Identity Crisis: How Parry Reveals Rivals 2's Design Confusion#1719

Parry in Rivals 2 feels like a poorly implemented mechanic that fundamentally contradicts the game’s design philosophy. In the first Rivals game, parry made sense because offense was dominant - stages were small, there were no shields, and defensive options were limited. Rivals 2, however, has completely flipped this dynamic.
Now, defenders have an overwhelming array of protective tools: dash dancing and platform camping on massive stages, shields, crouch canceling, floor hugging, and on top of all that, a parry. This multilayered defense creates an almost impenetrable fortress for aggressive players. When I’ve worked hard to break through these defensive layers, a randomly mashed parry can completely negate all my momentum.
The mechanic raises serious questions about the game’s identity. Is it for Rivals players? The aggressive spirit of the original game seems gutted. Is it for Melee/ PM players? The insane recoveries and unique systems like the parry suggest otherwise. The developers appear caught in an identity crisis, attempting to appeal to everyone, but potentially satisfying no one.
The parry feels particularly egregious. While making it projectile-only might help, it would likely just lead to more complaints. The core issue is deeper: Rivals 2 seems uncertain whether it wants to be a Melee successor or a true sequel to its predecessor. Trying to blend these approaches is like mixing toothpaste and orange juice - fundamentally incompatible and unpalatable.

It doesn´t have to be any successor maybe the game isn´t made for melee or rivals 1 players but for rivals 2 players.

Parry’s animation has 5 frames of startup and 8 active frames with 37 frames of endlag. If your opponents are just mashing it out a bunch they’re bad at the game and you should be punishing them. If it’s working against you, you should be using grab and mixing up the timing on your offense. You will literally get free damage 4/5 times if they’re just using it at random.

Characters in this game generally have a lot of agency and tools to apply pressure, you do need a variety of defensive options to make counterplay meaningful and expressive. I used to find parry annoying in R1 when I was a scrub but I’ve been playing this game a lot and it feels pretty fair to me now.

i completely agree with OP. the last patch notes made it very clear that the devs seem worried offensive play could get too overwhelming and especially a blocking player could be too much at a disadvantage. And these thoughts and concerns are the root problem why we have such a campy meta. YES, offensive needs to be opressive. thats what every fighting game in the past 1-2 decades has tried to achieve, because if offensive is not strong, noone wants to initiate. If you block you need to be at a disadvantage because you already failed to win neutral. block and parry much in the same vaine should not be a valid option that you choose to do, but it should be a last resort option you do, after you lost neutral and it should at best get you back to neutral. but it should never be advantagious to just ignore neutral and aim for those options, like many players do right now.

You don’t need to make a game designed for melee players or rivals 1 players. You can make a good game and let people decide who it’s for. Parry as a system is something that can often be problematic in games, but I have not felt it was particularly oppressive in this game. It has a lot of endlag and a good amount of startup. This is a game that highly favors aggression right now, and, if you’re getting beaten out by parry constantly, that’s on you, not the game.