Rabi-Ribi might seem like just a cute 2D side scrolling adventure game but underneath the retro visuals lies a complex title that hearkens to Metroid and Castlevania-like games. Players will attack with cute weapons and magic all while avoiding various lasers and bunny crazed fans. With secret areas, power ups and tons of bosses and modes to explore, Rabi-Ribi aims to be a tough 2D experience. Get ready for laughs and cute girls wearing bunny outfits as Erina tries to reunite with her master. Along the way, Erina will meet odd characters that will both help and hinder her progress. Rabi-Ribi mirrors the classics it clearly takes from and fans of the 2D gaming golden age will be in for a real treat.

Players who love the level up systems inspired by games like Castlevania and Metroid will really like the gameplay mechanics of Rabi-Ribi. Erina’s world within Rabi-Ribi is one of vibrant colors and retro inspired art that melds with an all too familiar anime aesthetic. Erina will need to level up her mighty pink hammer to face off against cat girls, weird mage girls and a whole slew of odd but cute enemies. Rabi-Ribi also takes elements from shmup games to have players dodging laser bullets and tons of particle like energy shots in equal measure. Players can also expect tons of different music tracks to accompany them on this massive adventure. Rabi-Ribi blends multiple genres together to create a very unique take on the 2D side scrolling adventure genre of which you’ve probably never seen before.

For reasons unknown, bunny rabbit Erina has now found herself as a bunny girl. Erina sets off on a quest to find and be reunited with her master. However, Erina will have to deal with various threats as she makes her way back into the loving embrace of her master. Luckily for Erina, her mission won’t be taken by just her as she will meet various characters like Ribbon—a small fairy girl—who will help her along the way. What lies in wait for Erina will be a larger adventure any bunny has ever gone through before and it will take all her courage and strength to somehow see it through to the end.

Rabi-Ribi is one of those gaming titles that has several genres melded into one. Luckily, none of the genres within are poorly implemented making for a pretty strong title. Rabi-Ribi has players taking control of Erina as they fight through small dogs, odd little creatures and a whole slew of moe type enemies. While it sounds ridiculous, for those who love the Metroidvania—Metroid and Castlevania games—genre than Rabi-Ribi will be very appealing. While there are a few minor gripes, let’s first explore what works well in Rabi-Ribi.

As mentioned, Rabi-Ribi is first and foremost a 2D side scrolling adventure title. Players will need to explore various maps with hidden spots and the occasional boss to fight. The maps themselves mirror the cute moe theme with vibrant colors and the retro feel of older generations of gaming. This makes maps quite pleasing to explore and they never feel overly generic or too muted in colors like some 2D adventure titles can feel. Now there are various threats to deal with in Rabi-Ribi so let’s talk about how one goes about defeating some of these odd foes.

Erina will quickly gain her main weapon in the form of a hammer but thanks to her fairy companion—who also joins pretty early on—Erina will have access to magical attacks as well. Players will need to balance both ranged and close attacks to defeat certain enemies and if they plan on taking the game’s harder modes of play. With several different attacks and magical attacks, Rabi-Ribi gives players a nice amount of level progression that keeps the combat from ever becoming stale. Players can also purchase items, find them and even get badges to increase their stats making Erina that much more powerful. Once you fulfill certain requirements, you can also gain access to boss rush mode and speed run which will be nice for those who want some replayability at the end of the day. Rabi-Ribi totes that players will be able to play Erina in various different gameplay styles and truly that claim is met thanks to some solid controls.

Visually, Rabi-Ribi looks to be a title from the PS1 days or even older but with some obvious designs that keep the game more in the form of retro than ugly. The real standing strength in terms of the visuals is the CG images that players well get to see occasionally. These look fantastic and show some fanservice in the form of cute girls with—at times—overly large assets. If the art won’t appeal to you though we can say the music most certainly will. A large amount of different tracks are used in Rabi-Ribi and all of them sound great.

Now let’s talk about the few issues we have with Rabi-Ribi. For one, while we here at Honey’s Anime love all things anime and moe, that isn’t going to appeal to every gamer out there. Rabi-Ribi will definitely be for niche audiences and while the gameplay will clearly be for those that love the Metroidvania genre, it will be hard for those who dislike cute games like this to get past that. We also noticed—though rarely at times—that when a lot of enemies or effects hit the screen, the game can slow down, though this only happened a handful of times and never got us killed or destroyed a good boss run. Finally with the super cute characters being thrown in everything from the backdrop to the NPCs, it is sometimes a bit annoying to figure out what can hit you and what won’t. At one point in the later game we just began shooting everything to see if it took damage and this way weren’t surprised by a small mushroom being apparently an enemy.

Rabi-Ribi is what we here at Honey’s Anime consider the cute take on the Metroidvania genre. With loads of areas to explore and some solid gameplay, it’s pretty easy to recommend Rabi-Ribi. With only a few minor issues, the major downfall of Rabi-Ribi will be the fact that while the gameplay is solid the moe theme will definitely be a turnoff for most hardcore gamers. However, if you can look past the visuals and niche moe theme you’ll find a solid game that we here at Honey’s Anime can recommend without too much trouble. Now then it’s up to you to decide if you’re willing to join Erina’s adventure and help her

Rabi-Ribi is one of those games that looks are deceiving. While it seems filled with overly cute moe girls and looks to be from the early PS1 days, Rabi-Ribi has a solid game underneath it. This is definitely one of those times that judging a book by its cover will make it so you miss out on a fun and unique take on the Metroidvania-like genre we’ve all come to know and love. Well folks with that our adventure for today’s review comes to close. Let us know what your plans are for Rabi-Ribi in the comments below and hopefully our review convinced you on what you should do next for this quirky but cute game. As always we here at Honey’s Anime aren’t done with our quest to bring you great reviews so don’t be gone for too long and warp back to our site for more gaming reviews soon to come.