Rooster Teeth’s long-running fantasy CGI series, RWBY (pronounced Ruby), began life way back in 2013 and has since spawned multiple creative projects including more seasons, a jaunt into comic books, manga and, of course, videogames.
Set in the world of Remnant which is besieged by creatures called Grimm, young people are trained to become Hunters or Huntresses, protecting Remnant from the Grimm threat. RWBY follows the exploits of a group of four girls, Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang (hence the RWBY) as they become licensed Huntresses. Each of the girls possesses a special ability, called Semblance, that makes them uniquely qualified to fight the Grimm.
Arrowfell, the latest videogame for the franchise, is set during the show’s seventh volume/season with an in-canon story. Team RWBY is now fully licensed Huntresses. During their first official mission they discover strange, new technology that could spell disaster for the people of Remnant and it’s up to them to hunt down the culprit responsible and put an end to their plans.
As an action-adventure platformer, Arrowfell presents a surprisingly in-depth and well-written story. Each character has their own voice that comes along nicely through the writing, clearly an advantage of having dabbled through seven seasons of the show. The game’s narrative lightly touches on deeper themes clearly present and explored within the show itself.
This brings us to the question of whether or not you need to be a fan of the show or have any prior knowledge of RWBY. While being a fan of the show will certainly help, I don’t feel like you need to be one to appreciate or understand what is happening in the game. The writers have done a fantastic job of getting even newcomers to the world up to speed, whether it’s with the lore or the returning characters from the show. I never felt like I was missing anything by just jumping straight in.
Arrowfell plays like a stripped-down platformer where you move from screen to screen across a variety of locations. Level locations, in which you’ll run across snowy landscapes, spelunk deep caves and run through streets overrun with goons, have a nice variety to them but are when compared with most other platformers, simple in their design. There’s a level of verticality in map design, with later areas being much larger than others, but it never gets overly complex with most screens having a few platforms for you to use to fight enemies from.
Enemy variety is decent enough but you will encounter the same foes over and over again across the different biomes. While they do have their own attack patterns, they are rather simplistic but make up for that with the amount of damage they deal.
Each of our heroes has their own weapons and special abilities and you can swap between them at will for the situation at hand. Ruby has a dash attack that is perfect for covering distances and bypassing enemies in a flash while Weiss can summon platforms to stand on, for example. Navigating the environment, while using their various skills for combat is the game’s trump card, though I don’t feel as though they were used as much as they should have.
Ruby became my go-to character, with swops to Weiss when I needed to reach higher platforms. I rarely used the other two characters until much later in the game when Blake’s ability to summon clones of herself that could also attack became invaluable and Yang’s ability to break specific blocks opened up other paths in the levels.
There’s a simple level-up system for each of the character’s four stats. You collect or buy skill points in the world or from vendors to pop into each stat and they’re well worth searching out. Attack strength, defence, energy recharged and ranged attack damage are what you have to focus on.
Interestingly the game shares hit points between the girls. There’s an energy meter that acts as an initial shield/health bar along with powering your ranged attacks, which depletes with hits taken or when you use a projectile. The bar slowly fills back up a certain amount over time or from energy collected from defeated enemies or props in the world. When the meter is depleted, attacks target the girl’s hearts. Too many hits and it’s curtains.
The amount of hearts you have can also be upgraded through merchants. Cash is readily available in the world, once again from defeated enemies or smashed props. You can only hold 999 coins, but there’s so much dropped in the world that you don’t actually have to worry about going broke.
Visually Arrowfell is gorgeous to look at. The animation and artwork are beautiful, especially Ruby’s dash ability as she flows across the screen. The background modelling showcases some great distant vistas of mountain ranges and snowy villages while the environment work around our characters is top-notch, even if the same room design is repeated too often. The artists have managed to fill our cel-shaded character sprites and character portraits with a lot of personalities. As an added bonus, cutscenes have been animated by the folks at Rooster Teeth themselves.
One area that I didn’t enjoy was the game’s far too liberal use of ambushes. Walk into a particular screen and you’re locked in with a bombardment of spawning enemies that you need to kill before you leave. By the end of the campaign, you’ll find yourself walking through multiple arenas like this in succession.
There’s also far too much backtracking to explore new areas locked off until you upgrade a semblance or reach a certain point in the campaign. It just felt like runtime padding to me.
With its simplified action platforming gameplay and in-depth story, RWBY: Arrowfell is a charming, fun game that won’t tax you too much to complete. The wonderful animation and great writing round out an easy-to-pick-up-and-play package that anyone can see through to the end.
Grab your copy here https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/RWBY-Arrowfell-2297578.html
Developer: WayForward
Publisher: WayForward
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S
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