Games Happy

Introduced all the best way again in 2016, it has been straightforward to marvel if Granblue Fantasy: Relink truly exists – nevertheless, for anybody that has had the prospect to attend Anime Expo 2023, the sport’s existence is now not in query; as Cygames has granted attendees an opportunity to play the most recent demo construct of the sport. Through the expo we took the prospect to strive the demo twice, with two completely different characters – Siegfried and Katalina.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink is an motion RPG whose core gameplay loop revolves round cooperation; not solely will the total sport help as much as 4-player co-op, however even when tackling the sport solo mechanics like Hyperlink Assaults and Chain Bursts will tax gamers to work alongside their get together members with a view to extra effectively clear missions.

Whereas we weren’t capable of take a look at any of the RPG points of the sport for the demo, we did get to place to proof Cygames’ declare that characters themselves will play radically in another way from one another; each Siegfried and Katalina had radically completely different gameplay kinds, even when the core battle system stays the identical whatever the character performed. Siegfried makes a speciality of precision-timed assaults, the place gamers completely timing assaults is not going to solely strengthen their combo, however finally permit for a novel finisher that may deal important harm. Katalina’s combo finishers will elevate her distinctive Ares gauge, and upon being crammed her instructions can be buffed; permitting for a kind of metagame the place gamers would possibly wish to save her SBA till her Ares gauge has been crammed.

The demo itself tasked gamers with clearing an space of a gaggle of enemies, earlier than then being thrown right into a boss struggle in opposition to a Goblin Knight. If gamers managed to defeat the Goblin Knight inside 5 minutes, they had been then granted an extra Griffin boss to sort out. Whereas each the Goblin Knight and the Griffin got here with a novel set of assaults, the Griffin particularly was a setpiece encounter. 

If I had been to explain Relink’s fight; nicely, the obvious comparability can be Monster Hunter. As an alternative of adjusting out weapons, nevertheless, every character themselves acts as a novel moveset, with gamers with the ability to degree up and customise every member of their get together individually. When you will not be capable to swap characters on the fly in fight, gamers can swap which characters they will sort out every mission with earlier than loading in. Through the Granblue Fantasy panel throughout the expo Cygames clarified that the sport itself wouldn’t be an open-world, however quite divided up into linear missions and aspect quests that may be loaded into from the primary hub.

In apply, Relink was a pleasure to play, and gameplay was fluid, responsive and loads of enjoyable to become familiar with. Most significantly, nevertheless, the sport feels polished and the businesses’ claims that it is nearing completion really feel way more plausible now that we have had the prospect to get our hands-on with the sport for ourselves. The sport appears to be like unbelievable on PlayStation 5, and your entire presentation appears to be like able to go for launch; which, hopefully, ought to be later this 12 months. Keep tuned for our additional impressions as we get nearer to launch!