My first thoughts and worries

[LCBunny]

I really love the game and how it feels! Orcane's never felt better, and I like Fleet a lot! The new music is fire, the art direction is really pretty, and the voice acting is nice and not as annoying as I thought it was in the beta! :D
However!...

I Don't really like how shielding and parrying are separate buttons
They took all the dashing/air dashing and pushed it on to the shielding button, and now the parry button just does one single thing, and it feels a bit useless that way. I'm fumbling it all the time now
I feel like it could just be something that happens when you perfectly shield an attack, or maybe if you press shield and grab at the same time? That way I only have two shoulder buttons to worry about instead of 3?
EDIT: I have learned that you can hold shield and press special to parry! This is exactly what I was looking for, so this whole paragraph is now moot. I've unbound the parry button and am having much more fun with this!

And my other is a worry for the game. Has there been any mention of custom colours? I see the shop and all it's skins and stuff, but I really really hope custom colours will still be obtainable and free... It was a big part of Rivals 1 for me... that and workshop...

I worry about workshop a lot. It was a massive part to the first game the day it was added, it's kinda what made Rivals 1 so popular in the first place! I really hope they add it, but even if they do, I fear it could be heavily stunted by the fact that the game is 3d now. The skill curve for creating and rigging a 3d model is WAY HIGHER than making sprite animation, and that's not even considering the work would be trying to match the Rivals 2 art style to make a custom character that would fit in! (Coming from someone who has worked with both mediums.) The best 3d modding community I've experienced is Risk of Rain 2's and it gives me a bit of hope, but the sheer accessibility of making modded characters for rivals could be lost here :( Let's hope I'm wrong. Maybe Aether Studios will provide extra tools to help? I want this game to succeed, so here's hoping!

[King of Sorrow]

Game won't have workshop since modding will not only mog the paid cosmetics, but out-do them if they're available. That said, they're probably harder to make since it'll be a 3D model versus 2D spriting. Anything that could possibly deter from their monetization plan is a no go. That said, I'll happily be proven wrong - doubtful as it is.

This'll also probably smack custom colors in the mouth too. Again, you want <COLOR>? PAY MONEY (Or grind hard since if this demo is indication, you get ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ for match completion unless you win. 75 loss streak and climbing - you don't get much for losing.)

Game's not fun unless you're one of the murderers. Even the game it's ripping off of core is freeform enough to snatch a stock off of an opponent. This game? It's one-sided.