For those that bother to check my profile, I've had a lot of experience with Rivals 1 (over 1,000 hours). Given that, I feel like I have plenty of room to compare both R1 and R2 with each other, and now with the game having been out for over a year and over 100 hours to back it up, I want to give an honest opinion of this game, and why I ultimately think that it's become a game worth playing (which is NOT something I would have said after the first few months of launch).
Rivals of Aether 2 has an incredibly strong foundation for its moment to moment gameplay. Especially after a year, measures have been taken to speed up gameplay. That can be seen in the ways that some defensive mechanics have been toned (both shield regeneration and floor hugging have been tweaked). It can also be seen in the delay between hits (a change that reduced hit pause). Even character adjustments have been used as a means to address gameplay pace, where un-interactive tools have been either toned down or reworked to reduce the lameness that certain characters can engage with. The movement has always been silky, and has also been adjusted to feel even better (reducing the landing frames of wavelanding). While its not as effortless as R1, part of that comes with the introduced defensive and offensive tools that have been added. I would say it still comfortably excels in game feel, especially with the diversity in its roster allowing you to find a character that lines up with how you want to move around. All of this is to say that this game feels great to play, and I think the devs have done a very good job addressing some of the issues that prevented the game from feeling great to move around and hit people in. Some people will never be able to get past an omni-directional shield, and I understand that, but for everyone who doesn't have gripes surrounding blocking, I think that the initial skeleton of the game is fully realized, very expressive, and very rewarding.
Now, notice that I say the skeleton of the game. I'm a competitive player, and for me, having good bones is good enough. Give me a person to fight against and I'm content just engaging with that skeleton and nothing else. Does that make a good game? I would say no. A fighting game now has a lot of things to do outside of just online or offline matches against another person. Need I point to Smash Bros Brawl and sub space emissary? Or Street Fighter 6's story mode with custom characters? Even for those who are uninterested in the pure exchange of two people against each other, modern fighting games offer much more than just the skeleton of the moment to moment gameplay. This is a lot to ask for, and Rivals 2 is trying to live up to those expectations. Its presentation demands it.
This presentation can be talked about in a lot of ways. Personally, I think that all of the character designs are sick. Some people might be turned away by all the characters being furries (which I mean, cmon dude, it's 2026. There's like a 90% chance that you've played a game that you enjoy and it has furries in it. Get over yourself). That being said, I do feel that the characters are compelling in their own right. A frankensteined mechanical dinosaur? A luchadora ant? Look at that pirate shark and tell me that "swagger of the sea" isn't the perfect title for him. You can't. Lest I forget to mention that these characters and all future ones are completely free add-ons. Even if the characters themselves aren't exactly appealing to you, the animation and expression that goes into them is something worth praising in its own regard. The music, while not as punchy as R1, still feels right at home, and there's even some tracks I'd put alongside R1 in terms of pop (Metal incarnate on metal graveyard is a stand out example of this). And then the skins. Listen, I won't pretend that microtransactions can't be a problem, but if there were any model to follow, I think Aether Studios should be the best example of what to do if they will be included. No timed events, no impact on gameplay, no trading or loot crates to make a market economy off of, and all of it can be achieved purely through playing the game. I've played this game for a year and even with my small numbers compared to other folks, I've had almost no trouble getting all of the skins I wanted. I've only bought one of the bundles because it was pirates and pirates are definitely a weakness for me, but otherwise I feel pretty comfortable in saying that I don't feel the need to buy anything from the store, and chances are you'll find yourself saying the same thing. In fact, a good number of the skins that you can get are ONLY achievable through gameplay, and can't be purchased. A lot of these achievable skins are through monthly updates, and these updates are what's finally got me to leave this review.
Before this last update, I would say there was almost nothing to enjoy in R2 outside of the skeleton of gameplay. The few single player modes are, at most, amusing time wasters that vaguely engage with the actual mechanics of the game. At worst, they're uninteresting drags that are there to pad out the glaring void of both casual and single-player content. This has changed though. Admittedly, the single-player content is still lacking. However, the addition of items and casual stages, which are both an absolute blast to play with, have almost completely addressed the casual complaints I had with R2. In its current form, rivals can be enjoyed by people who both have a competitive drive and those who want to goof around, barring that they have friends to do it with. Pair this with workshop getting fleshed out with a steady trickle of both original and ported characters, and R2 is finally in a spot where I want to recommend it to people. The only remaining hiccup is more interesting single player content, and the devs have made me confident that when it does come (within the next year), it'll be just as great as the rest of the game.
I could write a dissertation on how Rivals 1 and Rivals 2 compare to each other from that moment to moment gameplay, but I realize a lot of people that'll buy this game won't really be interested in that conversation. While R2 doesn't have the massive workshop of R1, what exists now between both items and workshop is definitely enough fun in its own right, and with enough time I'm sure R2 will be right there and kickin it with R1 in terms of workshop content. For 30 dollars, this is a good game, and when it's on sale for 20 or less, its a steal. Put it on your wish list and get it when you can.
