This game is REALLY good. I was actually nervous about it because when it was first revealed everyone basically called it a Nier knockoff and I... do not like Nier. But this game isn't a Nier knockoff. It's Nier improved. Almost every complaint I had with Nier is either not present in this game, or not a big enough complaint to hamper it. The combat is immaculate and only gets better the longer you play. The side quests are wonderful and cover a large amount of repeat NPCs who you'll grow a bond with the longer you're around. The world is gorgeous (even if I do wish there were more area "archetypes"). The level layouts are wonderful and really encourage exploration, while not feeling like a checklist of menial tasks. The lore of the world is superb. The boss fights are REALLY fun, especially in the back half of the game. The customization is phenomenal. The story is... fine? I don't think it's one of the best, most compelling stories I've experienced but I was invested enough, and the twists left me pleasantly surprised. I think my biggest gripe is the characters. Our playable character and two supporting cast members are unfortunately pretty flat. They do sort of have an "arc" but it always feels more like it's happening in the background. It's something that gets brought up on occasion and the characters sort of talk about it, then drop it, over and over until the climax. I do think EVE, your player character, is still the best characterized after seeing her interact with a lot of the side content, but in the main plot she feels like... well.... like a slightly more expressive 2B.

Usually, for me, a game is carried by its characters. This is the rare exception where everything else about the game is just SO damn good that I can overlook our main cast being a bit flavorless.

If you want a game that's sort of a blend of Sekiro and DMC, get this game. But just expect the story and characters to also sort of fall in line with those games, too.

My thoughts on this game are very strange. Firstly, the protagonist is one of my favorites ever, but she's in a game that I think is otherwise mediocre to bad. A lot of things in the plot happen more because the script needs them to happen, as opposed to it making sense for these things to happen. The villains are lame and nonsensical. The theme feels ill-presented, and the combat is... Not exactly fun. It's not BAD, but it's an ocean wide and a puddle deep.

Honestly, our protagonist Velvet carries this game on her back like Atlas holding the world - though two members of the other 5 are also pretty good. The first 3 stars in my review are simply for Velvet Crowe. The other half star are those other characters. But this game is severely held back by its other elements.

I recently got into the Granblue universe with Versus, and I was quickly drawn in by the designs of the characters. But being a fighting game, there wasn't a lot of actual characterization. So jumping into ReLink was like finally meeting all these awesome people I'd been seeing for hours in a different game in the series, and it was definitely worth it. The characters are, mostly, fantastic. My biggest complaint in the character department are the protagonists. At the start you can choose between Gran and Djeeta. I personally chose Djeeta because I preferred her as a character in Versus. But here they completely strip their personalities away for a borderline silent protagonist approach. So when you're going in, it's not a choice between characters, but rather a simple "male or female protagonist" choice. It's unfortunate, but not that big of a deal.

The story is also solid. It's not trying to make any major statement or anything, but I don't think it needs to. I mean sure, I love when games have big plots about man's inhumanity to man, or the effects of depression, or the dangers of alcoholism or whatever, but I don't think a story needs some deeper story to be good. This story is just fun, plain and simple. It's a bunch of great characters going on a grand adventure, and that's all it needs to be in order to be excellent.

It's also a game with a positively beautiful world. It has this almost "if you made an old timey book 3D" kind of style to it where things look like they're colored with colored pencil on parchment paper. It's a sort of gentle ruggedness that makes it look so absolutely gorgeous. It's incredibly easy to just get lost in the world.

But the major thing to talk about here is the combat. Every single character of the cast of 18 plays completely and totally different, and 16 of them feel, at the least, good to play. Many feel positively fantastic. They REALLY lean into this by making the combat feel impactful, stylish, and deep. But moreover, they have designed a TON of boss encounters to deal with that all introduce a ton of mechanical depth without feeling like it's leaving the player in the dark, or constantly needing to tutorialize. And this is more prominent in the post game which effectively turns the game into Monster Hunter.

If you are even the slightest bit interested in this game, check it out. It's awesome.