Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Endless Ragnarok Review

Cygames has been working hard for years to get Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Endless Ragnarok ready for consoles. PlatinumGames dropped out halfway through developing the project, and Cygames had to start up an entire new business in Osaka just to finish the game.

What could have been a total bomb became a major unexpected hit, selling a ton of copies and converting people who never played the original mobile game. That grit is key here because Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Endless Ragnarok only exists because gamers requested it after the game was over.

Granblue Fantasy is a web and mobile RPG released in 2014. The game was produced with the support of Final Fantasy veterans like Nobuo Uematsu, who composed the music. The brand had already grown to include anime, manga and fighting games before Relink decided to produce a complete console action game. With that kind of heritage, people were always going to have high expectations of any growth.

The Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Endless Ragnarok had to meet the expectations of both the old mobile game fans and the new ones who played solely the PC adventure.

This update had been in the works for around two years, a short period of time for a JRPG, as opposed to a numbered sequel that was built from the ground up. That timeframe dictates almost everything about the finished result, for better or worse. Rather than building Relink from the ground up, Cygames opted to put additional mechanisms on top of what you already understood how to utilize. It does not truly feel like a completely new game, but rather a considerably expanded second act.

Also, keep in mind how rare this kind of follow-through is in modern action RPGs. Many studios release a game, patch a few issues and move on to the next thing. Cygames did not see the community wanting more content as a suggestion for years down the line, but as an order to be fulfilled as soon as possible. Whatever flaws there are with the final product, the intention of getting it out so fast should be appreciated.

The story of Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Endless Ragnarok continues, as the Grandcypher's crew defeats the Astral Lilith and saves the Zegagrande Skydom. Suddenly, strange, chaotic portals are ripping open in the sky, spewing gigantic Ragnalia that seem to be the beginning of the end of the planet. Seofon and Tweyen, leaders of the elite warrior group, the Eternals, invite the Captain and his allies to join them as Fatebreakers to fight the threat.

Then it abandons the usual chapters and goes to a quest board format. This means that much of the primary story material is playable with other people. That is a decision we make about how to build things. It costs money. The base game leaned on theatrical staging and character-driven cutscenes. The expansion, however, delivers its plot through short memory clips and small discussions between missions.

A lot of this new content is about the past of the Fraux and Fediel characters, which should please hardcore fans of the bigger Granblue plot. The characters rarely experience any meaningful growth here, and casual gamers may find themselves groaning through situations that seem more obligatory than important.

Still, there are a few bumps in the plot. Most of the boss fights are tightly tied to story elements, but the remainder of the tale is very shallow, and the last encounter is the actual highlight. The tone remains earnest and sometimes hilarious in ways that fans of the franchise will recognize.

But overall, it is evident that Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Endless Ragnarok's technical ambitions are greater than its narrative.

Given the tight production schedule, it made sense to portray the extension as an epilogue rather than a new narrative. The writing team can concentrate on the bridging elements, rather than having to start from scratch to create a new cast or environment. If you did not care for the story in Relink the first time around, you probably would not care for it here either, as the same speed problems that occurred in the basic campaign crop up in a smaller version.

That said, there are still a few scattered rewards that are worth pursuing for those interested in the broader mythology of the Sky Realm. Despite there being 28 playable characters now, Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Endless Ragnarok is still a fast-paced, flamboyant action RPG at its core. Missions are picked from a hub town, dispatching a four-person team into enclosed battle stages instead of the open world.

You can swap your characters' weapons, sigils and builds between fights. This makes each fighter more effective as the foes get stronger. That gang is joined by new characters like Beatrix, Eustace, Gallanza, Maglielle, Fraux and Fediel. Their playstyles are totally different from the previous characters, and their animations have been reused.

Six new characters may not be a lot, but every character has a unique mechanical personality that makes them different from the existing roster. Beatrix's distinctive Delta Clock can swap between offensive, defensive and restorative modes. If you can listen closely to this rhythm, you will be rewarded. Eustace sacrifices mobility for long-range precision.

He can fire shots from far away to kill tougher enemies. These add-ons also work with the main game, so even long-time gamers will want to go back and play older chapters. There have been a ton of improvements to advancement outside of combat as well.

The expansion also came with a huge patch that introduced stuff that made the game better, like unlocking mastery tree nodes fast, and searching for inventory sigils by trait. And lastly, individuals on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch with crossplay compatibility are being united, which has been a community request forever. With all of these changes, Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Endless Ragnarok feels a lot more accessible than the foundation.

Even introducing new characters has been simplified to be more straightforward than what most gacha affected systems might suggest.

Some additions are only unlocked by fulfilling particular story criteria, while others demand Crewmate Cards obtained from early quests, instead of being random. All you have to do is wait for some characters to join, and you get a bonus card that permits you to never pay money at all. It is a subtle touch that rewards patience but does not punish enthusiasm. That notion of fairness extends through much of the design of the expansion.

The biggest new feature is the Conflux game, a single-player roguelite that you may access by heading to the chilly Tredame. Runs consist of a handful of brief sequential stages that end in a boss fight. You can choose to collect your awards or go for higher rewards. Most of the stages are fighting-based, with waves of foes or scheduled fights coming at the party, but there are also a large number that do not involve fighting at all.

Between confrontations, there are slime-catching, spot-the-difference, and NPC identification challenges that give your fingers and reflexes a bit of a rest. You can choose from a number of Aura bonuses at the end of a stage that only apply in that run. This allows you to make short-term build choices based on your character's long-term development.

Another Resonance tree that provides persistent stat benefits, which are exclusive to Conflux, incentivizes you to treat Conflux as its own long-term endeavor. The first cycles are meant to be easy, more of a lesson than a true effort. The first several hours can feel a touch slow. Later cycles become far more difficult, rewarding builds that are not fully optimized until you have experimented on numerous characters.

There are two big systems, Weapon Transcendence and Master Traits, that make the combat even better. Weapon Transcendence addressed issues in the base game. Even if they have certain flaws, Terminus Weapons were the only reasonable choice for most characters. The update restores previous gear to true competition by buffing each type of weapon along its respective specialty path.

Master Traits are unlocked when a character achieves level 100. These let you use points earned to unlock one of three specialization trees, which can dramatically modify the way a favorite fighter plays in battle. Let us call out the problems honestly.

As you play Endless Ragnarok longer, it becomes more and more evident that many of the bosses are essentially modified copies of earlier fights.

Not all new difficulties. Assist Mode and Full Assist Mode, previously limited to easier material, can now be used on practically all quests, including the most difficult ones. This makes the game easier to understand, which is good for new players, but it could make it easier for those of you who are solo players, who prefer to employ automation instead of studying enemy patterns themselves.

It is no secret that Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Endless Ragnarok can get a bit challenging once you have leveled your party up to the hardest levels, and this expansion tackles that issue head-on. The quantity of drops for Terminus Weapons and essential upgrade materials has increased a lot.

Most quests now provide valuable stuff after one or two completions rather than dozens. New crafting resource shows up for missions that matter, giving you the opportunity to craft weapons for characters you have not naturally farmed yet. The other tweaks in the update make sigil hunting, long considered one of the dullest loops in the game, more interesting.

The Conflux has really shifted a lot in how development feels day to day. You do not need to repeat dozens of times how to farm better. Instead, you go through different steps, all of which lead to the identical updated materials. Even its early cycles open from the very start of the main campaign, easing novice players into endgame mechanisms before they really reach the post-game content. The game starts slow, so the steep ramp-up in difficulty after the credits is not as jarring.

When a character reaches level 100, instead of gaining a level, they start gaining Mastery Points and Master Level. Both of these things directly affect the Master Traits system we discussed before. Veterans have an incentive to continue farming resources long after most people have capped out their levels elsewhere.

Materials are NOT infinite, thus you still have to put a significant effort into completely specializing in any one Master Style path. Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Endless Ragnarok still contains grinding, but it has been shifted to systems that seem to have a purpose rather than mind-numbing busywork.

The expansion retains the same amazing graphics that made the main game entertaining, but it is merely to wander around in.

The character designs still pop, and the new cast members fit right in with the rest of the ensemble. The settings still have the fairytale, beautiful quality that Granblue's art style is known for, particularly when the Grandcypher is out in the open sky. Size is a big deal, especially for boss encounters, with all sorts of new Ragnalia creatures looming over the party in truly awesome ways.

Performance is good on all of the tried platforms, including consoles and handhelds.  Frame rates stay largely steady on PS5, dipping just a bit when a lot of adversaries are involved in battle. Steam Deck customers see a similar experience at lesser settings, with frame rates only around 30 frames per second, with just minor changes. That consistency matters in an action game where timing and perfect dodges are particularly crucial.

Once again, the music for Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Endless Ragnarok was composed by Tsutomu Narita, and the soundtrack continues to be one of the quieter aspects of the game. Longer boss fights, some of which might run over twenty minutes or so, get louder with the battle tunes. This helps maintain energy levels up during marathon battles.

The voices on the roster are still largely done by well-known actors and actresses, and this provides weight to characters even in the expansion's softer speech. The music design for new features, especially when summons are deployed, breaks up what may feel like endless fight loops in a pleasing way.

Overall, Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Endless Ragnarok works because it understands what people want more of. The game's combat depth, character variety and smarter progression aspects were all given serious attention over a rather short production cycle. The Conflux itself is worth much of the price of the expansion, as it allows you better and more varied options to create your characters than the original grind ever offered.

Narrative aims were definitely deprioritized.

This trade-off will matter more to some people than others. If you are new to the franchise or just want to know more about it, this expansion presumes you already know a lot about the plot and how the characters have matured. This will be most beneficial to fans of the series who have already put a lot of time into the original game, especially those looking for the best builds for each character.

Still, the base game patch included with the release makes it much easier to get into for the first time than it used to be. It can be assumed that anyone who likes deep action RPGs and has some space to experiment here would appreciate Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Endless Ragnarok. Cygames has once again proved that a short development window is not a short growth window.

What began as support after the game was released has become content that is big enough to compete with smaller sequels. It is not perfect, with some old bosses and a shallow story, but the sheer richness of the new systems makes up for it, and then some. Fans of Granblue Fantasy should be satisfied with Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Endless Ragnarok, even if that satisfaction is based on the combat rather than the story.