As I played through 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Granblue Fantasy: Relink, I felt it satisfying some gnawing sense of nostalgia that was buried deep inside of me, which is odd, as there is no lack of Action RPGs in my life. Yet, the more I played, the stronger this sensation grew. I’ve since been able to place it; Relink feels like a game from an earlier era, where developers were always experimenting. When games were often a little rough around the edges, but also felt more distinct. 💯It’s dawned on me tꦦhat Granblue Fantasy: Relink is a PS2-era Action RPG in spirit.

Relink was built to support multiple players being able to come and go. To facilitate this, it features hubs where you can talk to NPCs, enhance your weapons, take side quests, or progress to the next chapter. Think 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Monster Hunter-esque, and you’re on the right track. The missions themselves, however, bear no similarities. They take the form of combat-heavy time trials, which are great for a quick spot of 𝔉action as th𒉰ey throw you right into the mix and don’t drag on.

Don’t be p🍒ut off by the game’s co-op underpinnings: your AI partners are capable of pulling their weight and the game works welꦆl as a single-player experience.

The main content is a linear march through weaker enemies, with a smidge of platforming, a generous helping of mid-bosses, and a giant, climactic battle with the chapter’s big baddie to polish it all off. While it is linear, don’t expect 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 13 all over again: these stages include alternate routes and hid𒐪den treasures for those looking to sniff them out. More interestingly, nearly every chapter of the game includes a novelty of some sort. From gunning down enemy airships to sliding through the ruins of an ancient temple, there is always something new to see and do. With a heavy helping of spectacle, the main campaign never falls into a rut through its 15-hour runtime.

Speaking of novelty, Relink’s graphical style is pretty unique. Intentionally or not, it almost takes a mixed-media approach to its aesthetic; certain elements like hair and skin have a plastic-like appearance, while other elements, such as cloth and metal, look like they have been drawn by hand. They even cleverly apply cross-hatching and linework to sell the illusion. Most of the time, it looks great; however, your malformed dragon companion is a frequent reminder that the graphical style doesn't work across the board.

Combat is fast and fluid, though there are quibbles to be had. The jump is strangely vertical, causing you to leap ten feet into the air yet only move a foot forward. It isn’t typically a big deal, but that jumpܫ isn’t a great fit for those platforming sections. The more egregious issuꦺe is the lock-on, which is a big swing and a miss - appropriately, you will be swinging and missing pretty frequently if you use it. When you are locked onto an enemy, the right stick stops controlling the camera and will instead switch the lock on to another foe. This is disastrous, as it means you can never take stock of your surroundings. That’s a real problem when every encounter is filled with baddies.

Thankfully, there is a lot to love about Relink’s combat. You get the one-two punch of a dodge that grants you invincibility if you time it just right alongside a parry, which can similarly be timed to nullify damage. Both are useful and serve different purposes. The dodge helps you approach enemies as they fire projecti🏅les at you, and th𝓰e parry will help you stand your ground when an enemy is trying to push you away. You don’t need to rely on these mechanics, but they are a powerful aid that adds a technical wrinkle to an enjoyable battle engine.

I also love that Relink leans into some delightfully gamey elements. As an example, there are chests that can only be opened aft🦩er collecting a series of crystals before the ti🍷mer runs out. It feels like something ripped from a Crash Bandicoot game. Escape sequences will have you running from an unstoppable force, and during these chases, you’ll find alternate routes that are lined with treasures. Relink isn’t afraid to be a video game.

This all culminates with the excellent boss encounters. Every single boss battle involves multiple phases. There will be sections where you need to focus on evasion (reminiscent of Final Fantasy 14's style of combat), bosses have multiple cinematic attacks, and their attack patterns will change frequently. These are some of the most densely-packed boss battles I have ever encountered.

You get the sense that, at any moment, you may see something new. You may think that you are nearing the end of a boss encounter, only for the encounter to suddenly transition into a chase sequence that leads directly into a new form. That type of thing happens in every major boss battle. You’ll fight massive bosses that tower over you on the regular. There is a particular boss that is large enough to put any of the colossi from Shadow of the Colossus to shame, but I won’t spoil the surprise fo🔜r you.

Unfortunately, while Granblue Fantasy: Relink is unquestionably fun to play, it isn’t nearly as capable of telling a good story. What you get is impressively by the numbers. Mind control collars, a church up to no good, rampant damselling… 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:this is JRPG 101. What saves it to so𝄹me degree is꧑ the varied cast of charismatic characters, and that the game doesn’t force you to endure lengthy cutscenes. It shuffles you on to the next mission fairly efficiently, which is a blessing.

It is worth noting that if you choose to skip a cutscene, the game will he♔lpfully provide you with a tiny blurb that describes what happened during it. So, if you are done with a particular story beat, you can jump forward without fear of missing anything.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink is a dynamic game that provides novelty with every chapter. The combat is packed with robust and interesting mechanics, and it is easy on the eyes. While there are a number of niggling issues, it manages to capture some of that old-school magic from an era of games that weren't afraid to go off the rails. Relink doesn’t nail everything it does, but it does quite a lot successfully. I expect that it will find an adoring audience, and surely the co-op aspect will give it an extended life among its audience. Just don’t come for the story.