When you’re into anime, gentle novels, or visible novels, Gen Urobuchi’s affect is all over the place. He is the thoughts behind a few of anime’s largest hits, together with Madoka Magica, Psycho-Move, and Destiny Zero. That is only a fraction of his work, and his standing as a legend is difficult to dispute. So once I noticed he was concerned in creating Rusty Rabbit, you may think about my pleasure.
Half side-scrolling journey/platformer, half visible novel, Rusty Rabbit is an enthralling sport on the floor, little question. As a fan of Urobuchi’s work, although, you may think about my disappointment when Rusty Rabbit‘s narrative, and in some instances its gameplay, did not fairly dwell as much as my admittedly lofty expectations.
A Totally different Strategy for the Urobutcher
Urobuchi is commonly known as the “Urobutcher” for his unrelenting and brutal perspective in the direction of characters in his narratives. It is obvious proper from the beginning that Rusty Rabbit is a departure from these norms, and that is completely tremendous. A extra lighthearted story versus a violent one is a pleasant change of tempo for Urobuchi.
Rusty Rabbit stars the eponymous Rusty, and he is an ol’ rabbit with that boomer mindset that is most likely all too acquainted to a few of us with ageing mother and father. He is caught in his methods, gruff, and says it how it’s. He is a scrapper by commerce and digs for junk in Smokestack Mountain, and that is how he makes his residing on this frozen wasteland of a world.
True to developer NITRO PLUS’ typical portfolio, Rusty Rabbit‘s narrative is commonly loaded with pages of exposition. The primary story of Rusty Rabbit would not bathroom gamers down with a ton of story, however for many who need to discover its worldbuilding, lore, and Rusty’s character, you’ve lots of dialogue to comb by way of.
I do not thoughts studying pages of dialogue — I am a budding visible novel fan, in spite of everything — however Rusty Rabbit‘s extra lore is padded with quite a lot of pointless or uninteresting writing. This isn’t Urobuchi’s finest work by any stretch of the creativeness.
As an illustration, you may tackle numerous restore tasks as you accumulate elements all through your scrapping adventures — a pair of tires, a automobile body, stuff like that. You may be met with, generally, a few dozen pages of Rusty speaking about tires, and it looks like he is simply speaking in circles. Look, except you are a mechanic, you are most likely not going to seek out these tasks as thrilling as Rusty does.
In these sequences, there are some tidbits of lore that dive into Rusty’s difficult previous involving his spouse and daughter. It is unlucky that almost all of Rusty’s improvement is hidden in pages of dialogue which might be merely boring to learn.
What’s Up With the BBs in Rusty Rabbit?
The narrative additionally makes a degree to shoehorn in a gaggle of characters that, ultimately, serve little to no goal. Rusty Rabbit gasses up this group of junksters, known as the BBs, as a gaggle of rabbits exploring Smokestack Mountain for unsure causes.
You may come throughout the BBs loads of instances all through the narrative, however perhaps one out of the six will get a modicum of character improvement. The remaining are merely there for gags, or to offer Rusty blueprints or gadgets he must proceed by way of ranges. It is a disgrace as a result of Urobuchi has the flexibility to craft nice characters, however that’s not obvious in Rusty Rabbit.
The worldbuilding holds some promise, at the least. As the reality of the world turns into extra obvious as you progress, Rusty Rabbit sprinkles tidbits of data all through and retains you guessing and theorizing. I take pleasure in settings which might be mysterious in nature, nevertheless it’s held again by the shortage of character improvement and an excessive amount of dialogue.
It is a Junkers Life ‘fer Me
At its core, Rusty Rabbit is a sport about digging for junk. Ranges are 2.5D environments stuffed with drillable blocks, hazards, and enemies known as rust beasts. Your fundamental objective is to progress by way of every degree and hit sure factors within the story to progress. It is nothing too loopy, however Rusty Rabbit‘s simplicity means it may be an pleasant time.
The core of Rusty Rabbit has remained the identical since Urobuchi conceived the concept throughout COVID-19 lockdown: digging for junk in giant, sprawling ranges. It is in these ranges that there’s each quite a lot of promise but in addition untapped potential.
Rusty Rabbit‘s first half is nearly painfully fundamental. These first a number of areas in Smokestack Mountain seem Metroidvania-esque on the floor, however are largely simply linear pathways that wind round to offer the sensation of being maze-like. Rusty Rabbit would not hit its stride till later, when new concepts are included to make ranges extra dynamic.
Exploration and discovering new upgrades to progress by way of ranges takes extra of a job in a while, which is nice — racking your mind over the place to go subsequent and discovering new areas to discover in video games comparable to this are participating. Consequently, although, the primary half is underbaked and comparatively unexciting.
Instruments of the Commerce in Rusty Rabbit
Rusty’s mech, Junkster, is your technique of transportation, and it is fairly a helpful automobile, at that. Shifting in Junkster feels nice. Motion is responsive, and platforming is a cinch. Most failures in making a bounce really feel like my fault quite than the sport’s — although, generally there are collision points, which can little question be ironed out in a patch or two.
You are geared up with 4 several types of weapons: a drill, shotgun, blade, and hammer. These are all used for various functions, like clearing particular obstacles or doing additional harm to sure enemy sorts; once more, it is easy, and these all do what they should do. Generally, easy is finest.
You additionally unlock numerous traversal choices, like a better bounce and a wire that grabs onto ledges and such. Utilizing the total suite of instruments at your disposal opens up quite a lot of prospects and permits NITRO PLUS to create extra advanced environments. Having the totally upgraded Junkster — with its weapons and traversal choices — significantly elevated my enjoyment of the gameplay.
There are a couple of different gameplay programs gamers can have interaction with, like a leveling system that grants ability factors for upgrades. Upgrades are helpful and crucial, so gaining XP from killing enemies and drilling blocks has its benefits. There is a city the place you are capable of purchase numerous gadgets to help you in fight or in crafting, too.
What’s a Scrapper With out Crafting?
However crafting is the place Rusty Rabbit as soon as once more results in some disappointment. As a scrapper, it is a part of Rusty’s character to salvage junk and switch it into helpful gadgets. This stuff often come within the type of new weapons, that are, in some instances, wanted to progress the story.
Crafting new weapons requires elements, and you may solely achieve elements by drilling by way of sure blocks. There’s additionally an limitless dungeon the place you may primarily farm for extra elements to craft mentioned weapons, however I by no means felt compelled to have interaction with this content material a lot.
Extra highly effective weapons are required to discover some secret areas in Rusty Rabbit, however the story would not often require you to exit of your method for these. So the Limitless Dungeon feels nothing greater than a vessel for getting elements for weapons that you do not essentially want, except you are making an attempt to be a completionist.
Weapons additionally include numerous modifiers which might be RNG-dependent, which feels pointless. These modifiers do not appear to matter a lot on the finish of the day, however supposing some gamers are searching for one modifier or one other, I suppose that may very well be fairly irritating to only not get what you need and having to farm extra.
Rusty Rabbit Assessment | Ultimate Ideas
It is value mentioning, Rusty Rabbit‘s a fairly little sport. The rabbits are so fluffy and distinct of their designs, however that results in additional disappointment whenever you discover they haven’t any persona exterior of eye-catching designs. On high of that, environments are very cool — NITRO PLUS makes a degree to create visually distinct areas, and it does loads to interrupt up any form of repetition.
There are undoubtedly some points with Rusty Rabbit, although, each in a story sense and in its gameplay, however it’s nonetheless a superbly ample title. With its largely clean motion and platforming, in addition to the therapeutic nature of drilling by way of blocks, Rusty Rabbit can nonetheless be an pleasant little romp. It is only a sport that, sadly, by no means achieves its full potential.
Rusty Rabbit was reviewed over roughly 18 hours of gameplay on PC with a key offered by the writer. All screenshots have been taken throughout the assessment course of.