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Granblue Fantasy: Relink Demo was downloaded over 600 thousand times

Draugoth

Gold Member
One of several anticipated RPG releases this year is Granblue Fantasy: Relink, which players can now try out by downloading a free demo. And it seems that the game is popular: the developers reported on the game's Twitter account that the number of downloads exceeded 600 thousand:

A huge thank you to all players who have been enjoying the Granblue Fantasy: Relink demo on PS5®/PS4®!We've heard your feedback regarding the camera controls, key bindings, and other features—which we're now looking into for future updates, so stay tuned for details!

 
Demos can backfire, like this one did. I've been anticipating this game since announcement, but after playing it I realized half the game is a MH type grind fest when I simply wanted a deep adventure, not a 20 hour tutorial with a generic MH clone.
Weird. I feel the same way about not wanting this day one after the demo, but I didn't get a Monster Hunter feeling from this game at all. There's no hunting or searching for the monsters. No grinding for supplies, food, etc. The more I think about it, the more I'm unsure if we even played the same demo lol.

Instead, you go to a mission board and are placed directly into an arena to fight a boss. I don't know if you played those Honkai Impact-type of games or those phone DMC-like games where you do boss rushes, but it felt exactly like that instead. The bosses also had MMO-esque patterns and dodge rings.

My feeling about this game came from the lackluster story shown in the demo and the overuse of effects. I didn't feel there was anything special saving that town from those creatures as it felt run of the mill. And I didn't like the fact that getting into combat with a party means a fireworks display on screen where you can barely see anything that's happening.
 
Weird. I feel the same way about not wanting this day one after the demo, but I didn't get a Monster Hunter feeling from this game at all. There's no hunting or searching for the monsters. No grinding for supplies, food, etc. The more I think about it, the more I'm unsure if we even played the same demo lol.

Instead, you go to a mission board and are placed directly into an arena to fight a boss. I don't know if you played those Honkai Impact-type of games or those phone DMC-like games where you do boss rushes, but it felt exactly like that instead. The bosses also had MMO-esque patterns and dodge rings.

My feeling about this game came from the lackluster story shown in the demo and the overuse of effects. I didn't feel there was anything special saving that town from those creatures as it felt run of the mill. And I didn't like the fact that getting into combat with a party means a fireworks display on screen where you can barely see anything that's happening.
I figured since it was just a demo, it just expedited the quest stuff and threw you into the boss battle. Watched a preview for the game and it'll have rare item drops for gear etc. so if they cut out the hunt and the only thing available to end game content is just straight boss battles, then that doesn't seem very sustainable to me, and a poor substitute for not having a grand adventure like other jrpgs.

The campaign does seem like a "go here and save these npc's, then go have a boss battle, rinse and repeat" and I'm concerned that'll be the crux of the entire 20 hours so-called "adventure" and with so many playable characters they expect the heart of the game play to be taken up with doing the same limited content with different styles of fighting the same battles over and over. As I said before, I hope I'm wrong about all of it, but I'll still pick it up when it's around the $20 price point just to be sure.
 
I downloaded it! I deleted it without even launching it, though. I watched the trailer while downloading and it seems to be multi-player oriented. Like Phantasy Star Online? Is it more like Monster Hunter World, with a campaign mode and you can optionally join others? It seems designed for multiplayer, and I don't enjoy games that are primarily multiplayer with AI companions.
 

blackjon24

Member
Demos can backfire, like this one did. I've been anticipating this game since announcement, but after playing it I realized half the game is a MH type grind fest when I simply wanted a deep adventure, not a 20 hour tutorial with a generic MH clone.
I thought demo was fun just don't really understand how this took 7-8 years to make lol I get platinum leaving and cygames inexperience with console rpg games but I don't see anything here crazier than say a game like dragon quest heroes
 

JaksGhost

Member
I downloaded it! I deleted it without even launching it, though. I watched the trailer while downloading and it seems to be multi-player oriented. Like Phantasy Star Online? Is it more like Monster Hunter World, with a campaign mode and you can optionally join others? It seems designed for multiplayer, and I don't enjoy games that are primarily multiplayer with AI companions.
It's single player with the option of turning it into a multiplayer.
 

Jedge

Member
I downloaded it! I deleted it without even launching it, though. I watched the trailer while downloading and it seems to be multi-player oriented. Like Phantasy Star Online? Is it more like Monster Hunter World, with a campaign mode and you can optionally join others? It seems designed for multiplayer, and I don't enjoy games that are primarily multiplayer with AI companions.
I'd still give the demo a shot. It's more single player oriented and it feels like it's very Tales series inspired.
 
I figured since it was just a demo, it just expedited the quest stuff and threw you into the boss battle. Watched a preview for the game and it'll have rare item drops for gear etc. so if they cut out the hunt and the only thing available to end game content is just straight boss battles, then that doesn't seem very sustainable to me, and a poor substitute for not having a grand adventure like other jrpgs.
If true then this would make the game feel even more like an instanced MMO, like PSO, Guild Wars, or Vindictus. I guess I wouldn't mind this experience if it's robust enough.
The campaign does seem like a "go here and save these npc's, then go have a boss battle, rinse and repeat" and I'm concerned that'll be the crux of the entire 20 hours so-called "adventure" and with so many playable characters they expect the heart of the game play to be taken up with doing the same limited content with different styles of fighting the same battles over and over.
Agreed. If it is going to be a narrative adventure I want to be intrigued by the narrative. What I've played so far of single player reminds me of the worst parts of FF16, but it worries me even more than when I played FF16. At least for FF16 during it's weaker moments, it still had great direction, narrative direction, full cutscene animations, an engaging story, etc. to make up for it.

FF16 had a better demo and ended up worse than what the demo was offering: A tight and well directed narrative experience with strong themes.

GBF: Relink had a worse demo and my hope is that they just showed us the worst aspect of it, because they didn't want to spoil the better parts.

This is why I keep saying on GAF that soulslikes are winning more than these types of RPGs lately. Less and less people are wanting to bother with this bland type of storytelling anymore where people ask you to go kill some trolls or goblins for some arbitrary reason. Soulslikes cut out the fat and make the experience more about the world design, lore, breadcrumb trails, sense of discovery, excitement and engaging fights. If some WRPGs and JRPGs are going to stubbornly stick to front loading the player with tons and tons of dialogue, they have to step it up in the dialogue and storywriting departments if that's going to be their bread and butter (with games like BG3 and Mass Effect 2 being examples of this done right).

As I said before, I hope I'm wrong about all of it, but I'll still pick it up when it's around the $20 price point just to be sure.
Same here and same with the price point. I ended up deciding to wait for Helldivers 2 as I want to wait for more impressions from the day 1 audience for this game.
 

cripterion

Member
If they heard the feedback then for the love of god, bump up the resolution on performance mode. I still can't believe this runs at 1080p on PS5.
 

MagiusNecros

Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
If true then this would make the game feel even more like an instanced MMO, like PSO, Guild Wars, or Vindictus. I guess I wouldn't mind this experience if it's robust enough.
star wars GIF

Vindictus is great.
 
I thought demo was fun just don't really understand how this took 7-8 years to make lol I get platinum leaving and cygames inexperience with console rpg games but I don't see anything here crazier than say a game like dragon quest heroes
Yeah that is a red flag as far as I'm concerned. I remember them using Platinum for the battle system, then they left the project or something of that nature, then the game kept getting pushed back almost to the point of vaporware. They might have just scrapped in a 20 hour point a to b action game tutorial and then a repetitive monster arena with 20ish characters that play slightly different from each other, wrapped them all together and called it a day.

A very cautious view should be held for this title.
 
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I may have overdone. I played the fucking beta for 30 hours. I do feel underwhelmed with the size of the game after almost 8 years of development, but I guess the game went multiple times back to the drawing board. I expect more Granblue RPGs if this proves successful enough.
 
The game almost had me. I played the demo story mode and thought it was fun. It is clearly a multi-player game with AI companions. The quest mode is ripped straight out of Monster Hunter, which is just fine with me. I played 100 hours of MHW.

This game died when I tried quest mode online. I tried to find a party over the span of 30 minutes and didn't get a single match. 600000 downloads and no one is actually playing the game. I know this is just a demo, but that deflated my interest. There is no guarantee that this won't happen in the final game, especially with no crossplay.

Also, their pre-order early access can suck a fat one. I buy only physical games, and that sort of thing is a big middle finger to people like me.
 
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Quantum253

Member
I enjoyed the demo, even fighting crappy intense strick drift. Trying to lock on to enemies, while your character quickly turns to the left, was a challenge in itself.
I'm sure it will sell well. I'll probably pick it up at some point this year
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Yeah that is a red flag as far as I'm concerned. I remember them using Platinum for the battle system, then they left the project or something of that nature, then the game kept getting pushed back almost to the point of vaporware. They might have just scrapped in a 20 hour point a to b action game tutorial and then a repetitive monster arena with 20ish characters that play slightly different from each other, wrapped them all together and called it a day.

A very cautious view should be held for this title.
Yeah the split from Platinum was really weird, I wonder if they even used anything that Platinum developed.

Platinum and Cygames both released dry PR statements like “Platinum is no longer working on Granblue but development will continue under Cygames” and the Platinum logo was removed from the game’s webpage the same day.

Some people tried to spin it like “Platinum has completed their portion of the game” but it seems more like their contract was terminated because they failed to deliver.
 
I wonder if they even used anything that Platinum developed.
You can tell from the how the following feel: animation cancelling, dodges, and parries.

Cygames isn't that good on their own. They should have kept Platinum on for a bit longer to tell them that filling the screen with 4 separate players all emitting bright particles and huge effects to hinder sight of the combat, is a bad thing.

1xKT8HY.gif

giphy-downsized-large.gif
 

Quantum253

Member
You can tell from the how the following feel: animation cancelling, dodges, and parries.

Cygames isn't that good on their own. They should have kept Platinum on for a bit longer to tell them that filling the screen with 4 separate players all emitting bright particles and huge effects to hinder sight of the combat, is a bad thing.

1xKT8HY.gif

giphy-downsized-large.gif
Hitting those 100% Link strikes were fun at first, but I can see, like that top gif, getting crazy especially with higher level specials.
 

krumble

Member
Wonder if they get sent the stats for how long people played before uninstalling.. I don't think I even made it 5 mins in. Went in expecting an rpg (even an action rpg) and got a repetitive hack and slash, too many good other games to contemplate that
 
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