The Smash Inspiration for Every Rivals 2 Character (so far)

[@melon9660]

Drinking game: take a shot every time diddy kong is mentioned

[@balake2729]

Haven’t watched yet challenge accepted

[@SadToffee]

Melon you've killed this man I hope you're proud of yourself.

[@PQ2CPU0]

A character who has Peach float, similarties to Pit, is a fox, and have their name be FLEET... Close enough, welcome back Armada. 🙌

[@GrahamArnold64]

Yeah I kinda wish he played Fleet, but his Zetter is pretty damn good.

[@gatztopher]

Orcane is a Vaporeon. Literally, before Dan Fornace made Rivals he made a Smash demake for the Gameboy, Super Smash Land, and created an entirely new character for Vaporeon, who's mechanics were then adapted to create Orcane in Rivals of Aether. Orcane was inspired by a Smash character that never existed in the main series.

[@johnleecooper8520]

who was in turn inspired by pm ivy squirtle n zard

[@irishjet2687]

It should also be said that Dan Fornace was a PM Wolf player, and Zetterburn was the first character made for Rivals of Aether (after Orcane was all but ported from Super Smash Land).

[@rafaelblackman9879]

I’d also like to add that Fleet’s wind bomb and down air are similar to Mega Man’s side b and down air.

[@arJunebugSmash]

well spotted

[@Sazando596]

Wrastor is a combination of Jigglypuff, Meta Knight, Marth and Captain Falcon all wrapped up in a Falco skin

[@14nafster]

Crazy how he only compared him to jiggly 💀

[@itsrottweiler9545]

Thk u for correctly analyzing wrastor fr

[@Ellesenzacognome]

And Luigi

[@tangerinepaint3643]

The only other Falco-like thing about him aside the fact he’s a bird is Bair

[@Sazando596]

That's why I said "wrapped up in a Falco skin"

[@turndownforwalt]

hey guys its me junebug

[@LunarDarkness983]

Junebug please dont be a The Smash Inspiration for Every ______ Character

[@joshsylvester4864]

Hi junebug

[@Invictissimi]

Turndownforjune

[@LunarDarkness983]

@@Invictissimi Junedownforwalt

[@Shamanmagic95]

I just want to mention that clairens recovery seems to be shulk inspired. Amazing vid!

[@cutlass206]

I can't wait for Zelda-Ness-Pika to be added to the game

[@SadToffee]

Yeah Absa is gonna be neat in Rivals 2 for sure.

[@otheusrex2190]

me too

[@garreyy2828]

As a non-smasher rivals player I found this video super interesting. Not just the smash comparison, but just it's great analysis of all the characters for any rivals player to learn from. Also great editing and well-paced

[@arJunebugSmash]

thank you!

[@KrispyKorpse]

3:43 does he know...? (we're eventually going to get pomme who in rivals 1 is much more akin to peach, who not only directly has a float much more directly akin to her but also has notes that can primed to auto released while she's fully actionable... her shield pressure game is going to be completely ridiculous, not to mention she has an article ranged command grab in her body guard vince, her fspecial, who dashes forward)

[@Kirby5588]

As an ex PM player this game was made for me! Loving every bit of it. Settling into Wrastor/Loxodont. In PM I played a lot of Wolf but the way shielding is currently I don't enjoy rushing into someone with Zetter. Hopefully more shield stun is coming at some point.

[@drstclair]

From my PM days, down thrown Fair of the edge with Dedede was one of my favorite confirms. Lox run off Fair feels very similar and a really good edge guarding tool.

[@peachycoke4398]

I was waiting for someone to make a video like this. As a long time PM player, most of the move inspiration was immediately obvious to me, but that is by no means a bad thing! It's also great that Rivals 2 has put its own spin on everything and taken balance into consideration when porting stuff over. Like Zetter not having wolf flash for instance. I would also like to add that Orcane seems to have elements similar in function to PM ROB, like the momentum shifting aerials and puddle/top acting as stage control. Ivy's poison mechanic was used on Ranno. Forsburn down b sort of acts like Wario waft. Clairen's nair is similar to Meta Knight's but is nearly a 1:1 of HDR Lucina's nair. Maypul tether into a kill functions similarly to Snake C4 but requires more interaction.

[@arJunebugSmash]

love these comparisons! ty!

[@DrgoFx]

I was gonna hop in to mention the Forsburn Wario comparison cause that was how my friend explained it to me when I was trying the game out. Basically a waft that you can manually charge instead of waiting for it to charge

[@bailujen8052]

Clairen up special is like Shulk’s Air slash

[@mentalrectangle]

Wrastor is a mix of: Brawl Metaknight (dair, uair, n+B, up+B, jumps, floatiness), Falco (bair, ftilt, jab, f+B), Falcon (nair, utilt, down+B), plus his unique smashes. dsmash resembles PM MK's reworked dair. The MK similarities are obvious.

[@arJunebugSmash]

Good comparisons

[@Jollofmuncher2000]

I'm already playing this game more then any other game and it's not even complete. Honestly so rare to see a polished platform fighter that's so polished and keeps its own personality and niche instead of just being a crappy smash reskin. and what makes it better is that we know it's going to be more. More events, returning characters that will be innovated upon and developers that never fail to deliver

[@Stinkbug_Ab]

Same i dont think ive played a plat fighter this much at launch

[@punkypony5165]

Love your editing!

[@arJunebugSmash]

big shoutouts to Chaler

[@andrewobeng4852]

I'm shocked there wasn't any mention of the Link influence in Forsburn's kit. Both his forward and upwards capes are reminiscent of Link's two hit smash attacks and his up air is just one-to-one from Link.

[@arJunebugSmash]

this is well spotted and a good point! the multihit smash attacks are quite linky in a lot of ways.

[@MorbyLol]

yk i think platfighter players have to stop comparing every character in a game that isnt smash to smash characters, when fighting games other than street fighter started coming out we didnt compare every single character to a street fighter character. just because scorpion has a projectile and is a ninja doesnt mean hes just ryu mixed with ibuki

[@archivelibrarian6818]

i really dont see the issue with comparing characters. theres nothing negative about that. sounds like you just wanna complain but idk

[@MorbyLol]

@@archivelibrarian6818 it's practically the same thing as calling platform fighters "smash clones" or "the next smash killer" pretending like something has to be exactly like melee to be good again my example with traditional fighters, "Potemkin is just zangief mixed with honda!" sounds stupid because pot is his own character in his own right, command grab ≠ zangief copy, forward advancing charge special ≠ honda copy. but I guess since fleet has a float she's literally just peach but since she has a bow she's literally just pit

[@James-ek3mb]

Dan took pretty heavy inspiration from melee and PM, but he made the Rivals cast unique with their own special mechanics. No shame in taking interesting ideas and building them into something better

[@RenzZlax]

Honestly, id love to see more videos of junebug just playing rivals

[@LutherInnit]

don't have aether 2 (yet), but this breakdown was tremendous. well done

[@Swampson1738]

This video is very helpful the comparisons make a lot of sense

[@Toma_]

Ayo the Loxo from one of my thumbnails at 1:30 ? Cultured.

[@TramiNguyen-oi3kp]

Awesome Smash video!

[@sethmoreland1278]

What's up Mr bug. Thanks for the KZbin video. I liked it

[@artiIIerycrusader]

7:40 if you need help activating windows. Let me know.

[@SneeZSmash]

hey guys it's me turndownforwalt

[@arJunebugSmash]

Hey walt

[@enricodalbello2591]

Zetter bair = Mewtwo bair Ranno Fair/dair = Snake fair/dair Wrastor Nair/Uptilt = C.Falcon Nair/Uptilt (also Samus Uptilt) Wrastor tornado = M.K. tornado Kragg FStrong = Bowser FStrong

[@LightCave02]

Great video, June! This was super fun and helpful

[@jhoan9728]

I think Fleet's float is more PM Ganondorf inspired since the one with Peach's float is Pomme from Rivals 1 (you know, one of the workshop 4 🎶)

[@lanaalways]

Kragg rock always makes me feel like I'm pulling only dot eyes

[@EquinoxDoodles]

Great to see my Loxodont art appearing randomly in a Junebug video.

[@arJunebugSmash]

haha no problem! i can credit you in the description, my editor must've thrown it in!

[@johnleecooper8520]

i feel like maypul is more fox than anyone else. fast as fuck, fox laser, upair, nair

[@Masaru_kun]

after kragg gets nerfed that's when we need to see the junebug kragg emerge if only to keep kragg from getting any buffs in the future...

[@arJunebugSmash]

i would be okay with this

[@Mannymac06]

Great informative and entertaining vid. Can’t wait to see you excel at this game, too.

[@arJunebugSmash]

haha i'll try

[@paullau2378]

Nice vid dude thanks for uploading

[@BlackHero20]

Im not surprised how much you mentioned diddy kong. There are very few characters in melee and pm that have stage setplay anywhere close to what rivals has. Easily one of the most defining aspect of their character design

[@arJunebugSmash]

I have noticed this as well! Elemental set play seems to be a core part of rivals

[@devoncampbell3607]

Ranno side b could be a reference to KI(2013) rash, who is a battletoad with a tounge movement thingy.

[@ReavenM1911A1]

June please just play Kragg and unleash the beast. Is he too good? Lets see the proof :) I love R2 it feels like the first game that might just replace melee for me

[@pbz7572]

Orcane ftilt is PM Zard ftilt, Orcane bair is kinda like PM Ivy bair & Orcane fair is Brawl Zard Fair but with the movement of PM Zard Side B on roids Maypul reminds me of Brawlhalla Katars (especially fair). Maypul Down B (Lily) gives me more PacMan hydrant vibes than Monkey Banana Overall this was a great watch & a pretty spot on video, thanks Junebug!

[@donaldmccabe7366]

To let you know, I actually met Dan in person at a GDC many years ago! He not only takes inspiration from smash, but he told us a lot of his character designs also have inspirations from League of Legends!

[@readyplayerthree3]

I really hope this doesn't push people towards thinking games like Rivals are just Smash Clones but I think it's an overall good thing you made this and it's quite well done

[@writinggoose6059]

The main thing that really separates Rivals from other platform fighters are the character-specific mechanics and how heavily themed they are to the character/game's lore, so I like to compare them to character gimmicks in Anime Fighters I compare Ranno's poison mechanic to Azrael's weaknesses in Blazblue. The goal and reward for both is "apply these statuses and hit this specific move and you get a custom combo." The main difference is that Azrael can do more with his weaknesses than just Valiant Charger while Ranno only has the bubble. Zetterburn's Fire mechanic is what I call a "Protagonist gimmick". In games where every character has weird and specific gimmicks, the anime fighter protagonist's role is to ease a new player in, so their gimmick is usually something that doesn't require active engagement, like Ragna's HP Drain and Hyde's chip damage*. I can imagine a new player picking Zetter because he's mechanically familiar (a spacie rather than shoto) and proccing his flame smashes by accident. Compare this to Maypul, who gets a whole 5th special move to interact with the wrapped state. *Of course veteran players will know how to exploit these mechanics, like Ragna players optimizing OD combos for healing over damage or Zetters setting carpets/going for Bair Upstrong Confirms

[@muaaadib]

Great vid june

[@imnitrotv]

You say you don’t play Kragg cause you need to feel something but you play RANNO!?!?!? Jokes aside amazing video! Hyped to see more rivals content!

[@NadiaDelcatty-pg6fs]

Can’t wait for Pomme(the real Peach of Rivals) and Olympia(‘Falcon’) to be added

[@AllBladesCut]

Somehow forgets that wrastor bair is just falco bair

[@arJunebugSmash]

Oh..

[@mattsheehan3604]

The animation is the same but it's more of a combo tool, not much knock back like falcos

[@SadToffee]

he also has falcon nair. his combo game in general feels informed by falcon and S64 DK

[@opplerdop]

WOW i love junebug videos

[@James-ek3mb]

Yeah I agree, Loxodont is an amazing character. The people just aren't ready to hear that he's at the top of the fun tier list

[@trueblueryu5713]

Rivals 2 has so far managed to entertain the central and east Pennsylvania Smash Melee and Ultimate players, and most of our locals are trying to get Rivals brackets going to give people a fair chance with it. I feel like once this game eventually gets a console release, it could get a wild player base

[@thegam3rcube686]

0:19 Now you’re reminding me of the PPGs in Multiversus bruh! Also make the same video but with the Multiversus roster please!

[@Hope4NewDay1]

I'm mad PM squirtle found a way into Rivals but I'm happy people get to experience just a little bit of his bullshit. Thanks for making these chars easier to understand for PM peeps now we wait for the Samus/Link and Mario-Shoto style characters.

[@GetOffMyLog]

I'm so glad when you mentioned falcon laser, a clip from sk92 was played. Most unapologetically lame Falco every, quite educational tbh

[@Marisu_Prada]

If you think Zetterburn is uninspired, that may be because he was the first character ever created for Rivals of Aether, as in, Rivals of Aether 1 on 2017 So his kit seems a bit dated compared to everyone else, yet it's so good, it has endured even to this day.

[@Shioshiodome]

2015, but close enough

[@scor-chii1671]

1:22 Loxodont's Down Special is basically wario waft but you have to manually charge it yourself

[@user-gp6lq5mg9z]

to me wrastor feels like a combo of marth + meta knight, with a hint of falcon on the ground

[@ShiRuBa3368]

I've always compared Maypul to ult Young Link. Good stubby normals with also good small disjoints. Has Lily and seed to play lame if they want link how Yink has arrows and bombs. They're gameplay relies on hitting and running with their fast and quick moves. To kill they usually have to get some kind of confirm. Yink with arrow into fair or fair or d-tilt into up air. Maypul with her tether. I genuinely think Maypul inspired ultimate young link

[@pappleparker]

people domt know that ranno has moves inspired by umvc3 spider man. even his standing animation and wave dash lol

[@unseenasymptote4976]

Kragg’s been creating platforms since like 2016, proving it actually CAN be balanced lol

[@GiGiTheCatjoy]

Zetter's fire is similar to SSBU Inkling's ink (though Rivals did it first). If your opponent is on fire, they take more knockback from strong attacks (and f-throw).

[@kyallon1213]

He didn’t call bubble Steve block, LETS FUCKING GOO

[@outsideboxer1448]

Banger vid

[@Hikaru1468]

LOL the chaler comment at the end is so funny

[@whatisthisforeven]

Clairen has Shulk Up-B!

[@arJunebugSmash]

truuu

[@Lykrast]

yaaay rivals 2 video!! I wanna play it more but I'm waiting for doctors exam cause of tendon light injury :(

[@Viridiumm]

for orcanes forward air, it's similar to mii gunners forward air from ultimate with how it zooms but that's what i can think of

[@wittywarbler1117]

lol, june doesnt know the lore from when dan fornace was featured on Beyond the Metagame, where he said that one of the biggest inspirations for maypul was the smash 4 reveal trailer for little mac.

[@Not_Astrocat]

9:03 So called free thinkers when: "Activate windows" watermark is spotted

[@currygoatny]

Wake up babe, new Junebug content.

[@ezramoore9472]

Forsburn up tilt and dair feel like ultimate joker

[@evanmalin1685]

Maypul down tilt and bairlooks like yoshi/mewtwo’s

[@ShadowMikku]

I don't see him coming back soon even though he was in the base full release cast, but i want my big bear~

[@softie]

I've been playing only fors because his movement felt almost 1 to 1 to diddy and he was the easiest to pick up, even if overarching gameplans are completely difference he just feels so natural in my hands game is great though

[@MarcusFigueras]

idk if this is actually right, but Clairen's path in her recovery seems to resemble more of Roy's Recovery rather than Marth's instant swipe upwards

[@x9x9x9x9x9]

Imma be real the "inspiration" is very minor in most charactersm the closest is zetter to Fox but even then they're fairly unique. I absolutely love this game. As a diehard melee player I didn't think rivals 2 would be this good. I thought I'd kinda like it but primarily still play melee. Nah melee is in the backseat now. But eventually I'll probably come back around and prefer melee.

[@arJunebugSmash]

you didn't watch the wolf section

[@x9x9x9x9x9]

​@@arJunebugSmashyou're right I commented after like 4 minutes because I'm watching at work during smoke/bathroom breaks but wanna comment for the interaction for the algorithm lol

[@arJunebugSmash]

@@x9x9x9x9x9 lololol appreciate you bro

[@x9x9x9x9x9]

@@arJunebugSmash of course man, it's the least I can do.

[@minizimi3790]

It’s all fun and games until the Rastoe chases the clone off stage and SD’s.

[@FlamingForce]

Forsburn clones might give off an ICs vibe but playing that character definitely doesn't hit the same as playing ICs sadly. I really hope we get a proper Aether puppet character somewhere down the line.

[@PurpleFreezerPage]

I still like rivals 1 more, though I'm embracing the move to 2. I like that 1 has more singleplayer content, I like the music in 1 more, and I had a ton of fun with the color editor. Plus the monetization stuff of two kinda bugs me, and it's affecting the aesthetic of the game poorly (why is Zetterburn respawning on a bouncy castle).

[@Landjrin]

Bro activate windows

[@arJunebugSmash]

blame chaler

[@Visuaaals]

fleet reminds me of yukari in p4au more than peach if im honest

[@bb97979]

But who's the leader of the bunch?

[@LmanRegular]

Please more Rivals videos

[@Valnoir_]

You forgot that Orcane Ftilt is pm Zard Ftilt. Orcane is basically pm Squirtle Ivy and Zard in 1 kinda

[@YosherYoshi]

Ranno command grab that eats the opponent and puts them in a round shaped trap and there's no comparison to Yoshi what the heck lol Good video though, didn't know how blatantly they copied Wolf.

[@arJunebugSmash]

this is a good point, it's yoshi plus diddy kong command grab lol

[@miguelsi7543]

Based PM Legend 🤩

[@zake64]

I would be playing rivals so often if not for a) being in med school and b) being on an island for it (ping has been atrocious)

[@trin3146]

if i had a nickel for every time junebug used the wrong pronoun on a cute platform fighter character i would have two nickels orcane and kirby are both canonically male june LMAO (also to be clear it’s not actually a big deal just a bit silly)

[@halbarroyzanty2931]

>wrastor getting nerfed but still being the best character I guess some things never change

[@cassmoney3160]

i just realized forsburn is literally morel from hxh and that makes me wanna see a hxh plat fighter

[@watchmanonthewall2816]

What app do you use to edit your videos?

[@NvrLucky43]

Kragg is too good to main, btw I'm a Ranno main -Junebug

[@slenderMax28]

Some of these are a stretch, like Fleet's upspecial is really nothing like Pikachu's other than having two parts to it. This comparison is extra funny to me because an upcoming character (Absa) has an upsecial that's almost exactly like Pikachu's.

[@heyitsmort7744]

Love Rivals 2 but UFO 50 has to be GOTY for me

[@ziwuri]

you would be nuts with kragg

[@giabbymarx7428]

Nice

[@666blaziken]

I would say ranno's fair is more like diddy's fair from project m 3.02

[@exoticjamm]

Forsburn down b is like cloud's down b

[@RandomDude647]

Lox down b and forsburn combust are like wario waft

[@zery5039]

love the cat memes

[@nico2441]

We need a mewtwo-like in rivals 2