One of the impressive things about Marvel Rivals on launch day was its massive roster of heroes and supervillains. From Spider-Man to Hela, each character looked and felt great to play as, and developer NetEase has ambitious plans to expand its cast of characters regularly. The studio aims to add two new characters in every future season, alongside updates, new maps, and more story content.
“Every season we’ll be rolling out fresh seasonal stories, new maps, and new heroes. We’ll actually be breaking down each season into two halves,” game director Guangyun Chen said to Metro. “The length of one season is three months. And for each half of the season, we will introduce a new hero. We just eventually want to continue to enhance the experience, and, you know, keep everyone excited in our community.”
The first Dracula-themed season of Marvel Rivals has kicked off and will see the Fantastic Four added to the game. Two members of Marvel’s first family, Mister Fantastic and Susan “The Invisible Woman” Storm, are already available, and the Human Torch and The Thing will join them at a later date.
Marvel Rivals | Official “Rivals ‘Til the End” Cinematic Launch Trailer
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Two new heroes per season is quite the undertaking, especially when compared to the main source of inspiration behind Marvel Rivals, Overwatch. There was no set schedule for when a new character would be added to Overwatch after its 2014 release, but it’s worth noting that each new hero–or villain–in the game would be teased for months before release and they were typically accompanied by animatics fleshing them out when they debuted.
For Marvel Rivals, the challenge for NetEase is to reinforce what makes each hero or villain feel unique, as well as how they can synergize with teammates when using the game’s team-up feature. In case you missed it, the first big update for Marvel Rivals recently went live, adding several buffs and nerfs to the game.
Hela and Hawkeye have had their damage output adjusted, Storm will benefit from increased projectile speed and damage tweaks, and several Vanguard characters are being buffed so that they can keep fighting for longer.