• Welcome to Smashboards, the world's largest Super Smash Brothers community! Over 250,000 Smash Bros. fans from around the world have come to discuss these great games in over 19 million posts!

    You are currently viewing our boards as a visitor. Click here to sign up right now and start on your path in the Smash community!

Elliana and Sylvanos Released as DLC for Rivals of Aether

Sylvanos and Elliana.jpg
The team behind Rivals of Aether have released their fourth and fifth DLC characters, Sylvanos and the newly-revealed Elliana. For more information about Sylvanos, you can refer to our coverage of his announcement.

As for Elliana, we got our first glimpse at her at the end of the Rivals Direct, hosted by Adam Carra. While most of the stream was dedicated to various April Fools jokes, the event finished off with a proper character reveal.

Elliana, The Aerial Arsenal


The trailer tells us a bit about Elliana's backstory - a snake who wanted to fly, she repeatedly tried and failed to join the Air Armada, a fleet of raiders with flying ships. Even after finally passing their flight test with a contraption of hers, she was immediately kicked out. Not deterred, she travels to the town of Julesvale in search of help in building a flying machine and enlists the help of a rabbit named Ayala.

After the two finish building their machine, Ayala heads off to bed, warning Elliana that the flying machine can't fly for very long without overheating. When she returns to the workshop, she's shocked to find that Elliana has outfitted the machine with weaponry, and it's revealed that Elliana's goal is no longer to join the Air Armada - she wants to destroy it.

Mechanically, Elliana is Rivals' most unusual character yet. She cannot double jump, but instead has a hover mechanic similar to R.O.B.'s up-special in Smash Bros. Both her dash-attack and forward-tilt are multi-hit attacks that can be held indefinitely, and her strong attacks, which release lingering clouds of steam that damage opponents, can be used both on the ground and in the air.

Both her neutral and side-specials are aimable projectiles. Her neutral special is a rocket fist that can fire in any direction and explodes after flying a set distance, while her side-special is a missile that can change its trajectory in the air like Pit's arrows. It can also be charged in order to launch a larger missile that can't curve as much.

Elliana's down-special places a sticky bomb on either the ground or on opponents if she's close enough. Once it's been placed, she can either use down-special again to remove it and place a new one somewhere else, or detonate it with her side-special.

Her up-special has her abandoning ship, launching her out of her mech and leaving it to explode. While in the air, she can only wall-jump and air dodge, and she immediately builds a new mech upon landing. You can also hold down on the analog stick to shorten the distance Elliana travels.

Like Sylvanos, Elliana has a passive mechanic - hovering, using the held version of forward-tilt or dash attack, or using her neutral, side or down-special fills up the meter above her, while her strong attacks drain it.

Once the meter is full, her mech overheats, preventing her from performing any action that would normally fill the meter. Her strong attacks will continue to drain the meter, but will produce bursts of flame rather than clouds of steam. Likewise, she can empty the meter entirely with her up-special.

Other Changes

Alongside the two new characters, the update comes with plenty of other changes. Notable changes include simultaneous support for DirectInput and xInput controllers, a new neutral air animation for Wrastor, altered trajectory for the shards on Etalus' armored strong attacks and improved tipper hitboxes for Clairen. The full list of changes can be found in the official patch notes.

To celebrate the release of the new DLC, Rivals is also having its biggest sale yet: the game itself is on sale for only $5 on Steam, and all previous DLC is being sold for 50% off for the next week.
 
Scribe

Comments

Interesting how both "villains" aren't so clear cut. Sylvanos is a primal force of nature with no concept of right or wrong, while Elliana is more of an antihero with a grudge!

Rivals has picked up quite the eclectic cast thanks to its DLC. So now we wait for the second guest fighter...and then the Switch port beyond that.
 
Sylvanos looks like a really unique character while Eliana reminds a little bit of Bowser: jr (not like a clone, but with the concept of being in a viechle)
 
please help...

there's gotta be somebody... ANYBODY... who got reminded of Earthworm Jim (earthworm controlling a super bodysuit, complete with raygun) after looking at Elliana (a snake piloting a mech, which Bowser Jr would love a replica to ride in)
 
Interesting how both "villains" aren't so clear cut. Sylvanos is a primal force of nature with no concept of right or wrong, while Elliana is more of an antihero with a grudge!

Rivals has picked up quite the eclectic cast thanks to its DLC. So now we wait for the second guest fighter...and then the Switch port beyond that.
Elliana has a real Spider-Man villain sort of origin, haha.
 
Top Bottom