As someone who plays an absolutely inordinate amount of platform fighters, and especially coming off the messy Nick All-Star game, this definitely has its head on its shoulders way moreso than the other. I'm glad platform fighters are taking cues from Rivals of Aether and Brawlhalla that to be a platform fighter in the space that actually gives a damn means actually having something that makes you unique instead of just riffing off of Melee (cough Icons and Slap City cough), even if I don't like Brawlhalla at all.
The success of this game already out the gate definitely says a lot about being free to play and having a crap-ton of IPs (along with actual production values like voice acting for those IPs), but there's also some kind of glue adhering the game that is unique to MultiVersus, that being the 2v2 component that every character is centered around. Brawlhalla focused around items and recovery, Rivals of Aether focused on movement system centered around gimmicks, and MultiVersus characters fundamentally change when they're paired together, or should I say, are completely lesser by playing 1v1. While I do not enjoy this game (which I'll get to in a moment), I do think playing 1v1 this time around isn't meeting MultiVersus on its best terms.
It's a STRONG component. Characters like Steven focus entirely around supporting the other player, with shields and buffs, and the perks system works in tandem with the other player. Twin Taz, which was a menace up until the nerf on release day, wasn't nearly as good in 1v1 because of the buffs the tornado gets when you pass your own ally, which ups the duration of it. Synergy is a must, which is a given if you've played any other Smash 2v2, but here pre-game synergy is important. While not a fully strategic element that won't mean you'll instantly win the game, not caring too much about perks or how your characters work together will pitfall you at top level play (unless you're Bugs and you work with literally everyone, see the recent Justice League tourney). There's also a few other things unique to this, like how much status effects are prevalent, albeit its combination with perks makes projectiles way better than they have any right to be.
The onboarding here is certainly better than Nick and other platform fighters on average. Still woefully not as far as it could go, living in the shadow of RoA's tutorial by doing the bare minimum in teaching DI (Directional Influence) as well as a few other more than beginner mechanics, but also confusing the waters with terms that already existed in the space which makes onboarding a tad more difficult than it needs to be (Knockback Influence?). The free rotation is welcome, at least.
I think this game is going to go farther than FOMO based on the above. I think the fact that they have the money and manpower to constantly push out new characters is insane, and god having LeBron is insane.
However, I think this game is just straight up not for me, and I had trouble articulating it for a bit but I think I'm up to it now. It's mostly "death by a thousand cuts", but if there's one issue I can pin the hardest...
The game feel is garbage.
One of the issues I had with Brawlhalla is its floatiness and just blatant lack of weight. You were basically flying across the screen, so a lot of the appeal was hoping to find the playstyle that worked for you, and focusing entirely on that. This game isn't nearly as floaty as Brawlhalla is, but it has the exact same issue. The air movement really feels like hitboxes are free game with how you fly around. Ground movement is sticky which is fine, but air time just feels like a whole different ball game. It's not a game that you can just immediately pick up a character and enjoy the movement. That in itself is a big pushaway for me. I think the game is aware of its floatiness, even pushing it with how enemies spaghetti from high knockback attacks which admittedly makes it funnier when there's 0 teching in this game. That being said, what is with the hurtboxes. The hurtboxes when putting out aerial moves in particular right now are an absolute joke. People point to Bugs' hurtbox specifically when he's doing up-air, but like look at Jake! Look at Finn! I hope mods showcase the hurtboxes when doing aerials soon so more people can see what I'm talking about.
The freemium components also just SUCK, but they're not remotely egregious as much as just being very very annoying. I didn't like unlocking characters in Smash, but I excused it mostly in Ultimate because the roster was HUGE, and I think MultiVersus with all the leaks is fighting for a roster that big. However, as it stands with roster size now, it reminds me of Brawlout with how you grind for character unlocks. You could just pay for them admittedly, and $40 for basically all of them isn't remotely a bad deal, but right now Rivals of Aether has a roster nearly this big for less money.
It also, like other freemium games, pushes for you to play every day as opposed to playing a ton of hours per day. With how the pass and level ups work, playing 5 hours in one day won't get you nearly the same amount of benefits as playing 1 hour every day for 5 days. That's absurdly normal for a freemium game to have, but it's annoying for me personally to have it strapped to a platform fighter. It would also help if you could get gold from shooting the shit with friends, but alas, you only get it from matchmaking.
The microtransactions in the room of $775 for everything in terms of skins isn't also that far out there, but it also seeps into the game in terms of the main menu in an annoying way.
I do want to give a massive disclaimer. The game is only just out if you haven't been playing early access. Tournament play is still new for the game and even though there were tournaments running with early access, it wasn't a TON.
That being said, the game is not DNF Duel in terms of balance, but it certainly feels kusoge after 40 hours. They thankfully nerfed the massive elephant of double Taz which outright advocated bans for twins in tournies, but Bugs, Tom, and Finn are just absolutely insane right now. There are also a few characters that remind me of Melee that are just flat out BAD and are not seeing any top level play at the moment (ex: Wonder Woman). WB's seeming focus on pumping out characters en masse as opposed to balancing them gives me worry that this will be the next Slap City in terms of balance. I do not like heavily unbalanced games, gomen.
I'm happy for the people who are just in love with the IPs on display, and the leaks so far show they are going to have an insane amount of fun with what's being put next. Seeing the lean-in meme of Ultra Shaggy beat the shit out of Finn the adventurer is extremely funny, and I think past the amount of corporate IP bloat that reminds me of Space Jam, this actually does have SOUL under the surface in terms of good time spent on animations and the voice lines aren't remotely cringey, but the game feel and other aspects of the game just will take a lot of convincing for me to ever be on board for a long time.
In other words, I'll see you all in Rivals.
The success of this game already out the gate definitely says a lot about being free to play and having a crap-ton of IPs (along with actual production values like voice acting for those IPs), but there's also some kind of glue adhering the game that is unique to MultiVersus, that being the 2v2 component that every character is centered around. Brawlhalla focused around items and recovery, Rivals of Aether focused on movement system centered around gimmicks, and MultiVersus characters fundamentally change when they're paired together, or should I say, are completely lesser by playing 1v1. While I do not enjoy this game (which I'll get to in a moment), I do think playing 1v1 this time around isn't meeting MultiVersus on its best terms.
It's a STRONG component. Characters like Steven focus entirely around supporting the other player, with shields and buffs, and the perks system works in tandem with the other player. Twin Taz, which was a menace up until the nerf on release day, wasn't nearly as good in 1v1 because of the buffs the tornado gets when you pass your own ally, which ups the duration of it. Synergy is a must, which is a given if you've played any other Smash 2v2, but here pre-game synergy is important. While not a fully strategic element that won't mean you'll instantly win the game, not caring too much about perks or how your characters work together will pitfall you at top level play (unless you're Bugs and you work with literally everyone, see the recent Justice League tourney). There's also a few other things unique to this, like how much status effects are prevalent, albeit its combination with perks makes projectiles way better than they have any right to be.
The onboarding here is certainly better than Nick and other platform fighters on average. Still woefully not as far as it could go, living in the shadow of RoA's tutorial by doing the bare minimum in teaching DI (Directional Influence) as well as a few other more than beginner mechanics, but also confusing the waters with terms that already existed in the space which makes onboarding a tad more difficult than it needs to be (Knockback Influence?). The free rotation is welcome, at least.
I think this game is going to go farther than FOMO based on the above. I think the fact that they have the money and manpower to constantly push out new characters is insane, and god having LeBron is insane.
However, I think this game is just straight up not for me, and I had trouble articulating it for a bit but I think I'm up to it now. It's mostly "death by a thousand cuts", but if there's one issue I can pin the hardest...
The game feel is garbage.
One of the issues I had with Brawlhalla is its floatiness and just blatant lack of weight. You were basically flying across the screen, so a lot of the appeal was hoping to find the playstyle that worked for you, and focusing entirely on that. This game isn't nearly as floaty as Brawlhalla is, but it has the exact same issue. The air movement really feels like hitboxes are free game with how you fly around. Ground movement is sticky which is fine, but air time just feels like a whole different ball game. It's not a game that you can just immediately pick up a character and enjoy the movement. That in itself is a big pushaway for me. I think the game is aware of its floatiness, even pushing it with how enemies spaghetti from high knockback attacks which admittedly makes it funnier when there's 0 teching in this game. That being said, what is with the hurtboxes. The hurtboxes when putting out aerial moves in particular right now are an absolute joke. People point to Bugs' hurtbox specifically when he's doing up-air, but like look at Jake! Look at Finn! I hope mods showcase the hurtboxes when doing aerials soon so more people can see what I'm talking about.
The freemium components also just SUCK, but they're not remotely egregious as much as just being very very annoying. I didn't like unlocking characters in Smash, but I excused it mostly in Ultimate because the roster was HUGE, and I think MultiVersus with all the leaks is fighting for a roster that big. However, as it stands with roster size now, it reminds me of Brawlout with how you grind for character unlocks. You could just pay for them admittedly, and $40 for basically all of them isn't remotely a bad deal, but right now Rivals of Aether has a roster nearly this big for less money.
It also, like other freemium games, pushes for you to play every day as opposed to playing a ton of hours per day. With how the pass and level ups work, playing 5 hours in one day won't get you nearly the same amount of benefits as playing 1 hour every day for 5 days. That's absurdly normal for a freemium game to have, but it's annoying for me personally to have it strapped to a platform fighter. It would also help if you could get gold from shooting the shit with friends, but alas, you only get it from matchmaking.
The microtransactions in the room of $775 for everything in terms of skins isn't also that far out there, but it also seeps into the game in terms of the main menu in an annoying way.
I do want to give a massive disclaimer. The game is only just out if you haven't been playing early access. Tournament play is still new for the game and even though there were tournaments running with early access, it wasn't a TON.
That being said, the game is not DNF Duel in terms of balance, but it certainly feels kusoge after 40 hours. They thankfully nerfed the massive elephant of double Taz which outright advocated bans for twins in tournies, but Bugs, Tom, and Finn are just absolutely insane right now. There are also a few characters that remind me of Melee that are just flat out BAD and are not seeing any top level play at the moment (ex: Wonder Woman). WB's seeming focus on pumping out characters en masse as opposed to balancing them gives me worry that this will be the next Slap City in terms of balance. I do not like heavily unbalanced games, gomen.
I'm happy for the people who are just in love with the IPs on display, and the leaks so far show they are going to have an insane amount of fun with what's being put next. Seeing the lean-in meme of Ultra Shaggy beat the shit out of Finn the adventurer is extremely funny, and I think past the amount of corporate IP bloat that reminds me of Space Jam, this actually does have SOUL under the surface in terms of good time spent on animations and the voice lines aren't remotely cringey, but the game feel and other aspects of the game just will take a lot of convincing for me to ever be on board for a long time.
In other words, I'll see you all in Rivals.
BasilMuse
1 year ago
I should've clarified that this is from a primarily online POV. Local play does not have some of these problems, you actually have all perks and characters unlocked locally. This is a big boon for it along with the fact that online has rollback, which should be a requirement for all fighting games and the fact that this game is pretty stable is FANTASTIC. COVID has changed my priorities still, I haven't been to a local for a platform fighter in months (the last Smash local was 8 months ago, last Rivals local was a year, Slap City was like 2 years).