On my first day of work at The Escapist, I was tasked with checking out Granblue Fantasy: Relink and seeing if I could come up with any interesting angles for coverage. I wasn’t too thrilled with that task, admittedly. I’d always admired Granblue Fantasy from afar and wished the mobile game would get localized, but it always seemed too dense of an IP to get into. Granblue Fantasy: Relink changed all that when it ended up becoming a chill version of the Monster Hunter experience I never knew I needed, and from that day on, I was hooked.
Endless Ragnarok marks the latest and biggest expansion Cygames has created for Granblue Fantasy: Relink. On paper, Endless Ragnarok features everything I could possibly want out of a Relink expansion. More story content, brand new gameplay mechanics, a roguelike mode, new characters, and plenty of quality-of-life updates. In practice, though, it’s not so straightforward, and I’ll get into why shortly.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Endless Ragnarok takes place immediately after the ending of the base game. Once you’ve beaten Proto Bahamut, you’ll be able to jump straight into the new content. For the purposes of this review, Cygames provided me with a special save file with level 100 characters, upgraded Terminus weapons, and a crap ton of resources. Basically, I was stacked. I don’t even think I had half the resources this save file offers me by the time I wrapped up my time with the base game.
To start with, Endless Ragnarok lets you check out the new Conflux roguelike mode, which comes complete with its own skill tree and points system. It works just like how you’d expect: fight waves of enemies and a mini-boss after every third level, and pick a perk that strengthens your party in interesting waves after clearing each room. If you enjoyed the basic combat of Granblue Fantasy: Relink, there’s not much to complain about here, aside from the fact that there are Dexterity levels which require you to solve a puzzle instead of fighting a wave of enemies like you normally do.
The first time I tried one of these Dexterity levels, I knew instantly that I’d never pick one of these ever again. You see, the Dexterity level is really just a “spot the difference” type puzzle, where you have to wander into a large room, take notice of various NPCs and what they’re doing, then head into a second, very similar room, and point out what the differences are. I appreciated Cygames’ effort to break up the monotony of combat, but this just wasn’t it. It’s one of the least interesting things I’ve ever seen in Granblue Fantasy: Relink, and after getting the puzzle wrong the first time, I moved on anyway, though I had to accept the penalty of not being able to pick a boon at the end of the level. My advice: skip those puzzle levels and just enjoy the combat. In my view, these challenges ruin the flow and rhythm of Conflux mode and unless Cygames finds some way to make them more interesting, I can’t picture myself ever picking them again.
Past that, though, Conflux is simple, yet excellent, especially for folks who may just have been looking for an extra way to grind out points and farm Sigils. While I never got that far into the post-game grind, I could see myself jumping into Conflux in between farming out quests. That was one of my biggest complaints about the base game: the post-game content felt rather one-note and got boring pretty quickly, and while subsequent updates have helped to keep it fresh, Conflux is a fantastic mode that adds more variety into the mix.
Endless Ragnarok‘s story begins proper when you head back to Folca, where you’re greeted by fan-favorites Seofon and Tweyen, who serve as the gatekeepers between you and the brand new Chaos-tier quests. This is where things started to get pretty dicey, as you’re forced to beat both Seofon and Tweyen in battle before you can access the rest of the expansion, and I was surprised by just how challenging that fight was. Again, I was playing on a save file with level 100 characters and maxed out weapons and upgrades. My party was no slouch. Granted, it had been about a year since I last played Granblue Fantasy: Relink, but even so, the difficulty tuning caught me off-guard, and I only managed to get past that fight by the skin of my teeth.
I do think this is par for the course for these Monster Hunter-type games. I remember having a similar experience with the Iceborne expansion when that came out for Monster Hunter: World, and feeling completely lost and overwhelmed trying to jump in after being so absent from the game for so long. I’ll admit that I had expected Granblue Fantasy: Relink to do things a little differently, however, as I’d always thought of it as a more casual version of that kind of game. This isn’t to say that Relink lacks depth, of course; the sheer variety in play styles are a testament to how nuanced Relink‘s combat can be, but it certainly isn’t quite as demanding as Capcom’s franchise when it comes to battling. The focus was instead on the characters themselves and the story, which is what made Relink so charming in the first place.
Going into Endless Ragnarok with that mindset, I was disappointed to find out the expansion wouldn’t be quite as accessible as I’d hoped, though I can also understand the rationale behind that. Endless Ragnarok is going to be the home of the game’s toughest quests after all; an appropriate level of challenge is required. I did eventually get into the swing of things as I refamiliarized myself with Relink‘s mechanics and post-game activities, but lapsed fans should be aware that there is a bit of a learning curve here if you’re coming back after an extended hiatus.
Endless Ragnarok ends up being well worth the effort though, as Lyria’s new summoning mechanic is some of the most fun I’ve had in Relink. As the name suggests, Lyria can now straight up summon monsters to help you in battle, and yes, you get to control them yourself. As you build up the Link gauge and pull off cool combos in battles, your summon gauge fills up as well, allowing you to summon a variety of different monsters to help you out. Lesser monsters may only require two gauges, while more powerful ones will take up the entire bar. Once summoned, you can control them for a set period of time, dealing massive damage to your foes to help turn the tide.
The monsters come with their own traits and affinities as well, and you can equip up to four at a time, which means you’ll have more to think about when putting together your party loadout. More monsters get unlocked as you continue playing, and considering how much tougher the Chaos opponents are, you’ll definitely want to make full use of your summons. I’m also just glad that Lyria gets to play an even more active role in Relink now, as I felt she was sorely underutilized in the base game.
Past that, there are also three new play styles to check out for the entire roster. They all specialize in something, whether it’s attacking, defending, or healing, and you now have greater control over how you want to spec out each character. The Captain is always going to be one of the better all-rounder characters in the game, so you might consider putting points into all three play styles for him, but for someone like Katalina for instance, you can pump points into defending and maybe even damage, turning her into a much more formidable tank. As you level up these different play styles, you’ll also unlock more stat sticks and traits that make your characters more powerful.
I didn’t find this system to be particularly deep or have any meaningful impact on the way I usually play the game, but I did appreciate being about to choose each character’s area of expertise. And besides, it’s yet another system to grind out resources for, and if I’m being honest, that’s half the fun for me when it comes sinking hours upon hours into Relink.
Endless Ragnarok is an unexpected, but extremely welcome expansion that builds upon the foundations of Granblue Fantasy: Relink with plenty of fun, meaty content for fans to sink their teeth into. Be warned that there is a rather steep difficulty curve to get to grips with, especially for returning players who haven’t touched this game in ages. Once you get past that, however, Relink will have its hooks in you all over again before you even realize it’s happening.
A review code for the game was provided by the publisher. You can check out our review policy here. Reviewed on PC.
