When compared to other hero shooters, Marvel Rivals is launching with a massive roster that compares to other titles years after launch. For context, Rivals has been released with an impressive thirty-three hero roster, up from the Playtest's twenty-three, which would have been more than big enough to launch most hero shooters. Compare this with Overwatch 1's launch roster of twenty-one heroes, and it is easy to see that Marvel Rivals is going big with practically every element. A roster of thirty-three is a far-cry from where hero shooters originally came from.

Team Fortress 2 is credited with being the first, big hero shooter that set the standard, while Overwatch is credited with making the genre mainstream, winning 2016 GOTY at the Game Awards. TF2 has classes, and considering its 2007 launch, the game only has nine of them, yet to hit double figures. Marvel Rivals looks bigger and bigger with its immense launch roster, although it has some way to go before it reaches Paladins' fifty-nine champions. With all the character leaks, Marvel Rivals' roster could reach Paladins' numbers faster than expected.

Marvel Rivals Is Getting A Lot More New Heroes

The Roster Is Growing At A Rapid Rate

As soon as the game launched, dataminers were at work combing through the files to search for where Marvel Rivals will go in the future. Pair this with leaks, with RivalsLeaks on X being the source of many of them, and it is clear that NetEase isn't slowing down at all. Twelve characters have already been leaked to the roster: Angela, Blade, Captain Marvel, Emma Frost, Hit-Monkey, Jean Grey AKA Phoenix, Johnny Storm AKA Human Torch, Knull, Mister Fantastic, Susan Storm AKA Invisible Woman, The Thing, and Ultron.

According to Marvel Rivals - Leaks, Susan Storm and The Thing are the least developed of The Fantastic Four, and Susan is going to be a Strategist.

Some of these characters already have artwork done for them and are at different levels in their development. Like with the launch roster, there is a mix of obscure characters, like Angela, Odin's daughter and an angel, and Hit-Monkey, a hit man who's a monkey, for some reason, and popular ones, like The Fantastic Four. It isn't clear how these characters will be added and if they will be added in batches, since Thor and Jeff the Land Shark were added in a pair part-way through the Playtest back in August.

With Season 0 focusing on Doom, it makes sense that The Fantastic Four is on the horizon, possibly coming in altogether for Season 1 as a result of whatever the two Dooms do in the story behind the scenes. Knull has already been teased and is the source of a map objective, being mentioned by an interaction between Hela and Venom, so he could be the villain of Season 1 instead of Doom. It could be Ultron too, and it is odd that Doom is not among the leaked characters to Marvel Rivals considering his status in the game.

Adding Heroes Too Quickly Has Complications

Twelve Are Already On The Horizon

With a current roster of thirty-three, if the twelve characters that have been leaked get added within the next six months, it will probably beat Overwatch 2's roster number of forty-two. Marvel Rivals will have a roster of forty-five characters at some point, and a roster this large, especially if it expands as quickly as it looks like it will, could bring some issues with balancing. These balancing issues plagued Overwatch 1 as its roster grew, and Marvel Rivals could be making the same mistake.

Balance has already been flagged as an issue with Marvel Rivals, especially with Iron Fist; however, any competitive game will have balancing issues and complaints no matter how well it is made. League of Legends has plenty, despite being one of the biggest competitive games for a decade and a half, but adding heroes at a rapid rate could compound those problems if they aren't properly tested. There is a lot of freedom and frantic fun with Rivals at the moment, but this could change if a character like Overwatch's Brigitte is added that breaks the meta.

For context, Brigitte's inclusion resulted in Overwatch doing away with DPS characters in the competitive scene. The GOATS meta was formed, requiring three tanks and three s, with one of those s being Brigitte, resulting in role queue and thus less freedom for players to do what they wanted. Balancing became a problem for Overwatch because of its new heroes, and it could be the same if Rivals throws in all these characters without testing, but it also depends on NetEase's intent with its hero shooter and ten million strong player base.

Marvel Rivals Might Not Need To Be Perfectly Competitive

Focusing On The Majority Of Players Will Keep The Game Fun

Although Marvel Rivals has some balancing issues in its current state, it isn't restrictive and is still a lot of fun, if a bit too chaotic at times. Ultimately, it depends on what NetEase wants the game to become and where it will take it. If the focus is fun, and only fun, then it might not try to inorganically an ESports league, and thus balance or develop the game with that intent, as was the case with Overwatch. As long as the game remains fun and unrestricted with things like role queue, balancing issues here and then might not matter as much.

Another issue flagged with Marvel Rivals is its current lack of maps, although the destructible environments are a great feature of the maps.

If NetEase focuses on the majority of its players, rather than the elite few who make money through the ESport, then balancing will probably be good enough to keep the game entertaining, and it might not have to be perfectly balanced to be enjoyed if the competitive scene isn't the main focus. Smash Bros is a good example of a series that is made as a party fighter where chaos rules and fun is the name of the game, but players still enjoy the competitive scene despite this.

Marvel Rivals shouldn't isolate the larger, casual fan base to supply the competitive one that will always be there so long as the game is good. Although adding a whole host of new characters will make balancing difficult, and there will likely be a lot of patches to try to alleviate these issues, as long as there isn't a character that completely breaks the meta and the game is still fun enough for a casual audience, the title should thrive with the Marvel IP behind it. NetEase just needs to test each character thoroughly to avoid making a game-breaking character.

Source: X | Marvel Rivals - Leaks