If I was seeing alpha cel-shading, comments about "SHURRUP ITS ALPHA" would be bang on. I'm looking at models made for traditionally lit environments though and theres no magic 'now its cel-shaded!' switch in-game that wouldn't be gigantically resource intensive.
As for the "cost" of 2D sprites:
Mighty No. 9: $3,845,170
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero: $776,084
This is why Kickstarters without a representative prototype just feel like bullhonkey. You go from this:
to the above. Of course people are gonna feel let down when all those 2D art visuals were what were heavily hitting the Mega Man nostalgia gland.
I also remember this song and dance from the Unreal Engine prototype they showed a while back, with the same sort of "wait and see" merry go round.