Here are five characters that are looking very strong in Granblue Fantasy Versus right now — with online statistics to back them up
It's been a little more than a month since Granblue Fantasy Versus was released in Japan and Asian territories, let's see how the balance is looking
Granblue Fantasy Versus has been the talk of the town of the fighting game community as of late and a lot of high-profile players have flocked to it, especially in Japan where the title had first week sales that were quite impressive for a fighting game launch to say the least.
With so many masterful players testing their mettle in the game, we all knew it wouldn't take too long before ideas start to shape about which characters are strong in the game. Of course, we did see a bit of a surprise win from Fame96's Vaseraga at Super TSB so it's all up in the air to some degree, but there are a few characters that have stood out from the pack as extra powerful.
Thanks to Twitter user Sugi_VS who has been tracking the top ranked players online in Granblue Fantasy Versus since its release, we have a pretty good idea of which characters are performing the best right now. Updated rankings are posted each Saturday, so with the freshest update ripe for the picking we'll be looking mainly (though not only) at the current numbers.
Before we dive in to the characters themselves, the rankings we'll be presenting here focus on the two highest ranks available in Granblue Fantasy Versus' online ranked mode — Master and SSS. Within Master, players are ranked from 1 to however many Master players there are as well, so it's easy to see who's ranked the highest. There are currently 26 Master-ranked players and 209 SSS-ranked players in the online database, so the sample size is pretty good overall. At the end of this article, we'll also present the raw data courtesy of Sugi_VS. Keep in mind this data is current as of the morning of Saturday, March 21st.
Now, here's a look at five characters who have been performing exceptionally well in the game so far.
Lancelot
Master-ranked Lancelot players: 7 (out of 26)
SSS-ranked Lancelot players: 45 (out of 209)
Highest ranked Lancelot player: Fukunaga (Rank 2)
Lancelot has an absolutely overwhelming presence at the top ranks, going as high as almost every fourth player in the SSS rank using him — while Granblue Fantasy Versus may have a relatively modest playable roster compared to many other fighting games out right now (13 playable characters as of writing), it's certainly not that small that an almost 25% appearance rate seems ordinary.
This is the typical type of character who excels at pressuring their opponent nonstop and any little opening can lead to absolutely devastating returns in the hands of a skilled player.
He's also the type of character who likely gets a slight boost to his usefulness by virtue of being online, since many of his offensive tools are centered around rapid movements, teleports and high/low mixups.
Although Lancelot is much more highly represented than any other character in the game at the moment, it's interesting to note that the #1 ranked player actually isn't a Lancelot user, instead having to settle for "only" second where Fukunaga currently sits.
Katalina
Master-ranked Katalina players: 6 (out of 26)
SSS-ranked Katalina players: 30 (out of 209)
Highest ranked Katalina player: Amashoko (Rank 12)
Katalina as a character works pretty straightforward with a fireball, an uppercut and a forward-moving special move making her pretty much a traditional shoto archetype and easy to grasp for anyone new to the game.
What she also has is exceptional range on a lot of her normals and amazing damage potential at a lot of screen ranges, for example getting corner combos against opponents who have their back against the wall even from a pretty far distance where other characters might struggle to reach with their followups.
Fast normals, strong fireballs, good conversions and solid movement all combined together make Katalina a threat to be reckoned with. Her basic nature also makes her very easy to get used to for anyone who's a seasoned fighting game player, so there isn't quite as much time needed to put in as a more complex character might need.
With all this, it's certainly no wonder to see Katalina lighting up the charts.
Charlotta
Master-ranked Charlotta players: 4 (out of 26)
SSS-ranked Charlotta players: 24 (out of 209)
Highest ranked Charlotta player: PGW|Ren (Rank 1)
The little demon flipper that could, Charlotta's relentless offense can put most characters in a very rough situation, especially when coupled with her aforementioned demon flip (actually called Noble Strategy in game) which gives her some scary mixups on the opponent that are hard to react to.
She can combo together her specials with relative ease as long as you use the easy input function in some situations and her Shining Onslaught (a forward-moving special) is remarkably hard to punish for some characters, perhaps even impossible, despite being -7 (the EX version is legitimately unpunishable, though it is negative on block).
Couple this with the scariest jump arc and speed in the game (what is it with Charlott-characters and crazy jumps? SamSho players will get that one) and you've got a little ball of absolute terror rapidly advancing towards your position.
Charlotta seemed like she was held in higher regard early on in the game and isn't talked about quite as much anymore, but the stats show that she's still quite a few levels above (despite her short stature) some of the more discussed characters, at least in the online rankings.
Ferry
Master-ranked Ferry players: 2 (out of 26)
SSS-ranked Ferry players: 19 (out of 209)
Highest ranked Ferry player: Mocchii (Rank 7)
Ferry is a zoning beast whose normals reach as far as Street Fighter's Dhalsim but seem to have less recovery (I haven't compared their frame data between games, so if I'm wrong please don't call me out) and her movement is clearly much better.
Excelling at keeping her opponent's out, it's a very frustrating trek for a lot of characters to try and get in on her and once they do, the battle hasn't even been close to won yet.
She has some great air mobility not only with drill dive kicks, but also by using her Ghostswing in the air to change her jump trajectory entirely, so if she gets an opportunity to get airborne you can kiss your pressure goodbye — but even if you do keep her grounded, the EX version of her beast Beepo works as an invincible reversal to get out of your pressure, so unless you read your opponent perfectly she can get an opportunity to get right back out in that situation as well.
Offensively, Ferry is obviously more favored at a long range with her fearsome whip normals coupled with her Gespenst special attack which can catch opponents out of many of their options, but she's not a pushover up close either. In fact, that's where her main offense lies once she gets you knocked down.
By using her spirit Geegee (or as I call it, Holy Water, since Ferry will forever be a part of the Belmont clan in my heart) she'll lock you down on wakeup and then proceed to mix you up, sometimes leading to absolutely terrifying sequences which will melt your life bar away.
On top of that, she has a total setplay super with her Vergiften which creates a huge energy ball that moves slowly towards the opponent in a bouncing manner to lock them down... Or if she's feeling fancy she can instead opt to go for Hin Liechten which gives her reverse beat combos.
In short, Ferry is a girl with a absolute ton of tools at her disposal, so if you go in expecting it to be a typical zoner matchup where you just need to make your way through her normals and then you're in the clear, you'll be sorely mistaken. It's no surprise ata all to see her performing as well as she is.
Gran
Master-ranked Gran players: 2 (out of 26)
SSS-ranked Gran players: 18 (out of 209)
Highest ranked Gran player: SNB|Fujimura (Rank 11)
Gran is in a similar position to Katalina as far as his gameplay goes in that he's a fairly basic character who could easily be referred to as largely being a traditional shoto.
Of course, there are a lot of differences between the two despite sharing a similar archetype, perhaps most notably that Gran's range isn't quite as lengthy as Katalina's, though Gran's legendary boot (medium and heavy versions of Override Surge) is simpler to space and has faster startup than Katalina's Enchanted Lands special move.
As such, Gran has an easier time getting in and once you're in the corner he's an absolute monster to deal with. Despite having similar archetypes, though, the matchup between them seems to be fairly lopsided in Katalina's favor, largely due to her long range.
Perhaps this is why Gran has seen a bit of a downturn lately, especially when compared to Katalina — if you have two characters with lots of similarities who both seem to do well against most of the cast, why not just pick the one that does better in their internal matchup? It's just a theory, but the facts show that Katalina has statistically risen beyond Gran, at least for now.
Before we take a gander at the full rankings, it's worth mentioning that as of this latest stat update there's been a surge of new Ladiva players reaching SSS rank and overtaking Gran's spot if you're looking purely at the statistics. Despite this, I decided to include Gran due to his dominant presence since the game launched and the fact that he's held in high regard pretty much universally across the playerbase.
Ladiva is definitely worth an honorable mention, though, and if this trend continues and isn't just a blip on the radar, we might have something of a sleeper hit on our hands.
Full Rankings
Master-ranked Players
1. PGW|Ren (Charlotta)
2. Fukunaga (Lancelot)
3. Rookies (Ladiva)
4. KEY (Charlotta)
5. Tahichi (Metera)
6. Gobou (Ladiva)
7. Mocchii (Ferry)
8. BC|Kazunoko (Lancelot)
9. Tamai-san (Lancelot)
10. Fukurou (Lancelot)
11. SNB|Fujimura (Gran)
12. Amashoko (Katalina)
13. PurePure (Ferry)
14. Kubo0055 (Gran)
15. GyoGun|Moke (Katalina)
16. Shitto (Katalina)
17. Yuki (Lancelot)
18. Heiwajima Charlotta (Lancelot)
19. Xeph (Percival)
20. Masayan (Charlotta)
21. Jirou (Lowain)
22. Homukawa (Charlotta)
23. Hikarin (Katalina)
24. Maasaaou (Lancelot)
25. PG|BNBBN (Katalina)
26. Hitsuji (Katalina)
Master Rank Character Breakdown
Lancelot — 7
Katalina — 6
Charlotta — 4
Ladiva — 2
Ferry — 2
Gran — 2
Metera — 1
Percival — 1
Lowain — 1
Zeta — 0
Vaseraga — 0
Beelzebub — 0
Narmaya — 0
Total players: 26
SSS Rank Character Breakdown
Lancelot — 45
Katalina — 30
Charlotta — 24
Ladiva — 18
Ferry — 17
Gran — 16
Percival — 13
Metera — 10
Zeta — 9
Narmaya — 8
Vaseraga — 7
Beelzebub — 7
Lowain — 5
Total players: 209
Source: Sugi_VS.
It's been quite the exciting month-and-a-half since Granblue Fantasy Versus was released, and we can already see that while there are some clear frontrunners, the variety in characters is pretty strong overall.
With the balance patch coming up in April (alongside new characters Djeeta and Soriz, of course, and with Zooey joining later in the month) it will be interesting to see how the game gets shaken up by character tweaks and these new additions.
Are there any characters you're having particular trouble with or feel are stronger than the stats suggest? Or maybe even the opposite, where you think someone high up is just a flash in the pan and will die off before long? Let us know in the comments.
