Once the Monster Hunter series finally made it big in North America and Europe with Monster Hunter: World, a few other development studios attempted to create games based on a similar gameplay loop, but only a few succeeded. Among the most successful attempts, Cygames' Granblue Fantasy: Relink stood out for incorporating a fairly entertaining story mode based on the mobile and web browser JRPG, as well as a huge roster of unique characters whose visual and combat designs made them extremely diverse. Having gone through some development difficulties over the years, not many expected the game to turn out the way it did, and by selling over 1 million copies in roughly 10 days of availability, it firmly established the series worldwide.
Following a successful post-launch support run which added more characters and extremely challenging content, Cygames now returns with Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Endless Ragnarok, a full-fledged expansion that not only adds more of what makes the base game so enjoyable, but also addresses one of the biggest issues of the original game in a rather clever way: the massive grind to power up characters.
A New Menace
Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Endless Ragnarok's story begins right after the Captain and his crew defeated the Astral Lilith and saved the Zegagrande Skydom. Following the defeat of the Astral, mysterious gateways of pure chaos started opening across the skydom, and spilling from them are powerful Ragnalia, creatures whose appearance herald the arrival of the end of times, Ragnarok.
However, it doesn't take long for the Eternals, the elite crew of weapon masters recognized as the strongest warriors in the Sky Realm, to take action. Venturing to Folca in search of the Captain, Seofon and Tweyen task them and their crew to deal with the Ragnalia, not before testing their mettle to award them the rank of Fatebreaker. By defeating the Ragnalia and venturing deeper into the mysterious gateways known as the Conflux, the captain and the crew will contend with another menace threatening to bring about Armageddon in the skydom, and save the day once again.
Considerably smaller in terms of scope than the base game's story, the Endless Ragnarok story is entertaining at best and inoffensive at worst, lacking a bit of the punch the base story had while never providing anything particularly memorable. Unlike the base game's story, however, the expansion's progression is based on quest-completion and Conflux exploration, so in this regard is definitely better paced, as it is centered on the best part of the entire experience, and doesn't feel like a limited appetizer ahead of the main course.
Only The Strongest Can Survive Ragnarok
While the Endless Ragnarok epilogue takes place right after the completion of Chapter 0, which served as the original epilogue for the base game, it requires completion of most Proud difficulty quests, the most challenging of the base game. This fact alone indicates how the expansion is mostly geared towards players who not only completed the main story, but most of the game's content. However, the genius of Endless Ragnarok is that it introduces some significant changes even to the base game that makes it much, much easier for players to reach the power level required to have a fighting chance in the first Chaos difficulty quests.
These changes are based on the Conflux, a new single-player roguelite play mode that sees the Captain and his crew clear a set number of stages before fighting Conflux variants of the main game bosses. At the end of a cycle, players can pick up a vast number of rewards clearly labeled for forging weapons, upgrading Sigils, removing weapon's level caps and to take advantage of the Awakening mechanics. What makes this really useful is that the first three cycles of the Conflux are progressively unlocked during the base game story, addressing the massive grind players had to deal with as quest difficulty ramps up. And if you have yet to complete Maniac or Proud difficulty quests, the Conflux also provides a collection of Sigils as rewards that help quite a bit getting your characters up to par.
Besides addressing the grinding issues of the original game, the Conflux also provides a nice diversion from completing quest after quest. Although the first two cycles are relatively straightforward and don't delve deep into the roguelike elements that define the experience, from Cycle 3 onwards it does, providing not only a variety of bonuses and special effects in the forms of Auras (delivering a sort of temporary buildcrafting outside of the regular one at the game's core), but also some unique scenarios, alongside battles against mobs and bosses. Some Dexterity Way scenarios, for example, task the player with catching a slime before the time's up, spot differences within a scene, or identify the correct NPC. The inclusion of these was necessary, as things can get quite challenging towards the end of the Cycles, and any time you can make progress without having to fight enemies can only be a significant boon.
However, the addition of the Conflux with its streamlined grinding doesn't mean that there is none to be done for the new quests. With Ragnalia being extremely powerful, you will still have to hunt for the perfect Sigils via quest drops and Knickknack Vouchers to prevent each quest from taking more than 10 minutes or getting defeated easily. This will likely be less of an issue in multiplayer, but if you're playing single player with AI characters, expect to do plenty of grinding.
The Party is Getting Crazy
Although the Conflux is the biggest new addition of Endless Ragnarok that has a profound impact on the base adventure as well, it isn't the only one. The other addition that improves the base game are a few new characters who can be unlocked relatively early, such as Beatrix and Eustace, with others such as Fraux, Fediel, Gallanza and Maglielle becoming available as the story progresses.
The new characterts brought by Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Endless Ragnarok are excellent additions to the already great roster. Although I have enjoyed Beatrix the most, with her versatile playstyle granted by her signature Delta Clock, Devour Causality power-up and skill line-up, including a very handy dodge skill with generous activation window, the other characters are extremely well designed, with unique abilities that set them apart from the rest of the cast. Having so many characters available, it's impressive how Cygames managed to make each and every one of them distinct, a feat that many action game developers definitely should learn from.
While the rest of the cast did not get any new skill or special move, Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Endless Ragnarok introduces a new character progression system that shakes them up significantly: Master Traits. Unlocked only after the Endless Ragnarok experience proper begins, these traits are divided into three different styles which grant unique boons once at least three related passives are activated.
These boons are not mere passives, but they significantly alter the playstyle of each character. For example, the Captain can equip Combat Healer, which grants them a level of Combat Healer that grants +10% more attack and +20% Damage Cap per stack upon using a healing skill. Narmaya, to make another example, can not only get more Butterflies with One Cut, One Kill, but also gain Butterflies but not change stance with Paradigm Shift. Zeta, to make one more, can activate One with Skills to reduce cooldown of skills depending on the length of her loop combo, or deal more damage to enemies afflicted by Arvess Fermare with Out for Revenge. Unlocking more slots to activate these style abilities requires not only the character to be at Level 100, but also to invest a significant amount of Mastery Points, so these require you to still put in plenty of work.
In some ways, Endless Ragnarok also addresses one issue that more than a few players find aggravating: the Damage Cap mechanics. Although they are still in, the expansion introduces new Sigils and passives that make it easier to work around the issue, freeing up some Sigil Slots for other passives. Build variety will still likely be lacking, considering the difficulty of the Chaos difficulty quests, but still, this is definitely a step in the right direction.
Deadweight No Longer
Despite being a central character in the Granblue Fantasy universe, Lyria did not play a major role in combat in the base Granblue Fantasy: Relink. The Endless Ragnarok expansion addresses this as well by introducing two new mechanics centered on her: Summons and Primal Bursts.
The new Summon mechanics, which require filling a dedicated gauge in combat, allow summoning enemies for a brief amount of time. Almost every enemy can be summoned, from the smallest monster to Primal Beasts such as Furycane and Managarmr, and they all bring some unique effects into the mix besides the massive damage they deal. In addition, each Summon also grants the entire party a specific passive, so they play a significant role into buildcrafting.
Primal Bursts are not a significant change like Summons are, but they still play an extremely important role in battle, shaking up its tempo significantly. Primal Bursts essentially power up Chain Bursts, letting Lyria summon Proto Bahamut or other powerful entities to increase damage, but they only activate after they are primed for use after a Link attack. As such, this makes Link attacks even more important than ever before, as holding Skybound Arts back until Primal Bursts is available becomes a core strategy to survive in the Chaos difficulty quests.
The Harbingers of The End of Times
While the Endless Ragnarok additions may seem to only add more complexity to the web of character progression mechanics of Granblue Fantasy: Relink, they are very much needed to survive the new Ragnalia enemies.
Right from the very first Chaos difficulty quest, it's clear how Endless Ragnarok is designed to be as challenging as it gets. Enemies hit hard and have massive HP pools, requiring extreme character optimization to defeat them as quickly as possible: if they get a hit in, you will likely get defeated in a single blow if you haven't boosted your HP properly.
It's not just their stats that make Ragnalia monsters a force to be reckoned with, but their movesets as well. Every monster, from new variations of existing ones to new ones, is extremely aggressive (sometimes staying in Overdrive mode for the entirety of the fight) and comes with movesets designed to put your skills to the test. One noteworthy addition is the Sumo Pincer, which introduces a sort of new combat scenario where you have to push the monster out of a ring, and not directly deplete its HP. This leads to battles with a unique tempo that significantly spices up the experience, and to unique rewards that further deepen character customization.
Closing Comments
Before its launch, Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Endless Ragnarok promised to expand the game significantly with new content and mechanics, but it does much more than this: it makes the entire game more enjoyable and player-friendly even for newcomers. While only those worthy of the Fatebreaker rank will be able to enjoy the new mechanics and put them to good use in the game's toughest challenges to date, the expansion has more than enough new content for the early game that it is an essential purchase for anyone getting into Granblue Fantasy: Relink for the first time.
PC version tested. Review code provided by the publisher.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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