The Next* Rivals 2 Character

[@CZreviewz]

earth related characters try not to be goated with the sauce challenge (impossible)

[@OpinionatedGamer]

olympia, but otherwise you're very right =)

[@JPONDETRACK]

​@@OpinionatedGamernah Olyimpia plays like butter once you play her more. 100% another earth banger

[@eyeccantseeyouu]

​@@JPONDETRACK as someone who has been playing Olympia more recently Holy SHIT she's fun as hell man

[@eyeccantseeyouu]

Like I'm sorry Olympia, I wasn't familiar with your game.

[@Irish_Enderman]

I love Sylvanos but idk if he'll be in 2 or not, La Reina or Fleet are looking like my new mains rn

[@bensapop0]

Awesome video, Heads up: her elemental power is magnetism, so she just magnetically pushes and pulls metal but that's about it with her control over it

[@deadmeme2453]

The concept reminds me a lot of Iron Tager from BlazBlue lol

[@Timberdoodle720]

beowulf lol

[@HonaJonah]

as a participator in the contest, oh my god it changed my life and I'll never forget it the entire community joining in, putting their heart and soul into a character in mind only one of them would win, it was so stressful but also a general celebration as the community all get together. Still shocked the one character I hadn't even CONSIDERED would win, there were so many characters I was focused on and talked about because there could only be ONE winner Like i was so confident cirra would win because her creator is one of the most talented people who have been in the community, someone who had never finished a mod because she was too caught up in it not being good at the point one of the mods of the server said if she didn't finish this mod she would be banned because she is just THAT good but never finished a character... to find she didn't even APPEAR in the video was wild to me. My character was Lux, a character made in December when I was asking for something to draw when hyuponia (an amazingly talented workshop dev who made characters like N/A, Acid Rainbows, and Lumina) requested I draw a rivals OC; I roughly drew a cat with some sort of fizzy ball to find a few minutes later she had drawn the character in a way I had never thought of which got me to loving the character I didn't know I had created... for which I would spend the rest of the month making in rivals trying to finish for the contest. Lux is a little cat with a ball in who's ENTIRE lore is that absa lost one of her most important inventions that rolled down the mountains she was on to Julesvale where lux saw the ball... and just started to play with it (as all cats would). I loved the idea of a character who had an article and would interact with it like a platformer, bouncing off of it and gaining movement and using that movement to your advantage. I had never made an OC before, or atleast an character like this... Trying to get animations done and to make a GOOD character is something I struggled with... also knowing that if I was successful and my character won... I wouldn't get to do anything with lux anymore because it's now Dan's character... Hyuponia ended up being there for me the entire ride, helping me out and coding the main gimmick while also blessing the character with her insanely good gamefeel and SFX. After the deadline struck on Jan 14th at 3AM EST, I had started to recover from overworking myself. I had ideas with lux, like the idea of a game like celeste because that's my favorite game on top of being the main inspiration for lux's moveset. However, Lux's design overall was most obviously inspired by Oneshot, a game that's story still affected me to this day... I began making more characters the following months and now I have actually started dev on a small game where you play as a cat with a giant inflatable hammer who uses the hammer to launch herself around. I know nothing about coding but I am very proud of what I have so far. I'm happy I lost and I'm happy for La Reina, I found some characters a lot more fun but I think I was just too caught up in this idea I eventually found a thing I never knew I would be so passionate for, and none of this would've happened if it weren't for that contest. Thank you Hyuponia, Reiga, Krispy, Adam, and Thank you Aether studios for giving me an experience that i'll never get back.

[@atWisely]

I love this, thank you for writing it all out.

[@HonaJonah]

@@atWisely thank you so much !!!!! this topic was so personal and so I was happy when i saw somebody at the very least mention the contest

[@Irish_Enderman]

That sounds really cool, I need to check out some of the contest submissions because these are awesome

[@onepunchmudkip]

its so nice hearing how this was so nice of an experience for you :D the contest was so awesome

[@smackerooonii7001]

Knowing this community, if Rivals 2 launches with workshop support, and even if it doesn't, a whole bunch of these fantastic characters created for the contest and even more of the characters created around the initial release of the workshop will likely get a shiny 3D coat of paint. this whole community is dedicated to making fantastic, fun, and clever characters and I doubt a 3rd dimension will stop people from keeping that alive.

[@jonasjohnson5383]

La Reina has the single highest funny-factor out of any character in rivals 1 or 2 Which is the name I lovingly use to describe characters that are so wacky, so goofy, and have so much personality in their moveset that I just can't help but play them endlessly La Reina is going to be so, SO fun in rivals 2, I just know it

[@JPONDETRACK]

Funny factor is an under appreciated aspect of in fighting games

[@alpacalorde]

Haven't seen gameplay mechanics like this in a platfighter but Beowulf is like, right there, watching her toss her chair around, and is probably tearing up at being so proud of a fellow wrestler winning a major competition like this

[@alpacalorde]

Lmao he also makes the reference mb

[@LazarNaskov]

I popped off just from her being announced, the tournament play is gonna be real! She matches literally everything I want in a character, and I'll be anxiously awaiting her launch.

[@spaceace9103]

This character looks really fun to play as, hit grabs on arieals is something Id love to see more devs play with

[@frankunodostres473]

as an incineroar main in ultimate I'm excited for this character to say the least^^ also I really hope the workshop 4 eventually make it to rivals 2

[@reilly5005]

I’m friends with someone on the Rivals 2 team and he was campaigning for La Reina so fucking hard which fair that character is sick

[@evilded2]

I love the bug! All the Fighting game move references! Starting off simple with the normals Forward tilt - Zangief Standing medium punch. Down tilt - Zangief crouching Light kick. Dash attack - Possibly a reference to cerebella’s j2MP elbow drop. Forward Air - Possibly a reference to Hugo's Giant Palm Bomber (Claps) Neutral air - Potemkin J.D Up air - This could be a couple of things, It resembles Hugo’s Shootdown Backbreaker (DP+K), Iron tager’s Air Driver (j.360C) or Potemkin Buster in that order of likelihood. Special moves Up special is Zangief Spinning pile driver. Side Special possibly a reference to Alex's spiral DDT With the final pose being Identical to Diving Wulfdog from Beowulf. Neutral special (Chair off) is a reference to Hurting Hurl (Chair Toss) Beowulf’s signature move. Neutral special (Chair on) is a reference to Beowulf’s EX Take a Seat. (+ Iron Tager’s Atomic Collider) Down special (Chair off) is possibly a reference to Beowulf's Wulf Press Slam. Down special (Chair on) Is a reference to Bridget's rolling movement with the chair filling in for her yo-yo. Let me know if I missed anything. EDIT 5:05 HOW DID I MISS THAT! AHH.

[@DustdeviIs]

I actually have mixed feelings about all these references! like a box full of "Hey do you recognize x from y???" won a competition against potentially more original work

[@sbfantom]

Up strong is essentially Heat Knuckle

[@PurplePikminSupremacy]

Isn't uptilt a "you can't see me" motion? Though I guess you didn't include it because it isn't a fighting game reference, but a wrestling reference in general.

[@PurplePikminSupremacy]

Wait no that was a different character ignore what I said.

[@sbfantom]

@@PurplePikminSupremacy that’s the jab, iirc

[@LnnyOsoTo]

Some of her moves reminds me a bit of Brawl Minus Bowser... Which is one of my favorites platform characters of all time!

[@beanman9936]

She reminds me of beowulf

[@612minigun]

Bahdra was the character for me, but even I agree that the devs made the correct choice. La Reina is going to get so many people interested in Rivals 2 who wouldn't have played it otherwise. It would have been silly for Aether Studios to pick anyone else. She is so well done and going to be such a crowd pleaser.

[@furiousblueblade957]

The other top picks might get added since they were all so good (I'm coping I want Bhadra and Helios so bad)

[@hackerex4787]

Fitting given the whole wrestler motif La Reina has

[@the_dexman]

i think it's so awesome that fanmade characters like Hodan or Olympia now play important roles in the lore or even show up as central characters in other Aether Studios media. They're excellent at integrating any character into the world which really speaks to the diversity of Aether as a whole, that literally anyone could crop up anywhere and have an intriguing backstory with concrete ties to other characters and their own plotline. It really makes it feel like an open world of endless possibility. Maybe one could even consider that every fanmade character exists somewhere, just without being part of the games/comics/whatever comes next. Here's to hoping we continue to see more awesome community characters in the future!

[@leojones1964]

As someone who tried to design a workshop grappler character before the contest and before the Workshop Four, so much work goes into these things not just from the mechanics, but also in the spriting. La Reina was one of my absolute faves in this contest, from concept, to mechanics, to design, and animation, everything knocks it out of the park. I hope they do is again, at least four more times. lol

[@cmattss4]

The fact that they are translating her into Rivals 2, which already has added grabs and throws is insane. With how strong throws are in the game already, every character feels like a grappler so i cant wait to see what they give her.

[@KrispyKorpse]

Wait till i give this character an abyss rune that makes them invisible when they do jab

[@dariusbrawl3759]

This kinda reads like Tezca (brawlhalla) 4/6 of his sigs are command grabs, alongside a belly flop & a side kick. While *most* bh characters don't cleanly fit into conventional archetypes - red raptor being the closest thing we have to a spacey, based on his general gameplay loop - but I can say Tezca is an honest to god Grappler

[@Mediocreshake-08]

Finally, the first chairbender

[@NoshuHyena]

I wonder if the John Cena thing is also a sneaky ATLA reference, with the whole metal bending thing and all.

[@silv447]

2:30 You should try Urdah in Rushdown Revolt, she is sooo fun and she's the first intentional grappler I saw on a platform fighter. Also there's Patrick I guess but I never got that much into NASB lol

[@mewd138]

I was here to recommend her too

[@squidinkgaming4035]

I will say there is one complete grappler in platform fighters, which would be Plankton from NASB 2, although the game wasn’t that relevant I think the character designs were still sick

[@iliya1933]

La Reina was my favorite of the contest characters BY FAR. I also really liked Wren and Cirra, but man, La Reina's flavor is just unparalleled.

[@Eon_TAS]

man learning that was pulling down together move was uair this entire time blew my mind for some reason. the other aerials at least felt normal enough that i could reason which one they were, but that being a uair is crazy

[@theoneoutkast]

Broooooo I am beyond hyped to see what aether studios does with her movesets and what the stage is gonna look like as well as potential skins for la reina

[@MothFable]

1:49 OH MY GOD IS THAT BOTH GRAB/ CARGO AND CHAIR MECHANICS? BEOWULF MY BELOVED!!!

[@arbo6850]

I cannot wait to see this in Rivals 2's engine!

[@davidpopolizio3781]

I cannot *wait*

[@quantum6637]

Btw Incineroar in Ultimate is about as base grappler as there is in a platform fighter. Like half of his moves are Zangief moves lol

[@illford]

It would be cool if they did a gamemode workshop contest and the winner got added as an extra gamemode

[@calebrobinson6406]

You gotta hand Fornace some credit for starting his own game with blackjack and hookers. For real though, we need to make this the next smash

[@LunarDarkness983]

The second i saw that chair i was like "BEOWULF?".

[@cristianm2093]

Thank you…. Literally same. I know they’re different… but when he said 2:06 - 2:19… but my Beowulf?

[@TheZexal]

When you say there are no other grapplers like this in a platform fighter, where they are built from the ground up to aim for, combo with, and kill with grabs, I would argue that Urdah from Rushdown Revolt can fit that criteria pretty well. Her moveset also feels like 90% grabs and she aims for grabs to start combos, and then finishes combos with grabs as well. Built from the ground up to be an honest to God grappler. Obviously that game isn't as big or as polished as the Rivals series, but I think their design concepts around their characters are generally all really interesting and creative.

[@whoknows3848]

Really reminiscent of Urdah from Rushdown Revolt, excited to give them a shot

[@Aburaishi]

You're telling me La Reina is not only a dedicated platform fighter grappler, but also one who canonically supports workers' rights??? Holy shit this character rocks

[@mguymario]

My theory is that simular to Rivals 1 there could be a workshop pack that has some other characters alongside the contest winner but that is if they pull other characters from the Rivals 1 workshop or if Rivals 2 has workshop support post launch

[@x64hitcombo]

Shes such a flavor win, and I'm glad she was the pick. It would be hard to justify a character with so many silly references unless it was a fan created character

[@dekuskrub2154]

why the fuck is this character made specifically for me

[@juanokug4]

Holy shit they added Beowulf to rivals 2

[@TheDog-kk4sn]

"You cant see me" jab is amazing

[@TrueReverse74]

I'm still coping for the honorable mentions, I REALLY want Bhadra and Helios... 😢

[@so0meone]

So she's a grappler with (sort of) Bridget's yoyo setups using Beowulf's chair, I'm so down for this

[@clefty2671]

She’s like if Lebron from multiverses and Incineroar had a baby. Awesome character design.

[@killagram2261]

Beowulf? Nah. LE REINA

[@LoftOfTheUniverse]

I believe you can't wait until rivals 2 rival's engine in rival's 2 's rivals 2 engine.

[@atWisely]

I tried so hard 🥲

[@LoftOfTheUniverse]

@@atWisely ♥️

[@NohaTheEpic]

King mains rejoice, we can finally play a plat fighter

[@YugiBlder1233]

Never had a grappler except for Patrick from Nasb1 and 2.

[@BasementMinions]

What an incredibly fun character! So excited to see her translated :)

[@jackpino-wn8bu]

I have about 50 hours on la reina since her announcement and ngl if they just lowered the damage of all her moves by 2 she would be a perfect rivals 1 character PS: (still should have been muno’s wes)

[@atWisely]

She definitely needs to be rebalanced a lil bit, but yeah, I'm shocked at how much fun she already is. Also FIFTY HOURS in SEVEN DAYS?

[@jackpino-wn8bu]

@@atWisely i finished school and spent a couple of dozen hours in training mode testing out the chair interactions with literally everything

[@paavoautio1974]

I wanna get back on rivals after many years. Thanks man

[@ayyyizme]

Urdah in Rushdown Revolt is a quality grappler.

[@Ilikebugs2464]

bug guy :o

[@Ariesgodtron]

Cool character. I really hope pomme makes into rivals 2

[@De_an]

La Reina is clearly supposed to be an air character, representing the subelement "magnetism" (which is a pretty smart element to give to a grappler now that I'm thinking about it). Rivals has a set of rules for each element, and La Reina follows the rules of the air characters. She has the purple color scheme, the unique air movement (both with her air grabs and chair shenanigans), the aerial playstyle, etc. No earth character would spend THAT much time in the air.

[@RiDEL_Castro]

Uhh I think she is supposed to be earth with the steel chair and everything Edit: reading her lore yea she is explicitly an earth elemental not air

[@idk_what_im_doing04]

she's just built different

[@De_an]

​@@RiDEL_Castro I have also read her lore, and they make it clear that her element is very specifically magnetism, not metal itself. She has no control over metal in any way, only its magnetic properties. I know that they talk about the iron mines in her lore, but that's not really a hard confirm she is an earth character. Unless the creators themselves directly say, "Yeah, she's an earth character," then I'm going to believe she's an air character. Plus, she has way more in common with the air characters than the earth characters. Can La Reina's stage control be destroyed by the opponent like the rest of the earth characters? I mean, the chair can be knocked around by the opponent, but that's not really the same as being outright destroyed, which is what happens when you do something like parry Lily or hit those red flowers Sylvanos spawns that grow grass. Does La Reina have a grounded playstyle like the rest of the earth characters? She's a grappler, an archetype that wants to grab their opponents. In order to access most of her grabs, she needs to be in the air as opposed to the ground. Most of her grounded moves are used to set up into those aerial grabs. If someone were to play La Reina and only use her ground attacks the entire match, she just would not be a grappler. I think it's safe to say La Reina wants to be in the air more than on the ground. Does La Reina have a recovery that can be exploited like the rest of the earth characters? Considering all of the stuff she can do with her chair and the fact that edgeguarding La Reina is pretty much a death sentence, that is a hard "no." Does La Reina's color scheme look like an earth character's color scheme? Well personally, when I think of "earth," the colors pink and blue don't really come to mind. I moreso think of the colors green and brown, and those just so happen to be colors that all of the other earth characters primarily use in their color scheme. The air characters, on the other hand, have a heavy focus on pink/purple. Is La Reina effective at making it so her opponents are just not allowed to land back onstage like the rest of the earth characters? Okay, you got me there, but that is the only thing I can think of that she has in common with all of the earth characters. The point is, if you were to repeat this process but with traits that all of the air characters have in common, you would find that La Reina would get way more definitive "yes"s with them compared to the earth characters. I know this list of traits seems arbitrary, but this all started a couple months ago when I read a patch note where the devs said that Pomme's strongs were "a bit too powerful for an air character." Naturally, the "for an air character" part confused me. After finding out that the Wikipedia page of the game says that the characters' elements affect their playstyle (not just stage control), I figured that the Rivals team has a specific set of rules that each element has to follow, and so these are all of the rules I found for the earth characters.

[@coomcharger6105]

La Reina master of magnet

[@MedK001]

@@De_an there's also "all air characters have gimmicky midair jumps" which Reina absolutely doesn't fall into

[@CesarGpe]

holy moly is that twitch from toy story 3

[@matheusgomespinto4915]

Finally someone used Beowolf move-se for inspiration!👏👏👏

[@jimmyOHMAN1]

BALD SANTA STRIKES AGAIN

[@atWisely]

LOL

[@frigomaniac]

crazy to think that before la reina's announcement our most notorious 'grapplers' were ranno with tongue and clairen with a marth up throw on neutral special. rip bhadra, the world isnt ready for a plat fighter with mist cancels. also helios also the bromance between la reina and kragg will be incredible

[@3yood]

clairens' grab was completely replaced in rivals 2, so im curious as to how they would tweak this character.

[@TarikJasim]

Randy Orton looks so cool

[@tuesdaycreamsicle5200]

SEVENTYPERCENT

[@Lazypackmule]

I fear what this character's grab special is going to be

[@onepunchmudkip]

i did not expect la reina to win at all lmao, i was iffy to begin with because i was very out of it with the idea of hitgrabs for every move, but obv i was just being a downer then lmao since they're all so well thought out anyway i love la reina, shes so well made in even more ways the more i figure out about her, i love how happy it made people to see her win, and despite it's certainty, I'm really happy seeing eventually something from our silly community being made in rivals 2, it all warms my heart :)

[@faceurhell]

“If you’ve ever watched King…” which one lolol?!!

[@jacquesnouvel6436]

This is the greatest character ever designed

[@ectogrey]

this is kragg mixed with incineroar and I'm here for it

[@calebrobinson6406]

This character does look really fun. Cant wait to try her out

[@justthat4333]

This looks so cool

[@noobertnooberton84]

i just now know that the winner was revealed and i must say.... the fact that their a ant.... and i have a oc whos a buff ant..... ye i think i know whos my main will be when they come out

[@thtguyericcc1811]

This character looks sick

[@victorminor1283]

Theres never been a grappler in a platform fighter: Incineroar who? You also put incin up for the line up of grapplers!

[@atWisely]

I think he's a grappler, but he's not *purely* a grappler. He's got 1 huge grab to watch out for instead of his entire kit being different grabs. There's a few characters I'd put into that category!

[@Avabees]

I love beowul- i mean La reina!

[@somefishhere]

I can not WAIT to watch a wisely upload :) so I’m watching it right now :)

[@itsrottweiler9545]

This is a good video wisely!

[@lamMeTV]

Literrally with the chair from the top rope in ths video

[@jebuschris7134]

I’m surprised I haven’t heard anything abt Brawlhalla mentioned. They might’ve had the only platform fighter grapplers and la reina looks like they took the concept and made a 10x better move set for it.

[@atWisely]

Some people in the comments have brought it up! I'm just not as familiar with Brawlhalla outside of the basics, so the different "grappler" weapons didn't cross my mind.

[@lilCork100]

[@velspy9851]

I really want mycolich back

[@jaxiedile]

I’m not gonna lie, as an Incineroar main in Smash Ultimate, I’m kinda sad you didn’t mention the WWE cat when talking about characters made as grapplers. Edit: You mentioned him later.. I feel a little better lol.

[@gustabomomosxd4395]

thats buffed uniqua

[@thepancakealchemist6949]

THEY PUT BEOWULF IN RIVALS OF AERHWR

[@lucifero_il_gatto]

she better play like kanji

[@SoulTrain101]

Thank for the breakdown! Just a note...just after 8:00 looks like you left in a bunch of repeated clips. "Rivals 2...Rivals 2..." etc. Keep it up tho!

[@atWisely]

Oh, those were all outtakes I left in because of how hard it is to say "Rivals 2's", it was intentional!

[@JoThNoMi]

hear...

[@TheJoyfulReaper]

please give me truck-kun!!!!!

[@4bi446]

is this the coney react wars guy? either way hes my goat

[@atWisely]

... what? I watch Coney and I have no idea what you're talking about LOL

[@evilded2]

10:24 honestly this running a couple others are required reading for anyone remotely close to the fgc.

[@zacharymann393]

incinorar super smash bro

[@NerdCat875]

They kinda remind me of incinaroar ngl

[@SivillyHoshi]

too bad arcuin didnt get in but yeaaah la reina is sick

[@Zilpyslide]

👾

[@DRKUMARADIO]

LETS GOOOOOOOOO

[@alanmaya8116]

YESSSSSSS FUCK YESSS

[@catoyoutube]

it beowulf all over again

[@coomcharger6105]

Anyway, one here is the DBZA version of My Way.

[@JoThNoMi]

@@coomcharger6105 and now, the end is near.

[@XycoticGamer]

incineroar not a grapper?

[@atWisely]

I think he's a grappler, but not *purely* a grappler. He's got 1 huge grab to watch out for instead of his entire kit being different grabs. There's a few characters I'd put into that category

[@Beanjello22]

GRIFFITHHHHHH.🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

[@anonwalkerr]

no bhadra :/

[@TheftJord]

are you going to get the glyph when it comes out?

[@atWisely]

I've tried it already, but maybe? I'm friends with one of their head engineers

[@DustdeviIs]

i really like this character concept but i personally am not a fan of all the references in her kit

[@DustdeviIs]

I'd definitely feel cheated if I designed a character from the ground up and lost to a box of references to other fighting games, as fun as they are

[@MedK001]

@@DustdeviIs honestly, picking and choosing what references to include is a skill in and of itself. If you're not careful, they can feel slapped on and not mesh together well La Reina's references are the good kind where you can actually not tell if you're not in the know, and the design works great!

[@kurplong188]

Which war?

[@baalfgames5318]

Honestly, they had four really badass characters in the contest that would have made awesome additions. ....instead, we get this boring, emotionless bug character.

[@Solidus-]

Incineroar