REVIEW : Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan (XBOX Series X)
Friendship in Final Fantasy. Suikoden Kindness is a Suikoden game. Those are fantastic places to start if you want a quick summary of Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan. Rainbow Billy is an RPG at its core, thanks to its team-building features and a “combat” system befitting such a storied series while being labelled as a “2.5D Adventure-Puzzle-Platformer” on official marketplaces. The exploration and platforming elements offer a sense of adventure, but such moments aren’t as enjoyable due to some strange technical difficulties. However, the faults won’t detract from the overall experience, engulfed in a rainbow-coloured warmth that’s difficult to describe.
It has a persistent “glass half full” mentality, shown in the dialogue between people, reflecting many real-life scenarios. The game is worth playing just for the message.
Rainbow Billy is a resident of the World of Imagination, and you play as him. Billy must board his tugboat, the Friend-Ship, and sail across different islands to solve puzzles, meet new friends, and restore the world’s vivid colours after a gigantic water-faring dragon named Leviathan casts a dreadful curse on the land, draining it of its colour.
Rodrigo, a sentient fishing rod-like creature who helps Billy navigate around the world by swinging, gliding, and more, joins Billy on his trip. However, the game’s major focus—and the concept that distinguishes Rainbow Billy—is its “combat” system. Words like “fight” and “confront” are used in quotation marks throughout the review for a reason: there is no “battle” to be had. Instead, Billy and his new companions are seeking to restore colour to each black-and-white creature they “confront,” using speech and simple minigames to accomplish so.
Here’s how it works: You’ll select pals from a pool of recruits and arrange them in predefined lanes on the battlefield, assigning one of three coloured shapes to each friend. Minigames based on the lead creature in each lane begin once these “battle lines” have been constructed. Some need button clicks in a specific order, while others feature a slot machine-style game where rainbow stars must stop on a line. After winning a minigame, the colours are transferred to the “enemy,” where they fill in any blank forms over their heads. Enemies will fight back, lowering Billy’s Morale meter, which signifies the combat has failed and must be resumed. However, once you’ve filled in all of the shapes, you’re done! A new acquaintance has been enlisted.
The fights become more complicated as the game progresses, whether by increasing the number of colours to fill in, adding more complicated minigames to finish, or adding unique criteria during a fight. One enemy, for example, is concerned that others are more “perfect” than they are, so if you complete a minigame without making any mistakes, they immediately erase all of the colours. The wrenches were introduced into the battle system to keep an already distinctive mechanic from becoming stale, giving each instance its spin and improving the overall game.
A major component of the Rainbow Billy experience is that the creature is concerned about how others perceive them. Every one of the 60 creatures you’ll encounter is suffering from anxiety, causing them to lose their colour. One rodent-like species does not want people to notice their massive front teeth. Another admits to snacking excessively, even if the snacks are nutritious. A third is a champion boxer facing the end of their career and the necessity of passing the baton.
Every one of these tales has a genuine feel to it, anchored on real-life emotions that most players can relate to.
These new pals share stories about identity anxiety, having problems finding friends, and being bullied, all of which are very common real-life issues. You may not be able to relate to all 60, but one or two will make you think, “hmm, I’ve felt that before.” The game then proceeds to go through the difficulties, work on them, and, once the colour has been returned, acknowledge and move past the character’s shortcoming. It’s all in a cute rainbow-tinged journey, and it’s beautiful, motivating material that could assist some individuals.
This concept isn’t confined to the battle system, as each of the 60 characters can obtain more power—and more colours to utilize in fights—by completing their requests. The creatures want items obtained around the globe, ranging from a teddy bear to video games to painting supplies, and giving them what they want further investigates the origins of their defects. Sure, their colours have been returned, but they’re still trying to figure out what caused them to lose them in the first place.
Although several of these animals use comparable elements—for example, many of these animals relate to school-based trauma—the scenarios they describe are very much based on the human experience.
Take Alpharoar, for example, who is one of the first people you’ll encounter. Alpharoar is extremely protective of his younger brother Bark, to the point where he was once expelled from school for going too far in defending Bark against a bully and getting into a fight. However, he recognizes via his discourse that overdoing it could have caused him to become separated from the family he’s attempting to defend, leaving his sibling vulnerable to bullies while Alpharoar is away.
He recognizes the need to tone things down, which helps him comprehend why he was incorrect. This is only one of the 60 stories you’ll hear, and they’re all just as touching and true as this one.
The primary story of Billy, who is struggling with their tremendous trauma, is set up by these mini-stories. Without giving anything away, there will be a lot of Billy’s past discussed during the quest, ending in Billy confronting some difficult things head-on. Despite the cartoon it’s set in, this story is delivered with respect and reality, without wandering too far into the comical.
Rainbow Billy is advertised as a “very accessible” experience, among other things. The game places no pressure on you to complete a puzzle on your first, second, or even third try because you may always restart by flipping a switch. In some ways, the lack of pressure is liberating, allowing you to experiment without having to worry about, well, anything.
Thanks to the game’s main collectable: Thoughts, the Friend-skills Ship’s will grow as the globe develops. Collecting these small grey animals allows you to modify your ship by conversing with the computer within. Some improvements aren’t really useful—hooray for Photo Mode filters?—but others, such as having longer “combat” turns or more animals to pick from during a turn, are critical to victory later in the game.
The nicest part of the Thoughts is the minor doses of personality they get in the in-game menu, with messages like “Is a hot dog a sandwich?” and “If it’s called a waterfall, does that mean it’s polar opposite is a firefly?” Like the rest of the game, these funny jokes will put a smile on your face.
Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan was sung by Cyndi Lauper 35 years ago, and that’s the simplest way to characterize it. This is a game about displaying one’s “true colours” to the world, emphasizing the importance of being oneself in all facets of life. Its messages of love, friendship, and self-discovery are uplifting, the kind of Ted Lasso-style optimism that the world could use right now. The message-delivery program isn’t always impressive, particularly platforming, but the innovative fight system and interesting exploration make up for it.
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