Popular cellphone game Granblue Fantasy is making news for all the wrong reasons

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It used to be all about the classy characters with awesome designs, but now the drunk sister is stealing the show.

Japanese smartphone game Granblue Fantasy is a single-player role-playing game for the Android and iOS platforms developed by some of the same people responsible for Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy IX and scored by legendary music composer Nobuo Uematsu. The game revolves around finding new characters, equipment and weapons that are classed from common (N) to super, super rare (SSR), and, having been released in Japan all the way back in March 2014, will hopefully see an international release this month.

Given the gaming pedigree involved, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the reason Granblue Fantasy has been trending online recently is due to the incoming English version.

▼ Western gamers want to see these awesome characters designs in an English release.

【グランブルーファンタジー】【新キャラクター登場】2/29(月) 20:00より、新しいキャラクターが登場しました！SSレア「アオイドス」（CV.谷山紀章） #グラブル https://t.co/bPPl3b8dfi
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グランブルーファンタジー (@granbluefantasy) February 29, 2016

【グランブルーファンタジー】【新キャラクター登場】2/29(月) 20:00より、新しいキャラクターが登場しました！Sレア「ライアン」（CV.浅沼晋太郎） #グラブル https://t.co/LIKPWLHRvy
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グランブルーファンタジー (@granbluefantasy) February 29, 2016

Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be the case.

On February 29, the game announced a new in-game event as well as some new characters. Players were obviously very excited until a picture of one of the characters was revealed.

【グランブルーファンタジー】【新キャラクター登場】2/29(月) 20:00より、新しいキャラクターが登場しました！レア「ラムレッダ」（CV.明坂聡美） #グラブル https://t.co/z8GA9vBP92
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グランブルーファンタジー (@granbluefantasy) February 29, 2016

This “new” character is Rumredda, a drunken sister who seems to have been hitting the bottle too hard the night before this piece of art was drawn. In the past, the character was classed as a Super Rare (SR) character, but has now been demoted to the Rare (R) class. Was it because she couldn’t handle her liquor and spewed sparkles and rainbows everywhere? Or have developers made her slightly more common so that more people can experience the alcoholic sister?

ラムレッダが酒を飲む様子 https://t.co/Dg5Xh6ltzk
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しらんがな (@skg555) February 29, 2016

Even the Rumredda’s voice actor, Satomi Akesaka, commented on the news, calling for an explanation of her demotion and asking fans to support the poor drunken sister. Akesaka herself is known to be a fan of the drink and, oddly enough, when it came time for her to do Rumredda’s voice recording, she reportedly turned up hungover.

Japanese Twitter users have wondered if perhaps the R doesn’t stand for “Rare”, but rather “Reverse” (the Japanese-made English term meaning “to throw up”). Others speculated that because she was demoted, it must mean that there is a SSR (even more rare than Super Rare) promotion for her sometime soon. Whatever might happen in the future, we know that right now, just as we would support our drunken pals, we must assist this character in her time of need.

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