For me it is because it just simply looks cleaner after playing fighting games for so long. Animation just has this charm to it for me that I don’t get with the 3D stuff. Especially when it’s done in the heavy frame count that this game has it at.
Plus it makes it easier for me to see where the corners are and stuff. The shifting cameras in Marvel and SF is a real turn off for me when trying to know where the corners are for combos and mix ups and what not. The hit boxes seem like they are done much more accurately than in SFIV also. Which is what I’m used to from playing 3S which had very accurate hit box collisions for the most part.
Taste is hard to argue with, I guess its partially because I’ve really been coming around on the 2.5d animation style, like if you cut out the annoying as fuck choices (stupid camera shifting, I totally hate that too, it only works in slower games like Tekken), the models actually look amazing, and are soooo smoothly animated, its really something.
Hitboxes are more than a little hard with the 3d models, because it gets really wonky if you try to just match it to the polys (best example of this is MK style sweeps, where the attack spends a LOT of time out of axis)
People should buy skullgirls because they spent time balancing the game. For example, Painwheel’s flight assist was so good you may call it broken; but then they fixed and she got better.
I’m not interested in the game based on the art style and the fact that I find none of the characters appealing, but I’ll buy it anyway to support it and try it out. I may just end up liking it.
You know, I had pretty much the same opinion as the OP for the longest time. It’s a project that stems from the heart of the community, it’s developed by someone who really knows fighting games, it seems to be meticulously crafted and balanced from the correct perspective. But you know what, in the end the anime girls were just too much. Fighting and violence are manly, and these are more than just social/society induced stereotypes. They are male in philosophical essence. The entire aesthetic of this game is devoid of manlines. It is a feminized fantasy that seems to revel in its own weak wristed inadequacy (under the guise perhaps of breaking boundaries, or open-mindedness, or some other equally meaningless meme). It’s no surprise that the most vocal supporters (especially of the game’s “moral” concerns) all seem to be gigantic weeaboos or some such.
There’s a reason fighting games attract such a large proportion of males even in this day and age of usurped sexual roles and gender equality. To fight, struggle and hence succeed is quintessentially male; pointing out exceptions only proves the rule. The struggle for absolute power and absolute perfection inspire, and some of our natural instincts towards violence are perhaps channeled vicariously into these fighting game characters; especially when they seem to be selfless (hence the appeal of Ryu, Kenshiro etc.). A “strong female” in a videogame will almost always be some dude’s sexual fantasy rather than something which naturally feels valid to most people. Now from a rational point of view its easy to say none of these things are important, but being rational is overrated. All of the above is felt rather than said, hence the tendency for supporters to say that detractors have some sort of personal hangups about the game.
I’m not saying Skullgirls isn’t worth supporting - it is - but no one should feel inferior or end up banking on an argument of “that’s just my opinion” for their distaste. I think it will hurt the game. Not much, but it will. I’ve held back on expressing this clearly because of how it will be perceived as blatant misogyny, but now that release is on the threshold and hype is way up there I don’t think I’m getting in the way.