RWBY: Arrowfell (Switch) Review

A side story for the RWBY enthusiast

From adorably composed conversations set up in a visual novel style to new cutscenes in the original anime style, RWBY: Arrowfell delivers a short dive into a story away from the main series. Crafted through a collaboration between WayForward and Arc System Works, lovers of RWBY get a nice piece of adventure in Arrowfell to help fill that missing piece between seasons, and gamers get the RWBY flavor of Shantae.

RWBY has always featured a really cute aesthetic that the series itself in all iterations. The main series’ genre(s) of Science Fiction Fantasy, Adventure, and Anime make it feel cinematic and it often falls more into a Shonen feel through dynamic action scenes. Arrowfell takes a cuter perspective on the RWBY characters as a Metroidvania-style platformer. Unfortunately, there is no voice acting during most of the conversations throughout the game, instead using the framework of a visual novel with posed 2D art of the characters talking for story scenes. Ruby Rose herself is the most often shown as she is the main character and as expected of a RWBY game. The art changes for reactions in each of the art styles which can be very cute. Ruby’s extremely naive attitude and outlook pair great in the art alongside her teammates Blake, Weiss, and Yang. 

Gameplay feels like it has a solid direction but falls short in some technical aspects. Particularly when using Weiss’ glyphs to jump. The platforms they create are easy to use and have a specific placement, however, this placement can easily be confused when trying to figure out where your ability will fall between, above, or below platforms. While playing I ran into a particularly hard section in regards to this inconsistency, attempting so many times that I didn’t think it could work until I broke down to watch a section of a playthrough online and saw what I was attempting was just that the glyph placement for a jump was setting itself up incorrectly and kept me from my goal. After frustratingly getting beyond that, most of the game was a straightforward journey through a typical Metroidvania. 

It is easy to see that Arrowfell is a game that is made for a younger audience. It is made with few enemy types, a simple art design for characters or adversaries, and basic attack patterns that signal the hallmarks of something for new and young gamers to sink their teeth into while not overwhelming them. For well-seasoned gamers, this can easily come off as so simple that it is frustrating. In the case of this review, I abused Blake’s Doppelganger ability to easily take out crowds while safe above them. Yang’s fast attacks smashed almost everything in my path before they could do enough damage to cause panic. Unfortunately, this includes boss battles. While boss battles were a bit simple until the final boss or team BRIR, the mini-boss fights with the floating balls were probably the most engaging until I just smashed them to bits with Yang’s basic attack. That said, the Panic of Grimm flowing endlessly in a fight can easily distract you from the actual goal, an interesting breath of fresh air throughout. 

Sometimes games just pop out with their art direction and provide an interesting story without too much fuss as a straightforward playthrough. Arrowfell does this with an even brighter and more glossy palette than the RWBY show while falling right in line with the mainstream canon. This little slice of a story adds a bit more depth to the world while not overplaying anything that happens in the seasons of the show after the events of the game. The story flows quite nicely and is paced well. If there was one major drawback to be found it would be the need to double back which sends players into areas we’ve been in several times, making things a little stale, but not overly so. The little clips of animation in the game engine RWBY style really made the moments at the end of each chapter worth it. It really felt like an exchange of time and effort to equal out to a fun cinematic payout that fell in line with the main cannon. 

Looking back at my time playing, I would say that I felt that something was missing. For new players, this would probably be great. For seasoned players, this feels odd but very familiar. Watching the trailer definitely sets the expectations of the gameplay to be far more fluid but it ends up with fights feeling monotonous and underwhelming, aside from the Grimm waves.

The controls in the game were interesting to me. Going in with expectations of a typical Metroidvania, I was swiftly met with some aspects that made utilizing the team incredibly important for the types of enemies Ruby and her friends face off with. Weiss has a horizontal attack at short range, Yang has a horizontal attack at VERY short range, Ruby has a slightly vertical angled horizontal attack, and Blake has a slightly downward horizontal attack. This made me consider positioning at the forefront of how one should approach battles, especially with the small flying Grimm. A frustrating edge to this would be that the characters came with no totally vertical attack in a game that has so much platforming. The Switch controls reacted well throughout the game, allowing one to enable special skills easily enough, but the consistency of them activating when wanted would flip a few things on its head. For note, I played on a wireless pro controller.

This is a Metroidvania for those who are looking for a gateway into the genre or fans of RWBY looking for a pleasant way to spend a weekend. While there are a few unique mechanics, Arrowfell allows one to build up the skills and mindset to branch into more complex titles in the genre such as Castlevania: Symphony of the Night or eventually the difficult but beautiful Hollow Knight. Speaking of Castlevania, the flying Grimm are very reminiscent of the medusa heads that fly through the castle in the various Castlevania installments. The destruction of the environment for getting health and power refills is also a trope of this genre. I wish there were a bit more to the flying Grimm, or more interesting things to get out of the destructive environment, including not having the crouch down to break bushes. 

I have to say that the sounds in Arrowfell absolutely slapped. I was smitten with every sound. The soundtrack was great, especially when the RWBY theme-style tracks roared into focus. It gave off the feeling that I was playing an episode of the anime, keeping things interesting. Transitions between fight tracks and stage tracks were pretty obvious, so there was always something clearly changing in the stage when the tracks blended into new tracks as well. 

As far as replay value, I’m pretty sure that you have to play all of the levels in order to finish the game in the first place. There is some replay value to be gleaned from challenging yourself by playing as other members of team RWBY on other playthroughs though. Otherwise, if you are aiming to 100% collect then you can also play to get all the upgrades but I feel it hits a sort of wall at that point. 

While a bit more critical of it, I do love that there are so many things here for RWBY fans. It has a lot of potential to do so many things in game form with the deep well of material to draw and build upon from the series. I ended up feeling disappointed as a RWBY and a Metroidvania fan, pining for more depth and a more elaborate presentation. That being said, I can easily see that this game is aimed at an audience that is quite young, which is great as an introduction game into playing games of this style.

SCORES

GAMEPLAY - 5/10

VISUALS - 7/10

SOUND - 8/10

CONTROLS - 5/10

REPLAY VALUE - 3/10

OVERALL - 5.6/10

Learn more about RWBY: Arrowfell on the official website. A digital Switch copy was provided by WayForward for the purpose of review. Screenshots were captured using native Switch features and the game was played on an Animal Crossing edition console using an official Nintendo Pro Controller, utilizing typical Joy-Cons while playing portably.