Rivals of Aether II

the game is alright, however the main two aspects that would never allow me to recommend this game is the extremely low player count in EU, and the horrid online community. people in-game have been fairly civil, aside from an occasional passive player who refuses to play the game, but when it takes around 7 minutes to find a match on average (usually anytime between 2 to 20 minutes in quick match queue which automatically queues you into all modes except for solos ranked), i decided to check discord servers seeing how its also recommended by the devs to match-make that way. advice ? dont. players are extremely condescending and dismissive towards newer players, and/or are very immature. not complete randoms either, 3 of my very first interactions were with people that claimed to either be tournament organizers, or server couches. there are very, very few new comers or casual players to grow with, and this is not the type of game that you can improve in by just repeatedly playing someone vastly better than you. from someone who personally found it enjoyable to do so in guilty gear strive, granblue fantasy versus, and tekken 8. i would say it'd take me around 120-150 hours to get the muscle memory to be average in this game as someone who never learned competitive smash before, and thats way too much of a dedicated time for sitting in empty queues and matching people who have at least 5 times the amount of that time requirement... i personally blame the "esports drive" for killing many otherwise fun looking games but that might be an entirely different topic. does it become fun after that time and effort investment? doesnt look like it. the only people that seem to be enjoying the game are fun players, players that would find ways to have fun regardless of the medium, most of which are rivals 1 veterans. and to be honest? my biggest gripe is that there is a fun game here somewhere, that mostly feels inaccessible with the dire player count and needless toxicity. if youre buying this game with a group of friends to mainly play locally or online with eachother, then most of the biggest issues might not heavily impact your experience.

As an ROA 1 player and someone who loved the title for how different it felt in many ways to the rest of the platform fighters out, I simply cannot enjoy this game in the same way that the first captivated me. The sheer power of floorhugging/CC centralizes neutral interactions around those two mechanics in a way that heavily benefits certain characters over others and creates simply unfun gameplay cycles unless you tailor your play around them. It's not fun to fish for grabs and fight against mechanics that feel like they do nothing but hinder player expression, especially coming off of the first game which was so reliant on good fundamentals and callouts in a way that was super rewarding. I don't feel rewarded for holding down and winning an interaction where I got hit first, and it feels worse on the receiving end. It feels paradoxical to implement mechanics like ledges, shields, and grabs to appeal to the wider platform fighter audience and then provide absolutely nothing of note for casual players to enjoy beyond just spam queuing casual/ranked games. This game is so complex and intricately crafted that it is notably unfun unless you are fully aware of its intricacies; i.e. it is very unwelcome to casual players. Anyone looking to get into this game has to pass the 150+ hour check of getting bodied repeatedly, and while this was a fun loop in the first game because its simplicity made it more accessible, it just isn't the same here. I keep coming back to this game because I know it is well made and I know it's objectively good, but all it does is tilt me with unfun mechanics that feel like they're fighting against the fun this game can be.

Rivals of Aether II is the worst game ever made. That being said, Rivals of Aether II is also the best game ever made. I would never recommend you buy this game because that would be like trying to sell crack to a 5 year old. However if you already have you'll probably never put it back down. I tried to quit 5 times by now and failed each time, i just accept this as my life now.

Game has great bones, ruined by the devs' insistence on keeping floorhugging and overpowered shields for whatever reason.

This game feels like the Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers to Rivals of Aether's SRB2Kart. I know this game holds promise to a certain other player base, which is why I'm leaving a good rating, but a RoA1 head like me has a bit too much trouble getting along with the game. Maaaybe I'll just stick to the original Rivals of Aether. ^v^"

Game is unplayable. Lag and desync out the ass. 1/10 do not recommend. ♥♥♥♥ LUDWIG

Server stutter is horrendous. Has only gotten worse and worse as the game has gone on

If you loath the concept of casual play and love sweating your balls off, like to watch hours worth of YouTube University on how to "git gud", like the brilliant design of [NEGATIVE ON HIT], or are just looking for a way to get arthritis, look no further than Rivals of Aether II. This game is a circus, and the developers are clowns.

the game is fun and is probably the best platform fighter besides smash, however it still has some issues. specificly the online and how the game feels. online feels slightly delayed and while it is much better than smash online it still can feel clunky. i think the game would strongly benefit if they made the charecters not have zero control after being hit or stunned. ill get hit in the air and be unable to do anything but wait for my turn to play. this is especialy a problem because i cant react properly with the lag. at least let me be able to have an influence on where my charecter is going when im at high damage. the game itself is really well made but its these little things that ruin the experience and make me feel like im not in control. if players could visualize their hitboxes online and in practice too that could be great for players to improve and get better at the game. if you dont like this game though id suggest A Few Quick Matches. its highly underated and feels amazing. Great game, just needs some touch ups.

game needs landing lag and if you want to you could add L-cancels there's something fundamentally wrong with this game feels like a worse version of p+. As a person who loved roa1 and hit champ in this game I want to like the game it's just not fun.