5/5 ★ – DanteHR's review of Granblue Fantasy: Relink.

"Granblue Fantasy: Relink", a game that I had in my sight since the first reveal. After only 8 years since the initial reveal, the game was released, and I can say that it was worth the wait. "Granblue Fantasy: Relink", made and published by "Cygames", has become one of my favorite JRPGs of all time. The artstyle, the characters, the combat and the amount of content that the game offers you is absolutely huge. Right from the start we can tell that the game is very well structured, having all the necessary aspects to make it a "Japanese-RPG" game masterpiece. I was pleasantly surprised that the game focused quite a lot on the story considering that the priority of the game is the multiplayer mode. From the first 20 minutes I realized that the game is (very likely) a distant relative with "Final Fantasy XVI", maybe that's why I liked the game so much. I say this because the game literally copies most of the HUGE aspects that "Final Fantasy XVI" has delivered. Colossal fights with "Eikons", similar UI, copy-paste combat and Skill tree, it is very clear that the game "was inspired" a lot by the Behemoth of "Final Fantasy XVI". The gameplay would matter the most in a "JRPG" or any other RPG.. "Granblue Fantasy: Relink" didn't bring anything new to this aspect, but it managed to deliver an extremely satisfying core gameplay/combat combining various mechanics from other games. One of my favorite things the game delivered was that the Combat doesn't get better throughout the game ,instead it's Top-Notch right from the start, there are certain skills that you don't have from the beginning, but you can get them in a very short time. The skill tree works the same like the one in "Final Fantasy XVI", but it's much wider, you have a wide variety of passives and only about 8-12 actives per character. "GBFR" benefits from 20 playable characters, with more to come in future updates. Each character has a unique skill tree, unique weapons, unique abilities and a short story just for them, you can unlock any character at the beginning of the game, but not all at once. The main story of the game gives you 4-5 cards that you can use to expand your party. You can get the rest through side quests or Shops. As I mentioned above, "GBFR" delivers a ton of side content, in addition to the main story, which has an appropriate length (10-12 hours). You're probably thinking "okay, I'm done with the story, now what?" .. Well, you can do anything, you can replay the story with the current level to discover the hidden things or you can create an indestructible party to help other players in their grind.. yea, the game is grindy as hell, but it's a nice grind, similar to the games in the "Monster Hunter" series. As for the graphics, the game has pros and cons.. the huge plus is that the artstyle is absolutely delightful, and the minus is that the graphic fidelity is not that good, one of the reasons being that the game is still on last gen (PS4), and was announced in 2016, they couldn't change much since then. Even so, the plus he has eclipses the graphic fidelity and makes you forget about it. The visual effects and World building are magical (literally). I felt like a child traveling through all the spectacular areas that the game offers you, I received a very cozy status, "GBFR" is living proof that you only need a good artstyle to be a pleasing game to the eyes. I was surprised that even the design of the characters/enemies is very good. Probably the appearance of sounds was the only category in which "his relative" (FF XVI) managed to destroy him. Although the sounds are not bad at all, in fact they are very good, but... next to "Final Fantasy XVI", "GBFR" has the audio quality equivalent to that of a UK driller. However, I was very impressed by the music, the music is an orgasm for the ears, very well produced and implemented in the most appropriate sections. It gives you a huge boost of adrenaline in a boss fight. We probably all expected "GBFR" not to be a narrative masterpiece considering that it doesn't necessarily focus on this aspect, but... "Cygames" did its job in delivering us a good story. It's not exactly great since it lacks many emotional, funny and serious moments. In some parts, the story takes a rather serious turn and ends up feeling like a parody. The best part of the story was the characters themselves, the revelation of the mystery that we had been waiting for since the beginning of the game was what made me say that the story is worthy of praise. Some of the characters had quite a nice character development in the end. With an extraordinary combat, an insane artstyle and a winning story, "Granblue Fantasy: Relink" managed to entertain me for 150 hours in my spare time. It's a game I don't regret buying. I had high expectations, it's the closest "JRPG" to perfection. It delivered everything I wanted and I was surprised at how complex the bosses are. The game has a wide variety of absolutely everything, the content is huge, and the fact that "Cygames" want to launch a monthly content update... makes it even better. With the Hand on my heart, I declare that "Granblue Fantasy: Relink" is a must-play for "JRPG" fans, but also for newcomers. 9.8/10 Made by DanteHR