Granblue Fantasy: Versus arrived in 2020 as a fighting game with an identity crisis it wears well. Arc System Works built the thing, Cygames and Sega shipped it in Japan and Asia, and Xseed Games and Marvelous Europe carried it west. It runs on PlayStation 4 and PC. The pitch is simple: take a fantasy role-playing series with a devoted following, hand it to the studio behind some of the sharpest 2D fighters in the business, and see what sticks.
Trailer, via グランブルーファンタジー公式チャンネル.
A Fighting Game That Wants New Players
The core match follows the usual rule. Empty your opponent’s life bar enough times and you win. What sets Granblue Fantasy: Versus apart is how it handles special moves. Each character has “Skybound Arts,” drawn from skills they use in the main Granblue Fantasy game. A single button press fires one off. That accessibility comes with a leash: a short cooldown locks the move until it resets.
The smarter path rewards effort. Use a more advanced combination of movement and button presses to launch the same attack, and the cooldown shortens. It is a clean piece of design. Beginners get to throw fireballs on day one; veterans get a reason to learn the real inputs. Fighting games have chased this balance for years, and few have landed it this neatly.
RPG Mode Is a Different Game Entirely
The headline feature is RPG Mode, and it is not a fighting game. It plays as a side-scrolling beat ’em up with action role-playing systems, closer in spirit to Guilty Gear Judgment than to a standard arcade ladder. You get exclusive bosses and minions, weapon grids to set, and a co-op mode to run with a friend.
The structure holds up. Players take control of Gran and company, traveling to the islands featured in the fighting game and fighting notable characters from the Granblue Fantasy universe. Quests carry the plot forward. Along the way, the mode introduces the main cast and fills in their backstories and their existing relationships with one another.
Gran and Company Carry a Standalone Story
The RPG Mode story stands on its own. Gran and his crew visit various islands, chasing a mysterious force behind the violence and chaos breaking out across them. The world is the one Granblue Fantasy fans know: adventurers roaming the skies on airships, floating islands called the Skydoms marking the route.
The Grandcypher, an airship of massive proportions, anchors the journey. It travels the islands picking up sellswords, knights and mages until the roster looks like an army. The setup gives the campaign a reason to move between locales and a cast worth meeting along the way. It is not deep, but it is coherent, and it gives the fighting roster somewhere to live.
Where the Package Comes Up Short
Here is the honest accounting. RPG Mode is the reason to buy Granblue Fantasy: Versus if you do not already care about fighting games, and it is the weakest part of the package if you do. The beat ’em up combat is thinner than the versus mode it sits beside. Weapon grids and co-op add hours, not necessarily better ones.
The fighting game itself is the stronger half by a wide margin. Arc System Works knows this genre. The visuals are sharp, the mechanics are considered, and the Skybound Arts system does real work. What you have is a fighting game with a generous side campaign bolted on, and the seams show.
How It Ranks Against Its Own Ambitions
Ranked by what actually holds up:
- The versus mode and its Skybound Arts system, which is the best thing here.
- RPG Mode’s co-op, which gives the campaign a second life with a friend.
- RPG Mode’s solo campaign, which is fine and no more.
- The weapon grid systems, which will delight a narrow slice of players and bore everyone else.
That order matters. If you came for the fighter, you are getting the good version of this game. If you came for the role-playing, you are getting a decent companion piece to a series you already like.
The Verdict on Granblue Fantasy: Versus
Granblue Fantasy: Versus earns its keep. It is a fighting game that respects newcomers without insulting them, wrapped around a campaign that gives the Granblue Fantasy universe room to breathe. The RPG Mode does not match the versus mode, and the whole thing leans on your tolerance for beat ’em up repetition. But the core is strong, the cast is well served, and the accessibility work is genuinely smart.
A sequel, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, followed on December 14, 2023, which tells you the foundation was worth building on. For a 2020 release, this one still holds up as a fighting game first and a role-playing detour second. That is the right order, even if the second half is the one that needed more time.
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