Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising Deluxe Edition

I've spent enough time in fighting game lobbies to know when a genre entry is genuinely trying to lower the barrier or just pretending to. Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising lands firmly in the first camp. This is a four-button fighter built around readable fundamentals: light, medium, heavy, and a unique input slot, with each character's special moves displayed right below the health bar. Simplified inputs are the default here, not a condescending training-wheels mode, which means you can play as the sword-wielding Gran or the dual-blade Djeeta from minute one and actually feel capable. Veteran players still have depth to find in the extended combo routing and the reworked SBA (Skybound Art) gauge system, which now rewards active defense through guard spells that can restore health or charge meter. The roster at launch sits at 28 fighters, a mix of returning faces from the original Granblue Fantasy Versus and four newcomers, with the Deluxe Character Pass Part 1 bundled into this edition adding six more: Lucilius, 2B, Vane, Beatrix, Versusia, and Vikala. That pass also throws in extra color variants and weapon skins for every base character, so the Deluxe Edition is meaningfully denser than the standard version, not just a costume pack with a markup. The character-to-character variety is real: playstyle gaps between a zoner like Metera and a rush-down brawler feel intentional and well-tuned, which is the Arc System Works fingerprint doing its job. Where the game stumbles is in its single-player offering. The story mode includes beat-em-up segments that break up the one-on-one matches, but it strips out most of the RPG progression elements the original had. What remains is a decent primer for lore newcomers and a useful character audition, but offline-first players will cycle through it in a weekend and find themselves staring at a thinner content shelf. The arcade mode is serviceable. The game's real wildcard is Grand Bruise Legends, a Fall Guys-adjacent party mode where 30 players compete across obstacle courses, collectathon rounds, and survival challenges, with fighting-game mechanics mixed in for chaos. It sounds like a throwaway, but it has its own progression track and holds up as a genuine palate cleanser between ranked sessions. Netcode is where Rising earns its name back. The original GBVS had its online scene crater partly because of inadequate rollback, and Rising corrects that with a noticeably smoother online experience. The Steam community has responded: 83 percent positive from over 7,000 reviews is a solid floor for a fighting game, where salt runs high and review-bombing is a recognized sport. If you are brand new to the IP, the free-to-play base version exists and lets you try Arcade, early Story, and even ranked matches before you spend anything, and progress carries over if you upgrade. The Deluxe Edition makes sense as a purchase specifically because the Character Pass is bundled in, giving you a roster that keeps rotating as post-launch fighters continue to arrive.

Alex · Scout Team

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