I'm a bit surprised people still trust them. And here's the thing (and I've said this a few times this thread).
Skullgear stalled development way back in 2023. Oni's twitter would occasionally announce aesthetic updates like variable clouds, and having trading cards, or the craziest one is updating the protagonist's hair color to avoid incest connotations (utter nonsense imo).
So this was 2023. That means they were still frequently getting Patreon money. At least close to $2000. And I've seen people defend them when they said they ran out of living money. But Patreon bucks is not an income. If anything it's a tipping jar people give you to support your development. And if you're getting $2000 a month and you can't even put out minor quest updates to support progress of the game then there is SOMETHING SEVERELY WRONG WITH YOUR DEV PROCESS.
Now Skullgear is putting out a new game in February. Which they... somehow got the money for, even though they apparently don't have money to finish up DBA? So why didn't that money go into finishing up DBA in the first place?
I honestly don't think DBA will be finishing up any time soon even after Planet Lust. They'll claim something like the game didn't sell enough. We could all go and buy several copies, they'll still say it didn't sell enough. And honestly do any of you trust that they'll put that money to use? Just remember, again, they were getting $2000 a month, which didn't go anywhere into DBA. Now they're asking for money for a game, which very likely will go into everything not DBA.
Ultimately I don't think funding was a major issue here. Maybe it served as motivation, and they expected to make Summertime Saga bucks (which was a huge inspiration for them) but I again iterate that if you're getting that much money on Patreon, and even if that's going into living expenses, if you can't put out even DO THE BARE MINIMUM for your followers/subscribers, you have a serious issue in your pipeline.
And I'm not a hater. I love DBA a lot. I still remember playing the last update near the end of 2022, how the game gave felt like it sent me back in time to the 90s time period. I want this game to succeed. But it's not hard to see that they have some serious problems somewhere or another. Who knows what that problem is, but I know there's some dishonestly going on.