Why GBVS Needs and Deserves the Rising Reboot

Granblue Fantasy Versus feels quite unique in the modern fighting games culture. A lot of that is about the original anime-fantasy vibes. But also, it’s weapon-based 2D fights with an opportunity to use simplified inputs for Super and Special Moves.

Soulcalibur is similar thanks to the weapons: all sorts of swords, spears, etc. But this is a series of 3D fighting matches, and it feels so much different in practice. Brawlhalla has weapons, but this is a title from the platform fighting sub-genre and can’t be seriously compared to GBVS. Even if some other games have occasional weapons, they are not built around them.

The anime-fantasy vibes lead to awesome aesthetics and a general internal atmosphere. Granblue Fantasy Versus is very beautiful.

But… With its exceptional place among the modern lineup, this game is underdelivering. It absolutely needs this soon-coming reboot, the improved and enhanced version Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising.

Why? This article specifically answers this question. I decided to divide the reasoning into two parts: reasons why GBVS needs the reboot and reasons why the game deserves that.

3 Reasons Why Granblue Fantasy Versus Needs Rising

Let’s start from the downsides that hold the game back.

1. The RPG Mode is too basic.

I love starting an experience of playing a new fighting game from its story mode. This is a pretty decent way to get to know the world and the characters. And the introduction to the mechanics could also be helpful.

GBVS starts its story quite promisingly. An epic and mysterious disaster takes place around the floating islands. The heroes should travel around them to fight an evil Empire and mighty warriors who became victims of hypnosis or something.

We have many items to improve the abilities of the heroes. It’s a real role-playing game experience of gathering stuff and managing that in your inventory. But this huge amount of options is just unnecessary. Quite soon, you realize there is no need to go deep into this aspect. The story is too short to even bother. Everything could be done with the auto-pick button.

The item chaos makes the RPG Mode especially disappointing, as you would probably expect a grand adventure for such a system. It never happens. 

Even on its own, the story quickly loses its epicness. The mystery is untold. Considering the RPG nature of the Granblue Fantasy franchise, this downside is very weird.

2. Fighting mechanics could be less limited

I know, it’s not your Tekken with billions of moves for each character. The game follows the path of other Arc System Works games, where characters have this many moves with some possible follow-ups — similar to Guilty Gear Stive. But it feels like the system could be more vast and give more options to the players.

It is intensified with Shoto characters, Gran and Katalina. Quite often, it feels like you have a rather limited set of attacks, less tools to implement your fighting creativity.

We could have more Specials or some extra universal mechanics (again, like Roman Cancel in GGST).

No, the fights do not feel bad; don’t get me wrong. But the Rising reboot should expand the abilities of these characters and help them shine even brighter on the fighting grounds.

3. The online experience is frustrating

Oh, where to start here…

The rollback netcode technology should probably be part of every modern release. While playing GBVS, I faced some really sluggish fights. It’s not enjoyable at all.

The ranked matches don’t give you the joy (and annoyance) of interacting with your opponents. It’s like you feel a person while fighting and then stare at a dull screen without any sign of a human being out there. And with no chance to show your personality too.

The matchmaking works strangely, as I quite often was thrown into a lion cage, into a match against super-experienced opponents. It’s a mad way to learn a game. It’s a boring way to play it for those guys and girls. This problem comes from the amount of people playing GBVS. Is it dead? Walking through empty online lobbies gives this impression. But you eventually meet people in ranked fights… This aspect has a lot of promise for adjusting. And Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising does this, including even non-fighting mini-games to give players more possibilities to interact with each other.

3 Reasons Why Granblue Fantasy Versus Deserves the Reboot

Not every underdelivering game deserves a second chance. Such a decision by the developers is often based on the most pragmatic basis — money. It’s about the revenue a game has brought and the revenue it may bring thanks to a reboot.

The financial part of the GBVS history is rather obscure, and I’m not going to discuss it too much. If Cygames and Arc System Works release Rising, they have some reasons for this.

In this part, I would prefer to talk about the promises the game has even in its original version. Why does it deserve the Rising reboot?

1. The world is awesome. The characters are amazing

It’s a fully-fledged universe, filled with some of the most unique personalities. And remember the anime-fantasy vibes I mentioned earlier? Yes! It’s exactly about them.

Nothing like this exists across other fighting games. The fighting dimension of this world deserves to be explored. And the FGC deserves to have this possibility.

2. The fights are super accessible

No other game has implemented simplified inputs as nicely as GBVS. Alright, you can point at the simplicity of platform fights and the adapted input of the NRS games. But still, Granblue Fantasy Versus is the only one that combines the classic quarter- and half-circles with one-button Specials without sacrificing total control over the process (unlike Modern Controls in Street Fighter 6).

It’s a controversial topic, but if we want to see many new people getting into the fighting genre, such steps are inevitable.

3. The fighting depth is already there

It may be spread across the characters and doesn’t feel like a wide variety of options. But you will find some wonderful styles and attacks among those movesets.

Love Grapplers? Take Ladiva and destroy your opponents.

Like something unusual? Consider playing Avatar Belial, who gets stronger by consuming his own HP.

And what about Charlotta with her charging attacks? Or the unconventional power of Lowain?

This feels like a super deep basis already, and it totally deserves to get better thanks to enhancements by the Rising version.

Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising will be out on November 30. There is still enough time to play the original game and check out whether items from this article are right.

Please, share your opinion in the comments section. Are you excited about this reboot?