solo guild war while my crewmates are unavailable is the single worst mode i've ever played in any video game. 10 straight hours of raids amounted to nothing because my opponent's friend woke up in the middle of the day and i had to fight 2 on 1. today at 10 pm JST i loaded up and blitzed nm95s as fast as i could while being forced to watch their honors count up at a pace just barely faster than mine, with the understanding that i would have to mindlessly play a losing battle for 2 hours straight in the possible case they might run out of meat and i might still win. they didn't, and i can't express enough how helpless and crushed i felt to see 10 whole hours of work go to waste. my 150,000,000+ honors today ended up meaning nothing, and i have to do this again the next 4 days in a row.

5 stars tho banger game see yall at the next gw 👍

this is my favorite fighting game of ALL TIME.

i'll get it out of the way right now and say i'm a huge fighting game versus fan; casual players admittedly might not get a lot from the experience apart from pretty art, music & animations since the story modes are fun, but kinda barebones. this game doesn't have much of a singleplayer experience. i won't be rating it on that, as my experiences with fighting games revolve entirely around the versus modes & community content created around the game & it's world-- i just don't play the singleplayer modes. if you love this game's atmosphere but prefer singleplayer content, the mobile version of skullgirls might be right up your alley! it's got loads more story content and lots more casual-friendly stuff while keeping the same beautiful art, animations, music and characters.

now that THAT'S out of the way...

THIS GAME'S MIXUPS ARE BASED ALMOST ENTIRELY OFF OF HOW CREATIVELY YOU CAN DROP YOUR COMBOS. HOW FUCKING COOL IS THAT? WHEN PEOPLE TALK "SELF-EXPRESSION" IN FIGHTING GAMES THEY TEND TO BE REALLY VAGUE. BUT WHEN SKULLGIRLS ENCOURAGES DROPPING YOUR COMBOS AT ANY POINT YOU WANT FOR NASTY RESETS, ALLOWS YOU TO PICK ANY NUMBER OF CHARACTERS & LETS YOU USE ANY MOVE IN ANY CHARACTER'S ARSENAL AS ASSISTS, YOU CAN'T DENY THAT WHATEVER THE FGC THINKS "SELF-EXPRESSION" IS, THIS IS PROBABLY THE PEAK OF IT

THE PERSONALITY OF THE ENTIRE CAST IS OFF THE CHARTS, EVERY CHARACTER IS SO CREATIVE IN THEIR DESIGN, STORY AND GAMEPLAY. I FUCKING LOVE BIG BAND & BEOWULF. PEACOCK IS AMAZING. I LOVE BREAKING ANKLES WITH FILIA. MY BRAIN IS TOO SMALL FOR MS. FORTUNE. WHY DID THEY GIVE DOUBLE A POLITICIAN VOICE PACK. FUCKING AWESOME

THE OST IS FUCKING AWESOME AND FITS THIS GAME'S HECTIC PACE PERFECTLY. THIS IS THE BEST USE OF JAZZ IN A FIGHTING GAME SINCE MVC2. WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT JAZZ IMPROV IS KINDA LIKE DROPPING YOUR AIR COMBO TO RUN UNDER THE OPPONENT AND THEN DOUBLE CROSSUP BY AIRDASHING OVER THEM AGAIN AS THEY FALL

AS SOON AS YOU UNDERSTAND HOW OTGS IN THIS GAME WORK YOU CAN MAKE SHIT HAPPEN FROM LITERALLY ANYTHING AND IT'S AMAZING. THE CONVERSIONS YOU CAN GET IN THIS GAME ARE SO SATISFYING. EVERY TIME I GET A COMBO OFF A SUPER THE NEURONS IN MY BRAIN THROW A FUCKING PIZZA PARTY

THE SKULLGIRLS LAUNCH PARTY IS STILL GOING STRONG BABY. AS OF THIS REVIEW IT'S BEEN 10 YEARS, 1 MONTH AND 13 DAYS SINCE SKULLGIRLS' RELEASE AND WE'VE ONLY JUST BEGUN SEASON 1.

I FUCKING LOVE SKULLGIRLS

SKULLGIRLS FOREVER WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

the dialogue circles into itself over and over and over again and it drives me fucking insane, this game would have half the runtime if the characters didn't repeat things they said a second ago to each other over and over again

also, you'd think a visual novel would better understand the concept of "show, don't tell". everything that happens is so on-the-nose and there isn't a single moment that is allowed to just exist, to speak for itself. it's always undercut by some unnecessary narration that barely adds any substance, like shiki watched too much dora the explorer or something.

i hear nasu has some great concepts in this story and i genuinely don't doubt that. i thought the first "insanity" scene was legitimately gripping to an extent (i feel it then kept going, inflated itself, went around in circles and then overstayed its welcome-- like okay, i get it can we keep this shit running), but i feel like these "good ideas" might end up being executed quite roughly if the game continues to follow these trends.

i might update this as i continue, but i'm just thoroughly frustrated with the experience so far