in Alpharad's ORAS egglocke, Dan Fornace submitted a Sandshrew egg with a note saying something along the lines of "It just occurred to me that armadillos are my favorite animal, and we've yet to add one to Rivals" so I think that's a pretty big indicator for possible newcomers
speaking of slade, Im pretty damn convinced that the person speaking in Orcane's reveal trailer was him. If he already has a voice actor thats a huge plus for him
If they do have a guest character in the game which is already a Workshop character in the first game it will be interesting to see if the character is at all similar to that Workshop character
They could do a Creatures of Aether character similar to smash bros Pokémon trainer, that would be interesting and pretty unique compared to other Rivals characters
I know that a higher-profile indie game like Hollow Knight will draw more players, but a character from Freedom Planet or Sybil from Pseudoregalia would be perfect in Rivals. It would be cool to get one of the workshop characters in 2025, but it's hard to imagine them not prioritizing Absa and Etalus for the two returning fighters of year one. Hopefully the game gets enough support to port over all the Rivals 1 characters!
@@bluebubbee It's a short but highly-praised 3D Metroidvania. The way the player character interacts with her weapon and the environment just scream Rivals to me
@hypermoth Ironically enough I think of the four girls Neera is practically tailor made for Rivals seeing as she already has a Focus gimmick and ice spike traps stage control in her home game. Maybe she would have to differ from the Rivals 1 mod of her though because that shares Etalus' ice floor gimmick.
About Etalis have code for ice and a frozen state in move coding in rivals 2 demo. So ya, Etalis is basically confirmed for the next character. Edit: Also there is a listed 32 character slots in the code. I doubt thats the roster true size and is most likely remanence from a test for slots.
I loved La Reina and I’m hype she won, but Awatsu should’ve gotten in anyway. I absolutely loved the bubble mechanic and and the design was amazing (with how Orcane transferred to 2D, idk how it Awatsu would)
Outside of Absa or Etalus, I think an earth newcomer is likely, as I don't see Sylvanos coming back soon. So I do think that either Guadua, Hamir or Murr will be soon.
Mina would be basically perfect, she's from a company they already have a good relationship with, fits into rivals style seamlessly and unlike any other guest characters, could be classified under an element, since her burrowing would place her solidly as an earth character.
My crossover pick couldn’t be anyone but one of the slugcats from rainworld, and I think theyd have like an item play gimmick where they can pick up stuff that appears on stage to use for creative combos and pressure.
I think a more forward-looking Toby Fox character than Sans Undertale would be one of the Deltarune protagonists. Susie and Ralsei definitely fit the aesthetic, and I don't think Kris would stick out that much more than Shovel Knight did. I don't think any of them has a singularly unique moveset identity to pull from in their base game, but I think they could have a lot of personality as a PT-style 3-for-1 character, with specials that interact with each other like they do in Deltarune. Now I don't think that's likely in any way based on the Rivals team's current workload, but in general I'd just love to see the Rivals team's spin on a 2-for-1 or 3-for-1 character, be it a crossover character or an original design (like identical twins with different elemental alignments or smth). There's so much more you could do with the concept than just "switch your character with Down Special!", especially with the new special options for pummels, ledges and get-up attacks.
I think Susie is probably my most wanted guest character but I'm honestly not sure if Toby Fox would be willing to put her in any crossovers. He's made it a point to not release any specific types of merch of the lightner characters from deltarune and I could see that extending to crossovers.
Kinguin is technically not even a Creatures rep; he is a Rivals 1 rep. Back when the game only had 6 characters, people dug into the files and found WIP sprites for a penguin and a polar bear. The Rivals devs noticed this, and decided to do a little trolling. In the next patch, they updated the penguin's sprites but kept the polar bear's sprites the same, so it seemed like the penguin was going to be the next character and the polar bear got scrapped. And the rest is history.
I have to say I was quite confused by a lot of what you were talking about. I was a casual player of Rivals 1 for a while, so I know about the base roster, Etalus, and Clairen. Everything else, I either had a vague idea from seeing a few times or just had no idea what you were talking about. In the future I think it will be good to explain the characters for those who are uninitiated.
I hope all of them eventually join the roster! I'm excited for the workshop 5, yes 5 because guadua should be regarded as one of them! and of course the remaining roster rivals from the first game, especially eliana. reina also looks very awesome and I hope slate makes it into rivals 2. insane how I like every single character in this verse. idk if I can say that for any other game
Mina and Hornet would be *P E R F E C T*. They fit the style and concept already, and they'd both be great at co-promoting with two different long-awaited followups to top-tier indie games. I want it so bad, the only problem is that we already have TWO mouse girls on the way so 3 might be a crowd... but still! Also, while an Undertale character would be amazing, Deltarune for more co-promotion would be more likely; Undyne would be perfect, but maybe Susie, Ralsei or Noelle would work... Just hard to imagine Susie not being yet another fire-based axe-wielder lol
I hope Ori gets added in. I know the devs said they don't have plans for it, but I think that was just because any plans for that sorta thing would come later. Ori fits the Rivals 2 art style MUCH more than Rivals 1 too, and I think Microsoft *has* done a crossover with Ori since WotW released? So it might not be impossible even with the series being unlikely to continue?
Monarch is one of the most fun characters I've ever played, but he wasn't submitted for any of the workshop contests. Nonetheless, I really hope he's added to Rivals 2. Zerra is the same case (just not quite as cool or fun), but I'd be happy to see either of them.
I think Krill from Another Crab's Treasure has a really good shot at being a guest character since he fits the animal thematic and Aggro Crab Studios has worked with Aether Studios before on the last Rivals Direct
If they make 4 characters a year and they’ve confirmed there will be at least 20 total characters then I think this game will get 3-4 years of support meaning a final roster size of anywhere from 20-24 characters. I think they will probably go above 20 but not above 24
The Beheaded from Dead Cells would be amazing, his huge arsenal of weapons and traps would make him a character with a variety of mixups and potential. Give him the insect claws for his side charge attacks, down special could be the bear trap or blade trap. Down air would be his rune add on, up special his vine, neutral special his flint hammer. Hell give him mushroom boi as a deployable. He’s an icon for roguelikes and would be a great addition to Rivals.
altough he is not very popular, i think owlboy would be a perfect guest character. Will be tough tho because we also already have wrastor as a bird character
Tbh there is a lot good opinions i also agreed with ponme (i think u forgot how to pronounce her) another character i will add hit me or not imagine getting orcane's brothers yk the tear of anger and sorrow fro. The orcane rivals 2 trailer reveal
im surprised they havent thought of adding void characters tho of course makeing them cool and stuff but sorta having a copy character formm all the diff fighters, one idea i had was a hippo/void character who was hodans master and embraced the void cuz it was a natural upgrade from elementalism
i actually want htperlight drifter, he was a guest character in brawlout but that game died, i loved how he played and i wish i could enjoy him in a better game lol
@@kylenayolfa4562 I think items would be super fun! So many platfighters make content around exclusively competitive play and just leave casual play to be forgotten. Sometimes I just wanna turn on items and have some chaotic fun lol
What i'm beyond confused by is how is the grappler bug going to the 15th-20th character, when they've already stated they're going to make 4 characters a YEAR. That means I have to wait 3 more years?
I think it’s 15th character total, not 15th DLC. The game launched with 10 characters, will get 4 more in 2024 (14 total), then La Reina will come in 2025 (15+)
I don’t really agree with Artemis being too much like Lox Just based on her in game appearance and stats, her character would be far more focused on self damaging empowered attacks. Could even take the revenge gimmick from Incineroar and incentivize fishing for counters that empower her
thats what I was thinking, outside of both having long weapons, I really dont think there would be much overlap with loxodont, especially considering her entire playstyle of aggressively trading health/stamina for damage or buffs in dungeons. She also definitely isn't nearly as large as loxodont
All previous characters besides crossover are coming back. Also the release plan is 2 returning characters per year, 1 new one (lox), and 1 new in universe one (fleet)
Where'd you heard that? Also Lox is also a character that existed prior (he really deserved to be playable in R1 with how much set up he got in the story; it's why he's here now!)
@@ruzma3927 maybe lox was a bad example, i thought he was mentioned as an example but clearly not. This was all said by dan in one of the kickstarter streams, but ill find what he specifically said
Okay I didn't find the clip but hundreds of people in the discord are saying the same thing. Loxodont is not a good example, but the plan is 2 returning, 1 new from the aether universe, and 1 brand new.
Mollo probably wont be the first because the devs said in the recent q&a that they're trying to balance out the elements and are already getting dunked on for releasing with 4 fire
This is such an overly broad request, but maaaan, I want a bird character who is a girl and has a more defined species inspiration than just... "generic bird". Too many bird characters in games these days are only a couple traits removed from just being Falco (in terms of visual design and personality). Not to mention, there are so many cool species to draw from, like an Ostritch, a Parrot, hell, you could make an Osprey or Pelican for the water element. Or a Burrowing Owl for a more ground-focused character.
You have no idea how happy that would make me. I only left out RoR bc of the human options like Commando, Huntress, Merc etc but if they put in Acrid or like even REX I might die from joy
@@bluebubbee idk how well rex would fit because of not being an animal, but mechanically i can see it being pretty interesting with its constant cycle of recoil dmg and lifesteal acrid is practically built for rivals though, giant heavy animal with evil poison powers, the mf even has rivals-esque area denial mechanics in ror1/returns with caustic sludge/dissolving ambush
