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| TBH I think Grindblue Fantasy fits a lot more.. |
Developer/publisher: Cygames.
Platform: PS4/5/PC.
Official Site: https://relink.granbluefantasy.jp/en/
Release date: 29-1-2024.
After the last disaster I sat through, GBF relink would by my next game as there wasn't
anything else I wanted to play/get. I mainly picked this because I heard the story
wasn't too long and a fantasy setting and pastel-ish colours just felt right for my mood.
I''ll say it straight up my enjoyment of this game was like 50/50 but it was mostly good
some aspects just were not for me.
A thing to note is that Granblue Fantasy was originally a gacha/browser game and also one
of the very few that has like a 10+ years and still running even surviving the P5 collab curse.
Unfortunately I couldn't get into that game but it has its charms I saw that much.
Pro's
- Decent enough story.
- Awesome boss fights.
- Variety in playable characters with unique playstyles.
- Exploring is rewarding, variety of chests & map size is comfy.
Con's
- Terrible entry point, wastes no time introducing the main crew.
- Short, endgame is a grindblue fantasy fest.
- Fate episodes can seem cheap in trying to tell a story of a character.
I did play the demo and honestly that did not sell me on the story/characters...
you'll probably be fine since fate episodes exists which gives a little backstory to everyone
but sadly they expected you to already know GBF to some extend. I ended up watching
season 1 of the anime because I don't know this series and it did sell me a little better.
The anime actually had sakuga animation if you don't know what that means, its moments
were the animation is notoriously better. All this also reminds me a lot of the situation with the hamefura otome game cuz that game also wasted no time to introduce anyone
in great detail so the more you know the better.
TL;DR this game just didn't do much else other than being one more adventure with Gran&co.
It was epic at times and this had really high budget I also appreciate the effort they put into
the game since the party AI is much better than in most games.
Ultimately this game just fell kinda flat to me idk why. Maybe I am not enough
of a fan to enjoy this game as were my thoughts during chapter 9, it also felt like a lot
of story beats were repeated/reused and were a bit cliche maybe it was that
or they were just playing it safe or being too by the book which kinda put me off.
Didn't help that they put character stories as mini visual novels that... are super short
speaking of short the story was short too and then all you're left with is grindblue fantasy
which is boring if you don't have any friends that can play with you to make it easier or more fun.
There are also a lot of playable characters but most don't add anything to the main plot
I kinda disliked that, sure they have their own story but there's almost no time to tell them here.
-
There's one final thing that I didn't like, characters would talk as they walk
or during battle and even would drop lore in there, needless to say I wasn't able to pay
fully attention to that. Near the end of the game Id would talk of his past which honestly
should have been a cutscene, my field of vision simply cannot pay attention to all that is onscreen.
Having to attack,dodge and run takes quite a bit of my attention already and I play on normal/action.
One ear in and out the other if you catch my drift. The final nail was this game
commited the cardinal sin of rolling the credits and then going but one more thing!
Meanwhile I am like then don't roll the credits yet if its not over? >:(
-
I will say I ended up walking away from this game in a better mood than with fate/remnant
and that probably says a lot, me being salty about how they added an extensive post-credit epilogue
but hey! atleast it wasn't DLC cuz during the credits I was like oh no... what if its DLC???!!
Rest assured GBF relink is actually a complete package. Its just that I think the epilogue
would be better if they incorporated Id's fate episodes into it instead of turning it into
a monster hunter fetch quest and collecting Rolan's notes before doing the same thing
we did in chapter 9 which leads to the realization of oh my god! Rolan is the true heroine!
GBF is a series with a ton of charm and I think the characters carry it a lot but this game
sort of desensitizes the player because at the end of the day it just wants you to grind
for this or that to be as strong as possible and you ain't getting the final epilogue scene
if you don't plow finish SOMEONES to do list. Now I hope you can understand
why I am 50/50 on this game. Turning my ps5 on and seeing skybound heart
will take 40 mins but then 2 hours pass and I have to go to bed did not help at all.
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| Mr fix-it dude except you're on cleanup duty. |
I still recommend this game if you like grindy games with epic boss battles
and are already familiar with the series in general.
6.5/10
More ramblings after the jump but I have pretty much said enough here already
but my final thoughts exist to get my thoughts out a bit more.
You can choose the gender of the protagonist as either Gran or Djeeta
I wanted to pick Djeeta but since I watched the anime I was actually invested into
Gran x Lyria so I just ended up picking the guy instead so I can see more scenes with them
but lmao there weren't even that much and it felt like they just repeated the story.
You can change it later and honestly I actually ended up shipping Djeeta x Id.
Aside the main crew there are a lot of optional characters but you have to buy them with a ticket
and some are gotten through the story. I got Siegfried first but I hardly ever played as him but
I did put him as a party member later in the game. I also got Lancelot and he is a godsend
his AI is generally one of the best and he frequently froze the enemy for me.
Aside the free ones, you gotta do side missions for most other tickets but I didn't feel like grinding
them out since while they're all good characters with different playstyles they have no substance
and are just kinda there despite some having really interesting backgrounds.
Siegfried was the only one that catched my eye right away... just from his description he seems
like he could be the protagonist of his own game but he just kinda joins you and that's it/
I'm glad his fate episode was good because ooh my god this man had a life.
I figured it is the same for everyone else so then I just... bought Lancelot + Narmaya
and later picked Charlotta and Cagliostro out randomly with tickets I got for clearing stuff.
Honestly I couldn't keep up with them all so I just stuck with Id,Rackam,Lancelot and Siegfried.
The whole ticket system is probably a throwback to the GBF gacha roots. The only fate episodes
I liked were Siegfried and Id. Rackam was whatever and Lancelot kinda meh. I couldn't
be bothered to do the rest but recommend to do the ones for characters you actually
play as first due to statboost and 2 sigil slots.
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| My timing was impeccable and I didn't even notice the dialogue till I looked at it later. |
The story is pretty basic and it is really short, once more it wastes almost
no time introducing the main party and so the only real interesting (and fun) character
was mister fix-it dude aka Rolan along with the mysterious Id and antagonists.
I will say I despised Lilith and actually was glad when she was kicked out
like holy shit she is so terrible and has zero redeeming qualities unlike Id.
The story was so short it felt like if I blink then a chapter is over... it made me
appreciate that other games took their time more cuz this game at times felt like fastfood.
Some locations were really pretty atleast but that's about it.
I see people call this grindblue fantasy and it is no joke because after the plot is over
that is all you will be doing which I wasn't into so I only did what was necessary
to beat the game and stopped. This game does have online co-op so it could be
more fun to do with friends who could help but if you don't have those... its just a slog.
I also can't be bothered to... go and lvl up more characters cuz what else am I gonna grind for?
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| Thanks for the lore dump Rolan but I wasn't paying attention much. |
Gameplay is an action rpg and it can feel very busy with AOE's and all...
they added assist mode and full assist mode but I don't want to let the game automode it, I say
as I main Rackam but he does have his own gimmick and its fun managing his skills.
I know why they added assist mode, GBF was a gacha game and people who may pick this game up
may not be accustomed to action games hench letting players have an easy time.
I played most of the game on normal/action without assist mode with one fight being an exception.
Rackam was the easiest character to play I didn't have too hard of a time but at times
it did feel like I had to do some random quests/missions to upgrade my gear and get stronger.
In the epilogue I decided it was for the best to do use assist mode after collecting Rolan's notes
cuz it got too ridiculous, I thought the dragon fights were the right difficulty still but then it
turned into a stupid dodge or die with bahamut omega. I got really tired and the only thing
I was interested in was the story anyway. The game ended up cranking up the difficulty
right at the end without warning so dropping from action to story was the only option...
I did feel bad cuz I made it that far but difficulty selection/disability option are there for a reason.
Graphics were pretty good, it had a watercolor/painting feel to it like tales of arise.
Music well I don't really had any complaints. Do I ever? no usually it fits the scenes/battles
but some field bgm did make me nostalgic of shining resonance.
Final thoughts?!
but this is one of those cases where they figured you already knew this series if only a little.
Honestly GBF reminds me of games like FFIX or FFXII and I think there are some
heavy influences from the FF series in general, that much is obvious to me.
Also it is funny how there are literally mechanics from bosses in FFXIV
like Fenrir howl & get behind icicles or get into the bubble to survive this attack.
Can I copy your homework moment? sure but don't make it too obvious?
I think this game in its own right was a fun little ride but I kinda had to go out of my way
to watch season 1 of the anime and had I not done that I would have been underwhelmed.
-
Now to good things! I liked exploring and going off the beaten path was rewarding as there
are a variety of chest and collectibles to find which was nice. The map size was comfy as well
like it wasn't too tiny nor too big. Party AI was pretty great?! definitely better than
most games atleast I thought it was, it had its ups and downs but it wasn't terrible.
The boss fights were really cool and the combat was decent as well, I mostly
played as Rackam because he was easy to use or maybe I was just lazy. The only boss fight
that I hated was the stupid fire primal(story) cuz what in the fresh hell was that?!
on the flip side the fight with Id later in the game had one of the best OST i've recently
had the pleasure of hearing as well as the last boss, everything about it was just right.
I didn't really like the counterfeit fights in chapter 9, it was clear they were padding mostly
because I had fought those same bosses mere hours ago. Atleast the final battle was cool
but the epilogue chapter? hmm it made me realize I once again do not enjoy fighting
the same bosses too many times, I get why they did it, we had to build rep but it was
handled in a really lazy way I almost couldn't be bothered after the initial one.
It seems they really wanted this game to be anime monster hunter and... that's what we get!
Like I said in the TL;DR it may have been better if they incorporated Id's fate episodes
into the epilogue since I thought his was really good and we got a better look at his character.
The whole thing also really fit into with the build rep plotline so I was confused why it was separate.
another adventure for gran and co. The sad part is that Gran and his crew have already
had their introductions and developments and for me in rpg's it is the most interesting part
to get to know the characters and the world they live in, this game fails at this
because it already had its beginning and relink is essentially an optional journal entry
which could be fun in its own right but not something I could recommend from the start.
The fate episodes in general just feel like a bandaid for this problem but TBH
I enjoyed most less than the anime because they are too short, sure I do love visual novels
but it seems this game really is all style and little substance but hey atleast the bosses were epic!
at times it also kinda felt like a Tales of game except without any of the fun character interactions.
If there was any fun it was because of Rolan and Vyrn... also Id grew on me and he is my husbando.
Needless to say I was not amused when I found out I had to do a series of fetch quest post credits
but hey I got to play as mai husbando so gotta take what I can get amirite. Also I saw xseed
worked on this game and mr fix-id dude among other things was probably their handy work.😂
 |
| Three husbando's and a grandpa. If not for this team I would not have gotten thru the epilogue. |
All in all I did like this game and for the most part didn't overstay its welcome or dragged itself on.
Maybe I had the wrong mindset but I hated how they handled the ending and someone just had
to be a damsel in distress TWICE. Thankfully the story wasn't 50 hours and it don't need to be.
They already tried to stretch it and if it had been any longer I'd hate it.
At the end of the day it is just another small part of the GBF verse enjoyable in its own right.
I'm glad I could just comfortably play this game for a few hours, call it a day and still make progress maybe I wasn't wholly positive but it was in no way a bad game, a lot of care was put into it
that much was obvious to me. Anyway! I am not into grinding so once the story was over
I high-tailed it outta there... wasn't here to grind so I am not staying for it.
6.5/10
I forgot to write this last part so I will do it now while editing the post for mistakes or things
I can reword. What's next? a lot of games came out recently but I do not have the time/interest
for all of them nor do I only want to only focus on new games that just came out.
Only sometimes if interest is great. I will probably get FF7 remake part 2
and Matsurika no Kei but it is unlikely I will get P3 reload.
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