Granblue Fantasy Relink (1st February 2024)

[Julius]

I've been following this game for a while now, but with yesterday's announcement from Tetsuya Fukuhara confirming that there plans are for both Relink and Versus (a fighting game) to each be released worldwide simultaneously, I finally decided to go ahead and make a thread dedicated to the game. 

I feel like the stage needs to be set regarding Granblue Fantasy, as it is a franchise currently only accessible in Japan, and so some here might not be familiar with the franchise, its importance, or success.

Background

A free-to-play turn-based JRPG developed and published by Cygames, Granblue Fantasy is playable on iOS, Android, and web browsers in Japan, releasing in March 2014. Here's a brief gameplay description from over on Wikipedia:

Quote

The game plays as a role-playing video game with turn-based battles. The game also contains summons and a class system that alters the main character's move-set and growth. Characters gain levels and abilities by accruing experience; summons and weapons equipped also confer characters with bonuses on attack power and HP. The characters themselves are gained either via quests (the main story quests or special event quests) or by using in-game currency to receive random crystal fragments, which may contain special weapons that add specific characters to the party. Characters, summons, and weapons are ranked (from best to worst) as SSR, SR, R, or N; each is also of type wind, water, fire, earth, light, or darkness. Voice actors provide voices for all of the characters in battle, and for much of the main and event storylines.

Most notably, the game reunited legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu, renowned mostly for his work on Final Fantasy, with art director Hideo Minaba, also renowned for his work on Final Fantasy. The pair previously working together on Final Fantasy V (1992), Final Fantasy VI (1994), Final Fantasy IX (2000) and Lost Odyssey (2007), and in part thanks to their work on it, the game garnered a lot of attention. Uematsu worked on eleven tracks for the game -- which were accompanied by Tsutomu Narita's nine tracks (he was the composer for Final Fantasy XV: Comrades, and also worked in the music department on Xenoblade Chronicles) -- and it is believed that Minaba drew nearly one hundred potential character designs for the game.

To give you a taste of the game's gorgeous soundtrack (at least judging from what I've listened to so far), here's the main theme:

To speak to the game's success, it has been a commercial juggernaut in Japan, having been downloaded over 10 million times two years after its release in March 2016, and had been downloaded over 22 million times as of October 2018. Thanks to its implementation of a gacha system seen in many other successful mobile games in the Japanese marketplace, such as in Fire Emblem Heroes, the game grossed at least ¥54.8 billion ($489 million) in Japan between 2017 and 2018. Outside of its commercial success, though, it has all been received very positively by critics, with many journalists comparing it favourably to early Final Fantasy entries. 

Project Re:Link

Originally announced as Granblue Fantasy Project Re:Link back in August 2016, the game was revealed to be an action RPG serving as a collaboration between PlatinumGames (Bayonetta franchise, NieR: Automata) and Cygames (who would also be serving as the game's publisher), with Nobuo Uematsu and Hideo Minaba reprising their roles as composer and art director, respectively, and the aforementioned Tetsuya Fukuhara set to direct. The game will be set in the same fictional realm as Granblue Fantasy, with some characters from the original game appearing, but in an entirely different location. One month later, in September, it was revealed that Cygames were aiming to release the game on the PS4 -- and that was the first and last time we heard about what consoles the game was aiming to be released on. It was at this point that they also mentioned that they were aiming to connect the mobile game and PlayStation 4 game, with each unlocking special events/items in the other.

The first gameplay trailer was shown in December 2017, during Granblue Fes 2017, which was shortly after I learned about the game. And it looked great:

Around this time, director Tetsuya Fukuhara also revealed some gameplay details, the most interesting of which undoubtedly being that the game could be played in four-person cooperative multiplayer, or enjoyed as a single player experience, with three remaining characters being controlled by AI.

Localisation for the game in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian were announced in July 2018.

Its official title was revealed to be Granblue Fantasy: Relink in December 2018 during Granblue Fes 2018, where another gameplay trailer was shown, which continues to look incredible:

As of February 4th 2019, PlatinumGames left development of the project -- supposedly, they were unsurprisingly contracted for the action elements of the game, and it is believed that their contract was complete -- leaving Cygames to complete development on the game.

As of yesterday -- February 26th 2019, at the time of writing -- after the game's delay from its initial target of a 2018 release, director Fukuhara announced that the game was aiming for a simultaneous worldwide release, and that they would not be revealing further details on a release date until they were comfortable to do so. 

Quote

2018 was our initial goal. After the project kicked off, it continued to become more and more massive, as the IP itself was growing at the same time.

Also, it wasn’t as easy as we initially thought to implement the full details of the Granblue world into 3D models, especially for the backgrounds. We didn’t want to make compromises on the quality. It was possible to choose the fastest and easiest way, but we didn’t. That’s the reason why the game hasn’t been released yet.

At the moment it doesn’t have a release date because we already delayed it once, we never, ever want to do it again. We will release that information when we’re absolutely sure that we can hit that date without risking any more delays.

[On Relink's framerate, after revealing that Versus would run at 60fps] 

For Relink, at this point 60 FPS is our goal, but depending the final visuals, if we decide that 30 FPS will the best solution overall, it’s possible that we’ll choose 30 FPS.

That being said, as mentioned, our goal, for now, is to have it running at 60 FPS.

Hopefully I've been able to bring the game to the attention of some of the JRPG and/or Platinum fans here, as I really do think that its one to keep an eye on!

Edited August 23, 2023 by Julius

[ArtMediocre]

This looks amazing! Just my kind of game, and I got so pumped while reading your post. All the important points got checked. Platinum Games as developer. Nobuo Uematsu as composer <3. Hinaba Minaba as director. Everything was perfect. 

And then I read that it has only been announced for PS4 . Damn. As a PC and Switch gamer, this hurts my soul.

Thankfully there is hope!

Quote

Bayonetta and Nier: Automata developer Platinum Games may bring its upcoming action RPG Granblue Fantasy Relink to Steam, publisher Cygames has announced.

The RPG is due to release in Japan on PS4 at some point in 2019, but game director Tetsuya Fukuhara has told Famitsu (translation via RPG Site), that he wants to bring the game to Steam too. Cygames were already planning localised versions of the game in the West.

This is from an article by PCGamer from an interview they did with Cygames. There is hope!

 

[Julius]

The June 2019 issue of Official PlayStation Magazine UK had a 10-page feature on both Relink and Versus, with a few pieces of new information to be found. With regards to Relink: 

Quote

• While PlatinumGames left the project earlier in 2019, the bulk of what it built remains, including the level layout, character animation, and fighting systems.

• Each character has their own fighting style and is tied to a certain weapon or weapon type.

• The game progresses in a mostly linear fashion, but there will be additional activities. “You can pick up side-quests from the towns you visit along the way, and come and go between them as you please,” according to director Tetsuya Fukuhara.

• Towns also act as lobbies where you can team up with other players online and take on missions. (You can also play solo, with the rest of the four-person party being AI-controlled.)

• Regarding characters, Fukuhara said, “We know there are many fan favorites, so we’ll try to fit in as many as we reasonably can. It’s not possible to match the roster size of the original game, of course, and the development team has its hands full deciding who makes the final cut.”

 

[Julius]

Promotional trailer:

Four-player multiplayer quest gameplay: 

Still looking great, but with no release date coming out of FES this year, I wouldn't be surprised if the game isn't out until late 2020 at the earliest, or much more likely 2021. Feel like this game needs an E3 or TGS blowout, but with the former now very likely to be strongly focused on next gen games - and with no announcement yet of the game being transitioned to PS5 - I can't help but feel this game is starting to feel further and further away. 

[Julius]

Director Tetsuya Fukuhara has released a short clip showing off the super skybound arts of Lancelot, Vane, Percival, and Siegfried, respectively.

All I'm saying is that this game looks like it would be really cosy to play through this Christmas...

[Julius]

During last month's Granblue Fantasy Summer 2020 Special livestream, Fukuhara said that development was going well on the game, and teased a release date announcement at this year's Granblue Fantasy Festival (11th - 13th December). 

Seems like a 2021 release could well be on the cards! 

Edited September 2, 2020 by Julius

[Julius]

It's been a while, but finally a worthwhile update on this from Granblue Fantasy Fes 2020 earlier today. 

Unsurprisingly, a PS5 version of the game has been confirmed to be in the works in addition to the previously announced PS4 version. It has been announced that a worldwide launch is being targeted for 2022! 

In addition, a 23 minute gameplay demo was also shown off at the event (below is the video to the entire Fes stream, but I've placed the starting point at the start of the demo). 

Exciting times ahead! Shame it's not a 2021 title, but I think this is for the best, considering potential impacts on development due to COVID, and of course wanting them to knock it out of the park. It was confirmed during Fes that the game is currently in it's alpha version. 

Seems increasingly likely that Platinum's work on the game was scrapped, but hopefully the team learned from some of the mistakes made there, or at least were given a clearer idea of what they wanted as a result. 

Edited December 13, 2020 by Julius

[Hero-of-Time]

[Julius]

Well, it's been a year since the last update, but today is the third and final day of Granblue Fantasy Fes 2021 -- meaning that the game has finally resurfaced!

First off, here's the trailer that was shown today:

It looks absolutely stunning, and Cygames have confirmed that this new trailer uses the final game's graphics. Yep, that's right, they're in the home stretch! 

And speaking of which, they reiterated that the game will release worldwide in 2022 on PS5, PS4, and PC (Steam). No exact date as of yet, but they are very confident in the game launching next year, as they feel that Relink has finally showcased the Granblue Fantasy style and is up to Cygames' lofty standards. 

They have also relaunched the game's official site, which is well worth checking out if you're interested in learning more. New characters not from the mobile game have also been confirmed for Relink, so I guess we won't be missing on all of the context without having played the mobile game. So far, these are the characters confirmed for the game (with plenty more to come):

As showcased previously, the game will have two modes: Story Mode, which follows the main story thread and is a single-player adventure; and Quest Mode, the up to four player multiplayer co-op mode for side quests off the beaten path. It is worth noting for Quest Mode that quests can still be played solo, as demonstrated before, you'll just be joined by CPU allies. As they went on to say: to put it simply, it's an action RPG 

And no surprise here, but character customisation is a thing. 

Finally, the game's director, Tetsuya Fukuhara, says that the 8th anniversary stream (which is being held in March) might be a decent opportunity to unveil the game's release date, so I would have to imagine this is likely a game we shouldn't expect to release until August 2022 at the earliest. 

Below is the promo art which is front and centre on the official site and social media channels, so might end up being the cover artwork? 

Hype mode activated! 

Edited December 12, 2021 by Julius

[ArtMediocre]

23 hours ago, Julius said:

And speaking of which, they reiterated that the game will release worldwide in 2022 on PS5, PS4, and PC (Steam).

[Julius]

All the sighs: delayed to 2023 

A few words on the delay from producer Yuito Kimura:

Quote

The development team has been hard at work getting Granblue Fantasy: Relink ready for its target release date in 2022. We understand the excitement players have for this game, so it is with utmost regret that we announce that the release date will be pushed back a second time to 2023.

Although internal and external circumstances pertaining to the novel coronavirus have been the primary hindrance to the development process, the entire staff has spared no effort in pushing to make up for lost time. However, considering the large-scale scope of this title, we believe more time is needed to further polish and optimize details and gameplay as we approach the final stretch.

All graphical resources, scenario pieces, voices, music, and other assets are in a completed state. At this stage, we are focused on refining gameplay balance, debugging, improving audio and graphical fidelity, and making general improvements to the overall experience. We would like to ask for a little more of your patience.

Further information was slated to be revealed in June 2022, but at the moment, our plan is to share more details in December 2022. We can’t wait to show you what we have!

So...guess I'll bump this thread again for a fourth consecutive December at the end of the year 

[Julius]

On 6/10/2022 at 2:11 PM, Julius said:

So...guess I'll bump this thread again for a fourth consecutive December at the end of the year 

Well, it's that time of the year again. Time for another Granblue Fantasy: Relink update, courtesy of some details included in a tweet from Cygames (the trailer included is old, but new details - and likely a new trailer - will be releasing 21st January 2023):

Quote

Happy new year!

Development is finally in full swing. In order to make it the best game, the development team is working hard to improve the quality.

This month's Granblue Fest will be the first game trial, and new information will be revealed on the stage on the 21st! Look back at the trailer released at the last festival and look forward to it!

Great news, and sounds like it's firmly on course for a 2023 release!

Between Final Fantasy XVI in June, this potentially in the second half of the year, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth in "winter", and Forspoken next month, it looks like next year is truly going to be a win for anime Action JRPGs 

Edited December 31, 2022 by Julius

[Julius]

On 12/31/2022 at 4:15 PM, Julius said:

(the trailer included is old, but new details - and likely a new trailer - will be releasing 21st January 2023)

Anyone else getting deja vu? 

Let's try this again; here's the latest trailer for Relink! 

And there was also another demo shown:

Looks incredible, even more so than it has before. Animations look fluid, the colour pops, it looks ready to go. It really looks ready to go, so here's the release date from the trai–

...aaaaaaaaand they're still just saying it's arriving in 2023. 

See y'all once again later this year (I hope). There's no way my next update in this thread will once again be in December...right? Right..? 

Edited January 21, 2023 by Julius

[ArtMediocre]

Looks amazing! The combat and combo animations are so well done. Looking forward to playing this sometime... in 2023 maybe.

[Julius]

Winter 2023 per today's Showcase:

FINALLY shown as part of a big show, which gives me some confidence that it's actually going to make it out this year! 

Some 

[Dcubed]

Honestly surprised that it wasn't outright cancelled.

Very interested to see how this turns out, given that Platinum worked on it at one point.

[Julius]

6 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Honestly surprised that it wasn't outright cancelled.

Eh, I'm not, at all 

Been following news on this game for a good while now, and while it's kept getting pushed further and further back, I never got the sense that it would be outright cancelled after it was left in active development following Platinum's departure. I think if there was ever a time to shut up shop it would have been then, but instead, they doubled down and put the graft in. 

I'm curious where Cygames stands on AAA Granblue after this, got to imagine the sales will be a big tell. Do they want to make a sequel, or was this always planned to just be a standalone? It definitely felt at one point like they wanted to push this to be up there alongside Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest as one of the bigger console JRPGs in Japan, but since Platinum left, I definitely feel like they aren't quite as committed to that coming to fruition as they might have been for. 

8 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Very interested to see how this turns out, given that Platinum worked on it at one point.

Yeah, I'm curious to see how much of that Platinum flavour remains too, because while it's been said that the bulk of what Platinum made remains, it's definitely and looked less and less like a Platinum game - at least, most noticeably, in its combat - so I've got to imagine that might have been said mainly in reference to models and other assets? 

[Julius]

Rated in Germany and Australia over the course of the last week or so...

...and South Korea today. 

As noted by Gematsu, the Summer Live Stream takes place tomorrow (5th August), so we could we'll get a release date for the game tomorrow if it is still targeting 2023. If not, then it could be Gamescom later this month or, perhaps a bit more likely than Gamescom, TGS next month. 

Where- and whenever we get the release date, we're getting awfully close! 

(unless it gets delayed in which case don't talk to me or I'll burn you)

Edited August 4, 2023 by Julius

[Julius]

A Relink and Rising News Show is scheduled for 16th September, which will surely - surely! - attach a hard date to this game for the first time. 

Get hyped. 

[Julius]

It's not quite making 2023, but at last, we have a date!

Granblue Fantasy Relink arrives on 1st February 2024!

Today's trailer from Gamescom:

And some lovely art as well as the box art:

So, let me get this straight: we have this in February, and then, as things stand, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Persona 3 Reloaded, and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth are all also scheduled for Early 2024. 

JRPGs are alive and well, and finally seem to be kicking into high gear this gen! @drahkon get @Hero-of-Time in here, because next year we feast 

Edited August 22, 2023 by Julius

[drahkon]

1 hour ago, Julius said:

@drahkon get @Hero-of-Time

I wish I could. Miss our banter  

1 hour ago, Julius said:

So, let me get this straight: we have this in February, and then, as things stand, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Persona 3 Reloaded, and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth are all also scheduled for Early 2024. 

JRPGs are alive and well, and finally seem to be kicking into high gear this gen!

Gonna be incredible

[Julius]

42 minutes ago, drahkon said:

I wish I could. Miss our banter  

[Julius]

Demo dropping on PS4 and PS5 in Jan:

Also had a lot of gameplay drop in different spots on YouTube over the last few weeks:

Not long to go now! 

[Julius]

Game has gone gold!

See you sometime next year, Granblue 

[drahkon]

Demo will most likely release at midnight tonight.

Time to fire up my PS5 after a bit of a hiatus