Granblue Fantasy: Relink It hits so many RPG and anime tropes in its first few hours that it’s almost astonishing. Boss fights building-sized monsters, evil gods who end the world, cat girls, women who understand the combat applications of a thigh-high split skirt, and scenes that are just as dramatic. It would be easy to dismiss the game as just another one of those if it weren’t wrapped in a satisfying and delightfully layered battle system.
It also helps that once you peel back the thick layers of anime tropes, Relink It is revealed as something more personal and valuable. Therein lies a surprisingly well-told story about parental abuse and children’s struggles to find their own identity outside of their parents’ shadow. The main villain is someone who blatantly uses his son as a cog in his evil plan, and the story of that boy trying to free himself ends up overshadowing the larger plot about saving the world, which is a welcome break from genre lore.
The main cast is a team of explorers who are hungry to find new places and go on new adventures. The player character is the captain of this ship, in my case a girl named Rebecca, who is bonded for life to a magical girl named Lyria. Simply put, Lyria is kidnapped by the villain for bad reasons and you embark on an island-hopping adventure to get your friend back.
It wasn’t the most complex thread, but was a convincing one. Endless Ragnarok, the new expansion for Granblue Fantasy: Relink which dropped alongside a new version of the Switch 2 (reviewed here) follows the same trend.
If you’re hoping for a radical new story, temper those expectations. Endless Ragnarok adds a new narrative arc that does its job quite well, but is still largely a vehicle to give you more of the game’s already excellent combat (a lot more). This is not necessarily a criticism either. Relink has always worked best when you’re taking on huge bosses, dodging perfectly, chaining skills with your party, and watching the screen explode into a glorious mess of particle effects. The expansion simply gives you more excuses to do exactly that.
The largest additions occur after the credits. New quest levels, tougher bosses, master traits, and the excellent Conflux roguelite mode dramatically expand the endgame. Conflux, in particular, seems like the standout feature here. Its random encounters and evolving upgrades constantly shake up the familiar gameplay loop, making each match feel different without sacrificing the fast-paced combat that makes Relink so satisfying. Add just enough unpredictability to make the routine feel fresh rather than repetitive.
The combat remains the real star of the show. Each character still feels distinct enough to justify experimenting beyond your choice of comfort, and the new additions fit naturally into an already excellent roster. The action strikes a satisfying balance between accessibility and depth. You can work your way through the first few encounters, but mastering cancels, positioning, and team composition becomes increasingly important as the difficulty increases. It’s flashy without being superficial, which is a surprisingly difficult balance to strike.
Endless Ragnarok Expands the game’s cast of playable characters with six new additions. the beauty of RelinkThe characters were always that not only are they distinct from each other, but each character has enough depth and complexity to carry an entire character action game on their own. The new additions carry the same spirit.
Some of them, like Gallanza and Maglielle, were introduced in the base game as bosses you fight, but are now playable characters that still include all the moves they used against you, allowing you to unleash the same terror on your enemies. Naturally, I haven’t had the chance to fully delve into each of the new characters, but I did spend considerable time playing with Beatrix and Fraux in the game’s new roguelite mode called Conflux, and as expected, they’re excellent!
Both Breatrix and Fraux use a stance-switching mechanic that allows you to weave different stances into the same combo, but Beatrix uses a greatsword as her tool of choice and focuses primarily on buffing her defense, offense, or regeneration; Fraux is essentially Cygames’ version of Bayonetta and she is glorious. Using free-flowing kicks, you can create combos that summon a demon to land hits on you, and it’s exactly as fun as it sounds on paper.
This is not to mention the excellent cooperative action on offer. While the main story campaign can only be played solo, all side quests and final hunts can be done cooperatively by teams of up to four players, and this is where the different character synergies and team dynamics lie. In fact come to shine. This was true for the base game, but now it’s even better with the addition of cross-platform multiplayer.
Visually, the game fits impressively on Nintendo’s hybrid console. While aiming for 30fps instead of 60, performance remains stable even during the game’s spectacular late-game encounters where the screen is filled with attacks, effects, and damage numbers. There are unavoidable visual compromises compared to more powerful platforms, but they’re easy to forgive when the game looks this good on a portable screen. The vibrant art direction does a lot of the heavy lifting, ensuring that the world never loses its charm despite the low technical ceiling.
The only real caveat is that Endless Ragnarok assumes you’ve already invested in Relink. While newcomers can certainly get involved, the expansion is clearly designed for players who want more endgame systems rather than an entirely new experience. If the base game’s cycle of repeating quests, farming gear, and constantly refining your builds didn’t work the first time, this expansion probably won’t change your mind.
Not to mention that unlocking the new content means finishing the entire base game and playing through the entire ending, leveling up all of your characters far beyond where you’ll be when the credits roll before you have a party that can withstand everything the expansion throws at you. If you just want to read the story and call it a day, chances are you won’t even get to experience the narrative component of it. Endless Ragnarok.
But for that specific breed of sick who spent over 100 hours grinding Granblue Fantasy Rebind on PC last year? (sick like me, basically) Endless Ragnarok is exactly what you’d want from an expansion. It does not overcomplicate a winning formula or pursue unnecessary reinvention. Instead, it doubles down on spectacular combat, meaningful progression, and near-infinite replayability. If you’re the type of person who can waste endless hours on loot devils or material cultivation of monster hunterThis is a no-brainer for you.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink It was already one of the best action RPGs in recent years, so Endless Ragnarok doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel. Instead, it takes what made the original so compelling and simply gives players more reasons to keep coming back. On the Switch 2, that approach works surprisingly well. This feels like the kind of game that was always meant to be played in handheld mode, where squeezing a few missions in between other games somehow turns into three-hour sessions before you know it.
