For all the talk about artistic merit some of the art sure is garbage. Some of those "cutscenes" look like they were made in five minutes, backgrounds don't look great even if they scroll nicely, character art is dotted here and there with things like sausage fingers and lopsided breasts and even things like flinching, falls and some special moves have so few frames of animation that they look like paper cut outs on sticks.

The game is rough around the edges. Since Skull Girls' announcement, I generally disliked the character design and I continue to do so. 8-4 Play's recent episode talked about how the music is awesome and created by the help of a Castlevania composer, but I don't think it's all that special. I also don't like the writing in the game's Story Mode.

That said, though, the actual gameplay's a lot of fun. The netcode's also excellent, which I appreciate.

@Detrian said:

For all the talk about artistic merit some of the art sure is garbage. Some of those "cutscenes" look like they were made in five minutes, backgrounds don't look great even if they scroll nicely, character art is dotted here and there with things like sausage fingers and lopsided breasts and even things like flinching, falls and some special moves have so few frames of animation that they look like paper cut outs on sticks.

The backgrounds and cutscenes are some of the best I've seen in a game. So of it reminds me of impressionistic art. Big obvious brush strokes e.t.c.

I hate to play Skullgirls defense force but on a specialist video games website, it's disappointing to see how close minded some people are being about a small release like this.

soo.. hows the single player? Is it as good as MK?

The lack of an in-game move list is really annoying but I don't really agree with your AI is hard thing and I'm pretty bad as far as fighting games go.

I mean after completing the tutorial mode I was able to beat the computer on the hardest difficulty. Sure I wasn't able to do it consistently but I was able to do it.

@niamahai said:

soo.. hows the single player? Is it as good as MK?

No, not really. Every character has their own path, but despite the final ending talking about a path where all the earlier ones converge, there doesn't seem to be one, so it's a little bit of a bummer for an ending. A lot of the endings also depict the characters in the middle of new fights or adventures, and while I suppose it's good to see them keep going, I would prefer closure in stead. If you have read the characters' bios on their site, you already know more details about them than are told in their stories, for the most part.

Miss Fortune is painfully hard even on Sleepwalk, but as a completre amateur, I thought the others were bearable. Painwheel was consistently easy to beat.

I like how people complain about the art direction but also totally disregard the actual quality of the animation.

That is to say the animation is amazing in every way and deserves far more recognition.

I will agree with the AI, it's abysmal. Instead of games like Blazblue or MK where really only the final bosses gave me any kind of "trouble" on normal, even on Easy, I can be outzoned to death by Parasoul/Peacock, they're not afraid to bust out a 18-hit combo on you and whatnot. Granted I am using a 360 controller and don't play fighting games that often but holy shit, easy is supposed to be easy not Evo wannabe difficulty

@Mystyr_E said:

Evo wannabe difficulty

I love this... this needs to catch on.

Ms. Fortune's AI is a motherfucker! I'm trying to beat Parasoul's story mode and I can't get past the first fight on sleepwalk. I know I'm not very good at fighting games but I'm not that bad.

Sorry to say man, you sound like someone who's used to playing lego batman and then trying ninja gaiden and complaining that the developers miss stepped on the game because it was too hard.

I'm pretty sure this game was meant for serious fighting game people, not for the casuals at all. That's the impression I got from day one. Might want to go back to Mortal Kombat or something.. upper cut -> upper cut -> Throw -> Win.

@Phyrlord said:

Sorry to say man, you sound like someone who's used to playing lego batman and then trying ninja gaiden and complaining that the developers miss stepped on the game because it was too hard.

I'm pretty sure this game was meant for serious fighting game people, not for the casuals at all. That's the impression I got from day one. Might want to go back to Mortal Kombat or something.. upper cut -> upper cut -> Throw -> Win.

Oh God you've gotten smug all over my monitor. Ewww.

@CableCarrier said:

@Phyrlord said:

Sorry to say man, you sound like someone who's used to playing lego batman and then trying ninja gaiden and complaining that the developers miss stepped on the game because it was too hard.

I'm pretty sure this game was meant for serious fighting game people, not for the casuals at all. That's the impression I got from day one. Might want to go back to Mortal Kombat or something.. upper cut -> upper cut -> Throw -> Win.

Oh God you've gotten smug all over my monitor. Ewww.

Yeah a little smug I guess, no offense intended. People constantly complain about how games are being dumbed down too much. Then we have developers to who want to appeal to the people are are desperate for difficult games. And when they do, you have people who think it's ridiculous that they can't beat it or enjoy it.

@Phyrlord said:

@CableCarrier said:

@Phyrlord said:

Sorry to say man, you sound like someone who's used to playing lego batman and then trying ninja gaiden and complaining that the developers miss stepped on the game because it was too hard.

I'm pretty sure this game was meant for serious fighting game people, not for the casuals at all. That's the impression I got from day one. Might want to go back to Mortal Kombat or something.. upper cut -> upper cut -> Throw -> Win.

Oh God you've gotten smug all over my monitor. Ewww.

Yeah a little smug I guess, no offense intended. People constantly complain about how games are being dumbed down too much. Then we have developers to who want to appeal to the people are are desperate for difficult games. And when they do, you have people who think it's ridiculous that they can't beat it or enjoy it.

I can't believe in the Skullgirls quicklook that Jeff and Brad were annoyed about the fact that when you mess up doing a set of three training actions it'll reset. That's how dumbed down games have become, people expect to just get led by the hand through a game trying to teach you something.

@el_tajij said:

people expect to just get led by the hand through a game trying to teach you something.

well, yeah...

@TechHits said:

@el_tajij said:

people expect to just get led by the hand through a game trying to teach you something.

well, yeah...

"You screwed up the combo! ......Ah, well. Don't worry about it. Everyone online is really nice, if you mess up your combo they'll stop playing and let you have another go!"

@TechHits said:

@el_tajij said:

people expect to just get led by the hand through a game trying to teach you something.

well, yeah...

"You screwed up the combo! ......Ah, well. Don't worry about it. Everyone online is really nice, if you mess up your combo they'll stop playing and let you have another go!"

@el_tajij said:

@TechHits said:

@el_tajij said:

people expect to just get led by the hand through a game trying to teach you something.

well, yeah...

"You screwed up the combo! ......Ah, well. Don't worry about it. Everyone online is really nice, if you mess up your combo they'll stop playing and let you have another go!".

you're not playing online, it was in the "basics" tutorial.

@TechHits said:

@el_tajij said:

@TechHits said:

@el_tajij said:

people expect to just get led by the hand through a game trying to teach you something.

well, yeah...

"You screwed up the combo! ......Ah, well. Don't worry about it. Everyone online is really nice, if you mess up your combo they'll stop playing and let you have another go!".

you're not playing online, it was in the "basics" tutorial.

If you can't do the 'basics' three times in a row without messing up, should the game really let you progress? I'm not saying it's not annoying, but playing the TUTORIAL and complaining that the game is trying to TEACH you to get it right seems pretty silly to me.

For all the complaints I heard about outrageous difficulty in this game, I found both the Sleepwalk and Easy difficulty settings to be really easy, outside of Ms. Fortune who went berserk one time and messed me up all over the stage. Even the boss, which is basically projectile spam for days, ended up being pretty damn simple to beat. I was pleasantly surprised by that, because I'm pretty awful at fighting games. If it can't be accomplished by blocking and jumping in and attacking, I'm usually helpless.

And as far as the tutorial mode goes, I thought it worked great. It makes you actually perform the action consistently, on demand, so that you can move to the next exercise. I like that. I didn't finish, because I can't pull off that air-combo cancel into special and then into a super that they wanted, but does that mean I think the tutorial was bad? Nah, it was great, I just don't have the patience for air combos.

@el_tajij: I think you said it perfectly in the first post. People expect to be led by the hand through the game. The tutorial should be helpful, not a test to see what you can and can't do. Skullgirls doesn't teach you it tests you.

@TechHits said:

@el_tajij: I think you said it perfectly in the first post. People expect to be led by the hand through the game. The tutorial should be helpful, not a test to see what you can and can't do. Skullgirls doesn't teach you it tests you.

I'm not entirely sure why you're disputing that as unhelpful. It explains what to do and then has you perform it three times in succession, making sure you can do it and not just fluke it. That seems like a good way to learn. At the end of doing it three times, you won't be ready to take on the world but it's a start. I get the feeling with the hype for the tutorial people are expecting to play through the tutorials and suddenly be amazing at fighting games.

Realistically, I think Jeff said that about the 'three in succession' in the quicklook because he's playing in front of an audience.

@TechHits said:

@el_tajij: I think you said it perfectly in the first post. People expect to be led by the hand through the game. The tutorial should be helpful, not a test to see what you can and can't do. Skullgirls doesn't teach you it tests you.

What's more helpful, letting you mash your way through without verifying that you actually know what you're doing, or forcing you to prove you understand what the game is trying to teach you?