serves as the Granblue Fantasy: Relink’s first town and hub. Here, you can visit the shops, take on side quests, and talk to your party to learn more about their personalities and backgrounds. This serves as the entry point to the linear story campaigns, which places you on a large field to complete objectives like rescuing captured citizens or fighting a tough goblin boss as you investigate the overarching story of the Primal Beasts.
The story stage environments are rather huge and explorable like random treasure chests that can only be opened by solving a quick puzzle. Although I focused on trying to complete the first three chapters quickly for the sake of getting through the press demo, there were plenty of available sidequests in the beginning chapters offering rewarding materials and bonuses for later customization and upgrading.
The co-op multiplayer gameplay was new for this preview and I got into a couple of rounds with fellow media folks that gave me a sense of the level of cooperation and intensity of the battle scenarios and objectives at hand. Talking with teammates as we timed our Team Link attacks in succession for an ultimate Full Burst attack as well as providing healing support were some of the ongoing strategies needed to complete the multiplayer battles. Combat focuses on basic and special attacks that become increasingly stronger as you avoid taking damage. You can also customize your loadouts and characters before going into battle.
For this demo, we were given high-level characters and pre-selected loadouts to have an optimal experience but rest assured the full game provides a deep layer of customization to prepare for the late to endgame boss battles. We were given a taste of this when the developers showcased an endgame boss battle with a Radis Whitewyrm that had multiple stat buffs and obliterated the party with one hit.
Overall, there was a sense of progression and scale during my time with Granblue Fantasy: Relink. The presentation and flow feel similar to a massively multiplayer online game where there’s plenty more awaiting after completing the main story campaigns and a challenging endgame.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink’s release is just around the corner and will be released on February 1, 2024, on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Steam for PC.
