REVIEW

Rabi-Ribi Review

by Jake Stewart, March 3rd, 2018

Indie games in the Metroid-vania genre have been increasingly common over the recent years. Most AAA developers have forgotten about the genre’s existence entirely. This lack of big budget support has been the direct cause of some gems that sprout out within the genre, and Rabi-Ribi could be considered part of that group. With a balance of Metroid-vania exploration and bullet-hell style gameplay, Rabi-Ribi is genuinely unique.

The story is fairly simple and follows the rabbit, Erina who somehow turned into an anime girl overnight, and the general public as a whole seems to be pretty cool with it for some reason. With Erina’s newfound human body, she embarks on a quest with the fairy, Ribbon to help defeat the evils lurking within Rabi Rabi island.

The Metroid-vania bits of the game are fairly standard and consist of exploring different parts of the island, slaying small monsters along the way. Throughout your explorations you are often gifted with upgrades in the form of items or leveling up during battles. I enjoyed the frequency of the upgrades, as it felt like after every detour or battle, there was something new to experiment with. Such as new movement options or ranged attacks.

These frequent upgrades are the main incentive to explore off of your generally linear path. While some players may enjoy the exploration, I often didn’t find that was interesting enough to bother with exploring outside the main story. The combat with the standard enemies is fairly uninteresting, as a few quick melee hits will often knock them out, so they wouldn’t offer much challenge. Upgrades are naturally received after battles, but going off the beaten path to find more will certainly land you an advantage during boss battles. Without this incentive, I would’ve never explored further purely for the sake of enjoyment.

Speaking of boss battles, they are by far the best part of this game. The boss and miniboss segments play in the bullet-hell format and were an absolute blast. Focusing on dodging the boss’ myriad of attacks while finding areas to land your own never got old. It’s a shame that these portions weren’t as frequent as I’d have liked. I often found myself disappointed that I had to return to the exploration, as the boss battles were far more interesting. There is a boss rush mode, but unfortunately it is not unlocked at the start and requires progressing through the game before trying it.

The visuals overall are colorful and fun, but they really shine during the boss battles. Brightly colored lights and beams shoot across the screen, making abundantly clear what you need to be avoiding. Along with a solid backing track, these moments are intense and fun. This isn’t to say that the areas outside boss battles don’t look or sound good, but they are accentuated during these segments.

I’m sure most fans of the Metroid-vania genre won’t mind the exploration pieces as much as I did, unfortunately there is one other rather glaring flaw. If you’ve played/watched anime-styled media before, you’ve probably experienced these overly cutesy sort of tropes in the past. However, Rabi-Ribi rides the fine line of insufferable. Characters are overly bubbly, constantly speak in the third person, and are almost too cute. Every character just blends into the same “moe” archtype, which pulls really any possible character differentiation or development to a hault. Fortunately, if you just skip past all the cutscenes and focus on the gameplay, you’ll probably be able to hold onto your sanity.

Overall, Rabi-Ribi suffers from not sticking to the bullet-hell genre that it has perfected so well. If it weren’t for these beautiful and exciting pieces of the game, it would be receiving a much lower score. Despite the frequently uninteresting explorations and annoying characters, I still find myself wanting to return for more of that bullet-hell goodness.

Rabi-Ribi is a fantastic bullet-hell shooter that is is frequently drowned out through mediocre exploration and an overly bubbly cast of characters. If you can manage to ignore these other pieces, the bullet hell segments are absolutely worth playing for.