Skullgirls 2nd Encore is in the process of receiving its final update, which brought many tested beta changes to the retail copy of the game. These changes were paired with new animations, bug fixes, and quality-of-life changes, but the coveted Japanese dub is still on its way. The patch that adds those Japanese voices appears to be the definitive version of the game with no further changes, as this will also be the version on the physical releases that Limited Run Games is distributing, and Mike Zaimont is approaching the community about one final change he’d like to make to the game.
As he says in his community address, “Skullgirls is based on community-oriented game development,” and “We have one specific gameplay problem. We have one patch left, to add Japanese voices and fix lobby bugs.” The problem being discussed here specifically refers to teams of 3 characters being optimized to the point of having one-reset kill combos, like you see below:
For those who don’t know, damage ratios for 3v3 matches are boosted beyond their normal damage output, meaning they can do this with 3v3, but not 2v3 or 1v3. Though Mike goes on to say that “losing a character in two touches just becomes an overall downside of playing a trio, since trios can already lose a character in two (or even one) touch in 2v3 or 1v3,” he claims that these one-reset kill setups showcase a “symptom of Undizzy” that he’s never liked, which is getting a short chain into a high-damage ender:
Some of the solutions he’s listed, which players will be able to test for a maximum of 3 days–meaning if any bugs occur in the chosen changes, they will remain forever–include scaling non-super hits at max Undizzy to minimum damage, some character-specific changes to Cerebella, Beowulf, and Big Band, and changing the way combo stages work so a reset at max Undizzy allows less freedom. He’s also mentioned lowering the meter gain for the attacker to minimum while boosting it for the defender to maximum, which won’t fix the 3v3 kills but will make doing long combos into resets benefit the defender at every level.
The thread is leaning towards making some kind of change as opposed to doing nothing, with a lot of activity from big names and everyday community members alike. The problems listed are some of the biggest in the game’s current state, making matches lean to players who’ve counted their damage and have one reset that’ll close the match. Whether you like the game like that or hate it, having a focal issue and it’s solution discussed openly with the developers isn’t something you see every day in today’s fighting game landscape. Hopefully more companies learn from Skullgirls and Mike Z’s example to improve other modern fighters.
Sources: mpgame; Skullheart; dekillsage
