RWBYverse Online: Grimm Rising

The contents of this article are purely fictional! A collaboration between Morningwood Industries and Morningwood Studios with Rooster Teeth Games is NOT in the works. Therefore, brings this article to be 100% fanon and should not be taken as something really happening, or being developed by said development studios.

"In RWBYverse Online: Grimm Rising, you play as a Student of Beacon from Initiation to the Battle of Beacon. You start at Volume One, and from there you would make your way through it to get to Volume Two and Three. Grimm Rising is the ultimate RWBY experience brought to console! With updated visuals and 4K support, Grimm Rising offers beautiful and crisp gameplay and frame rate. In addition, the Grimm Rising story missions add in new items, weapon modifications, and the truth behind the disappearance of Summer Rose."

- Official RWBYverse Online: Grimm Rising description.

RWBYverse Online was an MMORPG developed and published by Morningwood Industries with Rooster Teeth Games assisting in development, and released on July 24, 2017 for the Xbox One, Xbox One S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 4 Neo and Windows PC. RWBYverse Online is meant to be played with four players in the same party.

Later after Microsoft's release of the Xbox One X—the most powerful console in the world—RWBYverse Online was updated and fixed by Morningwood Studios and Morningwood Industries re-released the game as an Xbox One X Enhanced title and renamed it to RWBYverse Online: Grimm Rising, which also added a series of missions regarding the Creatures of Grimm.

With this release, it was a separate product than RWBYverse Online and allowed players to import their original characters to the Grimm Rising game and servers, keeping all of their progression with them. Reason to this was because initially RWBYverse Online had a lot of issues and bugs within the game such as crashing constantly, and was eventually shut down. RWBYverse Online: Grimm Rising was also re-released for the PlayStation 4 Neo and Steam platform.

Student name
How the game works is that once players finish the Beacon Initiation, they are given an option to start a team with up to three friends and since the game keeps up with the colour naming rule of the show, the team name is made up automatically by each of the four players' Student's first letter, if they are based on a colour. One such example is Team FDRL (Federal) whose team name is based on federal blue.

The game also has mechanics within its system to detect non-colour names such as Anakin, and prevents players from creating names for their Student until the name is detected by the system as a variation of a colour.

Transition between Volumes
After its announcement and confirmed development, many wondered how the game was going to transition from Volume to Volume, and how the developers—Morningwood Industries and Rooster Teeth Games—were going to incorporate the transition between Volumes. Many had thought and speculated on how it was going to be done.

Once the game was released, players who had gotten through the first Volume were shown the opening for RWBY Volume Two and were introduced into new servers that rendered and hosted on a slightly different sandbox world than the first Volume. The same is done with the transition between Volume Two to Three.

Missions
There are three mission types in RWBYverse Online, the first type are Story Quests which progresses the Student forward in the story. The second are Side-quests which are given by various mission givers around and in Beacon Academy, including within city limits of Vale. The third and last are Relations Quests which allows players to increase the friendship meter of those who give these missions, fill up the meter high enough and these NPCs offer the Student a number of benefits, including discounts at various weapon mod vendors, food/health dispensers, as well as various other vendors around the school.

Activities
There are available activities in Beacon Academy for players to take part in. These include combat professors Tara and Port who both host dueling for 1v1 PvPs for players, and dueling against Grimm in their classrooms, respectively. Other activities include creating weapon parts for Vendors to unlock new weapon modifications as well as delivering supplies, and resources to various parts of the school.

Types of Bosses
In RWBYverse Online, there are four types of bosses introduced. One of which was introduced in the re-release of the game.
 * Boss - Regular bosses with normalized boss health and strength
 * Major Boss - More stronger bosses
 * Final Boss - More powerful bosses. Goliath Grimm serve as final bosses
 * Eclipse Boss - The strongest boss in the game. Only known boss of this type is X-1

Team System
The Team System is a game mechanic that allows players to create teams with up to four players and also acts as a party system as well. Upon starting the game, the player has an option to start a team and could invite three friends to join them. However, instead players could join someone else's team. The team name is automatically created once mechanics have identified a suitable name based on the colour-related names of each Student in the party.

Plot
The game follows a new Student who has enrolled themselves into Beacon Academy to become a Huntsmen. They are taken through initiation and successfully complete it, and is placed within a team based on who they were with and which relic pieces they brought back.

Settled in with their team, the Student then begins their training at the academy and goes through a series of missions with their teammates and learning to become a Huntsmen. Taking classes with their teammates, the Student meets new friends and trains with other teams and students while being supervised by Academy professors. However, after discovering that an all-girl Beacon team has uncovered a White Fang plot to steal Dust, the Student and their team follow them without being spotted. They are then spotted by and face three criminals; Neopolitan, Chocola, and Strawberry. After a while of fighting the three girls, they retreat after their boss, Roman Torchwick, tells them too.

Later the Student is assigned with Ruby Rose to discover the origin of the Grimm's increased aggression and population around Remnant. They fight against Grimm until they find evidence at the Island of Dr. Merlot where they discover that a mutated Beowolf named X-1 was created using the Aura of Ruby's now-deceased mother Summer Rose. They set out to confront X-1 to hopefully stop the Grimm from suddenly attacking settlements. Once taking care of X-1, the Student and their team head back to the Academy with Ruby. The Student tells Professors Ozpin and Goodwitch about what happened, and then the next day they continue their academy studies until the summer.

After the summer, the Student and their team returns to Beacon and begin their fall season training. As the Vytal Festival gets closer, students from the other three kingdoms join their Beacon counterparts in preparation of the tournament. The Student and their team takes part in the tournament.

After taking part in the tournament, the White Fang and Grimm attack Beacon Academy and the city of Vale, unleashing a Grimm dragon at the same time. The Student and their team helps defend the school alongside an unidentified Professor however, the defense of Vale and Beacon is overrun and many of the students and professors evacuate from the city, leaving Beacon to the Grimm. The Student then remains close to their teammates.

Characters
There are a host of characters within RWBYverse Online, including some characters who were mentioned or never saw screen time in the show such as Professor Peach. New characters are introduced as well, including Academy professors, students and citizens of Vale. Each of these new characters offer a series of missions, items, and information.

Protagonist

 * Student - The protagonist of the game who is highly customizable, including voice, name, nickname, race, appearance, weapons, gender, complexion, height, hair colour, and eye colour (Silver is excluded due to RWBY Canon).

Supporting characters
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Supporting

 * Beacon Academy Staff
 * Ozpin (Mission giver; Story Quests)
 * Glynda Goodwitch (Uniform Vendor; one relations quest)
 * Peter Port (Combat Professor; Grimm Duels)
 * Bartholomew Oobleck (History Professor, side-quests)
 * Peach (Substances Professor; Story Quests)
 * Tara (Combat Professor; Dueling, side-quests)
 * Sill (History Professor; side-quests)
 * Dan (History Professor; Story Quests and side-quests)
 * Berry (Combat Professor; weapons, side-quests)
 * Unidentified Professor (Mission only)
 * Beacon Academy Students
 * Charlie (Mission giver; side-quests)
 * Pinkie (Mission giver; side-quests)
 * Dandee (Mission giver; relations quests)
 * Ceila (Mission giver; side-quests)
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Antagonists

 * Chocola
 * Strawberry
 * Cinder's faction
 * Roman Torchwick (Voice only)
 * Neopolitan
 * White Fang
 * White Fang Lieutenant
 * Faunus
 * }

Minor characters

 * Team RWBY
 * Ruby Rose (Mission giver; one mission only)
 * Weiss Schnee (Voice only)
 * Blake Belladonna (Voice only)
 * Yang Xiao Long (Voice only)
 * Minor
 * Jaune Arc (Mission giver; 2 missions only)
 * Zwei (Mission only)
 * Penny Polendina (Voice only)
 * Shopkeep (Vendor and Mission giver; relations and side-quests)

Development
The game was announced at RTX 2016 and was revealed to be under development by Morningwood Arts' subsidiary, Morningwood Industries. Morningwood Arts had stated that Morningwood Industries was both a publisher and developer.

During RTX Sydney 2017, Morningwood Industries had given the fans of RWBY a chance to play the game in its "beta" status before it was released, this was called RWBYverse Online: Prologue, allowing players to play the Beacon Initiation as the Student. During RTX 2017 in Austin, Texas, Morningwood Industries had given out several copies of the game, but wasn't playable until July 24, 2017 which was when the servers for the game would become active.

After its release, many players complained about the game's issues and bugs such as constantly crashing and having some textures missing from certain areas as well as NPCs talking randomly and character models glitching out in different positions and poses which prompted Morningwood Industries to shut down the game's servers and rework the game. During this time, the company announced that the game would be re-released as an Xbox One X Enhanced title and that Morningwood Studios—subsidiary of Morningwood Arts—were assisting in its development. The game's title was revealed as RWBYverse Online: Grimm Rising and also adding in new story missions revolving around the Grimm.

Changes from Original to Grimm Rising
There are some changes between the original game and the reworked Grimm Rising version. Some of these changes are notable and easily recognizable. This is the list of the changes made:
 * The game's visuals, lighting, frame-rate, textures, character models, poses, animations, and cutscenes are greatly improved, including 4K support.
 * Major reported issues and bugs have been fixed.
 * The customizable menu for the Student added some additions such as scars—which are similar scars to the one Weiss has and can be positioned anywhere on the Student's face. More hair styles, eye and hair colours have been added.
 * Some overpriced items, including weapon mods, have reduced Lien prices as well as various food/health dispensers. Glynda, who is also a vendor, offers uniforms at a reduced price once completing her relations quest.
 * Grimm encountered in the open-world areas have been tweaked and nerfed.
 * Encountered Grimm in the Forever Fall and Emerald Forests no longer swarm players with heavy strikes.
 * Creeps and Beowolves now have a timer to respawn to prevent swarms.
 * There is now a limit for the amount of Ursas that could spawn.
 * Boarbatusks now travel in packs, but do not swarm players.
 * Some changes have been made to NPCs, though these aren't major changes.
 * Professors Tara and Port are both now inside of their classrooms.
 * Ruby Rose and Jaune Arc both have been moved just outside of their team's dorm, which are right across from each other.
 * Shopkeep now offers both relations and side-quests.
 * New side-quests have been added to some NPCs.
 * Professors Oobleck, Tara, Sill, and Berry now offer side-quests. Including Professor Dan.
 * In the Grimm Dueling activity, Beringels now serve as Major Bosses than Final Bosses.
 * Some Grimm—such as Beowolves—have had their damage output lowered.
 * Boarbatusks now deal low, moderate, and high damage which depends on player level.
 * Creeps now do a "roll" attack to break defense.
 * Professors are now available as opponents in the Dueling activity.
 * Professors include; Port, Tara, Sill, Dan, Goodwitch, Oobleck, Berry, and Peach.
 * The ultimate strike ability of Tara, Oobleck, and Peach all have less damage depending on player level.
 * New dialogue for each of the Student's voices.
 * New clothing, items, weapon mods, and food have been added.
 * Small changes have been made to clothing. These include updated textures and meshes.
 * Most food items have reduced healing effects while some have increased effects. The effects depend on which food item it is.
 * Various weapon mods have been tweaked, buffed, and nerfed.

RWBYverse Online
The original game was titled RWBYverse Online but was shut down due to major issues and bugs within the game.

RWBYverse Online: Grimm Rising
After the release of the Xbox One X, Morningwood Industries released RWBYverse Online: Grimm Rising, developed by Morningwood Industries and Rooster Teeth Games. This game was a reworked version of the original game which had a lot of bugs and issues, leading to it being shut down. Morningwood Studios assisted Morningwood Industries and Rooster Teeth Games on getting it updated and fixed for the Xbox One X.

This version added in a series of missions—which triggers after completing the last quest in the Volume Two arc—which centered around the Creatures of Grimm as well as adding in a new Grimm character and having Ruby Rose—team leader of Team RWBY—helping the Student and their team in uncovering the truth of increased Grimm aggression and presence on Remnant. The storyline of Grimm Rising is set three weeks after RWBY: Grimm Eclipse, however this storyline was considered non-canon by Rooster Teeth and Morningwood Industries after an agreement.

Main characters

 * Student
 * Ruby Rose
 * Ozpin (Mission giver; Grimm Rising story quests)

Antagonist

 * X-1 (Main antagonist of the Grimm Rising storyline)

Supporting characters

 * Qrow Branwen (Weapons mod vendor)
 * Glynda Goodwitch (Side-quests; 8 missions only)

Minor characters

 * Summer Rose (Video recording only)
 * Dr. Merlot (Video recording only)
 * Team RWBY
 * Weiss Schnee (Cutscene only)
 * Blake Belladonna (Cutscene only)
 * Yang Xiao Long (Cutscene only)
 * Team JNPR (Cutscene only)

Story
Discovering an increase of Grimm population and aggression throughout Remnant, Headmaster Ozpin assigns the Student's team and Ruby Rose to uncover the truth behind the Grimm's increased aggression. While searching for answers, the Student's team and Ruby come across a mutated Beowolf which Ruby then remembers her team's encounter with the Grimm and tells the team their next location for uncovering the truth; the island of Dr. Merlot.

After being dropped off by a Bullhead transport on the beach of the Island, the team find destroyed android parts laying around—left by when Team RWBY were on the island—and continued into the Island towards the structure where Dr. Merlot was located. While on their way there, the team encounter waves of both unaffected and mutated Grimm as well as remaining androids that were left active. Once getting to the structure, they find it to be destroyed but still standing and are told to be careful before they entered it to find the answers they needed.

While inside, recordings of Dr. Merlot seem to be still playing on various monitors in the halls and rooms. These recordings show Dr. Merlot with a mutated Beowolf named X-1 with silver eyes, and that it seemed to have been generating an Aura. Other recordings include when he was taunting Team RWBY as well as his "grand tour" of the facility.

Once entering an area of the laboratory that Ruby didn't recognize, they find intact recordings and scrolls of unidentified Hunters and Huntresses being interrogated and tortured by Dr. Merlot to somehow extract their Aura from their bodies, despite knowing that Aura is part of the soul. They then discover how Merlot created X-1 when they found a video recording titled as "success!" and after viewing it, Ruby Rose learns the truth of her mother's disappearance and that she was used by Dr. Merlot to create X-1.

Ruby Rose and the Student's team then set out to find X-1—whom they discovered to be increasing the Grimm's aggression and population throughout Remnant. After days of searching and battling through Grimm as well as receiving assistance from others, the team finds that X-1 has been using undiscovered parts of the Forever Fall as his location of headquarters. They begin to battle through waves of Grimm in order to reach X-1 and fight against Creeps, Beowolves, Boarbatusks, Ursas, Beringels, and facing a Goliath before facing X-1.

After a long fight with X-1 and his forces of Grimm, the team eventually defeats him in combat but before Ruby Rose could finish off X-1, she sees her mother in its silver eyes. Preventing her from killing the Beowolf and instead tells the Student to do it themselves because she didn't want to do it herself knowing her mother's Aura was within the defeated X-1. After a brief moment, the Student finishes off X-1 and Ruby enters a state of depression. Returning to Beacon, Ozpin, Glynda and Team RWBY ask about their mission to the Forever Fall and about X-1. The Student tells them about X-1 and its fate but told them to let Ruby be for a while.

The story ends with the Student continuing their training at Beacon Academy.

Content updates
RWBYverse Online was confirmed to have two expansion packs based on Volumes Four and Five of RWBY. While these were created by Morningwood Industries and Rooster Teeth Games, these were not released as paid-content and instead were released as free content updates.

RWBYverse Online: Volume Four
RWBYverse Online: Volume Four is the first expansion released for RWBYverse Online. It introduces characters, new items, weapon modifications, story missions, Grimm types, locations, and elements into the game themed after RWBY Volume Four.

RWBYverse Online: Volume Five
RWBYverse Online: Volume Five is the second and last expansion released for RWBYverse Online. It introduces characters, new items, weapon modifications, story missions, Grimm types, locations and elements from RWBY Volume Five.

Multimedia Project
After the game's release and popularity with RWBY fans, Morningwood Entertainment partnered with Rooster Teeth on creating media relating to the MMORPG game. This resulted in two TV shows and one movie, based on the game.

RWBYverse Online: Tachibana
RWBYverse Online: Tachibana was a TV series that began to air a month after the release of RWBYverse Online: Grimm Rising. The show centered on Nyan Tachibana—using concept art based on the Student's original team member Tachibana—during her time as a Beacon first year.

RWBYverse Online: Grimm Rising: Legends
RWBYverse Online: Grimm Rising: Legends focuses on Dr. Merlot before the events of RWBY: Grimm Eclipse and RWBYverse Online: Grimm Rising. It tells his story as the CEO of Merlot Industries to the point of when his company collapsed when Mountain Glenn did.

RWBYverse Online: Grimm Rising
RWBYverse Online: Grimm Rising was a movie based on the MMORPG of the same name. It is centered on Lisa Dahlia—based on concept art for the original team member Dahlia. The movie is concurrent with the game and the Student—protagonist of the game—has a physical appearance in the movie, however this appearance of the Student remains non-canon.

Lisa Dahlia is enrolled and accepted into Beacon Academy and begins her initiation alongside the Student. Once finishing her initiation she is paired with Amber Lavender, and is also put into Team VNLA (Vanilla); consisting of team leader Violet—the Student—and Nyan Tachibana.
 * Plot

The movie skips ahead just before when the Grimm Rising game's main quest begins. The team are called upon by Headmaster Ozpin to uncover the truth behind the Grimm's increased aggression and population throughout Remnant. This later prompts Ruby Rose to bring herself forward to make Team VNLA in their mission. After encountering a mutated Beowolf in Mountain Glenn, the team and Ruby proceed to the Island of Dr. Merlot where Ruby's team previously visited during the events of Grimm Eclipse. After defeating Grimm, the team comes across the main facility where they find it to be still standing but weaken from the blasts that destroyed it. Team VNLA and Ruby then go on to discover various monitors still active and playing recordings of Dr. Merlot including his "grand tour" of the facility. In a laboratory area, they find scrolls belonging to deceased Hunters and Huntresses who have been captured by Merlot as well as intact recordings.

The team then find out a recording which recorded the day that Dr. Merlot successfully extract the Aura from someone and into a different subject such as X-1. After discovering the source of the Grimm's aggression and population increase, Ruby learns that her mother's disappearance was a kidnapping conducted by Merlot himself to her use Aura to create Merlot's most prized possession, X-1.

The team are then led to the Forever Fall forest after discovering X-1's previous activities in the area and go to bring an end to what it doing to increase Grimm aggression and population. After battling waves of Grimm and X-1's chosen "special" Grimm, the team face off with X-1 finally. Having been fighting for a long time, Violet, Nyan and Amber are injured and Dahlia eventually overtakes the mutated Beowolf with the help of Ruby. With the Beowolf defeated, Dahlia is asked to put X-1 down as Ruby herself couldn't do it due to seeing her mother in its eyes. She does as she was asked and puts down the Beowolf, ending its terror.

Team VNLA and Ruby return to Beacon after finishing their mission. Ozpin commends Team VNLA and Ruby, but denies it as it was something that she didn't want to have to do. The film ends with text saying, "Violet's adventure continues with you."

General

 * The reason as to why players couldn't choose a silver eye colour for the Student was due to RWBY canon to prevent the multiplicity of Silver-Eyed Warriors as the game itself is considered canon.
 * In RWBYverse Online: Prologue, the Student had less customizable traits than in the full game which include playing as a pre-customized and pre-named Student based on a class along with a pre-made weapon which they could rename.
 * Despite being an MMORPG, the Student maintains the last name Violet and if in a party with three others, the host would maintain the last name Violet while the others would maintain the last names; Tachibana, Dahlia, and Lavender, respectively.
 * Some bugs have been reported after the release of the game. These have been fixed with released patches.
 * There was a bug with Pinkie—who is located just outside of the assembly hall—that involved her repeating her scripted introduction to the Student, even after the assembly scene was finished. However the 2.0 Patch later fixed this.
 * Tara—a combat professor located outside of her classroom—sometimes wouldn't spawn in her location. This was due to an issue within the game as once a player leaves an area with no one else there, NPCs would despawn until a new player would enter it and a bug occurred making her not spawn at all. The release of the 2.0 Patch fixed this, making every NPC stay permanently spawned even if an area is not populated with players.
 * There was a bug with Dandee that once players finished her Relations quest, they wouldn't receive their reward—which gave players better knowledge of Grimm weaknesses in Grimm Dueling. The release of the 2.0 Patch fixed this, however players who completed the quest and didn't receive their reward were given a notification that they received it.
 * After the assembly scene is finished, players are able to start a small conversation between the Student and Ozpin. However, this was secret and was discovered by players after the release of RWBYverse Online: Volume Four.
 * Ruby Rose originally was just an NPC who only gave one mission and would not be seen in-game ever again and only in cutscenes. However, with the release of Grimm Rising for the Xbox One X, she was made a main character within the expansion's story.
 * Shopkeep is the only NPC who has both relations and side-quests.

Grimm Rising storyline

 * When players first meet Ruby Rose, there is a scripted introduction between her and the Student who both introduce each other. If the player has their Team with them, the Student will also introduce their team as well.
 * Although introduced as a uniform vendor, Glynda Goodwitch also offers side-quests which will assist players in the Grimm Rising story, including finding parts for stronger weapon modifications as the androids and mutated Grimm that appeared in Grimm Eclipse reappear in the expansion, only stronger and more powerful.
 * In the Grimm Rising version of the game, the explanation of how Dr. Merlot successfully extracted Summer Rose's Aura from her body to create X-1 remains unexplained.
 * There are some differences between the game and the film.
 * First difference; in the game, Ruby is assigned to help the Student's team whereas in the film, she asks to help them.
 * Second difference; in the game, the mutated Beowolf is encountered in the Emerald Forest where in the film, it is encountered in Mountain Glenn.
 * Third difference; in the film, Ruby makes mention of her team visiting the island three weeks prior whereas in the game, she doesn't.
 * Fourth difference; in the film, the various monitors flicker while in the game, they don't.
 * Fifth difference; in the film, the recordings of Dr. Merlot taunting Team RWBY aren't playing on the monitors.
 * Sixth difference; in the film, Team VNLA and Ruby discover X-1's location after finding a file which details its activities in the Forever Fall forest, where in the game X-1 is discovered after a series of quests from Ozpin and Glynda.
 * Seventh difference; in the film, Dahlia puts down X-1 whereas in the game, the Student puts down the Beowolf.
 * Eighth and last difference; Ozpin commends Team VNLA and Ruby while in the game, Ozpin doesn't.
 * In the film adaptation of Grimm Rising, Ruby is created via CGI and is voiced by Lindsay Jones, the voice actress who does her voice on the web-series show. Other RWBY main and supporting characters are also created using the same method.

Behind the scenes
RWBYverse Online: Grimm Rising was an idea as a fanon game after the author discovered the Call of Duty Fan Fiction wiki—where users can create their own Call of Duty games—and decided to think of other fandoms. The first was RWBYverse Online which was just a fanon game and so the content of this article is used as a RWBY MMORPG game concept, though it isn't excepted to actually be developed by the author or Rooster Teeth Games.