Granblue Fantasy Versus – Rising Review

Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising is a powered-up sequel to the 2020 original. It boasts a more robust multiplayer experience with crossplay and improved netcode.

Arc System Works continues pushing the fighting genre’s boundaries with this game. It provides veterans with a challenge and newcomers with a comfortable entry point.

Visuals

Whether you’re a first-time player or an old fan, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising is a great-looking game. It features a gorgeous art style, stunning skill animations, and a fantastic roster of characters. PC players can also access a complete set of graphics options, including resolution scaling, v-sync, preset visual quality settings, and a custom display mode.

The gameplay is accessible enough for newcomers to pick up and play instantly, but nuances permeate the fighting mechanics to give veterans a profound experience. Online matches are smooth, and adding a rollback netcode ensures that most network conditions will not make battles unplayable. There are minor flaws, like the paltry number of online-only minigames, but the game is a great package.

Gameplay

Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising is a powered-up sequel to the 2020 release, offering better graphics and features like the diorama feature. It also includes a new antagonist and characters and updates the original story.

The game retains the engaging combat that made its predecessor a hit. Arc System Works has designed the game to be easy to pick up and play for newcomers to the genre. The key to success is reading the opponent and initiating the right attack at the right time rather than mastering every character’s complex moves.

Aside from the standard light, medium, and heavy attacks, each character has a Skybound Art that consumes 50% of the meter and deals extra damage. There is also a Guard button that can block from standing or crouching, depending on the situation.

Characters

With new attacks that riff off the standard moveset and a new training system to help genre rookies get acclimated to the Arc System Works way of fighting, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising is more accessible than its predecessor. Nevertheless, it maintains the same high-quality presentation and easy-to-play game system that both newcomers praised to fighting games and veterans of the original title.

It also adds a wealth of character customization options, including weapon skins, lobby avatars, and the ability to have characters cheer you on during matches. This is a big step from the original game’s limited character customization.

In terms of online features, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising includes crossplay and the long-awaited rollback net code that will let players experience a smoother and more stable online gaming experience. The game also boasts a new Grand Bruise Legend mode with chibi-fied characters and minigame mayhem.

Story Mode

Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising stands out in the crowded fighting game landscape for its extensive roster and story mode that lets players enjoy the lore and learn the basics. It also features a more accessible experience than its predecessor thanks to a new gameplay mechanic called Skybound Arts, an enhanced version of Plus Skills that lets players briefly slow down their opponent’s movement, extending combos and punishing openings and whiffed attacks.

The online experience is also smoother, utilizing rollback net code and avoiding the issues that plagued the first game’s shaky matches with far-away opponents. The free edition offers a few rotating characters and Grand Bruise Legends, while the Deluxe Edition adds a character past part 1 and more.

Online

Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising is a fantastic sequel that does everything it should. It offers an engaging story mode that is a brisker version of the base game, a more streamlined and focused fighting system with exciting new mechanics, better learning tools and rollback netcode, and a considerable amount of online content and fun.

Cygames also improved upon the original game’s visuals, adding deeper and richer colors in clothing and more contrast between highlights and shadows. It’s not a massive change, but it makes the game look more excellent and polished.

You can try various options in the PC graphics menu, including resolution scaling, v-sync, graphics quality presets, anti-aliasing, post-processing, and texture quality settings. You can even select a specific resolution the game will use as its default.