Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Endless Ragnarok Review
C’mon, people, don’t miss it
Can there be too much of a good thing in RPGs? There’s always a sense of more in action RPGs — from fights to builds — and definitely more grinding. There’s ultimately a point where content supersedes enjoyment, giving too much to do and not enough reason to do it. Cygames’ Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Endless Ragnarok exceeds this point, yet always finds a way to pace in a new climactic boss fight to stave off the sting of the slow grind. The see-saw of routine and difficulty still finds a way to reward the player when they succeed at a truly tough challenge. With multiplayer highlighting the way, the story-centric Relink gives way to the boss gauntlet of Endless Ragnarok, combining into a system where it stays enjoyable enough, instead of amazing due to repeated content with added health.
The Captain of the Grandcypher has just finished adventuring in the Phantagrande skydom and plots a course for the fabled land of Estalucia, a mystical place at the end of the known world. Their next stop takes them to the Zegagrande skydom, and upon entering its skies, the Girl in Blue Lyria encounters difficulties when summoning Bahamut. Bahamut goes out of control and wrecks their airship enough to force a landing on a nearby commerce-based island. When a nearby primal beast that controls the element of wind starts being riled up, the crew goes about quelling the commotion. While investigating what’s causing every nearby primal beast to go haywire, an antagonistic force kidnaps Lyria, setting the crew out to save their friend. That is the plot of Relink; in Endless Ragnarok, much of this is thrown out to follow plot points that expand into the established lore of the mobile game Granblue Fantasy, making it feel far less standalone.
Through character events called Fate Episodes, each of the characters in Granblue Fantasy: Relink — Endless Ragnarok is given their chance to shine with a brief synopsis of the events of their past, how they joined the crew of the Grandcypher, and what they’re doing since making it to Zegagrande. As a standalone experience, it is very helpful to have these character introductions, even tying them to stat gains for those characters to make viewing the stories worthwhile. Relink tells a decent standalone story about friendship and adventure, which is unfortunately not shared with the inside references that are more prevalent in Endless Ragnarok.
One of the more damage-dealing Endless Ragnarok characters, Fraux, getting in some practice.
Collecting the full party is optional in the form of crewmate cards and has nothing to do with the main quest, but that original crew was still varied enough to have an ensemble adventure. The new characters in Endless Ragnarok, which is explored after completing the hardest Relink fights, have more to do, but fewer ways to express it. They typically serve as a stand-in for the exposition dump that comes from the mobile title and leaves all the events of Relink pretty much forgotten except for a few moments of lip service, barring the bond between the captain and Lyria.
Relink’s exploration feels like it naturally incorporates its stories, each within winding areas of interest that are all cohesive parts of a larger living world. Endless Ragnarok does away with these areas, as well as exploration perks like finding chests or pincer crabs, and focuses entirely on boss arenas that are repeated for more resources. The new boss fights are more difficult and climactic, but there’s less meaning than the ones the base game had.
The endgame for Relink still expanded on the story that just finished and culminated in some bigger boss fights. Endless Ragnarok picks up where that left off and just doubles down on the amount of difficult fights. In both instances, where the issue arises is how many fights are repeated with higher health and damage. The repetition isn’t overly problematic until factoring in the multiple layers of grinding, making it so almost every boss in the game is encountered many times.
Why, yes, that fish is eyeing the party menacingly.
One aspect that makes the grind from the beginning of Relink to Endless Ragnarok more bearable is a random adventure mode called Conflux. In Conflux, the party goes through portals designated with strife for enemies and dexterity for puzzles. Strife portals can consist of a quick wave of enemies, an elite mini-boss fight, a rampage through many weak enemies within a time limit, or a faceoff against a giant intergalactic fish in a fun bit of comedy that can still wipe out unsuspecting players. Dexterity portals are a lot of fun, either being a race where players must collect shards or chase a slime pot, detective work that asks players to look at what changes in a scene, or an identification game where players must select a lookalike NPC who shuffles around in a group of three. Clearing two of these in total brings players to a warlord portal, which is a randomly selected boss fight from a few options, before heading to a limbo room where players can buy Conflux powerups called auras, which are also available after every strife portal is completed. Early Conflux cycles only go through this progression once, before increasing to three sets of portals that end in a boss fight. Conflux is a mode that can only be played solo, with the hope that the auras obtained along the way prove to be an equalizer against the tough boss fights that are found at the end of the cycle.
No matter the mode, the main attraction in Granblue Fantasy: Relink — Endless Ragnarok is its combat. Simple mob enemies go down quickly enough, but unless the party is drastically overlevelled, the boss fights can take some time. These usually clock in between five and fifteen minutes, and each one is a climactic show piece. The party consists of four party members; one controllable character, and the rest either CPU companions or other people that join with multiplayer. Every party member has a basic attack, a charge ability, and four skills from a pool of around a dozen that players have to utilize while dodging or parrying constant attacks. Every party member uses this basic setup to various advantages, and all play very distinctly from each other, finding their own ways of feeling fun and useful.
Such a lovely visual display.
Each hit a party member lands fills up both the enemy’s stun meter for Link Attacks as well as a Skybound Arts gauge. When enough Link Attacks fill the gauge, it results in Link Time, where everything slows to a crawl for the enemy briefly. Skybound Arts are finishing moves that, if done in a row, cause a final Chain Burst and, new to Endless Ragnarok, if Lyria’s unseen gauge has filled, she joins in with a fifth primal burst. Also added to the expansion are summons, which are timed events where players control a summoned monster to do a lot of damage. Summons are new to Endless Ragnarok and feel essential in many fights due to the higher health totals that enemies have. Keeping track of the rhythm and timing of all battle components within the arena is always engaging. Though, with many combatants just repeating the same moveset, it does make fights feel routine after enough play sessions.
There are definitely some endgame enemies where it’s a wonder there’s any time to even attack because of how rapidly they come in succession. The rapid attacks and increased health of Endless Ragnarok‘s bosses necessitates a competent level of dodging and parrying. Luckily, the window for doing so is somewhat generous, and until the last stretches of the endgame, it is rare that enemy strikes will kill players that quickly. Enemy attacks are well choreographed on screen, which alternatively makes players feel foolish for not keeping up, until factoring in how often these attacks are bombarded at the party. Dying isn’t game over, even for the entire party; instead, a critical gauge ticks down as it takes a few seconds for players to revive, and when it empties, the fight is over. Ally assisting slows the critical gauge, but it will be very noticeable when a party member isn’t pulling their weight.
Multiplayer feels necessary to those that do not want to grind long hours or have difficulty with fast-paced combat mechanics. Players were very helpful, and almost everyone that joined the grind made some otherwise unwinnable fights feel more manageable. On the Switch 2, they couldn’t be easily communicated with except with a limited amount of stickers. Relink quests had a hard time finding a party, as it felt like most were just doing endgame content. When trying for matchmaking, players can only wander the town and not interact with anything for up to five minutes while it searches. The trade-off is that when a group is filled, the quest starts immediately. This extra time waiting is worth it, because everything moves so fluidly when everyone is working in tandem. Playing with NPCs feels like they disappear, while every human party member melds into the chaotic frenzy in a memorably enjoyable manner.
Decisions, decisions… Where to go?
Load times are quick and snappy, and the visuals are superb on the Switch 2, and Relink‘s flashy presentation is showcased well across all aspects of the title. It isn’t until Relink‘s endgame that cracks of repeated boss fights begin to show, and instead of set pieces, there are static exposition dumps and reused backgrounds that continue through Endless Ragnarok, creating a blandness as compared to the more connected vision of the base game. The soundtrack has moments where it fits in the background and lets the sound effects take center stage. Some of the boss fights turn this around completely, as pulse-pounding lyrics flash in with powerful crescendos that were just not as noticeable during regular gameplay. The voice cast isn’t given much variety to work with but does a commendable job with what they are given, including a few wonderfully scene-chewing moments.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Endless Ragnarok is an entertaining twenty-five to forty-hour expansion that stretches the complete package out to over a hundred hours. The new bosses are worth the trek to get there, but the repeated fights needed make taking breaks preferable to a marathon. As a result, it does have moments where it feels like diminishing returns. Overall, the routine is enjoyable enough, and the multiplayer is always a treat to join with friends or strangers to plug away at the increasingly challenging fights.
Disclosure: This review is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.
Multiplayer is always a blast to play
Conflux gives some needed random variety to grinding
Great variety in how characters play
Boss fights always feel climactic
The variety of those boss fights does get repetitive
Relink's story feels forgotten in the face of tying it in to the greater series lore
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