The ultimate question, it seems to me, is whether this game will turn a profit. Judging by the enthusiastic response and support of a large segment of the existing FGC, I don’t think they’ll have any problems on that score.
Don’t take it personally. That was meant to be a rethorical question, nothing more. Sorry if I wasn’t clear enough on that.
But anyway, my point is, Skullgirls will probably never become mainstream and reach the same levels of popularity as SF, Tekken or Marvel, but as I’ve said before, I’m actually okay with that, as long as the game is financially sucessful and develops a small but dedicated scene. Being a KOF XIII fan yourself, I hope you’ll understand that. 
If this game becomes the new Guilty Gear of our time, that’s good enough. That game used to bring the same numbers as 3rd Strike during majors back in the day and 3rd Strike was the biggest game during them.
3rd Strike and Guilty Gear, the good old days.
It will be what KOF13 wants to be actually. That other game outside of the big Capcom games that gets all the hype. Which won’t be too surprising since the game is very old school Capcom at heart.
I can kinda see it, though. All-girl games like AH or Variable Geo seem to be pretty “pure” in their sleazy intentions to pander to a certain kind of male audience. Whereas SG seems just as bad or worse, but it has a sort of satire feel to it that makes you think they’re not taking it seriously.
Its a bit like Bayonetta, I guess. On paper it looks like sleazy sexism, but in practice her character design was done by a woman, and she’s actually quite unattractive and unsexy really. Librarian with ugly hair 
I’m so not digging Bayonetta >_>
There are so many things about her that just seems… unnecessary. Posings… lolipops… glasses… swears in this games were most unnecessary ones I ever heard sigh
And it isn’t stylish. You know, DMC3 stylish. Except for the fly me to the moon song. That one was really good =3
SG characters on the other hand are funny or stylish or cool at the very least.
For me what i liked about AH from the art side is that it had every anime girl personality that you would see in most Anime
Well, stylish is in the eye of the beholder
But I agree Bayonetta was terrible style-wise. But not sexist-terrible, (like say, X-Blades) just terrible generally. Like that Danny Devito character, ugh.
Yeah, but so has pretty much every other moe-based game 
Yo, X-blades is russian game btw. I’m terribly sorry for it. Take my apologies <=[
Zeech’s not the only one to compare this game to Bayonetta, but I’d have to disagree and say that Bayonetta is very stylish in the same way Dante is, it’s very over-the-top and… stupid stylish. The difference between the two games is that Bayonetta can be pretty akward to watch at times, but it’s pretty intentional about it in every way, and it’s humorous if you’re really laidback about it and give it a chance.
Most people are thrown off because it’s humorous and sexual it is at the same time, you either don’t get it’s humor, or just get put off pretty early by it to actually give it a chance. Like Skullgirls, it really doesn’t take the sexual undertones, overtones, or whatever too seriously.
The gameplay and content are another beast entirely… I clocked in over 300 hours in Bayonetta… a freakin’ action game. Here’s a video of a dude explaining in great detail why he thinks the character, Bayonetta, is awesome. It’s actually really relevant to the sexualization of fighting game girls too.
Well. I’m not bashing Bayonetta. I’m more inclined to like it than not. And I clearly can see that the game has its own style. The thing is - said style doesn’t seems too awesome for me personally. When zeech mentioned that Bayonetta as character design was created by woman I suddenly get an idea: it’s natural for me to dig DMC3’s Dante because he is like an epitome of ideal hero for a boy. Like you know if boy is dreaming to be a cool and mighty hero - he will be like Dante. I mean just look at him. It’s super easy for me to associate myself with him. But Bayonetta is a woman. She’s almighty heroine, yes, but she’s feminine and sensitive at the same time. So if you look at her as a heroine role-model for female players it will actually make sense. Storyline is kinda support it too - there is romance in it and Bayonetta having maternal feelings to a girl is portrayed as caring person. I can’t speak for female gamers but I think that those things are making main character, story and overall style of the game more appealing to female players, not male. It’s not like I was alienated by it - no - but it’s clear that more “boyish” game such as DMC3 will fit my tastes better.
…And I still think that use of swears in Bayonetta doesn’t make sense >_> It’s like Roden and Luka are trying to be cool but… sigh It wasn’t working for me.
As for gameplay - I’m not digging chain combo system. Dante’s cancels are closer to my taste.
I didn’t mean that you can’t dislike some of the aspects in Bayonetta, not so saint sorry if my post came off thay way.
I’m not much for story in action games, and I agree that I liked Dante more. But I also recognize that like Bayonetta, Dante’s dialogue is absurdly corny and the designers took so many cliches and was molded a character out of them. Rodin is the obviously the ultimate badass, …simply because he references the shopkeeper in RE4. But honestly, I don’t see how Dante’s forced, cliched badassery is different that Rodin’s.
At the risk of getting off topic…(Too late?) I was just expressing my undying love for the game. I really like DMC3 (my poor, poor thumbs…,) but I liked Bayonetta more as a game. I could go really in-depth into this, but other than tiny gameplay tweaks like auto-fire guns (saved my thumbs), I really enjoyed the wicked weave system, since it was more flexible. It was much less restricting in how you preformed your combos, you could cancel out of everything and resume the combo after your dodge… so delicious. It also was a genius idea to let you continue your combos by letting you fire yours guns while dodging.
The skill sealing in Bayonetta is also through the roof, while at the same time it was easy enough to Silver your way through Normal. I felt that the only restrictions to your playstyle in Bayonetta where the elements in the increased difficulty, because shorter combos where rewarded, and also the monster properties, since a lot of the middle weight monsters needed to be combo’d in the air. At the end of Bayonetta, I had my enemies stunned by flying nunchucks while I went in for the kill with some of the most assorted weaponry and combos in an action game.
It’s not like I was apologizing - just cleared some moments =]
As for Dante’s cliched badassery - yeah, you can see that he is ridiculously, over-the-top almighty. Like Chuck Norris level badass. It doesn’t mean to be serious too and like I said - it seems to be boy-oriented: fuck common sense I’m so cool I’m riding rockets woooooo! =P
It’s partly wow-factor, partly your will to associate yourself with him [also dialogues was kinda witty. I still hate DMC4 for worse lines >_>]
I can’t commentate on Bayonetta’s engine though. I always was bad at avoiding hits and in Bayonetta it’s kinda crucial. Also my beef with combo system is that unique attacks are tied with combos. So if you want to pull something off, you need apply full combo first. Although as I said I didn’t go really in-depth with Bayonetta… I didn’t even beat final boss ;_; So I kinda have no right to speak about game’s systems.
As a guy I really really dislike the devil may cry characters. They are ‘cool’ in that uncool little schoolboy way from my perspective, elecric guitars and ludicrous ice attacks all over the shop, silly blue velvet trench coats, douchebaggery in their script. My fave fighting game chaaracter design is Hazama; I like how subtle everything about him is, from the way he is dressed through to how lazy his movements are, how preoccupied he is with keeping his hat on top of his head during any airborne animations. Then suddenly he’s all like ‘SEPRENT’S INFERNAL RAPTURE’ and goes from being ultra lazy to dealing out one of the most powerful individual hits in the entire game.
I guess I just like subtler characters.
Ah, yeah. Full combos generally only work on the tiny enemies that actually get stunned by basic attacks. Punch Kick Punch is basically like a fireball in Bayonetta, really safe, had a huge hitbox, but you didn’t get any points for originality. Worked really great on randoms and bosses alike with the Katana. You also got a shield accessory that was accessible in the shop that would cover you pretty well.
Games really need in-depth tutorials so you can understand things like this, I recently had a conversation with a buddy about how I couldn’t get through Dead Space 2 because I didn’t understand how to conserve ammo.
Good thing Skullgirls will have an ever-expanding tutorial.
Yeah, I don’t think so either.
I have all the confidence in the world that SG will be a genuinely good game, but realistically…let’s just say that over here in Europe I’m having trouble finding players for hours on end in any fighting game as is, so when I hear the word “niche” I kind of lose hope. There’s just no one to play against. Hell, even playing bigger titles such as UMvC3 and SSF4 there are times when I can’t find a match for several hours. Now imagine games like GG, BB, KOF. And those already have an established playerbase.
I bet the game won’t be doing badly for an “indie” release in the US, but people in the EU are going to get bored looking for that other dude who has the game real fast.
:shake:
Vergil is quite subtle actually… At least for a DMC character =]
IDK, in MVC3 they are kinda out of context. Also Dante is behaving like DMC4’s Dante, not DMC3’s >_> Which is bad.
And speaking about more subtle characters - do you know Garou’s Freeman? This guy is crazy =]
Oh, man I’ll never shut up about this feature. Seriously.
Hah, I guess its all in the eye of the beholder. Although I do like Hazama, to me he’s a bit of a cliche as well. I guess because he’s an anime archetype so you see that all the time. I dont find him subtle that much since he’s all like, “im a sinister yet sarcastic sneaky bad guy… AND NOW I’M ALL CRAZY GYAHAHA.”
I like Dante because he’s a bit of an everyman in terms of his looks and personality. He’s not a hoo-rah space marine, he’s not an ice-cold killer, he’s not an angsty teen, etc. He’s just a regular guy with a sense of humor who just happens to have superhuman skills and powers. I guess because of those powers, he’s cocky and a douche, but hey, I would be too if it was me His douchiness is exaggerated at the start of dmc3 to show his growth to slightly-reduced douchiness at the end of that game. And I like the older version seen in dmc4, who seems pretty confident and mature but still likes to play around. To me, his subtlety is what lies underneath his whooping and silly antics. I get a kinda “City Hunter” vibe from him.
I live in Australia, so my situation is maybe similar (although we have a fairly active offline scene here?)
I think the key to enjoyment is to find 2-3 people who play the game and have decent pings to you, make friends with them, and then arrange times to play. Just relying on hopping on and doing quickmatch is not going to work. Sure, you dont have a variety of opponents, but playing against people you know can be more fun especially if you are improving together.
If console GGPO can be as good as the PC Client, EU and AUS guys might have hope playing people further out.
From what I hear, and assuming it’s all true, skullgirls on should do better than the PC client for GGPO, because no implementation of GGPO has been done with a game with it in mind during development from the inception, and that’s apparently where most of the things that are wrong with it lie. I’m not expecting skullgirls to be perfect, but from what I hear, because skullgirls was designed with GGPO in mind, it should be a lot smoother than any other implementation of GGPO.