Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 20

In the previous blog I had mentioned that Bosch had disappeared, and we weren’t sure if he would return. To be fair he didn’t’t disappear as much as he was kidnapped by Juri. After stealing money from Mad Gear to enter a secret underground tournament they had put a bounty on him. The tournament happening in Metro City was a preliminary event that was related to the secret competition. The various gangs were vying for entry into the finals, and its grand prize. That was the case for most of the gangs anyhow. There was a group from Nayshall, including Rewancha from the previous blog, that was trying to get to the finals for ulterior reasons. A clever nod to pop culture happened when Juri appeared to kidnap Bosch. Animation fans could spot the reference from a mile away.

Shortly after Bosch disappeared a mysterious fighter showed up absolutely demolishing all the amateur entrants. The tournament in Metro City was called off due to bomb threats. This was roughly at the same time that the mystery fighter had appeared. He was covered in eerie purple glowing scars. He had broken shackles on his wrists. Long time fans of the SF series would swear that this person was filled with some version of Psycho Power. The same force that Vega / M. Bison / Dictator had been harassing to become more powerful. After the events of SFV it was assumed that Shadowlaw had been completely destroyed, and their technology along with it. This mystery fighter showed that there were still people that had access to that science. He would attack you, and warn you to drop out of the competition. He was known only as the Cardboard Combatant by the people that survived the fights with him.

If you were familiar with character turns in any form of media then you could probably guess who the Cardboard Combatant was. Or if you were obsessed with the details of fighting games you could have studied his size, and stance then you would recognize it was a variation of Yahriki, the martial arts form from native to Nayshall. Only three characters in the game used this particular style of fighting. Those were Bosch, Rewancha, and a character you might run across at the end of the journey named Fou-Lu. Many of us had guessed that this was Bosch well before he took off the box. But the how this happened, and why it happened to him became a mystery that you would have to unravel. In order to do this the World Tour would send you to the other side of the world. To a small town near the Himalayas known as Nayshall.

I would consider the second half of the game, the portion from Nayshall on, to be when Street Fighter 6 stopped being a great game, and became the game of the year. Think about all the praise I had heaped on Capcom over the past few weeks. Everything that they got right when it came to the balance, animation, character updates, new faces, animation, control, and features of Metro City. All of this praise was essentially doubled thanks to all the work the studio had put into Nayshall.

As I was taking screenshots for this series it never occurred to me where to even begin talking about this fictional country. It was easy to ease into Metro City starting at Beat Square, and then expand from there. There was so much to talk about in Nayshall that I felt like it would be easy to overlook something that made this stage feel real to me. So let’s just pause for a moment, and enjoy the first few screens the studio gave us of this country.

You could clearly see a market, a rail yard, a statue of some sort, and even Tibetan prayer flags strung up across the street. You could also see piles of trash, and people living in slums. There was a lot happening in the city, and many stories waiting to be heard. As I was wandering through the Lowlands I had an epiphany. It was the path of the warrior. The SF6 developers wanted you to feel like you were on a journey of self discovery. To have the same reactions, and reflections that someone like Ryu must have had as he traveled the globe.

The studio quite literally gave us bite-sized cinematic moments. No matter where we went, or who we battled, around every corner there was a new encounter, a new piece of the story. You were building the narrative for your avatar. In order to appreciate how the studio was able to accomplish this we need to travel back in time, to see how a movie shaped the destiny of the franchise. 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!