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[Mister Apoc]

in terms of sheer mechanics

I have heard this claim before many times, that Skullgirls is arguably the deepest fighting game in terms of the sheer mechanics that are at your disposal

is this accurate, are their fighting games you would put ahead of Skullgirls in terms of mechanical complexity?

 

[deadscreensky]

I'm not sure myself, but I figure there's two strong counter-arguments against Skullgirls being the most complex/deepest (which are often different things, incidentally):

1. The cast size is relatively small. So if you weigh stuff like match-ups heavily than Skullgirls is going to suffer badly compared to a KOF title, even if individual fights are probably 'deeper'.
2. The developers have deliberately streamlined the mechanics at various points to avoid a lot of the weird unexpected behaviors and edge cases that are so endemic to other fighting games. Put another way, if Skullgirls was a lot buggier that would also make it more complex.

A weaker third argument is that you can choose to make the game much simpler by playing only 1v1.

I find complexity and depth in games to be extremely hard to measure, but I am comfortable stating Skullgirls is definitely up there.

It's a fantastic fighting game, incidentally.

 

[Narroo]

I'd think Skullgirls is too heavy on ToD combos last time I checked to qualify. It is an amazing game though; shame about the 60s+ combos.

 

[deadscreensky]

I'd think Skullgirls is too heavy on ToD combos last time I checked to qualify. It is an amazing game though; shame about the 60s+ combos.

Honestly that changed a while ago. Resets have been heavily incentivized since at least 2nd Encore in 2015 (I think earlier, but I'm not going to go back and look at ancient patchnotes right now), and you watch basically any high level play and you're going to see fairly reasonable combo lengths.

Here's a very short example from a couple hours ago.

 

[Seraph_Nicholas]

Most complex? Heavens, no. King of Fighters has six ways to jump. Guilty Gear/BlazBlue have four(?) ways to use your Burst.

I think it has the most interesting and well-designed mechanics, but it's hardly complex.

 

[Narroo]

Most complex? Heavens, no. King of Fighters has six ways to jump. Guilty Gear/BlazBlue have four(?) ways to use your Burst.

I think it has the most interesting and well-designed mechanics, but it's hardly complex.

'
Of course, that opens up the complexity versus depth debate.

 

[Holy Order Sol]

Probably an ArcSys game or the latest Arcana Heart game. SFZ 3 could be up there not in terms of what you actually use but rather the rules behind how shit works.

 

[Seraph_Nicholas]

'
Of course, that opens up the complexity versus depth debate.

Absolutely. I think there's an argument to be made for Skullgirl's depth, but the thread was about complexity 'in terms of mechanics'.

 

[Dimitri LH]

I think Under Night Inbirth games are more complex....just by a bit lol. Both great games.

 

[Pejo]

Probably an ArcSys game or the latest Arcana Heart game. SFZ 3 could be up there not in terms of what you actually use but rather the rules behind how shit works.

Yea I think Arcana Heart is probably the most complex game I've played so far. I still laugh at the one move that actually makes you draw a pentagram with the controller

 

[Narroo]

Yea I think Arcana Heart is probably the most complex game I've played so far. I still laugh at the one move that actually makes you draw a pentagram with the controller

That's nothing compared to some of the Dark Stalkers inputs which are literally random combinations of directions and attacks.

 

[danmaku]

Yea I think Arcana Heart is probably the most complex game I've played so far. I still laugh at the one move that actually makes you draw a pentagram with the controller

It's not just the inputs, the Arcana system is incredibly deep and allows for a level of customization that no other fighting game has. I can't imagine how hard it was to balance this mess, but they did it.