Starting Out: A Beginner's Guide to Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising

Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising is the latest game in the Granblue Fantasy series. The original RPG came out in 2014 and enjoyed some success before venturing into the anime fighter space in 2020 with Granblue Fantasy Versus. 

Granblue Fantasy Versus was a major success for the studio, Cygames, and sold over 450,000 copies by 2020 and had hit one million copies (both digital and physical) by August 2023. Before then, the next game in the franchise had been announced and fans could now excitedly wait for Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising. 

Though it suffered some delays, it is now available and for many it might be their very first fighting game. If so, this guide will help you. If you do have some experience with fighting games, this guide will still be an asset as it will go over all the things you need to know about this amazing game. 

GBVSR is visually striking and it is easy to call it an anime fighter, and while it looks like one, it lacks some of the more common antics that anime fighters possess like air dashes and the like. 

GBVSR is surprisingly grounded and while it is obviously set in a fantasy world where stuff that isn't normal for you and me occurs, it still feels very relatable. 

Getting Started

Granblue Fantasy has beginners in mind when playing and so there is a simplified input system which enables players to execute moves easier. Now, raw moves do more damage and simplified moves have a cooldown, but, it is a great way to get people into the game slowly. The game has a training mode where you can pick up a few moves. But let us go over all the things you need to know. 

As a side note, jump-ins can be a little scary in this game as the anti-air game is very strong. So, from that you can imagine that this is a game that values the fundamentals highly. You'll need to learn the basics like footsies and neutral to excel at GBVSR. 

The Basics of Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising

GBVSR is a four-button fighting game. You have your light attack, medium attack, and heavy attack. The fourth button is the unique button. This is a button that as the name implies, is unique to different characters. So, while everyone more or less does the same thing with their light, medium and heavy attacks, the unique button will execute a different move for each character. For some, it would be some sort of hit, and for others it could be a charging mechanic. 

That said, GBVSR has two additional buttons of note; the block button, and the skill button. The former makes the game like Mortal Kombat with a dedicated block button, but what makes it different is that holding back to block still works perfectly. This means you have two ways to block the difference being that with the button block, you are unable to move, while with holding back, you're still mobile. 

Furthermore, blocking in this game is kinder as it automatically helps block different sides. This means unlike other games where you have to guess to block right or left, GBVSR just does it for you. 

The latter button is where the simplified inputs come in. The skill button is just like the one in Street Fighter 6 which lets you execute special moves with the press of a button. For instance, if you were to do a projectile which would normally be ↓→ L, you could simply press the → Skill button and the move will come out. As explained earlier, the raw moves deal a little more damage, but there's also the cooldown to worry about. In this game, moves have a cooldown and when done with the normal inputs, the cooldown is almost non-existent, but when done with the simplified inputs, the cooldown could take a few extra seconds. So you cannot engage in a fireball battle with simplified inputs. 

So, the general rule would be that if you have to do a move that is generally easy, just do it raw, but if it's an emergency DP or EX move to get out of danger, then you can consider the simplified inputs. 

There are two additional buttons to discuss which are the throw and dash buttons. These buttons might not work for your traditional six-button controller, but if you can, you should bind all four macro buttons as they can also be of help. You can throw with other inputs and if you press →→ you'll perform a dash. 

As mentioned before, there are no air dashes in this game, but there is forward and back dash and a super jump where you only need press ↓ and then ↑ and you'll jump higher than normal. The dashes in this game are great as you can dash and cancel into a light, medium or heavy attack. Using the light attack is beneficial as it typically leaves you plus on block and able to continue with your pressure game. 

The Basics of Offense and Defense

Now that you know all the buttons you have at your disposal, it is now time to understand how to use them. As alluded to before, there are four main buttons

• Light
• Medium
• Heavy
• Unique

So you use all these to attack the opponent and as usual lights are faster and deal less damage while heavies are slower but deal more damage. A thing of note is that the buttons have far and close versions. This means that a lot of moves when performed far from the opponent and close to them, change properties. So a heavy from a little further out might hit once and work as some sort of poke or knockdown option. But, when performed close, the move might now become a 2-hit combo which can lead to other things. The frame data also changes as some of the close moves have better frame data than those from farther out. 

Also of note is the fact that in this game, characters have access to auto combos. These are easy to pull off and will mostly likely be used quite a bit. To perform an auto combo, you simply press one of the strike buttons thrice. 

So:

• L, L, L
• M, M, M
• H, H, H

Using any of these will lead to an auto combo. They do not deal much damage and they also have a gap between the second and third strike which the enemy could do something with like using a defensive option to get you off them. But, you are not without remedies. For one, this game introduces follow ups to these attacks meaning you can use the first two strikes (which is safe on block) and do a follow up using either → M or → H. If you follow up with the former, your character will hit low, meaning that if an opponent is stand blocking, they can be clipped and suffer for it. In the case of the latter, your character will hit with an overhead meaning that is they are blocking low, you can punish them. 

Furthermore, you can also employ another strategy where you bait their defensive move. So, if you hit twice, you can stop there, wait for their defensive option (be it a reversal or whatever), block that and then punish them. You could also just throw them after the first two hits to condition them to block less and try to tech the throw instead.

Now for the defensive options available, the players has a few they can rely on. 

Just Block

This is a move that can be compared to the parry system in Street Fighter 6. When you pull of a Just Block, it blocks the move and also gains meter for the user. To execute it, you simply need to block just before a move hits. This can be used against opponents who are trying to excessively zone you with projectiles. 

Spot Dodge and Roll

These are two other options available to you when fighting an opponent. To pull it off, you simply need to input ← + Block to Spot Dodge and → + Block to do the roll. The spot dodge is a useful tool as it can evade certain moves and is strong against most offensive approaches besides throws. With the roll, it can also get you past projectiles and is an advantage because it moves your character forward and closer to the opponent. But, it loses to throws and lows.  It also doesn't possess invincibility from the start meaning that if you don't activate it quickly enough, you'll just get hit. 

Wakeup Options

As with most fighting games, you can also determine how quickly you get up. In GBVSR you have two quick rise options; if you press ↓ and another button, you rise on the same spot, and if you press ← and another button, you'll roll backwards to rise. You can use this while being pressured to put some space between you and your opponent, to ensure they don't take too much momentum.

Supering the Super in GBVSR

If you have been around fighting games for any length of time, you would know that supers are a thing. They are a big move that can really damage the opponent. But to use them, you'll have to pay the price— meter. 

Every character in Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising has a super that is called a 'Skybound Art.' It consumes 50% of meter and damages the opponent. You also have access to what is known as a 'Super Skybound Art' which deals way more damage, and can only be accessed at low health. It is something of a Hail Mary to try to survive in a fight. For every character, there is a different 'Super' and they work differently. For some, it is like a grab, and for others it is a huge projectile. 

Gaining meter in Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising is easier than most games as basically any action you carry out will gain you some meter. This means you can spend meter a tad recklessly and be sure you'll gain it back pretty quickly. 

Apart from Skybound Arts, characters also have an 'Ultimate Skill' move which is basically a stronger version of their normal skill. This also takes up some meter and tends to change the property of the skill. 

Bravery

The bravery mechanic in GBVSR is a very important one. Bravery points empower you with both offensive and defensive options and are a much rarer resource than meter. The bravery points can be found just above the life bar and each character has only three of them. 

For the offensive option, you can use a bravery point to guard break a character almost like a Drive Impact in Street Fighter 6. This particularly useful in the corner where you can guard break the opponent at the cost of one bravery point while also taking a point off your opponent. This is typically a strong move, but it does have a few drawbacks. For one, it is very reactable and with the right move, a super or even a spot dodge, you can make an opponent pay for trying a guard break. So, it is best not to make the guard break predictable so as not to suffer damage and waste a bravery point. 

Bravery points can also be spent defensively and in this case it is reminiscent of the Yellow Roman Cancel in Guilty Gear -STRIVE- where it is a 'get off me' move that pushes the enemy back. But, as with the offensive aspect, it also has its drawbacks mostly the fact that it can be baited. So, you could pressure an opponent, stop the combo to bait out the bravery move,  block it, and then punish the opponent for the move. 

Bravery points also serve another purpose; they reduce the damage taken by your character. This means if you are down by more than one bravery point, the opponents attacks will hit harder and if you lose all your bravery points, a flashing red light on your character's bust which is beside the health bar will indicate that you are in danger of even more damage from the opponent. 

This means you never want to fully out of bravery points and if you are out, you will want to get it back as soon as possible. So, how do you get it back? The only way is through Skybound Arts. Whenever you pull of these supers, you will gain one bravery point back. This is to encourage you to use the supers as much as possible.

Conclusion

There are still one or two things you could pick up from the game, but with all that has been said, you can get started with Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising. The game has a large cast considering this is just the launch (28 characters in the launch roster is a lot) and they are all relatively easy to play. Sure, some characters are trickier than others, but they can be mastered with a little bit of time. 

The roster is varied, the gameplay grounded, and the fun factor is high with this one. 

If you want to see a review of the game, we have an excellent one on the DashFight YouTube channel which you can watch below, and we'll have all things Granblue on the website where you're invited to have a look around.

Go on, go play some GBVSR!