This JRPG looks like it might actually be worth the 8-year wait, and the devs are saying exactly what I want to hear
Granblue Fantasy: Relink could be the game I've always wanted from Granblue
I'm a big fan of the classical fantasy world of Granblue Fantasy. There's just one problem: I don't actually like any of the games. I adore the art of the games, and I enjoyed the narrative crash course of the series' promotional anime, but the titular game is an infamously grindy gacha and the fighting game spinoffs honestly scare me even more. So I'm immensely pleased to hear that Granblue Fantasy: Relink, an action JRPG that's finally approaching launch some eight years after its reveal, is a deliberately different take on the series.
In issue 389 of Edge magazine, Relink general director Tetsuya Fukuhara discusses the direction of the upcoming JRPG. "It's not that we're trying to funnel players into the mobile game or keep them in the spin-off universe," he begins, "it's rather that we recognize that some people don't necessarily like playing mobile games and some people don't necessarily like console games. So just providing games within the Granblue universe that everyone wants to play is our objective."
Hi, it's me, I'm people. Granblue Fantasy: Relink, for me, is shaping up to be more than just a promising, Tales-esque action JRPG. It may also finally give me a way to properly explore and enjoy what seems like a really cool universe. It's had some serious development troubles, but Relink's latest trailers have looked pretty solid, especially the one with all the exceedingly Final Fantasy 16-style monster fights.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink is now due February 1, 2024 on PS4, PS5, and PC (Steam).
Way back in 2020, an encouraging hands-on preview of Relink teased what could be "Monster Hunter by way of Devil May Cry," which sounds like Exactly My Jam.
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Austin freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and he's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a senior writer is just a cover up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.
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