The Yokohama development team has been giving us the best anime fighting games that a fan of the genre could wish for since the 90s, like the incredible BlazBlue sagas, Guilty Gear, and the newer and no less incredible Dragon Ball FighterZ.
A new IP from Arc System can therefore really mean a lot and we at Epic Videogames Guide have dived headlong into the beta of Granblue Fantasy Versus in the limited time available to us to learn all the secrets.
Granblue Fantasy was born as a mobile role-playing game at the hands of Cygames ehwith some success, so as to generate an animated series, a cycle of lightnovel and the fighting game of which we will talk from now on.
Granblue Fantasy in its Versus incarnation immediately immersed us in a context already seen in Dragon Ball FighterZ, launching us into a game Hub (after selecting the region) that can be freely explored thanks to a virtual avatar, within a lobby dedicated to 1-on-1 clashes.
Having taken possession of a game terminal, we were able to challenge the countless human opponents by choosing from the five characters available. The cast selection for the Closed Beta proved to be particularly spot on, presenting a selection of well-rounded fighters, from rushdown to zoning. In "best of three" clashes we were able to deepen the basic mechanics of this new fighting game by Arc System.
The main keys dedicated to the offensive are the most similar seen in Dragon Ball FighterZ: Weak, medium, strong attack and special command. The combo system also moves in this order of ideas, as they say in the jargon "light into heavy", from weak to heavy with the possibility of chaining a special to the combo for an explosive conclusion. By attacking and taking damage it will be possible to accumulate the meter that can be translated into spectacular final hits, which enjoy a few frames of invincibility on start up.
The peculiarity that distinguishes the title from all the other anime fighting games is related to the management of resources: we are used to burning part of our meter to enhance special attacks, carry out magical disappearances or counterattack in particular situations. Granblue allows us at any time to perform all the specials of the character in the 3 variants available (Light, medium and heavy), but if we decide to access the strong variant of the move, the shot will simply go into cooldown and it will not be accessible for a few seconds, thus leaving our options for a portion of time.
We had already seen the concept of cooldown within a fighting game for the first time in the very recent Mortal Kombat 11 by NetherRealm Studios, although in a very different key from that proposed by Arc System, perhaps less mature and thoughtful.
The infamous special attacks can be performed in the canonical manner provided by the genre, that is 236 + L / M / H (or down, forward, punch: the famous Hadoken), if you are not familiar with this kind of moves, do not worry: in this title we will access all the special moves of the characters simply by pressing a back button (R1 on PlayStation 4) plus one direction. The price to pay to enjoy this simplification is a practically zero cooldown of the move, naturally sensitive to the dynamics of clashes at high levels of play, but all in all negligible.
More than in Mortal Kombat 11 we will therefore have to manage the cooldowns of the moves in order to avoid being left dry in the heart of the battle, although in the latest incarnation of the fighting game of NetherRealm Studios there is an offensive and a defensive meter and the system of bars and cooldowns is very more elaborate, strategic and profound. As for the system, the combo system, as seen in Dragon Ball FighterZ, an auto combo system comes to our aid: by repeatedly pressing the light or heavy attack we will automatically access a non-optimized combo without the need for an in-depth study of the combat system. In any case, from what emerged from the closed beta of Granblue Fantasy Versus, the “manual” combos are anything but difficult to chain compared to what we have been used to in the last decade from Arc System.
75% combo from ferry off a throw pic.twitter.com/Sm52pS7xh5
- FOX | SonicFox (@ SonicFox5000) May 31, 2019
The parade as the genre dictates is directional, even if we will have an additional backbone dedicated to it, able to even make us dodge on the spot or directional. This is the mechanic that most excited us, during our test: a good directional dodge can make us go through the bullets or produce some interesting mind games. The zoning in Granblue Fantasy Versus is definitely present and the movement speed is not exciting, even the race is absolutely not to be taken into consideration, as it will leave us uncovered at the end of the animation. We therefore believe that dodging can play a fundamental role in the neutral phases of the fight and we are not looking forward to being able to return to experience our speculations.
As for the frame data, unfortunately, during the Closed Beta dates we were denied access to this sensitive data. In any case, we sadly witnessed the lack of responsiveness of the hit-confirmations, which almost forced us to fight blindly. Granblue Fantasy Versus can still guarantee the 60 FPS, the foundation of the genre, on which the seriousness and credibility of the gaming experience is based.
The Closed Beta of Granblue Fantasy Versus made us turn up our noses in several respects: starting from the questionable design choices, to the progressive simplification of most of the management dynamics and close combat. Although it is clear that the title is not deep or elaborate enough compared to other already simplified fighting games of Arc System Works (see Dragon Ball FighterZ), we had a lot of fun giving it to us and we can't wait to deepen the dodging dynamics in the final game build.
► Granblue Fantasy: Versus is a fighting game developed by Arc System Works and published by Cygames for PC and PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 06/02/2020 The version for PC came out on 13/03/2020 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 03/03/2020
Granblue Fantasy: Versus is a beautiful game that cannot be missing from your collection: we have decided to evaluate it with a 80%, if you are interested in learning more you can read the Granblue Fantasy: Versus Review
