{"id":137655,"date":"2026-06-18T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-202699"},"modified":"2026-06-18T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T07:00:00","slug":"preview-granblue-fantasy-relink-endless-ragnarok-feels-right-at-home-on-switch-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2026\/06\/18\/preview-granblue-fantasy-relink-endless-ragnarok-feels-right-at-home-on-switch-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: Granblue Fantasy: Relink &#8211; Endless Ragnarok Feels Right At Home On Switch 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/2f857e510c11c\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/2f857e510c11c\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<figure class=\"picture\" data-uuid=\"2f857e510c11c\"><a class=\"scanlines\" title=\"Granblue Fantasy Relink - Endless Ragnarok\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/2f857e510c11c\/granblue-fantasy-relink-endless-ragnarok.large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/2f857e510c11c\/granblue-fantasy-relink-endless-ragnarok.900x.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" alt=\"Granblue Fantasy Relink - Endless Ragnarok\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\"><em class=\"credit\"><span class><\/span> Image: Cygames<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The <strong>Granblue Fantasy<\/strong> series has never particularly appealed to me. Perhaps the likes of <strong>Persona<\/strong>, <strong>Xenoblade<\/strong>, and <strong>Fire Emblem<\/strong> are to blame \u2014 my \u2018beautiful anime people in big fights\u2019 cup overfloweth \u2014 making the thought of taking on <em>another<\/em> big anime-flavoured RPG a little too intimidating. Well, after 45 minutes with action-RPG <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch-2\/granblue-fantasy-relink-endless-ragnarok\">Granblue Fantasy: Relink &#8211; Endless Ragnarok<\/a>, I think I\u2019m starting to see the appeal.<\/p>\n<p>Originally released in 2024 for PC, PS5, and PS4, Relink was a major step for the series\u2019 foray into gaming. It\u2019s been a mighty popular sausage in the years since, racking up over two million purchases and pulling in a desire for \u2018more\u2019 in the process.<\/p>\n<p>Three post-launch expansions were planned, Cygames tells us accumulated journos at the preview event before revealing the hands-on demo, but the dev felt that the game\u2019s unexpected popularity called for something meatier. Enter Endless Ragnarok.<\/p>\n<p>This is the first time that the game will be available on Switch 2, it\u2019s true, but this version adds more besides a new platform. There are new characters and storylines, fresh combat mechanics and bosses to use them on, and an all-new Conflux mode for those after something a little more roguelike-y.<\/p>\n<p>I didn\u2019t get to see all of this in my hands-on time \u2014 the devs estimate that the game is roughly 1.5x bigger now, with nearly double the playtime (<a href=\"https:\/\/howlongtobeat.com\/game\/66500\">HLTB<\/a> puts the previous version&#8217;s &#8216;Main + Sides&#8217; at 32 hours) \u2014 but from what I did catch, Switch 2 feels like an almighty fitting home for this.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"gallery\">\n<div class=\"cols cols-2\">\n<div class=\"col col-1 col-width-50\"><a title=\"Granblue Fantasy Relink - Endless Ragnarok\" class=\"scanlines\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/755c9079a1c51\/granblue-fantasy-relink-endless-ragnarok.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/755c9079a1c51\/granblue-fantasy-relink-endless-ragnarok.445x250.jpg\" width=\"445\" height=\"250\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Granblue Fantasy Relink - Endless Ragnarok\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"col col-1 col-width-50\"><a title=\"Granblue Fantasy Relink - Endless Ragnarok\" class=\"scanlines scanlines\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/8c3cf7a15f507\/granblue-fantasy-relink-endless-ragnarok.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/8c3cf7a15f507\/granblue-fantasy-relink-endless-ragnarok.445x250.jpg\" width=\"445\" height=\"250\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Granblue Fantasy Relink - Endless Ragnarok\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"caption\"><em class=\"credit\"><span class><\/span> Images: Cygames<\/em><\/figcaption><\/aside>\n<p>For series newbies like me, Relink is a little overwhelming from the jump. I was met by two tutorials on starting up my demo, which introduced me to the game\u2019s Summon and Master Trait mechanics via a huge monster battle.<\/p>\n<p>Said tutorials were refreshingly hands-off, with the game opting for a \u2018you\u2019ll figure it out yourself\u2019 approach over constant pop-ups, though it did mean that things became a little much as I was welcomed to the world of Skills, Team Up attacks, and giant transformations, all while trying to make sense of the gameplay\u2019s constant damage\/healing numbers and impact marks. PlatinumGames was initially on the project before Cygames took over, and it really shows \u2014 there&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/bayonetta\">Bayonetta<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/nierautomata_the_end_of_yorha_edition\">NieR<\/a> energy throughout all of this.<\/p>\n<p>With enough beginner\u2019s knowledge under my belt, I was thrown into my first quest, a battle against a massive foe. This flying one-eyed beastie called for some more teamwork proficiency, and I soon settled into the rhythms of using Gran\u2019s buff and healing skills to target my allies and help them out accordingly.<\/p>\n<p>The chaos of the whole thing became a little easier to parse, too. I wasn\u2019t being hit by nearly as many attacks (praise the lord for the \u2018Hold Y to recover\u2019 knockdown system), and dare I say, I even started to fire off my skills and summons without needing to remind myself of their purpose first.<\/p>\n<p>It would all be child\u2019s play for those well-versed in the game, I\u2019m sure, but for someone fresh-faced, it\u2019s the kind of milestone that I don\u2019t manage to hit with all ARPGs. Strong work there, then. If it doesn&#8217;t hit like that for you but you want to push through regardless, there&#8217;s a new Assist Mode this time around to make the combat that bit more accessible.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"picture\" data-uuid=\"9a2f35fb53cfb\"><a class=\"scanlines\" title=\"Granblue Fantasy Relink - Endless Ragnarok\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/9a2f35fb53cfb\/granblue-fantasy-relink-endless-ragnarok.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/9a2f35fb53cfb\/granblue-fantasy-relink-endless-ragnarok.900x.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Granblue Fantasy Relink - Endless Ragnarok\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\"><em class=\"credit\"><span class><\/span> Image: Cygames<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I particularly appreciated the smaller challenges thrown in during the quests, giving me a series of subtasks to think about (defeat the monster within the allotted time, don\u2019t get downed too much, destroy X number of environmental hazards) when the battle got a little hit-spongey. These giant monsters can take a hit or two <del>hundred<\/del>, so it\u2019s nice to have some other objectives on the go to keep the ol\u2019 brain box active.<\/p>\n<p>It all seemed to hold up really rather well on Switch 2, too. There\u2019s so much happening on screen at any one time that I wouldn\u2019t want to try and put a precise number on the frame rate, but I noticed very few drops even when things got especially hectic. The visual style looks a little too similar to every other pretty fantasy anime series on the system for my liking, but that\u2019s not to say it\u2019s remotely harsh on the eye.<\/p>\n<p>Having wrapped up a quest to two, I was thrown forward into the new Conflux game mode, where the combat really started to sing.<\/p>\n<p>Every game has a roguelike spin these days, and Relink is no exception. This mode had me battling through waves of enemies before hopping into one of two portals, each offering me a series of risk\/reward possibilities. It\u2019s a similar loop to what we\u2019ve seen previously with the likes of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/teenage_mutant_ninja_turtles_shredders_revenge_-_dimension_shellshock\">Shredder\u2019s Revenge\u2019s Dimension Shellshock<\/a> DLC or even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/hades\">Hades<\/a>, but there\u2019s no denying that it\u2019s a format that works.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"gallery\">\n<div class=\"cols cols-2\">\n<div class=\"col col-1 col-width-50\"><a title=\"Granblue Fantasy Relink - Endless Ragnarok\" class=\"scanlines\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/35ecd2b0ea699\/granblue-fantasy-relink-endless-ragnarok.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/35ecd2b0ea699\/granblue-fantasy-relink-endless-ragnarok.445x250.jpg\" width=\"445\" height=\"250\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Granblue Fantasy Relink - Endless Ragnarok\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"col col-1 col-width-50\"><a title=\"Granblue Fantasy Relink - Endless Ragnarok\" class=\"scanlines scanlines\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/8f6e39e509b53\/granblue-fantasy-relink-endless-ragnarok.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/8f6e39e509b53\/granblue-fantasy-relink-endless-ragnarok.445x250.jpg\" width=\"445\" height=\"250\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Granblue Fantasy Relink - Endless Ragnarok\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"caption\"><em class=\"credit\"><span class><\/span> Images: Cygames<\/em><\/figcaption><\/aside>\n<p>Every few portals, there\u2019s a boss stage, tasking you and your party to take out a bigger enemy before moving on and sweeping up some larger rewards in the process. Firing on all cylinders with the controls by this point (again, rookie stuff compared to what some people out there are capable of, I\u2019m sure), I liked the increased challenge of every stage and the potential to try out different techniques on the fly.<\/p>\n<p>Did it get a little repetitive the longer I played? Of course it did, but I&#8217;m sure the scaling challenge would have kept things interesting if I had longer than ~20 minutes with it.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s still a lot of Relink that I&#8217;m yet to see (I got only a whiff of the stacked character roster, and didn&#8217;t touch the single-player campaign), but assuming it all holds up as well as the slice I got to go hands-on with, I can see this being a hit on Switch 2.<\/p>\n<p>As anyone who played the 2024 release will tell you, co-op is where Relink really comes into its own. It&#8217;s another feature that I didn&#8217;t get to see for myself this time, but Cygames has promised full crossplay <em>and<\/em> Switch 2 wireless local co-op, too. If you&#8217;ve been dying for some late-night monster hunting with pals, this might be the place to look.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><em>Granblue Fantasy: Relink &#8211; Endless Ragnarok launches on Switch 2 on 9th July 2<\/em><em>026. A downloadable demo will be available later today. Will yo<\/em><em>u be checking it out? Let us know in the comments.<br \/><\/em><\/p>\n<p><!-- cache: html:nintendolife.com\/ssl\/nintendo-switch-2\/related-articles:197121,161060 @ 1781810972 --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"block object-related\"> <\/aside>\n<aside class=\"object object-youtube\">\n<figure class=\"youtube\" data-videoid=\"JolML6h3Lhw\" data-start=\"0\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JolML6h3Lhw?rel=0&amp;hd=1&amp;showinfo=0&amp;modestbranding=0&amp;autohide=1\">\n<p>[embedded content]<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/aside>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image: Cygames The Granblue Fantasy series has never particularly appealed to me. Perhaps the likes of Persona, Xenoblade, and Fire Emblem are to blame \u2014 my \u2018beautiful anime people in big fights\u2019 cup overfloweth \u2014 making the thought of taking on another big anime-flavoured RPG a little too intimidating. Well, after 45 minutes with action-RPG [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137655\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}