PlatinumGames Got A New JRPG - Granblue Fantasy Project Re:Link

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Does it have recent Ys' cancerous 'every fight is a parry fest because it makes you invincible or whatever' gameplay ethos, or is it viable to fight things by simply positioning and timing well?

It depends upon the character. Io is an easy to play grenadier who can stand back from the chaos of melee and charge up grenade spells and lob them. Then there are melee characters like Percival and Vaseraga who can continue charging up their swings without being interrupted by an enemy attack, and if you equip them with the right sigils and use the right abilities like phalanx or substitute to reduce incoming damage, you don't need to parry.

Don't you miss out on a lot of banter doing this, though?

Dialogue during story battles is also shown as text.

But if you mean generic party member stuff like Narmaya thanking Gran after you heal her then that is voice only and doesn't display as text, but you're not missing anything substantial.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I have finished the main story of Granblue Fantasy Relink.

I played up to the final boss on hard difficulty. Then my troubles began. The AI party members can't/don't jump over/dodge through/shield through the incoming dark waves during phase 1, nor do they run away from the big AoEs during the final phase, so they go into a downed state and bleed through the party's shared downed state bar very quickly. When the shared downed state bar runs out, it is a game over, even if only one out of the four party members is downed and the rest are still standing and fighting. I actually managed to kill the final boss, with the slowmo cam and my characters levelling up, but since Io was downed and the bar apparently ran out at the exact same time time, the gameover music played and I got stuck on an infinite black screen and had to reload. I wound up having to do the final boss 5 times, which feels bad when it's a 10 minute long boss scripted boss fight. It doesn't matter if you lower the difficulty and burn through his health; you can't hasten the dialogue or the cutscenes, and again most of your party goes down during the final phase, so it feels bad to slog through all that only to lose inches from victory.

I had a really bad time as Gran. I prefer to play through the story with the canon characters, but I had a bad time as Gran. He has useful abilities you want to rotate through to maintain maximum uptime rather than blowing all at once (ie, the two party wide damage mitigation skills, Phalnax and Substitute), but you have to do four combos to build up four stacks of Arts to use skills at maximum effectiveness, which is difficulty and wieldy and frustrating. I wound up biting the bullet and trying out the noncanon characters. Percival is my favorite character and MVP in the gacha game, but in Relink he is one of many characters that are too fast paced for me. I don't like fast paced action or fighting games as I can't keep up. I wound up sticking with Vaseraga, as rather than quickly mashing buttons or memorizing long combos, you instead just press X and hold down Y for 3 seconds to charge up his heavy attacks. Very easy to play. Just wish I could customize the other characters to play like him, or there were more options for slow characters besides Io and Vaseraga.

The character models (when properly lit in cutscenes and certain battle areas) and the visual effects look fantastic. I'm hard press to think of other anime JRPG with characters and VFX that looks this good. Trails and Valkyria Chronicles come close in the character department but this is really something else, and nothing comes close to the VFX quality. The environments also look good, though Xenoblade probably has the edge in more imaginative and grandiose JRPG environments. The Granblue 2D illustrations look superb as usual.

Much of the soundtrack is remixes of Uematsu's original GBF OST by Narita. Not my favorite renditions but still good. It sounds like the final boss song was sung by Taro Kobayashi. Will have to wait for the soundtrack release for confirmation.

Story wise, I'm a little peeved by there being a third Bahamut. The foundational lore of the setting in the gacha is that the god of the GBF setting, Bahamut, was split into two and the universe was split into two: the Sky realm which GBF takes place in, and the Astral realm which is never visited. Gran's sidekick Vyrn is the reincarnation of the Sky half of Bahamut, and the Astral realm Bahamut is over in the Astral realm which is inaccessible to the Skydwellers. No one has managed to cross the boundary between worlds since the Astrals retreated at the end of the War 2,000 years ago, and the Astrals who were left behind (Loki, Lucilius, Beelzebub, etc) have been unable to return home. It is highly unlikely that this is the Astral side Bahamut. So where did this Third Bahamut come from? It's never satisfactorily explained.

It's bizzare that Lilith somehow knows about Lyria and knows that Gran is the Singularity, despite Gran hailing from a completely different Skydom than Lilith has been operating in, and the Church of Avia was said to be localized the Zegagrande Skydom rather than spanning multiple skydoms. The True King identified Gran since he heads a global superpower that spans multiple Skydoms with many nations and organizations serving him and feeding him information, but Lilith appears to be a small time local actor.

With the main story over, what is left is to grind quests on harder and harder difficulties to progress Vaseraga and get him ready for the Lucilius superboss that is being patched in April. The online matchmaking is very frustrating, though. I queue for a quest, and then the game spends one minute searching, and then after that it reloads the area and takes another minute searching (during this time you can't cancel the queue), and then you find out whether or not you got taken to the quest or if you're still in town and have to repeat the process again. And then once you finish a multiplayer quest, you have the option to press X to repeat the quest (ie the survival exp farm quest), and I have had multiple people where all four players pressed X to repeat the quest, but then the game sends me back to town rather than repeating the quest.

 

[Yosharian]

Er dude some of your spoilers are showing lol.

I have been reading up on the best way to build an AI team, currently I'm trying out Vane as my main and Eugen/Katalina/Gran as my AI supports.

I've only just completed Chapter 3 so I'm not very far into the game, but it's great fun so far. Some of the dialogue is atrocious, and the plot is kind of retarded.

 

[Crayll]

Some of the dialogue is atrocious

Most of this is the shitty localization rewrites adding bad jokes or stupid characterization where there isn't any.
At least you aren't lectured about feminism, I guess.

 

[Anonona]

but you have to do four combos to build up four stacks of Arts to use skills at maximum effectiveness

I know it is a little late, but you can build max skill level doing one full Combo D ( X -> X -> X -> X* -> Y*, both the last X and Y increases level) and following it with a Quickened Charged attack, I think it may be the fastest way. Other option is just doing the basic X->Y->Y* multiple times. Also, depending on the combo you can cancel steps by starting the attack, dodging to cancel it, and then starting the next step, Bayonetta style. You can even chain Quick Charged attacks after a dodge. Gran is probably one of the character that benefits the most by mastering Dodge offset, similar to Bayonetta his combo finishers are the most important part of his attacks. Though this could be applied to any character focused on combo finishers like Vane.

I'm on the post game, trying to create a team of each element right now. Gameplay wise, I think Gran and Vane are so far the ones I tried that I liked the most, but still have to try all of them. The crack on the AI are showing. They are pretty competent, but certain missions become hard to get good rank on because the AI will cannot do certain things, like splitting up to cover more area, attacking enemies on Bloodthirst state using ranged attacks (they focus on dodging), perfect parry (they always choose to dodge instead) or using the skills to maximaze damage (like saving debuffs and buffs for when Link Time is activated). And they make certain side missions like using throwing objects to kill enemies harder because they will just kill them normally before you have a chance to use it. Also they are bad at using certain offensive skills, particularly those that require to hold a button. AI Charlotta for example will use her skill, but if the enemy moves out of the way, she will keep going until is finished instead of stopping and doing something else.

Although they are still pretty good. Don't know how will they perform in harder quest difficulties.

Most of this is the shitty localization rewrites adding bad jokes or stupid characterization where there isn't any.

Yeah, is painfully obvious that a lot of the written dialogue doesn't correspond with what the character is saying in japanese. Fate episodes are probably the worst example. Some of them are passable (Katalina and Lancelot for example) but Vane's was painful, and Gran's was pretty bad too.

 

[Anonona]

I'm still getting surprised by the game. Character seem to have some combos and mechanics that are not quite explained by the tutorial.

For example, I didn't know till now, but Gran's combos are more free form than they look. While the Command List says that he has combos A to D ( X -> Y -> Y*, X -> X -> Y -> Y* and so forth) you can actually combine X to lengthen combos, making every single one of them a 5 hit combo except for Combo C, which is always 4 hits. So you can turn combo A ( X -> Y -> Y*) into (X -> Y -> X -> X* -> Y*). This has some interesting applications. This last combo I shown, the modified Combo A, is very useful because the second hit of Combo A is a gap closer, so you can use X -> Y to use a Stinger like attack, and then choose if you want to go for the launcher or instead the full combo (you can even go for a shorter one but that grants less skill level). Also, together with dodge offset, I can see high level players using extensions to delay the finishers so they can dodge and still hit the enemies with them.

Another one is Narmaya. The game doesn't explain that you quicken her Dawnfly Charge Attack if you use it after the third hit of her combo (not the fourth for some reason), after link attacks, after offensive skills usage and after a perfect stance-change attack. And even more interesting, her Fleeflutter Combo finisher also has the same rules except for the third hit of combo thing. To this add that, as any other regular attack, you can dodge offset after any of this conditions are met to avoid damage or delay the charged attack or combo finisher. It makes her gameplay flow incredibly smoothly and opens up a lot of interesting combos by using her skills together with regular attacks.

Also I think most character with charged attacks can do similar things. I have tested and Gran can also quicken his charged attacks after Link Attacks and Skills, wouldn't be surprised most character can do the same.

ps: Just found out another thing about Narmaya. She can do perfect Stance-change attacks after link attacks too, without need to go through the charged attack/combo finisher.

 

[Rean]

You can also sort of attack-cancel by using guard, I remember it being one of the first things I noticed.

 

[Yosharian]

Save location: C:\Users\ ....\AppData\Local\GBFR\Saved\SaveGames

 

[Ravielsk]

Is this game a sequel of sorts to Rising and Versus? Or is it a self contained piece?

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Is this game a sequel of sorts to Rising and Versus?

No. The fighting games are a sequel to a side storyline in the gacha called What Makes the Sky Blue. Relink is an original story and isn't a sequel to anything.

 

[Reinhardt]

how long it is btw?

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

how long it is btw?

I'm 60 hours in right now. I think it took me around 30-40 hours to beat the main story final boss, but not all of that was story. When I got stuck on the story final boss I had to go do multiplayer quests to level up. I played on hard and played as Gran - a character I am bad at - so that made the missions take longer. If I had been playing as Vaseraga from the start it would have gone a lot faster, and if it was on normal difficulty. I have just finished the maniac difficulty quests and there is just the proud difficulty quests left, so I'm guessing I will beat the current most difficult boss, the last Proud mode quest, within the next 10 hours (Currently awakening Vaseraga's Ascension weapon before I start doing the Proud quests). After that we have to wait until April for the Lucilius to be patched in, who will become the hardest boss in the game.

 

[REhorror]

So apparently this game just blew up.

I'm quite excited to get it, shitty translation aside, no political insertion so far doe.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Almost done with the Proud mode quests. You pretty much just fight multiple bosses at once in these quests. Ie, a dragon and two crocodiles. A golem and two crocodiles. Two dragons at once. Gallanza and Maglielle at once. Etc. There are so many incoming AoEs that I had to swap from an offensive to a survival build (more dodges, more block, more HP, more revives, etc).

So apparently this game just blew up.

I'm quite excited to get it, shitty translation aside, no political insertion so far doe.

The translation isn't bad. Aside from the conspicuous "well that just happened" line, I saw no glaring errors. No typos or inaccurate ability descriptions either, which is more than can be said for other recently released JRPGs *cough* Trails into Reverie *cough*. The English dub, on the other hand...

 

[REhorror]

Almost done with the Proud mode quests. You pretty much just fight multiple bosses at once in these quests. Ie, a dragon and two crocodiles. A golem and two crocodiles. Two dragons at once. Gallanza and Maglielle at once. Etc. There are so many incoming AoEs that I had to swap from an offensive to a survival build (more dodges, more block, more HP, more revives, etc).

So apparently this game just blew up.

I'm quite excited to get it, shitty translation aside, no political insertion so far doe.

The translation isn't bad. Aside from the conspicuous "well that just happened" line, I saw no glaring errors. No typos or inaccurate ability descriptions either, which is more than can be said for other recently released JRPGs *cough* Trails into Reverie *cough*. The English dub, on the other hand...

I argued and got my ass banned on Steam for saying the translation is shit.

 

[Yosharian]

The story cutscenes both outside and within missions are so fucking bad that I find myself having to take breaks from the game in order to relieve the build-up of cringe

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I fully awakened Vaseraga's ascension weapon and then beat all of the Proud mode quests. Strangely, when I unlocked the penultimate boss, I got a cutscene hyping it up, but then for the actual current final boss of the hardest difficulty of the game there was no lead in and no fanfare upon beating it. I farmed it a few times and RNG gave me a Terminus weapon for Charlotta. I'm not going to farm hundreds of times to get a Terminus weapon for Vaseraga that I might only use for one more boss if Lucilius is going to be the only additional boss added to the game. So I might put this down for now.

If I had a complaint, it's that the postgame bosses are rather unimaginative. You get to fight the cool story bosses a couple of more times but otherwise you're mostly fighting generic enemies: more goblins riding wolves, more giant skeletons, more golems, more crocodiles, and more dragons, etc. The penultimate boss was the only thing new that I hadn't fought before. It's a shame, because the gacha has a wealth of fantastical monster designs but they're unused here.

 

[Rean]

I'm really not feeling it, and this is mostly due to the low difficulty. This game exemplifies something I often talk about when it comes to JRPGs, and that's their frequent inability to provide a balanced and challenging experience without pumping up arbitrary values such as health stats for enemies, which results in a grind rather than challenge.
As for it blowing up in popularity, I have no idea why it's happened, I guess it's due to co-op? I thought co-op was limited to just battle challenges and stuff.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I'm really not feeling it, and this is mostly due to the low difficulty. This game exemplifies something I often talk about when it comes to JRPGs, and that's their frequent inability to provide a balanced and challenging experience without pumping up arbitrary values such as health stats for enemies, which results in a grind rather than challenge.

The difficulty is found in the quests where you fight two or three bosses at once, as you now have to be mentally tracking the overdrive/break states of multiple bosses (not just the one you're targetting), have lots of incoming attacks you need to guard or dodge, have stuff happening behind you out of view of your camera, etc. But these quests are backloaded in the postgame maniac and proud difficulty quests, and the final quest that you farm over and over to get Terminus weapon drops is an easy single target fight. I've gotten three more Terminus weapon drops but still haven't gotten Vaseraga's yet, so I don't know if in order to Awaken a Terminus weapon I would need to do the multiboss quests to Awaken it. I just got Narmaya's Terminus Weapon so maybe I will main her for now while farming for Vaseraga's.

As for it blowing up in popularity, I have no idea why it's happened, I guess it's due to co-op? I thought co-op was limited to just battle challenges and stuff.

It's the long awaited (announced in 2016) 3D high production value game for an extremely popular franchise in Japan. GBF is the most popular gacha in Japan and has a cult following in the West. It has arrived during an anime fantasy JRPG drought, where people have already played Kuro no Kiseki 1 with the fan translation patch and the official English translation is still months out, Monochrome Mobius 2 hasn't been announced yet, and Ys 10 isn't coming out until Fall. And the game has a lot of appeal, with high profile talent such as ex Final Fantasy devs and top voice actors, great character designs and great music. There is also a little bit of streisand effect going on due to the censorship and the english translation, when we are in a time where English localizers are becoming popularly hated again.

 

[Rean]

But these quests are backloaded in the postgame

That's really annoying.

Monochrome Mobius 2 hasn't been announced yet

Monochrome Mobius is popular? It didn't seem that way.

when we are in a time where English localizers are becoming popularly hated again

Good, localizers should be hated. Xseed almost fell completely apart because of them and is now a husk of its former self.
Nothing will happen to them because they're too entrenched in the industry, but it's good to see some outrage.

I've also noticed some people who are overdosing on hopium thinking AI will save us from vile localizations, but AI can just as easily be censored and twisted by the same type of people.

 

[ADL]

For anyone that's considering this... I've never seen a game with a more consistent playerbase.

https://steamcharts.com/app/881020#All

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

For anyone that's considering this... I've never seen a game with a more consistent playerbase.

https://steamcharts.com/app/881020#All

If one million+ people bought the game but even 5% of them became really invested in the game to stick around then that sounds about right. My guess is that people are a logging on every day to get in a few farm runs of Bahamut's Rage hoping to get some Terminus Weapon drops, or if they already have it for their main then they are running the other quests to get the mats they need to fully Awaken it. Once people get the Terminus Weapons they want and fully Awaken it then activity will decrease, at least until the next boss Lucilius releases next month which will probably bring with it a new tier of stuff to farm for (Dark Opus Weapons and/or more Awakenings for pre-existing weapon types).

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Nothing fun like having a near perfect Bahamut run, burning him down to 10% HP during the green phase, and then you get a "network error" popup and the game resumes in offline mode and the boss' HP jumps back up to 50% and you fail the DPS check at the end because your dumbass AI party members are stuck behind the stairs and won't pop their SBAs

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I finally got Ereshkigal - Vaseraga's Terminus Weapon - to drop from Proto-Bahamut (after having gotten a dozen for characters I don't play). I have fully Awakened it. Only thing left to do now is farm mats and upgrade all of my equipped sigils to level 15. I don't have 3 Supplemental Damage V+ sigils yet but I don't think they matter. 3 slots for +20% personal damage isn't very worthwhile compared to equipping Linked Together and Stun Power or SBA gain which increases the group's entire damage. Besides, damage isn't the end all be all in Relink. Almost all of the failed runs I've been in has been due to too many deaths, not a lack of DPS, in which case people would have been better served by equipping sigils that increased their survivability.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Teaser for upcoming Lucilius boss dropping in a couple weeks:

Sandalphon has been announced as the third playable patch character coming in May. Meh. Boring pick, but who knows maybe he will fly during battle.

Seofon (sword wielding leader of the Eternals) got gameplay footage shown.




Tweyen (the magical bow archer Eternal) got some gameplay footage shown. Doesn't seem like you can aim to shoot specific body parts like Eugen.