Skullgirls 2nd Encore; after the drama

Source: Wallpaper Abyss

On June 26th, a patch was released to the now 10 year old Skullgirls 2nd Encore, a 2D fighting game. To put it frankly, this patch changed the course of the game moving forward for both the publisher and developer.

Quick Summary of the "Censorship Patch"

The bulk of the patch went towards removing both fan art and concept art for the game in the digital artbook (which is $10). The context of some of the fan-art available in the artbook was clearly not deemed appropriate. Even some official concept sketches of characters were questionable.

A small list of the official notes:

• Removed 4 illustrations from Gallery > Guest Art

• Adjusted “Parasoul Poster” (Gallery > Posters)

• Adjusted "Parasoul and Black Egret" (Gallery > Parasoul)

• Adjusted "Parasoul and the Egrets" (Gallery > Parasoul)

• Adjusted "Cancer Drive - Parasoul and Valentine" (Gallery > Production Art)

The discourse of the artbook side of this drama is that people are upset the company is taking away art that "should" be provided in a paid service. Some have even went as far as to call it theft for "taking away something you pay for."

However, the censorship doesn't stop there as actual voice lines, move sets, imagery, and entire announcers were removed from the game itself.

The update removed Nazi imagery, an entire Russian announcer and two characters lost a voice line each.

Why the hate?

I think you can tell by now where this is going. Most of the hate is coming from the censorship and removal of artwork in the digital artbook. It seems that people have a problem with the blatant removal of "content" that the consumer has paid for, no matter the "explicitly" of said content.

The main driving force behind this hate is targeted towards how this patch was possible in the first place. According to some rumors, the entire team at Hidden Variable Studios (those who made/worked on the game for 10 years now) were all fired. It seems that the publisher, Autumn Games, is working to improve their social image and re-brand/re-design their games. This comes with mass lay-offs and changes, which is exactly what happened. Everyone who worked on those concept arts and general design choices were all let go and a new team was brought in to change what had already been made.

Sometimes, publishers can go as far as to pull entire franchises from digital stores in order to meet their own agendas (Activision). For this game though, people are trying to question consumer rights in the treatment of a 10 year old game. For example, is it theft for a company to change/take away a product you pay money for? This seems to be a growing concern in the Skullgirls community in protecting a franchise they are a part of.

The game itself

For a soft review, I will state that I was never really involved in the community before this discourse. I had previously played the game but not to this extent with being apart of the community and listening in on fan/developer thoughts.

As a 2D fighting game, it's actually really great! There are a total of 17 fighters to chose from. The game uses a unique buddy system where you have the option to pick up to three fighters to switch between mid-battle. Most fighting fans will recognize this mechanic from the upcoming Mortal Kombat 1 and Marvel vs Capcom game.

There are unique ultimate abilities to deal hefty damage to your opponent and can be chained together with the buddy assist system. The control scheme is more similar to Street Fighter so I'd assume more hardcore fighting game fans will feel right at home with the controls.

The game also features a fully voiced story mode that is told in two parts, similar to Soul Caliber 6. You have each characters individual story segments and a single "main-line" story to progress.

Aside from the drama, it's an excellent fighting game with a learning curve for new players and familiarity for connoisseurs in the fighting genre.