Today Cygames hosted a new livestream sharing a lot of news about the upcoming fighting game Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising.
We start with a look at the story, which will be expanded with a third chapter from the original Granblue Fantasy: Versus. It'll also see the return of Lucilius as a boss.
Fans of the original Granblue Fantasy mobile game will likely be familiar with Lucilius and now he has been resurrected. Besides his original Japanese voice actor Takahiro Sakurai, he will be voiced in English by Sean Chiplock.
While Lucilius will be a non-playable boss when the game launches, he won't stay limited to that role for long. Cygames also revealed the first character pass, which will start with Lucilius himself in mid-January 2024.
After he becomes playable, five more characters for a total of six will follow in late February, April, May, Summer, and Fall of next year. It's certainly a packed schedule, and while Director Tetsuya Fukuhara didn't explicitly mention it, it's called Character Pass 1, so we can infer that there likely will be more in 2025.
Incidentally, the identity of the next character will be shared at Ganblue Fantasy Fes on December 23.
And that's not all we get today. Cygames also released an intriguing trailer for the third chapter of the story.
You can watch it below and you can also check out the beginning of the story in the on-demand recording of the livestream. It's worth reminding that your progress from Granblue Fantasy: Versus will carry over, so you don't need to replay the first two chapters if you already have.
We also get a roadmap for the game's updates on top of the new characters, including a new stage, new features, and an update of the Online Lobby in January, new game modes for the Grand Bruise! minigame, a new Online Lobby minigame, a new bonus story, and a new game mode in April.
Moving on to the cute Grand Bruise! minigames, a collaboration with the popular franchise Umamusume: Pretty Derby will bring four premium avatars you can purchase as DLC on day one, December 14.
There include Special Week, Tokai Teio, Silence Suzuka, Mejiro McQueen, their badges, and a Carrot Blade Weapon Cutout. You can watch a trailer introducing them below.
Fukuhara-san also introduced another new costume, Black Butterfly for Narmaya. It'll be available shortly after release as a reward for the first Battle Pass. Apparently, Cygames has many costumes planned for the game.
Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising will release on PS5, PS4, and PC on December 14, 2023, following a small delay.
If you'd like to see more, you can take a look at the new playable characters Grimnir, Nier, Siegfried, and Anila.
If you're interested in the JRPG Granblue Fantasy Relink, which is launching early next year, you can also check out some grandiose new gameplay from yesterday. More information about that will also be shared at Granblue Fantasy Fes.
