What is it that makes the Skullgirls characters so likeable?

[EvaXephon]

The sheer amount of Skullgirls-related content produced by fans never ceases to astound me. People love these characters - drawing them, writing about them, cosplaying as them...heck, there's even a couple of fan-games in the works! What is it about the Skullgirls characters that gives them so much appeal?

Is it their appearance alone? Did Alex Ahad simply do a perfect job when he designed the look of the characters? Is it his unique art style? Is it the fact that they all attack in unique and unconventional ways? Is it their personalities?

My favorite thing about the Skullgirls cast is that they're all so unusual. A girl with a talking shapeshifting parasite living on her head. A pun-loving catgirl who can detatch her body parts. A murderous cartoon character who sees out of eyes on her arms. Almost every character is completely original and unique! And every character has a tragic backstory, too.

So, what do you think? What do you think makes the Skullgirls characters so damn lovable, and inspires such a flood of fan-created content?

 

[southpawper]

All of the above I think. It also helps that the gameplay is amazing.

 

[Noximilien Coxen]

i came for the art style, stayed for everything else.

 

[WaterMystic277]

I picked all 6. Everything is delicious about these girls.

 

[Epic_of_Enkidu]

i came for the art style, stayed for everything else.

Same here. :D

I love the designs at first, but over time, I also came to love the stories that made them who they were. Some of the sadder backgrounds, like Valentine and Ms. Fortune's, made them into stronger, more badass characters. It doesn't hurt that that all have awesome personalities, too.

Also, Aeon may be as geeky as I am, if not more. XD

 

[Zazz]

i think the best part of the characters is how their personalities contrast with your first impressions when you see their designs (especially when relating to the really old prototype designs by alex)

Painwheel: you see her and expect a sad "oh woe is me" type. what we got was the type of hot blooded anger that usually comes from a super robot pilot.
Valentine: you expect a total jerk who's also kinda sexy like I-no from Guilty Gear. we got Kyoji from G Gundam. (painwheel's story is very super robot-ish now that i think about it.)
Peacock: you expect a freakin' crazy monster girl. or at least Mad Pierrot from Cowboy Bebop. we got a wise crackin' lovable rogue who feels more like the main character than the actual main character. (more on filia later)
Marie: expecting a chaotic evil lich who controls an undead army. we got The Punisher who controls an undead army.
Squigly: expecting a sluggish zombie and dragon monster. Got a refined lady and gentleman, who happen to be a zombie and dragon monster.
Double: She started out as pretty boring in the original game. But in Squigly's story is where she really reveals herself as a master troll character. I expect Hazama level antics from her in the future.
Ms. Fortune: Ok. She's pretty much what'd you expect from the honorable thief type of character. But hey, those puns are a pretty funny.
Parasoul: Pretty obvious too. But her Annie-fandom makes her interesting. And her relationships with her sister and the egrets.
Filia: Sadly, she's at the bottom of my tier list of being interesting, not that this list is really ordered in any specific way. She's just dull "because amnesia." The sad part about her is that her actual personality is probably really cool but it'll probably not be revealed until Skullgirls 2 or whatever. The really frustrating part is that EVERYONE ELSE seems to know who exactly she is but don't say anyway. The funny part is that Samson is pretty great.

 

[Vladislav_Paizis]

A girl with a talking shapeshifting parasite living on her head. ..... Almost every character is completely original and unique!

Ehm...

Original?

Why does it look like Filia's Cr.MP was based off this?

Why does Filia's Fenrir Drive remind me of this Super?

Filia... Milia....

Okay, the only difference is her parasite doesn't talk and they have different playstyles. Oh well, at least a Trenchcoat-wearing Robot is a design that was never used before... OH WAIT!

 

[Zazz]

Okay, the only difference is her parasite doesn't talk and they have different playstyles.

isn't there a Jojo's character that uses her hair to attack that predates Millia by a few years? i think from Part 4.

 

[Vladislav_Paizis]

isn't there a Jojo's character that uses her hair to attack that predates Millia by a few years? i think from Part 4.

Never knew that. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure fighting game didn't have a character like that, because it was based on Part 3 IIRC.

EDIT
Did that character also have a parasite in her head?

 

[ashxu]

It love it when games take a trope or theme and base the character completely around it, I think that's why I love Skullgirls' design. Same with Street Fighter and League of Legends.

 

[Number 13]

The sheer amount of quality detail that is implemented to each individual character that really defines who they are.

 

[EvaXephon]

Ehm...

If I said "a girl who fights using her prehensile hair as a weapon" then it would be fair to bring up Milia. But Filia doesn't attack with her hair, she attacks with a freaky talking parasite thing that shapeshifts in crazy ways. It just so happens to live on her head, and masquerade as her hair. If Milia's hair could talk, had an agenda of its own, and attacked of its own free will, then you could say the idea is unoriginal.

 

[Zendy]

What first caught my attention with regards to the game was Alex's style. Part of it is the cheesecake or pin up sex appeal (I've said before in other places how SG kind of reminds me of the old black and white raunchy cartoons, just updated) and part of it is the uniqueness of the character and world designs. After that it has to be the character's concepts and personalities and in addition the wonderful job done by the VAs. To me Peacock exemplifies this the most, she is a personified love letter to cartoons that simply oozes with character, that's not to say the other characters don't as even the minor NPCs seem to have life breathed in to them. I think lastly I'd say that the lore is also drawing me in as I discover more about it, Alex seems to have put quite a bit of effort in to crafting the world of Skullgirls and it shows.

Oh yeah, the music is pretty catchy as well and some of the jazz aspects of it mesh perfectly with the art style.

 

[VIVIT_rv00]

isn't there a Jojo's character that uses her hair to attack that predates Millia by a few years? i think from Part 4.

Yeah. Kinda crazy stalker girl. But I doubt prehensile hair was invented by her, either. (There even was a character who could control his hair in Part 1.)

If Milia's hair could talk, had an agenda of its own, and attacked of its own free will, then you could say the idea is unoriginal.

For all of Guilty Gear, the possibility of this happening, and Milia's fear of it, has been a significant part of her character (since it happened to Zato-1/Eddie, who uses the same sort of parasite aka Forbidden Beast)

FWIW I think Alex stated that Filia has been in his notebooks before the first Guilty Gear even got released so there's that. cr.MP is a deliberate reference, though. Besides, the two have a pretty large amount of differences if you look beyond their method of combat.

 

[evilben]

i mean, Medusa showed up in marvel in the 60s...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medusa_(comics)

 

[Zazz]

Yeah. Kinda crazy stalker girl. But I doubt prehensile hair was invented by her, either. (There even was a character who could control his hair in Part 1.)

yeah. whenever i read about character origins, i usually think about how pretty much every major fighting game from the old days has characters based on old manga series like Jojo's and Fist of the North Star. Guile and Rose from SF being the most famous examples.

For all of Guilty Gear, the possibility of this happening, and Milia's fear of it, has been a significant part of her character (since it happened to Zato-1/Eddie, who uses the same sort of parasite aka Forbidden Beast)

The funny part is that Accent Core's story was really playing that up as an immediate threat to her, and now Xrd is after a 5+ year time skip and she's still apparently fine.

 

[VIVIT_rv00]

The funny part is that Accent Core's story was really playing that up as an immediate threat to her, and now Xrd is after a 5+ year time skip and she's still apparently fine.

OR IS SHE?!?!?!

I'm serious. Angra might just have taken over silently, or the two have reached an agreement of sorts to not end up like Zato.

(The other two options I'd find likely is that Millia could keep her condition stable by avoiding combat, or that plot devices happened (Slayer!) and she's rather firmly in control now.)

 

[Leduc]

For my favorite characters, it's usually their personality (Peacock, Parasoul, and Ms. Fortune) or their backstory (Painwheel, Valentine, and pretty much every character in any given Lab)

 

[Jet Set Dizzy]

Please add a choice for voice acting, because that's what does it for me.

 

[A_BOMBa]

I like the feel of skullgirls. each movement and attack feels right for all the characters and the supers have a lot heft on impact

 

[Grimmhart]

I think Alex Ahad's work and the talent of the VA's makes them so appealing.

But it could also be the boobs and butts.

 

[Fenreil]

The unique and distinct art style really helps, as does the (apparently) solid mechanics.

People say sex appeal a lot, and I'm sure that's true for a lot of people, but there's another side to it. That side is the contrast between the aforementioned sexy characters, and the decidedly unsexy ones. To be honest, if every character was as fanservice-y as Valentine or Parasoul, I wouldn't enjoy the game as much. Having those characters alongside characters as disturbing as Painwheel and Double keeps the game from feeling like a sexy-girls-fighting sim.

But, that only applies to some people, I think. Pretty much everything about this game is pretty neat.

 

[Lunerstep]

For me the character designs are just very memorable and enjoyable, the art style's just so dang awesome x3

 

[blufang]

I have to go with sex appeal however this is in part due to the art style also. Frequently hot females get tons of fan love in fighting games, I don't know if there would be so much fan art/fan fiction/etc if Skullgirls was a sausage fest.

 

[thedoctor2112]

There should be an all of the above option (besides sex appeal, not that the characters aren't MAD HAHT) I just think the characters are perfect on all fronts.

 

[Beuzer0]

First, the originality of the character design, associated with the art style.

Then, the round-shaped art style. I really love this. It's not I don't like inverted curves (okay I admit sometimes I really don't like, it depends) but I prefer plain, full shaped curves, depicting characters made of flesh just like it should be. Just personal artistic preferences.
For the joke: John K "designed" what I consider the antithesis of Skullgirls' art style: Inverted Curves Man!

And the moves, very creative, entertaining and full of energy.

"Sex appeal" counts as part of just "appeal". Parasoul's legs contribute to her femme fatale aspect, Fortune having not many clothes to her wildness, etc.

 

[Jim]

There should be an all of the above option

There is! Multiple votes are allowed, so you can just check all six boxes.

 

[thedoctor2112]

There is! Multiple votes are allowed, so you can just check all six boxes.

Didn't even see that.

 

[gary]

The animation in this game is beautiful :) might there be an anime of the story line?
I love anime.

 

[Elodin]

I think my avatar explains part of the popularity.


Other than that, it is a really good fighter, if it wasn't there wouldn't be a community formed around it.

 

[EpicJoyBoy]

IMO, Art style and characterization.

I like how there were many different characters with different backgrounds like a schoolgirl, a performer, a girl with an affinity for cartoons, a formless monster, an undead opera singer, etc. and also the expressive animation to say a few.

Also about sex appeal. Talking about all the extra large boobs we see with Valentine or Cerebella, I think they might also be a thing.

 

[Kuzlalala]

I love two-dimensional cartoons, and because of the smooth and detailed 2D animation Peacock, Skullgirls became one of my favorite things. I also find that the story is interesting and the staff are really close to the fans.

 

[ReluctantZombie]

Because more priority was put on the characters being cool than just being sexy.

If all they cared about was sex appeal, then we wouldn't have characters like Painwheel and Peacock and Double. Even the characters who are sexy have some cool, creative twist to them - none of the characters are defined JUST by sex appeal. Valentine's a ninja who fights with medical supplies. Ms. Fortune's fighting style involves dismembering herself. Cerebella has a giant pair of arms on of her head. These would be awesome, creative concepts even if they were all dudes.

They could have just made it some brainless T&A game with a roster full of generic sexy ladies, but they didn't.

 

[Maker]

Dem thighs.

Kidding aside, Uniqueness hands down. Squiggly, Fortune and Painwheel easily the most memorable to me and mostly unique. The other part which fits the whole cast a lot better is the real difference in how the characters actually play. I've played too many games in the past where some characters despite being different in important ways feel and play far to similar. In Skullgirls that is not even remotely a problem and doesn't look to ever popup.

 

[dekillsage]

Saw Cerebella's Sweep, Devil Horns, Excellebella, Pummel Horse, Grab Bag, and Ultimate Showstopper and I had to play her. Those moves are too cool.

 

[Pandamanana]

I came to Skullgirls because Mike Z was influenced by Marvel 2 and Guilty Gear in his designs... I actually think the "sex appeal" is a huge turn off for me and I'm not a giant fan of most of Alex's art, but I power through it to get to a really solid fighter underneath.

 

[Dead_Man]

All of the above.

Skullgirls is a great game. It's looks amazing, is fun to play, has good sound design, has awesome characters and settings, and is only $15. There's so much quality for such a low price. Most full price $60 games can't even touch Skullgirls.

I love that it actually takes the time to develop these characters too. Skullgirls hasn't even been out for two years but I can tell you more about these characters then I can about characters from other fighting games like Street Fighter and that's been out for, what, over 25 years now? Not that I don't like Street Fighter but I care way more about the characters in Skullgirls.

I also think it handles the sex appeal well. I was a little worried going into Skullgirls since my experience with fan servicey games is that they're almost always terrible. The developers care only about making their game look sexy and it ends up playing like ass. Luckily, Skullgirls is nothing like that. It isn't constantly throwing panty shots or huge boobies at you nor does it obnoxiously wrestle control away from you by doing something stupid like zooming the camera in on Fillia's panties or something. The game has fan service but it focuses on the gameplay and anybody dumb enough to only pay attention to the sexy stuff is going to get their ass beat. This is how it should always be done.

 

[PKStoopKid]

Besides the design of the characters, the characters are likable to me because I find it interesting how Alex can take other things such as legends, biblical characters, and tropes and twist them into a character where all those things connect perfectly. I would also have to say its the way he has the story put together. We know stuff about the characters and the main story, but not enough and that keeps our attention so much that we pay attention to every character, detail, and bit of information given to us thus making us more interested in the characters.

 

[RabbitDynamite]

I came to Skullgirls because Mike Z was influenced by Marvel 2 and Guilty Gear in his designs... I actually think the "sex appeal" is a huge turn off for me and I'm not a giant fan of most of Alex's art, but I power through it to get to a really solid fighter underneath.

I actually like most aspects of the art, but I agree with you that the fanservice is my least favourite thing about the designs. The fact that the writing is so female-centric rather than male-gazey goes a long way to alleviating the problem, but I won't pretend having panty shots left right and centre doesn't strike me as skeezy.

My favourite thing is probably the animation - not so much for its technical virtues as for the sheer, borderline-psychotic attention to detail. For example, I was in the lab yesterday and got distracted watching Ms. Fortune's c. lp animation, just because her expression was so perfectly feline. Squigly's petulant body language after whiffing a Daisy Pusher, 'bella giving the red-eye during the kanchou, the unnatural way Painwheel's body moves, the fact that Peacock teleports THROUGH HER FRICKING EYE SOCKET. I'll be getting bodied and stop and smile because I spotted something small and clever in the animation. Compare that to something like KOF 13 - gorgeous pseudo-pastel art style but the animation, while good, is much more utilitarian. It's one of the things that drives home what a labour of love Skullgirls is.

 

[Caleb]

Art style, design and personality; as those are the things that really caught my eye. Weapons too, some of them are very unique and complement the other aspects of the characters.

Sex appeal is just a plus.