On May 14, Cygames officially opened pre-orders for Granblue Fantasy Relink: Endless Ragnarok, releasing two new trailers that confirmed new playable characters, a summon system, and the single-player mode “The Conflux.” The game is scheduled for a global release on July 9, 2026, coming to Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, PS4, and Steam.
The pre-order announcement itself was expected. But one detail stands out: the Steam version’s bonus items for the original Granblue Fantasy mobile game are now fully synced with the console versions. For Steam players of the original Relink, this is news that took over two years to arrive.
The Original Steam Version’s Bonus Problem
To understand why this detail matters, we need to go back to February 2024.
When the original Granblue Fantasy Relink launched, the Steam version’s bonus page clearly stated that it included no in-game bonus items for the mobile game, while PlayStation players received their rewards as usual. The logic behind this wasn’t hard to grasp—Steam’s refund policy meant players could claim bonus codes and then request a refund, posing an operational risk for Cygames, which relies heavily on the mobile game’s economy. The fighting game Granblue Fantasy Versus had faced similar issues before.
But from a Steam player’s perspective, none of that reasoning mattered. What mattered was a simple fact: same game, same price, less content.
It wasn’t exactly a major controversy at the time—the original game peaked at over 100,000 concurrent players in its first week and sold over two million copies in its first month. But the missing Steam bonuses remained a persistent irritant for over two years. With the Endless Ragnarok pre-order announcement, multiple Japanese outlets confirmed that bonus items would be available across all platforms. For some veteran Steam players, this change may carry more emotional weight than the new characters themselves.
29-Character Roster and Summon System: From Co-Op to Solo-Friendly
Bonus issues aside, let’s look at what’s actually being added.
The latest trailer confirmed two new playable characters: Fraux (VA: Azumi Asakura) and Fediel (VA: Asami Tano), with the antagonist “World” (VA: Atsushi Tokudo) also making his first appearance. A total of six new playable characters are being added. Combined with the original roster, the total playable character count reaches 29.
That number puts it in the top tier of co-op ARPGs. But with quantity comes the question of balance—the original game caught criticism late in its lifecycle for the viability gap between certain characters in high-difficulty content.
The new “Summon System” is worth unpacking. According to official details, players can equip “Summon Stones” obtained through story progression to call in primal beasts for support during battle. Certain special characters like Lucilius (VA: Takahiro Sakurai) and Rolan (VA: Hiroshi Kamiya) can be directly controlled as if they were party members. The unlock condition requires clearing the original game’s main story, with summons only usable in high-difficulty quests in the new content. That’s a non-trivial barrier, suggesting the summon system is primarily aimed at returning players.
For the original game’s late-stage pain point—”can’t find anyone to co-op with, so you’re stuck grinding alone”—the summon system essentially provides solo players with a temporary teammate while also reducing reliance on specific party compositions.
“The Conflux”: Room for Solo Players
The single-player mode “The Conflux” is another targeted fix. It features randomly generated stages with roguelite elements—players accumulate exclusive buffs as they progress, growing stronger the deeper they go, with substantial weapon and sigil materials rewarded for defeating bosses at the deepest levels.
The design intent is clear: give players who don’t want to or can’t find co-op partners a solo content pool they can invest in long-term. It doesn’t solve the social experience problem of co-op, but it offers an alternative for those moments when no one’s around to play with.
Editions and Pricing
For editions, the standard full version is priced at 59.99 USD, with a special edition at 79.99 USD that includes a DLC bundle and special character color variants. Players who already own the original can purchase an upgrade pack: the base upgrade pack at 29.99 USD includes all new content, while the deluxe upgrade pack at 54.99 USD adds the special pack and DLC bundle. In the Hong Kong PlayStation Store, the standard edition is priced at HKD 408, the special edition at HKD 538, with upgrade packs starting at HKD 239.
This pricing structure is fairly standard for Japanese developers’ enhanced editions—returning players get a discounted path through the upgrade pack, while new players get a more straightforward deal by purchasing the complete edition directly. One thing to note: Steam does not support pre-ordering and only offers wishlist registration for now. The sigil set included as a console pre-order bonus is a practical item, and Steam players may need to wait until launch to obtain it.
Cross-platform play is another point worth mentioning. Based on feedback from the closed beta test, cross-play functionality ran smoothly with no noticeable latency issues. The Switch 2 debuts as a platform for the series, and cross-play support means new players on this platform won’t have to worry about finding matches.
The Cross-Platform Reasoning: Why Steam Got Equal Treatment This Time
Coming back to the bonus sync. The announcement of unified bonus items across all platforms may look on the surface like Cygames extending an olive branch to Steam players, but the underlying drivers are likely more pragmatic.
A key feature of Endless Ragnarok is cross-platform play. Players on different platforms can enter the same matchmaking pool and fight side by side in the same quests. Once cross-play enters the picture, platform-exclusive treatment becomes harder to justify. Picture it: a Steam player and a PS5 player team up to clear the same boss, but one of them gets fewer bonuses simply because of their platform. That kind of disparity is hard to maintain in a shared co-op ecosystem.
In other words, the unified bonus policy may be less about goodwill and more about a passive adjustment in distribution strategy—cross-platform play makes platform-exclusive privileges harder to defend.
The Switch 2 may be another driving factor. As a new platform for Endless Ragnarok, a significant portion of the Switch 2 player base will be experiencing the series for the first time. If the new platform’s treatment mirrored the original Steam launch, the impact on player acquisition would be predictable.
From an industry perspective, Endless Ragnarok offers a case study: as cross-platform play becomes standard, platform-based disparities are shifting from “explainable business decisions” to “contradictions that are increasingly hard to sustain in practice.” Whether Cygames will extend this unified platform strategy to future titles remains to be seen.
All game screenshots, character designs, and related assets referenced in this article are the property of Cygames. The article itself is an original work of commentary and curation. Please credit the source if reposting. For copyright concerns, contact yomiqo@126.com.
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