At last week’s Anime Expo 2026, we had the opportunity to sit down with Granblue Fantasy creative director Tetsuya Fukuhara (FKHR) after the Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Endless Ragnarok stage show and ask him about the process of developing the expansion, which releases later this week on July 9th.
We asked him about everything from translating character designs from GBF to Relink to the fundamental skyfarer urge to battle against seafood…
Granblue_en: Endless Ragnarok is both an expansion with new content and an opportunity to polish the design of Relink. What do you think are the highlights for both returning players and new players?
FKHR: To repeat a little bit of what we talked about during the stage show, Relink is first and foremost known for its unique, character-driven strategies. We expanded on that with both our new systems, Master Traits and Summons. This will allow players to customize their builds further, as well as provide new opportunities for character growth.
New players have a lot to look forward to, with the pre-existing content from Relink and the new content for Endless Ragnarok. We want them to experience it as an action RPG with a massive scale. Every storyline, including from the base game, was written to resonate with all players, including those unfamiliar with the Granblue Fantasy franchise. Furthermore, we’ve rebalanced the game to make it easier for newcomers to jump in.
Granblue_en: This is also a question that was addressed out on the Anime Expo stage floor as well, but how did you pick the 6 new characters for Endless Ragnarok? Were fan requests prioritized? Play style?
FKHR: We actually don’t prioritize fan requests over playstyle; instead, we try to balance the two. Maglielle, for example, was a big fan favorite and that’s how she got in. As for playstyle diversity, that’s where you find characters like Eustace, Fraux, and Fediel, who play very differently from the existing cast.
Granblue_en: Was it difficult to design Eustace’s gameplay to be different from Rackam and Eugen, two characters who also wield rifles?
FKHR: Eustace does have the same weapon as Eugen and Rackam, but his ability to fire lightning makes him unique. Between his ammo management mechanic and the charged thunder attacks, we hope he provides a fresh play experience.
Granblue_en: And how did you translate Fediel from GBF to Relink? Her attacks in GBF mostly use claws, while in Relink she can play at a much longer range than you would expect from those GBF attack animations.
FKHR: One of the devs on the Relink team is a big Fediel fan, and he had a bunch of ideas. We let him have a lot of input on her design.
Her close-range attacks mainly use the claws as you would expect, but at long range she fires magical projectiles that allow us to show an inhuman aspect to her through her visual design. Io fires magical projectiles as well, but compared to her, Fediel feels much more like she’s toying with the enemy, which visually sets her apart.
Granblue_en: Following up on that: in your interview with RPGsite, you mentioned that the Official Cast for Fediel was used as reference for her animations as well. How much input do cast members have on fleshing out the character, whether the Official Cast or motion capture cast?
FKHR: The flow of that process started when they did a test recording and went to me for checks. What I saw there was a bit different from what I had in mind, so then we used the Official Cast as reference and combined that with written requests to move toward the final animation. It would be hard to do everything with just that feedback loop, so I also attended the motion capture recordings, and offered ideas to the motion capture actors as they were going. It became a collaborative effort.
Granblue_en: One of the great joys of Relink is the banter between characters who don’t normally interact in Granblue Fantasy. Whose banter and dialogue was the most fun to write, and whose was the most difficult?
FKHR: Gallanza sticks out in my memory. The more distinctive their personality is, the more fun it is. Charlotta and Lancelot are more difficult because they have very serious personalities, so it’s a little bit harder to find variation in what they would say.
This isn’t really about banter directly, but boss characters and villains like Beelzebub can be really fun to write because they’re allowed to use stronger and more violent language, like “Die!” or “I’m going to rip you to shreds!” which can’t be said by our protagonists.
Granblue_en: Going from Granblue Fantasy Versus to Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising added new outfits for characters. Going from Relink to Endless Ragnarok, will there be an option for cosmetic additions to characters, like outfits?
FKHR: We did want to add costumes in Relink, and there are players who may have noticed that some characters do have the option to select character outfits. We would really like to see outfits in Endless Ragnarok, so all I can say right now is “Don’t lose hope.”
Granblue_en: Endless Ragnarok marks 10 years since the announcement of Relink in 2016. You’ve talked about many of the challenges in the game’s development before, but what do you remember most fondly about those 10 years?
FKHR: I have more memories overall about the difficulties in the game’s development, but to name one thing that really sticks out in my memory…
Due to the development timeline, schedule, and costs, there was a period where we thought we wouldn’t be able to make the map for Seedhollow or the primal beast Vulkan Bolla.
However, the towns and the Primal Beasts are a huge part of Granblue Fantasy. Losing one of each of those would have brought down the impact and value of the game, so I went around apologizing and making requests of a lot of people, and in the end we managed to get both of those in, and I was overjoyed by that.
Granblue_en: Hopefully this is a good memory too – from what we’ve seen from the summons and enemy designs in Endless Ragnarok, we see a lot more of Granblue Fantasy‘s whimsy and humor. Can we expect to fight some more wacky creatures like we do in GBF?
FKHR: Wacky creatures… crabs, tuna, and albacore are all in the game.
We originally didn’t plan on having a crab enemy in the game, but in the original teaser for Relink 10 years ago, we had a crab enemy that didn’t end up in Relink. We took the 3D model, brushed it up, and put it in Endless Ragnarok as an enemy.
Granblue_en: Speaking of crabs, did you expect the wee pincers to be as popular as they were?
FKHR: Are they actually popular?
Granblue_en: Well, kind of…
FKHR: A classic element of RPGs is some kind of thing to collect, and there are some who love it and some who think it’s a pain. Because it is such a mainstay in the genre, we wanted to put that in, and we added features such as special dialogue lines that play when you find the crabs. We hope that this has made that aspect of the game more enjoyable for the players.
Granblue_en: Out of the new songs on the Endless Ragnarok soundtrack, which one is your favorite?
FKHR: Endless Ragnarok doesn’t have that many completely new songs, but the songs that play in the new opening and in the Conflux are from (Tsutomu) Narita-san and they are big favorites. While we have relatively few new songs, we added a lot of songs from the original mobile game, as well as from Versus.
Granblue_en: Thank you for answering our questions! Do you have any parting messages for the English skyfaring community?
FKHR: First of all, I’m really happy that I got to meet so much of our fan community here at Anime Expo. I’m very grateful for all their support. We are planning to have an even more expansive journey through the skies than ever before, so please look forward to that.
And this one will be a bit further out, but I hope people will also look forward to my upcoming new project.
Many thanks to Cygames for letting us talk to Fukuhara-san at Anime Expo. Granblue Fantasy Relink: Endless Ragnarok releases July 9th, and we’re just as excited to play as you are!
