Granblue Fantasy has seen massive success over the seven years since its launch in Japan, boasting over 20 million players worldwide. With the franchise's massive success has come plenty of spin-offs, including a television anime series, a fighting game created by Arc System Works, and plenty more. At the recent "Granblue Fantasy Fes 2021" celebrating the popular RPG and its spin-offs, Cygames released a brand new trailer for its upcoming action RPG Granblue Fantasy: Relink, and featured many members of Granblue Fantasy's diverse roster.
However, for all the characters featured in the trailer, Granblue Fantasy features many more characters who could bring unique and interesting playstyles to the upcoming RPG, as well as plenty of popular characters for fans of the franchise. With a cast of hundreds within Granblue Fantasy's world, there are plenty of options for Cygames to add memorable and iconic characters to Relink.
Narmaya
Narmaya is a fan favorite character that has been prominently featured across Granblue Fantasy's multiple properties. She appears near the end of the first season of Granblue Fantasy's anime adaptation, and was added to Granblue Fantasy Versus as one of the game's first DLC characters following its release.
Narmaya's appearance in Versus can also lend itself to how Narmaya would play in Granblue Fantasy: Relink, with a focus on swordplay and stance-switching to provide different buffs. Narmaya's different stances in both Versus and the original Granblue Fantasy buff herself and apply debuffs to her opponents. Narmaya could shift back and forth between her "Dawnfly" and "Freeflutter" stances to maximize her own damage, while draining her enemies of their damage, creating an engaging gameplay loop with constant decisions to be made in the heat of combat.
Sandalphon
Sandalphon was one of the first primal beasts ever created in the Granblue Fantasy universe, and a major antagonist early in Granblue's storyline. Sandalphon is also one of the franchise's most popular male characters, frequently topping popularity polls among fans. His abilities from Granblue Fantasy revolve around stealing the "tetra-elements" from his enemies, and would give the Primal a playstyle all his own.
Sandalphon's gameplay in Granblue Fantasy revolves around stealing elemental power from enemies (and occasionally allies), translating into debuffing the enemy's elemental attack and buffing his own. This style of gameplay would make the character extremely versatile and allow him to adapt to multiple kinds of enemies, stealing their stats to be used against them.
Cagliostro
Cagliostro is the product of a powerful alchemist's quest for eternal life. Her pursuit of the alchemic arts lends heavily to the character's story and gameplay, both in Granblue Fantasy and Versus. Versus used Cagliostro's mastery of alchemy to turn her into a trap-focused character, whereas Relink could use Cagliostro in a supportive role.
One area Relink's initial roster seems to be lacking is in supportive characters, and Cagliostro's inclusion could not only fill that niche, but provide a wholly unique style of gameplay. Cagliostro uses her alchemy to manipulate the earth around her, using it to create and destroy terrain, and her skills from the base Granblue Fantasy game could see her becoming a healer/support character in Relink.
Ferry
Ferry's potential gameplay in an action RPG stems from the difference in her combat style from Granblue Fantasy to Versus. While she is listed as a Dagger character in the original game, Versus uses her whip in its original form, turning the character into a ranged attacker.
This difference in playstyles could factor into her gameplay, allowing the character to float between melee and ranged attacks. Whereas Narmaya's multiple stances provide her with different buffs and benefits, Ferry's shifting fighting stances could entirely change her gameplay. The character should shift back-and-forth between using a dagger and her whip, allowing the character to be played as a close-range fighter, use her whip to attack from range, or mix both into her playstyle.
Metera
While Granblue Fantasy: Relink's most recent trailer did feature multiple ranges characters like Rackam and Eugen, each character seemed to operate at mid-range, wanting to stay close but not too close to enemies. A sharpshooter like Metera could bring a long-range "sniper"-like character to Relink, dealing heavy damage while putting plenty of distance between herself and enemies.
Much like her playstyle in Granblue Fantasy Versus, Metera would focus on putting distance between herself and her enemies and zoning them away with her attacks and abilities. Metera's skills in Granblue Fantasy focus on debuffing and controlling enemies, inflicting Charm and Delay status, so her playstyle in Relink could match that, allowing her to use her skills to keep enemies away so she can continue to apply damage.
Vaseraga
One area Granblue Fantasy: Relink seems to be lacking in its initially revealed roster is large, hulking tank-class characters capable of taking the brunt of the damage for the party. Vaseraga was an intimidating presence in Granblue Fantasy Versus and he could carry that same brand of muscle-bound power to Relink, acting as a primary tank for the party and using his skills from Granblue Fantasy to deal heavy area damage and tighten his defenses.
Vaseraga's support skills in Granblue Fantasy heavily focus on turning the character into a monolith for enemies to tear through, buffing his defenses based on how much health he is missing and literally stopping his ability to die for several turns. These abilities could translate well into an action RPG with Vaseraga putting himself on the front lines and walling up, allowing his damage dealers to hit through without worrying about the massive tank's wellbeing.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink is scheduled to release in 2022 for PC, PS4, and PS5