RWBY: Grimm Eclipse – Definitive Edition (Switch)

RWBY definitive edition, is the Switch re-release of RWBY Grimm Eclipse. First released in 2014 as a fan made title, the dev (Jordan Scott) was then brought into Rooster Reeth, to develop the game for a full release. The game had fully released on PC, Mac, Xbox One and PS4 by 2017. And finally in May 2021 we saw the release ported to Switch as a definitive edition including all previous DLC included (Character outfits, 4 new playable characters, and a new enemy type).

RWBY plays akin to a horde mode/Dynasty Warriors clone, where you play through a level, fighting waves of Grimm completing basic objectives.

The main story mode has around 10 missions with different sections and objectives in each, most of these will be something along the lines of, protect A from waves of enemies, find a key to the new area, etc. Unfortunately this was about the jist of the mission types, over the 8-9 levels I played through, I found a real lack of level variety, which didn’t help with very basic level design and just as basic layouts.

My main issue with the story mode was a real lack of atmosphere, you only saw the character you were playing as, even in cutscenes we usually get to see some conversation between characters. But here we only have an occasional phone call from other characters in the series.

There’s also a horde mode which again runs like your stand horde mode, with you accumulating currency to purchase turrets and other defence mechanisms to prevent the Grimm for breaking down security stations in the map. Each stage here differs to its single play counter part surprising players expecting a generic area from the game.
In terms of gameplay, you have 8 characters to play as (4 of Team RWBY and 4 of Team JNPR), each plays different to the other, with unique abilities and fighting styles. You are also able to unlock new abilities depending on certain criteria being met in game. I ended up sticking with ‘Jaune Arc’ due to his character being a bit stronger then the others.

Visually the characters look as they do in the show, the cell shaded style works well with the game, each characters looks as they do, and the outfit choices available look pretty good too. The Grimm also look as they do in the show, yet we have a distinct lack of variety in the enemies, we have 10 different enemies in total, with not even a palette swap between them, just the mutant enemies have a green crystal to show they’re slightly different.

Obviously if you’re a fan of the franchise, there’s some content here for you, however if like me you were new to the franchise, the game isn’t fleshed out enough for anyone new to the series. There’s games that do hack and slash or even basic action rpg and horde modes better.