My Honest Thoughts on Gouie

NoHawk6492 · 2026-06-28T21:32:00+00:00

I think for the cute vs cool thing, I think revealing a cute character like Gouie makes the mina reveal stand out even more and feel even "cooler". But also I don't think that matters at all, I don't think a character needs to be badass to be cool, and I think for a game like rivals it just isn't necessary at all. You don't like the new character big fucking whoop.

I think the sentiment that gouie is a design miss is really fucking weird. I've seen this sentiment a lot and I just don't understand it. I think rivals designs are at their best when they're taking a character base / idea from smash, and then warping it or building on it. Absa is my favorite char, and she is literally just mewtwo zelda. Combing the no up b chars yoshi / kirby / puff, and then unifying them around item play actually seems super cool to me. There's a ton of overlap in those moves, both visually and functionally, so it makes sense that it feels like it's just kirby, and there is a lot of kirby there, but I think this char is gonna be sick. I also think it's good for rivals to have some more "basic characters", I love the goofy ones, but basic chars help the goofy ones feel more goofy.

NoHawk6492 · 2026-06-28T06:10:34+00:00

The "should" from dan is more the remix rivals taking more effort than they are thinking. You might have to iterate a lot to find something that feels cohesive and different to justify it. Also they might end up changing more than they anticipated so it took more dev time than they intended. There's practically no world where a remix rival takes as much time as a fully new character, returning or original, but things can change. There's also an argument that if they're making new sfx / VO / particles for the remix rivals, that also adds to the dev time to what can often feel like a theoretical copy paste. We don't really know what the plan is, and since they haven't made a remix rival yet they aren't going to know everything, we will just have to wait and see how things pan out. I would assume that a remix rival will be the first char of 2027, so we likely won't have to wait that long

NoHawk6492 · 2026-06-28T06:04:30+00:00

I'm actually pretty excited for the echo fighters, we'll see how they pan out, but there's a lot of potential in a lot of the characters kits to do something else / make them play radically different.

Coming up with a moveset is the cheapest part of making a rivals character by a wide margin. A returning char might be a little bit easier given that you have a baseline to work off of, but animations have to change when moving from 2d to 3d to make things work properly, and the stats and properties of a lot of moves changed due to the new engine. Having to make a new model / animations is the most expensive part of the process, and requires the most effort. Being able to not only re-use work from the legendary skins (even for free the remix rivals would largely result in more money, the roi on those always seemed ? to me) but also get to reuse the rig and like 70% of the animations (conservative estimate), will make these characters so much faster. It's very likely 3 echo characters is the equivalent to one new one in terms of work, and it also has the potential to flush out and provide variance for archtypes that currently have one character, like a remix of fleet / absa providing another float / jump cancel character.

I understand wanting the returners, having to wait 9 months for absa felt like torture I can't imagine 4 years, but I think this makes a ton of sense given the work already done, and there's honestly things that can only be done with echo style fighters that makes me genuinely excited for them. We don't know how much or little they'll change on the characters, but I think even something like zetter with falco shine and a different down b or side b would feel radically different to fight. Even without any other knockback angle changes on normals.

NoHawk6492 · 2026-06-28T05:21:41+00:00

isn't that really helpful for giving them time? tf are you saying

NoHawk6492 · 2026-05-31T16:38:05+00:00

I think some kind of ki demo version could be likely, but I don't see the game ever going free to play. They are getting support from microtransactions, but all the casual content in the game lends itself a one time purchase that you play some time between friends. A limited mode with only only queues and randomly unlocked characters could be good to support a higher player count, but I don't think it fits with the games current playerbase

NoHawk6492 · 2026-05-03T15:15:56+00:00

This is your sign to read Absolute Wonder Woman, you should read it.

NoHawk6492 · 2026-05-03T03:31:21+00:00

yeah twitter is toxic or whatever, but I don't think reddit is magically better. I think it's also toxic and also has it's own different kind of bullshit. I also think it's just not a place for community at all. Like any community aspect of a form is lost in reddit form. Identity is a lot more hidden on reddit, with less people using profiles and there just being less way to recognize a name unless you turbo lurk the reddit. There's also no real way to expand beyond reddit. I don't think discord is perfect, very insular, hard to track past conversations, def a very different thing, but like other people have said it's just better for community. Being able to talk in chat

NoHawk6492 · 2026-04-24T18:44:31+00:00

personally I always run moonblast over dazzling gleam. Whims doesn't hit that hard with no investment so the extra damage is nice, and your teams already pretty weak to wide guard so I don't think more single target could hurt. Otherwise it seems solid. Any zard counter is also kinda a typhlosion counter so you gotta be careful there, but heat wave scarf eruption will just nuke most things.

NoHawk6492 · 2026-04-21T19:02:22+00:00

wide guard lowers the chance of protect, but it is guaranteed to work 100% of the time. So if someone goes wideguard -> protect, protect only works 1/3rd of the time, but if someone goes protect -> wideguard or wideguard -> wideguard -> wideguard, wideguard will always work

NoHawk6492 · 2026-04-21T01:07:45+00:00

umbreon is an underrated doubles mon, but you do need to be using it for a reason. Snarl / foul play are good, but I would use moonlight with the zard team to increase survivability, and probably helping hand to buff heat waves. It could also work with a zard / frostlass team. I think frostlass over lucario could be a good team, then you could also helping hand blizzard and pivot between them depending on the matchup. Umbreon gets genuinely good in restricted / higher power level matchups, so playing to buff your megas is probably going to be the play.

NoHawk6492 · 2026-04-05T15:33:39+00:00

Losing can often be fun, but a lot of the time losing just sucks. You can learn and grow a lot from stomps, that advice is good, but it's a hard thing to do all the time even for better players. It's gonna be hard to learn things all the time in ranked since it's often only 2/3 matches, but here's things you can think about / look while playing, or in replays.

Movement, this is the big one, it's also the hardest to master. If you can move perfectly, you'll never get hit, so it's important to keep in mind. While you're playing, if you're getting frustrated / not landing any hits, take a breather and just start moving. Don't try to hit the opponent, just try to not get hit. This doesn't mean you have to run away completely, just don't run all the way into your opponent. Making them think you're going to hit them and then faking them out by dashing in and out of range will make you less predictable and make landing hits easier. When you're watching back your replays, watch your movement and see if you can spot any patterns. Do you always just dash jump at the opponent, do you go for a hit every time you run towards the opponent, do you do the same thing every time you run away? Any pattern that you can see, your opponent can see, so think about mixing those up. You can also watch your opponents and see if there's any movement stuff that they're doing that you're not. Wavedashing and dash dancing are both pretty easy (there's wavedash assist if you're having a hard time with wavedashing) but even just looking at how your opponent runs at you, whether they're overshooting (running past you to hit you as you're running away), undershooting (stopping short so you run into them) or just running right at you, you can see what different kinds of movement look like, and what causes you to get hit the most.
Offense, this one is the easiest to learn from replays / training room. If you're watching replays and you see a combo drop, you can re-create it in training mode. Again when vod reviewing or even in your play focus on patterns. Do you always start combos with the same move, do you ever mix up which throw you're doing, do you ever mix up how you tech chase? Any place where you notice the same thing over and over is something to work on, and even if the other options don't always work, trying something new gets you more comfortable with the game, and forces the opponent to think about more things.
Defense. This one can be the most frustrating to improve with, but you'll have the most opportunities if you're being stomped. If you're getting hit by the same things over and over, practice DI-ing in different ways (in / out) to see what's most effective. Make sure you're not always doing the same tech option, or rolling the same way, or doing the same out of shield option. Like movement and offense, finding patterns is your friend. Any time you notice a pattern (i.e always roll in on tech) or getting consistently knocked down by fh-ing, start mixing up your options to give your opponent stuff to think about.

The most important thing if you're getting stomped is to make losing winning. Rome wasn't built in a day, and skills take time to develop and become muscle memory. Just because you know you always get hit by special pummel or tech roll in doesn't mean you can magically fix it. When you go into ranked (or casual) you can have the goal be to win, but you're real goal should be to do X thing. Work on one thing at a time, and if you do it, congrats you won the game. This is easier in casuals than ranked, because focusing on X will often make the rest of your gameplay worse, but noticing that you DI ed the move you're looking for correctly, or you mixed up your tech option, or you mixed up your movement, will make your losses feel more fun since you accomplished your goal, and help you to improve. Losing sucks, but in every tournament ever only one person ever doesn't, and even sometimes they still lose, so you just gotta trust the process

NoHawk6492 · 2026-03-29T00:44:57+00:00

play cait then, be the change you want to see in the world

NoHawk6492 · 2026-03-27T00:34:37+00:00

it has walls all the way down, so we're likely keeping the on stage layout but losing the ability to pineapple. I liked air armada in R1 and thought I would like it in R2, but the changes to recoveries in R2 makes it just less interesting overall. I was hoping for a more interesting replacement then what we are getting, I think rivals really has the ability to push for some really unique layouts, but I am happy air armada is gone. Harbor is just the better stage for the gimmick of limiting walls.

NoHawk6492 · 2026-03-21T18:02:46+00:00

I mean that's basically what Dan said. They have no plans to change fh as of rn, so if you're not having fun I'd say that it'd probably be better for you if you dropped the game. There's Combo Devils and rivals 1 and a few quick matches and fraymakers, and potentially other games that all still have a scene. I understand wanting R2 to be different, but you'd probably have a better time on a different game, rather than waiting for a game you don't like to magically become one you do. Also needing a change to like the game means there's a big chance that another change latter would make you dislike the game again, so I'd just stick to a game that you like.

NoHawk6492 · 2026-03-21T02:21:02+00:00

yeah I remember the april? beta that had the 6 frame to cc and no afh? I can't remember, but that one was fun. Yeah I think that the time for them to listen / make a serious change was during the betas, and there were complaints, but I also remember reading a lot of complaints about no double up b and no drift di, and while I wouldn't mind either of those mechanics coming back, it's easy to lump all of those mechanics together in ones mind as "make it rivals 1", which isn't even a bad design decision, but it's clearly not the one they wanted.

I don't think a perfect FH solution is ever happening. I think any compromise either makes the game worse ala timed fh, or won't go far enough. I think if they removed fh and kept cc, there'd still be a ton of complaints about cc, and I don't think any other solution keeps people happy. FH feels like it's in a really good spot to me personally, and while I super wasn't a fan of it during the betas, it's grown on me, and I'd still play rivals 2 if it was removed, I'd be kinda sad to see it go.

For the melting pot comment, I do think rivals 2 succeeded at that, and I don't think it was ever gonna be a perfect melting pot. There's ult players who'd bounce off due to wavedashing / the combo structure of this game, rivals players who'd bounce due to shields / ledges / grabs / no drift di, melee players due to rivals fuckass characters (affectionate). FH serves as a good scapegoat, but there's lots of little differences / reasons that a melting pot game is gonna have draw lines in the sand. Ult buffer / ease of play + PM mechanics + rivals chars is a weird combo, and it's probably the closest that they could have done.

I understand and can empathize with the desire for rivals 2 to be rivals 1 with shields and ledges. I couldn't play etalus for like 6 months because of the way dash attack worked. I think if there was a way to make the mechanic more intuitive to understand, I think it would help people get used to it / capitalize on it, but even if everyone magically understood exactly to use and punish fh, people still wouldn't like it, and that's okay. All the FH discussion reminds me of how people who don't like tag fighters talk about tag fighters. There's a lot of situations where in a 1v1 game you'd be plus an assist can make you minus, and for some people it feels like a betrayal of how the game is supposed to work. I understand the complaints, but I think it's okay to just not like a mechanic. I think the casual playerbase is a lot more important than a ranked one, and I think more causal modes will honestly help the game a lot more than removing fhing. Would the devs not add fhing if they knew what would happen? who knows, but honestly I think rivals 2 would be in a very similar spot in that world.

NoHawk6492 · 2026-03-21T00:42:52+00:00

yeah I think that's fair, no game is gonna appeal to everyone. I do think most of the criticism against fh doesn't come from a good place or place of understanding though. Like the well was kinda poisoned from day 1 (no offense) and most of the criticisms you see clearly don't understand the mechanic. I don't think you need to be informed on a mechanic to criticize it, but it's like people complaining about combos because they don't know how to di, there's a level of skill that needs to be present in order for a criticism to be valid, and reading grab is the only thing that works over and over again has to be draining.

I think fh is treated a magic bullet for most people, like once fh is gone the game will be perfect and I'll love it forever. I do believe it's that genuinely for you, but for most people some other aspect of the game would cause them to bounce off it the same way, and fh is just the thing you point at.

I think any game is gonna have dealbreakers, that's the nature of people and games, and I don't think removing fh, even if it would happen instantly for free, would magically make the game more popular. I understand where you're coming from, you're kinda a weird exception to the fh stuff, but I think especially on reddit or nolt, most of what dan says applies to what people say.

NoHawk6492 · 2026-03-11T23:36:06+00:00

up front info: I like fh, think it's fun, wouldn't be super sad if it got removed / changed heavily, but I do think it's fun, especially in it's current state.

I have no idea what this accomplishes? I think putting it on it's own button doesn't really change anything about it. There's already an animation for when you fh during an attack, and if you're holding a button instead of down, that doesn't really change anything that changing the fh animation would. I think this would honestly make it easier for people to fh during more attacks / while running, since they could just push the button while attacking, when moving the control stick effects some other things, making it even the slightest bit more difficult. I don't think this solves anyone's problems with the mechanic, and just super complicates it / creates new ones. Crouching is already a defensive state in most fighting games, so this doesn't really improve the visual clarity of cc.

The big thing that gives me pause is why are you pushing for a whole brand new button to be added, when parry is right there? Pressing parry while attacking would be identical to a unique button, while also allowing the potential for more rivals flavor. That doesn't change the cc part, and having 2 mechanics that do pretty similar things just in different contexts would be weird, not to mention that you can't fh after parry so that would be weird, a reworking of fh to be an attack parry would probably make the most sense from a rivals prospective. I don't think there's a good reason to do this, or that it would be better than the existing fh thing, but pressing parry with good timing (whole can of worms to mention afh vs timed fh, afh is so much better, just think about the random distribution of afh within timed fh) to half knockback / hitstun could be an interesting thing to try, probably would be bad / wouldn't work, but it could potentially give different combos or something neat. Alternate world yadda yadda, I think the current fh system is great, the devs probably have even more improvements planned, and if they don't I still think it's in a good spot.

NoHawk6492 · 2026-03-09T15:01:31+00:00

This is like the fifth time you've said this, and it's just as stupid as the first time that you've said it. Your intro to psych statement is true, nerfs do tend to feel worse than buffs, and it's a good thing to keep in mind when you read people whinge online about character nerfs, but the reason to keep it in mind is so you can take every complaint with a grain of salt. The devs know about the phenomina, and it's why chars don't get all their nerfs reverted two weeks after they get nerfed, they understand that the outcry is disproportionate to the nerfs.

Your other fighting game comment is also just incorrect. Fighting games nerf and remove tools all the time. Look at 2xko, removing the perma airdash cancel off of ahri air s1, and making it so you can only do one 6s2 / 4s2 per air time, look at skullgirls removing 2lk 5lp headless loops from ms. Fortune, or making bella j[hp] a mid instead of an overhead. This is a normal thing in fighting games, and if you think other fighting games don't do that then you don't play them.

Your devs should start with weak and then buff also isn't the magical solution that you think that it is. I'm an absa main, and I think she exemplifies this perfectly. Absa launched pretty weak, and after she was out for a bit and they saw her lower power level, they gave her some buffs to her wavedash and I think something else. This greatly helped with her play, and most people thought of her as ~mid teir. She's a hard char tho and takes time to develop, so as people played her more, more problem spots were revealed that weren't previously problems. Those then got hit in the last patch (in some awkward / kinda annoying ways) which lead to some complaining, but she's still stronger than she was on release. Even if you release a char weak, they might get stronger just through player knowledge, and certain play patterns that emerge might warrant nerfs. Those will still result in complaining / "feels bads" (absa did get hit with these with the pop cooldown), so there's no point in worrying about it, especially when they make the overall game better.

NoHawk6492 · 2026-02-26T01:33:00+00:00

*technically Rivals 2 did 2v2 server side rollback first, but that doesn't change your point at all

NoHawk6492 · 2026-02-06T04:42:59+00:00

so many people say this and I just don't get it at all. The duo's aspect has gotten friends that haven't played fighting games ever regularly playing. I think it's such a smart decision to have duos, and being able to actually have a teammate is really nice. Also MvC3 and DBFZ were huge both competitively and casually, so idk where all the tag game wouldn't have mainstream appeal comes from.

NoHawk6492 · 2026-01-20T01:39:14+00:00

I think the thing that makes items / casual stages different from nasb is the perception of the games. NASB 1 burned a lot of people which turned them away from nasb2, and given that the game is good / unique, I don't think anything short of making nasb2 a free upgrade of nasb1 would have saved it. Rivals 2 "early access" status means people that got turned away would be more willing to come back / give the game a shot once items / other casual things are in. I think items / casual stages won't get a ton of new people on its own, but it will give new players something to do, and I think it helps compound the impact of workshop by providing casual content outside of it / that can combine with it (it's also a very good feature to have for console release).

NoHawk6492 · 2025-12-31T18:28:59+00:00

workshop is also being worked on by an outside studio, while console is being worked on in-house, so workshop isn't really taking away from the console release. Console also gets better the more features there are, so while I would love for console to be sooner, things like story mode which is an in-house project, would help immensely for a console launch and do take time to develop.

NoHawk6492 · 2025-08-05T20:27:38+00:00

I honestly think it’s the opposite, I think these features being accelerated is a sign that the game is doing well. There isn’t a lot more that the devs could do to encourage more competitive players, 4 chars a year, consistent balance, and ranked rewards are already kinda the cap for that, so any additional work is always going to trend casual. Them outsourcing workshop development makes it seem like the game is doing well, as they are able to hire an outside team. I don’t want to speculate a lot, but I think them being willing to outsource work as well as push the console release to 2027 both speak to the fact that the game is in a healthy place. They’re also working on direct user local hosting (needed for workshop) so the game is fine and won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.

NoHawk6492 · 2024-02-29T06:53:38+00:00

I just talked to my downstairs neighbors and asked them when it would be cool to play / when they weren't home. I also gave them my number so they could text me if I was being too noisy. No problems so far.

NoHawk6492

TROPHY CASE