In a world where adventurers roam the skies on airships, and the floating islands of the Skydoms lead their way, the Grandcypher—an airship of massive proportions—sets out on a magnificent journey, traveling the islands, and picking up a veritable army of sellswords, knights, and mages along the way...However, these heroes of the sky will soon embark on a brand-new adventure, where battle and glory await!

In this installment of the Granblue Fantasy franchise, Ark System Works decided to go in a different direction. A direction that according to game producer Kenichiro Takaki, was always a possibility and that would surely appeal to both hardcore Granblue fans and newcomers alike. With a select cast of the most popular characters, each with their own special skillsets, you can now battle it out between your favorite Granblue characters! Instead of an RPG, Versus is a head-to-head fighter that will pit beloved characters against each other to see who the better fighter is.

Granblue Fantasy: Versus is hands down one of the most beautiful anime game this year so far. It’s visually striking with its 2.5 D highly detail art and character design, the music is perfectly matched to the environment, and the cutscenes are of very high quality. The fighting mechanics are fluid and easy to learn, but not that easy to master and purposefully worked to fit both new gamers and veterans. The art, animation, and fighting mechanics are reminiscent of Guilty Gear and BlazBlue.

All of the above is but of course, considering that the team behind Granblue Fantasy: Versus includes Hideo Minaba of Final Fantasy series fame, who is creative director and has put his gifted touch on the character design and world building—if you couldn’t tell. And Ark System Works are who brought us Guilty Gear, BlazBlue, and Dragon Ball FighterZ! Stelle Magna’s soundtrack composed by Tsutomu Narita also lends itself perfectly to the art and the action while keeping that Rocker/Final Fantasy-esque mood.

We got to play a couple of rounds as Ferry, the spirit maiden who is a cute but strong—and quick—bunny girl. It was easy to grasp the controls; strong attack, middle attack, block, special, and combos can easily be completed. Of course, speed, attack power, and strength all vary depending on the character but no matter what, the movements and attacks are fluid and intuitive. So anybody can play, but great gamers can make a killing. Ferry had a good balance of speed and mid-long range attacks with her whip, but she takes a lot of damage (or maybe we just weren’t blocking enough...). Katalina is more well-rounded with evenly matched speed, strength, power, and she’s wearing armor so she can take a hit!