RWBY ARROWFELL is a fun metroidvania that just needs some quality-of-life additions

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

Arrowfell is a single player game despite having four different playable characters. It was originally billed as a co-op game but lost that somewhere along the way. That said, switching between the four RWBY team members is smooth and well done. Scrolling through each member is really fast which was necessary to be able to solve some puzzles using their likeness. I really like how they made it logical that certain areas were unreachable. During the game, you will face missions that will allow you to improve the appearance of the characters. For example, after helping Winter, Weiss will gain the ability to create two platforms of glyphs at once helping you reach higher areas in the game. I appreciate that in the game it made sense for the characters to start out with good skills and then throughout the story to hone their skills and learn more. I think my only real gripe with the four-character system was that each didn’t have their own individual health and energy bars, so there’s not much incentive to distribute skill points equally. You can choose to boost melee attacks, defense, energy, and ranged attacks. I found that it was only necessary to fully upgrade a character to make the game easier, so don’t waste time distributing points evenly. Just pick a main fighter and fully upgrade it before worrying about anyone else. I picked Ruby for her speed and her reach with her scythe, but you should be able to find someone that matches your playstyle pretty easily.

There were just a few things that I had trouble with. First, in combat, when you get hit, you are stunned for what feels like too long. And that’s almost every attack that hits will stun you, even from small enemies. Luckily it seems like you can’t keep hurting yourself while stuck like that, but it’s still annoying how long the stun lasts. Secondly, there is no map for any of the stages. There are so many areas to explore that it’s really easy to really turn around in some areas. A map would work wonders just being able to open it really fast to see where I’ve been before, especially when it was just exploring for skill points. I also would have liked a list of objectives somewhere on the main map screen. There are times when you can do a lot of side quests at once, and a list of things you’re currently working on would have been helpful.

My last issue was with the combat. While most of it was good, the attack sometimes left a bit to be desired. First, there is no top attack which is really annoying. There are many times you will be fighting flying Grimm and having an upward attack would have been so cool. Instead you just have to jump a lot to hit them. It doesn’t break the game, but it’s annoying. There are also many times when playing as Ruby I would go and hit a box or small enemy that was directly in front of me, but since I wasn’t crouched I wouldn’t hit them. His scythe seemed to have struck, but nothing would happen until I crouched. This is a flaw for me because it shouldn’t look like I’m hitting something when I’m not. Sometimes I found this to happen with jumping as well, where it felt like you were jumping over a platform only to fall and not land on it.

Now for the good, I really enjoyed the animated and voice-over story sequences. While it was disappointing that the entire game couldn’t be fully dubbed, I’m glad they didn’t waste the vocal talents of the original voice cast. I also really liked the new original song by RWBY alumni Casey Lee Williams. It really helps the game feel more authentic than the show to hear all the voices we’re used to hearing. I also liked that this was a fun canon story to explore. Essentially, you’re investigating people who are displacing advanced military technology that shouldn’t exist among the evil that lurks in Atlas’ shadow.

Other than those few issues I’ve already mentioned, the game is good. The semblances are well done and I liked how they used them for different puzzles and to unlock new areas to explore. The game plays really well on the Nintendo Switch, which means it should look great on the other consoles as well. The character designs and fighting styles were all unique too, so it seemed like it made a difference who you choose to play.

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