A journey into the Granblue

Hands-on with Granblue Fantasy: Relink at the series' huge Tokyo celebration

Boasting over 34 million players, mobile-format sky pirate JRPG Granblue Fantasy is elevated by by the music and artwork of Final Fantasy alumni Nobuo Uematsu and Hideo Minaba respectively, plus the talents of the team at Cygames. You might not be familiar with it as the mobile title is not officially available in English (though series spinoff fighter Granblue Fantasy: Versus did come to PS4 in 2020), but that situation looks like changing as the release of action RPG Granblue Fantasy: Relink approaches.

Originally co-developed with PlatinumGames but now purely in the hands of Cygames Osaka, Relink, along with a new iteration of Versus, could be what turns the series from a domestic darling with a small but dedicated group of fans worldwide into a genuine global phenomenon.

We’ve only seen spotty traces of the game since it was revealed in 2017. When we attended the bustling Granblue Fantasy Fes at the impressive Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba, we could see for ourselves that the series’ fandom is enormous – and we were able to go hands-on with Relink, the first time members of the public or press have been able to play.