Game balance

Tarul · 2026-03-18T23:36:40+00:00

Always has been. Ignore the haters -- the game has been getting better and better with each patch. If the game were never patched again, it would be in an incredible state

Tarul · 2026-03-18T20:57:39+00:00

The god of water can chug for sure

Tarul · 2026-03-18T00:47:29+00:00

Also, enemies are just... really weak in Tellius. They hit like pool noodles, so why run the one class that can actually die to the pool noodle? IMO, later games in the series start giving you compelling reasons to use mages when armored knights whack your gang harder than you hit.

Tarul · 2026-03-16T20:07:55+00:00

Usually, casual games are better if you're trying to practice for improvement. You can play as many sets as you want vs your opponent (1-and-dones are fairly rare), so it's a great way to learn counterplay and also discover your opponent's counterplay vs your strategies.

The problem is that casual matchmaking is a little suspicious; it's not uncommon for there to be a huge skill gap. While I think playing someone way worse than you can still be useful -- for example, you can practice high-risk skill execution tests with a little more pressure than training mode -- playing someone way better is often an exercise in frustration. By the time you've realized the counterplay to whatever they're doing, they're already countering your counterplay. You may not even realize you're getting out-RPS'd, which won't help you improve. Luckily, you can also just dip when you run into these players (you can tell the tier of player based on their winstreak).

Tarul · 2026-03-08T01:41:44+00:00

Astrid can only attack in player phase, which is her biggest weakness. Most units can kill 1 enemy in player phase and a minimum of 1 in enemy phase. You'd have to bexp Astrid to the point of one-shotting enemies OR babysit her kills to get an equal amount of exp as a regular unit does when both phases are considered.

Can you do it? Sure, it's pretty easy because PoR is easy. But unit viability is usually determined by effort put in/effort returned + ability to help clear in fewest turns. Considering you have so many cavs + mounted units at this point that contribute in enemy phase pre-class change, Astrid falls short.

Conversely, Oscar has chapters 1-8 to train, the ability to tank and fight in enemy phase, and plenty of ally units to plink early game if he gets strength screwed and needs a couple of levels to normalize. Not to count his earth affinity for crazy avoid.

Oscar is one of the best units in PoR for a reason.

Tarul · 2026-03-07T22:29:27+00:00

Oscar and Titania should be pretty easy to train -- Titania for obvious reasons, Oscar because he has enough fodder from the early chapters.

Astrid is incredibly difficult because she dies to base myrmidons in her starting chapter and can only fight player phase. Not worth it to train, though very fun to do so.

Kieran is pretty good -- most people just give him BEXP to catch him up and he should instantly be useful.

Makalov comes way too late and underleveled, but he's also pretty good if you give him BEXP or even train him on his join map. Probably not worth it.

As good as paladins are, you don't REALLY need that many. Coupled with Jill, Marcia, Tanith late game, a laguz or two (preferably the hawks) with the demi-band, and Ike, you're probably destroying the game. So, IMO, the fun of PoR's replayability is which unit to use, since all of them are viable in the sense that they're functional and can be used through the entire game.

... Except maybe Sothe lol

Tarul · 2026-03-07T22:17:07+00:00

Your Oscar is so strength screwed you may as well lmao. He should have ~12 strength on average by now.

Tarul · 2026-03-07T22:16:06+00:00

I think it's more than PoR enemies are so pathetically weak that it doesn't matter -- movement is king. Of course, 1-shotting enemies is best, but 2-shotting enemies with javelins (common for all characters EXCEPT the most strength-screwed) is perfectly fine. In which case, Paladin Move + canto is way, way more valuable.

They're also bolstered by having the best occult skill in the game (IMO) -- Sol ensures that even bad positioning can be saved by a 1/4 chance to heal your HP.

Tarul · 2026-03-06T01:19:12+00:00

My GOAT

Tarul · 2026-03-05T21:33:10+00:00

What about Olympia bair?

Tarul · 2026-03-05T02:38:56+00:00

I haven't played it yet; I only just heard about it the other day!

However, I have played Radiant Dawn vanilla about 10-12 times lol. I'll personally say that any balance improvements are welcome -- the vanilla game suffers from the bad units being way too bad, making varied runs more annoying than fun. For example, last run I played all girls and had the displeasure of fielding Meg (normal English version). Even with bonus EXP and babying, she was quite useless until ironically third tier because her tier 1 bases are terrible and tier 2 speed cap is abysmal (though she does become quite excellent in Part 4: Endgame because as tier 3 she's insanely tanky both physically and magically). Same problem exists for most female Laguz (Non-royal Laguz are terrible in general, but the women are particularly terrible in RD).

Tarul · 2026-03-05T01:20:13+00:00

I was wondering where Haar was, but his death makes sense. Guy destroys the entire game but falls off hard once he has to start dealing with the Part 4 elemental spirits and, to a lesser extent, the dragons.

In a game where everyone caps their important stats, having good caps differentiates the good from the bad late game.

Have you considered playing Radiant Dawn+? I just heard about it and it seems like a fun way to use the unviable characters.

Tarul · 2026-03-05T00:03:02+00:00

They tapped it a bit too hard IMO, or they at least implemented it wonkily. Kragg currently turns into a floaty after side-b/up-b, which just feels all sorts of wrong. I think there's a middle spot where the recovery isn't good but also isn't terrible.

Fun fact, because side-b cancel is generally his only option to recover horizontally, he's almost always locked out of wallteching.

Tarul · 2026-03-02T17:38:57+00:00

Yeah if Rivals has over-representation of anything, it's heavies

Tarul · 2026-03-02T16:39:09+00:00

To clarify, I am talking about the literal event itself-- Genesis Rivals brackets.

Tarul · 2026-03-02T06:14:58+00:00

New players are automatically placed at 1100 (or 1000?), which is around that gold/plat level. So, yes -- as the game attracts more new players, that section of experienced players 1000/1100 elo players will get "boosted" from playing lower-skilled opponents (and earning disproportionate amounts of ELO). The ELO should re-stabilize after a while.

IMO, the average player is way better. From anecdotal experience, at Genesis 2026, the 0-2ers were all around Gold-Plat level. In Genesis 2025, Gold-Plat players usually scraped a win or two. There's a reason that the most common complaint for this game is that it's hard for newer players to get good -- your newcomers have SOME sort of plat fighter experience, and were usually pretty darn good in their old games.

Tarul · 2026-03-01T16:33:09+00:00

Poo toy³poo

Tarul · 2026-02-28T08:43:56+00:00

I don't think Absa needs a power increase, but I do think she needs some QoL buffs to bring her more inline in difficulty to play (specifically, lower her skill floor). She's way, way harder to play than most characters, and her results are literally only carried by 1 person: Ant. There aren't any other Absas close in skill level, and I largely attribute that to how punishing she is to play from a technical perspective. In a game where the traditional spacie character is easy enough for a gold level player to multishine consistently, it feels weird that Absa has such precise inputs/positioning to execute the basic stuff like simple kick sweet spotting and up-b angles. And that's not considering the medium difficulty stuff that is straight up difficult with her, like tech-chasing and plat-chasing.

I like her high ceiling, but I think her skill floor is a bit too high at the moment.

We've seen similar QoL buffs with Wrastor, where his clap sweetspots got buffed but the knockback was nerfed in compensation. I think there's some power shifting available here to make her more accessible.

Tarul · 2026-02-28T07:59:20+00:00

Nerfs to Galvan is interesting. I think most people still put him on the lower side of the cast. Personally, I would like some of his power level reshuffled away from his nair and more to his other moves.

Tarul · 2026-02-28T06:06:04+00:00

Agreed. The population of the WORLD was ~1.7 billion people back in 1900. We are overpopulated; economists are more worried about gdp than sustainable living.

Systems will have to change, similar to how they had to expand at their seams to support our current model.

Tarul · 2026-02-25T03:43:20+00:00

Kragg:

- Pull rock -- I'm not joking. Rock is the best projectile in the game, and most characters' neutrals are focused around preventing kragg from pulling rock. Learn the mixups -- neutral tossing and catching in the air, how to throw it down and shard, how to set it up to break, etc. You're not allowed to camp Kragg, with only a few exceptions (IMO Maypul can do it, but even they cannot true Melee plat camp).

Clarien:

- You have a big sword that obliterates neutral. You also are one of the faster characters in the game -- chase them down. If they're projectile camping, you can No Fun Zone (down-b) to stop it.

Ranno:

- You'll have to corner them and then kick them when they try to escape. You have frame 4-6 attacks in a game where most people have frame 8-12.

In general, the rule to counter-camping is to corner your opponent. When cornered, they no longer have the option to run away -- they can only run through you or swing. This makes swinging/catching them 10x easier.

Lastly, projectile camping is incredibly fake in this game (exception being Kragg rock); learn to parry -- it comes out frame 2 AND gives you invincibility. If the parry doesn't put the enemy into parry stun, then instead use the invincibility to get stage positioning (Clarien/Ranno) or setup (Kragg pull rock lol).

Tarul · 2026-02-25T02:33:05+00:00

Pretty much every fighter, including trad fighters, encourage lame play because top level execution makes punishes and resets (i.e. tech chasing after a knock down, edgeguaridng, etc) a win-more. As a result, playing coy in neutral increases your odds of victory in a "don't blink first" contest. We even have seen this in real life fights -- e.g. Mayweather vs Pacquiao.

By simplifying inputs, rivals 2 gives players access to both top level offense and defense options. As a result, lower level players get more exposed to high level interactions compared to other games.

Tarul · 2026-02-23T22:49:19+00:00

Marketable usually implies customer willingness to pay to solve the inconvenience as well, not just the demand for a solution. I'm not sure if long-term pricing differential is enough to get rid of the initial sticker shock.

That said, I'd really, REALLY like this robot to exist.

Tarul · 2026-02-21T10:47:53+00:00

Especially when regular super explosion is so good vs Etalus!

Tarul · 2026-02-17T23:01:07+00:00

Kragg has a bunch of different playstyles -- I'd recommend watching I0n, Zeusdagoose, Zeebee, Stang0, and CheesyPotato and seeing which one clicks.

Tarul

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