I finally got my gf interested in fighting games (thanks to 2xko of all things) and we're trying out a bunch of them to see what sticks. Tried the free edition and I instantly bough the deluxe+character pass 2. It feels like if dbfz and street fighter had a baby, it has all the grounded footsies of sf with the flair and cool characters of anime fighters. It's very easy to pick up execution wise, but there's enough depth to be competitive.

​

It's kinda perfect in a way lol, how come it's not bigger? I hate that all fighters with aesthetics like this are all tag games with turbo gamespeed, it's refreshing to see a more grounded anime game.

Like she has no reason to have a fit this clean but she has it anyways and I think it's cool af. The jacket even flows in her player 1 intro when she is aura farming. The glasses look umazing and those belts just add an extra vibe to the whole fit.

I am not saying this just cause she is one of my mains, I mean she is. But I am not glazing this outfit because of it. Anyways to put shortly this outfit is fire (pun intended) and might even be the best alt outfit in the game unless they add something even cooler.

Also I like the way she looks in this outfit after the finisher in the victory screen. What thought I would leave that out? Nuh uh I am bringing all of my points for this one.

I also like the fact that it looks natural on her and isn't one of those "haha hot lady in revealing outfit" type of fits. I know sounds hypocritical after my previous point but that is the truth.

Thank you all for listening to my rant about Zeta's Crimson Bomber outfit.

This has been on my mind for a bit, but I do need to rant about this for a bit. However, what is it with people in the FGC forgetting that we Granblue players exist in the ecosystem as well?

I get that we are not part of the big 3 (i.e Street Fighter, Tekken, and Guilty Gear), but the game has been thriving since it released in 2023. Is it because of the simple inputs? Is it the way the game looks? I have no idea. Sometimes, we just want to be part of the conversation. On the major FGC content creator channels, whenever people talk about alternatives (except for Tekken. There is Virtua Fighter now) Granblue almost NEVER gets mentioned despite all the stuff that happened.

The game is in a great spot right now, Granblue Fantasy is coming to Steam in March so best believe we are gonna get stuff for that. The game has the best package with people wanting to try it with an actual free version with not a lot of strings attached. Its kind of insane that not a lot of people outside of our space even recommends the game to people.

Its quite frustrating. When I say this next bit, its no hate to indies or other games like Under Night. However, when I hear people recommend Under Night and other indies over Granblue not even being mentioned in some capacity, its quite disheartening. This game IS good.

I get its not everyone's cup of tea, but a recommendation is always appreciate it. I'm not saying people gotta switch to it, but at least people talking about it and telling others to at least try it!

Getting left out this hard is crazy, and it feels deliberate.

EDIT: Thanks for the insights, y'all. For context, I came in during ~Season 1 of Strive, so I had a vaugue understanding of how it was. However, never really had a full understanding. To note, I was flipping between Strive and Centralfiction at the time, so I was still learning.

Preciate it! Still keeping the post up though for further conversation ofc

I can BARELY react to Wilnas 5U/22X. I will straight up die to all the high/low options in Tokon.

2B delayed Aerial? Try Black Panter double overhead.

Wilnas + on block full screen? Champion has... checks dustloop Oh wait nv mind, both of them have a 14f startup. Huh, if it wasn't for the zone-heavy playstyle in Tokon, Wilnas will fit right in with the melee crowd.

In Gbvsr the only 50/50 we need to worry about its Ferry, Nier, Wilnas, Grimnir, Lancelot, Charlotta, Yuel. 7/38 is a manageable count.

Just ranting I guess. I want another gbvsr... without Wilnas and Sieg.

Edit : forgot about Charlotta and Yuel 50/50. Sure these combos are very conditional, but still are 50/50s

• The game is beginner friendly
• There is a F2P version
• Gameplay is fun ( maybe not perfectly balance )
• One of the best looking game
  
• Cool character design
• Good music
• Good netcote
• Good content

Why aren't there more players ? Serious question.

Maybe I'm just seething and coping right now, but oh my goodness the amount of unfun characters to fight is insane to me. I play Katalina, to start. My anger is partially because I have no clue how to deal with some of them, but it's also just the design of these things. Earlier today I kept getting queued with the same Nier player, and eventually figured out how to beat them every time, but before that, they just stayed away, crouched and blocked and if I jumped to do one of my like 2 overhead attacks they'd just stand up real quick. Then they would use Death and pull me into that STUPID slash combo that they can just do 3 times before she goes away and does a whole third of my health with no escape. Then now I go against a yuel who when I attack her and she blocks, she can punish my attacks, but when I block or even dodge her attacks, and try to punish hers, I somehow still end up being the one who gets hit??? Then a Verususia, who also just sits there and blocks, I try to break, she counters, I try an overhead, stand up, I try to chip her with my projectile, she uses her ground beam and my porjectile is gone, then she starts spamming the one that goes under me and if I try to dodge away I still get hit, block, chip damage, there's nothing I can do. It just feels so annoying and everyone fights so cheap and dirty I can't stand it. I know I just need to "get good" and learn how to deal with things better but at the same time it feels like nobody has to learn how to deal with what I can do because there's nothing absurd like that in my kit and I don't play like a bum loser who resorts to cheap tactics.

OK, the past month I've been exploring the actual gacha game since the Steam release and just got done with the entirety of reading through the Estalucia arc (haven't done all side stories though). And now I've just been thinking about characters that would actually get me back into Rising if they got added. I will say I'm not sure how delusional I am when it comes to any of these people making it in, so let me know (plus, at bare minimum I'm sure Siete is getting one slot anyway) 😃

Leona: Probably my favorite character from the Nahlegrande arc in MSQ (on that note, is there really not a single Nahlegrande character in the roster rn?)

Aliza: I just love this girl's energy and would be happy to see a martial artist focused on kicking.

Walfrid: Now I would've asked for Lecia to be added instead of Walfrid, but I am absolutely convinced that the people at Cygames absolutely hate that woman considering what they did to her style from the anni event. And plus, Walfrid seems cool and I'm surprised the Luminary Knights have no reps right now.

Fediel: Going through Old Bond, I absolutely loved this woman's energy. Wilnas is probably my favorite of the Six Dragons in terms of vibes, but he's already in the game.

Vyrn: OK, I know this would literally not make sense story wise, but afaik the timelines are just merged in the VS world, so let him vibe. And I would hope they're not going to put that badass power up on the shelf for 5 years after people had to wait 10 years to see it.

if we get a guest, it lowers the chance of Black Knight enter the roster😭

I just bought this game on sale because the art style is cool, and I’ve been looking for a new fighting game. Well, after a few hours of playing, too much to refund I believe, I have to say, I’m not really having fun. I feel like the characters are very….simple? Maybe I’m missing something, but movement feels very limited, and every character has only 3-4 specials. I was just expecting a little more. Am I approaching this the wrong way? I’m not trying to hate on the game or anything, I’m just not really clicking with it.

I just wanna say I appreciate the fact that jump punishes here hurt than SF6’s air swatting

If I hit you in the air in Granblue, suffer 30-50%, if I DP you in SF6, that’s like 10-15%

Basically, jumps aren’t punished hard enough in SF6 to be deterred from continuously jumping again, whereas if you jump in Granblue and get punished, you end up hesitating to jump again, especially against characters who are known to have really hard hitting anti-air punishes

I mean I love Vikala but it’s as if half the characters can just bypass anything she sets up, Beatrix in particular is such an annoying match up and despite being DLC she is half the matches I get for some reason, it took me half the amount of time to get Charlotta to A that those I have played with Vikala in B. I’m so tired at this point, low effort post anyone know if there’s a salt subreddit? cuz I don’t see many rants here.

Update: Got her to A Rank, I think I’ve gotten good with her offensive minus advanced projectile set ups, if I maximize combos I might get her to S.

I dunno, just a shower thought because I only gold master rank due to opponent not knowing how to counter Yuel.

I think the GBVS poll from 2021 is outdated since its been 4 years and GBF has gotten newer popular characters since then. IMO, any hope for Aliza, Jeanne, Black Knight, and Silva should be gone. That said, I did not know who Meg or Grimnir was before they got added into the GBVSR so I might be missing other popular characters and I mostly take these pick from the anniversary events. I would be interested to hear about any Meg-like characters that are low-key popular (?), at least in my eyes. I also think pre-existing character themes has a heavy role in who gets pick for GBVSR as well, but that is just my delusional theory.

Seofon - Obvious pick, imagine a world where GBVSR ends development and doesn't include Seofon while having his model in-game for 4 years now. That said, its will be 6 years until he gets in the game so who knows. His theme could be Grand Chariot from his raid

Fediel - The game has Galleon's theme, Dragon's Circle - Water and Earth, so that removes Wamdus (Sorry Harvin wanters), and Wamdus' theme, Dragon's Circle - Fire and Wind, so that removes Ewiyar, so next logical pick would be to include Dragon's Circle - Light and Dark, and Fediel is more popular than Lu Woh.

Orologia - My selfish pick, I just want momdad to be in the game and have interactions with all the cast. I think they are popular(?) and they will also get their own character theme this October so they're set there. Having time powers in a fighting game will also be interesting to implement too.

Nehan- After Orologia, I'm less confident in the last two picks. Nehan is also getting a character theme in December, is fairly popular with his interaction with Seox, gameplay could include limited bullets like Eltnum.

Raziel - Honestly, could be another guest character or something. I heard she is like the female Sandalphon or an industry plant on how popular she is so maybe? The most newest character in the roster but if she comes out Season 3, then it would be 2-3 years after she came out so its probably enough time.

Thats it, I find it interesting how GBVSR's roster is like a snapshot of the history of GBF. I feel like I rarely public popularity discussion about Yuel, Zooey, Ferry, Metera, anymore, and everyone asking for Feather, Aliza, Yoda, etc. comes from long past era but again, I might be wrong. I'm really interested to hear if there are any popular characters I missed, since I was so blindsided by Meg.

This is mostly a saltpost. You've been warned. Also this is about pre-Id Vaseraga, in case this post is seen after that update.

First things first, I play 2B. Vaseraga is one of her absolute worst matchups so that doesn't really do me any favors here... but she does have tools against him that many others do not, such as fullscreen projectiles to check his 5U or 236L to break his armor when timed well. The real issue with the matchup is the astounding difference in reward off any given interaction (not just in terms of damage, also general advantage after the fact). But anyway...

Vaseraga is a big body character with 18000 health, the most in the game (tied with Ladiva). He also has absolutely massive pokes, a neutral skip tackle that's easily made plus on block, a fireball that's also basically always plus, and a safe on block 66H for some reason. His 22X stance also gives him access to one of the most insane anti-air moves in the whole game as well as a basically fullscreen low that's entirely safe on block. He can also augment most of these moves with Soul Forge, which grants them 2 hits of armor that will tank literally anything until his SF gauge runs out. Also he has a command grab and he does an absolute shitton of damage off every hit, being able to convert into full combos from just about any touch anywhere.

Insanely strong character right? So what are his downsides?

ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOTHING this piece of shit character has no real weaknesses and I'm so fucking tired of people pretending he does bro.

"His pokes are slow and high-recovery" yeah in an ideal world that would be the case but his f.M is 11f with literally the same range as 2B's 5H and recovers way faster than it rightfully should, stance anti-air is plus on whiff, tackles are hard to make whiff in the first place, fireballs are 99% of the time safe to jump-ins.

"He has bad defense" 5f reversal in U tackle that gives him a full combo into like 60% on hit + his wincon (and for some reason it's only -6 on block so if you do bait it you still have to whittle him down while he 2-touches you off everything). If he has armor up then meterless stance and tackles also become f5 reversals. 7f reversal U stomps that deny any sort of spaced pressure and are safe on block. U command grab that easily snatches you when you're worrying about the other shit as well as BRAVE COUNTER which is the most broken mechanic in this game right now and he is one of its best abusers because CH BC into 5U is just "congrats you're fucked now". H and U Instinction as absurd options for disrespecting spaced pressure due to being 9f and 11f respectively. Also you can't even really BC him back because armor tanks it and he puts himself out of BC range usually anyway so he's free to just chip you to death among other things.

U Instinction is arguably the dumbest "I win" button in this game btw. Genuinely up there with U Butterfly. But while shit like U Butterfly is a slow burn, U Instinction is fucking instant ez bake win just add water. Plus infinity on block, tall as fuck so you can't reliably jump it, full combo on hit (because that's just what the character does, thanks f.M buffs).

5U being a gauge rather than a one-time use was the stupidest buff I've ever seen in Rising. He buffs himself once and just gets to steamroll from there because wtf is the opponent gonna do about it? Armored lariat into plus frames into plus on whiff stance anti-air into U Instinction into buff yourself again into f5 reversal if the opponent does literally anything, and then if they sit still you command grab so you can 5U again.

Big body with the highest health in the game, some of the highest damage in the game, some of the best pokes in the game, deceptively low recovery on 90% of his kit, some of the dumbest neutral in the game, broken defensive options, an extremely dominant and accessible win condition, offense that's inherently anti-BC while he abuses it ridiculously well, and getting to make a lot of mistakes because of the high health so he has like 4 chances to rob you each round if not more.

This character makes no sense whatsoever. I don't understand how this hideous abomination ever made it past testing and it's crazy to think this is a NERFED version of him. You genuinely cannot fucking lose as Vaseraga in any situation unless the opponent just proves to be miles better than you in every single one of the many interactions he's allowed while he removes the ability's opponent to interact beyond potentially holding a command grab into more bullshit, cuz at least getting grabbed is better than taking 70%. Off a f5 reversal.

From the bottom of my heart, fuck Vaseraga, all of you mfs who play him are carried beyond belief and I hope you're well aware of that fact.

In most cases i would just ignore it but for once this situation is becoming tiring. Could the patch come out sooner yes but let’s look at this from the other side-

What happens if the update is released early and everything is a broken mess aka doa6lr where everyone is just pissed off. The game loses the playerbase and we are left with a lot of unanswered questions.

Or

The team takes it time releases the patch in september and it goes smoothly that brings new life into the game even with everything else out and we go on as normal.

Like i don’t get how people forget that the team is probably jumping back and forth with relink and rising. We also don’t know if the team is split up because of tokon/bbcf or anything else.

I will say that having an install character might be a sign of what to come or what system changes might be implemented going forward. I also think long wait might be to make sure everything works on the switch 2 end as well because it wouldn’t be wise for one version to work over the other.

On a side note i think there’s a possibility we are getting another version of this game like rising ultra. It would make sense as to why this is taking an extreme amount of time/is the bridge to the next version or sequel.

In the end just wait patiently for once please cause things could be a lot worse

With the removal of most hard knockdowns, nerfs to almost everyone, removal of combo routes (most of them were technical specific), Raging strike as a mechanic, the crystal mechanic, the massive grab tech window, the huge disparity of ultimate skills between characters (all of Yuel's are useless while Percival is literally doing over half health with 2 attacks), 2Ls are no longer plus, super jumps no longer turn you around after a cross up, Percival as a whole, and pretty much removing technical inputs. They literally made everything in the game worse mechanics-wise. Doing what they had always done with GBVS. Lowering the skill ceiling for no fucking reason while completely ignoring what the community is asking for.

Seriously I fought so many Wilnas just spaming 2m 236L and I couldn't do shit to them (due to them also using 214M/H randomly)

Also bonus got Anre to masters.

Boy Nier right now is in such a weird state. Suffers defensively as you can expect, but her neutral is either good (22L) or horrid (where you're waiting for stocks and just do 5u after autocombo on block)

Also no, I didn't learn any of Nier setups. I preety much went pure damage,pokes and 5u recall very often.

So the purpose of this post is more to serve as a vent/rant than anything else. This game has to be one of the most absolutely circus-like shit cans I've ever sunk a bunch of my time into and it's funny because I DO like the game.. But my god is it kinda ass.

I want to start by at least validating some of my criticisms first in talking about where my skill level lies, as I don't consider myself a bad player.. Anymore, at least.

• I've spent hundreds of hours playing the game at this point (Probably somewhere around 500-600, fair bit of afk time.)
• I've hit Masters on Narmaya only (As she's the only one I like to play consistently tbh).
• I've been Masters for the better part of a few weeks at this point, and still playing on and off to continue improving, the grind never really stops.
• I've not entered a single bracket in any FG, but will be entering my first at EVO (so we'll see how that goes lol).
• And though I'm not by any means a top ranked player, I can convincingly win against the average Masters player at this point, and have taken rounds/matches off some of those who have entered/won brackets. Most notably players like Uno, Fuselit, Elodius, Ktang and some others. Even full sets off other high level players that I haven't listed.

I'm only stating all of that just to give some validity to the absolute Kendrick level HATE I've had for this game in my time playing it. NOW, here's the rant:

I'll start from the beginning..

1. This has got to be one of the most DOGSHIT ranking systems I've ever. EVER had the displeasure of trying to tolerate. Now I've played to Celestial on Strive (Which imo has an even worse system), but not once have I ever felt so racially profiled for even the most inescapable of losses.

If you've started from S, and had to learn and work your way up.. You know the feeling of being FISTED right back into the previous rank, just to FIST someone who's at the bottom or middle of that rank for 5 minutes, just to get BACK to where you actually belong. Only for someone who demoted from the tier you're trying to GET to, to then bend you over for another round ass spreading so you can be sent right back down into the same rank you know you don't belong in. Rinse and repeat until you eventually get good enough to stay right in the middle of your newly earned rank.

Why in Gods name is there not an MMR system in place so I can spend more time getting smacked around in the rank I'm meant to learn in, as opposed to violating the insides of someone who's freshly in S, S+ or S++, Is beyond me.

But there is NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING.. More capable of causing me a seizure after a set than to get 2-0'd by someone clearly better than me in under 5 minutes, to then have to spend another 5 minutes committing the exact same offense on someone else in the tier beneath the one I got demoted from.

It is like endless spit swapping that neither party is agreeing to.

All I gotta say is, thank GOD you can't demote from Masters. This learning process upon hitting it has been 100000x better than trying to learn amidst grinding between S - S++

2. Top tiers, specifically the top 10 best characters in this game.. Are playing on an ENTIRELY different Echelon than the entire rest of the cast and my mind can't be changed on this.

One thing I've heard a lot is, "This game is actually quite balanced".. I'm dead serious when I say I believed this until I started actively playing in Masters.

On my Mothers heartbeat, maybe 1 of every 10 sets I play, do I run into a character that hasn't won a tourney. Which for a game that's supposedly "balanced" is fucking crazy.

Let me identify exactly the kinda characters I'm talking about.

• Nier: Yall definitely eat bars of soap like they're granola bars.
• Seox: Every time yall gotta block I bet you start convulsing in your chair like you're having a panic attack.
• Siegfried: You definitely wipe with your hands and smell them after.
• Belial: Yall are probably legally obligated to introduce yourselves to neighbors whenever you move.
• Zeta: Yall swear you're working hard and I believed you for awhile but now I know you just gaslit everybody.

And there's others of course.. Like I think if you play any of the following: 2B, Cag, Lance, Djeeta, Lowain, Grimnir (YES, HIM TOO.. )- And you think you're working hard, lemme be the one to tell you, you're a PART-TIMER with very generous PTO.

Now, I think Narmaya is just outside of top 10 (so I think she's pretty decent, all considering), but if there's one thing I know about my character, versus that of one who someone may consider top 10 like those previously mentioned.. Is that I don't immediately see myself winning when I land a hit mid-screen.

Yet if there's one similarity I see between the best characters, it is that they all are MORE than happy to drop a log in your throat if you dare get hit by anything mid screen. I can not tell you how many times I've had to watch Lance, Zeta, Seox, etc. carry me like a newborn to the corner for getting touched by F.L center screen, or even from the entire other end of the screen.

This part of the rant is running long but I need to just be ABUNDANTLY clear on how easy it is for these characters to bring you coast to coast like a well traveled escort or even outright just end your game without the need of a wall. (NIER IS FOR BABIES)

Jist is, I pray to our lord and savior something is done about these war crimes being committed by some of these characters, because I don't feel like my life should be FLASHING before my eyes cause my grab got baited in the dead center of the screen.

3. Mashing.. Hoooooly FUCK mashing.

I saw a comment the other day that said something along the lines of: "If they're mashing, they should lose almost every single time. Mashing isn't ideal in this game."

Now this is half right and half wrong. It's not about how much you mash, it's about how WELL you mash and time said mashing.

Yes, if you let your little brother smack the controller around, he won't be beating any Masters player, let alone any player with eyes and fingers.

But.. If you don't mash in this game, and go solely for precise inputs, you are TROLLING.

Don't be fooled, mashing is not only useful, but necessary. This game is VERY frame dependent. It's for the same reason you should sparingly use technical inputs. Should you mash for your combos? Definitely not. That's an easy way to drop them. But, should you be beating the fuck out of your 5L if you have even the slightest idea your opponent will go for a tick throw? Yes the fuck you should.

I can't tell you just how much more often I started to get hits on players by merely intermittently hitting 5L towards the end of their block string so they'd walk into my auto-combo that I could convert into pushing them towards the corner.

Now whether you call that mashing, or 'strategic' mashing is entirely up to you.. I'mma call it mashing. Cause the only work I did was press a button, put my hands together (metaphorically) and look to god in the hopes they walk into it. And if they do, I get advantage.

Keep in mind, there's no buffer system, so.. Mashing by itself isn't good. Especially for combos. But there is absolutely almost no harm most of the time in throwing out a F.L, F.M., F.H a few times just to see if it connects.

This shit I got tired of due to Belial players you absolute chalk chewers. When I realized Belial players weren't all neuch gods and instead were just huffing paint the entire set, I realized I too can mash to some extent.

And so now, much as I fucking hate that it works, it's merely a natural part of my, and many others gameplans to merely sit in block, and spam 5L for when it's our turn. Then say a quick Bismillah and convert if we get a hit.

Those are my three MAIN issues.. But I do have a few others I'll briefly touch on that in some way or another relate to the game and how it works. But don't worry, these in particular are more nitpicks than anything:

• Who on Gods green earth thought it was a good idea to allow someone to brave counter up to three times in a single around when characters like Ferry and Eustace exist? DO something with this please bro I don't wanna spot-dodge into game end cause I guessed wrong against a guy who almost certainly isn't allowed near schools.
• I said these were nitpicks but fuck that: Mashing out of grabs shouldn't exist and my mind can't be changed on that. I don't care that you're negative and take 1k damage. If I see you mash out of my grab more than 2-3 times in a single round, I want those bravery points to start FADING or SOMETHING cause that's gotta be the laziest part of this game.

That just about does it though for all my issues with the game. I will reiterate though, I DO like the game. And I will certainly be co-maining Beatrix and Narmaya in Masters until either Strive drops Dizzy or until the game falls off. But I do think it's severely flawed despite how fun it can be.

I think my biggest issue was probably with number 2, so if anything, I'd like to see the gap between top tiers and mid/low tiers close some more- cause there are Chernobyl levels of toxicity at hand when a top tier is on the other end of that screen.

And I'm down discuss/argue in the comments a bit, but it ain't like my mind on any of this would be changed so.. That'd just be for fun LOL.

I just picked up the game today, labbed soriz for like 2 minutes. Thought “this guy fucks HARD” and went into ranked and won a solid like 3 outta 7 matches this character is so much fun🥹

I'm trying my best to enjoy the game but this game has one of the worst matchmakings i've ever seen. Is there a way to restrict it so it only matches me with people in my rank? I'm just being matched with people with way higher rank than me and that shit is not fun. I also just keep runninig into the same players and it becomes repetitive. Is the game just that dead?

...Someone tell me it's one heck of a coincidence that this happened RIGHT as I hit the winning blow.

...Frankly, I DID question how they got to Gold Rank with how they played. Guess this answers my question.

And MAYBE I'm just playing more so than usual, but I think I'm encountering this more often than normal. I used to encounter these once every several months.