i wish this game was good

[Eroma ⧊]

5/10 locally 1/10 online. Seems fun but everything is annoying in this game. It's too simple and rewarding for mashing buttons. every grab and most tilts borderline combo into themselves with no finesse needed. just hit button win game. cc is broken and if you don't use it you lose. rarely do you feel outskilled but constantly out cheesed. also weird furry vibes are for freak losers. doesn't really matter what i say though, dead game is dead

[Vic Viper]

I wrote up a full review of my experience, the gist of why I played Ranked right after the tutorial is because I live in UK and on the 5-7 EU servers not a single casual game was found while waiting for match. So Ranked was the only game mode that I could get into a game.

You're a complete beginner at fighting games, and choose to play against online players immediately after 5-10 minutes of the basic tutorial, a tutorial which you admit to have partially forgotten.

There're a couple of offline modes with a wide range difficulty levels. Why aren't you practicing against low-level CPUs in the first place to get a decent grip first? As a beginner you can actually learn from those in a stress-free environment, especially with mirror matches.

When I started Smash and wasn't used to plat fighters, I thought Mario's Tornado attack was literally a full circle + B, of course if I had gone online or the equivalent to local tournaments with close to zero practice I would've gotten hard washed, these are games with an extremely high skill ceiling.

I do not understand this immediate need to be matched against online players in a competitive game when most of them can reliably win against LVL 9 CPUs. You figuratively tossed yourself in a pool of sharks naked when you didn't learn how to swim, and like for every game (especially fighting), it takes more than a few hours to be good. The Smash Bros games wouldn't have been that much kinder to you.

[Baalf]

Originally posted by Vic Viper:

It's good, but it released way too early. Maybe it was a publisher mandate and/or they were confident to release it the same way Rivals of Aether 1 did (which was a lot less).

Apparently, it was released in the state it was in because they had run out of funding for making the game by the time of release, so they released it in that state to get some of that money back so they could work on it further.

[Bill_Clinton_Supreme]

Originally posted by Vic Viper:

There're a couple of offline modes with a wide range difficulty levels. Why aren't you practicing against low-level CPUs in the first place to get a decent grip first? As a beginner you can actually learn from those in a stress-free environment, especially with mirror matches.

I'm in a similar boat as OP, and honestly its harder to describe since I DO have experience with smash and other fighting games, I'd say I am decent at Ult, and not too long ago I picked up Tekken 8 and also did well. (Got to orange ranks which is ok from what I know, but I dropped tekken 8 due to how bad its monetization became)

But honestly both Rivals 1 and 2 have been absolutely miserable for me to play whenever I have tried getting into either. It's like I know everything I should be doing since I have the mindset, but I have none of the muscle memory and execution to even do just 'ok' and thus I'm terrible at these games.

also online has a lot of jackasses, I didn't have a great intro to rivals 1 and rivals 2 is not much better in terms of online (comp fighting game online, go figure )

[Fomalhaut]

I'm trying so hard to enjoy it. It is easily better than Smash to me but it only feels like "better Smash" which is not what I asked for with a sequel. I wanted Rivals of Aether but I don't feel like I'm playing that.

[Mr.McCloud]

I'm on the same boat. i wanted the game to flourish but online being so hostile to new people. being practically dead in South america is making it really difficult to enjoy it.

[Job Application]

Originally posted by Sajev:

Originally posted by Vic Viper:

This game will definitely not change your mind on fighting games, in the same way someone with the same experience as you do in fighting games but for shooting games will not feel at ease even in lighter shooters like Fortnite in a lobby full of actual players. Maybe hero shooters like Overwatch or Marvel Rivals with heroes that don't require pinpoint accuracy, but that's about it.

But basically, an opponent that moves and strikes "too fast" in a platform fighter hits the same way as an opponent in a shooting game that somehow shoots you down with a scopeless assault rifle in less than 2 seconds from 100m away with less than a clip.

There're people who lament the lack of in-depth tutorials (which are also missing in all Smash games, but no one really cares there), but ingame training/tutorial modes for understanding why and how "X" and "Y" obscure mechanic work are only the first step. Practicing the knowledge in real situations is a whole different story, I miss 30% of my wavedashes despite knowing how they work, and I still don't feel I can gain an advantage from them at my level.

The only ways to surmount this are either learning through failure, or looking for a player willing to help you through, or improving through fighting repeatedly another player that's new (or offline against bots).

Regardless, it's always a bad idea in fighting games to instantly go into online PVP fights without prior training, and that goes for most kinds of PVP games too.

I wrote up a full review of my experience, the gist of why I played Ranked right after the tutorial is because I live in UK and on the 5-7 EU servers not a single casual game was found while waiting for match. So Ranked was the only game mode that I could get into a game.

Originally posted by SwordSaint:

So you just give up every time? What did you expect? To outplay players who put more time than you? Lol what

No I didn't give up a single game, I really tried my best from what I learned playing the 3 tutorials. It just felt like people were LEAGUES ahead of me and it made for a terrible new player experience, am I bad at fighting games? absolutely. The thing that I have a problem with is that for new players, the experience is pretty bad.

The three "tutorials" barely teach you anything, it's pretty much "hey, here's what each button does" and that's it. There is still effectively ZERO tutorialization in the game FOUR MONTHS into its release, it's a complete joke, if anyone tries this game as a casual or newbie and feels oppressed by the current playerbase, that is 100% the intended experience at the moment. Every new fighting game player experience involves losing a LOT to people better than you, but the difference here is you're not even given anything foundational to at least start with, literally just "here's some buttons, ♥♥♥♥ you, good luck loser". In the current huge resurgence of amazing fighting games, both indie and AAA, shipping without anything as basic as a functional movelist and just expecting new people to tough out getting stomped with zero guidance is a really stupid way of trying to grow your game. They made RoA2 for smash players, not newbies, hell, not even RoA1 fans from the complaints people are starting to voice, all the eggs are in drawing and maintaining a smash playerbase, except that's not gonna happen because they're smash players and they're eventually gonna go back to smash; this is novel for them, a cute little 'not quite melee' to mess around with and stomp casuals until they get bored and go back to slippi and PM.

[ciswhiteheterosexualmalenumber2]

Originally posted by Bisexual Goat:

Originally posted by Sajev:

I wrote up a full review of my experience, the gist of why I played Ranked right after the tutorial is because I live in UK and on the 5-7 EU servers not a single casual game was found while waiting for match. So Ranked was the only game mode that I could get into a game.







No I didn't give up a single game, I really tried my best from what I learned playing the 3 tutorials. It just felt like people were LEAGUES ahead of me and it made for a terrible new player experience, am I bad at fighting games? absolutely. The thing that I have a problem with is that for new players, the experience is pretty bad.

The three "tutorials" barely teach you anything, it's pretty much "hey, here's what each button does" and that's it. There is still effectively ZERO tutorialization in the game FOUR MONTHS into its release, it's a complete joke, if anyone tries this game as a casual or newbie and feels oppressed by the current playerbase, that is 100% the intended experience at the moment. Every new fighting game player experience involves losing a LOT to people better than you, but the difference here is you're not even given anything foundational to at least start with, literally just "here's some buttons, ♥♥♥♥ you, good luck loser". In the current huge resurgence of amazing fighting games, both indie and AAA, shipping without anything as basic as a functional movelist and just expecting new people to tough out getting stomped with zero guidance is a really stupid way of trying to grow your game. They made RoA2 for smash players, not newbies, hell, not even RoA1 fans from the complaints people are starting to voice, all the eggs are in drawing and maintaining a smash playerbase, except that's not gonna happen because they're smash players and they're eventually gonna go back to smash; this is novel for them, a cute little 'not quite melee' to mess around with and stomp casuals until they get bored and go back to slippi and PM.

Yes but even if a game is built for experienced players, it doesn't make sense to completely ignore the large sum of beginners who want to play and support your game. Not having casual ways to have fun is a huge plague on the game and one of the main reason's its dying, so even if a competitive experience was their vision it would make a whole lot of sense to dial back right about now.

[Job Application]

Originally posted by ciswhiteheterosexualmalenumber2:

Originally posted by Bisexual Goat:

The three "tutorials" barely teach you anything, it's pretty much "hey, here's what each button does" and that's it. There is still effectively ZERO tutorialization in the game FOUR MONTHS into its release, it's a complete joke, if anyone tries this game as a casual or newbie and feels oppressed by the current playerbase, that is 100% the intended experience at the moment. Every new fighting game player experience involves losing a LOT to people better than you, but the difference here is you're not even given anything foundational to at least start with, literally just "here's some buttons, ♥♥♥♥ you, good luck loser". In the current huge resurgence of amazing fighting games, both indie and AAA, shipping without anything as basic as a functional movelist and just expecting new people to tough out getting stomped with zero guidance is a really stupid way of trying to grow your game. They made RoA2 for smash players, not newbies, hell, not even RoA1 fans from the complaints people are starting to voice, all the eggs are in drawing and maintaining a smash playerbase, except that's not gonna happen because they're smash players and they're eventually gonna go back to smash; this is novel for them, a cute little 'not quite melee' to mess around with and stomp casuals until they get bored and go back to slippi and PM.

Yes but even if a game is built for experienced players, it doesn't make sense to completely ignore the large sum of beginners who want to play and support your game. Not having casual ways to have fun is a huge plague on the game and one of the main reason's its dying, so even if a competitive experience was their vision it would make a whole lot of sense to dial back right about now.

I 100% agree, I'm saying that them going this all in on nothing but the hardcore smash and comp scene is absolutely shooting themselves in both feet and then grabbing a lemon and squeezing it over the wounds. A game can't live off an increasingly small group of hardcore players, especially before it even grows the playerbase to any significant degree. Rivals 2 is already at the point in terms of player drop-off most fighting games get to only years after the initial release.

[Poole [>'']>]

Originally posted by Bisexual Goat:

Originally posted by ciswhiteheterosexualmalenumber2:

Yes but even if a game is built for experienced players, it doesn't make sense to completely ignore the large sum of beginners who want to play and support your game. Not having casual ways to have fun is a huge plague on the game and one of the main reason's its dying, so even if a competitive experience was their vision it would make a whole lot of sense to dial back right about now.

I 100% agree, I'm saying that them going this all in on nothing but the hardcore smash and comp scene is absolutely shooting themselves in both feet and then grabbing a lemon and squeezing it over the wounds. A game can't live off an increasingly small group of hardcore players, especially before it even grows the playerbase to any significant degree. Rivals 2 is already at the point in terms of player drop-off most fighting games get to only years after the initial release.

Rivals 2 is following the same update structure that rivals 1 got. which was focus on adding characters and tuning gameplay, THEN they added the bonus content which casuals cry for. I will say the one thing rivals 1 had over 2's launch was the aether versions of stages. Then again that's not going to make a casual play for more than a few hours. Aether studios made the one mistake to call rivals 2 a released product in october 2024. if they put it under Steam early access, all this discourse about the game dying would effing stop.

[ciswhiteheterosexualmalenumber2]

Originally posted by Poole >''>:

Originally posted by Bisexual Goat:

I 100% agree, I'm saying that them going this all in on nothing but the hardcore smash and comp scene is absolutely shooting themselves in both feet and then grabbing a lemon and squeezing it over the wounds. A game can't live off an increasingly small group of hardcore players, especially before it even grows the playerbase to any significant degree. Rivals 2 is already at the point in terms of player drop-off most fighting games get to only years after the initial release.

Rivals 2 is following the same update structure that rivals 1 got. which was focus on adding characters and tuning gameplay, THEN they added the bonus content which casuals cry for. I will say the one thing rivals 1 had over 2's launch was the aether versions of stages. Then again that's not going to make a casual play for more than a few hours. Aether studios made the one mistake to call rivals 2 a released product in october 2024. if they put it under Steam early access, all this discourse about the game dying would effing stop.

Fair point, this game was never really living in the first place and I find it annoying they marketed it as such. I expect a finished product when they say it’s worthy of being finished and are selling it for 30 bucks. All I have now is a preorder for when the game comes out in 3 years or so, and a competitive little demo to substitute the wait.

[Job Application]

Originally posted by Poole >''>:

Originally posted by Bisexual Goat:

I 100% agree, I'm saying that them going this all in on nothing but the hardcore smash and comp scene is absolutely shooting themselves in both feet and then grabbing a lemon and squeezing it over the wounds. A game can't live off an increasingly small group of hardcore players, especially before it even grows the playerbase to any significant degree. Rivals 2 is already at the point in terms of player drop-off most fighting games get to only years after the initial release.

Rivals 2 is following the same update structure that rivals 1 got. which was focus on adding characters and tuning gameplay, THEN they added the bonus content which casuals cry for. I will say the one thing rivals 1 had over 2's launch was the aether versions of stages. Then again that's not going to make a casual play for more than a few hours. Aether studios made the one mistake to call rivals 2 a released product in october 2024. if they put it under Steam early access, all this discourse about the game dying would effing stop.

Charging $30 for a very clearly early access game with almost nothing extra added but a constantly updating, very fleshed out shop and MTX is the crux of the poor reception this game is receiving from everyone but hardcore players. If they were honest about anything regarding the game and didn't hype it up as this full product that will just get 'bonus content' down the line, they wouldn't be where they currently are, but people expected a full game and got online versus, a cosmetic store that tempts you to spend even more money than you already did on an unfinished product, and that's it. I really can't emphasise just how ludicrous it is to release a fighting game of any type in the 2025 without so much as a basic movelist built in to the game, never mind any tutorials. To everyone outside that hardcore bubble, all they're gonna feel is ripped off because quite frankly, they were.

[Poole [>'']>]

Originally posted by Bisexual Goat:

Originally posted by Poole >''>:

Rivals 2 is following the same update structure that rivals 1 got. which was focus on adding characters and tuning gameplay, THEN they added the bonus content which casuals cry for. I will say the one thing rivals 1 had over 2's launch was the aether versions of stages. Then again that's not going to make a casual play for more than a few hours. Aether studios made the one mistake to call rivals 2 a released product in october 2024. if they put it under Steam early access, all this discourse about the game dying would effing stop.

Charging $30 for a very clearly early access game with almost nothing extra added but a constantly updating, very fleshed out shop and MTX is the crux of the poor reception this game is receiving from everyone but hardcore players. If they were honest about anything regarding the game and didn't hype it up as this full product that will just get 'bonus content' down the line, they wouldn't be where they currently are, but people expected a full game and got online versus, a cosmetic store that tempts you to spend even more money than you already did on an unfinished product, and that's it. I really can't emphasise just how ludicrous it is to release a fighting game of any type in the 2025 without so much as a basic movelist built in to the game, never mind any tutorials. To everyone outside that hardcore bubble, all they're gonna feel is ripped off because quite frankly, they were.

Everything you're describing IS what aether studios openly disclosed to every player before launch. They have made roadmap videos on their youtube and written out what to expect on their kickstarter page. The team emphasized the lack casual or single player at launch with a current focus to make long time fans happy at the moment. The steam page makes no claims of single player heavy content. You were not scammed into buying a game at $30. mind you probably took advantage of a discount. Rivals 2 will see many revivals as time goes on. especially with rivals 2 steam workshop. The one criticism the team does deserve is not having tutorials fleshed out at launch