Just as Granblue Fantasy Versus got an enhanced rerelease, so does Relink in the form of Endless Ragnarok. We reviewed the base game of Relink back when it launched in 2024 and had a fantastic time, so here we are again to tackle Ragnarok. Returning are Editors David Flynn and Anthony Shelton with newcomer Henry Viola to save the skies, one grind at a time.
David Flynn
While I played the original version on PC, this time I opted for the new Switch 2 version. That means I had to speed my way through the main story and post-game to reach the Ragnarok content. (Which took about 3 days of almost constant play. Ow my hands.) This port has some pros and cons to it, with a key one that will probably determine what you choose to play the game on. In the pros column are the visuals, with a crisp resolution and cutscenes that I would swear are pre-rendered if they didn’t reflect my equipment and character outfit choices. The only blemish is some aliasing remaining, though in my experience that’s present no matter what version you play. Whether docked or in handheld, you’ll have your eyeballs blasted with gorgeous combat effects, colorful characters, and stunning environments. It honestly looks the same as PC on the highest possible settings.
That visual splendor comes at a cost though, and the game is sadly locked to 30 frames per second on Switch 2. As someone going from PC to Switch 2, you can definitely feel the difference, at least at first. I did get used to it after a while, but I’d still prefer a performance mode that sacrifices a bit of visual fidelity for 60 or even 120 fps. If Ys X: Proud Nordics can hit 120 in handheld mode with a barely noticeable drop in visual quality, I feel like Relink could too.
That said though, the game is a perfect fit for portable play. It's structured a bit like Monster Hunter, with you, along with three NPCs or other players, embarking on quick quests to defeat bosses, take on waves of normal enemies, and more. It’s a ton of fun, and that’s not even going into the single player campaign with its various dungeons and other special battles. As much as I love Relink, I still do want to see a more traditional action RPG set in the Granblue universe, but I digress.
Completing the story and its post-game is essentially the tutorial for the real gameplay loop, which is farming quests for materials and gear to upgrade your character so you can fight ever stronger foes so you can farm even better materials and gear. It’s an addicting loop that’s supported by some incredibly fun and fluid combat, with each character in the massive roster having completely different playstyles. I like to play as the Captain, for example, and their gimmick is called Arts Level. By performing combo finishers and certain other moves, they can level up their skills temporarily up to level 4, making them much stronger and more effective. Once you use a skill, however, your level is on a brief timer before it resets, so you have to fit as many skills as you can within the window to deal the most damage. This gives them very versatile build opportunities, able to be a damage dealing machine, heal and support the party, or even become a tank. Other characters are just as deep, so you can focus on one or spread the love and learn to play a few.
Thankfully, Ragnarok makes playing multiple characters a lot easier, both by adding more playable characters and through the new Rifts. This is something of a rogue-lite mode where you proceed through various, randomized challenges and acquire specific buffs with each stage you complete. For example, I trended towards a shield build that would put shields on my characters for dealing damage or Linking, then apply a bunch of attack buffs while the shield was up. Rifts are fairly short, which makes them a great way to grind for specific materials as you get your choice of rewards upon completion. You could pick weapon upgrade materials, Sigils, and a whole host of convenient options. It’s a lot more interesting than farming the same fight over and over hoping you get a specific drop, especially since you have a little agency here.
Ragnarok does add a bit more story and other features, but having just reached the new content last night, as of writing, I need a bit more time to familiarize myself with it. Please look forward to our full review soon.
Anthony Shelton
Cygames didn't give us a lot of time between the day we received our codes and the embargo. Reviewers play a lot of games, so it's hard to keep up with a game like this post-release. But by Cygames' own delightful construction, I spent time with Relink well after the review period in its first year. I had a decent Zeta build going on PC before other games dragged me away from Zegegrande. I could have used a save file Cygames gave me that would have allowed me to jump into the Endless Ragnarok content with characters at the appropriate level, but it was with the default group of four (Gran, Katarina, Rackam, and Io). All my Zeta needed was her Terminus weapon, so I decided to stick with my build. I'm glad I did because I experienced Endless Ragnarok's immediate benefits.
Introducing The Conflux: a roguelike mode where you blast through enemies and receive rewards that are specific to different types of endgame farms. Need Sigil materials? There's a difficulty tier and a reward package for that. Need Ascension or Terminus materials? There's a tier for that. Depending on what you're looking for will determine the difficulty. Eliminating RNG farming in the right places is becoming more common in loot based games, and the Conflux helps with that. Terminus weapons are much easier to achieve, though they still require a grind, but are far less reliant on hoping Proto Bahamut drops one, let alone the one you're looking for. Simplifications like this will make getting into Endless Ragnarok much more inviting.
I want to be clear: Endless Ragnarok is deep endgame content, and there's no way to bring characters up to a level or power cap that makes you fit for its new difficulties and rewards. It's another caboose attached to the back of an already very long train. If you didn't make an endgame build that could take on the likes of The Behemoth or Lucilius, you'll have to build something that will.
What I've found most impressive about Endless Ragnarok is how Cygames is breaking out weapon potential. By the end of Relink, the only viable weapons for the toughest content were Ascension and Terminus weapons, and even then, Terminus was indisputably the strongest weapon. Other weapons like Stinger's or Defender's were useless at the highest power levels. Ragnarok brings in Transcendence upgrades for non-Ascension and Terminus weapons, and now you can make them as powerful, complete with two additional attributes. It's a welcome change. All Terminus weapons included Catastrophe, which forced everyone to use extremely limited builds because the upside was too great. Now, if you want to use a weapon that boosts your stun so you can focus your Sigils in different ways, you can do that without being locked into Catastrophe's catastrophic limitations.
Fortunately, more Sigils have been added that undermine Catastrophe's strength. There's one that buffs your Attack and Damage Cap when your health is above 50,000. That's a direct counter to Catastrophe, but other new Sigils such as Fatebreaker will certainly help diversify builds across the community.
So what do you do with all those Mastery Points now that you've upgraded all your characters and their weapons? Now there are Mastery Traits. I've only scratched the surface with these, but consider these Borderlands 2's Overpowered levels. You can dump your Mastery Points into distinct styles that further buff your character. As a Zeta main, I can choose a style that allows me to increase the window of time to perform loops and choose buffs that increase the strength of the loops. It seems like no matter the buffs you choose, it will increase your power, similarly to leveling weapons, but the Style might matter more. I haven't gotten far enough in this to see how the traits evolve, but that's a focus to critique for the full review.
If you're struggling to reach Endless Ragnarok content, you can call on the community for help. A new feature allows you to recruit a backup character for solo players. If I enlist my Zeta, you can add my Zeta to your party as a backup and bring her with you into your party. Players who enlist their characters can still use them and also reap rewards when people use them. It's a very good way of allowing the community to be a quasi-Sherpa for other solo players who can't play online or want to become stronger before matchmaking. You can only recruit one backup at a time, but outsized power levels will certainly help. It's unclear if backups are platform specific, but if they are and you're playing on PC, you're free to recruit my Zeta.
The open beta didn't do Endless Ragnarok justice. There's a lot of meat on this bone and it's falling off. I'm looking forward to seeing more and reporting back with my thoughts.
Henry Viola
I’m the newcomer of the three, so I’m playing this game for the first time with a fresh lens and mindset. First off, I have to echo what David said about the technical performance on Switch 2. There’s no reason why this port doesn’t have a 60 fps performance option when plenty of other action heavy RPGs can achieve that on the same hardware. That being said, I did get used to the 30 fps lock and the game is actually quite smooth otherwise. I’ve run into no bugs or glitches aside from some minor frame stutters here and there. The game plays great on both handheld and docked.
Endless Ragnarok takes up 38.7 GB on the Switch 2, so make sure you have enough room! Load times are alright, taking 10ish seconds to load in from the main menu. A big kudos to Cygames for including an Assist Mode for both accessibility and AFK farming, I guess. Sadly, it’s only available on Story or Action difficulty. There’s an assist mode and a full assist mode that does all the combat for you.
I’m not a fan of only being able to save manually in towns or at dedicated Hallowed Grounds, especially when it’s not necessarily clear when the game autosaves. It would have been a nice quality of life update to just allow you to save whenever you want to.
What is new in Endless Ragnarok is the introduction of cross-platform cooperative play, which is a huge win for the longevity of this game, but unfortunately, the servers weren’t online during the review period to test this out. But this means players on PC, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch 2 can all party up together! Please look forward to our online cooperative play thoughts after the servers go live.
Currently, I’m on Chapter 7 of the base game’s campaign, so I have yet to reach the contents of the DLC, but the game is a blast to play thus far, albeit a bit intimidating with all of its systems. Enemies also feel quite spongy, even on the easiest difficulty. I’ll have to agree yet again with David’s comparison of this game to Monster Hunter, maybe even a little bit of Tales of Arise. I can only imagine how grindy the game will get, going on repeated quests to grind for the material you need to get end-game equipment. Back to the campaign for now!
