I've bounced back and forth between Skullgirls being fine as it is and that I feel - as I once told a friend - "there's a certain level I just have to accept with Skullgirls". Skullgirls is not unique for having sexy fighters. Street Fighter, King of Fighters, Guilty Gear, BlazBlue, all of them have lots of sexy women wearing sexy outfits. Hell, the only meaningful difference between Filia and Sakura is that Sakura's kicks are staged away from the camera so it doesn't catch the panty shots, and Sakura is one of the designs I like more (SF Makoto's still the best). And Valentine is very clearly based on Mai.
For this reason, toning this down doesn't ruin the "uniqueness" of this game. I feel like we can keep the outfits with only some modifications. I will NOT change the bodies of the characters. The characters can be
sexy, just less
sexualized, but only for those who don't have the personality for it ("sexualized" is still not "objectified" and this is the difference. I've heard the argument "you can't objectify fictional characters," but dissonance between personality and how they treat their appearance is
bad). The outfits are still close to what I want.
Actual suggestions in bold. Rest is explanation.
Filia:
Longer skirt, still above her knees. At least down to the point where her stockings currently reach. If you still want that zettai ryuoiki, then shorter stockings. She may still have panty shots on her highest kicks, but less often.
Maybe button up the bottom of her shirt? Depends on the reasoning for bare-belly in the first place (has to be in-universe, not meta, because like I said, these are based on their personalities. Of course, “the button broke and she’s a hobo” is good enough).
Personally I’d add bike shorts like Ajna’s, but that seems like a distinctly Skullgirls 2 thing for a more mature and athletic Filia. Also this is "personally," important word there.
Parasoul:
I don’t think a loose skirt would suit her, and I think a longer tight skirt would ruin whatever suspension of disbelief there is with her being able to fight in that thing. Pants are right out, she is a
lady.
Just give her tights, like she already has in a bunch of her palettes.
Have to decide what colors to use, though… I think adding black tights would veer too much towards looking like the Baroness from G.I. Joe. On the other hand, Parasoul is the “bad guy symbolism that's actually not” character in the first place, so if you want that, go for it. But maybe change the color of her turtleneck or skirt (I don’t think it would look good to have different-color tights on her current design, but I’m not the best at visualizing).
Ms. Fortune:
TURN HER LEG THINGS INTO
REAL PANTS. Or capri pants. Capri pants would still show the knee scars. There’s already those bits of cloth on her legs which seem to defy gravity, in addition to basically giving panty shots all the time right now.
Valentine:
She just needs
a push-up bra of some description. She kinda has this as an option on her color map, but it looks pretty... weak. Her extremely low-cut top looks like it should lead to so many nip-slips. I think a slightly visible bra would be sexier than just moving the top up. It would be one thing if she was a glacier like Parasoul, but Val is incredibly mobile.
EDIT: It might just be kept on by those... things? that show up during her counter.
Quick note on Cerebella, Eliza:
The physics of their outfits seem better than Val’s to my untrained eye (also Eliza’s clothes are made entirely out of blood so they never slip), and it suits how they act.
No changes.
Male designs:
No tl;dr here, kinda rambley and half-baked. Nothing against the guys that already exist, but there’s some distinct differences compared to the girls. Of course there’s going to be some differences, but I feel like there’s too much of a gap here. The solution is not bulges, that's equivalent of cameltoe, not boobs. Indivisible has a great variety of men (although most of them have big noses) along with the variety of women, and the team’s art experience has only grown with time, so I have faith that Lab Zero’s artists can do this.
