RWBY: Arrowfell Review

RWBY: Arrowfell tells the story of Team RWBY shortly after they became full-fledged Huntresses. While on a mission investigating the tundra of Solitas, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang stumble upon a mysterious orb that increases the presence of Grimm, creatures of destruction attracted to negative emotions, around Mantle. It’s up to our four heroines to rid their world of the Grimm presence and figure out the source. The story is canon to RWBY Volume 7.

RWBY: Arrowfell is a 2D action platformer with Metroidvania-lite mechanics where players take control of all four huntresses: Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang. Players can change characters at any time during the game. Each heroine has a unique skill called Semblance that will allow you to progress through each level. Ruby can dash, Weiss can create a platform to reach higher platforms, Blake can create a clone of herself and Yang can punch through specific blocks.

All four characters use the same health bar and you have a total of three lives (you can purchase more at the merchant). Once you’re health bar is empty, you’ll lose one. Combat feels a bit rough around the edge (surprising considering the developers) so when coming across enemies, you’ll need to use a move like a butterfly, sting like a bee approach. While smaller enemies aren’t that much of a treat, bigger enemies won’t budge (i.e. no knock back) when you hit them so you need to hit and move constantly to take them down. You’re also temporarily stunned when hit. Enemies will drop health and coins when killed

The game is also designed in a way that when interacting with certain key characters, they’ll add new areas on your map where you’ll need to go and explore. The way to progress the story and unlock new areas is basically by completing NPC’s fetch quests. Throughout your exploration, you’ll find key items but also skill points that can be assigned to your characters. Each character can have their Melee Attack, Defense, Energy Heal (auto regenerative health after losing a heart/life) and Ranged Attack upgraded in order to you a fighting chance at completing your mission.

The Metroidvania-lite aspect of it comes in form of various new areas to explore. While some areas will be pretty straightforward with a back-and-forth route to the treasure and back to the entrance, other areas will require all four characters to fully explore every nook and cranny. Sadly there’s no map of each explorable area, so you need to remember to explore everything. Once you find everything you need, no need to backtrack, use the Exit option from the pause menu to save time. If you’re wondering about where to go, check the map for a handy red exclamation to indicate where to go on the world map. During longer explorative areas, you’ll get ambushed and you’ll need to kill all enemies before moving forward.

As much as I’m a fan of WayForward’s work, RWBY: Arrowfell has a few annoying quirks. First of all, all 4 characters share the same health bar, so if you’re running low, you can’t swap out characters to avoid death. When losing a heart, your health slowly regenerates to a quarter of your bar, but this also means if you’re not careful, you can lose all your hearts within a few seconds. Skill upgrades barely make any difference. Also, it’s a bit nonsensical that each character needs their Defense upgraded, yet uses the same health bar. The combat feels a bit stiff; it’s manageable against 1-3 enemies but feels more clumsy when faced with more enemies in ambush sequences.

The game looks great; if there’s something that WayForward and Arc Systems Work are consistent with is the visual style of their games. Highly detailed, bright, colored and a vast variety of level designs. Each area is a treat to view and explore. Enemy design is also top notch and variety is decent as well. As far as the audio goes, it’s another banging soundtrack that includes a brand-new theme song by Jeff Williams and Casey Lee Williams while voiceovers are delivered wonderfully by RWBY’s original cast.

RWBY: Arrowfell is a decent action platformer whose annoying flaws prevent it from being near perfect. While the combat is a bit stiff, it’s tolerable, yet subpar, to get you through the game you get a grasp of its stiffness. All in all, it’s a fun, addictive yet simplistic platformer that makes good use of four different characters with their unique skill. Definitely not Arc System Works’ best work, but it still deserves your time and attention even if you’re not familiar with the RWBY series.