Can you turn off the Partner in Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising?

Ah, the cute and lovable companion character that comments on every one of my failings like a weeb Jiminy Cricket. Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising‘s design team thought it would be adorable to include a Partner character that provides color commentary after matches and during other bits in the game. Instead, we have an obnoxious chibi carbuncle that won’t shut up. Can this menace be shut off?

How to disable the Partner in GBVSR

At the time of this writing, while you technically can turn off the Partner in GBVSR, it doesn’t actually get rid of them. Instead, in a bug acknowledged by the developer, choosing no Partner swaps in the default Partner, Lyria. There has yet to be any official word of a fix, so players are stuck for the time being. Otherwise, to change your partner, you’ll need to do the following:

• Go to the Main Menu
• Go to Profile
• Select Partner
• Select any of the available Partners or “None” for no Partner

All hope isn’t lost, though. While the Partner can’t be abandoned on the side of the road, we can effectively duct tape their mouth shut.

• Go to the Main Menu
• Go to Options
• Select Sound & Language
• Find Partner Voice and lower it all the way to zero

You’ll still see their dumb little self pop up with their word balloon, but no longer will their voice defile your ears. Perhaps I’m simply too old and no longer “with it” to understand the appeal. Maybe if it offered something more insightful or even useful, I’d be inclined to try it out, but this is not the case.

Even Street Fighter 6 with its more robust commentary starts to wear thin and is little more than a veneer of “content.” Either way, there you have it. Hopefully, we get a proper fix sooner rather than later, and I’ll be sure to update this accordingly when that happens.