The FGC in 2025 is all troons and cringey woke brown anime fans. Capcom know they don't have to put in any effort at all since these youngins have zero standards and the old 30-40+ yo orbiters will buy everything purely based on momentum/nostalgia.
Personally I think all the charm of these games died when they went to 3D models and the '2.5D' look. Outside of games which purposely emulate the look of old sprites by using cel-shading and similar techniques, everything else now looks like a bunch of grotesquely proportioned rubber mannequins, regardless of game. And there's no going back, because 3D models are easy to sell DLC for. 2D sprites which you have to reanimate all over again, not so much.
There's an element of the competency crisis too. For example I have no idea how VF5, a 19 year old game with fine looking character models, was somehow re-released for Steam and modern consoles with everyone looking worse. Gutted of content compared to the old console versions and with terrible matchmaking too. When Sega was unable to even put a classic game like this back out without fucking it up, it was the death knell in my interest in fighting games honestly. That's without even getting into the fact there is a virtually complete, unmolested version of PC VF5 contained within Yakuza 6 and 7, sitting unreleased by Sega (accessible with mods). They had to go make a butterface version and release that instead.
The FGC in 2025 is all troons and cringey woke brown anime fans. Capcom know they don't have to put in any effort at all since these youngins have zero standards and the old 30-40+ yo orbiters will buy everything purely based on momentum/nostalgia.
Personally I think all the charm of these games died when they went to 3D models and the '2.5D' look. Outside of games which purposely emulate the look of old sprites by using cel-shading and similar techniques, everything else now looks like a bunch of grotesquely proportioned rubber mannequins, regardless of game. And there's no going back, because 3D models are easy to sell DLC for. 2D sprites which you have to reanimate all over again, not so much.
There's an element of the competency crisis too. For example I have no idea how VF5, a 19 year old game with fine looking character models, was somehow re-released for Steam and modern consoles with everyone looking worse. Gutted of content compared to the old console versions and with terrible matchmaking too. When Sega was unable to even put a classic game like this back out without fucking it up, it was the death knell in my interest in fighting games honestly. That's without even getting into the fact there is a virtually complete, unmolested version of PC VF5 contained within Yakuza 6 and 7, sitting unreleased by Sega (accessible with mods). They had to go make a butterface version and release that instead.
"re-released for Steam and modern consoles with everyone looking worse"
Same for the much reviled improvements to the PS1 era Grand Theft Autos
https://youtu.be/W4avaa6lJHs
You mean PS2 right? I would love to tear up London again with a better control scheme, but those are all GTAIII and after games.
I had to skip around because he kept saying ladies and gentlemen.
Apparently, never had the games until way after they were new, and on PC.
Could have sworn the friend I played them with only had a mini-PS1, and not a PS2, guess I was wrong.
You may be thinking of Driver.
Soul Calibur is missed greatly. I would also love a new Power stone.
Street Fighter 3 probably destroyed the 2D street fighter for Capcom. It looks great but feels slower and is harder to learn.
Dungeon Fighter Online would like a word.