Rivals of Aether II

It's a competent platform fighter to be sure. It's probably very fun as a melee player. But as a successor to Rivals of Aether it fails in most ways. All of the fun movement and quirks of the first game are gone and replaced with overcentralizing, outdated mechanics. The buffer system feels worse, the game has serious readability issues on some stages at last stock (baffled the last stock visuals still cannot be turned off almost a year into the game). The top tiers are incredibly unfun to play against, mostly because drift DI was abandoned in favor of more outdated unfun mechanics. The netcode is unreliable, servers are unnecessary for a 1v1 fighting game, and punishes you for dropping packets (which is gonna happen when you get matched to fucking warsaw for the 1000th time while playing on the other side of the continent, and is also the polar opposite of what rollback netcode is meant to do). All in all, it's a fun game, it's very flawed but I wouldn't be against playing it with friends irl or at locals. It's a miserable online experience as a rivals 1 fanatic however and there seems to be no will to change that.

Drumming up fake drama about a review bombing that never happened to artificially inflate your positive review count through fan counteraction is gross. Game is filled with F2P style cosmetic MTX stuff. Overall gamefeel is disappointing especially compared to Rivals 1 and many mechanics and changes made, though technically "balanced", simply make the game less fun. By pursuing more widespread appeal and e-sports, they got rid of much of the appeal of Rivals in favour 3D visuals and more Melee-accurate mechanics, losing its identity as its own unique thing in the process. Lastly, the rollback netcode just doesn't seem to be up to par with other games (especially Brawlhalla) so it just doesn't feel all that great to play online.

This games a good ass time coming from melee, don't be afraid of patches the dev teams doing great it feels better than ever

Devs made it clear that this isnt rivals But it isnt Ultimate it isnt PM It isnt Melee WHAT is it? Its floor hug simulator featuring rivals of aether 1 cast.

If you want Smash with real netcode unfortunately this game won't hit the spot for you. It's made by and for a very small, very self indulgent community of extreme sweat platform fighter players. I am sure the couple thousand people that idea appeals to are still having a blast with it, but you wouldn't need to consult the reviews if you were one of them. Trying to play this thing as a casual is like showing up to a local boxing gym and stepping in the ring when your appetite for violence actually levels off somewhere around light roughhousing.

probably the best platform fighter on the market rn, but everyone who plays online is a sweaty loser and the placement system is miserable forcing you to play dozens of matches against players way above your skill level while you're still learning the game. if you feel like being elo fodder for the better part of a dozen hours just to get into matches with people who are at your skill level and don't play this game like their entire families lives depend on them gaining +12 ranked ladder points then this game might be for you.

The game compares badly to Rival 1. The new mechanics are not making the game more engaging and it feels like every other platform fighter that wants to be like melee. The characters worked extremely well in the first game and now everyone has to adapt to a whole new game with completely differently functioning moves that even applies to their normals. This game would probably feel good to anyone who has not tried the 1st game, however this game does not add anything that makes it stand out or surpasses the original. I suggest getting the original over this if you appreciate more content, a smoother gameplay experience with a unique twist on the genre and the entire workshop being available. I suggest getting Rivals 2 if you want to play something other than melee that feels similar enough and can't decide which other platform fighter to buy.

$30 for an online multiplayer-focused game. It's much more mechanically different from Rivals of Aether 1. It's like Smash Bros.; fast like eSports Melee, tech-convenient like Ultimate. The game looks good visually and feels good mechanically. Rivals 2 is heavily competitive and eSports focused. Much practice and study is needed to get exceptionally good. If you're coming from competitive Melee, the environment will be familiar. Wavedashes, no L-canceling, crouch canceling, tech chases, ledge grabbing/guarding, etc. If you're not into this type of gameplay with this niche type of community, this game isn't worth it for you. Just go play Smash Bros. Many free ways to play Smash Bros out there. Or stick with Rivals 1. Single player content is limited, just a basic arcade mode with a few mini games. Plus training modes. If you are getting this to play alone and not online, or exclusively for the solo content, you're wasting your money. In fact, single player is more of a warm-up / intro into using the characters for online multiplayer. A veiled tutorial and practice session. But I suppose, what more can you ask for in a competitive-multiplayer-online-focused game? As of writing this, the average player count is 500-600 across the world. Unless you desire the competitive atmosphere, you will not enjoy playing online against try-hard randoms. You will have much more fun if you only play with people you know. But then this defeats a main aspect of this game, online multiplayer. Unless you are experienced in this game and/or SSBMelee, if you play online, you will likely get combo'd to death, or will be very unable to even hit the other player. You will be taunted or t-bagged if you suck. If you want to give up and Self-Destruct off the stage, you will be taunted. The small community eats itself alive. Other noteworthy mentions: (1) There's an in-game shop using in-game currency and/or actual money. (2) As of writing this, the tutorials are unfinished. (3) Every so often, they patch, nerf, and buff many specific things about the characters and mechanics, which can lead to a forever-changing meta and character capabilities. (4) The low player count can be a detrimental aspect of desiring to play this game online. TLDR; this game is for you if (1) you really liked playing and grinding competitive SSBMelee, but you want an alternative to Melee, and you don't mind learning curve and toxicity/frustration, and/or (2) you plan on playing this game exclusively with friends as a Smash Bros. alternative. But (3) I don't recommend this game, especially in its current state.

floor hugging is lame and it might be a skill issue but facing nothing but zetterburn in ranked is even lamer. 0 sauce

Great platform fighter, everything feels great characters,mechanics,movements its all so easy to pick up but yet hard to master. But with that being i wish there was more players in the FFA and 2V2 gamemodes.

I like this game. Its got tremendous potential and a fantastic monetization model. But steam asks if I would recommend a game, not if I like it, and at this point in time the simple answer is no. I don't recommend the game as is. I think at the heart of the problem is that there is one system mechanic in the game that breaks fundamental player expectations for the greater fighting game genre. This alone is a source of great frustration for many a player, but ultimately the problem is that the game is balanced around this problem child and personally for the worse. Many a system in the game is over or under tuned to deal with this one mechanic, and the result is game constrains itself around a more limited subset of play styles and strategies. This sort of meta play homogenization cuts deeply opposed to otherwise diverse and creative game, varied character that feel themselves shoved into the same rut by system design that robs an otherwise brilliant game of its full potential. I really can't recommend such a bittersweet experience of seeing such great potential tarnished so. Hopefully I won't have to say the same in the future.

This game is ass. Why is there ledge trapping in a game for melee plays who love comboing? There's too many bullshit special moves that are just absurd. Clairen is just unfun stun simulator. It's like I'm getting wobbled all over again. I literally pull my phone out mid game and scroll as I wait for the combo to finish. Absa should get deleted from the game. Like why does she mostly utilize ledge trapping which is something mostly found in SSBU. Zetterburn players are gonna get carple tunnel from wave shining and pressing shine every other input. Fleet can go right next to Absa with her bow and annoying tornado. Orcane is just unkillable. Matchmaking is awful. I have only ever had matches where I stomp or get stomped. Nothing feels super close. Maypul and Loxodont are chill. 7/10 would recommend if you want to pay for a worse experience than melee

Terrible netcode and absolutely awful balance (not the characters, but the approach to movement and options). The game is so close to being fun but once you get past a casual level (gold) the game completely falls apart. They keep changing how defense works to find a an approach that's not dogshit, but it doesn't work.

I really like this game but I swear this game community is really toxic and it makes me want to drop a negative review but everything else is PEAK. I would recommend this game if toxic players don't bother you but if they do STAY AWAY FROM THIS GAME. Love it

loses everything that made the first game unique by trying too hard to be like smash bros, and ends up feeling like a half-baked project M clone. casual play is unbearable, competitive play is worse. i’m going back to the first game.

Loved the first game, over 3k hours in it. This one lacks all of the charm from the 1st game, everything feels clunky and off, with the added benefit of every new character to this game being the most piss-off annoying shit to fight against.

Introduction for new players is a little lacking, but is still really fun with friends and once you get a grasp on the basics of competitive platform fighters. People who are new to fighting games should either wait for a large sale or for a better tutorial system.

Every single sweaty ass Zetterburn main will and must burn in hell for all of eternity. Good fighting game tho.

pressing buttons is fun so I give a positive review but casual mode sucks balls, I just want to press funny buttons but I only play against sweaty tryhards with 1000+ hours on the game and have tons of skins I've never seen before so I just get my ass handed to myself in THE CASUAL MODE BY THE WAY (I have like 25 hours played when the game came out and 10 very recently). Like ok lil bro I get it ur good at the game but theres a ranked mode, bro's that guy who goes to the playground to dunk on kids and boast about it to his mom like I just learned floorhugging was a thing and bros like let me just dunkk on you real quick well what about you hug some bitches for once I just wanted to have some fun and here's EVO contender number 7482 ruining the fun for everyone. anyway, the electric goat girl is hot and I bought her summer skin so 8.5/10 would recommend

It's a cool game, lots of rad characters and fun gameplay, but I don't recommend it unless you're someone who is actively into the platform fighter scene. As a casual who is decent at Smash Ultimate, I played 27 games of ranked, and won two of them just barely. Majority of my matches are against high level players since the playerbase is so small, and most of my matches consisted of me getting maybe one stock off the other player and just getting decimated otherwise. The community seems pretty unwelcoming. I checked out the subreddit, and a majority of it is people being hostile towards eachother, alongside drama happening constantly. Lots of the threads I saw from new players were filled with people just saying "git gud" and dumb unhelpful shit like that. A few of my matches in ranked consisted of silver rank players fucking with me instead of trying to fight me, it seemed silver rank players are extremely skilled and the matchmaking doesnt really work. If you have friends the game might be a better time, but as it stands I wouldn't buy it unless you want to hit your head against a wall for a long time online. Honestly the game would probably be better off free to play, as it would have a bigger player base. It's currently too expensive for what it is, and theres cosmetic microtransactions already anyways so I don't know why it's paid for.

15+ year smash player, played in tourneys w the homies etc and this game is more mechanically sound than every smash game including melee 9/10 fighting game, only thing to make it better would be a story mode, cleaner menu and a better training mode that will walk you through all movement options

Super fun but at first you're a hacky sack until you get more gooder. Stick with it though and things start to click.

TLDR: Im partial to the original but if you LOVE melee, easy buy. I played the living hell out of rivals 1, Loved it. Its a great alternative to smash. It was unique! because it didnt have grabs and shields it felt more skillful because there was no shield or grab the only defensive tools were movement and parry. This game has all the stuff you got in smash now, plus wavedash. Some characters are still unique, but youre missing some from the original, with two new ones. The only way i can describe the game's feel relative to ROA1 it feels, wet. It feels slippery, its definitely a different game. I hope they dont stop supporting the original any time soon. This is less of a sequel and more of a sidegrade, rivals wanted to be more competitive and more like smash so there ya go. Also on the topic of mods, because if you've played rivals 1 you've messed with some mods (if not you should) Yeah you dont have modded in characters, even if they add support for it youre gonna see alot less because of the 3d models. ALSO you need a standalone account to play online ALSO we got skins, some colors are upwards of 20$ USD, some of which are in the original game

Rivals 2 is the best fighting game on the market period. Not only does it have great developer support in terms of tournaments, but it also has very great balance patches for the most part, cool skin releases every month, free dlc characters, and lots to come in the future. It may not have tons of stuff for the casual audience right now, but give it a year or two and it will likely already be back to where Rivals 1 was after almost 8 years. As a very casual Rivals 1 player who had 90% of my nearly 300 hours in that game playing workshop versus CPUs, Rivals 2 got me to play the game more competitively and I have enjoyed it so much more, currently low Platinum as a Wrastor main, but I have competed in locals and online tournaments that I just love. Every character in this game is just simply fun to play, but also unique enough where they don't play similarly. With Absa on the horizon, I am constantly excited for what the game has to offer.

First of all, the aether doesnt exist so how would there be rivals of it? <- This is a joke Im not on a skill level on that I can complain about mechanics, since everything seems pretty balanced to my untrained eyes. Its a fun game, IF you manage to get matched with someone on your skill level (you wont). Its pretty much dead at this point bc new players, like me, will get curb stomped every match and wont really get a chance to improve a lot. Would be a 10/10 game if it had a bigger playerbase. At daytime there are like 200 players at max online in europe

Honestly the most fun platform fighter I've ever played, and I grew up on smash 64 and played every installment since. Feels great to play and at this point it's killed most of my desire to return to Ultimate. Every character has great depth and distinct elemental themes, with mechanics that often interact with several moves in their kit. The devs have promised 4 new characters a year, and having played since launch, I have full confidence that they will deliver quality patch after quality patch. There are still some anticipated features in the works, such as an actual single-player story mode, but the core gameplay is absolutely polished. This has rapidly become the favorite game for my friends to play together, several times a week.

In my only few hours of gameplay, I've found myself completely enchanted by the sheer number of creative ideas in character design and gameplay

This game has an amazing depth and speed of play that is very satisfying. Previous skill from platform fighters carries over while still giving a lot of unique mechanics to learn. Neutral is a beautiful thing in this game. It can be a bit of a jump into the deep end when first getting in but if you tough out the losses at the start until a character clicks with you, it is a very rewarding game.

This is great! Never played Rivals1, but after 2 days in, to me it feels like being back in 2014 when Project M 3.5 just released. It's basically a platform fighter with Melee's speed BUT much more accessible input-wise (buffer, wavedash macro, no mashing, control remapping, ...) Content-wise it gives you everything you need for playing the damn game in good conditions: fantastic netplay, good ranked/casual queue system, training mode with save states and advanced display, ... some people could be disappointed at the lack of single player content but it's not really the point of this game (and it's coming in free updates apparently anyway)

Best platfighter I've seen in my lifetime, the devs know what they're doing and it shows. This is coming from a mid player, I'm far from the best and still enjoy the game a lot. It takes a bit of effort to get past the inicial wall of every fighting game but it's well worth it and having someone to play friendlies helps a ton

If you want a game where the developers ACTUALLY listen to community feedback, and they care about the lifespan of this game and a FANTASTIC AND VERY UPSTANDING COMMUNITY this game checks all boxes

This is just objectively the best platform fighter game ever created. Don't argue. Just play it

Rivals of Aether II is an impressive sequel that builds upon the foundations of its predecessor, elevating the platform fighting genre with a deeper gameplay experience, refined mechanics, and a more expansive roster of characters. Visually, the game retains its charming pixel art aesthetic, which is both nostalgic and vibrant, capturing a whimsical yet competitive tone. The animations are smooth and expressive, allowing players to clearly read each character's actions and reactions, which is crucial for high-level play. The soundtrack complements the fast-paced battles perfectly, featuring energetic tunes that keep players engaged and add to the overall excitement of matches. At its core, Rivals of Aether II offers a fighting experience that emphasizes strategic positioning, timing, and character-specific abilities. Each character has a unique playstyle, with moves that require mastery to effectively utilize in combat. The game’s mechanics focus on nuanced movement, including air dodges, precise spacing, and combo potential, which makes it a deep and rewarding experience for players willing to invest time in learning the nuances of each fighter. The game also introduces a more robust combo system and advanced techniques that cater to competitive players, elevating it beyond traditional platform fighters. This depth ensures that matches can be both fast-paced and thoughtfully strategic, rewarding skill, patience, and adaptability. One of the standout features of Rivals of Aether II is its extensive and thoughtfully designed multiplayer modes. The game supports local and online multiplayer, allowing players to challenge friends or compete against a global community. The online functionality has been improved compared to the first game, with better netcode that reduces lag and provides a smoother competitive experience. Additionally, the game offers a variety of game modes, including ranked matches, custom lobbies, and casual battles, ensuring there are options for both competitive players and those looking for a fun, less serious experience. The balance between accessibility for newcomers and depth for veterans is carefully maintained, making it appealing to a broad audience. The single-player content in Rivals of Aether II is also noteworthy. It features a comprehensive story mode with engaging narrative elements that flesh out the lore of the game’s universe, along with challenging AI that can test players' skills across different difficulty levels. Practice modes and training arenas are well-designed to help players refine their techniques, experiment with new characters, and develop strategies. The game’s community tools, such as replays and spectating options, further enhance the competitive environment, allowing players to analyze matches and learn from top-tier gameplay. Content updates and ongoing support from the developers have kept the game fresh, adding new characters, stages, and balance patches that maintain a healthy and evolving competitive scene. Overall, Rivals of Aether II stands out as a top-tier platform fighter that combines accessibility with technical depth. Its beautiful pixel art, tight controls, and well-balanced roster create a compelling fighting experience that appeals to casual fans and competitive players alike. The game’s emphasis on strategic gameplay, combined with its improved online features and extensive multiplayer options, makes it an excellent choice for anyone seeking a challenging and rewarding fighting game. While it may have a steep learning curve for newcomers, the sense of mastery and the thrill of outplaying opponents make every match worthwhile. Rivals of Aether II is a testament to the enduring appeal of well-designed indie fighting games and a must-play for fans of the genre. Rating: 8/10

The online experience is almost as bad Smash Ultimate's. Fiber or not the online just feels bad.

Almost 2k hours on the first game, didn't touch it for more than a year secifically not to get biased by habits and such, then went to buy this one hoping for an enjoyable experience and boy is it bad... A failed transition to me, game lost its interest. The clarity of the first game just isn't there. air dodging, wall jumping etc... I play many 2D fighting games, i like competitive games and i can safely say it won't go in any top list...

good game but doesnt feel like rivals of aether feels more like melee if it wasnt garbage and had good graphics lovin it

Best platform fighter (with the first) that isn't smash, every character it's unique and it has is unique charm.

Bad character balance, laggy UI, unresponsive input registration an dying playerbase in my region.

I'm not recommending this game until they go back on one of their first three patches and buff shields again. Release build was perfect, then the nerfs to defensive options came and the game became unbearable to play. Defensive options just do not exist anymore. (Neither does Kragg, who got turned into the worst grappler in the game despite being made for the archetype, amidst his many other problems.) There's a clear bias to rushdown characters where excellent aerial frame data is both offense *and* defense, especially prominent in how unbelievably safe shield dropping is (especially with Wrastor, who straight up gets combo starters off of it??). Unlike RoA1, where the cast felt pretty reasonably balanced across the board and could actively play their gameplan, RoA2 just doesn't allow this. There's one positive that should be given merit, though, and that is Orcane meshing really well with the new system RoA2 has. I really like Orcane's transition to RoA2. I do not like the new grab system at all. Throw breaks require unholy reaction times to properly input, and half the time I'm getting them on accident because I buffered a normal or special attack some time before getting grabbed. It's unintuitive, resulting in throw breaks almost never occurring even when actively attempting to predict when a grab will occur. This is especially problematic when characters can opt for special throw frame 1(?) on the grab, or sometime really close to it, basically turning the entire cast into a grappler... except Kragg again, who on DI out never gets a proper followup into fair, and even on DI out, side toss is never putting any of the cast in jeopardy since it sends nowhere. I'm not a wizard at this game, but nothing from the mechanics to the cast treatment felt right at all. I'm glad the patches are attempting to address characters like Zetterburn that have gone unchecked for far too long, and in fairness that patch did feel meaningful to some degree. (It didn't stop Zetterburn players from rushing people down and completely overtaking games, but hey! It's the thought that counts!) Even with my bias on how badly I feel they butchered Kragg, turning him into a polarizing fair bot with half of his moveset being literally broken (PLEASE fix his jab and his grab game I'm begging you), I do not feel like the cast was being given a fair balance across the roster. Even in the most recent direct, they acknowledged testing characters based on 'how well they respond to rushdown', cementing their thoughts on what their game should look like. Anyways, if somehow you end up having fun with the game, you're free to do just that. More power to you, if this game scratches that itch of offense and rushdown being rewarded well above all else. I just can't recommend this game with how it currently is, with the current vision for this game being so centered around rushdown, and allowing unreasonable strength in rushdown-oriented characters.

Very good platform fighter! very cool characters! very cool cosmetics! Great gameplay! very solid game all around

Unless you plan on practicing this game for multiple hours a day everyday, you will most likely not have fun unless you have a friend of similar skill to play with you all the time. All of the mechanics make no sense and it just seems like who ever can button mash faster wins, major problem with this game it seems like there really is no neutral and who ever can cheese the hardest wins.DO NOT BUY THIS IF YOU AREN'T READY TO THROW YOUR LIFE AWAY PRACTICING TECH SKILL FOR MULTIPLE HOURS A DAY TO STAY RELEVANT IN THE COMPETITIVE SCENE. people play and compete in this game as if they were getting payed to play it.

It's really damn good. Just can't bring myself to agree with anything negative people are saying about the game. It runs great, it's fun, it's good. Balanced and very challenging. It's well made and polished enough for how early it is in development. Are they just forgetting it's early access maybe? I guess I wish there was a more straightforward character than the most straightforward one already in there. Maybe they can get kinda too gimmicky and it's a bit tedious to remember what each of them does. That's fine to me though. Workshop will be interesting if that happens someday too.

Super unserious platform fighter, but that's the charm of it. This game is HELLA fun for someone with platform fighter experience that just wants to hold forward and hit insane combos, but it's probably a nightmare for newcomers as well as people trying to take this game seriously. All of the characters have vast and robust play styles that lead to them all feeling VERY distinct from one another and odds are you'll be able to find a character that you have fun playing. There's a metric TON of hit stun in this game meaning that every character is a combo character and you can hit some of the most diabolical combos on your friends. Most of the stages are great to play on and the baseline mechanics are incredibly easy to pick up. If you're playing with someone around your skill level, you're going to have fun and hit some silly combos that'll have the entire VC cracking up. I'd HIGHLY recommend picking the game up on sale but I probably wouldn't recommend Rivals II at full price. This game is severely unfriendly to new players outside of the fundamental press button to attack in direction, and other button to special in direction. The tutorials and guides present in the game are all incredibly basic and things that most players WILL pick up just by playing the game. They don't go into any of the unintuitive, archaic systems that the game has implemented that actually would improve player experience. There's nothing about pressing down when you hit an aerial to fall to the ground super fast, nothing on crouch cancelling and how it fundamentally changes the game, nothing on ledge invulnerability and how you can use it, nothing on dropping through platforms with shield. There might be something on wavedashing in the movement section but once again it won't talk about the implementation of it. With none of these systems in place, I have had multiple people tell me that the game just feels horribly inconsistent to play. Watching someone grab ledge, drop down and invuln through your moves and hit you with a button is probably REALLY frustrating as a player that doesn't know why. Watching as you can hit someone with a button and they fly upwards but then seeing them flash blue and stay on the ground randomly and then start beating your ass because YOU HIT THEM is also probably frustrating. As someone who has played melee, I understand these mechanics and know how to use them but many players don't and there all resources you have to go out and find. Once you pair this with the buffer system and that hit stun is pretty massive on every move; you'll start feeling like the game is incredibly inconsistent. I will say though that the hit stun is too much, but I love it. I love hitting insane combos with Kragg, Fors, Zetter, and Etalus. It's crack injected right into your veins, but just like crack... it's unhealthy for the game lmfao. Probably the worst offender for this game is that there aren't good character tutorials. I climbed to diamond knowing that Kragg can do some sort of unique up-b where he doesn't need to summon his pillar first and can go flying, but I never figured out how to do it and honestly felt vindicated to not learn it because there was NOTHING in the game to tell me I could do that. Almost every character has some unique mechanic to them that drastically alters their playstyle and you just gotta pick it up mid match. That's pretty sad for a game released in 2024. Overall, I think that this game is super fun. Sometimes it feels like the game's netcode is held together by two strings and a paper clip, but when you're playing with friends; you rarely feel it. This game is incredibly fun with friends, but I probably wouldn't ever try to compete in the game nor would I recommend it to someone who wants to get into platform fighters (unless they're a furry then let it rock girlie pop. Be a hot fox or lion flying around the stage). The designs are fun, the characters are fun to play, and you can really tell that the devs care about the game. There's a lot of love and passion put into the skins and the characters feel like they release feeling complete... I just wish the game felt like it released feeling complete and it's own IP like Rivals 1. It's missing game modes, tutorials, resources, and feels uncannily similar to melee. I'm still gonna play the game, I'm still gonna have fun playing the game, but I completely understand why almost all of my friends have bounced off the game only to play it once every few months with the homies

They're adding absa so rivals is back to being the greatest game ever made

For a positive review this is probably going to sound pretty negative. This is a competent game, probably a 75/100 and I want it to succeed to pull the very promising plat fighter genre out of the death grip that Nintendo has on it. But it just really needs to be a 9/10 to do that. This game was a big chance to innovate on the genre but was creatively something of a step back from Rivals 1. I played mainly Loxodont and reached 1600 elo before I switched to get the feel of some other characters. I am mainly a smash player but played and enjoyed rivals 1. For positives the characters move well, they are very fun to play and very approachable. In terms of feel it is the best single player plat fighter, which makes lack of single player and learning content for newer players somewhat disheartening. The main issues are with the defensive mechanics and the design surrounding aerial moves. I'm honestly pretty shocked that the sequel copy pasted so many problematic melee mechanics without changing them significantly. I admit ledgehogging may be necessary to check low recoveries (like they weren't in smash ultimate) but, like melee, ledges have become the safest place on stage. Grabs are overcentralizing, they beat every defensive mechanic and are basically every character's best combo starter. You didn't like getting tech chased chaingrabbed or 50-50 di mixed up in melee? Well now everybody can do it to you. Crouch canceling and floorhugging are big culprits in this as they make many grounded moves unsafe, some up til past 100%, disencentivizing using grounded moves over grab to even whiff punish. Shield dropping is also extremely strong. Aerials are tuned to be very active and comboable with good hitboxes. Characters generally have either high airspeed or a way to simulate it. As one can imagine a common strategy (when one isn't crouched down like their life depends on it) is flinging your extremely active, safe aerials on to the opponent. The ways to counter this kind of strategy should be by anti-airing or whiff punishing. Smash games generally fail to deliver competent anti airs in the same vein as traditional fighters so I guess rivals is no surprise since it follows it's role model so closely. Most characters up tilts are active enough but the overhead sweeping motion and lack of any major disjoint or intangibility make it a incredibly optimistic notion against any olympia/zetter/ranno/clairen/orcane/etc player flinging themselves into you nair first. Which leaves whiff punishing as the primary way to attack this tactic and likewise moves are not designed to attack landing aerials. Even loxodont is not nearly disjointed enough to try and punish most low aerials and if he does he does it with grab. Unfortunately all the annoying designs from rivals 1 have returned. They seem to have doubled down on the walljump into hug the wall and tech everything recovery that became a staple of my and most other competent players strategy in rivals 1. I genuinely am not sure why wall teching is even in the game, It was such an incredibly problematic inclusion in the smash games and actively makes the game less fun here. If someone spikes me let me die. It representative of the larger problem of just mimicking mechanics from other games instead of trying new or innovative solutions for the genre. I similarly think keeping nearly the exact same character movesets for a completely new engine is showing a similar lack of innovation or foresight. Things like character recovery should be designed with the engine in mind, not ported from a completely different system. This may sound like esoteric technobable to some but I think these things not only effect experienced smash/rivals players but newer players as well. I was showing this game off to a friend who was experienced with guilty gear and was curious about trying rivals. I was going over some of the more technical mechanics with him and when I explained floorhugging he went "wait. they can do that even in lag?" and quickly lost interest. Compare to traditional fighters. If you are a new player struggling with opponents mashing jump in on you, you learn to press anti airs and feel empowered by finding an in built solution for a problem. Like Smash, the same type of intentional move design is not present here. In this game if you are struggling with someone mashing jump in, I guess you just try to jump on top of them instead. I really want Rivals to succeed. I read Dan Fornace helped make Mark of the Ninja which was a game that I thought was really elegant and well crafted so I believe the guy is a really solid game developer. I just really hoped this game would be a trailblazer instead of lingering in Melee's (and Nintendo's) shadow

A very good competitive platfighter that has unique movesets and updates regularly. The cast is varied and balanced and new characters are added frequently. Dev support for tournaments is great and they've been communicating what they're adding in updates very well. Some performance and server issues so online play can be finicky at times.

10/10 If you enjoy smash, do yourself a favor and scoop this masterpiece. Gameplay is highly expressive and constant updates. Would definitely recommend

one of the best trad platform fighters its the best smash like ive tride mabe even better than smash when played right

Coming from someone who mainly plays platform fighters casually, I think Rivals 2 is a very good introduction to more competitive playstyles. While I generally think the Ranked system and casual queue have a lot of issues, especially for newcomers to the genre, having a partner/group of friends to play the game with is a great time and has genuinely helped me improve.

This is my first platform fighter game and I really like learning how to play, even if I do tend to lose a lot