There’s also new gameplay delving deeper into Summons, which can now be temporarily controlled by the player, to The Conflux, a solo-only mode that promises greater challenges. What’s interesting is the pricing. If you pick up the Standard Edition, then you’ll receive the base game and Endless Ragnarok for $59.99 (with the latter available as an Upgrade Kit).

The Special Edition costs $79.99 and throws in the Endless Ragnarok Special Pack, which lets you unlock heavy hitters like Seofon, Tweyen and Sandalphon. It also includes alternate colors for Gran/Djeeta, Id and Sandalphon, alongside all previously released DLC for the base game.

If you already own the latter, then you only need to purchase the Upgrade Kit for $29.99. The Deluxe Edition of this, which also includes the Special Pack, will cost $54.99.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Endless Ragnarok launches on July 9th for PS4, PS5, and PC while marking the title’s debut on Nintendo Switch 2. Check out other playable characters such as Eustace, Beatrix, Gallanza and Maglielle in the meantime.

First up is Gallanza, who wields his spear with devastating precision as he pulls off some crowd control combos that can send even the most vicious hordes of enemies flying – as if they weighed nothing more than pebbles to the gargantuan hero. His immense strength allows him to get up close and personal with his opponents, making him a perfect partner for the likes of Beatrix.

Maglielle, on the other hand, seems more comfortable with keeping her distance, which immediately makes pairing her with Eustace a good choice for some incredible ranged control. Of course, that doesn’t mean that she isn’t going to be a great supporting character for some of the melee-focused party members. You get to see her work pretty well with Gallanza in the character trailer showcased below.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Endless Ragnarok launches on July 9th for PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC. While we’re always happy to learn more, it only makes the wait for launch feel that much longer.

Summons allow players to call on mighty beings to wreak havoc on those foolish enough to stand in their way. Alongside a mission to try them out, the open beta will have the same three missions from the closed beta. Progress from the latter will carry over, although you may want to revisit your gear and party composition before you dive in. The open beta’s also going to allow you to test out Lyria’s Primal Burst, a new addition with specific conditions and a devastating payoff that could let you gain an advantage against Beelzebub.

This one’s free for all players on PS4, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2, with pre-loading beginning on April 23rd. There’s even a new trailer, showcased below, to get you hyped up to join in on the fun and revisit a title that has been quite successful even without the upcoming expansion.

After giving us a look at Beatrix’s special brand of destructive melee combat, the upcoming expansion now turns our attention to Eustace, who prefers to keep his enemies at a distance with some incredibly cool ranged attacks that make good use of raw damage and AoE traps to keep his enemies guessing. He’s clearly going to be a valuable asset against Beelzebub and all of the new enemies that the game is bringing your way.

If you somehow missed this one, the upcoming expansion to the impressive fantasy RPG is bringing a whole lot of new additions to the table. There are two more new characters for it to show off ahead of its July 9, 2026, release alongside new game modes, bosses, a new Primal Burst mechanic, and an interesting option for those of you who prefer to play solo to test your limits.

That’s a lot of fun to be had in a game where the base version was already quite entertaining. The trailer below is going to be a lovely dose of copium for those of you who share our impatience for its release.

While Beelzebub and a host of new threats have risen to create problems for our favorite characters, they are joined by new characters with unique abilities to help them take on the serious threats they’re about to face.

The showcase puts Beatrix front and center, and she relishes the spotlight, displaying her ability to absolutely devastate enemy frontlines with her attacks while remaining charismatic with her fearless attitude throughout. She’s joined by Lyria, who brings her expertise with primal creatures to the table, unlocking summons that you get to control on the battlefield.

While cross-platform play is being added to the mix, solo players can dive into the Conflux, a new single-player mode that thrusts you into dangerous, randomized maps that are sure to push your skills to the limit. Survive, however, and you’ll be handsomely rewarded.

All in all, it’s looking like Endless Ragnarok is going to give Granblue fans a lot of reasons to return to the Zegagrande Skydom. Good luck trying to leave with all of the new activities on offer, when it launches on July 9th for PS4, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2.

Critically acclaimed Skate Story by Sam Eng is also available on the service, and from December 16th, you can also access Granblue Fantasy: Relink. Released after years of delays, the action RPG follows Gran/Djeeta as they venture to the Zegagrande Skydom and deal with a dangerous cult.

Other notable additions include Planet Coaster 2 and LEGO Horizon Adventures on PS5, the latter also recently added to PlayStation Plus Essential. Cat Quest 3 is playable on PS5 and PS4 alongside not one but two Paw Patrol titles – Grand Prix and World.

As for Premium subscribers, they receive exclusive access to Soulcalibur 3 on both platforms. Based on the PS2 version, it includes quick save, custom video filters, rewind, and more.

As a standalone story, Relink follows Gran/Djeeta and Lyria, who run afoul of the followers of Avia. After they kidnap Lyria, it’s a quest to retrieve her, as players face core members like Id and eventually Lilith, their leader. While other classic characters, Katalina, Eugen, Rosetta and Rackam, are along for the ride, players can also recruit Narmaya, Cagliostro, Vaseraga, and much more to their side.

Check out our review for the base game here. Developer Cygames Osaka has added more playable characters since launch, including Seofon, Tweyen, and Sandalphon. You can also challenge the big bad, Lucilius, in an Ultimate Showdown quest.

Though post-launch support has more or less wrapped, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising continues to receive new fighters. Three more are en route in Character Pass 2 – Wilnas, Meg, and Ilsa – so stay tuned for more updates.

While next year looks even more jam-packed with incredible adventures, what are some of the best role-playing games from 2024 that deserve your attention? Join us as we sift through the dozens of choices and present the 20 best RPGs of the year that must be experienced.

Path of Exile 2

For all the complaints against its rewards, end-game, map layouts, etc., Path of Exile 2 is still an incredible action RPG, even in early access. Each class and their Ascendancies presented multiple new options; the Skills are impressive while combat feels visceral; and the bosses present some of the best encounters in the genre. The fact that such a sizable end-game is available right now, complete with pinnacle bosses, is also incredible. Yes, there are plenty of things to improve, but Path of Exile 2 is proving just as addictive as its predecessor and will receive double the amount of content before early access ends.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: HEART OF CHORNOBYL

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 made grand promises about its size and scope leading up to launch, and it makes good on those promises without a shadow of doubt. Even seeing the main story alone to completion requires a hefty time investment, but if you’re trying to experience every single thing the game has to offer, you’re easily going to clock in at least a hundred hours, if not more.

MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2024

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is exactly the sort of game for you if you like pouring endless hours into a single game. Like its 2020 predecessor, it lures you in with the promise of a large, authentically recreated digital twin of our planet and flight simulation mechanics, while this time, there’s an even greater amount of content and attention to detail in general to be impressed with. Chances are, if the game gets its hooks in you, you’re going to keep going back to it for some time to come.

LIKE A DRAGON: INFINITE WEALTH

A long Like a Dragon game? Who’d have thunk, eh? Of course, almost dauntingly long runtimes have been a key characteristic of Yakuza games for a long time now, but even by the series’ standards, Infinite Wealth is particularly beefy. Even the quickest of playthrough of this colossal RPG can easily take between 50-60 hours, but players who want to experience everything in the game are easily looking at over a hundred hours.

FINAL FANTASY 7 REBIRTH

“Epic” doesn’t begin to describe the scope of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Square Enix truly went all out with this game, as illustrated by just how much has been crammed into the experience. This is a massive open world RPG that – if, in addition to the main story, you’re also doing all of the side quests and every single side activity while taking the time to thoroughly explore each map – can keep you glued to your screen for upwards of even 150 hours.

PALWORLD

In its early access form, Palworld isn’t technically a “finished” game, but Pocketpair’s open world survival MMO is still a sizeable game. How sizeable exactly? Well, given its genre, it is designed around being highly replayabe, which gives it an inherent leg up in this area. Though a 30-40 hour playthrough is technically enough to get through the game’s critical path, Palworld has enough meat on its bones to keep you occupied for more than twice as long.

HELLDIVERS 2

The beauty of endlessly playable live service multiplayer games like Helldivers 2 (i.e. the good ones, which is admittedly a bit of a rare breed) is that you can play them almost infinitely. Not literally, maybe, but Arrowhead Game Studios’ co-op shooter is so incredibly well made and boasts such a strong core gameplay loop that many have already clocked an almost unreasonable amount of time into the game since it came out earlier this year.

ONCE HUMAN

Starry Studio’s open world multiplayer survival game Once Human is definitely a flawed piece, with issues such as some tedious mechanics, combat issues, rough storytelling, and more dragging it down. There is, however, plenty to enjoy here as well, and if that stuff does end up grabbing you, the good news for you is that Once Human has no shortage of content to get lost in.

THRONE AND LIBERTY

We’ve mentioned a few multiplayer-centric games here that find different ways to keep players coming back- but that is, of course, baked into the very DNA of an MMORPG. That is admittedly a genre with a historically low hit rate, and though Amazon Games’ Throne and Liberty is far from perfect, it does give players plenty of reasons to keep diving into its fantasy world. Grindiness may be an issue, but at least there’s plenty to do.

TEKKEN 8

A good fighting game has several tricks up its sleeve to keep players glued over a prolonged period of time, and Tekken 8 is one of the very best fighters out there, which means this is the sort of game that you can completely lose yourself to. You can technically see the game through to full completion in under 20 hours, but Tekken 8 delivers one of the most addictive and captivating fighting experiences out there, which means pouring in that amount of time multiple times over is very much conceivable.

DRAGON BALL: SPARKING! ZERO

Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO is a very different kind of fighting game from Tekken 8, but it, too, is not only good enough, but also substantial enough to keep players busy for long stretches. The core mechanics are immaculate, there’s plenty of content on offer, and the roster is stupidly crowded. Dragon Ball fans can spend days upon days just pitting an infinite combination of characters against each other.

RISE OF THE RONIN

Team Ninja’s open world debut did not go as well as many would have hoped, and Rise of the Ronin is certainly nowhere near as good as the Nioh games, but though it’s got its share of rough edges, it’s also undoubtedly a large game. It does suffer from rote and repetitive design, which means not everyone may have the patience for everything that the game encompasses, but given the fact that the combat and traversal mechanics always remain highly enjoyable at their core, spending close to a hundred hours playing Rise of the Ronin might have some appeal.

SATISFACTORY

Over five years in early access had assured many that Satisfactory would be good, and sure enough, it’s good. How good? Well, just its main story alone requires over a hundred hours, while a completionist run is going to take you roughly twice as long. And in spite of those daunting demands, this is still a game that those who’ve played it will heartily will recommend to you. That’s how good Satisfactory is.

DRAGON’S DOGMA 2

Sticking to the critical path to finish the main story will see you putting roughly 25-30 hours into Dragon’s Dogma 2, but honestly, that’s one of the worst possible ways to play this game. Capcom’s open world action RPG constantly begs players to go off the beaten path, mess around with its sandbox systems, follow your curiosity, and be distracted by the abundant optional content on offer. There’s lots to do in Dragon’s Dogma 2, the majority of which is a blast, to the extent that even a comprehensive 100-hour playthrough can pass by in a flash.

ELDEN RING: SHADOW OF THE ERDTREE

From Software has made it a habit of delivering expansive, action RPGs that can keep you busy for long, long stretches, and Elden Ring’s expansion Shadow of the Erdtree doesn’t buck that trend. From a lengthy critical path line to plentiful side content to a number of difficult to find secrets, Shadow of the Erdtree has no shortage of things to do- and thanks to its slick combat, engrossing boss fights, and eye-popping art style, you’re going to have an absolute blast as you’re doing all of it.

GRANBLUE FANTASY: RELINK

Simply playing through its main story is a solid enough way to get a taste of Granblue Fantasy: Relink, but Cygames’ action RPG is at its best when you truly dive into its co-op offerings, optional content, and its sizeable endgame. Repetitive quest design and grindy progression can be grating, but the game’s pros outweigh its cons, which is why so many of its players have happily sunk over a hundred hours into it.

10. Final Boss –  Contra: Operation Galuga

Say what you will regarding the quality and length of Contra: Operation Galuga, but it’s definitely not lacking in difficulty. The bosses in particular are as hard-hitting as they come in the side-scrolling shoot-em-up genre. At the top of the food chain is the final boss. This antagonist appears in various incarnations throughout the Contra series, though it’s within Operation Galuga where its most horrific version yet surfaces with a design resembling a Xenomorph from the Alien films. And a giant it is, with its moving hands constituting the platforms you must shoot it from. Once you crack its skull, you must face its exposed brain whilst dodging a flurry of orbs. The battle has players frantically dodging and spraying in a truly Contra-like way, but no amount of co-op or Konami Code will ease you through this fight.

9. Sanctum Zealot – Enotria: The Last Song

Enotria was a surprisingly fun Italian soulslike this year that ended up giving us a lot of tough bosses. Boss fights within Enotria rely upon parrying skill and mastery over the clever mask switching system. Sanctum Zealot is an optional boss fight that requires all that and them some. Found near the end of the Sicilian-themed level, Falesia Magna, this helmed giant wields an ultra greatsword capable of killing characters in two to three hits. The first phase of the fight can be overcome by dodging or parrying its slow and devastating swings, but the second phase ups the ante with extra speed, elemental buffs, and ranged flurries. If you want to overcome Sanctum Zealot, it may be prudent to return later after finishing most other sections of the game first, as this masked warrior packs a punch.

8. Daigo, Saejima, And Majima – Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth

Even best friends fight sometimes, but they probably didn’t have to go as hard as they did in Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth. Chapter 12 starts with Kiryu and his old-time buddies hanging out, but of course, Yakuza have a different concept of having fun than you or I. After some of the coolest scenes in the game, a fight ensues between the group of friends. What really makes this turn-based bout difficult is managing the elemental resistances and weaknesses between the three opponents. Yes, this is technically a four on three fight, but unless you specifically hit each opponent with their weakness, there’s not much damage that can be done against the infamous trio.

7. Hive Tyrant – Space Marine 2

As the battlefield commander of the Tyranids, the Hive Tyrant isn’t one to be underestimated. Equipped with a long whip in one hand and a devastating cleaver in the other, this colossal Tyranid bioform absolutely punishes whether you keep your distance or decide to tank it up close. If you have a particularly good team, you may whittle down its health bar pretty quick…and then be shocked (literally) by the second phase and its constant wave of psychic attacks. Grenades are about the only surefire offense guaranteed to stagger the Hive Tyrant … if you haven’t already used them all on the waves of Tyranids during the fight, that is.

6. Dullahan – Dragon’s Dogma 2

Dragon’s Dogma 2’s Headless Horseman is among the coolest encounters that can be had in the game, even if there’s no horse to accompany the Dullahan in this case. Wandering around at night can be costly enough in this series, but doing so in certain areas while fog is out can be downright deadly. Dullahan comes out on foggy nights and is about as hard to hit as it is to see through DD2‘s dense fog. The spectral teleportation that Dullahan employs is tough to anticipate, and worse yet, it slices at players immediately after vanishing. And you don’t want to let a Dullahan catch you on the ground since its life-draining ability damages both life and loss bars to a devastating degree.

5. Kiana The Forest Queen – Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown has my favorite side-scrolling boss fights of any game since the release of Hollow Knight. Chief among those fights is the forest queen, Kiana. The fight comprises an impressive array of phases, attacks, and interesting animations, making it one of the most impressive in the game. Kiana’s three phases necessitate constant vigilance and concentration to overcome, yet never manages to feel unfair or cheap thanks to clear visual attack cues. The wolf/spear-wielder duo throws some clever combo moves at the player, such as the one-two punch of the spear throw followed by the wolf sweeping across the ground. Like other fights in The Lost Crown, Kiana makes sure players master every tool in their repertoire in order to come out on top.

4. Gallanza and Maglielle – Granblue Fantasy Relink

As one of this year’s best co-op action RPGs, Granblue Fantasy Relink is no stranger to tough boss encounters. Some of the most difficult battles occur within the many optional missions of the game – such is the case with the Gallanza/Maglielle duo fight. Players will encounter each of these commanders through the story, and individually they aren’t so tough to beat. But once you fight them in the ‘Wolf and the Veil’ Proud Quest, things get out of hand. Gallanza serves as the brutish tank with quick attacks, while Maglielle performs ranged AOE attacks from afar. The duo will occasional assail you together with devastating combo attacks as well, so it’s best to come as prepared as humanly possible before attempting to best them together.

3. Gilgamesh – Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

Final Fantasy’s returning eccentric swordsman constitutes not only the most difficult fight in Rebirth, but the most rewarding and involved to unlock. Cloud and company must first obtain every Protorelic in each of the game’s six massive regions. After doing this, a new landmass opens up, aptly called Gilgamesh Island. The final dual with Gilgamesh is quite the spectacle indeed, requiring post-game leveling and a whole lot of strategy to win. If the newly arranged ‘Battle on the Big Bridge’ theme didn’t convince you that old Gilgy means business, his dozens of unique (and often hilarious) attacks and huge HP will.

2. Hundred-Eyed Daoist Master – Black Myth Wukong

In a game as focused on boss fights as Black Myth Wukong, the Hundred-Eyed Daoist Master reigns supreme as the toughest. This centipede human hybrid monstrosity is incredibly hard to dodge and deflect due to its awkward attack positions and strange hit boxes. Every movement it makes seems just a tad bit delayed, and they’re all rather unpredictable. And then there’s the second phase which adds a lightning buff to its attacks for extra measure. There is one item that makes this fight a bit easier though, and that’s the stun-inducing Weaver’s Needle. But whether or not you choose to use the special item, Hundred-Eyed Daoist Master is one of those boss fights that warrants a celebration upon defeat due to its difficulty.

1. Promised Consort Radahn – Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

You didn’t think Shadow of the Erdtree wouldn’t make it on a boss fight list, did you? Well, to no one’s surprise, Elden Ring’s challenging DLC features more than a few tough-as-nails battles, and none are more difficult than the final boss awaiting players at the end. Promised Consort Radahn uses some familiar attacks from the original Radahn fight, but a majority are enhanced by Miquella. The first phase challenges the player against a bevy of gravity-based attacks that ripple multiple times in succession. The second phase is perhaps one of the few boss moments to rival the Malenia fight in the base game. Miquella controls Radahn directly during this second phase, infusing him with deadly Holy elemental buffs and occasionally inflicting an instant death move should the player get caught. Promised Consort Radahn serves as the ultimate conclusion to the DLC, distilling Shadow of the Erdtree’s philosophy on difficulty in one crazy boss fight. No matter the build or level, you’re going to have to fight tooth and nail to even stand an ounce of a chance this Miquella/Radahn duo.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.