Before multiple friends of mine went out of their way to sing the praises of Granblue Fantasy: Relink to me, I had no interest in the RPG. But with such energetic recommendations, I couldn’t ignore the new title from developer Cygames, set to release on February 1 for PlayStation and PC. Thankfully, there’s a demo out on PlayStation, and after spending a couple of hours with the game I was fully sold on Relink’s charms. It’s the perfect sales pitch for the game. If you too are cautiously interested in Granblue Fantasy: Relink, you have to give the demo a shot.
Demos have always been a way to sell an upcoming game by giving players a taste of the full experience. While we aren’t in the age of demo discs anymore, they have been a welcome part of digital storefronts. Two companies that make ample use of demos are Square Enix and Nintendo, both of whom offer up demos for upcoming releases all the time. Though in the case of game’s like Pikmin 4 and Harvestella, the demo gives access to the opening hours of a title with the promise that save data will transfer over to the full game’s release. More often than not, this approach feels like a way to let players who already plan to buy a game a chance to play the opening early. A little appetizer for the main course.
But a game’s opening can be a a slow burn, especially with RPGs. Thankfully, Granblue Fantasy: Relink takes a different approach, offering a small tasting platter that feels catered to those who aren’t sure if they want to buy in to the full meal. Instead of dropping players into the game’s first few hours, Relink offers players three different options when booting up the demo: Tutorial, Story, and Quest.
Tutorial is what you expect, a short introduction to the game’s core combat mechanics. Story drops you into an early section of Relink’s main narrative, but it isn’t the very beginning. This avoids forcing the player to get bogged down in the nitty gritty of the fantasy world’s introduction and instead focuses on the interesting characters you’ll be spending time with. Finally, Quest lets players choose from a selection of quests in Relink and quickly gives players a taste of what the typical gameplay loop is like. Quest even lets you enjoy Relink’s delightful online co-op with other players. By choosing to give players a wide breadth of content to experience in the demo, Relink is more effective at selling itself to players on the fence. It’s a smart approach that may work on you if you give it a try. It worked on me.
