This is a weird feeling thing to me. It goes to great lengths to look very 2D (abolishing things like light-source shading from projectiles onto the characters / changing lighting conditions, loads of transitional frames, no obvious "3D model" Physics-reseting-through animation stuff, etc), but it's doing it's best to look like late 90s art and animation, lol. (Note that I actually like this, because it's so rare to see Cel-shaded stuff that emulates anything BUT "Modern Anime".)
It's just funny how much 3D power we need to replicate what 2D already did a decade ago, aside from resolution.
SFIV was very ambitious in it's blurring of 2D-native effects and 3D's best features. Except for resolution + model reusability, one wonders why this is even 3D, so far... just to keep up with the times, I suppose!
And let me say, that's the most forced, hodge-podge American background possible, lol. "LOOK, STATURE OF LIBERTY... BESIDES A WESTERN SHERIFF!"... Ok....
But beyond all that, this does look pretty good. My eyes first said "man, those are some framey 3D models...", so I wasn't really fooled, but it proved the 2D dedication in motion. The fact it stays so consistent in motion is the real impressive stuff here.
In fact, I kind of feel similiar to the way I felt the first time I saw DBZ Burst Limit in motion... ANYWAY...
The in-game models look the same as the Cinematic models! WOHOO! It should be easy as heck to have some OVA-Like animation going on for this game, since it'd basically be "in game cinematics". I love the fact that this should lead to a VERY unified artstyle, rather than the "Portraits by one artist, cinematics by another, concepts by another, sprites by ANOTHER!" feel present in many 2D games, especially lately. This should be very efficient, in reality. I think that's the thing I love most about this. The whole, overall game should benefit, from character models of a quality so high, that they can be used for basically EVERYTHING, and people will still find it acceptable. Scaleable and efficient.
If this is next gen, I'm quite happy to see "the evolution of Cel Shaded style" so early. Rather than having to wait years for everyone to stop trying to chase the "Realistic bandwagon." I thank you for that, ASW.
More than being happy for Guilty Gear itself, I'm actually happy that this precedent is being set so early. This is the "out of the gate" style that fighters will be trying to copy for the next few years. Who'se to say we won't see Capcom trying to revive Alpha series or DS with this look? Or SNKP remaking something like Samurai Shodown with such a style, as they work up to perfecting a personal look for their next efforts? Current Gen's cheap downloadable games look as good, if not better, than the best games of this Gen's first few years...
This'll get me more hype than any FPS #461 or such, that's been shown for Next Gen, so far. Though I do have to admit, with this game, the "look at how similar we are to what you already have!" is way strong at this point, and that's slightly disappointing. I'll be more hype when there's more new designs, characters, and gameplay systems to see. (And if ASW actually makes a background with a CROWD of people for once. Eesh. So sparse!) Milia seems to have stolen an outfit from MAYship, though, so that was nice. Not a fan of Ky's even girlier ponytail, though.