Random ROB chose RWBY: Arrowfell for today’s featured game. As that is a licensed title featuring an all-female cast in an anime-esque universe, it has been decided that we must look at two other games that fit that oddly specific descriptor. And which game is best at what it does? Let’s go ahead and answer that question, too. We will start with…

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Burst Forth!! Choro-gon Breath

What is the origin media?

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is an anime based on a gag manga. It is the story of a salarywoman who accidentally shows a dimension hopping dragon some kindness while in a drunken haze, and then said dragon imprints on this woman like a baby bird. Or, given the persistent lesbian overtures, maybe she imprints on her like a dirty old man. The basic premise of every joke is that a mundane woman trying to make rent is constantly beset by issues compliments of her fantastic “dragon maid”. As the series progresses, other dragons show up with various social ticks, and the titular Miss Kobayashi must deal with all sorts of eccentric personalities. Weirdly, the whole thing plays not unlike a harem manga, but with just enough of a wholesome edge for it to feel okay to watch with another person in the room.

Though the fact that nearly every character has an enormous chest does make a viewing party less likely…

What is the game about?

In what can be described as “a very TRON choice”, a smattering of main characters from Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid have been sucked into a videogame. Miss Kobayashi cannot do much but make a few comments about how whacky her life has gotten, but her three dragon friends have dragon powers in this game world, so they are going to fight their way out to find the devious mastermind behind this 21-minute adventure.

Does the Gameplay have anything to do with the show?

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Burst Forth!! Choro-gon Breath is a shoot ‘em up from start to finish. In fact, it is an “old school” vertical bullet hell shooter with general powerup leveling. The only “difference” between this and 1942 is that you have three dragons with three lifebars/attacks, and switching between them for appropriate situations (or to recover health) is the name of the game. Beyond that, you’ve got a back dash and a risky melee attack. One could claim that differentiates it from a game made in ’84. And dragons do have a history of starring in shooters, so it makes a certain amount of sense…

Does the presence of the show enhance the gameplay?

This is a vertical shoot ‘em up with an appropriately narrow screen, so those borders are taken up by jabbering dragons. Miss Kobayashi and her cold-blooded friends are continually commenting on events, and it is probably as funny as your average episode. I must note “probably”, though, as I do not speak Japanese, and there is no way I am paying any attention to subtitles while attempting to survive a bullet hell. At least I can take my time and “read” the plot between levels. Now that is definitely on the general wavelength of the show, but “cinema scenes can have nothing to do with the gameplay” has been a standard going back to Ninja Gaiden, so…

Could this game exist without the license?

Absolutely yes. Without Miss Kobayahi’s involvement, this would just be a shooter with some generic videogame parody-based levels. And there would be nothing wrong with that, it would just sell about 50% less copies. The presence of the DD-dragons here is little more than a marketing gimmick, and these scant five levels could be attached to practically any other anime out there. Want to make a shoot ‘em up based on that cartoon with the 1,000-year-old-but-actually-looks-like-a-twelve-year-old vampire girl? Go for it! And if you don’t know which particular anime I am talking about there, just go ahead and take your pick. You’ve got options…

RWBY: Arrowfell

What is the origin media?

On the faraway world of Remnant, average people are menaced by malevolent Creatures of Grimm, (which look like a mix between the Hollows of Bleach and the Heartless of Kingdom Hearts). But have no fear! As brave warriors known as Huntsmen/Huntresses uses their magical semblance abilities to stalk the land and protect the innocent by knocking Grimms into next week. Four such huntresses are Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang, who all met at Beacon Academy (well, two were already sisters), and now right wrongs and triumph over evil while solving arc-based issues regarding mystically reincarnated seasons or something. From a practical perspective, this is all an excuse for gorgeous women to have epic, super-powered fights with monsters and the occasional other gorgeous women that may or may not be themed after ice cream flavors.

What is the game about?

In a plot that absolutely screams “these are 100% important events, but must never be mentioned again in the main serial story”, Team RWBY is sucked into what initially appears to be a simple Grimm outbreak, but is eventually revealed to be an attempted military coup. As such, RWBY must beat back a crowd of monsters, a perfectly color-balanced rival team of huntresses, and an endless army of ne’er-do-wells that exist to pad out some of the longer levels. In the end, RWBY saves the local government and its leaders so they can betray the team in a shocking twist that occurs later in the actual series.

Does the Gameplay have anything to do with the show?

Absolutely. RWBY ultimately exists as a parable about cooperation and disparate people (people are sometimes cat people) working together for a better world. And RWBY: Arrowfell is a metroidvania where you control four different characters who must all use their special abilities to conquer obstacles. In gaming terms, Ruby has an air dash, Weiss can create “double jump” platforms, Blake uses clones that can weigh down switches, and Yang breaks stuff real good. Beyond that, each of the four characters have differing offensive options, so sometimes you will utilize Yang’s unending flurry of punches, and sometimes you will stab from a relative distance with Weiss’s rapier. And while Team BRIR are original to the game, every last Grimm populating the local caves certainly recall similar conflicts from the show.

Does the presence of the show enhance the gameplay?

RWBY started as an excuse for the author of webseries Dead Fantasy to choreograph amazing fight scenes. You would think this would naturally lend RWBY to a fighting game (maybe something like half its inspirational, Dead or Alive?), but the cast of RWBY has only quasi-starred in one fighting game so far. Beyond that, we’ve had a marginally terrible cooperative monster hunting eclipse, and now a metroidvania. And it’s a really good metroidvania! But it is also very clearly from the same people behind Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse, so the tone is a little… muddled. The “voice” of RWBY sounds a lot more cynical than usual here, and there are gags at the expense of fat people and fetch quests less than an hour into the quest. It is a strange thing when the main characters feel like they are visiting another universe with a dramatically different tone when they are technically palling around their usual environs…

But Team RWBY feels like how you would expect Team RWBY to handle in a 2-D action environment, so at least the minute-to-minute of it all feels very RWBY. Partial credit, I suppose.

Could this game exist without the license?

On one hand, this is RWBY from toe to tip, with a delightfully detailed focus on their world, opponents, politics, and characters. On the other hand, you could reskin a lot of this game to suit some other license with a team of four saving the day, and very little would have to change. 75% of of RWBY: Arrowfell feels like filler, and it really doesn’t matter if it is Weiss Schnee or Donatello the Ninja Turtle fetch-questing armor for a local weirdo. This is easily the best game to feature the RWBY license, but it is also just plain a great game, which carries the unfortunate implication of it would be just fine without the shadow-cloning girl running around so long as you replaced her with Naruto. And that’s a horrifying thought all on its own…

Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time

What is the origin media?

Little Witch Academia is basically Harry Potter written by people that are not spineless cowards. Akko is a teenager that wants to be a famous witch like her idol, so she enrolls in a magic school. Unfortunately, she is the least adept witch that ever lived, so she is going to need a lot of support from her friends to overcome her seemingly boundless magical handicap. Luckily, her levels of optimism put Mickey Mouse to shame, and when she is chosen by an ancient magical staff to undertake a world-saving quest, she is just the right gal for the job. Also, there’s this whole thing about old versus new in the world of witchery, and maybe the main plot is really about brooms versus roombas. Or maybe it is about how you should absolutely support goblins unionizing. Whatever! It’s a good show!

What is the game about?

In another “this happened when you weren’t looking” plot, Akko and her schoolmates become trapped by The Chamber of Time, and wind up in an endless Groundhog’s Day time loop that threatens to make the first day of summer vacation infinite. While the day repeats continuously, our heroines find ways to travel to other regions and investigate the mystery of why anyone would ever watch this Endless Eight. Eventually, it is revealed to all be a sort of accident of a magical spell that a previous semester’s lonely and untalented student set in motion, and, conveniently, she transformed into a monster so you can punch this problem until it goes away.

Does the Gameplay have anything to do with the show?

So this is a weird one. Little Witch Academia is no stranger to action over the course of the series, but it is predominantly… how to phrase this… Well, it would probably be more appropriate for something like a platformer, or even a (broom-based) racing game. Akko is involved in a different conflict every week, but violence is generally not the answer. Here we have a game that is predominantly a beat ‘em up. It is a modern beat ‘em up, so there is a leveling system and management of multiple characters within a party, but it is definitely beat ‘em up gameplay. And, while the characters all feel distinctly like “themselves”, if you were to ask a fan of the show to describe loveably cranky witch Sucy Manbavaran, they probably would note about fifty other character traits before getting to her fierce right hook.

Does the presence of the show enhance the gameplay?

And then there is the other half of Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time. The beat ‘em up sequences are the action portions of the game, but there is also a visual novel-esque investigation/adventure game section, too. All the old standbys are here: collect items, talk to the right people, occasionally get confused by puzzles that are simultaneously opaque but capable of being solved by a third grader; and you have to crack these nuts before you’re allowed back on the fighting grounds. And, in a weird way, this does mimic the rhythm of a proper Little Witch Academia episode, as those usually follow a sort of “let’s figure out this problem” and then ensuing boffo action sequences as a finale pattern. So it is excellent that it follows the same beats… except that is terrible for a videogame. As has been noted on this blog before, as much as we all want in depth stories, some genres simply do not mesh well with “sit around and press the x button to advance dialogue”, and the humble beat ‘em up is high on that list. Pick a lane and stick to it, Little Witch Academia, even if this vacillating is faithful to the show.

Could this game exist without the license?

Absolutely not. The fusion of “all teenage girls all the time” with “action adventure” with “visual novel” with “beat ‘em up” could only exist thanks to Little Witch Academia. Other titles could follow this pattern, and other games could obviously fuse the same features, but only “wholesome, but produced by the same studio as Kill la Kill” could bring us this nonsense. Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time could only get on your Playstation with this license. For better or worse…

FGC #653 RWBY: Arrowfell

• System: You’ve got options! Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PC, and Nintendo Switch. My vote goes to Nintendo Switch, because revisiting old areas for treasure is ideal for portable mode and watching some TV on the side. Hey! You could catch up on RWBY!
• Number of players: You can control all four RWBY ladies, but you are just one player. If you want four players playing as everyone simultaneously, see RWBY: Grimm Eclipse. Or, better yet, never play that game. Ever.
• Favorite Character: I always lament choosing “the main character”, but Ruby Rose is the undisputed champion this time. She has a super scythe! And can air dash! As a result, I barely touched Weiss and Blake, with Yang only stepping up to the plate when I needed her rapid-fire punches. I can see how the two “forgotten” members could be useful, but their skills are a little too… stationary for a 2-D game.
• Favorite Rival Character: Ruda Tilleroot of Team BRIR wears goggles, her name is Polish for “redhead”, and she has drills for hands. I am not certain who at WayForward said “we should make a character that should appeal to Goggle Bob in every way”, but I appreciate it.
• Fightin’ Time: This is a Metroidvania, but there is a significant emphasis on combat, complete with mandatory battle rooms. And, while the monsters have set patterns that make these fights interesting with different configurations, this would be a better game if there were a greater variety of opponents. Or at least reskin the three different humans that seem to be involved in every other fight? RWBY has always been a franchise filled with groundbreaking grimm creatures, so a little diversity would be cool.
• Say something mean: While it is true to the concept of sticking to one region, it seems like there are way too many same-y environments for a game where you are hopping all over a country. I can stomach one giant cave when that is the whole point (like some kind of cave story), but the multiple locations on the overworld map all boil down to “cave” or “town”. Never thought I would say this, but I would kill for a minecart or lava level just for a change of pace.
• Choo-Choo: And one cool, unique area is the train trap that caps off a turning point in the plot! And it is just a series of monster closets! Dammit! I know trains aren’t that interesting for secrets, but the Mega Man series made those chuggers work for stimulating level layouts! It can be done!
• What’s in a name: The rival gang is known as Team BRIR, pronounced “briar”. And it is eventually revealed their boss is Bram Thornmane. Their connection is supposed to be confidential.
• Did you know? Long story short, nearly everything that happens in this game doesn’t matter because the featured region/government gets completely wrecked a little later in the canon timeline. But, considering that “revelation” was released well before this game, that was likely deliberate. And, hey, it offers an excuse for every surviving character to be scattered to the winds, and turn up again in a sequel game later.
• Would I play again: This is a great metroidvania, and I will likely play it again when enough time has passed that I have forgotten all the secrets. Looking forward to senility!

What’s next? Random ROB has chosen… Them’s Fightin’ Herds! Let’s watch a dragon fight a pony and then pummel an alpaca! Please look forward to it!