Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 26

The developers at Capcom managed to keep a consistently high level of work throughout the entirety of Street Fighter 6. The last portion of the World Tour story was brilliantly presented. I had to salute the team as they were bringing together multiple plot lines together, and doing so without making anything feel cheap, or rushed. Our avatar was trying to find the meaning of strength. Up until that point we assumed that being the best fighter in the world meant you were the strongest. You had already proven your worth in Metro City, and the Nayshall underground fighting tournament. The last stop on the journey was taking on the rest of the world in the Suval’hal Martial Arts Tournament. This contest would be taking place at the peak of Mount Vashal. A holy place for the people of Nayshall, and home for their warrior god.

It took me a moment to take in the beauty, and scale of this fictional place. The massive temple looked like a fortress. It had been carved by hand on a mountain outcropping a thousand years ago. It was a jaw-dropping sight that very few locations in any game could match. The closer you got to the peak the more you would discover. In fact it was an entire journey just to reach the arena. Near the peak there was a cave system that framed a massive waterfall. The fighters, and even security guards posted there had said they were hearing voices at night. They swore up, and down that the place was haunted.

You would discover that the ghost rumors were started by unscrupulous guards that were trying to loot the temple. Solving that mini Scooby-Doo mystery wasn’t your only side mission in the stage. The cave system was hiding something more important to the plot. The Resistance had a secret base of operations behind the waterfall. After all what would a video game be if something wasn’t hidden back there? It would be your chance to meet once more with Kalima, the leader of the Resistance. She was joined by Rewancha, and a handful of other operatives.

Aside from having a fantastic design, Kalima explained the stakes. She connected the dots for the player in case they weren’t paying attention to the clues that the Nayshall residents gave them. A bunch of NGOs had moved into the country, and were forcing their agenda onto it. This was creating a quick divide with the haves and have nots. The outskirts were being turned into a trash pile, where the people would end up digging through scraps in order to survive. It certainly was not much of a future for the kids of Nayshall to inherit.

In order for JP to achieve complete power he couldn’t have any competition for the direction of the tiny nation. This meant he would have to get rid of one of the NGOs that had moved in. This was Ken Masters, and the Masters Foundation. Ken was one of the tournament sponsors, and competitors. JP used an assassination attempt on him to frame Ken. He claimed that Ken was trying to depose the king. Ken was close to the explosion when it happened, and Luke who was working security had spotted this as well. Luke even fought Ken as he was getting away. This speculation forced Ken to resign from his company, and go into hiding.

With Ken out of the picture JP moved full force on turning Nayshall into a tourist destination for their ancient fighting tournaments. This meant building an entirely new infrastructure on top of their ancient mountain. His construction partners were flattening temples, and destroying the legacy of the nation. All of this was for a few roads, and a parking lot on the site of the old stadium. These things were brought up by protestors surveying the Suval’hal Arena. They knew that this was all happening with the approval of the King. They were afraid that the NGO’s had his ear, and had cut off the influence from the people.

The construction workers on site lamented what they were doing. They knew full well that they were destroying their heritage. They also had to provide for their families. If they weren’t doing the work their neighbors would, or the NGOs would even bring in foreign workers to do the work. Absolutely nothing was going to stop them. This was confirmed when we spoke to one of the contractors. He essentially admitted that capitalism worked by exploiting poor countries. I certainly didn’t have Capcom radicalizing its audience by showing them how things were handled by massive corporations, and NGOs in poor countries.

The next stop for the game would be the tournament, and the final showdown with JP. Or so I thought. After all, this was what every fighting game had taught audiences to expect over the past 35 years. We were going to expose the main villain in front of the nation, and take him out before he could do any more damage. We would be the heroes, and prevent the rise of the next Dictator. What actually happened was something I never could have guessed. We will dig into it on the next blog entry. I hope to see you back for that. If you are a long time fan of Final Fight, or Street Fighter then I would like to hear your impressions of SF6. If you have never played any game previously then tell me your experiences in the comments section please. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!