Review: RWBY: Crystal Match

Does This game have candy to crush too?

Months ago, we told you about a mobile puzzle-game that was a joint effort made by both Crunchyroll Games and RoosterTeeth called “RWBY: Crystal Match.” The Presentation is up-beat and lighthearted using the RWBY Chibi art style in combination with catchy repetitive tunes and gameplay mechanics that feel reminiscent of games such as Candy Crush and Bejeweled with a touch of the Puzzle Kombat portion of MK: Deception and Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo which were games that also used chibi-like avatars to represent certain characters within their respective franchises.

As previously stated, from what I played in this early build, there’s nothing wrong with taking an old idea and putting your own spin on it if executed properly, but upon first downloading and starting the game, It requires you to say yes to the app accessing your camera or pictures which I find both oddly specific and disturbing for such a lighthearted game. I don’t exactly have anything to hide but why would an app ask permission for something that personal?

It’s also clear that the game itself for a beta claiming to have “1000 levels” is still a work in progress as it randomly glitched in places, sometimes showing nothing but chibi heads and arms floating around without a body or torso whatsoever before freezing and going black. Sometimes it would crash my phone just for trying to screen-capture the aforementioned floating head glitch as well. I’m also annoyed how the tutorial doesn’t always give you the option to skip or turn it off, especially when it doesn’t know when to disappear.

Our Take

Overall, I can’t completely hate this game for feeling like an unfinished product because it kinda is. It has a lot of work if it needs to smooth out these edges. Plus all eight playable characters are all women so don’t expect male RWBY characters to make it in there unless a patch is made to accommodate them in the future. It also seems par for the course that it would take the “freemium” approach as it gives you the option to spend actual money just to get anywhere faster which is a concept that was heavily satirized in a past South Park episode. So this will most likely be your game if your willing to put your bank account at risk.

If your morbidly curious, the game is free to download at the Google Play Store and your Apple Digital store.