Full Assist in Endless Ragnarok isn't a rescue button. It's what keeps you playing.
Note: this article is my take on playing Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Endless Ragnarok (ER for short).
The DLC Is Seriously Hard
Once you hit the CHAOS tier in ER, even gear you thought was fully built up in the main game struggles.
- You get one-shot even with upgraded gear
- The attacks are relentless and demand a lot of dodging
- Even your CPU allies get caught up and fall apart
That "I put in all this work and I still can't win" wall is a lot bigger than you'd expect.
Where Full Assist Comes In
At first I figured it was just an "easy mode."
It isn't.
Full Assist is not some all-powerful AI.
- It does nothing until you step into an enemy's attack range
- During invincibility phases, your character mostly just stands there
- It doesn't turn your main character into a CPU
And yet it works.
The reason is that the CPU allies themselves are really good.
Not Many Games Have Good AI Teammates
In most games, AI allies tend to:
- be bad at dodging
- pick odd moves
- drag you down
Relink's CPU, on the other hand, gets great reviews.
Characters like Zeta, Narmaya, and Cagliostro hold their own even on the hardest content, and there are moments when you honestly feel the CPU is better than you.
In the extreme case, you can sometimes clear a quest like this:
Your main character does the bare minimum while the 3 CPU allies do the fighting
Designed So You Can Finish the Game
If a DLC as tough as ER had banned assist entirely, a lot more people would have gone through this:
- Bought the DLC
- Got stuck on CHAOS
- Quit and never came back
So Full Assist isn't really a feature for making the game easier.
It works as insurance against giving up halfway.
You try it by hand, and when it gets rough, you let assist farm materials, build up your gear, and then go back to playing manually.
The game is fine with you playing that way.
Wrapping Up
ER is a very hard DLC aimed at people who've already played through the main game.
That's exactly why these 3 things fit together so well:
- Bosses that hit way too hard
- Excellent CPU allies
- Full Assist
It's not there to lower the difficulty.
It's there so you can play all the way to the end.
That was the biggest impression I got from using Full Assist in ER.
