Who are the Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising Newcomers?

Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising launched with four new characters, and they landed in quite different spots power-wise. But who are these characters? Let’s take a brief look at all of them.

Grimnir

Grimnir is a Primal beast of Wind, a so-called “Mad Cyclone.” He is the disciple of the ultimate ruler of the wind, the primarch Raphael. His upbringing and nature lend to him being a supremely powerful being, but at the same time, he’s not always behaving according to the situation – his exuberance and petulance play tricks on him. Still, Grimnir, being a free spirit, doesn’t let that bring him down.

In GBVSR, Grimnir is your resident agility demon. He has nice range on his normals, and you can control his projectiles in various different ways depending on the situation, but his main “thing” is the absolutely insane mobility he gets by utilizing the crests he spawns on screen. It’s not only the difficulty of execution, it’s also a knowledge check at the same time, because these crests are semi-random and you need to always remember which move you can do from any given point in the air.

In essence, Grimnir is a very fun, but difficult character to play optimally.

Nier

Born in a family of powerful mages, Nier spent her whole childhood striving for acceptance. While her sister's magical prowess shined, Nier lacked magical talent, and her parents and their servants distanced themselves from the girl. In the act of desperation, Nier entered her family's forbidden archive, looking for a solution to her problems. There, she found a sealed magical tome with spells to control the life itself, along with a card. Nier tried to master those spells and even made a demonstration to her parents, looking for approval, but they banished her and locked her up in an underground cell for touching the forbidden knowledge. 

Nier grew weaker and weaker with time, but one day, Death emerged from the card she found earlier and proposed forming a pact with the girl to escape the cell. Nier agreed and then decided that killing her younger sister may finally turn her parents' love towards her. When she realizes they never actually loved her in the first place, Nier unleashes Death's power in a violent outburst of emotions and murders everyone in a family mansion.

Nier is a quintessential puppet character. She utilized her unique Love's Redemption stacks to give commands to her puppet, Death itself. On paper, she sounds difficult despite the summon lacking the critical edge to its attacks – after the Love's Redemption stacks are depleted, you’re left on your own with quite a limited arsenal of moves. In reality, Nier is quite a “turn your brain off and mash” kind of character, being able to finish the rounds well before her stacks run out. After the first ladder check, Nier was the character with by far the most people who reached an S rank. That’s a telltale sign of her stupid strength.

Siegfried

Recruited by King Josef into the Royal Knights of Feendrache, Siegfried grew in reputation and eventually was entrusted to be one of the commanders in the Fafnir Suppression Force alongside Gunther and Hagen. In the middle of the battle against the dragon, Hagen tries to fulfill his malicious plot to have the other two knights slain and steal the glory. However, Siegfried sacrificed himself to defeat Fafnir but survived by drinking the dragon's blood. He detained Hagen and returned to Feendrache victorious. Siegfried became known as Dragonslayer and was promoted to king's bodyguard. Later, the Royal Knights were reorganized into the Order of the Black Dragons, with Siegfried as their captain.

Feendrache grew prosperous with the help of Isabella and the primal beast Sylph, who created a magical elixir called alma using Fafnir's blood. Later on, Siegfried went to investigate a strange epidemic in a village, which appeared to be caused by alma's by-product that soldiers of Feendrache were dumping into a nearby river. After returning to the castle with the report, Siegfried found King Josef on the brink of death, with Siegfried himself framed and accused of betrayal and murder. The king told Siegfried how to escape the castle before passing away, and the knight went into hiding, trying to find ways to expose the real villain.

Some time passed, and Siegfried managed to convince the knights with whom he served of his innocence and unsealed the dragon Fafnir to lure out the individual who framed him. He and the knights worked tirelessly to bring the conspirators behind poisoning the kingdom and killing the king to justice. Though Siegfried's name was cleared, he refused to become the new captain of the White Dragon Knights and went on a journey, seeking different ways to help his kingdom from afar.

Siegfried is another character that, on paper, sounds more difficult than he really is. He’s a heavy hitter whose specials create lots of favorable setups, like a fireball that controls the entire screen, or the armored overhead that can be used from almost any range. In addition to this, he can use his Manigance stacks to empower his attacks further, using his own health as a resource. However, it’s much less risky than it sounds, and the bar lasts for quite some time. His install super is also much less risky than it sounds – yes, it takes away half of his HP bar, but it gives his moves vampiric qualities, while his moves become much stronger. He’s also quite spammy, and both his H and 66H have amazing reach. What can’t he do?

Anila

Anila is one of the twelve Divine Generals who protect the Sheep Shrine and South-Southwest. Though Anila's future has been decided since birth, she gladly accepts it for the greater good and to protect her people and her family. Anila's role goes hand in hand with loneliness to a certain extent, but she still hopes to live with her family and friends one day.

Her devotion to her fellow Divine Generals could only be rivaled by her devotion to the Captain!

Anila drew the shortest stick among all the newcomers in GBVSR. She’s great at the neutral game and all her specials allow her to control the space, but she’s not especially good at anything. Her sheep projectiles are quite slow, and her dashup is quite telegraphed. This is offset somewhat by the ease of execution, but it doesn’t hide the fact that she’s utterly unremarkable at anything she tries. Still, she’s not hopeless, it’s that you may have better character options in the game if you want to do anything she wants to do during the match.

There are all the newcomers that are in Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising so far, but the new characters are on the horizon: Lucilius, 2B, Vane, and Beatrix will be available this year. Who are you most excited about from this quartet?