Granblue Fantasy: Relink director discusses playable character count, multiplayer, potential PC version, more

Following this weekend’s announcement for Granblue Fantasy: Relink, Famitsu spoke with Granblue Fantasy director Tetsuya Fukuhara, who shared further information on the PlatinumGames-developed action RPG.

Get the tidbits below.

• The setting of the story is “Zega Grand,” which appeared a bit in the main story as well. From the planning stages, we decided to set it in a place where prior knowledge would not be required, so even those who haven’t played Granblue could jump into the story. So as long as you know that “Granblue‘s story is set in the skies,” enjoying the game won’t be a problem.
• Although the story connects with the main quest of the original game, it’s a little bit further than the main quest has gotten as of December 2018.
• The item hanging around Vyrn’s neck is the same class of voice transmitters used by Eustace, who is in an “organization” in the main story. Through this, Vyrn can communicate with faraway characters outside the party.
• The primal beasts that appear in this game are all completely new, and show up in various circumstances both as enemies and as allies. Also, a large number of new characters will appear. There are a lot of characters with strong personalities.
• We’re also considering bringing the characters and story of this game into the smartphone version.
• The flow of the game is basically moving through stages to get to the boss, advancing to specific areas alongside the story. Various locations like vast grasslands and snowy mountains will appear, and there also sub-quests with elements like exploration.
• I can’t say a specific number when it comes to playable characters. But Bayonetta for example had unique motions for each weapon, which allows you to enjoy different ways of fighting for each one. If you counted each of those weapons as playable characters, [the playable character count] should be quite large for one of these types of games.
• You will unlock playable characters by meeting specific requirements as you progress through the game.
• For multiplayer, you can choose from the playable characters that you have unlocked. Since each player’s rate of progression is different, players are allowed to choose the same character.
• What we’re trying to go for with multiplayer is high-difficulty quests that are unlocked after you clear the main story once, but you can also play low-difficulty quests before clearing the main story.
• The game is just as far along as Granblue Fantasy: Versus. However, since Granblue Fantasy: Relink is so much bigger, we will likely release Granblue Fantasy: Versus first.
• (This applies to both Granblue Fantasy: Relink and Granblue Fantasy: Versus.) We would also like to release for Steam (PC). We already have some titles for PlayStation 4 that are being developed in-house such as the tentatively titled Project Awakening, and as a company we will certainly continue to put our strength into console.

Thanks, Games Talk.