Granblue Fantasy is apparently a super popular gacha game that released in 2014 and has since spun off into an anime and now a fighter made by the renowned Arc System Works. I’ll fully admit that I don’t know anything about Granblue Fantasy at all, but I play a lot of Dragalia Lost, which is an action RPG on my iPhone, and from what I’ve been told Cygames included a lot of Granblue Fantasy’s characters into their cross adventure with Nintendo, so since I love fighters and I wanted to learn more about Granblue Fantasy’s world, I thought I would check this game out in order to learn more about the source material and hopefully uncover a fun new fighter at the same time.
While there’s a ton of story and interactions here, I still basically have no idea what’s going on in this world. The scenes are pretty, and the graphics are incredibly sharp and crisp, but the dialogue and story are fairly bland. A real introduction to this story might have helped flesh out a reason to care about what’s going on, instead of watching people talk and trying to put the pieces together on my own. The main character Gran is basically the jack of all trades character and he’s who you’re typically given for learning how the game works, which is fine, but I quickly abandoned Gran for someone more interesting, like the massive scythe-wielding Vasaraga or the quick and punchy Charlotte. Fighting lands somewhere between Marvel Vs Capcom 3 and Guilty Gear, and it feels pretty reminiscent of Dragonball FighterZ. Perhaps the biggest change Granblue Fantasy: Versus brings to the table is the ability to perform moves by holding R1 and pressing a button in order to pull off a special move instead of having to learn complicated button input commands. These attacks all have a cooldown meter and they’re indicated by little squares with directions on them under one’s health bar.
The tutorial in this game is excellent, and Arc System Works spared no expense giving players an extremely robust training mode. You can learn combos with everyone, do challenges, and all sorts of fighting game tech and terminology (yes, you can finally learn what the hell a “meaty” is without feeling like a noob) and it’s quite impressive. While I wouldn’t necessarily recommend picking up this game for the training mode alone, it’s now officially the best one I’ve seen and takes that coveted title away from Skullgirls. There’s a little bit of strategy involved here too based on how you perform button commands, as easy commands don’t combo as well, and technical combos inflict more damage – a reward for the risk and your time. This makes time spent practicing feel rewarding, and you’ll also unlock currency which allows you to pick up some of the unlockables from the in-game store. There’s nothing you’ll really care about in here aside from soundtrack pieces most likely, but at least it’s something to do instead of mindless grinding.
Speaking of mindless grinding, Granblue Fantasy: Versus includes a story mode simply called RPG mode. In this mode you’ll move from place to place, challenging missions, and trying to complete a set of objectives in order to earn all of the rewards per stage. This is where the gacha part of Granblue Fantasy shows up. Each mission has three tasks you need to complete in order to get the maximum rewards, but unfortunately, this mode isn’t simply combat against enemies – it’s something like a vanillaware side scroller in the most half-ass way they could have possibly implemented it. Boss battles are actually challenging, but they also have abilities that are cheap, and that makes things frustrating when they shouldn’t be. On top of this, you’ll earn premium pull tickets which you can use to summon weapons. These come in rare, super rare, ultra-rare type varieties, and it’s literally right out of the mobile gacha. It’s scummy in a full-price game, but it 100% reminds you of the subject matter this evolved from. Still, even though I have gripes about this mode, it’s a welcome addition that’s a little more interesting than simply clearing an arcade ladder over and over – and I love beat ’em ups, so it’s nice to work my way through while I’m watching TV or doing something else that doesn’t require my full attention.
I’m also not a fan of an extremely expensive DLC pass for a game that consists of a terribly small roster that was immediately available at launch. Sixty dollars for a game with eleven playable characters and five more (one of whom can be unlocked for free if you play through the RPG mode) is pretty insulting – especially considering Samurai Showdown gave their first season pass away for people who bought the game during the launch week. But, at the end of the day, this is a solid fighter with absolutely gorgeous visuals and it’s fairly easy to pick up and play thanks to the simplified input system. If you’re looking to jump into fighting games, and you don’t feel too comfortable starting with established heavyweights like Street Fighter V or Tekken 7, Granblue Fantasy: Versus might be exactly what you’re looking for. For people who like Guilty Gear’s anime graphics but don’t like how complicated those games are, or are not at all into Dragon Ball Z, this game is tailor-made for them.
Granblue Fantasy: Versus was reviewed on PlayStation 4 and a digital copy was provided for review by XSeed Games. More information can be found on the official website.
For more reviews from me, check out my thoughts after multiple playthroughs of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice or the trippy action game Control.
