After I reviewed Granblue Fantasy Versus again in February of 2020, I mentioned it stood out as a terrific fundamentals-driven and uniquely approachable anime fighter that was held again by just some key points: A very convoluted and uninteresting RPG mode, solely 11 playable characters, and dated delay-based netcode. I don’t know if the builders used that as a guidelines for issues to enhance in Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising, however they could as nicely have as a result of I’m thrilled to see that they’ve corrected all of these points, after which some.
Let’s run down the brand new stuff and enhancements: The newly renamed Story Mode is now a a lot brisker model of the bottom sport’s marketing campaign that trims the entire fats and whereas additionally including a brand new chapter; the preventing system has been utterly overhauled for the higher, including a number of thrilling new mechanics; there’s higher studying instruments; rollback netcode; and even a Granblue-themed Fall Guys-esque mode included within the on-line foyer. All of it quantities to probably the most feature-packed “definitive version”-style updates to a preventing sport I’ve ever seen, and is a improbable re-entry level into the grand world of Granblue Fantasy Versus.
I’m not going to go in depth on each single mechanical change made to the core preventing of Rising – as a result of there are quite a bit – however the largest ones are the removing of common strategies added after launch like Overdrive and Tactical Transfer, a brand-new variation of particular strikes referred to as Final Abilities, a useful resource referred to as Bravery Factors, after which a handful of highly effective talents that use these Bravery Factors.
I personally didn’t sustain with Granblue when Overdrive and Tactical Transfer have been added, so I can’t fairly touch upon how their absence feels, however I can say that the brand new additions all really feel nice. Final Abilities are new variations of particular strikes that add all kinds of highly effective new properties to present strikes at the price of 50% of your particular meter, with 25% getting refunded if the talent hits. For example, the Final model of Katalina’s Frozen Blade shoots out an enormous blade from full-screen distance that goes by way of most projectiles and might crumple the opponent and permit her to get a combo if she’s positioned nicely sufficient, forcing you to suppose twice earlier than throwing a projectile at her when she’s bought 50 meter. Different characters, like Siegfried, can use the final word model of his down particular to simply straight up carry his opponent from one finish of the stage to the opposite. Along with that, these strikes can even uniquely be used even whereas on cooldown. It’s only a ton of utility added to each character; there’s a variety of freedom to create new combo routes relying on whether or not you need large injury, a tough knockdown, or added nook carry; and stacks one other layer onto the meter administration sport, which improves the considerate determination making that’s central to any nice preventing sport.
Bravery Factors, in the meantime, are a useful resource that’s tied particularly to 2 new talents: Raging Strikes and Courageous Counters. Courageous Counters are easy: You press two buttons concurrently whereas blocking to push an opponent off of you at the price of one BP. Raging Strikes, nonetheless, are massively highly effective assaults that can be utilized throughout a blockstring to crush an opponent’s guard if they simply sit there blocking. That permits you to comply with up with a Raging Chain assault, which in flip allows you to convert that hit right into a full combo, regardless that the opponent blocked the assault. Not solely that, however Raging Strike can be used to proceed combos off of far-reaching assaults that wouldn’t usually be comboable.
On paper, which will sound busted, however Raging Strikes are very neatly balanced, very like Drive Impacts are in Road Fighter 6. For one, they’re tremendous gradual, and in the event that they’re getting used predictably you’ll be able to both simply interrupt them with a jab or use a spot dodge that causes a cool trying slowdown impact, providing you with loads of time to do an enormous punish. The opposite essential wrinkle in all of that is that Bravery Factors additionally dramatically improve your protection in the event you financial institution them, so each level you spend means you’ll take extra injury out of your enemy going ahead. So you actually should just remember to’re utilizing these factors to seal out rounds versus utilizing them haphazardly.
Sky Scrappers
Just about the whole lot else is what I keep in mind from taking part in Granblue again in 2020. Which is to say, it’s a uniquely beginner-friendly preventing sport because of options like auto combos, simple one-button particular transfer inputs (which additionally now not incur added skill-cooldown penalties), and a really measured tempo to the motion that’s much more akin to Road Fighter than most different ArcSys anime video games. What’s new for me, as somebody who solely performed Granblue at launch, is the overwhelming majority of the roster: it’s shot up from a paltry 11 to a really respectable forged of 28 because of Rising together with the entire DLC during the last three years, plus 4 totally new characters.
Whilst somebody who didn’t play the cell Gacha sport and didn’t watch a lot of the anime, the playable roster in Granblue is stellar. Each character is simply bursting with character, there’s a terrific unfold of various archetypes, the tremendous strikes are attractive, there are a ton of enjoyable and distinctive intro exchanges between characters when a match begins, and the character designs themselves are simply spectacular.
The 4 brand-new characters – Nier, Grimm, Anilla, and Siegfried – all stay as much as that normal as nicely. My private favourite is Siegfried, who’s a Dragon Knight infused with dragon blood, and fights with an enormous sword that hits like a truck. He’s additionally in a position to sacrifice a few of his well being for an influence buff that will increase his injury as much as thrice, boosting his already-insane injury output even increased. Each Nier and Grimmnir are fairly technical characters, with Nier being a puppet character that depends on the place of each herself and her puppet, and Grimmnir being a particularly cell character who can place down sigils that he can sprint by way of, making for some completely wild and flashy-looking combos and set ups.
Rounding out the newcomers is Anilla, who’s far more easy, however nonetheless packs her personal uniquely quirky allure by preventing with a spear that’s larger than she is, together with a military of sheep that she sends careening into her opponents. She’s lovable.
The brand new characters are on the forefront of Rising’s new Story Mode chapter, which fortunately removes the entire extraneous RPG techniques, weapon gathering, and so forth. As an alternative, now you simply earn expertise that you may equip to your character for some type of short-term increase or buff. Not that I ever actually wanted it – it’s nonetheless ridiculously simple – with even the late-game bosses barely placing up any type of combat.
The preventing is secondary to the story although, and so far as the story goes, it’s… high-quality. There are positively some humorous moments, principally involving the Lowain trio, however the overarching plot is basically uninteresting and didn’t fairly have that large satisfying payoff that I hoped for, given the buildup to the ultimate few chapters. In the end, it’s an enchancment over the vanilla GBFV’s RPG Mode, however principally simply because it’s a lot sooner and fewer arduous to get by way of it. It took me nearly two or three hours to beat the brand new chapter, which felt like the precise period of time I needed to spend with it. .
Rising to the Prime
Rising improves nearly each different space of Granblue Fantasy Versus as nicely. Its coaching mode and studying instruments are all much more totally featured, with a extra detailed body information show; fast character guides that provide you with an outline of what a personality excels at and what buttons it is best to press at totally different ranges; and sensible combo trials that provide you with combos for each scenario, from anti-airs to counter-hit anti-airs, corners, and combos for if you hit your opponent with a raging strike. I by no means felt like I wanted to go looking elsewhere to get a baseline stage of competency with a brand new character, which is how a contemporary preventing sport must be.
The charming chibi avatar foyer system additionally returns from the bottom sport, although this time it’s been significantly expanded to be an precise digital social hub the place you’ll be able to play soccer, go to the arcade and play a crane sport for collectibles, queue up for ranked and informal matchmaking, or park subsequent to one of many seemingly a whole bunch of arcade cupboards to play with different individuals within the foyer. It’s not fairly as spectacular as Road Fighter 6’s Battle Hub, and the efficiency is just a little chuggy when you enter, but it surely’s nonetheless a enjoyable method to meet new gamers and expertise on-line play in a means that goes past simply endlessly queuing for matches. After all, if that’s what you wish to do, you’ll be able to nonetheless do this too. You don’t have to interact within the foyer in any respect in the event you don’t wish to.
The perfect factor, although, is the addition of rollback netcode, which at this level ought to just about be a requirement for preventing video games going ahead. On-line play feels as easy as might be, on par with bar-setters like Road Fighter 6, Responsible Gear Try, and Killer Intuition.
Then there’s Grand Bruise, which is – as loopy because it sounds – a Fall Guys-inspired sport inside a sport that makes use of the foyer’s chibi anime avatars in a platforming battle royale mode. And you realize what? It’s fairly enjoyable! It combines Mario Kart-style merchandise pickups with frantic platforming footraces, leading to a fully chaotic mode that had me shouting and hollering in precisely the identical ways in which Fall Guys does. It’s very apparent that Bruise will not be meant to be a important attraction – there’s no skill to create a customized foyer, there’s solely a paltry variety of minigames to play proper now, and a few of these, like a wave based mostly survival minigame, go on for a bit too lengthy. Nonetheless, it’s a enjoyable diversion, and is particularly a pleasant addition for many who go for the free model of Rising, which incorporates Grand Bruise and a rotating choice of three playable characters, plus Gran.