We are a follower of the RWBY series at Rooter Teeth and look forward to the season premiers in the cinema. When we saw there was a RWBY game, we threw money at it. We did get a signed copy with the be stunning artwork.
We have played plenty of board games, and we do know what we like. RWBY: Combat Ready is an enjoyable experience. We had fun once we played through a few times. The intricate combat system was the main them throughout the gameplay. As a fan of the RWBY series, we could ultimately see one person taking on the main villain while the others take on the additional minions or other supporting activities. We found that there was a flaw in the play of combat, in that the combo attacks you are only as fast as your slowest member. That made a win difficult.
Comparable to the series, you have to use teamwork to reach the goal.
The versatility in villains to scenarios to what cards were next in the deck brings much variety to this game, which makes it replayable. There were some sweet plays that my friends and I pulled off that make it seem like an epic fight scene. I was even able to bring my character, Yang, from starting Fury to Ultimate in one turn alone, which was completely awesome!
However, then came the bittersweet part. The pacing and the leveling up. First is the pacing — not the timing that it took us to play, but how the villain deck was built. Within a few Duels, the villain had already had 2-3 events out and was utterly outpacing up. Their speed or damage was just too much for the team to succeed, and we could not get a shot on them to use our Ultimate.
There were a few times in which within 2 rounds I had went from 12 to 5 health while I was still the active player and had been bashed. So, for the next two rounds, I had to rest to be able to survive my next Duel. Now, I know that thematically with the show, besides Jaun using his semblance to boost other peoples aura, there was no real healing that is provided for the characters, so the damage was very concerning when you took a hit. There was one time where I was the active player as Yang, and one of the cards said that all of the minions were to automatically hit the next player clockwise, which my friend was playing Ruby. Unfortunately, there were 3 minions out, and Ruby went from max 12 health to 4 within one attack, and it wasn’t even her turn! That is an isolated incident, and something like that is not likely to happen often, but there was no way for us to be able to truly prepare for that attack with how little we had been getting inexperience, which leads me to the experience gathering. To get to T2 cards, you need at least 5, which means you have to be doing something every turn when you are not an active player, and you have to hit the villain every time you are an active player. If you get hit once and need some way to recover, you are giving up valuable experience. As previously stated, when I went down most of my health, I was not able to help teammates, nor gather experience for myself, just because he hit me with 2 active attacks, because he had 4 events out and was at +3 speed and +2 damage for that Round.
Moreover, god help you if you are trying to get a T3 or T4 card because even with 18 experience saved up, I could only buy a T2 and a T3 since you have to buy a T2 that gets replaced by a T3, so I had to buy two T2s and a T3. The way that we had read the rules and played the game, this game seems much more oriented for being played in a campaign setting. We like this game and had tried to read forums on how different people revised the rules to make it possibly playable, but it should not be up to the community to do that. We even got a revised copy of the rules, and even then, it was difficult to grab the win. Rooster Teeth, love your content, and love RWBY to death, and for those reasons, we enjoyed RWBY: Combat Ready.
PROS
*Captures the feeling of the show
*Artwork on the cards is top-notch
*It feels different than other deck builders I have played
NEUTRAL
*Components and art are merely functional, other than the cards
*Difficulty is not high. If you want a significant challenge, it’s not for you
*The combat mechanic is just an advanced version of the card game “War”
CONS
*Leveling up is fiddly, and more complicated than it needs to be
* Missing the other “stars/co-stars” of the show. This game if included more of the heroes that fans of the show love.
FINAL VERDICT
If you love the show and are looking for a light/medium game, this is a good buy. It is fun. We enjoyed it, and am looking forward to playing again. I suspect it is not great as a solo game, (it says 2-5), but co-ops can be played two-handed easily
2-5 Players
Mechanisms Cooperative Play Player Elimination Variable Player Powers
Designers
Publisher
Author
Adam Malick
Nerdz Garage
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