Guessed by @Veknoid_Outcast
The game I can't stop playing as we speak.
I first played Rivals of Aether II a few months ago. Friend of mine was a backer and so I got a chance to play the beta on his computer, I fell in love pretty much instantly. For those who don't know, I used to be a competitive Smash Bros. player, but I quit after falling out of love with Ultimate during the pandemic years. I never saw myself getting back into a competitive game as I felt like I lost that edge, but this game surprised me in every way. I'd played the first Rivals of Aether before but it never fully clicked with me. This one though, it clicked from the moment I picked up the controller. It's just so much fun. Fleet is my main and I love playing her (but I hate fighting everyone too!).
I feel like adding this here so soon is a bit of a "cheater pick" though, because honestly, this game is in early access. The devs won't admit it, but everyone knows. There's only a few characters, barely any content, and the devs themselves have said they're holding back on console releases until they have some story content out. Still, I love playing this even if I'm always raging at my screen with every match that goes by. And I'm sure it'll only keep getting better and better over the years.
I think my main drive to becoming a competitor in this game was the idea of meeting new people, and being part of a community again. I've been in desperate need of those things... Couple months into it though, and I feel like that idea was misguided. I guess it's in the nature of online-centric games that people, well, they don't really care at all about each other. Were this to become over the years what Smash was to me back in the day, maybe it'll go much higher in the list, but we'll see.
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