After she learned Granblue was getting a Cygames-supported English version, Dawn says Granblue was suddenly the only thing she was interested in doing on her phone. My friend Dawn, a 20 year-old who admits she used to be “mostly passionate about idol gacha games,” is the leader of one such crew. Granblue enables this through the ability to create and join “crews” in order to gain buffs and participate in guild-only events.
One of the main aspects of any social mobile game is of course communication with other players. But the players say it’s something more ineffable - the connections they make with one another through playing and helping each other through the game.
You could point to Granblue ’s full voice acting and many promotional crossover events with licenses such as Love Live! and Persona. So what else drives a player base to stay with a game in which the entire premise revolves around grinding boss fights? Despite Cygames raking in approximately $238 million in 2018 from Granblue, it’s still overshadowed by juggernauts such as Fate/Go and Puzzles & Dragons. Longevity is a challenge plenty of mobile-games face - even popular, franchise-driven games such as Sailor Moon Drops sometimes can’t survive in the market. I think Granblue ‘s gameplay is part of the reason for its longevity, along with its characters and writing.” But once players get over the learning curve, the game becomes deep and rewarding. The wiki tries to fill in the gaps when possible.
“Even the game itself doesn’t explain its major gameplay mechanics thoroughly, such as weapon grids. Granblue has a significant learning curve that can deter players,” Adlai tells me. “One of the biggest challenges the wiki still tackles is explaining the game to new players. I spoke to one of the moderators of the Granblue Fantasy Wiki’s Discord channel, Adlai, about the challenges the Western fanbase might face as Granblue only becomes more popular. And people cannot get enough of it.īut how exactly do Western gamers just jump straight into a game with a two-year delay from the main Japanese base? By being inventive, sharing knowledge, and forming strong cohorts of organized English-speaking player-groups. The core loop is simple: you “roll” for good weapons and characters, then kill a few hundred monsters for rare items. The main goal of Granblue is to collect enough powerful weapons to build a “grid,” or an armory of powerful equipment for your party. You take on the role of either Gran or Djeeta - your standard boy or girl protagonist - and traverse the skies with your mysterious friend Lyria, dragon-lizard Vyrn, and a colorful cast of crewmates. It was released in Japan in 2014, but didn’t see an English language option until 2016. Granblue is a fantasy-inspired adventure role-playing game developed by Japanese studio Cygames, also known for their work on Shadowverse and Dragalia Lost. In fact, the game’s community has flourished internationally not despite, but because of Granblue‘s myriad barriers to entry. But the reality is very different: die-hard and casual players alike have embraced Granblue for its unique gameplay by collaborating on guides and establishing guilds.
With complex charts on how to build “weapon grids” and pages that sometimes resemble novels rather than quick how-to guides, Granblue ’s intricacies might seem to target only attract a dedicated minority of players rather than casual newcomers. Thankfully, sites such as the Granblue Wiki exist to aid players getting into the game. Granblue isn’t officially supported by any English-speaking app stores or marketplaces, however this limited accessibility hasn’t hindered its massive popularity in the west. How Granblue Fantasy Players Built a Community How Granblue Fantasy Players Built a CommunityĪlthough Japanese role-playing games have a tradition of being single-player affairs, Cygames’ mobile and browser title Granblue Fantasy is anything but.