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【GBVSR】Sandalphon Gameplay Trailer & Impressions

Sandalphon has been highly anticipated for a while, simply because he is a favorite character of the Granblue series. I don’t know much about him since I’ve only discovered Granblue through the anime, then the fighting game, and finally the Japanese Role-Playing game “Granblue Fantasy: Relink“; Sandalphon was the last downloadable character within that game, concluding the end of its support and proving to be monstrous within his own right.

I am curious to see what the “Primarch of Promises” can do. Let’s check out together what the trailer has to offer, then I’ll discuss it in detail afterwards with my impressions. See you on the other side.

 SANDALPHON GAMEPLAY TRAILER 

  LORE  

Before we get into this trailer breakdown, let’s talk a little bit about his lore. In real life, Sandalphon means “co-brother”, with its origins first appearing in Jewish and Christian writings as the name of an Archangel. Which makes sense as in Granblue Fantasy it states that Sandalphon was created by Lucifer, and is the first of two Archangels made by him. Apparently, Sandy is supposed to take over as the Supreme Primarch if his creator, Lucifer, were to ever perish and now inherits his will.

An interesting fact that was also present on the Granblue Fantasy wiki is that all of his skills are named after songs by the power metal band, Sonata Artica. This is also fitting because those Christian and Jewish writings states that Sandy was a “Hazzan”, a master of heavenly song who leads the congregation in songful prayer. The name “Primarch of Promises” also fits, because Sandalphon supposedly gathers the prayers of humans and passes them onto God; to me, that sounds like a vow promising to bring your plights and praises to The Almighty.

Also it should be noted that with the help of Gran, aka “The Singularity”, Sandy was able to defeat Lucilius. Though enough about lore, let’s get down to this trailer breakdown.

  IMPRESSIONS  

The first thing that I noticed was his purple sword-like projectile, the same one I saw in Granblue Fantasy: Relink. Albeit, things seem different as you can tell here. Also, what I believe to be his 2H anti-air, which has a great similar to Lucilius; probably pointing out how they are comparable in power.

Sandy seems to also have a draw stance that is similar to Narmaya, but seems to teleport on backdash like Johnny in Guilty Gear. Not to mention he has a move which is very close to Vergil’s “Judgment Cut”; shout out to being “motivated”.

Sandalphon has six wings (Though I found this image on the wiki where he has 12 and I’m still wondering what the hell happened. The only person I knew of with 12 wings in Granblue was Lucilius). Anyways, those six wings are each a different color, and they seem to denote different power-ups, each one affecting him in a different way. I believe this is the case as you can see a wing appear right before Sandy gains an aura of that color. Red seems to cause his sword-projectile to have multi-hit properties that also results in a wall bounce, blue seems to create a projectile which can absorb another on start-up before coming out (similar to Geese Howard’s Reppuken in The King of Fighters), yellow causes a ground tremor similar to Avatar Belials, and Greenish-Turquoise gives him an Air Dash. I also find it funny they put Sandy against Grimnir for that, considering the Chuuni was the only one with an Air Dash prior to the Supreme Primarch’s inclusion.

Different power-ups with colors associated with them reminds me of Shulk from the Xenoblade series as he was portrayed in Super Smash Bros. The Monado grants him different abilities as his sword changes colors, denoting the type of enhancement.

Also, while Sandalphon normally fights without any wings at all in the trailer, he does go into a form which he sports six and are all silver, free from the multi-colored wings I’ve always seen him with. I have no idea if this is part of the build-up to Paradise Lost, which is definitely going to be his Super Skybound Art, or if it’s an install. If it is an install, it might be necessary to access Paradise Lost, similar to how Vergil must be in Devil Trigger to gain access to the Level 3 “Dark Angel”.

Overall, this character looks extremely good, but we won’t know until Sandalphon release if Arc System Works managed to do him justice. While I was hoping for some crazy nonsense with him teleporting everywhere like in Granblue Fantasy: Relink, I should’ve had more realistic expectations since a fighting game needs balance; don’t need another Lucilius running around with Blade Level 5 part two.

Sandalphon is coming February 26, 2025, and will be purchasable for $7.99 US, though he’s part of the “Character Pass Season 2”, which will definitely see it lower than that if you were to purchase it. Also, we’re currently in Winter 2025, which means we are going to be getting FOUR additional characters; one in Spring, Summer, Fall, and then early 2026. I’m just hoping we get my boy, Seofon the Star Sword Sovereign, Leader of the Eternals.


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About The Author


RoK the Reaper
A serious gamer & hardcore otaku who loves anything gaming, anime, or manga! I hope to bring you the best content for these subjects I love in the form of news, reviews, interviews, and in-depth editorials! さよなら!

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