When I first played Granblue Fantasy Relink, a spinoff of the browser gacha game Granblue Fantasy, the last thing I expected was to become a fan. I couldn't see how a JRPG franchise born from this 2014 gacha could deliver a great action RPG title 10 years later, but it did. Now, I've played a third GBF game that made me finally realize why the franchise turned into one of my favorites.
It's all Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising's fault. It's a fighting game with a story mode with amazing English VA. The voices of Gran, Katalina, Lancelot, and other human characters perfectly match their spirits and actions as the story develops. Katalina's voice in the early chapter differs when she's influenced by the black crystal's powers and when she's back to normal and having a chat in a safe area with other characters. The voice of Vyrn, a small flying lizard-like companion, is funny, high-pitched, and reminds me of cute anime creatures like Cerberus from Sakura Card Captors.
Even if voice was the only cue in the game for a Granblue Fantasy character's state of mind, anyone would get it immediately.
But animation is where developer Cygames made an extra effort. Story cutscenes are as high-quality as any award-winning anime would be. The different camera angles, zoom-ins, and character expressions breathe life into the Granblue Fantasy characters, who we would otherwise only see as static figures in dialogue scenes. The animation was a major shift for the franchise since the original 2014 title had almost no cutscenes, though it always had an incredible cast of voice actors.
The first Granblue Fantasy game has 861 characters voiced by 564 unique talent, according to the specialist website Behind the Voice Actors. GBVS: Rising has a cast of 92 unique English speakers, which shows how Cygames put in a lot of money and effort into making VA one of the main features of the game. My first and favorite title in the series, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, features 34 voice actors. You can double the numbers of the last two games if you account for the original Japanese ones.
All that acting effort with quality execution quietly stuck with me after I finished Relink. While I was playing it, I didn't realize how much I had associated the characters' voices with their personalities, gameplay, and story. I had picked my favorite characters to play with—Cagliostro and Lancelot—based on their skills and gameplay style, not their background story.
It just struck me how much of a connection I had built with Granblue Fantasy characters in Relink after I picked up Versus: Rising. I was suddenly super excited to see these characters again in another game. Having that feeling of familiarity when hearing Gran and Lyria's voices in the first cutscenes of story mode meant all the voice acting in Relink built a connection between me and the Granblue Fantasy characters.
Animation and voice acting are such a big part of the Granblue Fantasy universe that all Versus: Rising story cutscenes are almost six hours long when put together. That's one hour longer than the stories of Dragon Ball FighterZ and Guilty Gear: Strive, three hours longer than Tekken 8, and four hours longer than Street Fighter 6.
If you want to experience the Granblue Fantasy world for the first time and see that voice acting for yourself, I recommend you start with the free version of Versus: Rising. I know fighting games aren't for everyone, but the story mode is super easy, and you can treat the gameplay like a nuisance you go through to watch some cool anime scenes. Relink has no free edition, but it's amazing if you like Monster Hunter or other mission-based action RPGs.
Otherwise, you can find the full story modes of all Granblue Fantasy games on YouTube to watch as a show.
The post This niche JRPG franchise is quietly becoming my favorite thanks to peak acting and animation appeared first on Destructoid.
