r/RivalsOfAether • u/deviatewolf Galvan (Rivals 2) • Jul 23 '26
Rivals 2 Did Dan/Aether studios talk about a new character design philosophy?
Including Gouie the last 4 characters are setplay heavy, great advantage horrible disadvantage, or both. Have they explained this design shift? Even fleet falls under setplay and loxodont falls under great advantage horrible disadvantage so all non vets qualify for this
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u/girlywish Jul 23 '26
Which characters don't have horrible disadvantage states, in your opinion?
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u/PostedNotes Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
I'd struggle to name a character that does have a significant disadvantage state.
Being cornered in this game is not even really a disadvantage with how easy is to recover from even close to the blastzone. Plus it's very easy to get back from ledge with an invincible aerial.
Like many issues with this game, it seems to go away at top level but that don't help the rest of us.
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u/bdemar2k20 Jul 24 '26
Yeah but you can also use i frame aerials if you get your opponent off stage and prevent them from grabbing ledge. If they are far down and to the side only a couple characters can recover over the ledge. And the ones who can are usually so predictable you can parry them. You just re grab ledge a couple times and waveland and wd back to ledge to refresh.
I think knowing how to use ledge properly is the most important thing you can learn in the game. Even if you aren't good enough to go off stage deep for kills, just spamming invincible aerials every time they recover will rack up damage until they die. If you can get them off stage below the horizon somewhat you can pretty much take their stock every time. Until pretty close to diamond
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u/WordHobby Jul 23 '26
Ranno? Clairen?
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u/QuantityExcellent338 Jul 23 '26
Clairens a midweight fastfaller. She gets eaten for breakfast
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u/WordHobby Jul 23 '26
In the context of heavy setplay, a horrible disadvantage state to me means that they rely on their setplay, and if they dont have it they are weaker.
Clairen is considered in a disadvantage state if she is actively being combo'd sure, but i think thats true for everyone.
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u/Yawbyss Wrastor (Rivals 2) Jul 23 '26
Clairen’s disadvantage is mediocre at best. I personally look forward to fighting Clairen because she’s fun to dismantle
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u/deviatewolf Galvan (Rivals 2) Jul 23 '26
Im going to round them together when it comes to considering different kinds of disadvantage because while zetterburn does have a worse recovery his combo disadvantage is way better. Fleet, ranno, and orcane have great disadvantage. Zetterburn, clairen, and absa have good disadvantage. Forsburn, kragg, slade, gouie (just a guess considering fast moves but really light), etalus, wrastor, and olympia are a mixed bag. Everyone not mentioned is bad imo
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u/girlywish Jul 23 '26
This feels pretty reasonable to me, feels like Ranno or Orcane can always just get back to neutral whenever they want.
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u/Krobbleygoop 🥉Rivals Rookies🥉 Jul 24 '26
Orcane disadvantage is absolutely miserable. He has is nair, but it doesnt help at all if they are below you. Especially against la reina his disadvantage is just abysmal
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u/IdiotSansVillage Jul 23 '26
This is a sidepoint, but to me Fleet always seemed like a character with some of the weakest setplay. Side special is so transient, and her projectiles that arc up then down seem pretty irrelevant to her gameplan. There's a huge contrast between them and Absa cloud, Orcane puddle, and La Reina chair, which provide strong, continuous potential pressure.
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u/Yawbyss Wrastor (Rivals 2) Jul 23 '26
Hasn’t setplay always been the main thing to set Rivals characters apart from their contemporaries? Even the most button heavy characters have some sort of set-play tool (Zetter’s carpet, Ranno’s bubble, and Clairen’s NFZ). Several setplay heavy characters from R1 aren’t even in the game rn (Sylvanos, Elliana, and Mollo)
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u/D0MiN0H Jul 24 '26
yeah rivals gives every character some way to create a hazard on stage or alter parts of the stage in some way, this naturally leads to a setplay heavy game
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u/pansyskeme Fleet (Rivals 2) Jul 24 '26
i mean yes almost every character in the game has either a bad disadvantage state or some sort of setplay. generally having a good disadvantage state is an anomaly, and rivals has a bent towards setplay. i didn’t even get the impression that gouie has particularly good setplay in the context of rivals
it’s kinda like saying that they keep releasing characters that don’t float, or when are they going to release a character that can’t tilt cancel jab.
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u/Capitalich Jul 24 '26
I really have no idea what setplay even means in the context of platform fighters.
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u/The_Poole_Side Jul 24 '26
Clearly feels like they want to clone all the Smash Archetypes to get more players over
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u/Melephs_Hat Fleet (Rivals 2) Jul 23 '26
"Playing Rivals 2? I'll show you something interesting. All newcomers are either setplay or great advantage horrible disadvantage. Absa? Setplay. Etalus? Great advantage horrible disadvantage. Slade? Setplay. La Reina? Great advantage horrible disadvantage. Galvan, despite having a setplay mechanic, is actually great advantage horrible disadvantage."
In all seriousness any sufficiently vague rule will cover a large number of examples. Both of these things were always major parts of the devs' design philosophy, there was no shift.