It feels like the exact opposite to me - Kuuga's forms all seem like re-colored suits, I had to look at the picture again to remember that the chest plates and shoulder pieces are different.

Also, while Kuuga does form changing in a superb and outstanding way, I want to break a lance for Kiva here: His form changes are tied to actual characters he interacts with. Yes, the way they turn into weapons is kind of goofy, but I like how they formed a bond with Wataru, and how it all tied into the past.

This all comes together very nicely in the scene where they help Wataru to control the Zanbat Sword.

It feels weird, I like Kuuga much more than Kiva overall, but I guess I’m rooting for the underdog here.

I think I'll add Wizard to the mix since he has a similar set-up, and in my mind it goes Kuuga > Kiva > Wizard in terms of general aesthetics. Though Wizard's Dragon forms are a much cooler upgrade than Kuuga's Rising forms in my opinion.

I will be honest, I have not seen Kiva. It is nice to have the form changes tied to characters and character progression. However going beyond suits, Kiva's weapons I think are also lamer. What is it, dagger, gun, and hammer? All in the Kiva lots of detail style, bleh. But like I said before I am biased towards Kuuga in a big way

Kuuga's Rising forms only show up for like 30 seconds or whatever the time limit is sadly. So aside from outside merchandise like figuarts and the like, not a lot of opportunity to see them.

I always felt like Kuuga got its idea of having multiple forms from Ultraman Tiga. Both shows even came out over a decade after their last show ended (Ultraman 80 and Black RX).

It's more likely it was just expanding on what Black RX already did, considering RX had the Robo Rider and Bio Rider forms.

I'd have to go look this up again to be sure, but I believe what lead to Kuuga having multiple forms was one of the many, many rejected concepts they went through before landing on the show we got that was called Kamen Rider XV (read as "cross vee"), which would have had multiple Riders before Ryuki made it cool. Ultimately that idea morphed into having one protagonist who just had a bunch of looks for whatever reasons.

I'd be surprised if guys like Tiga and RX weren't on their minds at some point, though.

How do you like your secondary riders to be introduced?
I just watched Build and Ghost, and recently I started Agito, and they both began with the secondary rider being introduced from the start. While they did do things different (Banjou didn't transform until the first quarter was finished, while G3 appeared before Agito), they were both established at the start of the series, giving them a dynamic with the main hero from the starting line.

Meanwhile, there are series such as Drive and Double, which introduces our secondary hero after the first quarter, meaning their dynamic as characters has to start weeks after we've gotten accustomed to the main hero.

So, I'm curious if you prefer the secondary rider to be introduced once we've had a chance to see our main hero go about it solo, or would you like to seem them together at the starting line, since often times the duo work well bouncing off each other with their contrasting personalities, making things interesting?
Additionally, if you prefer the latter, do you like to see it akin to Kabuto or Build, where our soon to be secondary spends a good amount of time unable to transform, so we still get that chemistry while also seeing the hero work alone, or do you prefer it like Ex-Aid or Ryuki, where the secondary is a rider at the start, for some double rider action from the word go?

Whatever works for the series, really. G3-X, Chalice, Cross-Z and Birth are all some of my favourite Secondary Riders for very very different reasons.

But if you asked me to pick, I would say that I have a soft spot for the 'classic, traditional' way of doing it -- introduce a new character about a third into the show. W, OOO and Fourze all stuck by this; and they're very formula driven shows that KNOW what they're doing with that formula and made it work. Accel, Birth and Meteor all stick out in my mind for a reason.

Though also, like, one of my favourite Kamen Rider characters ever is Banjou Cross-Z? And I kind of love "character introduced early on through their development eventually gets the power to become a Kamen Rider".

I really liked Kagami, Gotoh, and Banjou's road to riderdom. They were introduced from the start but earned their place as a rider after a few trials and tribulations. And whether the show they were each in sucked or not, the viewer gets to learn about them and see the growth making their debut as riders all the more satisfying when it happens.

OK before we go to the next page.... now the current page number is... 555!

Oh well, scratch that, I have a question: What's the true purpose of Pause?

So as we know in Ex-Aid DAN KUROTO-SHIN DA's own creation (Cronus, especially the Pause) turned against him (and other protags) via his father that hijacked Cronus as Patient Zero and used Bugvisor (only compartible with Bugsters and Patient Zeroes) to henshin so he can activate Pause ability with A and B button.

And then in Episode 43 we see how Cronus work with Gamer Driver via Taiga. He can't use Pause at all, although it shows other abilities of Cronus of summoning lv. 2 Rider weapons.

Cronus was intended for Ride-Players to face Gamedeus. But Ride-Players can't use Bugvisor because they aren't Bugsters (dunno if full progressing through Chronicle will grant you immunity like Patient Zero). But as we've known, even if they can use Bugvisor, Pause is useless against Gamedeus.