Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising was a classic anime fighting game in a long tradition of anime fighters. Like most fighting games that aren’t named Tekken or For Honor or Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm, it’s on a 2D plane. Also like Naruto Ultimate Ninja storm, you get chippy Japanese voice acting announcing your battle and victories.
(look how happy they are to have beat the **** out of someone)
What differentiates GBFVR is the “skill” system which lets you bypass directional inputs at a cost of a larger cooldown on the ability. It’s an interesting attempt to accommodate casual play but it’s also a crutch. You don’t have to learn a new set of directional inputs in order to pilot your chosen character to a reasonable degree and that makes it a lot easier to get into the flow earlier than other fighting games. For my purposes, it suited me well. Due to the moderately reduced skill cooldown obtained through proper directional input management, you are still incentivized to eventually properly learn the inputs.
(2b???)
I get why they did it and it’s sort of nice! You know when you try out a fighting game for the first time, it’s rather painful. Veterans of the “””””FGC””””” tell me that it’s a lot easier once you delve deep into one of them, there’s a lot of transferable skills, but really the only fighting games I’ve played at length are SSBU and Melty Blood. So every time I try a fighting game it’s usually rather unfun because they are fast paced games and require fast paced inputs and if that isn’t drilled in yet then I just spaz out. I felt like I could get to a very very modest level of proficiency in this game faster than my previous attempts at Street Fighter or Blazblue, so good pick on that front.
Fighting games are an interesting genre because they’re both very knowledge based and mechanically demanding. There is a demand that you execute your own objectives proficiently, but the objective shifts and changes on a frame by frame basis as information about your opponent’s actions comes onto the screen. I could spam fireball in neutral, but eventually they are going to start dashing at me or jumping over it or whatever and I’m going to have to change it up. That’s where the knowledge aspect comes in, as every character has their own skillset. E.g., I was initially a bit frustrated with Gran’s little leaping green knee attack, but it’s not the hardest thing to predict in neutral and so I learned to predict and react quick by just blocking low. As I played the game, the comparatively limited amount of actions each opponent could take made me able to improve at a rather rapid pace.
Of course, improvement is all relative, and in the grand skill pyramid I am at the bottom.
There are some strange rpg-esque elements in the game which I thought were a bit cute, but were probably unnecessary in the grand scheme of things. Like the little chibi lobby where you could customize a little character and sit down at a little terminal to play a little someone. Adorable, but.. ???
Unlike a lot of fighting games, the Story Mode in this game seems to be rather fleshed out! I didn’t actually play any of it, but I was watching a bit of a youtube playthrough. This continues in the RPG sense. Good on them. I have rather low hopes for the story, just based off of the short character snippets, but over the top JRPG esque plots can be fun too! I’m not expecting a Chrono Trigger or anything.
Overall, if this game seemed moderately more popular, I think I’d be happy to try playing it some more. Fighting games are often transient though, so I’ll probably just have a Project L phase when it comes out and tell myself “this is my time to get into fighting games” like I did with SSBU and For Honor before getting frustrated after 4-6 months of being skill gapped.
I resonated with that last paragraph haha!! There’s always such a draw to fighting games, they feel so very fun and stylish, but then one hits a skill barrier–more importantly, a skill barrier that seems confusing to progress from–and it just falls flat. I too, however, am looking forward to Project L/2XKO (L name?). The Runeterra IP is a strong pull, and adds to my thoughts that characters can be really key to bringing in new players. (Though further learnability and accessibility improvements are also a must to sustain them!)
I like your review of the some of the mechanical design decisions! It definitely felt like the limited amount of actions was helpful. Honestly though, it felt hard to figure out what to do just from fighting opponents that were quicker on the draw–I made a much larger leap in improvement after playing some casual matches against other new/bad players compared to repeatedly facing better players. Not just against the bad ones, but after I was able to perform much better and even win some rematches against said better opponent after the casuals.
It’s kind of an odd decision to me to have a prevalent story mode in a fighting game because it feels like the focuses are entirely different. I don’t mind the blend, but Granblue doesn’t introduce either mode to you first at all or set any guard railing. I think that’s a confusing experience for players and the lack of focus may be part of what’s hindering the game’s popularity.
You’ve captured a pretty neat perspective on Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising! It sounds like the game has managed to strike a balance that makes it inviting for newcomers while still rewarding the development of skill over time, especially with its unique “skill” system that lets you bypass the usual complex inputs. This system sounds like it could be a good stepping stone for those new to fighting games, helping them to ease into the genre without the initial frustration of mastering tough controls.
Your mention of the voice acting and the joy of winning rounds adds a nice personal touch to the experience. It’s always interesting to see how different games handle the vibe of their battles, and those enthusiastic announcements can really enhance the fun.
You bring up a good point about the knowledge and mechanical demands of fighting games. It’s great that Granblue allows for some quick ramp-up in skill proficiency compared to other more complex titles like Street Fighter or Blazblue. Learning to anticipate and counter moves effectively is a huge part of becoming competent in fighting games, and it seems like Granblue’s simpler mechanics have helped you make that leap more readily.
The RPG elements and the chibi lobby sound charming, though I get the sense you find them a bit superfluous. Sometimes those little details can add a lot of personality to a game, even if they don’t contribute much to the actual fighting mechanics.
Your comments on the Story Mode and its RPG-like depth—even though you haven’t dived into it yourself—highlight an interesting aspect. Many fighting games don’t put much emphasis on narrative, so any effort in that direction can be a plus for players who appreciate a good story to complement the action.
It sounds like Granblue might not have fully convinced you to stay long-term, but it’s at least opened the door a bit wider to the fighting game world. Here’s hoping that whether it’s with Project L or another title, you find that perfect fit that makes the fighting game genre click for you.