Rivals of Aether II on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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Rivals of Aether II is the sequel to the hit indie fighting game, Rivals of Aether. Play as both new and returning elemental fighters in the next generation of platform fighters.
Rivals of Aether II is a fighting, multiplayer and indie game
developed by Aether Studios
and published by Aether Studios and offbrand games.
Released on October 23rd 2024 is available only on Windows
in 7 languages: English, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Portuguese - Brazil and Spanish - Latin America.
It has received 7,294 reviews of which 5,963 were positive and 1,331 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.0 out of 10. 😊
The game is currently priced at 24.99€ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Rivals of Aether II into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
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System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Window 10+ 64 Bit
- Processor: 3.0 GHz Dual core
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060, AMD Radeon RX 470, or better
- DirectX: Version 11
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 20 GB available space
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
I can not get out of unranked this is the only game i have has a hard time with i just want to have fun and get better but i can't I've tried. i have over 12 hours in this game and can barely beat the level 9 bots. I've played close to probably 25 games of ranked and the past three where with the same guy how only plays Fleet. Also might i add they are toxic and they taunt after every win. This has been one of the worst experiences of my life so far and i don't want to quit this game. i like it but this has made it even more hard on me. I want to improve but no matter what i do. I've shown very little improvement thus far. I do recommend this game to others but i might call it quits. I don't know yet but i'm having very little fun. I hope someone reads this i would really appreciate it. Aether Studios. sincerely, Joel
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No, Rivals II is not perfect. For $30, you are getting extremely light single player and casual content, pretty unreliable server based rollback netcode, only 12 playable characters (soon to be 13!), and an extremely unoptimized experience from the menus to the various performance issues on some stages. Despite all that, I still love this game to death and consider it the modern pinnacle of the platfighter genre. I have been playing Wrastor since launch so believe me when I say this game is still fun as hell even though my character was shot out back. One of my favorite aspects is the generous buffer and hitfalling mechanics let anybody pull off wicked combos and feel like mang0 or Mew2King in grand finals. Aether Studios has such a unique and cool approach to character design that has remained unmatched amongst platfighters. All the character matchups are super interesting and engaging to me, and it makes each new major tournaament a learning experience for me as it's possible we all get to see top level play of a matchup we've never seen before. Some final notes/recommendations for devs (skip if youd like): Stages in this game are a mixed bag for me. Fire Capital is god awful, I haven't met a single person who likes that stage because of how stupidly big it is. It's not fun to play on and is a rather lazy solution for character's who need a big stage counterpick. The rest are okay to very good, some layouts are more interactive to move on than others. From the casual perspective I think we desperately need some casual stages or variants with hazards on, not just because they're awesome and fun to play on but for the longevity of the game. Doubles and FFA are quite stale right now and that would really help bring interest back and have something new for casual players. Ranked is decent. I really hate best of 3 format and I would love if there were some alternative like Best of 5 queueing, but I know that comes with a lot of logistical issues. In terms of content distribution, more platforms, taunts and death effects. It's insane we have a whole tab in the buck shop for one wrastor taunt. Obviously they are by far the more expensive and time consuming pieces of content to produce, but we really want them! I doubt anybody would mind skipping the mid month skin for a batch of couple of platforms, death effects and taunts. 9/10 game, if you're tired of smash this is for you
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First time ever writing a review, and I want to make it clear. I do thoroughly believe this game can succeed well. And I mean, really well. The first rivals of aether was very fresh to the series, and knew what it wanted. It wanted to be something different, it wanted to be a 2D plat fighter that felt easy to pick up, average to get good, and hard to master. Rivals 2 sits in a serious growing pains issue, and this is coming from a Platinum player at 1220 ranking (so no git gud commentary needed, I've been looking into it). The game has amazing highs, and really terrible lows, making it a mess as it stands right now. The Highs - Game looks great, and movement is probably at its best offline. The free flow of movement off platforms, the dash dancing and juggle game feels nice. Shield and grabs are responsive, and I never felt like I misinputted due to lag or faulty game. The new mechanics are very interesting, making it stand out from others. The game is continuously adding more characters, constantly being patched, and avoids FOMO by making events permanent. All great ways to keep the community engaged. The Lows - The game is going through an aggressive growing-pains phase, as it isn't fully sure what it wants to be. For those saying "Ugh, it's now just Melee/Ultimate", they're partially right. Shields and grabs are objectively so good that parries feel not needed. This becomes especially apparent when a few characters can release a parry on an option and get punished for successfully parrying. This leads to another big issue - balance. There is a definitive god tier characters, who are very good and have very few weaknesses, and then some who struggle (Poor Lox). Despite everyone having kill moves, this game feels the worst at "not killing", and this is due to the SDI and DI in general. Very often you will hit someone with a smash attack offstage, but because they are hugging the wall, they can tech, airdodge and punish you. This leads into the third problem, which has divided the players in "Played melee" and "New to game" - No in game help. You will struggle, you will lose, and nothing in the game will tell you what caused you to lose. The community has to help you. And the community is not the best at helping these new players. Many players coming from these games are going to struggle to stay because of a current lack of support and ways to improve. Final Thoughts - Is the game well polished and playable? Yes. Is it for everyone? NO. This game, as it stands, will beat you to a bloody pulp and you must suffer. And this playstyle is, for many, an unenjoyable one. You are not playing rivals 2, you are playing rivals of melee, to an extent. It will feel familiar, but also alien. And until there is a clear distinction to help those players, it's gonna have further issues down the line.
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I've been playing Rivals of Aether 2 and noticed the Steam reviews have become mixed. Curious, I checked why that might be the case. It mostly just seems to be a coincidence that it became mixed. A good amount of people left a negative review around the same time. Some of it is because the game deviated from Rivals 1 gameplay, but like....the first game isn't going anywhere. You can still buy it/play it without any issue. Do you know how many fighting games would love to have that luxury? A good number of the RoA1 crowd think RoA2 plays like Melee/Smash4/Ultimate now, but....no. Melee's gameplay is way more precise with way less emphasis on defense, Smash4 plays way slower, lacks movement options, and punishes unsafe aggression, and Ultimate feels like fencing....so aggression without the approach (if that makes sense). RoA2, to me, is a game that heavily revolves around counterplay. I never felt like I was in a situation where there was absolutely nothing I could have done to prevent a loss, albeit, that's because I'm actually aware of the game mechanics. A large amount of review also complained about how the game feels to beginners and this is a criticism I couldn't counter if I tried. As of right now, the game severely lacks tutorials and singleplayer modes to help you get better. This is being addressed, but it's gonna be a while. Right now there's some very basic tutorials and an arcade mode, but nothin too helpful. This wouldn't feel as bad if there were casual multiplayer things to do...but there isn't. People rarely play free-for-alls and that's the closest thing to a casual multiplayer mode the game has. Unless you have friends who have the game, you're outta luck. There also seems to be server issues. I haven't had problems myself, but depending on where you live, you might have problems. RoA2 uses server-based rollback with no peer-to-peer options as of now, so if you're super far from the servers they have, you might experience the lag problems I've seen other reviews complain about. It's something the devs are aware of and will likely address, but solving networking issues is a slow process and it might not be as important as finishing new characters on schedule. Speaking of that schedule, RoA2 is a live service game, probably one of the best. There's no slimey predatory practices here. No FOMO, no P2W, no money-hungry nonsense. All future characters will be free, the singleplayer modes will be free, and stages will be free. Which is great, but it also reveals that this game isn't necessarily "Feature Complete". Like I said earlier, there's barely any singleplayer modes/tutorials. However, RoA1 released in a very similar fashion. I'd argue it was even more scuffed than RoA2, so I'm not surprised. Yet, some reviews are very surprised. I'd blame communication for this one. I think some people expected the game to be completely done, but the team has a ton of work to do. It's work that they need money to get done while financially supporting their effort. It's why there's a live service model to begin with. Without support from the community this game's fate could end up like Rushdown Revolt (cool game btw). This is what baffles me about many of the reviews. They need the community's support. They can't address a lot of issues without that support. Why not encourage people to give it a try anyway? Their support would go towards improving the game anyway. Most of the negative reviews aren't complaining about the game heading in a bad direction. It's just not currently in a state that they would call very good, but they believe it will be very good as long as the devs keep working on it. ??? Isn't that positive? I don't get it. Look, if you believe in the game, give it support. If you like how the game plays and just need more features, give it support. If you never played the game and are new to the genre, I'd buy the first game unless you don't mind playing a game that's in active development. Give it support, or don't. Buy it if you believe they can deliver.
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Game is more approachable than Rivals 1 and I’m able to find many matches around my skill level despite having a job and usually only having time for this on weekends, so that’s nice.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Rivals of Aether II is currently priced at 24.99€ on Steam.
Rivals of Aether II is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 24.99€ on Steam.
Rivals of Aether II received 5,963 positive votes out of a total of 7,294 achieving a rating of 7.96.
😊
Rivals of Aether II was developed by Aether Studios and published by Aether Studios and offbrand games.
Rivals of Aether II is playable and fully supported on Windows.
Rivals of Aether II is not playable on MacOS.
Rivals of Aether II is not playable on Linux.
Rivals of Aether II is a multi-player game.
Rivals of Aether II features PvP mode where you can test your skills against other players.
Rivals of Aether II does not currently offer any DLC.
Rivals of Aether II does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
Rivals of Aether II supports Remote Play Together. Discover more about Steam Remote Play.
Rivals of Aether II is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Rivals of Aether II.
Data sources
The information presented on this page is sourced from reliable APIs to ensure accuracy and relevance. We utilize the Steam API to gather data on game details, including titles, descriptions, prices, and user reviews. This allows us to provide you with the most up-to-date information directly from the Steam platform.
Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 22 January 2026 03:20 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 24 January 2026 07:21 |
| Steam price | 28 January 2026 20:50 |
| Steam reviews | 28 January 2026 11:47 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Rivals of Aether II, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Rivals of Aether II
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Rivals of Aether II concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Rivals of Aether II compatibility
Game modes
Multiplayer
Features
Online players
699
Developer
Aether Studios
Publisher
Aether Studios,
offbrand games
Release
23 Oct 2024
Platforms
Remote Play