And other platform fighters/Smash clones, I guess.
I saw the trailer and some videos on the devs' twitter, and was initially intrigued until I saw that they weren't changing the control scheme. So instead of something intuitive where the attacks are split up among different buttons and movement is controlled in a way that doesn't make your hands cramp, there is simply "the smash bros control scheme" where you need to use two analogue sticks and a bunch of shoulder buttons to have any hope of controlling your character. That said, Rivals of Aether was a pretty neat Smash clone and I was optimistic for it at the start of its lifespan before it was consumed by esports merchandising and furfags. Perhaps this one will turn out different. Perhaps I'm just in denial.
The switch to 3D graphics and character models made me leery, but so far the characters and animations look decent to good. There's some suspension of disbelief lost, but the first game had such atrociously low resolution sprites that almost anything would be an upgrade. Some of the HUD elements were a single pixel wide.
Some of the mechanical changes shown so far:
- Replacing the parry with a traditional shield that can be broken.
- Replacing the up special > wall jump recovery loop with traditional ledge grabbing. Not sure if two characters can grab the ledge at the same time.
- The addition of grabs, which seem standard except for the option of a special pummel that does something related to your character's mechanic instead of just doing a bit of damage.
More than anything, looking at what the devs have accomplished (led by Dan Fornace, who worked on Killer Instinct 2013 before going independent for RoA) has surprised me. Apparently the setting for RoA has gotten spinoff comics, plushies, and entire games like the April Fool's parody VN Lovers of Aether, the mobile card game Creatures of Aether, and the upcoming dungeon crawler roguelite Dungeons of Aether. Furry parody VN mobile card game dungeon crawler roguelite please help me I'm drowning in search engine keywords blargh
Despite the obvious furfag baggage, I generally like anthro/animal characters when they're done well, and I can tell that Dan Fornace does genuinely care about the game and its players; he seems to express that care through indie game guest characters/stages, esports tie-in colour palettes, and cosmetic pets that obstruct the visual clarity of a game, but I suppose that's his style. At the very least, he clearly understands the value of modding and has integrated the PC version of the game with the Steam workshop to support custom stages and characters so players can put their very own donut steels into the game. It's a shame that the player base for RoA mostly seems to be SSBM players who weren't quite good/dedicated enough to become tourneyfags in that game (which I can't exactly blame them for) and that it released in such a bare bones state that they were the only ones willing to give it a chance in the first place. If there had been a bit more content or casual appeal at launch then I think RoA would have stood as a solid little indie game rather than "that smash clone with furries."