Granblue Fantasy: Relink is a cooperative action RPG based in a sky-world that has seen over two million sales to date. Known for its dynamic combat and ensemble cast of characters, Relink will soon be getting a major expansion called Endless Ragnarok, which will add a new story, new playable characters, expanded combat systems, new quests, new progression systems, and even a new game mode.
In addition to getting a chance to play the game, which I thoroughly enjoyed (I’ll share more on our next podcast), I also had the opportunity to sit down with Tetsuya Fukuhara (Creative Director of the Granblue Fantasy series) and Sanshiro Hidaka (Director of Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Endless Ragnarok) at Summer Game Fest Play Days for an interview. Below is a rundown of many of the things I learned during my time spent with them.
As the Granblue Fantasy franchise continues to increase with video games, anime, comics, and novels, there was so much enthusiasm and desire for more content in Relink, so the developers took notice. But the game wasn’t originally intended as a live-service game, so they went with a major expansion to Relink. But instead of just adding new stories and characters, they’ve also revamped the user interface, introduced many quality of life features, and adjusted the game balance. Endless Ragnarok’s narrative will begin after completing the Relink late game quest of The Tale Bahamut’s Rage. All in all, they are adding 1.5 times the content from the original, resulting in at least 20 to 30 hours of additional playtime.
New characters include Gallanza and Maglielle (who are now allies), Beatrix, Eustace, Fraux, and Fediel. And each of these characters will focus on one of the brand new six elements being introduced in this expansion.
The combat system is also evolving to introduce a summons system, where players can call and control new allies to take the spotlight for a temporary amount of time. On top of more powerful moves, summons are also invincible. Some summons will also increase the amount of recovery items or produce a barrier field where you can also gain invincibility when you enter it.
They are also adding a new progression system into the game that will be applied to every character in order to provide a fresh experience for longtime players but also give more avenues for player expression. So now, every character will have three play styles using the master trade system. If you are familiar with the Diablo series, it will be a similar experience. As you play with a character, you will gradually unlock more features in the play style you select.
The assist mode (an accessibility option that helps the player choose when to evade or what skills to use) can also be enabled within the higher tiers of Endless Ragnorok, a change from the base Relink game, in order to help more players experience the full game even if they are not high level action gamers.
The developers were particularly excited to bring Granblue Fantasy to Nintendo Switch 2, stating the local wireless play as something they are especially looking forward to having. This will give players the opportunity to play the game in the same room with friends, which harkens back to an era when people would gather together with their mobile systems and play in the same room.
As far as the technical aspects of bringing the game to Switch 2, the developers cited crossplay as one of the more difficult pieces, because every platform has vastly different UIs and methods of matchmaking, so they had to rethink how they were going to present all of that.
They were also able to take advantage of the DLSS GPU to up the graphical quality up to their standard, as they really wanted the experience to be the same within handheld mode and docked mode, even making sure the game runs at the same frame rate in both modes. They are really proud of how the game works in handheld mode and believe it will be just as seamless as when players are on their TV.
Another thing they are looking forward to with new players coming in from Switch 2 is the inclusion of crossplay. They suspect that players who are already enfranchised in the series will be able to guide the new players through the experience in a satisfying and fun way, so there be community support for the fresh faces coming into Relink.
System wise, the way co-op matching works is that it creates a room for everyone to identify the goal or the quest that they’re all gonna go on together before you all move on. So this provides a way for everyone to get on the same page before you undertake co-op quests.
There’s also a new system coming to the game called backup characters, where you can set a backup character for another player to use. So if you’ve made a lot of progression for a character, you can set them as your backup character, and then you can enlist someone else’s backup character to help you make progress even when you’re playing solo. So even if you’re not playing directly with that person, you can still benefit from literally playing with a veteran friend’s character.
For those who have played through Relink already, there will be many reasons to start at the beginning again, as they have made adjustments even at the very start of the game. For example, they have now included a five minute introductory video to introduce players to the world and help them understand why they’re on this journey in first place. They’ve also added new events and new story scenes that pop up early on to deliver the narrative even better than in the original release.
With new players, they really desire to give them a smooth experience in getting to the Endless Ragnarok content, so the original Relink content has been greatly adjusted to make it easier to catch up to veteran players who are going to be zooming to the Endless Ragnock content. They stated that t’s not really a simplification of the game, making it easier, but it involved adjusting certain, unused character skills so that they’re more fun to use.
Also, the introduction of the Conflux will provide an easier method to progress and enhance characters, which also makes the late game content even more approachable at an earlier stage than it would have been before.
They also noted that since they were developing Endless Ragnarok for over two years, they had a lot of opinions come in from fans. In fact, there were over 700 opinions to go through—from character adjustments to UI. And they do plan to release more details on all the adjustments they have included in this expansion directly before its release.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Endless Ragnarok will be available on July 9, 2026, for Nintendo Switch 2, PS4, PS5, and Steam; and it will be rated T for Teen. The Standard Edition (physical and digital) will be $59.99 MSRP, while the Special Edition (digital only) will be $79.99. The Upgrade Kit will be $29.99 for the Standard Edition and $54.99 for the Special Edition. The choices for spoken voices in the game will be English and Japanese, while there will also be options for Enlish, Japanese, French, Italian, German, Spanish (Spain), Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), and Korean subtitles.
For those who want to check out the game early, there is a free demo available now on the Nintendo Switch 2 eShop.
You can learn more about the game at https://relink-ragnarok.granbluefantasy.com.
Steve is the Senior Editor of NintendoFuse and co-host of the NintendoFuse Podcast. He’s been a Nintendo gamer since age 6 and has been on staff with NintendoFuse since 2008.