Marvel Rivals pt. 2: Heroic Strategy and Roles

The Direct Edition and Moose delve into the impressive roster of 'Marvel Rivals,' which boasts 33 playable characters at launch. They discuss characters like Jeff the Landshark, his team-up abilities, and unique features of other characters such as Peni Parker, Groot, Dr. Strange, and Magneto. The game categorizes characters into Vanguard, Duelist, and Strategist roles, akin to Overwatch classes. The hosts also touch on the faithfulness of character designs, concerns about character similarities, and the inclusion of both prominent and lesser-known Marvel characters, highlighting the game's appeal to a broad audience. The episode wraps up with a teaser for Cloak and Dagger as a possible single character unit and excitement for the game's release on December 6th.

Chapters

• 2:22 Excitement for Jeff the Landshark
• 9:18 Strategists and Their Unique Skills
• 19:55 Speculations and Future Characters

Transcript

yeah, I don't see what it is, but my secondary, because I'm not going to play Squirrel Girl 24 7. Just maybe like 23 six, so at least my, like my one, my mama, one extra day, I can play Jeff, the land shark. 

And I do see that he has a team up abilities with Luna name or group and rocket. Very versatile there, obviously, there's gonna be my two characters there right now. That's all I'm seeing playing. I think the only one that I won't play is Jeff, the land shark. Oh, dude, I'm so excited for Jeff. 

I'm so excited. I love gimmick ass characters like that, though. So like I was sold on that character. [00:03:00] Every few years, Marvel does these gimmick characters that for whatever reason, take off in popularity. And I'm just like gritting my teeth because everybody loves them. A few years ago, it was this Slimer looking thing named Doop. 

You remember that? Oh, my God. Yeah. And then now it's Jeff the Landshark, No, yeah, no, I was totally freaking sold it is, he's freaking adorable, man, and you guys had Submerge, and I'll be real honest the part that sold me, it was either in like an abilities trailer or the character reveal, or it was some kind of semi official video. Like detailing his abilities he runs away from combat, and then he just like submerges into a wall, and just climbs up it halfway, and then you can see his little fin sticking out of it, and the whole team runs past it, and it's okay. 

All right, that was adorable. I could just see him sitting there hehehehehehe just hiding in the wall. Which would be me in real life [00:04:00] sitting there going, hehehehehehe as everyone runs by me and shit. I was like, okay, and that alt was dope as shit too. So I'm like, okay, that is my secondary. 

Easily. Now we mentioned the the roles that they play. And the roles that the way that Marvel Rivals defines it is, it's divided into three categories, which is Vanguard, Duelist, and Strategist. And of course, and in terms of Overwatch, DPS is Duelist. Tank is Vanguard and Support is the Strategist. 

Yes. As far as vanguards go. Yeah, they gotta put the Marvel spin on it. Yeah. We know what the vanguards are. They're the tanks. The. Heroes that tend to be physically bigger or have larger health pools, and, what that health allows them to do is soak up the damage and have that way to, to mitigate damage. 

And of course, [00:05:00] we probably can pick them out from the character line of hocus one. Yes, absolutely. Penny Parker. I was very curious about, I was very curious about her kit. She actually I'm not a big tank player, but. I was digging on her kit a little bit while I watched her like character or like her ability showcase and I'm like, okay, I can see myself messing with that a little bit and which was funny because when they released it, it made me think of the hamster from overwatch. 

Yeah, it's just like a, it's like a hamster. Oh God, hamster's name? I just call him hamster ball. And it a swap between him and the diva, right? 50, 50 there. But then I looked up the other ones and there was two that kind of surprised me. The other one was Groot, that's a Vanguard or a Tank. 

And the last two were Dr. Strange and Magneto, which were the two that [00:06:00] surprised me. Dr. Strange definitely surprised me. Magneto, not so much because I was like, oh, it's Sigma from Overwatch. So Magneto is Sigma. So that one didn't surprise me too much. But Dr. Strange as a vanguard definitely stood out as odd to me. 

So and with the duelist those are your maximum damage output, the ones who like to go in and focus on eliminations and ultimate abilities. And they have the most. Characters that are dualist so far anyways, yeah, and that usually makes sense That's gonna be most of the player base. Anyway, so cater to that I had to look those up. 

There was a black panther Hella, and if any of these stand out or sound strange, let me know. Yeah. Black Panther, Hella, Iron Man, Magic, Star Lord. Very excited for Magic, by the [00:07:00] way. Yes. Another favorite character of mine. Scarlet Witch, Spider Man, Storm, and Punisher. Yeah, and then we also have we have Star Lord, Winter Soldier Hawkeye, Iron Fist, Bro Girl I don't know, as far as the duelists go they track, so these are more the more offensively focused. 

Get in there and get the job done, types. The only one I was kinda, Two, as a matter of fact, I was kinda feeling like Scarlet Witch and Storm would almost fit better for the strategist role. Especially with Storm having that toggle, I don't know if it's a toggle, but she has that ability where it's like she either increases the move speed of her team or she increases I forget if it's attack speed or gives them like a damage buff that's one or the other, I believe. 

So it might be a toggle if I'm remembering her reveal correctly. It was like, that kind of seems [00:08:00] more like a support role character than a duelist. But, I don't know. Moon Knight, I almost felt, they just buffed him up. I feel like Moon Knight and Black Panther could have fit Vanguard if they Tweak the kids just a little bit more. 

They could have been very interesting vanguards like like Doomfist, really just dive, because Black Panthers got, marking everyone up and then just diving from person to person. If he if that mark could also on top of resetting abilities do something like reduce the amount of damage. 

That person deals if they get hit with the mark and you pop it on them. He could be a mitigation tank really easily and enhance that roster a little bit. I'm like, I'm liking the character designs and like the class fantasies of each of them. It really does feel like they're staying true to the, who the characters are. 

That's just huge for an IP like this. Yeah. They got a lot riding on it, so we will hope that they will get it right. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. They, yeah, they start introducing some shit [00:09:00] where it's like You stuff like wouldn't dare engage in like mid of mid long range combat and no she gets in there and she's to go to the leg sweeps and she got like the ninja to and stuff like that. They rep this game apart. So they got to be as faithful as possible 

and the last one we have is the strategies and their support, they're the healers. Yeah, much love to strategist mains out there, supports. You make the world go round. You are appreciated. The interesting thing I found out about the strategists is that there are also some Vanguard and duelists that possess some type of healing abilities. 

It's just that the healing that's provided by the strategist like far outperforms the other worlds. Yeah, which is good as it should be, if you are, if that is your main role, then I would hope that there's not somebody in that other role that outclasses you in your own domain, I guess you could say. 

[00:10:00] Yeah. And those are some characters like Loki, Luna Snow Mantis, Rocket Raccoon, which I expected that from Loki. I'm gonna be real. I was thinking Loki would fit more in the dualist category. He just be like a, now you see me now you don't. And now I'm backstabbing you for a hundred million damage. 

Like the trickster play style. Yeah. And I believe he does have that one ability where he can place a A mark or a duplicate of himself and we, and while he's invisible. I'm a preemptively bitch about that one. You just landed on, you just landed on, you just landed on a sore point of mind. 

Cause I did watch, I watched that, I watched his ability showcase yesterday. And that kind of, that one kind of irked me a little bit. And it's oh cool, this. Momentum based game where most characters have movement abilities and objectives are, objectives are consistently moving like payloads and stuff like that. 

And you're going to give this dude [00:11:00] clones that just stand still casting stuff, which might work in like low elo games where people just stand and cast because they can't, they don't have the two brain cells necessary to move and attack. But you get past anyone who's an absolute novice and it's huh, there's five Lokis at the payload. 

Four of them are standing like 20 meters behind the payload, not moving. And then there's one who's doing circles around it. I wonder which one it is. I wonder which one it is, yeah. It seemed dumb as shit to me. So I'll need to see it in action, but that kind of really irked me. 

Yeah, we're getting to see how it works, but I would that when I always thought of Loki as a strategist, I can really definitely can see him as a vanguard, of course, but as a duelist, he's never been one of those like persons who stood out to me as seeking damage, like attack. Yeah, that's a good point. 

[00:12:00] If he's going in on somebody, he's using his trickery to right. Get that killing blow in one shot. It's not really standing there going toe to toe with somebody. So I'll concede. I'll concede my dualist nomination for him. Now that makes more sense. 

Alright, so let's talk about some of the characters. Yes, we've already started a little bit. So it was, you might as well go ahead and dive in full fledged. And as Marvel rivals has a very impressive roster, like some art, agree. Yes. Some of the most prominent like heroes and villains of the Marvel universe. 

And at launch, they're due to have 33 playable characters. Which is absolutely insane. Day one, just coming out the gate [00:13:00] with that is wildly impressive to me. Overwatch, finally, god, I forget how many Overwatch has, but I know for a while It was famine. Yeah. Yeah, whether it be a bunch of useless characters and then metapix and And then just not that many of it took him forever to grow that roster. 

So starting out with this much and Looking so damn unique. Yes, I say unique, but yeah Faithful, I guess would probably be the better one cuz you know, then I'm just gonna play like venom Thor's gonna play like Thor It's that or it's not really unique. It's The class fantasy is there though. 

But they do seem individual from each other from what I've seen so far. And that was a concern of mine too. Is that like having this many characters and not having, one play like the other. For instance, not having Winter Soldier play like the Punisher. And not having [00:14:00] her to energy based characters, maybe like name or in store and play like each other, mental type abilities. 

Not having Spider Man play like Venom, that was a real concern of mine, like with this many characters that, that that they're releasing at launch. Yeah. And I still have a little bit of trepidation about that. I'm not going to lie because it dialogue's up there in my Top five easily and as far as Marvel heroes in general but I watched hers back to back with the Black Panther ability showcase and I was like, wait, this is almost interchangeable, slight differences, on how you get in and stay in, but Black Panther with the resets on marks and things like that. 

And so I like, just being what it is. Ah, it's a little close though. You dash in and you're dashing through and you're Genji ing. They're two sides of the same Genji coin, it almost feels so I'm a little concerned about that. [00:15:00] Yes. We'll see, but I am seeing that a little bit with some of the characters. 

Here's about Iron Man and Storm 2 especially. And I got it. I have to wonder. It's there are a lot of parallel characters in the Marvel Universe anyway, so I have to wonder maybe that's why they didn't include an Iron Man in a war machine type character. 

Yeah. I have a feeling that's going to be like Skins. Maybe Skins. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I could see that. And I know they made the decision to include the newer Iron Fist who's an Asian kid. But it was like, why didn't they include Danny ran? Maybe those two characters were too similar in what they would do. 

So they opted for the PC, the rainbow coalition effect, including everybody, all types of dollars. Bring in the Lindley Iron Fist instead to cover that demographic, right? I guess there was somebody in the room was like, hold on. We got too many white people in this game. 

Let's like mix [00:16:00] it up. Hold on, wait a minute. Hold on. It's yeah, let's add Iron Fist and okay, which Iron Fist? Exactly. It's the Green Lantern Dilemma all over again. 

Which also adds to, a good point of Marvels. Like they have so many characters and even though they're including those more fan favorite characters, like Captain America, Winter Soldier, Spidey, Hulk, Rocket Group, those, they're also including like the lesser known characters, like Luna Snow. 

And Iron Fist and Lin Lead. I, Linley Iron Fist, Adam Warlock. I meant, yeah. It's not many people can tell you who Adam Warlock is, right? Isn't he? Isn't he Lops and Gene Grace kid. No, that's cable shit. That's right. Don't worry. I'm here for you. Moose. I'm right here for you. 

I've been at, I've [00:17:00] been at a comics game for quite some time. I had a more like, is somebody's kid. Those Magneto's kid or who the hell is he? No, he's a, with the infinity watch on the infinity stones. He was in a, the guardians of the galaxy three, the gold looking guy. Yeah. I don't think I don't think I don't think I saw three. 

I'm very behind on the on the MCU. Very behind. No worries. But no, he's not Cyclops is anybody's son, but he's one of the carriers of the Infinity Stones. Gotcha. Powering created by his mother Aisha is a living weapon designed to kill the guardians of the galaxy. Okay. Okay. But again, that speaks to my point. 

One of the lesser known characters in the Marvel universe, and they still chose to include him in the game. In the [00:18:00] game. Yeah, but yeah, I was about to say your point in motion right there and wait, Adam Warlock, who the hell is that guy again? Hey, who the hell is Adam Warlock? Yeah, we're bringing in like Penny Parker. 

Like you said, Adam Warlock, and realistically as absolutely broken and overpowered as she is in the Marvel Universe. Not a lot of people know about Squirrel Girl. I have to sing, I have to sing the praises of her quite frequently. I'm like, do you realize how, she's like one of the most powerful motherfuckers in the universe you're kidding me? 

You need to know who this is. Toe to toe with Thanos. What's it like ultra, wow, I almost called it ultra, something in Final Fantasy VI. Haha, did you want to like Galactus or somebody else? He absolutely just bombed on like a galaxy level being. Practically one shot him in one of the comics. 

Ah, I have to God, I've been out of this for way too long. I got my very [00:19:00] scattered remnants of information that live in the back of my head. I just know I love her. 

Who was that? Fangfang Fu? No, you said you say cosmic power. Yeah, let's see. I know. I know she beat Deadpool, Kraven. 

Who do we have here? Dr. Doom. She beat Dr. Doom, Korvec, Ego, The Living Planet, Galactus. And Thanos, all right. Yeah, 

she's broken 

now. I mentioned before we started this, we were and we were talking about how at launch, they're going to have 33 characters, [00:20:00] but. With all the characters that they released I counted 34, and this kind of made me think that possibly Cloak and Dagger may be one character. Okay. Got my interest there. 

Either that, or I'm hoping they get rid of Jeff the Landshark, but they already said that he's playable. Yeah no, they ain't getting rid of them. No, they better not. I will not install this game if they do not let my boy Jeff shine. 

With that, when they, in this latest trailer that I refer back to again, with the launch trailer that they just released this week, they had, the only two that were together in the announcement was Cloak and Dagger. Iron Fist had his own, their little spotlight when they introduced the new characters. 

Moon Knight had his own Hawkeye had his own, [00:21:00] Squirrel Girl, Wolverine, and then it was like Cloak and Dagger. So I'm thinking that would be an interesting mechanic to have both of them play as one. Oh yeah, no, that absolutely, I, yeah, yet another gimmick character and I'm, I love me a gimmick. 

So that would be cool too. 

I actually haven't seen anything from them. You say it was part of the official launch trailer? Yeah, I don't think they have anything else on them outside of that they were announced. 

Yeah, it just looks like a brief cutaway to them real quick. Okay, yeah, you got my interest there. 

Or two days ago, they released the trailer, [00:22:00] not this week. Oh yeah, it, man, time and time has no relevance, man. Your last week could be yesterday, as far as I'm concerned, man, I got no clue.