Granblue Fantasy: Relink came out in 2024 and quickly became a favorite among action RPG fans, even though the story was never the main reason to play it. Endless Ragnarok is the first full paid expansion for the game, arriving almost exactly two years after launch. It lines up with Relink's debut on Switch 2. I sat down with this DLC expecting a few new bosses and some bonus endgame content. Instead, I found an expansion that fundamentally changes character progression.
It's an expansion built with a specific audience in mind, though, not everyone who ever booted up Relink. The story here is thin, the difficulty spikes hard right from the start, and anyone who dropped the game right after the credits rolled might feel lost from the first quest. But if you were looking for a reason to dive back into Zegagrande with real enthusiasm, Endless Ragnarok gives you one and then some.
Summons and Master Traits Change How You Build a Party
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The biggest mechanical addition is the Master Traits system, a new tree you can freely switch between three styles. It unlocks passive bonuses only once you've activated several connected nodes at the same time. This applies to every character in the game, not just the new ones. Even my already fully built-out Captain got a genuinely new way to combine healing skills with damage output. Being able to freely reset points means experimenting with builds doesn't cost me lost resources, which the base game was sorely missing.
Then there are Summons, which finally give Lyria a real role in combat instead of keeping her confined to story scenes. Calling in a powerful creature for a dozen or so seconds can strip a massive chunk off a boss's health bar, but the Summon gauge fills slowly enough that I have to think about the best moment to use it rather than firing it off on reflex. A few bosses can still dodge out of range mid-summon animation, which sometimes makes the resource feel wasted, but overall it's a mechanic that genuinely changes the pace of the toughest fights.
The Conflux Is a Roguelite Loop That's Hard to Put Down
The Conflux is a new mode where I hop through a series of portals. Each run consists of random fights, minigames, and modifiers before I reach a payout of sigils, materials, or crewmate cards. A single run usually takes me fifteen to twenty minutes, so I naturally catch myself thinking "just one more before I stop," and then an hour disappears.
This is the mode that did the most to fix a problem that used to annoy me in the base game, namely having to replay the same story missions over and over just to farm the materials I needed.
It's a shame the Conflux doesn't support co-op in any form, while the rest of the endgame is built around playing together. That's an especially odd call given that local co-op only exists now, and only on the Switch 2 version, so players on every other platform are still stuck with online play or soloing with bots.
Six New Characters Genuinely Expand the Roster
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Beatrix, Eustace, Fraux, Fediel, Gallanza, and Maglielle join a roster that was already pushing thirty characters. Unlike some of the earlier bonus additions, each of them plays noticeably differently. I spent the most time with Beatrix, whose Delta Clock lets her rewind to an earlier point in a combo mid-fight, which changes how I plan out entire attack strings. Fraux, on the other hand, runs on a mechanic built around maintaining a specific distance from the enemy, so she plays nothing like a typical melee brawler.
These aren't repainted variants of existing classes. They're characters with a distinct mechanical identity of their own, and that's something I can't say for every new boss in this expansion. A fair number of the fights in the Conflux and on the higher difficulty tiers are essentially reskinned versions of enemies from the base game, with a few new attacks bolted on top, and that becomes obvious after a dozen or so hours of grinding.
The Story Is Just an Excuse for the Next Fight
Endless Ragnarok bills itself as an epilogue to the base game's events, picking up right after the defeat of the Astral Lilith, as mysterious gateways of chaos start opening across the sky. The problem is that the story here is literally an add-on to the quest board structure rather than a thread of its own to follow.
After finishing a handful of missions, a short cutscene plays, sometimes under a minute long, and then I'm straight back to the next quest. In the base game those breaks at least had some room to build tension. Here they feel more like progression rewards than actual storytelling.
The characters pulled in from the old mobile game get plenty of lore attention here, but the existing Relink cast doesn't really do anything beyond reacting to events from the sidelines. I get that a two-year production cycle made something more elaborate difficult to pull off. Even so, this is the first time in the series where the story felt like it existed just to justify the next quest, instead of the other way around.
The Entry Barrier Is Too High for Returning Players
The most frustrating moment in this expansion came right at the start. The rank-up quest that unlocks the actual Endless Ragnarok content pits you against Seofon and Tweyen. The difficulty simply assumes you already have maxed-out gear and sigils from the base game. I bounced off that fight several times before realizing the problem wasn't my tactics. I just wasn't prepared enough.
That's great news if you've been grinding Relink nonstop since launch, but rough if you're coming back after two years with a solid but not maxed-out build. The game never explains this barrier upfront. It just throws you into the deep end and assumes you'll catch up along the way, which for some players might be reason enough to shelve the expansion instead of diving in right away.
Endless Ragnarok Is a Reward for Those Who Stuck Around
As a fan of the base game, I came out of Endless Ragnarok happier than I expected. The Master Traits system and Summons genuinely expand how I build my party, and the Conflux is one of the best endgame loops I've seen in this kind of game in a while. The story gets left behind, though, and the entry barrier at the start will discourage anyone hoping for a gentle way back into Zegagrande.
If you loved the original Relink and were looking for a real reason to come back, Endless Ragnarok is that reason, and a good one. If you were lukewarm on the base game or dropped it halfway through, this expansion probably won't change that.
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Known for its dynamic combat, ensemble of versatile characters, and thrilling online cooperative play, Relink returns with expanded solo and multiplayer content, bringing endless adventure to skyfarers both new and old.
