Right off that bat just gonna say never played the mobile game, but I've known about it (and Narmaya) for years. Also been on and off following this specific game since it was announced year ago. Once it was pretty much set in stone with a release date I did kind of stop following news about it so imagine my surprise (positive) when the postgame for this is just Monster Hunter.
No sugarcoating it Relink isn't a really long game (story wise at least). This isn't a 40-50 hour JRPG. There are no real sidequests they're all mostly just fetch quests with items or collectibles you'll find during missions. So if you're one of those "well every dollar should amount to an hour of gameplay" psychopaths this might not be for you on that front.
So lets talk about that story. The story presented here isn't that original, a lot of it is stuff that's been seen before in numerous different Japanese media over the years. Evil church with fervent cult following, Vergil/Nero not a good guy but also not really a bad guy Jack Garland looking edgelord but actually a nice guy type, happy and willing to risk it all to save their friends and the day against all odds MC, main villain lackey's you beat the shit out of before they join in to help you at the end. For all intents and purposes Relink's story should feel tired and boring. It really doesn't have any crazy twists or development. You've seen this all before somewhere, but like a good Godzilla movie that shit don't matter when it's presented in the coolest and funnest ways possible. Granblue Relink luckily does go on to present its story in some of the most incredible ways imaginable. This shit has gacha money poured into it and it really is happy to show it all off. Visually the game is gorgeous. Actual art. That first wide shot of the Grandcypher with the most beautiful clouds I've ever seen in a video game during the title card my jaw fucking dropped. I was floored and the game never stops looking incredible. The painting aesthetic for all the background elements and even some of the characters clothes immediately sets this apart visually from so many other games that have tried this cell shaded style, but never have been able to capture it. BOTW-lite Genshin this is not.
As for how it plays well it's simple. Think a Platinum game's simple but fast paced combos (which they had a hand in for a bit of the dev cycle). However, instead of just 1 character you have 20 different characters that all play their own way and then that massive development cycle starts to make more sense. Everyone's gonna have their favorites and of course my gooner brain went straight to Narmaya, but funnily enough my major mains ended up being her, Zeta and Siegfried. Style switching and timing hits right for max damage feels good bro. There's parts where the game goes full kaiju mode with Bahamut and it becomes a bit of a simple beat em up but the two or so times it happens it's a nice power trip that doesn't overstay its welcome and as a huge fan of various Toku and Kaiju media that is my glup shitto moment in any media.
Through my whole play time I kept thinking: "Man this kind of feels like FF16..." Well while that game quickly fell off from being one of my favorites from last year upon the realization of how fucky the pacing was during my New Game Plus run and also being sick of only playing as Clive. Granblue Relink doesn't fall for those trappings. Instead it delivers a fast and furious, competent, and immensely satisfying 10-12 hour action rpg campaign. An action RPG with multiple characters with their own gameplay styles. Yes please, more of that. Sure you don't get as much time in this to get to know the characters as you would with 10 years worth of game and silly events the gacha has plus the anime and manga and probably something else too, but I think this does a good enough job of endearing you to them as a fun intro. In a way it's very much the game I was hoping Final Fantasy 16 would be! All of this is then topped off with the post game being Monster Hunter style (optional co-op no less!) missions to go in and slay various monsters, fight harder versions of the story bosses, or take on new bosses that weren't even in the story. And they have a roadmap for free upcoming content like recent Monster Hunter games? Hell if this shit gets wild they might hold me off until Wilds releases next year haha.
Really feel that if there's anything I would consider a real negative with this is maybe its length if you just do the story campaign and drop it after that? And the gameplay can get a bit brain dead once you figure out who you want to really use (Charlotta and Narmaya are full on Musou mode). Also, fuck having to grind for gold dahlia badges for the last character ticket. Those three things aside, game rocks and if you truly stick with it you'll get more than those 12 hours, but considering those 12 hours are already an insane banger of a single player game which gets rarer and rarer these days, well I consider that a gift. A PS2 era action game length JRPG. Weird game when you look it at it like that, but I got nearly 100 hours out of it before writing out this review so uh, the game's definitely a full package like Narmaya's tightly stuffed tits.
No sugarcoating it Relink isn't a really long game (story wise at least). This isn't a 40-50 hour JRPG. There are no real sidequests they're all mostly just fetch quests with items or collectibles you'll find during missions. So if you're one of those "well every dollar should amount to an hour of gameplay" psychopaths this might not be for you on that front.
So lets talk about that story. The story presented here isn't that original, a lot of it is stuff that's been seen before in numerous different Japanese media over the years. Evil church with fervent cult following, Vergil/Nero not a good guy but also not really a bad guy Jack Garland looking edgelord but actually a nice guy type, happy and willing to risk it all to save their friends and the day against all odds MC, main villain lackey's you beat the shit out of before they join in to help you at the end. For all intents and purposes Relink's story should feel tired and boring. It really doesn't have any crazy twists or development. You've seen this all before somewhere, but like a good Godzilla movie that shit don't matter when it's presented in the coolest and funnest ways possible. Granblue Relink luckily does go on to present its story in some of the most incredible ways imaginable. This shit has gacha money poured into it and it really is happy to show it all off. Visually the game is gorgeous. Actual art. That first wide shot of the Grandcypher with the most beautiful clouds I've ever seen in a video game during the title card my jaw fucking dropped. I was floored and the game never stops looking incredible. The painting aesthetic for all the background elements and even some of the characters clothes immediately sets this apart visually from so many other games that have tried this cell shaded style, but never have been able to capture it. BOTW-lite Genshin this is not.
As for how it plays well it's simple. Think a Platinum game's simple but fast paced combos (which they had a hand in for a bit of the dev cycle). However, instead of just 1 character you have 20 different characters that all play their own way and then that massive development cycle starts to make more sense. Everyone's gonna have their favorites and of course my gooner brain went straight to Narmaya, but funnily enough my major mains ended up being her, Zeta and Siegfried. Style switching and timing hits right for max damage feels good bro. There's parts where the game goes full kaiju mode with Bahamut and it becomes a bit of a simple beat em up but the two or so times it happens it's a nice power trip that doesn't overstay its welcome and as a huge fan of various Toku and Kaiju media that is my glup shitto moment in any media.
Through my whole play time I kept thinking: "Man this kind of feels like FF16..." Well while that game quickly fell off from being one of my favorites from last year upon the realization of how fucky the pacing was during my New Game Plus run and also being sick of only playing as Clive. Granblue Relink doesn't fall for those trappings. Instead it delivers a fast and furious, competent, and immensely satisfying 10-12 hour action rpg campaign. An action RPG with multiple characters with their own gameplay styles. Yes please, more of that. Sure you don't get as much time in this to get to know the characters as you would with 10 years worth of game and silly events the gacha has plus the anime and manga and probably something else too, but I think this does a good enough job of endearing you to them as a fun intro. In a way it's very much the game I was hoping Final Fantasy 16 would be! All of this is then topped off with the post game being Monster Hunter style (optional co-op no less!) missions to go in and slay various monsters, fight harder versions of the story bosses, or take on new bosses that weren't even in the story. And they have a roadmap for free upcoming content like recent Monster Hunter games? Hell if this shit gets wild they might hold me off until Wilds releases next year haha.
Really feel that if there's anything I would consider a real negative with this is maybe its length if you just do the story campaign and drop it after that? And the gameplay can get a bit brain dead once you figure out who you want to really use (Charlotta and Narmaya are full on Musou mode). Also, fuck having to grind for gold dahlia badges for the last character ticket. Those three things aside, game rocks and if you truly stick with it you'll get more than those 12 hours, but considering those 12 hours are already an insane banger of a single player game which gets rarer and rarer these days, well I consider that a gift. A PS2 era action game length JRPG. Weird game when you look it at it like that, but I got nearly 100 hours out of it before writing out this review so uh, the game's definitely a full package like Narmaya's tightly stuffed tits.