Rivals 2 isn't for Rivals 1 players

[ciswhiteheterosexualmalenumber2]

I'm mostly opening up this discussion to see what other people have to say, whether it be for or against my take. Either way, I would like for this to be positive and polite.

My small little take is that rivals 2 is so fundamentally separated from the gameplay of rivals 1 that it feels like a kick to the balls to fans of the first. The game just plays so much slower and so much more defensive and it kinda sucks. Etalus sorta drove this point home for me, a once fun character who had insane offensive and reading capabilities who was balanced by his size just feels terrible to play. He's just bad now and that sucks.

It really feels like so much of rivals's character and moveset design was built with the speed and fluidity in mind, and they weren't thinking about shields. It worked fine for rivals 1 because of its limited defensive tools, but them just slapping the same movesets into a completely different game warrants a completely different experience, and it isn't a very good one.

When this game got announced it was so vindicating, I was really really excited because I was looking for and expecting innovation on the prequel I loved so much, not a slow, watered down experience designed for smash players.

TLDR; Rivals 1 is not melee, even if it was trying to be at the time. Rivals 1 was instead its own unique experience that many people fell in love with. Rivals 2 on the other hand is just melee, and the designs that were specifically built with rivals 1's gameplay in mind have been ruined. Its really unfortunate for people who were fans of the first game and wanted to see innovation on something they already enjoyed.

[Plum]

Have you seen plup play etalus? they certaintly arent bad. just new and different.

Rivals 2 isnt melee. it just has similar mechanics. The same way that roa1 has similar mechanics. The mechanics are far from the exact same. This game has a shield and grabs that doesnt make it a bad game.

For me - etalus is the coolest character just ahead of kragg and feels the most free flowing not a single bad move in the kit - just bad match ups into fleet zetter ranno it feels like but that is true for every character

[john absa]

i am so tired of seeing threads like this on every platform

[Calamity Heart]

I realized very quickly when I picked this game up that if I was going to get any sort of decent at it, I was going to have to stop playing it as though I was playing Rivals 1. And so it really didn't surprise me that very little of my experience maining Etalus in the first game carried over to the second.

That doesn't necessarily mean that Etalus is bad. It just means I have to learn this version of Etalus if I want to win with him.

It's not a bad thing that Rivals 1 and Rivals 2 play very differently from each other. I like it this way, actually. If Rivals 2 was just Rivals 1 but with 3D assets and minor innovations to the exact same game, I'd probably have dropped the game by now, because I've had my fill of Rivals 1, I've learned it as much as I care to, I don't want to play Rivals 1 anymore. Rivals 2 is a new game for me to learn, and it feels that way. It's been fun. All the characters, in the context of Rivals 2, and not me pining over a completely different game, feel really nice to fight and fight against (except Clairen, I hate both playing and fighting Clairen).

[limbus]

rivals 1 players can keep playing rivals 1. it's still up on steam. would you want the game to just be rivals 1 with different graphics?

[ciswhiteheterosexualmalenumber2]

Originally posted by limbus:

rivals 1 players can keep playing rivals 1. it's still up on steam. would you want the game to just be rivals 1 with different graphics?

A little bit yeah

[Agreus]

Originally posted by ciswhiteheterosexualmalenumber2:

Originally posted by limbus:

rivals 1 players can keep playing rivals 1. it's still up on steam. would you want the game to just be rivals 1 with different graphics?

A little bit yeah

Than it seems you are in the wrong game forum.

I know you are dissapointed with the game but constantly moaning about it for months will not help you or anybody else it will just give people that try to come fresh to the game a bad taste and the thought in the back of their head that they made a mistake in buying this game whenever something feels bad like a loosing streak that they (to save their ego which is a kind of natural reaction) will blame on the game.

[ciswhiteheterosexualmalenumber2]

I would like to emphasize the fact that I don’t find a game being different than its prequel is always a bad thing, because others will enjoy it and I can appreciate that, but I don’t understand why it’s considered taboo to just want more of something you like. I spent my money and was expecting something different, got past the refund period and am allowed to be disappointed.

[Agreus]

Originally posted by ciswhiteheterosexualmalenumber2:

I would like to emphasize the fact that I don’t find a game being different than its prequel is always a bad thing, because others will enjoy it and I can appreciate that, but I don’t understand why it’s considered taboo to just want more of something you like. I spent my money and was expecting something different, got past the refund period and am allowed to be disappointed.

Yes and to a certain point I have empathy with that but its been months and the fact won´t change.
Do you intend to still make these kind of comments and topics in 3+ years ?
Everything has its limits.

[ciswhiteheterosexualmalenumber2]

Originally posted by Agreus:

Originally posted by ciswhiteheterosexualmalenumber2:

I would like to emphasize the fact that I don’t find a game being different than its prequel is always a bad thing, because others will enjoy it and I can appreciate that, but I don’t understand why it’s considered taboo to just want more of something you like. I spent my money and was expecting something different, got past the refund period and am allowed to be disappointed.

Yes and to a certain point I have empathy with that but its been months and the fact won´t change.
Do you intend to still make these kind of comments and topics in 3+ years ?
Everything has its limits.

Absolutely not, my nonexistent passion for this game will eventually die down. But I was a little bit hopeful for new characters and the etalus patch kinda killed that excitement. It’s fine for me to be disappointed.

I started off this post by emphasizing I wanted for it to be polite and constructive, but if me providing my own, and asking for other people’s, perspectives is too negative because I’m not super in love with the state of the game, then that’s mb i guess

[Agreus]

Originally posted by ciswhiteheterosexualmalenumber2:

Originally posted by Agreus:

Yes and to a certain point I have empathy with that but its been months and the fact won´t change.
Do you intend to still make these kind of comments and topics in 3+ years ?
Everything has its limits.

Absolutely not, my nonexistent passion for this game will eventually die down. But I was a little bit hopeful for new characters and the etalus patch kinda killed that excitement. It’s fine for me to be disappointed.

I started off this post by emphasizing I wanted for it to be polite and constructive, but if me providing my own, and asking for other people’s, perspectives is too negative because I’m not super in love with the state of the game, then that’s mb i guess

I´m not just talking about this one topic, there is a pattern with your contribution to this forum.
I understand that you are dissapointed but this is going on longer than a lot of people grieve about dead relatives and friends.
At one point you need to get over this.

edit: I´m sorry I think I´m rude to you.
I will stop looking at the steam forums for a time.
I just realized that I get annoyed by a lot of stuff that happens in these forums (but not this one in particular) even by the people I expirienced as nice and its affecting my behaviour.
Again I´m sorry.

[ciswhiteheterosexualmalenumber2]

Originally posted by Agreus:

Originally posted by ciswhiteheterosexualmalenumber2:

Absolutely not, my nonexistent passion for this game will eventually die down. But I was a little bit hopeful for new characters and the etalus patch kinda killed that excitement. It’s fine for me to be disappointed.

I started off this post by emphasizing I wanted for it to be polite and constructive, but if me providing my own, and asking for other people’s, perspectives is too negative because I’m not super in love with the state of the game, then that’s mb i guess

I´m not just talking about this one topic, there is a pattern with your contribution to this forum.
I understand that you are dissapointed but this is going on longer than a lot of people grieve about dead relatives and friends.
At one point you need to get over this.

I like talking? Idk man I see no issue with me bringing up different topics like my thoughts on the different characters, server issues, monetary systems, etc. I just like popping into the forums and speaking my mind, you do the same and so do plenty of people. I mean this in no offense but you having a problem with my constant negativity, especially when most if not all of it, is constructive, polite, and comes from a place of love, shouldn’t be my problem. I don’t know you, nor do you know me.

I think you also confuse me with someone overly obsessed with this game. I’ve put 40 hours into this game and rarely give it extra chances, unless with the cases of big updates and stuff. I mean I put 3 times the amount of hours in dbfz in half the time which is embarrassing and unhealthy, but proves my point.

Also edit: mb I wrote that out before reading your edit. You don’t have to be sorry, I mean you are right, I am really negative and should probably also spend less time in the forums, especially if I don’t play the game all too much. I’m sure you’re a great guy and I’m not mad at you or anything, I just like yapping.

[Job Application]

Rivals 1 was successful for 2 main reasons; the workshop, and being a platform fighter that wasn't just 'indie smash bros'. Rivals 2 decided to ditch all that to focus on the competitive scene and bring in the smash crowd. Sure they said workshop content is a goal, but it's in the 'beyond' category for a reason, and that reason is the workshop being released will severely hamstring their cosmetic store and they know it. The fact that the MTX store is as robust and constantly updated as it is when they've only just now added in the *first stage* of tutorials to the game says all you need to know about their priorities. I see a lot of defense for the state the game is in with "well Rivals 1 had less on launch and 2 is a 3D game so the dev time take longer" but that's not a very solid case. RoA 1 was released when the team wasn't well known and didn't have a franchise including 3 games (and a free dating sim), of course that game was barebones on release, they hadn't established a name yet and didn't have much of a starting budget. They have much more money working on 2, both from sales of 1 and spinoffs as well as the HUGELY successful kickstarter campaign they ran, by indie standards that's an incredibly solid foundation. Furthermore, when addressing the bias for skin releases for some characters over others, the team stated that the cosmetics up until now had been finished for ages and ready to release, and when all those are done they can start working on skins for other characters. What that tells us is that a good bit of pre-release dev time was dedicated to cosmetics for the MTX store considering they had MONTHS of skins ready to go/in the works. 3D game or not, they clearly had the time and resources to make the game more feature complete, but chose instead to prioritise the cosmetics for their MTX store. The game is still very much in EA, it has a functioning multiplayer, a 'single player' if you wanna call like 5 CPU battles in a row a single player, a super fleshed out cash shop to get you to spend money, only just now four months in the beginning of a tutorial, and not much else. The devs wanted a competitive game ready to go on 'release' for events and tournaments, and in that regard they succeeded, hell the game was being played at events while it was still pre-release, but the rapidly declining playerbase is evident of how popular the game ACTUALLY is outside of the hardcore crowd. Etalus jumped the playerbase up from 1K to 3K on release, but already in 3 days that has immediately started dropping back down and currently sits at 1.5K.

[Baalf]

Originally posted by absa waiting room:

i am so tired of seeing threads like this on every platform

No kidding. I'm frankly sick of hearing all the negativity for this game. What really makes it frustrating for me is seeing all this negativity for games I like and care about, then hear endless praise for games I absolutely hate.

[Azelinuu]

Originally posted by Bisexual Goat:

RoA 1 was released when the team wasn't well known and didn't have a franchise including 3 games (and a free dating sim), of course that game was barebones on release, they hadn't established a name yet and didn't have much of a starting budget. They have much more money working on 2, both from sales of 1 and spinoffs as well as the HUGELY successful kickstarter campaign they ran, by indie standards that's an incredibly solid foundation.

Creatures had to be shut down because it was too costly to manage and Dungeons ultimately lost them money[fornace.medium.com]

"The game has already generated over half of its development budget. With sales across its 4 platforms, we are hopeful that this game will recoup its costs over the next couple of years."

Dan also said they pretty much ran out of money right before launch[x.com]

"The Kickstarter was just enough to get us to a launch in Fall 2024. Just enough as is in, we hit $0 in the business account in November right before the first payment came in for Rivals of Aether II from Valve. We weighed the prospects of Early Access vs a Full Launch on Steam with the reality of game development. The visibility boost of a full launch is massive and would be enough to keep our team and also allow us to expand a little bit in order to accelerate some of the features that could expand our funnel."

Rivals 1 also had microtransactions throughout its entire lifespan and it still has them now, but no one brings it up because they weren't accessible through the game itself and all the people that arrived after workshop barely acknowledged base cast already

[ciswhiteheterosexualmalenumber2]

Originally posted by Baalf:

Originally posted by absa waiting room:

i am so tired of seeing threads like this on every platform

No kidding. I'm frankly sick of hearing all the negativity for this game. What really makes it frustrating for me is seeing all this negativity for games I like and care about, then hear endless praise for games I absolutely hate.

I feel like you're more likely to notice topics or discussions you disagree with more than you see things you agree with. Its like an anti confirmation bias exclusive to public forum sites like twitter, we love to argue.