Arc System Works and Cygames took a chance with reviving 2020’s 2D anime fighting game Granblue Fantasy Versus for this year, and it paid off. The new iteration, Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising, is easy for new players to pick up, has its own set of new mechanics to keep veteran fighting game fans invested, and features a diverse roster of characters with their own unique fighting styles and gimmicks.

As with all new fighting games with much-improved online play, there will be characters high up the tier list and others, well, not so much. Here’s a collated tier list for the game’s first week via top players like YuSeongCha and Kizzy Kay. These rankings and tier list will evolve over time, though it’s fascinating to see how players are faring with the game’s huge roster and new Rage mechanics.

S-Tier

Zeta, Lancelot, Nier, Siegfried, Seox, Anila, Cagliostro, Narmaya, Zooey, Belial

It’s only been a week and already we have three of the game’s new characters taking the top spots. Nier is a tough puppet character to use, but she’s comparatively easier to control compared to others like Guilty Gear’s Zato and BlazBlue’s Carl Clover. Expect tons of crazy mixups and guessing games when she has her Death avatar at your back.

Siegfried is easier to use and has a much simpler game plan: overwhelm your opponent with your normals and specials while keeping mid-range to close for pressure. He has all the tools needed to do so, and his Manigance unique skill (trade a bit of life for damage) makes his already-damaging punishes and footsies all the more dangerous. Anila has great normals, good footsies, and sheep to help determine your opponent’s behaviour (will they jump? will they dodge?) so you can respond appropriately with her regular/special attacks. Her sheeps will win fireball wars guaranteed due to their high priority.

As for 2020’s base roster and DLC characters before Rising, Zeta and Lancelot still hold the top slot due to their rushdown tools and methods of controlling the screen, all the while being more mobile than the characters on this tier. Still, don’t count Seox out as he’s basically MvC Wolverine but in this universe.

Zooey still has her long-range setplay and dragon traps despite the rework she got in Rising, while Narmaya’s stance-based gameplay can still overwhelm players in high-level play while maintaining its learning curve. Even if he’s not as game-breaking during the game’s earlier iterations, Belial is still a force to be reckoned with in the right player’s hands due to his reversals and counters.

Long story short, beginner players can dive right into using Anila and Siegfried, then work their way up to high-skill ceiling characters like Nier and Zeta if they want to unleash different kinds of shenanigans.

A-Tier

Charlotta, Soriz, Eustace, Beelzebub, Lowain, Gran, Djeeta, Vira, Katalina, Ferry

While not as strong as the S-Tier characters, you can still go pretty far using them. Standouts include the shotos Gran and Djeeta, along with Charlotte who still remains consistent throughout the fighting game series power level-wise.

While not as strong as in 2020, Ferry is still a zoner and footsie player’s ideal character to use.

B-Tier

Avatar Belial, Grimnir, Vaseraga, Ladiva, Yuel, Anre, Metera, Percival

These characters still haven’t found their groove yet, so hopefully in the next few months, they’ll see some sort of rise once the game’s meta is more established. As for now, we doubt these characters can garner consistent wins for you in online play unless you’ve used them since 2020. They require more effort to get consistent wins compared to the S-Tier and the first half of the A-Tier characters.

Grimnir is arguably the only lacking character among the four in the new Rising roster, as his Bang Shishigami-like Nails mechanic aren’t fully utilised and don’t have much payoff when compared to Anila, Nier, and Siegfried’s gimmicks.

For more on Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising, check out our review. If you want more funny content on the game, check out our compilations of Belial and Lowain’s intros and victory poses/quotes below.