While Arc System Works did their best to make this game look as good as it possibly could, there's really not much saving a generic gacha mobile game setting. That said, this is probably the best looking generic thing I've ever seen. Fluid animations, flawless character models, beautiful levels, it's a shame the effort was used on a series with nonexistent art direction.
As far as the mechanics go, I'm going to be a bit of a boomer here. I entered training mode upon installing this game as is tradition for me, just to test out the controls and practice a little. I practiced for about 30 minutes before finding out that the game has "easy inputs" for many of the moves.
This means you can easily DP on reaction, you can shoot fireballs without a motion input, etc. since it's basically just a direction and a button. On its face, you wouldn't really think this would make a big difference, but it does. Motion inputs add a lot of extra layers of balance and technique to fighting games, it's what makes them so uniquely tactile. Some may enjoy this new-age change, but I'm personally disappointed that the next game is going to lean into it even more heavily by removing all downsides to using simple inputs.
The singleplayer is very boring for the most part. There's a decent boss or two and that's it. I'm not big on fighting games basically becoming a different game entirely in singleplayer, and Granblue is particularly egregious about this. There's this giant dragon boss that sort of lives in the stage, and you have to memorize its movements like a diet Dark Souls boss. Most of the levels require you to fight pitifully weak minions that are zero threat to you unless this is your first fighting game, also it's pretty frustrating that you switch direction from left to right depending on where you move ONLY in singleplayer. The story doesn't exactly make up for these shortcomings either.
Still, I enjoyed the game enough as is. It's cool to look at and there's a lot of impact to the combat. The visuals, while lacking in the art direction department, are still pretty stunning all things considered. I probably wouldn't bother with this game now since it's a little too late in its lifespan and it uses delay-based netcode, plus as of writing the next game in the series is coming out soon with rollback. Still, if you can get it for less than 10 bucks and you like Arc System Works then why not.
As far as the mechanics go, I'm going to be a bit of a boomer here. I entered training mode upon installing this game as is tradition for me, just to test out the controls and practice a little. I practiced for about 30 minutes before finding out that the game has "easy inputs" for many of the moves.
This means you can easily DP on reaction, you can shoot fireballs without a motion input, etc. since it's basically just a direction and a button. On its face, you wouldn't really think this would make a big difference, but it does. Motion inputs add a lot of extra layers of balance and technique to fighting games, it's what makes them so uniquely tactile. Some may enjoy this new-age change, but I'm personally disappointed that the next game is going to lean into it even more heavily by removing all downsides to using simple inputs.
The singleplayer is very boring for the most part. There's a decent boss or two and that's it. I'm not big on fighting games basically becoming a different game entirely in singleplayer, and Granblue is particularly egregious about this. There's this giant dragon boss that sort of lives in the stage, and you have to memorize its movements like a diet Dark Souls boss. Most of the levels require you to fight pitifully weak minions that are zero threat to you unless this is your first fighting game, also it's pretty frustrating that you switch direction from left to right depending on where you move ONLY in singleplayer. The story doesn't exactly make up for these shortcomings either.
Still, I enjoyed the game enough as is. It's cool to look at and there's a lot of impact to the combat. The visuals, while lacking in the art direction department, are still pretty stunning all things considered. I probably wouldn't bother with this game now since it's a little too late in its lifespan and it uses delay-based netcode, plus as of writing the next game in the series is coming out soon with rollback. Still, if you can get it for less than 10 bucks and you like Arc System Works then why not.