RWBY is an American-produced Anime-Esque series from Rooster Teeth with a devoted fanbase that has previously taken it upon itself to make RWBY games, with mixed results. Now, however, a full game has been made by fan favourite developers WayForward Technologies, a match that seems to be made in heaven, but is it any good? Well, that depends on if you are a fan of RWBY or not.
RWBY:Arrowfell is set during Volume 8 where the main team are now licensed huntresses and having adventures in the city of Atlas and the city of Mantle. The girls have encountered strange orbs that seem to be attracting the enemies known as Grimm and they must investigate the situation and kick butt while doing so. That said, RWBY Arrowfell has an issue right away with the combat by not explaining most of the controls for combat or anything by semblances which are the character powers.
This sets a tone that sadly dogs the game the entire time in that RWBY Arrowfell just feels like an unrealized game when you are playing. The Story is fine if you are a RWBY fan, newcomers will be lost of course, but this is a game for the hardcore fans. There are also animated cutscenes every so often with full voice-acting reprisals from the main cast, but that is not enough to save the game.
RWBY: Arrowfell’s problem is that it feels like a bare-bones mix of genres that do not go together. You must use all the heroines’ semblances to traverse to different areas like in the Lost Vikings, such as Blake’s Shadow Clones and Weiss’s Ice Glyphs, but the combat is not fulfilling here at all. You will end up sticking to one or two characters instead of using all four as much as possible because some are simply better than others for combat.
The game has some light RPG elements with skill trees for each character, but even this is not handled the best way. You can find skill points in chests around the various areas and buy them from merchants, but they are also the only really important usable item found in these chests. Otherwise, you just find quest items you are sent to get and that ties into the problem of the game being a series of fetch quests with no real identity to itself.
The combat does make use of the semblances well in one way, since aura is required to use a semblance and acts as protection in the series, getting hit will take away aura before the meter is depleted the same way using your semblance will. Once the meter is depleted, getting hit will take one heart away, but regaining some aura will give a bit of a shield before the next heart is gone. You can find more hearts by buying them from merchants and this feels like an attempt to incorporate ideas from earlier WayForward games but doesn’t work here.
One other thing to point out is that the areas all start to feel the same very quickly in this game, and fighting many of the same enemies over and over does not help. Periodically you will come to an ambush screen that requires you to kill all the enemies before moving on, but it never really does much to keep the excitement going. Finding a save point in the various stages is also a hassle because they are often out of the way and not in the most convenient location.
One positive about the world map is that it does tell you where the main objective is, but that is a low bar to clear. RWBY: Arrowfell is ultimately a game that does not live up to the combat from the main series, has too many repetitive areas, and even the nice-looking art style and great music just fall flat when combined with everything else. This was supposed to be a game for RWBY fans, but only the most dedicated fans will likely want to play.
Ultimately, RWBY: Arrowfell is a licensed game that does not live up to its potential and I cannot recommend it. The more I played for this review, the less I wanted to play and that is very unusual for a WayForward Game. Give this one a pass and try something else instead.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided