The mobile gaming market is huge in Japan. Here in the UK, mobile gaming has never really taken off in the way that many predicted, but it is a huge market in the Far East. In 2015, it was estimated that the market was worth $5.15 billion. It also can’t be a coincidence that the very same year, the home console market hit a 24 year low. There are a number of mobile that have become huge hits in Japan, yet are relatively unknown in the west, one of these being the Granblue Fantasy series.
Granblue Fantasy originally seemed like it was aiming for the retro Final Fantasy market, and brought on board FF’s art director Hideo Minaba and composer Nobuo Uematsu. It became a big mobile hit in Japan, with users spending on the game monthly via microtransactions. The franchise has expanded since its 2014 release and has a number of novels and an animated series behind it, with a second series currently airing now.
They’ve branched out more recently, with an action RPG by Platinum Games also on the way, but I managed to get a hands on with possibly the most interesting addition to the franchise, a 1 on 1 fighting game called Granblue Fantasy Versus. I have to level with you, I am not a fighting game expert at all, but I really enjoyed Granblue Fantasy Versus.
READ NEXT: 25 Best Fighting Games Of All Time
The first thing that you’ll notice about Granblue is its amazing anime graphics. Reminiscent of the likes of the BlazBlue (unrelated to Granblue) game series, Granblue’s characters are big, colourful and detailed, they move silky smooth and are accompanied by varied, detail filled backdrops. Similar to other fighting games, Granblue employs analog stick movements and button presses to achieve special moves, similar to the likes of Street Fighter.
Often these special moves will halt the game and launch the game into a mini-anime style cartoon just before the attack hits. One interesting feature is that each character has a special attack that they can only use when their health drops low enough, meaning you have this last ditch chance to hit it and get back into the fight, or in my case, gain victory and totally feel smug about it.
I’m going to look into Granblue further as I really love the look of this game, and I think it could be the first game that tempts me back into the world of fighting games in nearly 25 years.
Granblue Fantasy Versus is due to hit the PS4 soon.
MORE GAMING:
– 25 Best Survival Games You Should Play
– 30 Best PSVR Games You Should Play
– 25 Best PS4 Single Player Games You Should Play
Some of the coverage you find on Cultured Vultures contains affiliate links, which provide us with small commissions based on purchases made from visiting our site. We cover gaming news, movie reviews, wrestling and much more.
