Granblue Fantasy Versus – Hands-on experience

Granblue Fantasy Versus is a game that we’ve been eyeing since we first wrote about it. So when we were lucky enough to get the closed beta code, we were quick to install it and got to play the game for a few solid hours.

Here’s a short video clip we took of our beta test session:

Intro

Granblue Fantasy Versus is the latest fighting game developed by Arc System Works, the company that developed Blaz Blue, Guilty Gear, and Dragon Ball FighterZ. It is based on Cygames’ Granblue Fantasy (GBF) mobile game, which has a large player base not just in Japan but also around the world.

Getting connected

When we got in, we quickly found that the closed beta only allowed us to play online matches. It’s clear that Arc System Works wanted to ensure that things like server performance and latency wouldn’t be an issue. No problem, we could live with that.

There are four regions available for the game: Asia & Oceania, North America, South America, and Europe. Each region has servers spread across different countries, all with a robust number of lobbies to join. We picked a random lobby (each lobby hosts 64 players max) and started to play some matches.
Connection times weren’t too bad, though we felt like it could have been faster. There were some stutters during one of our matches but that could be due to server lag; we didn’t experience any other issue with that same map later on.

The hands-on

For this closed beta, five out of the seven announced characters were playable. All characters come with one or more Unique Actions, a few skills, and a super attack that’s called Skybound Art in this game. There’s another version called Super Skybound Art, which you can use when your character portrait starts flashing (health below 30%).

These supers are really cool to watch too! Check out our short compilation clip of Skybound Art we managed to execute:

Moving on, controls were as easy as the devs promised. You can execute skills just by pressing the skill button (R1 by default), or while holding down the Back, Down or Forward button along with the skill button. The commands felt very responsive and the pace of the game was not too fast, which is what may scare off those who aren’t as used to fighting games.

The developers were even nice enough to prepare a beta guide and a page listing all the commands for the five characters. The thing that we found really neat is how the Command Lists come with animations, showing you how the move will play out.

From our experience so far, each of the five characters has a distinct playstyle and we enjoyed playing all of them. There weren’t any unbreakable combos or stupid air-juggles either so that’s a big relief.

Final thoughts

Granblue Fantasy Versus is proving to be a fun title and a great entry point into the fighting game genre for fans of the Granblue Fantasy. The way we see it, it’s not too simple that hardcore fighting game players wouldn’t be able to enjoy it. There’s definitely enough ‘meat’ to this game and we can see it becoming a popular title with time. As expected of an Arc System Works game!

If you’re interested in Granblue Fantasy Versus, the game is scheduled to be released sometime in 2019, though the exact date has yet to be confirmed. We expect that to be announced at this year’s E3 2019, however, along with additional details such as new characters.

For now, you can learn more about the game by visiting the game’s website.

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