Ahead of its annual summer stream, Cygames has announced that the next character to join Granblue Fantasy Versus’ roster is Percival.
For those unfamiliar, Percival is one of the four ever-popular Dragon Knights from the Kingdom of Feendrache alongside Lancelot (who is also in this game), Vane and Siegfried. The group has been featured in a variety of events since 2017, with the most recent one being a lighthearted spin-off in late 2018 where the four are tasked with managing a failing bistro.
Nicknamed the Lord of Flames, he initially served as the deputy commander of the Order of the Black Dragons but left his post due to certain circumstances. Since then, spurred on by an incident from his childhood, he’s traveled far and wide in order to learn how to build his ideal nation — one where the impoverished can live peacefully. It’s during this time that he meets Gran (or Djeeta) and becomes a member of the Grancypher crew.
As you might have guessed from the trailer, Percival has inherited his talent for fire, utilizing a combination of his blazing long sword and flames to burn his enemy to a crisp. Judging from what we’ve seen, Percival might be on the slower side, making him the polar opposite of Lancelot who relies on a combination of speed and ice-based techniques to overwhelm his opponent.
Interestingly, the trailer says “all will be petrified,” which is likely a reference to his signature technique X-Seele, a petrifying technique. In the source material, Petrify prevents the afflicted target from gaining Charge Diamonds, preventing it from using the special attack it would otherwise unleash had they filled. It’s not entirely clear whether this technique made it into the game (it might be what he uses at 0:30), but it will be interesting to see what it will do if it has.
With this addition, Granblue Fantasy Versus is now up to eight characters. Cygames recently said it’s focusing on more traditional character archetypes for now, so we’ll likely see another character in this vein next.
As for when that occurs, the most likely candidates are EVO 2019 and its summer stream. Both are on the horizon, so luckily the wait won’t be too long.
Granblue Fantasy Versus is due out for the PlayStation 4 in 2019.
Check out the reveal trailer below:
