Street Fighter 6, analysis and news of the new chapter of the Capcom series

Ok, it State of Play tonight he clearly took an unexpected leap in quality, surprisingly fielding nothing short of adrenaline-pumping trailers of some of the most anticipated titles ever. Among these were two great protagonists: Final Fantasy XVI and Street Fighter 6but where Square has been quite stingy with information about its future baby, the same cannot be said of Capcom, which even gave us a nice updated official site and a post on the PlayStation Blog.

And it is the case to hold on tight, because the news on the game are not only many, but they go as far as explaining the new systems in enough detail, with a large number of surprises for those who have followed the series for a long time. Of course, it will take a while before we can really analyze every single mechanic under the microscope, yet all this goodness has given us a pretty clear idea of ​​what lies ahead, as well as a nice list of discussion points about the game. Let’s get it inside.

All Street Fighters in one

Let’s start immediately from the real meat: the combat system of Street Fighter 6, also because there is plenty of time to discuss stylistic changes and modalities, but the core of the experience is and remains the gameplay. Initially the game fooled us with a mixture of flashy effects and sudden color changes, which made us think of the ISM system of the Street Fighter Alpha series (basically the ability to change styles and mechanics in character selection), but probably yes. it’s just a wink to the fans. After all, mechanics of all kinds appeared in the trailer, from parry to pseudo focus attack, through erasable moves and the classic Supers with attached EX moves, so we expected them to be limited by similar options. Instead, both the blog and the official site have confirmed that the mechanics are all present in the base system of the game, and simply regulated by a separate resource – divided into a six-notch bar – called DRIVE.

Yep, you got it right, in Street Fighter 6 the DRIVE will allow you to do a little bit of everything, for a genuinely remarkable variety of offensive and defensive options. Consuming half a bar allows you to perform one parry (which if performed to perfection will quickly regenerate the resource) in a similar way to Street Fighter 3rd Strike, while more massive consumptions guarantee to cancel with one click or the parries just mentioned or some normals (the normals require three notches, the parry only one) and to perform additional moves on approach, while for lovers of extra defensive maneuvers it will be possible to use an armored attack that stylistically resembles the Focus Attack of Street Fighter IV for a notch or a counterattack immediate to stop enemy pressure with two.

If you consider that the DRIVE bar appears to contain six of these notches and fills up over time, you will quickly realize how many tactics the system puts in place. A fast enough filling could shape a completely unpredictable Street Fighter, characterized by constant changes in the leading positions and a lot of strategy in the field, where the quick reflexes should favor the regeneration of resources thanks to a series of flawless parries, and the cancellations guarantee combos more scenic than average. At high levels, the potential for spectacular matches is enormous.

That said, the newbies weren’t entirely abandoned, at least from a command point of view. For those with running problems Street Fighter 6 offers a simplified control system, which allows you to perform special moves with a dedicated key combined with directional, facilitates the execution of each of the techniques described above, and does not seem to sacrifice too much. It must be said that selecting it leads to attacks being reduced from six to three, and this will inevitably represent a major disadvantage against veteran opponents, for which damage optimization with calculated combos is central.

Graffiti and punches

Any other doubts? Well, it is difficult at the moment to understand how in-depth the mechanics shown are: the equivalent of Focus Attack could be more automated than that seen in the past, and at the moment it does not seem that the parries can be used in the air (a feature that obviously limits the exploitation approaching mechanics), yet we understand that the implementation of these innovations cannot be identical to that of the original titles or the system would lean excessively towards specific styles of play already seen in the past. Capcom’s intent here would seem to offer a wide range of usable techniques without making any excessively useful, so as to favor various approaches to combat and diversify the action to the maximum. For the rest, the speed of the battles does not seem particularly high, so we expect once again a title where footsies, timing, foresight and distance management are the heart of the experience.

Ah, speaking of the clashes, they are undoubtedly much more beautiful to look at. Street Fighter 6 appears to have indeed embraced one more realistic style – while maintaining very “cartoonish” proportions, given that Ryu is a four-door wardrobe of muscles and honor – which combined with graphic effects conceptually close to the “pictorial” effects of the fourth chapter, but clearly more colorful and spectacularized, give the whole a lot personality. Less well the characters cheering in the background (including a couple of “cosplayers” of Hugo and Poison really fourth category), but we suspect these are temporary models that will be replaced in the course of development.

We are more dubious about the last three news, indeed. The game indeed appears to contain a story mode complete with a customizable protagonist and exploration of three-dimensional maps, very original compared to the rest of the genre, but whose care and validity are all to be demonstrated. Capcom then decided to include in the game of three-dimensional hubs who also use these avatars for online, and we fear that they are lobbies “à la Arc System”, which instead of improving the flow of online games in our opinion have always and only complicated things. Finally, there will be some in the game automatic voices of well-known commentators of the FGC, which on paper should add some sense to the clashes, yet could at the same time become very annoying. This last extra worries us little, however, because we think it is almost certain that they will be deactivated at will.

Skimpy, finally, the roster currently shown, with obvious historical returns such as Ryu and Chun Li, Luke already confirmed, and the novelty Jamie, a kung fu master whose style is very reminiscent of Yun and Yang. In the trailer, however, a girl appears who could be Li-Fen, and if she gives us so much we expect a generational renewal of the roster comparable to that seen with Street Fighter 3. Honestly? Maybe it’s really time to take that risk.

Street Fighter 6 impressed with its completely renewed graphic style, and an apparently very complex and full of potential system, which could give life to one of the most varied and technical chapters of the series. The doubts are still many, but Capcom’s desire seems to be to renew, without abandoning the solid roots of the past, starting from a roster that could contain several new names. We are really getting more and more teased, and we can’t wait to see more.