Granblue Fantasy: Relink has been quiet for a while, but Cygames is clearly not done with it. The studio recently held a Closed Beta Test (CBT) for Endless Ragnarok, the upcoming expansion, and it gave players a small but telling glimpse of what’s coming. The session was short, the content was limited, and yet it was hard to walk away without feeling genuinely excited.

Right off the bat, the CBT was not designed to show off new content. Cygames was primarily using it to test crossplay, one of the most requested features since the original game launched. Because of that, the available content was kept fairly minimal and similar in scope to the demo that came out with the base game.

After logging in, players could choose between a Tutorial mode and a Quest mode. Tutorial walks you through the basics aboard the Grandcypher, while Quest mode drops you into Folca with access to three missions at the Quest Counter. The toughest boss available was a level 25 Blizzadile, which is far from the hardest content the game has to offer. To sweeten the deal though, Cygames added Beatrix as a playable character, which gave the session a lot more flavor than it would have had otherwise.

Getting to Know Beatrix

Beatrix has been a fan-favorite for a long time. She’s one of the agents of the Society, the wielder of the sword Embrasque, and often seen as Zeta’s rival. Adding her to the Relink roster is a choice that should sit well with the community.

Playing as her, the first thing that stands out is how approachable she is. She’s a close-range DPS character built around a mechanic called the Delta Clock, which lets you rotate between three active buffs: red for Attack, yellow for Defense, and green for Healing. The Delta Clock also feeds into a gauge that, once filled, lets Beatrix enter Devour Causality mode. In this state, her attack speed increases and she gains access to combo options that aren’t available in her normal form. You build this gauge through combo finishers and link attacks.

She came with five starting skills in the CBT:

Star Chaser – A projectile attack. Slower than you’d expect but hits reasonably hard.

Unchained – A dodge that can be used twice in a row and covers solid distance. Good for escaping AOE zones or recovering from back-to-back standard dodges, and with the right timing it can even chain into a combo finisher.

Thunder Bird – A leaping attack that ends in a plunging strike. Works well for closing in on bosses from a safe angle.

Riding Free – A fast dash ending in an uppercut. Very handy against bosses that don’t stay still.

Eternity Loop – An AOE debuff that applies Slow to nearby enemies.

Worth noting that the Masteries menu was not available during the CBT, so Beatrix definitely has more skills that weren’t shown here.

Now, the combo system is genuinely flexible. You can press the normal attack button anywhere from one to four times before chaining into a combo finisher. This means you can adapt to how many openings a boss gives you, which makes filling the Embrasque gauge feel natural rather than forced. Compared to characters like Katalina, whose Ares gauge resets the moment you lose momentum, Beatrix is much more forgiving. Gran and Djeeta are also beginner-friendly on paper, but they come with support-heavy kits that require situational awareness, like knowing when to boost Adept Arts levels for skill damage. Beatrix doesn’t ask much from you beyond staying aggressive and finishing your combos.

That said, she’s not without rough edges. Getting into Devour Causality mode requires you to stop for a moment and hold the triangle button until Embrasque starts glowing. The issue is that the Delta Clock rotation is mapped to the same button, which means you may accidentally rotate past the buff you wanted. In faster, higher-level fights where you can’t afford to stop moving, this transition can feel clunky. Buff switching in general feels a bit unintuitive since you rotate in normal mode or switch right after a combo finisher in Devour Causality mode, and neither option feels completely seamless. It’s a character clearly built for ease of entry, and that works in her favor for the most part, but these moments of stiffness are worth keeping in mind. Her Skybound Art animation is a definite highlight though the spectacle is noticeably stronger compared to older characters.

Crossplay and Quality of Life Additions

This was the main point of the CBT, and it delivered. Whether setting up a private room or jumping into open matchmaking, there were no connection issues throughout. For a game like Relink, where combat is fast and timing-sensitive, playing with others online and having it feel as smooth as offline play with CPU companions is a big deal. It’s still a CBT build, so refinements are likely still coming, but the foundation looks solid.

Something easy to miss in the graphics settings was a new option called Battle Effects Intensity. This lets you tone down the visual effects coming from party members you’re not controlling. Anyone who’s played Relink in multiplayer knows how chaotic the screen can get, so having the option to dial that back is a welcome addition. Director Tetsuya Fukuhara also confirmed that the full release will come with more features and adjustments to improve the overall experience.

First Impressions

The CBT didn’t reveal much in terms of new content, but it didn’t need to. Beatrix is fun to play, crossplay works well, and even within the tight limits of the test, the experience felt polished and engaging. The restricted content also works in its own way and there’s plenty left to look forward to when the full expansion actually drops.