Having started off as a humble web browser and mobile RPG a little over a decade ago, Granblue Fantasy has grown in stature and ambition in the years since. 2024’s Granblue Fantasy: Relink was in many ways the peaks of that ambition, a flashy action RPG that travels the skies and battle monsters across the Zegagrande Skydom. And as Cygames saw the enthusiasm for this game while working on game updates and added content, they were convinced to do something more, resulting in Endless Ragnarok.
In many ways, Endless Ragnarok can be viewed as a classic expanded re-release, but while it is arriving as a renewed retail game, it’s also available as a DLC expansion for existing players. The focus of this expansion is really to add endgame content, both with new quests and a new roguelite battle mode, as well as a new Summons power for combat. However, any changes to the core game, from quality of life improvements to game balance and even some new side quests, will be available even without buying Endless Ragnarok.
The Summons are by far and away the flashiest addition to the game, Gran and friends grabbing a new mission that takes them out into the wilds, and Lyria declaring that she want to lend her magical abilities to the team’s already accomplished fighting abilities. She gets to put her money where her mouth is pretty quickly, as a shadowy figure appears off in the distance and a corrupted Earthchurner Ragnalia appears out of nowhere.
The core combat remains the same, though truth be told, I’m a newcomer to this game, and it was quite a lot to take in initially. It drops you into an arena with enemies and has you wail away with strings of regular and unique attack button combos – the regular attack string can be broken in varying ways with the changing unique attack ending the chain – and tapping into the Skills you have assigned for special attacks. Eventually you can stun enemies and trigger a Link Attack with an ally, and there’s also the Skybound Arts which can be triggered in sequence with the rest of the crew to unleash a Chain Burst ability for massive damage.
Summons add a transformative layer on top that. Literally. Gran, or whichever playable character you’ve chosen to be, is replaced for the duration of the Summon with a giant creature that you have direct control over to unleash huge attacks of your own. You can have up to four Summons equipped, with four coloured gems now in the UI to show their readiness to use.
They’re really fun and can be very different from one another, effectively turning you into some of the bosses from the game and letting you rip with a couple of attacks. It can be the towering centaur knight, the Furycane, with a regular attack combo that leads into swirling whirlwinds and a charging ability to smash into enemies, the giant ice wolf Managarmr, a Wyvern who just flies around constantly spewing flames, a Rock Golem, and more.
The Summons can only be used in the new Chaos tier of quests and within the Conflux, with these new missions and battles having been designed with them in mind.
The Conflux is an interesting addition, designed for solo play with a roguelite spin on the action. Essentially, it’s a long chain of fights, dropping you into a battle against an area filled with enemies, then moving you onto the next space, and punctuating this with boss fights. You get more powerful as you go, grabbing stat buffs and special added abilities as you go between areas, and you have a choice of what to face off against and modifier stages with increased rewards.
It was a good bit of fun, and I definitely felt my power scaling up with some of the more over-the-top Chaos buffs, adding things like a ball of energy that would just float around me and damage enemies. I was definitely getting the hang of the combat by this point too, remembering to dip into Gran’s Skills regularly, timing my dodges better and unleashing those Summons when I had them too.
I do wonder about the difficulty that the Conflux will truly pose, as I had what was no doubt a pretty powerful party backing me up, and I think that will be key to its longevity as a game mode, but it’s definitely a good way to spend a hour-long gaming session if you just want to dip in and fight monsters for a bit.
The game looks great running on Switch 2, the anime art style looking really nice, and only the most intense moments really showing aliasing through any kind of dynamic resolution or upscaling they’re using, and this was with me being sat far too close to a very large TV. I would be perfectly happy to play like this at home.
And there is appeal to jumping into this kind of game on Switch 2, especially with full crossplay promised and a Switch 2 exclusive local wireless co-op function. There is a slight disappointment to this for anyone that’s already played through Relink on PS5 or PC, though. While you can pick up an existing save and carry on – you need to have beaten Proto Bahamut for the new quests, and reached Chapter 6 for the Conflux – and my understanding is that there’s no skip ahead function for anyone considering jumping to a different platform. Switch 2 players will be starting from the very beginning of the game, though it should hopefully be a more streamlined experience with the various quality of life and balance changes being made.
If any of this has piqued your interest, a demo for Endless Ragnarok and for Relink in general which launched last week across all three platforms, and the full release is coming out in just a few weeks on 9th July. If you’re keen on splashy anime action RPGs, then this should really be on your watch list.
