Rivals of Aether

New indie game that takes a lot of its style from Super Smash Bros. Most of it actually... Except there is no ledges, no grabbing, and no shields.

The game is a unique take on the Smash formula, and the characters all based around the four classical elements.

The official site is here.

I'm planning on getting it. Looks fun.

Also Alphabad Alphafraud Alpharad has a bunch of videos up of it.

Do note that this is early access, which is kind of like paying to beta test it, but you get the final game upon release anyway if you buy early access, so you don't really lose anything.

I maintain that the game needs a projectile spam character like Duck Hunt from smash.

I think Zetterburn and Kragg can kind of spam?

Also correct me if I'm wrong, but parrying a projectile reflects it, so basically everyone has a reflector.

edited 23rd Oct '15 6:15:24 AM by Geist-Fox

Yup. I wouldn't doubt that a projectile character (probably the second air element character) will be in the final game. It would certainly be interesting, anyway.

Absa has a cloud sentry already. That said, it could be interesting idea for a snow-themed rival, since the last character hasn't been revealed yet.

oh, didn't notice that! well then i guess it'll have to be the second water one if anything. or maybe more characters in the future.

though, i do also have doubts about the a character being all projectile spammy. they clearly slow down sm4sh games, and make them less fun to watch sometimes, and i think the devs want to avoid that.

Maybe if this theoretical Snow fighter was slow, and each of it's projectiles leave a pretty big window open, requiring them to make reads to keep the opponent at bay?

With perhaps a big, rolling snowball as a Side-Special.

I bought it a few weeks ago. I like it, but it feels kind of minimalist at the moment, but that's probably because the game isn't complete yet. The music is hit or miss with me too; I only really like the forest stage music, which is pretty catchy and reminds me of Secret of Mana.

So far my favorite character is Kragg, who I was looking to play as soon as I saw him. If he's supposed to be a Mighty Glacier type, he certainly doesn't feel like it. I'm also liking Wrastor, while I'm still trying to get a feel for Orcane, since I really like his design.

welp

playing online is.. weird. I get one good game, and the rest of them are suicides. kinda frustrating. I'm also seeing mostly Kraggs and Zetterburns online, which I thought would happen.

Anywho, I'm really liking Wrastor and Oracane. I'm much better with Wrastor at the moment, but I'm working on Orcane.

So for those who've played the game, who's your favourite character?

Wrastor, by far. Air smashes are great to pull off, and i love being to fly everywhere.

Orcane is second, just because of his bubbly stuff going on.

I don't like Zetterburn all that much, though. And Maypul is kind of hard to get a hang of.

I enjoy Zetterburn.

Decently speedy and the fire really helps rack up damage.

Plus getting a bit of fire on the floor makes people really cautious for some reason.

I'm not a fan so far. I mean, right now, it seems to be a bit... uninspired.

For example, Wrastor is a mishmash of Meta Knight, Marth, and Captain Falcon, and Zetterburn is pretty much just Wolf.

It's like Sakurai said back in The '90s; a formula like this just doesn't work if the characters have no existing impression on the audience. And they're definitely not charming enough to impress on their own merits.

edited 25th Oct '15 4:16:37 AM by BaffleBlend

I'm going to have to disagree with you on all aspects of that. Just because Sakurai said it doesn't mean that it's right.

And this game is literally 0.0.7 right now, of course the characters personalities are underdeveloped.

The characters also all do things that smash bros would never do, such as permanently created platforms in Kragg.

After accidentally playing this game for like seven hours straight, I think I can say that Kragg is incredibly OP if someone has any idea what they're doing.

It's like the devs went "We should have a big character.. but not make him bad." Which resulted in a character with the bulk and strength of a large character, but the speed and mobility of a small character.

Which is absurd. It doesn't help that he is impossible to approach if he doesn't want you to.

Hopefully he's way nerfed in the next update.

Alpharad got opinions on Absa from some people (he had access to a closed beta).

The general consensus is that Absa is broken. Fun. Hopefully this game won't turn into something like Brawl Minus, but if they keep up with the OP characters it might be that way.

She comes out on the 19th.

Also that Undertale music <3

edited 18th Nov '15 6:21:11 AM by EpicBleye

Absa is the new hideously OP one?

I've got a new main.

Absa op shenanigans by alpharad

She doesn't look unfun to play, though.

But definitely looking OP. Especially against Zetterburn.

Jesus that f-air

This game is going to need some srs balancing once the full cast is released. Kragg and Absa are clearly dominating, and won't allow characters like Maypul or Orcane to have a chance to shine.

Now, whether they balance by buff or balance by debuff is up to question, but hopefully it's debuff rather than buff.

Also, X-mas colors came with the update. They're really... white. Kind of garish really.

edited 19th Nov '15 12:19:15 PM by EpicBleye

Yeah not a fan of the alt colors in this game, but they're still a bit better than Smash Flash 2's.

I guess an update added this character? I'll have to look into it.

As for balancing, they'll probably do most of that after they develop the game to the point where it's no longer considered "early access".

Custom colors are coming in a future update. Hopefully we can get ghost Orcane back using it. Don't even play him that much, but that one skin was just beautiful.

I miss Halloween Wrastor. The Christmas colors are just ugly.

Though, if they're custom colored I'll probably do something other than Halloween colored.

Speaking of future updates, I'm hoping we get some new stages soon. The same 5 maps can get dull sometimes, especially when you dislike one or more of them *cough*Fire Captial*cough*.