RWBY ARROWFELL Is A Fun Metroidvania That Just Needs Some Quality Of Life Additions

WayForward and Rooster Teeth teamed up to make a new RWBY game called RWBY Arrowfell. Out now on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, WayForward was kind enough to send me a copy on the Nintendo Switch for review. Overall, I think it is a fun little Metroidvania game and of all the RWBY games is my favorite. It has a few minor issues and is lacking a few quality of life features, but I think if you are a fan of RWBY you’ll enjoy the original canon story.

Arrowfell is a single player game despite having four different playable characters. It was originally announced to be a co-op game but lost that somewhere along the way. That being said, switching between the four members of team RWBY is seamless and well done. Cycling through each member is really quick which was necessary to be able to solve certain puzzles using their semblances. I really like how they made it make sense that certain areas were unattainable. Throughout the game, you’ll take on missions that will lead to being able to upgrade character semblances. For example, after helping Winter, Weiss will gain the ability to make two glyph platforms at the same time helping you to reach higher areas of the game. I appreciate that it made sense in the game that the characters start with good abilities and then through the course of the story hone their skills and learn more. I think my only real gripe with the four character system was that each one didn’t have their own individual health and energy bars, so there isn’t much incentive to evenly distribute skill points. You can choose to upgrade melee attacks, defense, energy, and ranged attacks. I found it to only be necessary to upgrade one character fully to make the game easier, so don’t waste your time evenly spreading the points around. Just pick a main fighter and get them fully upgraded before worrying about anyone else. I picked Ruby for her speed and range with her scythe, but you should be able to find someone that matches your play style pretty easily.

There were only a few things that I took issue with. First, in combat when you get hit you are stunned for what feels like too long of a time. And that’s almost any attack that hits will stun you, even from small enemies. Fortunately it appears you cannot continue to be hurt while stuck like that, but it is still annoying how long the stun lasts. Second, there is no map for any of the stages. There are so many areas to explore it is really easy to get really turned around in some of the areas. A map would have done wonders in just being able to open it up really quick to see where I had already been, especially when it came to just exploring looking for skill points. I also would have liked to have an objectives list somewhere when in the main map screen. There are times when you can have a lot of side missions going at the same time and a list of things you are currently working on would have been helpful.

My last problem was with combat. While most of it was good, the attacking sometimes left a little to be desired. First, there is no up attack which is really annoying. There are lots of times when you will fight flying grimm and having an upward attack would have been so nice. Instead you just have to jump around a lot to hit them. It’s not game breaking, but it is annoying. There are also plenty of times playing as Ruby when I would go to hit a box or small enemy that was directly in front of me, but because I wasn’t crouched down I wouldn’t hit it. Her scythe looked like it hit, but nothing would happen until I crouched. This is a flaw for me because it should not look like I am hitting something when I’m not. I found this to happen with jumping sometimes too, where it looked like I was jumping above a platform only to fall through and not land on it. 

Now for the good, I really liked the animated and voice acted story sequences. While it was disappointing that the whole game couldn’t be fully voiced, I am glad that they didn’t waste the vocal talents of the original voice cast. I also really enjoyed the new original song by RWBY alumni Casey Lee Williams. It really helps the game feel more authentic to the show to get to hear all the voices we’re used to hearing. I also appreciated that this was a fun, canon story to get to explore. Essentially, you are investigating people who are moving advanced military technology that shouldn’t exist amongst the villainy that lurks in the shadows of Atlas. 

Aside from those few issues I already talked about, the game play is good. The semblances are well done and I enjoyed how they utilized them for different puzzles and unlocking new areas to explore. The game runs really well on the Nintendo Switch which means it should also look great on the other consoles. The character designs and fighting styles were all unique as well so it did feel like it made a difference who you choose to play as.

Overall, if you are a fan of RWBY and Metroidvania games, I think you’ll like this one. I’ve been enjoying playing. It does have some flaws though, but the positives are enough to give it a 7/10. I hope in the future we can get more games like this but focus on other teams that we haven’t seen for a while in the show.