After Granblue Fantasy: Versus originally released on PS4 in North America earlier in March, Xseed Games and Cygames brought the gorgeous Arc System Works developed fighter to PC via Steam with some enhancements and one compromise. Granblue Fantasy: Versus is still 2020’s first must have new fighting game. It has an excellent tutorial, a great story mode, brilliant music, and a varied roster.
Arc System Works developed fighting games often arrive on Steam after the console versions and Granblue Fantasy: Versus continues this tradition. The PC version has been handled by Xseed Games and the port is excellent. I’ve been playing Granblue Fantasy: Versus on Steam over the last two weeks and here’s what you need to know.
Granblue Fantasy Versus PC requirements
Despite being a PS4-only game initially, Granblue Fantasy: Versus has requirements on the low end when it comes to PC. You will likely have no trouble running this game at high settings even on older hardware including laptops with a discrete GPU. There are a lot of graphics options you can tweak to enhance your experience further as well to ensure you get a rock solid 60fps which is crucial in a fighting game.
Granblue Fantasy Versus minimum requirements
- OS: Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
- Processor: AMD FX-4350, 4.2GHz / Intel Core i5-3470, 3.20GHz
- Memory 4GB RAM
- Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6870 (1GB) / Nvidia GeForce GTX 650Ti (1GB)
- DirectX: Version 11
- Network: Broadband Internet Connection
- Storage: 7GB
- Sound Card: DirectX compatible soundcard or onboard chipset
Granblue Fantasy Versus recommended requirements
- OS: Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 1400, 3.2GHz / Intel Core i7 3770, 3.4GHz
- Memory: 8GB RAM
- Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 7870 (2GB) / Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 (2GB)
- DirectX: Version 11
- Network: Broadband Internet Connection
- Storage: 7GB
- Sound Card: DirectX compatible soundcard or onboard chipset
Granblue Fantasy: Versus PC settings
Granblue Fantasy: Versus lets you adjust the display mode, anti-aliasing, post-processing, shadow quality, and effects quality. You can let the game auto select the appropriate settings for your hardware as well. Barring those options which let you go from low to highest, you can also control the resolution scaling up to 100 percent. Granblue Fantasy: Versus does not have a vertical sync option though so you will need to enable that from your GPU control panel for the game. It also lacks any supersampling option natively.
The control options are in a separate menu inside the game. Over the last two weeks, Xseed Games has released a few patches to address the keyboard issues that were present in the game since launch. I’ve had no trouble with keyboard and controller controls in the last few days on PC so those issues have been fixed. In terms of button prompts, Granblue Fantasy: Versus displays whatever input method it detects by default. It supports Xbox One and DualShock button prompts but you need to ensure you boot up the game with the DualShock 4 controller setup for it to display the latter correctly.
Granblue Fantasy: Versus PC performance — frame rate and resolution
Over the last few months, we’ve seen Japanese game ports on PC that either give you a wealth of options like Trails of Cold Steel III, or those that are barebones like My Hero One’s Justice 2. Granblue Fantasy: Versus has a decent selection of options to let you customise the game to run as you’d like it to on PC. The lack of options like vertical sync or supersampling is disappointing though. I played Granblue Fantasy: Versus on a laptop that has an Intel i7-4750HQ at 2.00 GHz, 8GB RAM, and an Nvidia GTX 950M with 4GB VRAM and could get a near locked 1080p 60fps at everything turned to a mix of highest and high.
Some character skills that have a lot of visual effects on display sometimes caused the game to drop frames here and there but it was pretty simple to make Granblue Fantasy: Versus look excellent and run flawlessly on this laptop with some tweaking. One big advantage of the PC version is the load times. Even without an SSD, the RPG Mode and matches load a lot faster than PS4 Pro.
Should you play Granblue Fantasy: Versus on PC?
There are a few things to consider here before buying Granblue Fantasy: Versus on PC. In terms of online, the player base is pretty active (more so than many other anime fighters) but it still isn’t as active as that on PS4. The online itself still uses the delay-based netcode so you aren’t really getting a better online experience on PC versus PS4.
The core game and all the offline modes will likely run and look better for you if you have a fairly recent gaming PC when compared to even PS4. The load times will be the biggest differentiator here. The one big downside to getting Granblue Fantasy: Versus on PC is the lack of mobile game bonuses. On PS4, you get codes for the mobile game for a variety of items that are very useful if you play Granblue Fantasy on mobile.
The final point of contention here is the price. Xseed Games follows Valve’s recommended regional pricing very well and the game costs less than half on PC in India compared to the console version. In terms of value, even at full price, Granblue Fantasy: Versus is definitely worth getting if you enjoy fighting games that have varied rosters. It also helps that the port is great but that isn’t really surprising given Xseed Games’ track record.
Granblue Fantasy: Versus is now available on PC via Steam and PS4 worldwide.
