Gab likes Granblue Fantasy Relink so goddamn much that after playing it for fifteen or something hours on PS5, he ended up reinstalling to play with Kara on PC. He's now way past where he was on a new save and hasn't slowed down in any way. It has "cross platform play," but only on PS4 and PS5, which… I guess I don't consider that cross platform? It could be my advanced age, and the attendant ossification of my thought-meat, but I consider that just, like… "platform."

I'll be honest with you; I didn't a hundred percent know what a Granblue Fantasy is. I was under the impression that Granblue Fantasy was a fighting game with amazing art by Arc System Works, who has made a bunch of other rad shit I like - they're bringing back Trace Memory on the Switch, somehow. Cygames, Granblue Fantasy's true developer, started it out as an RPG on mobile and browsers (?!?) that did crazy numbers and now it has apparently burgeoned into green, new life. I was trying to remember where I had seen the word Cygames before, since they mostly make anime I haven't watched and manga I haven't read and mobile stuff for a Japanese audience, and then I saw that they'd done Shadowverse. I like Shadowverse, but I have to be quite careful around digital TCGs where you buy packs because I will, um, buy packs. More than one.

I will buy a lot of packs.

(And it's cool, but honestly? I'm more likely to buy physical cards for whatever reason now, and I'm more likely to play card games that aren't roguelite PC pervert shit on a table with a friend. So while Shadowverse is fine digitally, please try out Bushiroad's Shadowverse: Evolve which I think is more fun. Also, nobody does comeback mechanics like they do.)

So what the fuck is Granblue Fantasy ReLink? It's a beautiful Japanese action RPG, so beautiful that it might not hurt to say "beautiful" one more time. It has the things you might expect in this vein, which is sorta why anything I saw about it bounced immediately off of my head. These games in my experience take a very long time to get underway and get interesting. But that traditional campaign is only part of it - the rest of it? It's Monster Hunter type shit, with heaps of collectible characters that all feel like they're from radically different games, plus quests and rewards agogo. I would never have known this if Mike hadn't told me. So now I'm telling you. Also, Mike says "hi." And he has some tips to share.

(CW)TB out.