It was released first on PC and even though mine isn't great I still got it, then they released it on PS4 & XB1 as well. Almost a solid year on its own on PC and rarely could you get a match and on the console you could spend maybe 45 minutes to an hour waiting for a group of 4. I know that the fan base for RWBY is quite large, there are tons of people that love the show, why isn't this always teeming with activity and people to play with ?? When I grabbed it for PS4 my thought process was, well maybe Rooster Teeth fans are more into consoles, and the result was the same as on the PC and I hear it was no better on XB1 despite it being more of a "used by Rooster Teeth" console.
Why then ?? Why was RWBY: Grimm Eclipse such a failure despite the fan base the show has ??
It is a combination of things surprisingly.
I think a lot of it has to do with the nature of the game itself, it is essentially a Dynasty Warriors style game and if you aren't a fan of Dynasty Warriors style games I can see where the appeal might wear off there. It's the same reason that the Hyrule Warriors franchise didn't catch on for Zelda, you're taking a property and throwing it into a very niche style of game. Those types of games are geared towards that crowd and there's not much leeway. Another reason is that I honestly saw such a lack of support for the game on the side of the developer, at least Hyrule Warriors had the decency to get updates and have a proper game treatment, it's like RWBY: Grimm Eclipse was put out and then that's it they never touched it again.
It feels like a fan made game, which is awful because it's made by Rooster Teeth and they have full access to every voice actor, art asset, writer, EVERYTHING that they use to make RWBY and they put together Grimm Eclipse which feels like a shell of what it should be. This could have been a cleverly written add-on to the RWBY universe with its own unique story but instead what you get is a game that falls flat. Having all that access when they aren't working on a current season of RWBY means that Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross could've written a campaign length story for this game to add onto the universe they helped create. Instead there's a "story" held together by strings, thin strings, as you make your way through vast locations in the world. When I say make your way, there's nothing between you and the next set of enemies besides the huge environment, at least Dynasty Warriors games have the common decency to throw enemies all over the setting for you and not sparsely between places. Also that combat when you do find the enemies in these places is janky at best, you can't tell if you are hitting your enemies and when you counter it's hit or miss whether you actually counter or not and it has a garbage perks system to "upgrade" combat. Okay well despite that at least Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Jaune, Nora, Pyhera, and Ren all have different combat and feel different right ?? Different animations sure but they all feel the same in combat.
Oh and the whole Team JNPR thing in that list of name above, is DLC. Rooster Teeth has the balls to release an extremely half-assed game and includes paid add-ons for it. Not just Team JNPR, which should be in the game regardless, but also costumes really ?? Costumes !!! You can't make a quality game or update it or do anything properly but a costume will remedy that.
The worst part in my mind comes down to this, Rooster Teeth didn't try, they didn't try at all to make a game for RWBY fans that RWBY fans could be proud of and have fun playing; instead they made a game banking on the fact that RWBY fans have been waiting for a video game and would be willing to fork over that cash for it. And I did, we all did, and it wasn't worth it. It's just a gigantic letdown to me and I'm sure many others.
As a RWBY fan, I can say this to other fans, if you don't have Grimm Eclipse but were planning on it. Don't. Save your money, if you want to still support Rooster Teeth and RWBY, go on their store and buy a shirt or something. But their game, just don't, save money on that.
If I was to rate it and I hate ratings.
3 out of 10
Here was the video that got me hype on it before it was released to be fair, it is a great video and does clearly appeal to fans. In that regard, well done Rooster Teeth marketing department, at the same time for shame guys for letting us down.