okay, technically it's been here for a week or two but I've been traveling/vacationing
fighting games are sometimes portrayed as impenetrable or hostile to newcomers. and while there is truth to the idea that a newbie's first steps into the genre can be intimidating it's been my experience that fighting games and the wider FGC can be a very gratifying and inviting space to play in.
i came to fighting games on the cusp of my thirties. by all accounts that's TOO OLD DAMMIT if the goal was to be a fantastic competitor. and while I've dabbled in competitive play and hosting tournaments, the real draw is the joy of personal growth. learning a character and understanding the flow of a match. assessing weakness in yourself and overcoming them. also? if you pick the right fighting game, you might find yourself playing something bright and colorful and incredibly fun.
if you're looking to enter the genre, you might tempted to play Street Fighter 6 and that's reasonable. SF6 is an amazing game. one of the best games of 2023. but what if i told you that there was a particularly accessible game for newcomers. one that just received a near-immaculate upgrade that makes it a genre-leader for the idea of 'good package"
enter Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising. perhaps the best gateway into fighting games that's been made yet. it's not perfect but if you've been meaning to take the plunge into the genre, there's never been a better game for the job.
Lemme tell you the broad strokes! also: i'll break down some newbie friendly characters
I'm hard pressed to recall how I found the original Granblue Fantasy Versus but my suspicion is that it was a Playstation Plus sale. during the initial points of the pandemic, I played a variety of competitive games with friends but found myself struggling with group dynamics. the last few years of my life have been marred by challenges with bipolar disorder and it's led me to adjust the competitive games I play. seeking fresh challenges and shying away from team shooters, i turned to fighting games. first to Guilty Gear Strive, which i've since deeply fallen out of love with, and then to Granblue. what i found was a very solid, fundamentals focused fighting game.
There was a catch. the online play wasn't great. and we were suddenly entering a world where everyone was in quarantine and you needed good online play to support a game. so while granblue kept a dedicated group of players thanks to a fun cast of characters, it still mostly died a slow death as the FGC turned to more stable games supporting rollback netcode. Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising is a reimagining of the base game, with better online play and a robust suite of features/mechanics that creates an experience catering to veterans and new players alike. let's break it down
Why Granblue?
Granblue Fantasy Versus was a fairly "grounded" game. by which we mean both that it had a more deliberate pace than some games (a lot of walking and blocking) and it... well... it was mostly played on the ground. not a lot of air dashing or zooming around. this made it a good game for understanding some of the give and take found in fighting games. the "footsies" and neutral game that you here so much about are on full display in Granblue. and while Rising is a more explosive game with higher damage and new special moves that often can bypass this part of the game, it remains a good game for understanding these fundamental concepts.
which is to say that if you're someone who has difficulty keeping track of the intense action of games like Guilty Gear Strive or Dragon Ball FighterZ when you watch them, that's will be less of an issue here. this doesn't mean Granblue is a less "deep" game seeing as depth never is marked by a wealth of abilities themselves rather than the range of nuances you get from the sum total and GBVSR is a knowledge check-heavy game. while there are many fast and frantic characters in Granblue with some frankly gnarly neutral skips, there's many more whose gameplans revolve around pokes, whiff punishes, and positioning. We'll talk about some of these characters later.
an aspect of fighting games that often daunts people is inputting special moves. Granblue offers an alternative in simplified inputs. while you can do the quarter circles and such for moves, players have the option to use shortcuts. this can make it easier to pull off important counters and execute combos. and while it's important for fighting game players to learn the technical inputs, you're not overly penalized for using these shortcuts here.
this was met with some controversy when the developers initially explained that, unlike the original Granblue versus, there would be fewer downsides for simple inputs. this was a big change. in the original game you would get more damage and shorter cooldowns (Granblue is based off a mobile/browser RPG that you MIGHT HAVE HEARD OF because it's HUGE and thus cooldowns are a thing somewhat unique to the game; use a special move and you gotta wait a few seconds before you can use it again) but these downsides were largely removed. special moves enjoy a damage boost when you use the technical inputs raw but in combos, you can use the shortcuts without losing damage. it wasn't a decision without controversy but the result is that combos in granblue can be easier to execute than you might expect.
So! You have a game that isn't overwhelming in pace, has dozens of character to choose from, options to make your combo execution easier without sacrificing interesting routes, where most of the challenge rests in character knowledge, and it's bundled in a lovely cel-shaded art style. perhaps the best looking game of this style!
but that's not all... there's moooooore~
Complete In Box
When genre fans talk about new games, they're eager to talk about the "package" as a whole. Plenty of playing fighting games have launched in barebones shape; this is famously what nearly killed Street Fighter 5. When we talk about a package, we mean everything surrounding the core experience. We mean arcade modes and story, we mean the amount of features in your training mode. Does your training mode have frame data and other information available so players can know their fastest and most advantageous buttons? they didn't always! Tekken 7 made you pay for that shit in DLC.
Granblue offers a very robust package and a lot of that comes from being built on the ill-fated initial version of the game. There is a three act story mode that mixes visual novel roleplaying with sidescrolling beat 'em boss brawlers, there's a training mode with all the data you might desire, there's character progression for easily unlocking alternate colors instead of forking out real life dollars for fight coins or whatever, there's even a Fall Guys party mode if you need to blow off steam. which... okay, that's weird but I don't mind it.
I think there's a perception that can come when you have this much content in a game. how much dev time went into making sure you could have a character figure posing mode that could have gone into lobby stability? exactly how many resources did the fuckin' Fall Guys stuff take from the netcode wizards? and I think those are fair questions but Granblue's lobbies are (while not perfect since this is an ArcSys fighting game) entirely functional and the netcode's fine. i basically gave up on Guilty Gear Strive out of spite for its lobbies and other systems; that's not really the case here. the core experience is strong and stable, so a suite of entertaining side distractions is fine. particularly if you're also making sure that players have quick access to important training tools and community features.
it might be tempting to call Granblue Rising "bloated" or "distracted" but this is probably one of the best packages for a fighting game in the last eight years at least. core players have all the tools they need to improve, casual fans have lots of story and side games to allow them to enjoy the characters outside of competitive online play. it's very nice.
if all this sounds good, I wanna talk about first steps playing the game
There's A Free Version!
Let's finish the initial pitch. I've talked very generally right now about the game. a full collection of features, numerous characters, good online connections, side games. but that doesn't really tell you how it plays. folks sometimes called the old version "anime street fighter" to account to the grounded play and that vaguely applies here. but okay, sure. maybe you don't have any frame of reference so that means nothing.
If that's the case, you can just pick up the free version. Rising's doing something that I really like: anyone can play a limited version of the game with full access to public lobbies, ranked queue, and the Grand Bruise party mode. Now, there's some catches to this. there's only ever four characters available to free players. One of them is Gran, the all-rounder protagonist. the other three slots rotate among the cast and change every week on Thursdays. I like this a lot even if i also really wish you could just buy individual characters if you end up trying one you like. the free version doesn't allow this and it alsomakes the questionable choice of not allowing access to private rooms but if you can push through these quirks, you'll have a great chance to try the game without much commitment.
I think that the experience of playing granblue can vary greatly from character to character because there's a wide range of styles covered in the roster but it's also a game whose general flow/vibe is pretty easy to place your finger on. if you don't want to make a big commitment right away, you can simply sample characters as they cycle through the cast. chances are something will work for you and if they're really appealing, that would be your signal to pick up the game. That said...
Why Are There So Many Characters?! Who Do I Play?
there's 28 characters to pick from with more DLC coming rapidly. pretty intimidating! so let's take a look at some of the more friendly starter characters!
Gran
Shocking no one, the "Gran" of Granblue is a very good starter character and he's also the only consistent member of the weekly FTP roster. It will be tempting to think of him as the Ryu of the game: a fundamentals focused "shoto" with a deliberate playstyle. but that's not entirely the case. Shotos come in many flavors and he's more like Ken. His playstyle is fairly aggressive owing to "Overdrive Surge", an advancing move with good corner carry potential.
he can play the fireball game and has some good buttons for neutral pokes/confirms but you'll actually get a lot out of Gran by being a little more aggressive. and while corner combos are not overly difficult in Granblue Rising, he also has very easy to understand routing. pick your moments, burst forward with a flying boot kick, and hit hard.
he gets recommended over his female counterpart Djeeta mostly because he is always there for free players. Djeeta is also a good pick tho with some slight differences in play style that make her a bit more "honest" and focused on deliberate hit confirms. you can't go wrong with either but Gran's extra aggression makes him a bit more exciting even if that means he's not always as stable. you'll learn a lot of the basics of fighting games with chances to cut loose.
Katalina
If you do want a character built around deliberate pokes and neutral play, Katalina is actually the most traditional shoto in the game. Her rapier reaches far and can usually combo into a lunging follow up attack. this means decent reward for punishing other players. provided you play a bit slower, you be able to make foes pay for their big swings.
that said, Katalina does suffer from having a very traditional playstyle in a game where many characters have flashy moves for bypassing the footsies game. this doesn't mean she can't work! in fact, if you can play Kat well, you'll find yourself developing a really good skill floor for future fighting game experiences. but you may find yourself jealous of other characters with a bit more sauce. she's very good for learning fighting game concepts. I just won't be shocked if you eventually graduate to someone with more varied options.
Zeta
I really like Zeta! she has the ability to dash in various directions on screen, a very good projectile laser beam, and is the first character on this list with some actual mix-up options. My only hesitation is that you might find the initial learning process a bit tricky because some of her combos will require an understanding of when to hit someone when they are falling or what angle to dash on a confirm.
If you can work through that initial newbie friction, you'll actually find one of the strongest characters in the game as of this writing. this is because she has access to incredibly potent ultimate skills. these are the skills you spend your meter on and Zeta's allows her to, among other things, combo from anywhere on the screen and easily win fireball wars. if you have meter available, your opponent will need to respect you more than most characters in the cast. if you want someone with a bit more flash who is also able react to a variety of situations, she is an excellent choice.
Seox
Seox (just call him Six) is not the ABSOLUTE strongest character in the game by my estimation but he might be the easiest to climb ranks with. this is because he is very easy to pilot while having an amazing tool kit. Six is fast. stupidly fast. he's THE guy you want to pick if your idea of fun is running at someone and smashing buttons in their face. his pressure is incredible, he has a tricky fireball that protects his approach, a divekick that's very advantageous, and even a parry that counters pretty much anything thrown at you.
lhe also has some frankly stupid ultimate skills including an amazing upgraded version of the aforementioned divekick that he can get a full combo from. Six's ability to turn even stray hits into long strings is impressive and you'll have many chances to capitalize on that strength in early ranks, where people just really do not enjoy blocking at all. they're gonna get impatient and press a button and you'll make them explode. and frankly... if you're someone who just really wants to see ranks go up and stats increase? he's gonna be your best bet. is that shallow? maybe. but he's also That Damn Good.
Siegfried
A new addition to Rising, Sieg's about big buttons and big damage. That's about the long and short of it. His greatsword has wide swings and his Skybound Art (super attack that's not quite his SUPER super attack) is very easy to hit folks with. for a bit of added tactical depth, he's also able to sacrifice some health for a damage boost. with enough stacks of this bonus, Sieg has a high chance of deleting a large portion of the cast with relatively simple combos.
there's a few other things to enjoy here including one of the best fireballs in the game. it is very difficult to dodge and covers a large ground in neutral. he is a "rekka" character as well. this means he has a special move with certain follow up options including a grab, parry, and chunky second hits for when you land your initial strike. he's not a very complicated character even with these options. they add a bit of flavor to the gameplan but the draw here is damage, damage, damage. swing sword, give into your dragon madness. win.
Belial
I thought hard about the last character to put here and at first I worried this was too safe a pick. In some ways, he's very much adjacent to Gran and Katalina. Like more traditional shoto characters he has a fireball and reversal DP (think: uppercut) and he broadly plays the game in a similar fashion. He is more technical however. he has the ability to alter the trajectory of his fireball in tricky ways and has grab options to cycle through that keep the opponent guessing. You'll also need a bit more awareness for his combos. many of his best options must be done on crouching foes and that means recognizing the details of certain situations. this doesn't mean he's difficult necessarily but it adds a wrinkle to track.
he's also the horniest motherfucker on the planet and if you want a character with clear aesthetics/vibes he's one of the strongest picks in the cast. there's a ton of personality here and that makes playing him very fun. but that fun isn't a matter of randomness. he's a stable character. his kit has tricks and feints but those exist largely to make sure the opponent respects you and force them to guess on your options a bit more than other members of thecast and the result is a character who will teach you the game but will give you the chance to feel like a smug bastard from time to time
Caveats, Top Tiers, and Expectations
Before we conclude I want to make a few notes about the current state of the game and what mindset behooves a new player. An important thing to know is that Rising's initial launch, while enjoyable, is... well... an initial launch. The game is more explosive than before and while the majority of the cast is viable, there will be match ups or even individual moves/situations that might make you groan a bit. Ultimate Skills in particular vary wildly among the cast and you may be faced with moments where you are punished in a BIG way for what might feel like a small mistake. That's the nature of any fighting game but Rising's in a bit of an experimental phase. Give it time. Things will stabilize. And even with this noted I think this is still a very good game if you want to learn about the genre.
I will also say that while I've suggested characters that I think are both strong and beginner friendly, I've omitted one important member of the cast: Nier. She is a very popular character with a "puppet" playstyle, meaning she controls a summonable companion character. I'm not leaving her out of things because she's hard. While puppet character have that reputation, she's possibly the easiest puppet character in recent memory. perhaps ever! If you investigate tier lists, you will almost always find her at the top. She's earned that place with a variety of powerful tools that allow her to get absurd reward on hits and create difficult situations where her foes are trapped by her pressure. if you want to win, she's a good call. but I put Six on the list because he's equally powerful and slightly easier to pilot while teaching you a bit more about how the game is played. there's nothing wrong about picking either of these characters. they're cool! but you may feel carried.
here's the most important advice regarding characters: play who you think looks cool or whoever feels the most fun. I would say that 96% of the cast is very viable. it's only really a few exceptions who struggle. and it's only a few key characters who are overpowered. If a character appeals to you, I suggest learning them. Granblue's systems and pace reveal themselves quite obviously with a small amount of play time. I also really mean it when I say that this is a knowledge check game. even by the standards of all fighting games! as you play you will naturally learn the limits of abilities and special moves that initially busted your skull.
Still! manage expectations and embrace a healthy mindset. If you are new either to fighting games or just to this game in general, you're gonna lose and possibly lose a lot at first. that's normal. progress in fighting games is about small victories at first. landing a combo, adjusting to an opponent and reversing your fortunes, self-criticizing and analyzing your own habits. reaching a rank promotion opportunity even if you fail to squeeze out the final win necessary to rank up. what matters is finding a community and using the genre as a vehicle to embrace a positive competitive attitude. your growth is YOUR growth. compare yourself to no one. Granblue's world is a very appealing and adventurous one. Rising is an amazing chance to start an adventure of your own. to find growth and excitement. to express yourself.
I hope you'll give it a try. fighting games has been a huge benefit to my mental health. if you take this dive, you might find a fantastic new hobby and wonderful friends.
also they're adding 2B from Nier Automata to the game in February so if you're into that...
