Rusty Rabbit opens with the brooding, atmospheric tone of a noir detective mystery. World-weary narration introduces us to Stamp — a grizzled, down-on-his-luck salvager with a dark past. Stamp is a talking rabbit.
The game is set in a post-human world, inhabited by the kind of rounded, fluffy rabbits you might see in a Sylvanian Families playset. Characters raid old world tech for a living, then go to church and learn about the life of Saint Peter and his struggle against McGregor.
Stamp — formidably voiced on the Japanese audio track by Yakuza's Takaya Kuroda — balances out the cutesy style by treating his scrap gathering role very seriously. Using a customisable exo-suit, he delves into human-made facilities to search for parts and battle mechanised enemies.
Armed with a drill from the start, the main loop of the game is seeking out as many scrap cubes as possible. As you mash blocks to bits with your drill, you will earn XP and components to upgrade your suit and weapons.
As the game progresses, Stamp's ability set grows, alongside a healthy arsenal of weaponry. The skill tree isn't particularly deep, but slowly building out your suit capabilities is satisfying. Enemies and hazards have a nicely calibrated difficulty curve; there's nothing insurmountable that a quick boost to attack/defence won't solve.
Between salvage hunts, Stamp can return to the hub town. During this downtime, he might swing by the diner to chat with NPCs, attend church to hear the gospel of Saint Peter, or trade in bounties at the bar, all before tinkering with his exo-suit and diving back into the expansive map. It’s an engaging, workmanlike loop — not genre-shaking by any means, but full of humour and charm.
Rusty Rabbit is a standard Metroidvania that doesn't stray far from the formula, but surprises with lots of customisation and light social sim elements. It's worth playing for its protagonist alone (in the Japanese dub at least), a cute rabbit with the stern vocals of Kazama Kiryu.
Comments 8
It's Kiryu's coma dream after Yakuza 6...that's all ya need to know.
So less points for it being the genre it wanted to be.
You can start docking points on every soulslike going forward then.
@motorrik6 if it falls into genre trappings and doesn't do anything unique or interesting with them then yes, it makes sense to lose points for that
But the genre trappings are what they are going for. You remove them, it's not a metroidvania. What even is an unpredictable metroidvania structure? @Logonogo
Metroidvania fatigue seems on the rise. I get it, I do. I just think it's redundant criticism but I totally understand your point.
I wonder what you'd have scored it if it was your first time with the genre.
@Logonogo I guess but my scale would be different (but I suck at metroidvanias so I'd not liekly have reviewed it, the characters/world seem good but gameplay wise hard for me to judge some metroidvanias compared to other genres I'd have a lot more to say about them). So I agree with you but will go a bit of agree and other thoughts.
Do they know what audiences want, yes to a degree, but at the same time I still find it a fine line of doing anything distinct if people want comfort and they can't push the bar. That audiences not just developers fault if they are limited.
If I reviewed probably similar of points maybe more harsh, but I think genre trappings is valid as some are just too easy to release it without doing much, some Indies I have to be lax for their skills, others are just purely lazy to try with level design, abilities, and such, the world/characters may be good but uses for them can be so formuliac and dull I wonder why they bothered.
They don't all feel empty or need a solution but sometimes they do feel that way to me for sure not just what I seek in a game but structurally changes just enough to be quality of life about them or mode additions then 1-2 and being REALLY empty, I don't even buy games because their mechanics/ideas are dull and too focused on other things but eh.
To me the rabbits reminded me of like the Kiyo King of Pirates warriors type game that was cancelled or Project Rap Rabbit or others not so cancelled as like 5-6th gen or something. Even besides Gen's name mentioned.
Even then to me many metroidvanias, souls, roguelikes, platformers & more have been nostalgic, or ripping off on others then good original inspiration, just enough to be different & just making the trends or pushes in the genres weak but I could be wrong and it's just as much as I see or ignore purchase.
Some people want pushes forward, others want comfort, others don't care about gameplay.
Any time I talk gameplay I get funny looks so eh as solutions or distinct ideas, most people don't care as far as I see.
But I'm not changing my mind it's why I buy old games whether AAA, AA or Indie instead of supporting some as many AA/Indies are still just doing what they always did regardless of new studios/different publisher if veterans, and Indies borrow from trends/nostalgia of their small experience pool of popular games then prototype random things together as it takes too much, or they aren't skilled enough or they just didn't think it/don't care and create what they know, and we get lots of copy cats doing nothing.
I'll say it's not as bad as those making only multiplayer games but even for singleplayer offerings many are still samey.
Duskfade to me is so Kingdom Hearts/Ratchet that I was like eh it's cool but don't care. Same with Akimbot. They are cool but still so blatant I want more then blatant.
Depends what their goal was, if it was to be a metroidvania with the rabbits, it's world and more sure.
Part 2:
I mean even innovation as a word can vary from small to big depending. A spin off other ideas is enough sometimes then innovation, not just to avoid copyright but make an appealing product. But what I see/research is not what others do, have time to or care to to get inspiration/randomly come up with a solution to something off the core of what it there and want can be empty to one person isn't to another if they prefer other things.
My impression is older gens trends had more spin off/distance enough ideas to be separate products nowadays I find the line very thin in comparison nowadays. Or they lack enough distinction or are just bland and low effort as well.
But like people preferring gameplay, instrumentation/sampling structure or writing tropes/structure most people probably don't care they just want whatever is appealing enough then structurally different as only those deep into that or analysis it really care.
Other genres or developers can favour it but even still I think platformers have been terrible by Indies and barely offered anything of worth at least 3D ones, I've bought or researched the 5/6th gen niche ones as no one else wants to make anything original just whatever was popular and TOO close or too dull in gameplay but being mini sandbox ones or Crash clones or whatever but to many people I'd be wrong because the characters/odd ideas and worlds is enough when to me I haven't seen them branch out enough.
Racing to me is so bland in AAA and too motorsport comfortable to care about mechanics so I know I won't get anything there other then the odd ones or older games.
Puzzle/adventure to me are the only Indies blowing me away and I don't even buy many of them but respect them the most.
Other genres vary of course.
But depends who reviews, what it is and so on.
Everyone's scale of reviewing or purchase is different of things they look for in them.
I'd probably agree even if I think the world/characters are good but yeah if it's a bit formulaic I wouldn't disagree.
Enough of a spin on something gameplay, story, world design wise can be necessary then just a world/story taking over and gameplay just being a 'means to get to where need to go' then offering anything challenging or exciting to heighten it.
@SuntannedDuck2 this is all really well put, I enjoyed reading it. I'd agree with @motorrik6 that I might have scored higher if this was my first Metroidvania. However, we ultimately have to contend with a saturated market and not everyone can play every game. If you're a genre veteran and need a solid experience, or if you just wanna hear Kiryus voice again, this is for you. But there is a lot of games like this out there and a lot more coming, so we have to offer measured opinion. I personally think that presenting a format and not innovating is not specifically a criticism, but it's definitely something that should be noted for those that want something fresh before they purchase.
@kendomustdie Thanks, not many do because it's so large for people even with breaking up points to be easy enough to read or in depth enough from experience to how products are old/new, I notice it a LOT and it can be hard to make examples or a point land.
But yeah saturated market. What audiences/devs seek or do well or whatever. Their priorities are what they are and we have to live with it regardless of our disapproval of them of direction.
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