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!
If we are attempting to reconcile today’s topic with our featured game, we may as well draw attention to Wife Quest. Wife Quest is a “humorous and often naughty action platformer” (their words, not mine) that features Mia the Warrior Woman as she quests to rescue her hubby from a series of monster girls that intend to use Fernando the Ineffectual Husband in a husbandly way. The “naughty” nature of this game is front and center, as Mia is scantily clad in pink and white armor, and nearly all of her opponents are equally undressed “monster women” that may have dropped their legs for snake scales, but certainly have mammalian breasts to spare. All the dialogue involved makes overt references to risqué situations, and there is significant evidence that there was less time spent on testing the gameplay than checking back issues of Playboy.
Wife Quest appealed to me in the first place because it features lush, “retro” graphics that are reminiscent of some of my favorite Metroidvanias. And, while the game is actually a straight-up action title more akin to 
AI generated art has been a hot subject of debate lately. On one side, you have legitimate artists who have been honing their craft for years, and they are dismayed by the simultaneous issues of AI art potentially capturing their (paying) audience and the simple fact that seemingly not a living soul (but maybe some undead estates) granted these companies permission to use their preexisting, internet-shared art. On the other side, you have companies (some of which being the exact same people that were 
Or maybe you have to work a little harder for it. Maybe you have to say something about a short-haired brunette wearing a red swimsuit and witch hat. Bare shoulders, definitely. Throw in something about a guitar, too. Sunglasses? Does she wear sunglasses? Does it depend on the game? Whatever. Get those fingerless gloves in there, leave the boots behind (for obvious reasons), and we’ve got a pretty good I-No going. And if Friend Computer generates a shoeless guitar goddess with seventeen fingers or an inexplicable chest butt (for the uninitiated, that would be when, for reasons known neither to God nor man, the AI replaces perfectly good breasts with a prominent ass), then you don’t have to worry too much about that digital atrocity. After all, it only takes seconds to generate AI art now, so you can quickly cycle through the trash pulls and get to your five-star, primo customized pornography in no time.
a little thing like teeth growing out of someone’s eye sockets isn’t going to end your night! Bitcoin was never real money, drawings of sad apes were never real investments, and AI Art creations are not worthy of being hung on the fridge next to your crayon drawings of gnomes. 
Favorite Ability: The volcano level grants a lizard tail that confers a magical dash that can be used in any direction while standing or jumping. This is a lot of fun! Unfortunately, it is also used for a number of 
Even if you bury it under a pile of bad ideas, a good idea can shine through.
Unfortunately, Castlevania: Curse of Darkness was not to be the (vampire) savior of the franchise. Hector is certainly the Devil Forgemaster that was advertised, but it turns out that such a position does not confer all the abilities that could be imagined. Hector gets a double jump and a host of (forgeable!) weapons, but beyond that, the “Devil Forgemaster” conceit is reserved exclusively for a system that looks a lot like Symphony of the Night’s seven-year-old familiar system. There are five required innocent devils (and a bonus sixth one if you feel like playing with a pumpkin again), and they all come with abilities of varying utility. The bird-type devil helps you to glide over a pit, while the faerie devil opens treasure chests that are (for the first time in the franchise) locked. Unfortunately, aside from the devil’s ability to sink into the floor, none of these abilities are new or even remotely stimulating. What’s more, these innocent devils are maddeningly generic, so whereas “golem” is 
However, beneath the muck of a boring Castlevania adventure, there was apparently a story worth saving. When presented in 2005, Castlevania: Curse of Darkness had the most generic Castlevania plot outside of “Belmont slays Dracula”. In the grand tradition of Shaft and his plan to pit two vampire hunters against each other, there are two Devil Forgemasters, and Dracula’s ultimate goal is to possess one of them to return to menace Trevor Belmont. So, in being manipulated into this goal by 
Thirteen years later, the Castlevania Netflix series premiered its second season. Whereas the first season was little more than an expanded movie meant to introduce the main players of 
a similarly distinctive story. And the tales that are told of Hector and Isaac in Netflix Castlevania are nothing if not exceptional (at least one narrative includes a floating ball of corpses! You don’t see stories like that in dusty old books!). Somebody finally waded through the boring game of Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (or at least its Wikipedia page), and sifted out the best concept that experience had to offer.
Favorite Innocent Devil: Oh give me a home, where the hulking golem roam, and the skies are not darkened all day.
Would I play again: I will be honest, I started playing this game again when I got the 
There is no other way to say this, so I’m just going to be out with it from the start: Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth, which is maybe the 3,000th indie Metroidvania released in 2021, nearly made me cry.
But this is not to say that Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth does not have its own identity. For one thing, there is a surprisingly complex “color system” that influences every piece of gameplay. Deedlit has the ability to switch between wind and fire spirits through nearly the entirety of her adventure. When in wind mode, Deedlit can hover and boost a jump or too, and fire allows her to perform an invincible, flaming slide. This means you are frequently presented with rooms, monsters, and bosses that necessitate using one element or another. Or perhaps you will find that a certain “pattern” is tremendously more surmountable if you stop trying to jump with wind and start sliding with fire. Additionally, as one would expect in this kind of situation, different monsters are vulnerable to different elements, so if that fire dragon is withstanding a dozen fiery slashes, switch over to the windy side and blow that beast away. And everything from basic mooks to giant bosses seems to use at least one attack that is elementally themed, so turning on your fire element when facing down a blaze means you’ll take zero damage and absorb some extra mana to boot. We have seen “switching” mechanics in games before, in everything from Silhouette Mirage to 
So, for those of you that are unaware (which is anyone who is not a giant nerd very specifically between the ages of 35 and 50), Record of Lodoss War was a novel series and Japanese manga published between 1988 and 1993. It was also had an OVA (original video animation: essentially the “limited series event” of anime) that was finished in 1991, and a 27-episode anime in 1998. In its time, it was very popular. But, unfortunately, “its time” was before anime really made a foothold in the West (I personally blame 
But it is hard not to have affection for these knights, wizard, elves, and dwarves. Record of Lodoss War is a banal story, but there is familiarity in the mundane. Parn is every young adventurer who grows to become a gallant knight over the course of his escapades. Etoh is the noble priest and Parn’s steady friend. Slayn the sensible wizard is similarly reliable and often a makeshift mentor figure. Ghim the dwarf is everything you expect from a dwarf willing to die to save another. Woodchuck the rogue is just as trustworthy as his archetype will allow (which isn’t very much). And Deedlit (the titular star of the game that I am pretty sure this article is still about) is the high elf that wants to learn about the “human” world outside of the insular community of elves she has always known. Put it all together, and we are looking at every tabletop roleplaying gang ever played. Yes, you might have had more unique players in your own Dungeons & Dragons or Shadowrun (look, an elf is an elf, dammit) games, but the wizened wizard or the reliable cleric is a trope for a reason: it just works. And if you are into that nonsense, it is hard not to see Slayn being similar to your friend Steve, or Woodchuck bearing more than a passing resemblance to your buddy Fruitbat (example nicknames will not be explained).