Bros will buy the game with scantily clad anime girls plastered all over it and complain that there are scantily clad anime girls plastered all over it. I just wanna ask what the fellas in the backloggd reviews were expecting when buying said game. This is the equivalent of some fella lookin at a war shooter and getting upset that it's indeed a war shooter but buying it anyways and complaining about that fact as if they didn't know exactly what they were getting into. I don't care how good the reviews are for said game, people should be able to recognize when something is clearly not made for them. (and also recognize that steam reviews normally don't mean shit in the first place)
Ignoring the weirdos that are upset about this and bought the game anyways, the gameplay here is good, very good, my favorite gameplay in fact. As someone who adores both platformers of the metroidvania variety and bullet hells this becomes something special with how it blends these two genres together perfectly. It really says a lot about a game's quality when I ACTUALLY want to go through the entire "beat difficulty to unlock higher difficulty" fiasco, something I didn't even do in something as good as DMC5. Also the boss fights are kinda phenomenal, they're very distinct from one another, have an absurd amount of attacks which constantly keeps them fresh, feel very fair despite the difficulty, and there's more than 30 of them lmao. The ost is also great with "Finale" being one of my favorite final boss tracks ever. overall a good time.
tldr game is very good but it attracts animephobic weirdos despite the very obvious exterior, obviously don't play this if you are for some reason scared of scantily clad anime girls like so many people in the backloggd reviews clearly are.
Edit after playing the Tevi demo: ANYBODY who likes this game needs to hop on Tevi, it's a spiritual successor to Rabi Ribi and is a perfect evolution of it. I very easily see it dethroning Rabi Ribi as my favorite game ever if it even matches the quality of the demo. The wait for Tevi's full release will be a difficult one... November 29th bros...
Ignoring the weirdos that are upset about this and bought the game anyways, the gameplay here is good, very good, my favorite gameplay in fact. As someone who adores both platformers of the metroidvania variety and bullet hells this becomes something special with how it blends these two genres together perfectly. It really says a lot about a game's quality when I ACTUALLY want to go through the entire "beat difficulty to unlock higher difficulty" fiasco, something I didn't even do in something as good as DMC5. Also the boss fights are kinda phenomenal, they're very distinct from one another, have an absurd amount of attacks which constantly keeps them fresh, feel very fair despite the difficulty, and there's more than 30 of them lmao. The ost is also great with "Finale" being one of my favorite final boss tracks ever. overall a good time.
tldr game is very good but it attracts animephobic weirdos despite the very obvious exterior, obviously don't play this if you are for some reason scared of scantily clad anime girls like so many people in the backloggd reviews clearly are.
Edit after playing the Tevi demo: ANYBODY who likes this game needs to hop on Tevi, it's a spiritual successor to Rabi Ribi and is a perfect evolution of it. I very easily see it dethroning Rabi Ribi as my favorite game ever if it even matches the quality of the demo. The wait for Tevi's full release will be a difficult one... November 29th bros...
the devs had 2 explicit goals for this title: make one of the best games of all time and no pants allowed
Not finished because my dumb ass lost 3 hours of progress due to poor save management, but! One of the best Metroidvanias ever made, incredible depth and breadth of exploration here w great music and super super tight bosses. On Standard mode there's a bit of a tedious inverted difficulty curve which makes some later bosses less memorable, but the level of detail here is astounding
When sorting my Steam library by Steam reviews, I always forget to account for the fact that any sort of anime girl aesthetic results in significant ratings inflation. It's not that Rabi-Ribi is a bad game, it's just an eyebrow raise to see such universal acclaim. The character designs are skeevy and the dialogue and plot are childish resulting in me feeling like I needed to take a shower after playing this game. The gameplay itself also wasn't for me, I don't find bullet hell too engaging and I didn't like the combat mechanics. I will say that it's impressive how non-linear this game is, it may be the most open Metroidvania I've ever played.
Out of the haze of pixiv fever dreams comes one of the standard bearers of the "explaining to your Steam friends it's a real game with gameplay and it doesn't have a one-handed mode" sub-genre. It's hard not to take note of this one, with how often it's championed as one of the very best metroidvanias on the market. Having played it... I think that's somewhat fair, with some caveats.
The aesthetic takes a specific taste, but I can mesh with it. A constant stream of bright, colorful pixel art and a soundtrack teetering between pounding electronic and sickly-sweet j-pop demands a specific kind of upbeat optimism I found refreshing. The anime illustrations are also, in a word, cute, even if the constant malaise of vague horniness gives the entire proceeding a slightly creepy quality, like the game is a sexually frustrated aunt at a wedding making googly eyes at the groom cake topper. Another thing worth mentioning in passing is the visual clarity, if only because such a thing is critical for a bullet hell.
Exploration, as one would hope for in a Metroidvania, essentially involves finding a high ledge, a watery sinkhole, and a realization of the crushing weight of a conscious existence, before running back and forth over the map, searching for the double jump, swim ability, and indomitable human spirit to bypass such obstacles and progress further along the map. Exploration tends to be functional, but rudimentary; aside from one (very fun) section consisting entirely of platforming, few areas offer any unique environmental challenges. Instead, downtime between boss fights means boffing your giant-ass hammer against hordes of bunny girls coming at you with all the piss and vinegar of a baby sparrow, while simultaneously stopping every four feet to kick every rock and pull every blade of grass to make sure none of them are hiding a health potion or the entrance to the secret kingdom of the mole people. In this way, exploring becomes tedious, especially when the map notably omits pathways you haven't tried yet, so opening locked routes feels less like putting your new skills to use and more like a German tourist wandering around trying to find the best schnitzel in Bangkok.
At various locations throughout the map come the boss fights, which are easily the highlight. The combination of side-scroller combo attacks with bullet hell mechanics make these fights as much a test of platforming / maneuvering as they are actual combat. In addition, there is a staggering variety of different patterns, putting you through energy zig zags, spinning electricity wheels, arcing fire pillars, a sprite construction of La Pietà made entirely of bubbles, each with a specific dodge pattern before you can get in a couple of meaty bonks. Or at least, for the most part; when the game vomits out projectiles in every direction across the whole screen like Mr. Creosote, it feels like kind of a cheap shot. Regardless, these sequences are what make the game worth playing, and there are plenty of them, with your ever-increasing tool kit of carrot-themed demolition equipment providing added depth as you progress. By the end, you're swinging, rolling, and sashaying through 15-minute boss fights that really get the blood pumping.
From the best part of the game to the worst part of the game, I don't even know if I want to attempt to explain the story. It's probably one of the most incoherent plots I've ever experienced in a game. It's hard to communicate, however, because so much of it comes in the form of random non-sequitur pieces of information. For most of the "main game", you are a bunny who has been magically turned into a human girl through the power of weird fetishism, tasked with locating your owner's sister trapped in another world. This is achieved by scouring the land looking for magic users. The hands-off approach to how / where you locate these people was appreciated, encouraging exploration. The main thrust of the plot here is supposed to be the personalities of the various magical characters. If you've ever seen an anime before in your life, you've seen every one of these characters, and you've seen them written more interestingly. After four separate attempts to open this portal, the grand villain is introduced, her backstory is rapid-fired straight at you like a lawyer reciting the last deposition before lunch, she dies, and the game ends. Except, it doesn't end? It picks up again on a completely different one of the many plot threads introduced and poorly elaborated on. Then, the next chapter starts over again, before the game actually ends. Or, I should say, you arrive at the open lego peg the endless stream of DLC can slot on to. As much as the game likes to propose conflicts, it's less keen on actually showing any resolution to them. The sister is returned, but every threat concerning their connection to this other world, the main character remaining transformed into a marketable mascot, what precisely the deal was with bunny Cortana, is all just capped off with a big question mark. The horrible writing is equal parts frustrating and amusing, so I suppose it's not the worst thing to be the major bug bear.
The aesthetic takes a specific taste, but I can mesh with it. A constant stream of bright, colorful pixel art and a soundtrack teetering between pounding electronic and sickly-sweet j-pop demands a specific kind of upbeat optimism I found refreshing. The anime illustrations are also, in a word, cute, even if the constant malaise of vague horniness gives the entire proceeding a slightly creepy quality, like the game is a sexually frustrated aunt at a wedding making googly eyes at the groom cake topper. Another thing worth mentioning in passing is the visual clarity, if only because such a thing is critical for a bullet hell.
Exploration, as one would hope for in a Metroidvania, essentially involves finding a high ledge, a watery sinkhole, and a realization of the crushing weight of a conscious existence, before running back and forth over the map, searching for the double jump, swim ability, and indomitable human spirit to bypass such obstacles and progress further along the map. Exploration tends to be functional, but rudimentary; aside from one (very fun) section consisting entirely of platforming, few areas offer any unique environmental challenges. Instead, downtime between boss fights means boffing your giant-ass hammer against hordes of bunny girls coming at you with all the piss and vinegar of a baby sparrow, while simultaneously stopping every four feet to kick every rock and pull every blade of grass to make sure none of them are hiding a health potion or the entrance to the secret kingdom of the mole people. In this way, exploring becomes tedious, especially when the map notably omits pathways you haven't tried yet, so opening locked routes feels less like putting your new skills to use and more like a German tourist wandering around trying to find the best schnitzel in Bangkok.
At various locations throughout the map come the boss fights, which are easily the highlight. The combination of side-scroller combo attacks with bullet hell mechanics make these fights as much a test of platforming / maneuvering as they are actual combat. In addition, there is a staggering variety of different patterns, putting you through energy zig zags, spinning electricity wheels, arcing fire pillars, a sprite construction of La Pietà made entirely of bubbles, each with a specific dodge pattern before you can get in a couple of meaty bonks. Or at least, for the most part; when the game vomits out projectiles in every direction across the whole screen like Mr. Creosote, it feels like kind of a cheap shot. Regardless, these sequences are what make the game worth playing, and there are plenty of them, with your ever-increasing tool kit of carrot-themed demolition equipment providing added depth as you progress. By the end, you're swinging, rolling, and sashaying through 15-minute boss fights that really get the blood pumping.
From the best part of the game to the worst part of the game, I don't even know if I want to attempt to explain the story. It's probably one of the most incoherent plots I've ever experienced in a game. It's hard to communicate, however, because so much of it comes in the form of random non-sequitur pieces of information. For most of the "main game", you are a bunny who has been magically turned into a human girl through the power of weird fetishism, tasked with locating your owner's sister trapped in another world. This is achieved by scouring the land looking for magic users. The hands-off approach to how / where you locate these people was appreciated, encouraging exploration. The main thrust of the plot here is supposed to be the personalities of the various magical characters. If you've ever seen an anime before in your life, you've seen every one of these characters, and you've seen them written more interestingly. After four separate attempts to open this portal, the grand villain is introduced, her backstory is rapid-fired straight at you like a lawyer reciting the last deposition before lunch, she dies, and the game ends. Except, it doesn't end? It picks up again on a completely different one of the many plot threads introduced and poorly elaborated on. Then, the next chapter starts over again, before the game actually ends. Or, I should say, you arrive at the open lego peg the endless stream of DLC can slot on to. As much as the game likes to propose conflicts, it's less keen on actually showing any resolution to them. The sister is returned, but every threat concerning their connection to this other world, the main character remaining transformed into a marketable mascot, what precisely the deal was with bunny Cortana, is all just capped off with a big question mark. The horrible writing is equal parts frustrating and amusing, so I suppose it's not the worst thing to be the major bug bear.
Great little metroidvania which blends really well the bullet hell style of bosses. I really enjoyed the gameplay but the story, art and the exploration weren't the best.
Allora, Rabi-Ribi è oggettivamente fatto parecchio bene lato gameplay. Il level design a mio avviso non è praticamente mai particolarmente buono, rimane sotto la varietà e qualità generale di quello in Blasphemous II, ma rimane funzionale alla libertà dell'esplorazione
Vado a specificare che l'esplorazione in sé non m'è piaciuta poi tanto fatta eccezione per un paio di stage. Come dicevo, lato gameplay Rabi-Ribi è ben fatto ma a causa del level design stesso la maggior parte delle volte l'utilizzo delle proprie abilità per attraversare una sezione è quasi ininfluente - mi sono trovato a usarli quasi solo lì dove sono obbligatori. Infatti, teoricamente il gioco si potrebbe praticamente completare senza aver ottenuto nulla (forse eccetto le scarpe che permettono di saltare più in alto, ma dovrei controllare).
Poi, non ho mai percepito alcuna distintività: trovarsi nell'area vulcanica è più o meno la stessa cosa che trovarsi nella foresta o nelle grotte ghiacciate. Belli invece i background, in genere. Forse un'eccezione a tutto questo è il livello ambientato nel cyberspazio
Lo stesso discorso lo applico alle creature nemiche: anche laddove c'erano delle creature luogo-specifiche, erano sempre di una bruttezza e, per il moveset, di una banalità disarmanti.
Mi fanno cagare anche i NPC, per character design e scrittura
La scrittura, per me, è atroce e disprezzo anche la storia in sé: non posso neanche scendere nei dettagli perché molte cose le ho direttamente skippate. Poi magari a causa di questo atteggiamento mi sarò anche perso certe istruzioni, perché ho capito come fare per consumare oggetti di cura solo a 5 ore dall'inizio.
Le cose buone da dire sono comunque molte. C'è un sistema di progressione più vicino a certi giochi di ruolo, per cui l'utilizzo costante delle proprie armi ne comporta il miglioramento e level up: questo ha come esito un aumento del danno, della velocità, l'acquisizione di una combo a seconda del livello raggiunto. In giro per la mappa è possibile trovare tutta una serie di oggetti che, come in ogni metroidvania che si rispetti, permettono di semplificare l'esplorazione e di accedere a nuove aree: che si tratti del doppio salto, di un aumento dell'altezza raggiungibile con lo stesso, della scivolata, etc.
Per i completisti poi questo gioco sarà una manna dal cielo. Io non ho nessuna intenzione di collezionare manco la metà degli achievement ottenibili (o meglio, a me degli achievement non frega in nessuna maniera), ma credo che per farlo durante la prima partita bisognerebbe investirci almeno una trentina di ore
Particolare nota di merito per quanto mi riguarda va proprio alle boss-fight: diversissime, numerosissime e molte di queste difficili in culo, con moveset che ci si aspetterebbe da un bullet-hell. Nonostante la difficoltà, c'è sempre la possibilità di rinascere esattamente fuori l'arena di combattimento (che non è mai nulla di particolare, tutta l'attenzione è stata data esclusivamente al moveset dei vari boss). Inoltre, dopo alcune sconfitte, il gioco stesso chiede se si vuole abbassare la difficoltà. Apprezzabile.
Non intendo fare una seconda partita e non ho letto cose a riguardo, ma credo che, data la libertà di approccio all'esplorazione che si raggiunge da un certo punto, sia anche possibile affrontare molti boss seguendo le proprie preferenze in termini di priorità
Per il resto non ho molto da dire. La grafica, animazione, audo design e ost mi sono tra l'indifferente e il disprezzo. Un'altra nota positiva è la hurtbox, molto piccola come accade in molti shoot 'em up e molto precisa: lo sprite del personaggio è ingannevolmente molto più grande della hurtbox vista l'elevata quantità di sezioni bullet hell, e per ovviare a questo problema la hitbox delle creature generiche è più grossa dei loro sprite così da avere l'illusione di una effettiva collisione nel caso ci si dovesse finire addosso
Vado a specificare che l'esplorazione in sé non m'è piaciuta poi tanto fatta eccezione per un paio di stage. Come dicevo, lato gameplay Rabi-Ribi è ben fatto ma a causa del level design stesso la maggior parte delle volte l'utilizzo delle proprie abilità per attraversare una sezione è quasi ininfluente - mi sono trovato a usarli quasi solo lì dove sono obbligatori. Infatti, teoricamente il gioco si potrebbe praticamente completare senza aver ottenuto nulla (forse eccetto le scarpe che permettono di saltare più in alto, ma dovrei controllare).
Poi, non ho mai percepito alcuna distintività: trovarsi nell'area vulcanica è più o meno la stessa cosa che trovarsi nella foresta o nelle grotte ghiacciate. Belli invece i background, in genere. Forse un'eccezione a tutto questo è il livello ambientato nel cyberspazio
Lo stesso discorso lo applico alle creature nemiche: anche laddove c'erano delle creature luogo-specifiche, erano sempre di una bruttezza e, per il moveset, di una banalità disarmanti.
Mi fanno cagare anche i NPC, per character design e scrittura
La scrittura, per me, è atroce e disprezzo anche la storia in sé: non posso neanche scendere nei dettagli perché molte cose le ho direttamente skippate. Poi magari a causa di questo atteggiamento mi sarò anche perso certe istruzioni, perché ho capito come fare per consumare oggetti di cura solo a 5 ore dall'inizio.
Le cose buone da dire sono comunque molte. C'è un sistema di progressione più vicino a certi giochi di ruolo, per cui l'utilizzo costante delle proprie armi ne comporta il miglioramento e level up: questo ha come esito un aumento del danno, della velocità, l'acquisizione di una combo a seconda del livello raggiunto. In giro per la mappa è possibile trovare tutta una serie di oggetti che, come in ogni metroidvania che si rispetti, permettono di semplificare l'esplorazione e di accedere a nuove aree: che si tratti del doppio salto, di un aumento dell'altezza raggiungibile con lo stesso, della scivolata, etc.
Per i completisti poi questo gioco sarà una manna dal cielo. Io non ho nessuna intenzione di collezionare manco la metà degli achievement ottenibili (o meglio, a me degli achievement non frega in nessuna maniera), ma credo che per farlo durante la prima partita bisognerebbe investirci almeno una trentina di ore
Particolare nota di merito per quanto mi riguarda va proprio alle boss-fight: diversissime, numerosissime e molte di queste difficili in culo, con moveset che ci si aspetterebbe da un bullet-hell. Nonostante la difficoltà, c'è sempre la possibilità di rinascere esattamente fuori l'arena di combattimento (che non è mai nulla di particolare, tutta l'attenzione è stata data esclusivamente al moveset dei vari boss). Inoltre, dopo alcune sconfitte, il gioco stesso chiede se si vuole abbassare la difficoltà. Apprezzabile.
Non intendo fare una seconda partita e non ho letto cose a riguardo, ma credo che, data la libertà di approccio all'esplorazione che si raggiunge da un certo punto, sia anche possibile affrontare molti boss seguendo le proprie preferenze in termini di priorità
Per il resto non ho molto da dire. La grafica, animazione, audo design e ost mi sono tra l'indifferente e il disprezzo. Un'altra nota positiva è la hurtbox, molto piccola come accade in molti shoot 'em up e molto precisa: lo sprite del personaggio è ingannevolmente molto più grande della hurtbox vista l'elevata quantità di sezioni bullet hell, e per ovviare a questo problema la hitbox delle creature generiche è più grossa dei loro sprite così da avere l'illusione di una effettiva collisione nel caso ci si dovesse finire addosso
i tried to write this review bfore but everything conspires against me giving rabi-ribi a bad rating, which is way i am now giving it 5 stars. my wife loves this game^^
definitely the best taiwanese game i've ever played.
definitely the best taiwanese game i've ever played.
This review contains spoilers
Very fun metroidvania with incredibly questionable character designs, the reason I don't have the game higher is because I feel the way boss's scale with your items removes part of the reasons I enjoy roguelikes, getting stronger.
Your combos get better throughout the game, but the boss's HP just gets higher and higher, and it becomes dreadful by the final boss who is just a giant wall of HP who has very little time to actually attack. I enjoy boss fights in this genre to be short, hard, and snappy. Maybe it's a "skill issue" or smtn like that but it definitely did remove part of my enjoyment once the fights started dragging on quite a bit.
The Library is also just a pretty poorly designed area. I think I would have more motivation to come back if they had a fast travel point during that segment so you could easily come back with foods and buffs, but sadly they drop the ball and made an insanely trial and era, "I Wanna Be The Guy" type area, with a very cryptic way of leaving the area. Disappointing end to a pretty damn fun game.
Your combos get better throughout the game, but the boss's HP just gets higher and higher, and it becomes dreadful by the final boss who is just a giant wall of HP who has very little time to actually attack. I enjoy boss fights in this genre to be short, hard, and snappy. Maybe it's a "skill issue" or smtn like that but it definitely did remove part of my enjoyment once the fights started dragging on quite a bit.
The Library is also just a pretty poorly designed area. I think I would have more motivation to come back if they had a fast travel point during that segment so you could easily come back with foods and buffs, but sadly they drop the ball and made an insanely trial and era, "I Wanna Be The Guy" type area, with a very cryptic way of leaving the area. Disappointing end to a pretty damn fun game.
This review contains spoilers
(Despite the spoiler tag, I don't think the story in this game is good. I'll be talking about the game's ending, but I don't think it'll ruin your experience if you haven't yet played the game.)
I'm always impressed by games that blend two uncommon genres together to make something different. Rabi Ribi takes both metroidvanias and shoot'em ups. I'm a big fan of the former, just "sight" about the latter. The end result is mostly great, but the game does inherit a lot of both genre's most notorious flaws.
OK, its a game I recommend for sure, but lets start with the bad first because I'm an asshole. Boss design is... Not great. The flaws it inherit from the metroidvania side of things: bosses have invincibility phases; design usually ignores your mobility options and devolves to what I call the "skip rope then mash button" type of fights; and tons of bosses have "quirky" hidden mechanics that you'll only ever discover if you look up a walkthrough. From the shoot'em up side: it has bullets that blend with the background; regularly throws pattern shots and targeted shots at the same time, creating some real checkmate situations; an overreliance of both memorization and extremely precise inputs required.
Still, despite being one of the game's flaws, its not even close to the worst the genre have ever seen. You even get to enjoy them if you're right at the middle of a Venn diagram of "Ikaruga's diehard fans" and "metroidvania enjoyers". But for anyone else, for the most part you're just stacking attack buffs and saving resources to dump them all on the bosses before they get to do too much damage on you. Funnily enough, you'll even get some SSS and Max ranks doing this. My worst ratings in the game were the ones I tried to engage with the bosses on the game's terms actually.
Anyway, the second thing the game does poorly is story. I'd honestly recommend just skipping everything and enjoying the game for the gameplay quality only. The plot is a fever dream of multiverses that never explains itself and by the end even seems to actively mock you. Like, there's 3 "final" bosses in the game. The first two have understandable motivations and seem to raise interesting questions about the truth of Rabi Ribi world. You would expect the last one to be the sort of "mastermind" one that'll explain why and how everything happens and... Well it does. The last boss. The one with a really elongated fight and where the soundtrack goes the hardest. She's the one pretty much responsible for everything that happens in the game. Her motivation?
...she was really horny for bunnies.
I wish I was just joking. At worst, I'm exaggerating. But I wanna be clear, if this is an exaggeration, it is a really, really slight one. This is it. This is the ending. Imagine if you were served the dog ending in Silent Hill 2 by default and with a straight face. That's Rabi Ribi's plot. You just got pranked into playing a kemonomimi yuri. I almost respect the courage tbh.
Despite these two major gripes I have with the game, it really is a good metroidvania when it comes to mobility, progression, level design, and regular combat. The difficulty is really hyped up in this game, but it's honestly just your average metroidvania curve. Starts off incredibly hard, gets progressively easier as you get more and more abilities and items. The last minutes of the game are pure kaizo design nonsense, but road until there is good enough that it doesn't really ruin the experience. Soundtrack is good, artistic design good, overall gameplay is good. Rabi Ribi is a good game. It's only ever "great" if you're an huge shoot'em up fan with a soft spot for chibi animal girls though.
I'm always impressed by games that blend two uncommon genres together to make something different. Rabi Ribi takes both metroidvanias and shoot'em ups. I'm a big fan of the former, just "sight" about the latter. The end result is mostly great, but the game does inherit a lot of both genre's most notorious flaws.
OK, its a game I recommend for sure, but lets start with the bad first because I'm an asshole. Boss design is... Not great. The flaws it inherit from the metroidvania side of things: bosses have invincibility phases; design usually ignores your mobility options and devolves to what I call the "skip rope then mash button" type of fights; and tons of bosses have "quirky" hidden mechanics that you'll only ever discover if you look up a walkthrough. From the shoot'em up side: it has bullets that blend with the background; regularly throws pattern shots and targeted shots at the same time, creating some real checkmate situations; an overreliance of both memorization and extremely precise inputs required.
Still, despite being one of the game's flaws, its not even close to the worst the genre have ever seen. You even get to enjoy them if you're right at the middle of a Venn diagram of "Ikaruga's diehard fans" and "metroidvania enjoyers". But for anyone else, for the most part you're just stacking attack buffs and saving resources to dump them all on the bosses before they get to do too much damage on you. Funnily enough, you'll even get some SSS and Max ranks doing this. My worst ratings in the game were the ones I tried to engage with the bosses on the game's terms actually.
Anyway, the second thing the game does poorly is story. I'd honestly recommend just skipping everything and enjoying the game for the gameplay quality only. The plot is a fever dream of multiverses that never explains itself and by the end even seems to actively mock you. Like, there's 3 "final" bosses in the game. The first two have understandable motivations and seem to raise interesting questions about the truth of Rabi Ribi world. You would expect the last one to be the sort of "mastermind" one that'll explain why and how everything happens and... Well it does. The last boss. The one with a really elongated fight and where the soundtrack goes the hardest. She's the one pretty much responsible for everything that happens in the game. Her motivation?
...she was really horny for bunnies.
I wish I was just joking. At worst, I'm exaggerating. But I wanna be clear, if this is an exaggeration, it is a really, really slight one. This is it. This is the ending. Imagine if you were served the dog ending in Silent Hill 2 by default and with a straight face. That's Rabi Ribi's plot. You just got pranked into playing a kemonomimi yuri. I almost respect the courage tbh.
Despite these two major gripes I have with the game, it really is a good metroidvania when it comes to mobility, progression, level design, and regular combat. The difficulty is really hyped up in this game, but it's honestly just your average metroidvania curve. Starts off incredibly hard, gets progressively easier as you get more and more abilities and items. The last minutes of the game are pure kaizo design nonsense, but road until there is good enough that it doesn't really ruin the experience. Soundtrack is good, artistic design good, overall gameplay is good. Rabi Ribi is a good game. It's only ever "great" if you're an huge shoot'em up fan with a soft spot for chibi animal girls though.
On the metroidvania side it's nothing amazing, the level design is somewhat bland but okay. The boss fights on another hand are really well done and the game is a solid mix of your typical metroidvania boss fight combined with bullet hell elements.
Rabi-Ribi is very uneven but still good.
To start with the elephant in the room I don’t really like the moé art style. It’s not a deal breaker but it’s definitely not helped by the boring story and weak characters. Outside of that major part the gameplay is pretty fun, some of the bosses are cheap and have way too much health but I respect the challenge and how it forces you to truly learn all the game mechanics. It was definitely frustrating sometimes and I don’t think the progression works well with it but overall the gameplay is solid, and if you like Touhou or other metroidvanias you’d probably like this to some degree
To start with the elephant in the room I don’t really like the moé art style. It’s not a deal breaker but it’s definitely not helped by the boring story and weak characters. Outside of that major part the gameplay is pretty fun, some of the bosses are cheap and have way too much health but I respect the challenge and how it forces you to truly learn all the game mechanics. It was definitely frustrating sometimes and I don’t think the progression works well with it but overall the gameplay is solid, and if you like Touhou or other metroidvanias you’d probably like this to some degree
Clearly the ideas are there but:
- Exploration and worlds are boring
- Art makes me want to vomit (mod that removes portraits but I am still reminded of the fact that I am playing something made for gooning)
- Bosses take upwards of 10+ minutes and any attempt can go down the trash can in 3 hits
I'm too old to want to grind games like this. Life is so short and I would rather have a challenging game that provides more difficult sections in shorter segments like Super Meat Boy.
- Exploration and worlds are boring
- Art makes me want to vomit (mod that removes portraits but I am still reminded of the fact that I am playing something made for gooning)
- Bosses take upwards of 10+ minutes and any attempt can go down the trash can in 3 hits
I'm too old to want to grind games like this. Life is so short and I would rather have a challenging game that provides more difficult sections in shorter segments like Super Meat Boy.
The best that Metroidvania as a genre has to offer. Unparalleled freedom of exploration, insane built-in movement tech that allows you to snap the game in half and complete it in any conceivable order, varied and challenging boss fights that are a joy to play and make you wonder how did one man ever come up with so many dank bullet hell patterns.
Nothing will ever compete until TEVI comes out (which is made by the same guy, isn't that cool)
Nothing will ever compete until TEVI comes out (which is made by the same guy, isn't that cool)
OK HEAR ME OUT: if you install the steam workshop mod called "Portrait Remover Plus" or any other "no anime" or "replace the anime with something funny like tf2 characters" type mods, the fact that this is an ecchi game basically stops mattering, and all you're left with is a really competent Metroidvania/bullet hell action-adventure-platformer-shooter genre mashup that provides a nice, refreshing challenge for casual players, and the ultimate challenge for genre veterans and speedrunners. There is so much movement tech in this game, intentional and unintentional, that the developers have achievements for you using some of it, and the community created a steam workshop map that teaches you every movement trick in the game (which, depending on your skill level, might take an hour to even clear part 1 of like 5??? of it???) If Nintendo had taken this game's map and mechanics, but replaced the setting and plot with Metroid stuff and called it Metroid 5, it would have sold a bunnilion copies. Criminally underappreciated game that's held back by the fact that, well, the devs wanted to make an ecchi bunny girl game that just so happened to turn out to be a Metroidvania (according to the art book DLC, it wasn't originally one.) Please play this, even if you hate anime. You can remove most of the anime with mods, and what's left is something you can overlook to enjoy a best-in-class genre mashup with oodles to offer for casual and hardcore players alike.
men will literally do ANYTHING instead of watching anime
MOM TRUST ME THE GAME HAS DOPE TECH
One of a kind bullet platformer. Definitely play if you like cute anime girls and insanely difficult bosses.
I hate this weeb-ass creep artstyle, but I'll be damned if this isn't one of the funnest metroidvanias I've ever played. The very defenition of guilty pleasure.
Was gonna do the post-game before reviewing this, but I think I'm good for now.
Surprisingly fun metroidvania that is clearly heavily inspired by Touhou. Exploring the world is fun and, for the most part, never gets too difficult other than a few obnoxious areas. Boss fights are clearly where most of the focus went, and they're all pretty memorable. I do think the game has a similar problem that many other metroidvanias have where it takes a few upgrades for things to really open up. Once you've gotten more abilities, the game gets much more addictive as both movement and combat improve quite a bit.
This game does have a bit of a weird, inverted difficulty curve. I was getting a bit frustrated with the bosses at first, but as I unlocked more stuff and got more upgrades things became a lot more manageable. That healing staff weapon was a goddamn lifesaver for a few battles.
I do think there are some boss attacks that are a little too unclear on how to avoid them (that and sometimes bullets are a little too difficult to make out against the backgrounds), but for the most part they're all well designed and unique. I do wish they were a little less spongy once you get close to the end. It can feel like it's taking forever to whittle down their health bars sometimes, although it is satisfying pulling off massive combos.
The game's very colorful art style and peppy music also help in making the game not feel too frustrating as well. I guess there's the cutesy story as well, but I honestly kind of stopped paying attention to it after a certain point. It's mostly kind of just dumb anime bullshit where despite beating the shit out of everyone with a hammer, you all become friends and everything's happy.
I do find it funny that so many people complain about the character designs. It's a game where the main character is wearing a playboy bunny outfit. What the hell were you expecting? Other than a couple characters, none of them are even that lewd. Sometimes I wonder how people like this would react if they went to a beach. Probably have a brain aneurysm.
Anyway, Rabi-Ribi is very good. Much better than I expected it to be. I'd even say it's one of the better metroidvanias I've played. Unironically better than Hollow Knight. Don't @ me.
Surprisingly fun metroidvania that is clearly heavily inspired by Touhou. Exploring the world is fun and, for the most part, never gets too difficult other than a few obnoxious areas. Boss fights are clearly where most of the focus went, and they're all pretty memorable. I do think the game has a similar problem that many other metroidvanias have where it takes a few upgrades for things to really open up. Once you've gotten more abilities, the game gets much more addictive as both movement and combat improve quite a bit.
This game does have a bit of a weird, inverted difficulty curve. I was getting a bit frustrated with the bosses at first, but as I unlocked more stuff and got more upgrades things became a lot more manageable. That healing staff weapon was a goddamn lifesaver for a few battles.
I do think there are some boss attacks that are a little too unclear on how to avoid them (that and sometimes bullets are a little too difficult to make out against the backgrounds), but for the most part they're all well designed and unique. I do wish they were a little less spongy once you get close to the end. It can feel like it's taking forever to whittle down their health bars sometimes, although it is satisfying pulling off massive combos.
The game's very colorful art style and peppy music also help in making the game not feel too frustrating as well. I guess there's the cutesy story as well, but I honestly kind of stopped paying attention to it after a certain point. It's mostly kind of just dumb anime bullshit where despite beating the shit out of everyone with a hammer, you all become friends and everything's happy.
I do find it funny that so many people complain about the character designs. It's a game where the main character is wearing a playboy bunny outfit. What the hell were you expecting? Other than a couple characters, none of them are even that lewd. Sometimes I wonder how people like this would react if they went to a beach. Probably have a brain aneurysm.
Anyway, Rabi-Ribi is very good. Much better than I expected it to be. I'd even say it's one of the better metroidvanias I've played. Unironically better than Hollow Knight. Don't @ me.
incredibly based.
This might be the ugliest game I've ever played and it's not cause of the "Anime Fan-Service" Aesthetic.
Rabi Ribi suffers from the worst case of style inconsistency imaginable.
The quality, the art-style and even the pixel size feels completely randomized.
And i'd generally say this is worse than when a game consistently amateurish in it's art, cause at-least it's consistent.
For a Metroidvania it kinda loses a lot of the fun in exploring cause of it being such an eyesore.
But I gotta say the combat is pretty fun even if the animations are really awkward.
And the boss-fights are quite fun even if they can be quite dragged out.
Rabi Ribi suffers from the worst case of style inconsistency imaginable.
The quality, the art-style and even the pixel size feels completely randomized.
And i'd generally say this is worse than when a game consistently amateurish in it's art, cause at-least it's consistent.
For a Metroidvania it kinda loses a lot of the fun in exploring cause of it being such an eyesore.
But I gotta say the combat is pretty fun even if the animations are really awkward.
And the boss-fights are quite fun even if they can be quite dragged out.
I wish I could remember which YouTubers recommended this so I could unfollow them.
This game is like doing crack
HOLY SHIT
raw af
Bullet hell metroidvania with an incredibly well designed map and very high replay ability, although high difficulty plays are relied on hidden tricks and are just not as fun.
Eu baixei esse jogo pensando que seria um bagulho curtinho só pra me distrair e acabou que eu dediquei 20 horas da minha vida sem nem perceber lol, mas não me arrependo. É um metroidvania com elementos de bullet hell (deve ser o primeiro jogo nesse estilo que zero) e um pouco de ecchizinho aqui e ali, então muita gente não vai gostar por: 1 - ser difícil pra caralho; 2 - não ser muito family friendly, mas é realmente muito bom, muito bom MESMO.
Todas as boss battles são únicas e bem divertidas, os rages que eu dei enquanto jogava foram muito mais por conta da decisão questionável de limitar seu ataque físico por estamina, o que real não faz sentido para esse tipo de jogo, do que mecânica de chefe zoada. E essas chefes também carregam a história porque todas elas são legaizinhas nos diálogos, lembra bastante Touhou no sentido de serem personagens que fazem suas piadinhas ao mesmo tempo que dão vida pro mundo (é estranho eu citar Touhou, mas o boss final tem padrão quase que idêntico a uma spell card da Flandre, então dizer que não tem influência seria loucura).
Ah, só pra constar: joguei no modo normal 'alternativo', que, pelo que eu entendi, tem a dificuldade completamente definida, diferente do normal 'padrão' que define a dificuldade dos bosses com base no que você coletou, então o alternativo vai te exigir que você explore e grinde bastante, tanto para achar as skills e badges quanto para achar dinheiro para que você possa evoluir essas skills e demais status do personagem (também tem um esqueminha alá Mega Man Zero 1 de quanto mais você usar um certo golpe, mais forte ele fica), então talvez ser "difícil pra caralho" não seja tão verdade dependendo de qual modo você escolher.
Todas as boss battles são únicas e bem divertidas, os rages que eu dei enquanto jogava foram muito mais por conta da decisão questionável de limitar seu ataque físico por estamina, o que real não faz sentido para esse tipo de jogo, do que mecânica de chefe zoada. E essas chefes também carregam a história porque todas elas são legaizinhas nos diálogos, lembra bastante Touhou no sentido de serem personagens que fazem suas piadinhas ao mesmo tempo que dão vida pro mundo (é estranho eu citar Touhou, mas o boss final tem padrão quase que idêntico a uma spell card da Flandre, então dizer que não tem influência seria loucura).
Ah, só pra constar: joguei no modo normal 'alternativo', que, pelo que eu entendi, tem a dificuldade completamente definida, diferente do normal 'padrão' que define a dificuldade dos bosses com base no que você coletou, então o alternativo vai te exigir que você explore e grinde bastante, tanto para achar as skills e badges quanto para achar dinheiro para que você possa evoluir essas skills e demais status do personagem (também tem um esqueminha alá Mega Man Zero 1 de quanto mais você usar um certo golpe, mais forte ele fica), então talvez ser "difícil pra caralho" não seja tão verdade dependendo de qual modo você escolher.
This review contains spoilers
amazing gameplay at the cost of an incomprehensibly bad story. still, regardless of the context surrounding it that irisu fight is crazy fucking good
This review contains spoilers
Silly games are fun. One of my favourite games is Rabi Ribi, it's a game about a magic bunny who gets turned into a cute anime girl with bunny ears who wears s wimsuit for some reason??? Then she meets a tiny fairy named Ribbon in a cave that sh esomehow got to and Ribbon tries to kill her but then you hit Ribbon with a toy hammer a bunch and then they become friends and save Ribbon's other fairy friends from a computer nerd girl in the cave that comes from human world and then there's bullet hell. It was made in Taiwan and the translation is extremely confusing :D
Music is top-tier seriously amazing though.
They then realise that the magic bunny world is going all weird and bunny rainbow particles start falling from the sky that make everyone obsessed with bunnies and Erina (the bunny girl) has to run away from them cuz they're all bunny crazy so then you find out that another bunny girl named Noah is responsible for it because she wants to save bunny world by doing something??? (I never figured this bit out but they all got amnesia as well I guess??)
and like
then
you go to human world where weebs try to photograph you cuz you're cosplaying as Erina but you're actually Erina but they don't know that you're actually Erina and the camera flash hurts you!
So you kill them with your toy hammer and then you're in space and you fight Noah who turns into a giant moustache
then there's a puzzle section with lots of spikes inside computer and fairies fight to Halloween music and you meet a succubus and you fly and shoot them in the sky with fairy bullets.
You go under-underground and have a poggers fight with yourself but all anime-wisdom-pilled and then the music is all like DOO! DOO DOO! DOO DOO DODO DODO!! AND THEN THE MAIN THEME MEODY IS SNUCK IN THERE WITH REVERSED PIANO SAMPLES AND STUFF.
Good game.
I have schizoid personality disorder.
Music is top-tier seriously amazing though.
They then realise that the magic bunny world is going all weird and bunny rainbow particles start falling from the sky that make everyone obsessed with bunnies and Erina (the bunny girl) has to run away from them cuz they're all bunny crazy so then you find out that another bunny girl named Noah is responsible for it because she wants to save bunny world by doing something??? (I never figured this bit out but they all got amnesia as well I guess??)
and like
then
you go to human world where weebs try to photograph you cuz you're cosplaying as Erina but you're actually Erina but they don't know that you're actually Erina and the camera flash hurts you!
So you kill them with your toy hammer and then you're in space and you fight Noah who turns into a giant moustache
then there's a puzzle section with lots of spikes inside computer and fairies fight to Halloween music and you meet a succubus and you fly and shoot them in the sky with fairy bullets.
You go under-underground and have a poggers fight with yourself but all anime-wisdom-pilled and then the music is all like DOO! DOO DOO! DOO DOO DODO DODO!! AND THEN THE MAIN THEME MEODY IS SNUCK IN THERE WITH REVERSED PIANO SAMPLES AND STUFF.
Good game.
I have schizoid personality disorder.