Granblue Fantasy is frankly a game that you either get really invested in or a game that you just observe on the sidelines. There’s no middle line when you start Granblue Fantasy. Cygames really has made quite a monster that’s still relevant and even quite popular to this day.
Released in 2014, Granblue Fantasy has grown a rabid following that seems eternally trapped in the game. While this sounds like a bad thing, it’s a testament to the game’s longevity and its dedication to its players.
What makes Granblue Fantasy so good? No other gacha game puts as much effort into its game systems and story as much as Granblue Fantasy does. Each character and side-stories are fleshed out in a way that makes you care about each character that you obtain. The game caters to all types of players, it’s both generous and allows the players to play as much as they want. The players set their own pace and there’s always a goal to shoot for in the game.
Is Granblue Fantasy a Good Fit For You?
Before we get into the good and more difficult parts of the game, it’s good to explain some surface-level things that a new player might want to know. First, Granblue Fantasy is a turn-based RPG. You take a team of 6 members (including yourself, the main character) plus a chosen summon into stages to complete the challenges.
| What Players Might Like About Granblue Fantasy | What Might Put Players Off About Granblue Fantasy |
|---|---|
| – Granblue is the only gacha that allows the main character to change and unlock classes. It’s very satisfying unlocking new classes and maxing them out. – The 2D art and sprites are well done and have aged very well. The game’s art is some of the best in the genre. – The game has a lot of ways to connect and interact with other players. Not only can players offer their summons, but they can join together in raids and work on challenges or farm in co-op missions. – The game is super generous. There are always ways to collect premium currencies, and Granblue always has frequent events where players are able to pull characters for free. Not one pull, but multiple 10 rolls depending on how lucky the player is. – There’s no competition aspect with other people in the game – it’s only a competition with yourself to see how far you can progress your account. – Some of the best characters in the game are behind grind walls, no paywalls. Whales and free-to-play players have to do the same work to obtain them. – Granblue Fantasy really does have some wonderful music that hearkens back to the prime of JRPGs. Even the side story has tracks that are specifically made for them. A lot of the content in the game even has voice acting! – There are a lot of skins and cosmetics for your favorite characters. Also, alternate versions of the characters can be used as a visual override too! For example, if you had two versions of a character and you like a certain visual look, players can choose to display that look instead of the original. – There are no dailies that players feel they need to complete every day. Of course, logging on every day will be more efficient in gathering the resources that you need, but the game does try to make the players pace themselves. – The game has finally added the function to auto through stages completely (functionality that players requested for a long time). – Because it’s an older gacha game, there’s a ton of content and different modes/challenges to try in Granblue Fantasy. | – It’s turn-based, so some players might find the gameplay a little bit slow. – Everything is accessed through menus and buttons. It’s presented well most of the time, but as the game ages and more systems are added, it’s becoming quite cumbersome and confusing. – There’s a lot of information to take in, and there will be a lot of googling to check guides and optimal ways to do things. – No doubt about it; the game is a grind. As one of the oldest gacha games on the market (especially as a PVE only game), the game always has something for the player to work on – and trust me, there’s a lot of things to work on. Some players call it GrindBlue Fantasy. – The game is a bit slow at introducing more modern features or quality of life updates. – 300 pulls to “spark.” Sparking is basically the pity system that Granblue guarantees the unlucky player that pulls 300 their choice of featured banner unit. |
Is Granblue Fantasy Free-to-Play Friendly?
Granblue Fantasy is probably one of the most free-to-play-friendly gacha games because all players are treated equally. It doesn’t matter how much money a person spends to get the characters or skins (it’s unnecessary to obtain them); all players actually play through the game (read: grind) to progress.
There are two things that gacha players are usually concerned with:
- Stamina – how much a player is able to play the game.
- Obtaining Premium Currencies and Resources – how much a player can pull and try their hand at pulling rare characters.
With Granblue Fantasy, those two things are abundant. First, the stamina mechanic is a non-issue as it really allows players to play as much as they want since there are so many cheap ways to restore a player’s stamina. Granblue Fantasy is also quite interesting, where obtaining the characters you want is relatively easy. To unlock the best stuff in the game, that will require something different: your time.
What Packs to Buy In Granblue Fantasy?
Say that you’re enjoying the game and do want to spend a little bit on the game. The single best thing to buy in Granblue Fantasy is a Special Suprise Draw Set (Suptix for short, similar to the Beginner’s Draw Set). The Special Surprise Draw Set costs 3000 Mobacoins which is about 25-30USD depending on how you buy it.
Buying this set gives you not only a full 10 pull but a ticket to choose almost any character that is currently available in the premium draw (except for unticketable characters and summons that only appear in the special banners, Premium Gala and Flash Gala).
This is the best thing to buy because it allows you to round out teams that you might be lacking certain characters or abilities in. During special anniversary events, there’s usually a Suptix that contains even the season event characters (which are usually the rarer characters in the game).
What is the Endgame in Granblue Fantasy?
The endgame in Granblue Fantasy is trying to obtain and unlock the final upgrades of all the characters and weapons in the game. There is also a lot of raid content in the game that might require a guild (called Crews) for better coordination to have a higher chance to complete them.
A lot of the game is quite challenging, requiring a good amount of knowledge of game systems and how each of your character’s abilities works. Therefore, another important part of endgame is chasing after that optimal team and weapon grid to help make the challenges easier.
Playing Granblue Fantasy is really more about knowing where the next point of progress is and pacing yourself towards the goal. Players are often trying to get to the end-game; however, in Granblue Fantasy – it’s more about the marathon there. Otherwise, burnout is very real.
Granblue Fantasy Verdict
In conclusion, Granblue Fantasy is a game that really rewards players by sticking through with it – as the longer you’re with the game, the easier it is to obtain what you want. However, for the players that want to feel quick or instant satisfaction every time you log into the game, it’s probably not the style of gacha for them.
For me, I take Granblue Fantasy a lot more casually, treating it more as a PVE story and character art collector. It’s a game that I really want to take seriously again at some point in the future, but for now, I am satisfied with my time in Granblue Fantasy. I hope that it becomes a bit more streamlined and modernized in the future so that more people can enjoy the game as I believe it deserves more attention.