Back when it first came out over two years ago, we found plenty of reasons to like Granblue Fantasy: Relink. Along with being a generally fun (if often mindless) action RPG with fantastic presentation and plenty of polish, it was also a great way for newcomers to get into the long-running Granblue Fantasy franchise, which, among other things, also includes games in the fighting genre. With the base game being fun enough, there was plenty of excitement about the sort of new content that would come with the Endless Ragnarok expansion.
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“The story of Endless Ragnarok, taking place after the Captain and his crew have already made a name for themselves thanks to their exploits throughout the base game’s campaign, introduces a new antagonist.”
The general assumption with Endless Ragnarok is that you’ve basically done everything you’ve otherwise wanted to do with Granblue Fantasy: Relink, and have conquered just about every challenge and encounter it presents. With that in mind, Endless Ragnarok brings in quite a bit of new endgame content for players to tackle. Chief among these are entirely new tiers of quest difficulty, and a new roguelite game mode that largely focuses on solo play, called the Conflux.
The story of Endless Ragnarok, taking place after the Captain and his crew have already made a name for themselves thanks to their exploits throughout the base game’s campaign, introduces a new antagonist. Some strange new beasts have started popping up all over the Zegagrande Skydom. Dubbed Ragnalia, these beasts are superpowered versions of foes you’ve already fought before, and can range from demons to large animals. Coinciding with the enemy’s plot is the opening of mysterious portals to the realm of chaos, where our heroes have to deal with entirely separate threats.
Much like with the base game, there’s nothing really mind-blowing going on with the story of Endless Ragnarok. You don’t get any new interesting character arcs, and the core crew that you’ve already spent dozens, if not hundreds of hours with at this point also doesn’t get much in the way of character development or interpersonal conflicts. Rather, the expansion hangs on to what made the base game enjoyable, and focuses purely on offering engaging core gameplay.
Speaking of which, there are a few new additions on the gameplay side of things as well. Along with a host of new playable characters with their own unique styles and abilities, Endless Ragnarok also brings in the ability for players to break their weapons’ previous power limits through a new system called Transcendence. Much like you’ve done in the past, you’ll have to spend plenty of materials to upgrade your gear, and you’re going to need just about every ounce of power you can muster if you want any hope of taking on the new Chaos difficulty quests.
“You don’t get any new interesting character arcs”
Many of the expansion’s quests are set to Chaos, with more seasoned players also getting access to even harder versions of the same quests. Throughout Chaos quests, you will have to take on a host of Ragnalia enemies, and while they might look familiar on the outset, just about every single one of them has entirely new moves that will put your character loadouts and coordination to the test. Along with being engaging when played solo, the Chaos difficulty quests can also be taken on with some buddies through online co-op, bringing in an even greater layer of strategy to some of the more complex fights.
The Chaos difficulty also puts its best foot forward when you’re introduced to the new difficulty, since before you can actually take on the Ragnalia beasts, you first have to pass an assessment quest, which involves taking on Tweyen and Sandalphon in a dual boss fight, where they come at you with devastating new abilities, frequently tagging in and out depending on how well (or badly) you’ve been doing in the fights. Despite having fairly high-leveled characters in my group, this fight was an incredible challenge, and was the first time I personally had fun with Granblue Fantasy: Relink in a while, since both of the bosses kept me on my toes throughout the harrowing battle.
Continuing through the story of Endless Ragnarok also introduces one of the bigger features of the expansion: summons. Over the course of the long and challenging Chaos difficulty battles, Lyria will start saving up energy, allowing her to eventually summon large creatures that can help you out. Rather than these summons being temporary party members, however, you actually take control of them, and have to dish out as much damage as possible before their timer runs out. Lyria can also join in on your full-team attacks with her own summon-based one, dealing a massive amount of damage with an animation that, while not out of place for something like Granblue Fantasy, definitely feels over-the-top in the best possible ways.
While the core quests might be a fantastic step up in terms of difficulty, Conflux, on the other hand, feels like it was made to be played with your eyes closed. The roguelite mode pits you in a series of challenges, largely revolving around combat, where you have to take on either a single group of enemies, continuous hordes, or a miniboss. All of these encounters eventually culminate in a boss fight, winning which clears out the current Conflux run.
“While the core quests might be a fantastic step up in terms of difficulty, Conflux, on the other hand, feels like it was made to be played with your eyes closed.”
Conflux is where some of Granblue Fantasy: Relink’s worst impulses start showing up again, since you’re often showered with a variety of currency as a reward, which has the tendency to turn the whole thing quite boring. The fact that it isn’t particularly difficult doesn’t help either; several combat rooms got cleared out before I could even get to the enemies since my team mates were strong enough to wipe them out quickly.
In many ways, Endless Ragnarok feels like a victory lap of sorts. Developer Cygames definitely seems to be aware that it has something special here: an entirely new way to bring Granblue Fantasy to an even wider audience. With Endless Ragnarok, the studio has seemingly hoped to tackle one of the core criticisms of the base game: the fact that it could often feel too easy. While the presence of Conflux means that players who prefer the easiest battles won’t feel too out of place, the inclusion of Chaos difficulty quests is certainly a welcome one.
The studio has also been improving its boss fight designs in interesting ways. Taking a cue from endgame raid bosses from MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, the Ragnalia beasts in Endless Ragnarok also tend to feature moves that require active coordination between a player and their team mates to avoid. Thankfully, none of the fights in the expansion can completely wipe your team out in a single hit (assuming you’re not egregiously underleveled for the quests). However, I would like to see Cygames take the core idea of Chaos difficulty even further in the future.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink is at its best when it isn’t just a mindless button-mashing action RPG, and Endless Ragnarok provides further evidence of this fact. The Chaos difficulty quests and new progression paths do a lot to breathe in new life to a game that’s well over two years old at this point, and the expansion has also made the base game feel a lot more complete just by existing. This is essentially the game in its best form yet.
This game was reviewed on PC.
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