Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 22

In the previous blog I talked about the importance of good storytelling with the Street Fighter II: Animated Movie. When you wanted to bring audiences into the world that you were creating you had to show, rather than tell. I used the example of Ryu wandering through the streets of Kolkata India. He tripped a kid by accident, and paid to replace her food. The kid returned later in the film, and was injured by a soldier. Ryu beat up some assassins, and made sure the kid got medical attention. We were shown two sides of Ryu, compassion, and warrior in a short amount of time. The plot in the World Tour in Street Fighter 6 was much deeper than in most fighting games. The team at Capcom needed to show multiple elements of what was happening in the tiny fictional country of Nayshall. When you arrived in town you immediately ran into a little kid that was getting hassled by some bullies.

The little girl turned out to be Yua, the sister of Bosch. She was worried about her brother. He had gone missing. You were aware of this, but also wanted to find out where he had disappeared to as well. She hinted that there were a group of people he was aligned with, but couldn’t say anything else about it. Capcom was planting the seeds of a resistance group in the country. The thing was that we did not know what they were fighting for, or against. We would get details about it as the game progressed.

As with Metro City the entire map was not open from the beginning. This forced players to wander, and complete side missions. Tracey,  Alice, and Ryan were also in town for the upcoming tournament. They made sure that you were still keeping up with your training. Capcom was doing an exceptional amount of world building in Nayshall. There was no detail overlooked in the small town. The residents were all dark skinned, which was a nice change of pace considering how most games were afraid to show melanin on characters. The NPCs in Nayshall all had names that sounded authentic including Gianprakash, Nima, and Palisha. In Metro City the names were more western.

The residents wore clothing that was reminiscent of classic Tibetan fashion. Several NPCs mentioned that the town was made up of former sheep herders. Many were nomadic. It would explain when many of them wore a chuba. A long sheepskin coat made of thick Tibetan wool worn by many of the nomadic peoples of high altitude in the cold mountains of Tibet. Nayshall was at the base of a mountain, Mt. Vashal specifically, and we would eventually climb it by the end of the game.

The residents mentioned that tourism had been picking up since they were becoming industrialized. The announcement of a fighting tournament was also bringing in a lot of investors, and new business. It was also bringing in a lot of criminal activity. The majority of the gangs in Nayshall were exclusive to the stage. The Dash delivery characters, and drones were the only type that were shared between Metro City, and here. The new gang members costuming, and theme made sense for the area. The country was starting to get western money invested in it. Certain gangs like the gamblers were dressing in western suits, and attacking tourists, the rest wore more traditional outfits.

Nayshall was a gorgeous country. The more I explored, the more I discovered. I wondered if this was what Ryu felt like as he traveled the globe. Capcom had done an amazing job putting us into the story. Of making us the center of a universe much deeper than any other fighting game. After spending hours, and hours playing, and leveling up I came to the realization that I was enjoying this game far more than God of War Ragnarok from 2022. Modern AAA titles that had massive open worlds needed to go above-and-beyond with details. They had to convince players that these worlds had histories, that they were lived in. Whether you were traveling through Gotham City, New York City, or Svartlalfheim from the nine realms then you needed to believe this place had existed for ages.

Of the two previously mentioned games Gotham City felt more alive in the Batman series because it was populated with pedestrians, and gangs. The same applied to the recent Spider-Man games, and SF6. God of War Ragnarok had a number of massive environments that you could travel to, but they were sparsely populated, and only with monsters. In fact one of the things that infuriated me with GOWR was when Kratos arrived to Svartlalfheim, the land of the dwarves. You saw these people only once, and then they all ran away. Speaking to you only from behind closed doors. It was like this in every realm you visited. You spent the entire game wandering through empty streets. Yes they were detailed, yes they looked lived in, but without regular people wandering around they might as well have been movie sets. Despite the tremendous production value I quickly grew bored with the experience.

Nayshall was the complete opposite. I was happy to settle into the town, to wander the village at my leisure. It had its own atmosphere, and just like Metro City it was a different experience at night. There were vendors, citizens, kids playing, people haggling for deals. I could stare at the details for hours. As I was wandering up the stairs from the river front I told my kid that I was having a much greater time with SF6 than I ever had with GOWR. I said this place felt real, and not like a movie set at all. With that said the staging in Nayshall made every encounter look like a cinematic experience.

As I was wandering the town there were a few things that seemed odd to me. Not in production value. What I’m talking about were intentional details that the SF6 producers wanted you to notice. There were rail lines through the perimeter of the city, but no running trains. In fact one of the rail bridges was collapsed. I’ve never been to India, or Nepal, but I do remember seeing videos of packed trains, with people hanging on the outside of the cars, and riding on the roof as well. These things were seen in the India stage in SFV. I thought it was kind of weird to take it away in a town that was India adjacent. The residents said that with a new city hub being built they had no more need for trains.

The other thing I noticed were the people digging through trash piles. Some of the residents had given up their life as shepherds, and found themselves making a quick buck searching for drone parts. Some of the people were finding new lines of work, and looking forward to being brought into the 21st century. There were some that were wondering who was really benefiting from all of this industrialization, to them it felt like the people had no choice in the matter.

I could see why some of the people felt like they were being exploited. They were aware that they were participating in a system that relied on cheap labor. A system that benefited those at the top far more than the working class. I didn’t realize how bad it was for the bottom of society until more of the map had opened up. The Lowlands of Nayshall was a world built in the ruins of industrialization. We will look deeper into the roots of the resistance in the next blog. 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!

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 21

The Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie was released in 1994. It was one of the best video game adaptations ever made. I think that to this day it remains critically undervalued for its contribution to the series, and genre. The film was directed by Gisaburō Sugii, produced by Kenichi Imai. The two also wrote the screenplay. What was surprising about the film was that it was completed in a short time span, and with a team that didn’t necessarily know anything about the game. In all it was finished in 6 months, and this was after the original director quit. Thankfully it was saved by hiring a former employee who was passionate about the game. He came in to co-direct. Plus the studio consulted with actual MMA fighters to figure out the choreography of the battles.

Despite all of these setbacks the movie was a hit in Japan, and internationally when it was released in the VHS / DVD market. It presented a narrative of the SF legend so well that it was adopted by Capcom. In particular Noritaka Funamizu saw how great the flashback sequences worked with a young Ken, and Ryu that it inspired him to develop SFZero. Even the details of having Ken with a long ponytail, and Ryu with a white bandana in the game were pulled directly from the film. That was not the only thing, the climactic battle at the end with the duo fighting Vega / M. Bison / Dictator inspired the creation of the Dramatic Battle mode in SFZero. .

Using a special code you could have player 2 join you on a beat down on the evil Dictator. My older brother, and I would laugh like maniacs while beating the snot out of him on the Sega Saturn version. Originally only Ken, and Ryu could take part in the Dramatic Battle, but this was expanded to any character in the sequels to the game. I would contend that the Master Assist in Street Fighter 6 was essentially the new version of Dramatic Battle. Allowing you to fight side-by-side with one of your masters. It only took Capcom about 27 years to realize how fun it was double-teaming opponents. That wasn’t the only thing that the game series took from the film. The switch from smashing a car to a diesel truck in the bonus stages was more than likely influenced by the surprise at the end of the film.

Even little details like having Gouki appear in a cameo did a lot to influence the art team. Super Street Fighter II was still relatively new in arcades, and not many people were familiar with Gouki. So it wouldn’t have made sense to see him as the main villain in the film. Most audiences were already familiar with Vega / M. Bison / Dictator. Still, having Gouki selling fruit in the background gave the character tremendous personality. Having Bengus recreate the image in the SFZero official art did more for the character than any fancy fighting pose.

The film was also somewhat progressive in a way. The announcer of the match between Zangief, and Blanka was made flamboyant on purpose. I’m sure the animators just did this for laughs originally. The character was presented as a ringmaster, wearing a sparkling stars, and stripes outfit. He clearly represented the spectacle of the battle that was about to happen. This type of effeminate character predated Eternity by decades. In a way I think that Capcom saw this as a blessing. By going to the trouble of designing a gender nonconforming side character it would be okay to revisit the idea again in the future. Whether that would be in another animated project, or a game had yet to be seen.

The most important contribution that the SFII Anime Movie (SFIIAM) gave Capcom, and every other studio for that matter, was the perfect story telling template. Story structure was something that I had studied for years in screen writing, and novel writing classes. One of my teachers was the award winning poet, and novelist Frank X. Gaspar. One of the most important things he taught the class was “show, don’t tell.” He would emphasize that the best stories showed you the things that moved the narrative, changed the characters, or did both at the same time. They never told you about it. For example in the SFIIAM the focus was on Ryu. Rather than tell you he was serious about his life-long pursuit with the martial arts the movie showed you. It would be easy to say "Ryu was an amazing fighter, but also had a kind heart." Of course that could mean different things to different people. Was Ryu an amazing fighter because he entered every major fighting tournament, and had an undefeated record? Or more canonicaly he avoided high-profile televised tournaments, and sought out the local legends to test himself against? Did either of these things show us that he was any good at fighting?

The movie didn't use any narration, instead it would present who these fighters were in short scenarios. The best example of this was in the Kolkata (Calcutta) India portion. We were following Ryu on his journey. We were seeing the sights, and hearing the sounds of an exotic location. Well it was exotic if you lived in Japan, or the US, and had never traveled. In the sequence we were introduced to the poor, and densely populated city. From the onset we could see the layout of the land, an ancient temple, and modern city were side-by-side. We could see that there was a political activist giving a passionate speech to a crowd of people. Some armed guards circled the area. The character looked like Mahatma Gandhi for dramatic effect.

At the very same time the movie sets up a parallel plot. We will call it the accident. We see a little girl running down an alley. Ryu wasn’t paying attention, and the two collided. The little girl triped, the contents of the tin jug that she was carrying spilled all over the dirt road.

Ryu checked on the girl but she seemed more focused on the contents of the jug. She scrambled to it, and clutched it to her chest. Ryu realized that it was milk. It was going to be for her mother. Ryu could see that the duo were living in abject poverty. In a shanty leaning against a building. He recognized that this was all they had. He accepted responsibility, and gave the little girl money while apologizing. The little girl hesitated, took the money, and cracked just the tiniest smile. He glanced back at her mother, and she gave him a slight nod. Ryu returned the gesture, and walked away.

Those few seconds of film did more to tell the audience what type of person Ryu was than anything else in the movie. He was not a soulless fighting machine. He had sympathy, and understood there were many less fortunate. Even though he was essentially homeless as well, he knew he had his health, and friends to rely on. He made sure to fix his mistake, show some compassion, and leave the poor family with their dignity intact.

Then the movie cut back to the political activist. We see a brainwashed soldier run through the crowd, and assassinate the speaker. This mirrors the assassination that Cammy had committed at the start of the movie. The soldier then took off running.

We cut back to Ryu again. He was still wandering the side roads, and saw the little girl from a distance. She was waving, and seemed to be bringing him back his change. She had a huge smile on her face. Suddenly the soldier ran right over her, and didn't stop.

The soldier was then shot by the local police before he could reach a getaway car filled with Shadowlaw henchmen. Instead of helping him out they also opened fire on him as well as the crowd of innocent bystanders.

Ryu sprung into action, with a leaping kick he broke through the windshield, and disabled the driver. Then he pulled the passenger out, and kicked the soul out of his body. This demonstrated several things. Ryu was insanely strong. Windshields were made of tempered glass. It could take more than 20,000 PSI to break a windshield. Ryu did it with a single kick. The other thing we saw was his incredible speed. The assassins couldn’t draw their weapons fast enough before they were subdued. Ryu returned to the girl, and made sure that she was getting medical attention. Those sequences were maybe a minute or two in total run time. They showed that it was possible to give a fighting game archetype a lot of humanity, without detracting from the action. They showed everything we needed to see, and nothing was wasted while still moving the plot forward. 

Ryu had inadvertently crossed paths with Shadowlaw from this heroic act. They would now be coming after him. If they couldn’t reach him, then they would go after his best friend. It was amazing storytelling, and very few video game adaptations had writing that was half as good. So what did any of this have to do with SF6? Capcom had been paying attention to all of the SF media of the past 35 years. They knew what worked, and what didn’t. In order to get us invested in the bigger story of the SF6 World Tour they had to show, rather than tell us what was happening.

Nayshall was a developing country. Some saw it as exploitation from foreign interests, and some saw it as new opportunities. The team at Capcom didn’t spell out which side you should fall on, or even believe. They were letting you explore a complex issue as it was happening in real time. We will see how in the next blog. 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!

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!

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 19

You would complete the side missions of the various masters, build a friendship with them, and challenge them in order learn new techniques. Past a certain point Luke recommended entering the amateur fighting tournament in the Haggar Stadium. It seemed like a logical conclusion to the World Tour. You would be competing against other fighters in this contest. I assumed that the game would end after this point. I mean up until that point I was blown away with how everything had turned out. As a fan since the original title I couldn't ask for anything more. Once you had signed up for the tournament you were allowed to continue exploring, but once the tournament began you wouldn't be allowed to leave the stadium. I had a lot of butterflies about competing so I decided to wander around that side of Metro City, and do more exploration. There was a massive industrial building next to the Chanko House. I decided to check it out.

I had the eeriest feeling of deja-vu as I explored the building. I felt that I had been here before, but couldn't quite place the context. As I wandered behind the building I saw some people playing basketball. This was where one of the part time jobs was, the Ball Breaker Blitz, with Baller Mando. People that remember SFIII could recall the bonus stage where Sean was teaching how to parry. He would throw basketballs at you, and had you block them. Capcom had recreated that stage, including the color correct backboard, and graffiti on the wall but in 3D. Again the detail in this game was absolutely insane by any standard.

I still couldn't shake the feeling of deja-vu. It wasn't just the basketball court that reminded me of something. As I poked around the factory I kept thinking to myself there was no way a building this massive would just be taking up space in Metro City. That the developers must have placed something inside. Yet all the doors, and gates were closed. I thought that maybe it would open up at night. As I circled the building I found a ladder. As I climbed it I didn't expect to find much. Thankfully a side door was open near the top. That was when the SF6 team again showed why they were the best team for this project.

The factory may have looked abandoned, but it was very much still in use. The furnace was burning away, but the workers were nowhere to be seen. Capcom was letting you figure out what had happened inside. As you explored the massive complex you discovered there were Rampaging Drones, and Rampaging Hyoombas hiding in the corners. The robots that were already causing trouble elsewhere in the city had gone completely haywire inside the building. The rampaging models were overheating, they were sparking, smoking, and much more aggressive than any of the other AI robots in the game. They could be found exclusively inside the factory. I could imagine that the workers were too scared to enter the building once the robots had taken over.

As I made my way through the steel grates, and battled the whirling machines of death I was instantly transported back to 1991. Capcom had recreated the Industrial Area from the original FF as a stand-alone adventure in SF6. This was the exact same Factory that was featured in Final Fight 3 a few years later. As I went floor-by-floor beating up the various robots, and occasional construction gang members waiting outside I was astounded by how much I recalled from the earlier games. Even though I played through the series once or twice I year, many of the details were burned into my memories decades ago.

Seeing the massive machine door at the end of a corridor filled me with delight. I recognized all of the features of the building. I was calling them out to my daughter. She wasn't even born when FF came out, and was barely one-year-old when FF3 debuted. She wouldn't have any context or emotional connection to these things, but was happy that I was happy. I had been explaining to her that the game was very much a love letter to the genre. There was no feature that the studio overlooked. As I climbed up each floor, and fought robots, and workers it captured the spirit of FF just as well as the subway had. When I finally reached the control room for the factory I saw that it was packed with all sorts of robots. They must have easily overrun the workers, and forced them out. Upon defeating them you were able to lower the metal grate over the furnace, and unlock the front doors to the building.

As I walked out of the room, and onto a metal grate industrial elevator I started freaking out. I knew instantly that it was the same elevator that you rode, and fought Rolento on some 35 years prior. There was even a ladder right next to it, the same one that he climbed while throwing grenades at you. As the elevator descended my heart started racing. For just a moment I thought that the Mad Gear general was going to appear. I was disappointed that he didn’t show up given how many cameos the developers were pouring into the game. Instead it was the one place in the city where you were guaranteed to get two android Copy Fighters to appear. After opening up the Red Steel Factory my adrenaline was pumping. The game had me prepped for the tournament now. I reported back to the Mike Haggar stadium, and told the host that I was ready to begin.

There were a handful of unique characters created for the amateur tournament. Sort of like “light” versions of Street Fighters. They looked like the generic characters that would turn up in an Udon comic book to fill out an encounter with the stars. You were expected to battle a few of them in order to reach the finals. Eternity, the host of the Battle Hub was also on hand to interview the participants before each match. Something that stuck out to me, other than the great arena design, were the floating 3D logos in the background. They rotated to show both the letters SF, and VS, in between matches. Again this was something that could be considered a throw away detail, but was something the team had planned with some forethought.

The final match in the tournament featured you versus a large brawler named Rewancha from a country called Nayshall. It was the same place that Bosch was from. This fighter was dressed in traditional clothing, and was determined to win it all. I figured he must be related to Bosch, perhaps a big brother. Maybe he would be able to tell me what happened with my sparring partner. He was as tight lipped, and intimidating as a mob enforcer. You weren’t getting any information out of him, aside from he was planning on destroying you in the fight.

As I said at the start of this blog. I honestly expected the World Tour mode to wrap up after this tournament. After all the SF6 developers had already done a tremendous amount of world building, storytelling, and cameos from the various games. What else could they have hidden up their sleeves? It turned out that I had barely scratched the surface of the game. The next half of the adventure was going to be even deeper. I’ll talk a little bit about the road that brought us here in the next blog. 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!

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 18

The World Tour in Street Fighter 6 was not only designed to ease players into the genre of fighting games, but it also wanted to tell a good story. The challenge, and pace of the game was perfect for new players, and surprisingly fun for seasoned players. Luke from Street Fighter V had returned, a little bit wiser than before as your trainer. He advised you to visit every corner of Metro City, and then travel the globe looking for new masters. The iconic World Warriors would teach you the basics, and help your avatar become a stronger fighter. Chun-Li was the first star that you met along the way, but she was not the only one that was teaching in Metro City. The thing that I could not have predicted was seeing E. Honda appear on the other side of town. The game had already retconned the Masters Building into the Metro City skyline. It was not the only new landmark being added.

E. Honda had actually been traveling the world looking for the perfect place to set up a restaurant. Well, not just any restaurant, but a chanko house, the food that sumo wrestlers would traditionally eat. He wanted to share the culture of Japan, the tradition of sumo wrestling, and of course the delicious food in an entirely new community. The building he created was similar to a classic Japanese hall. Tiled roof, hardwood floor, and all of the trimmings. The level of detail in the house was absurd. An actual sumo ring was surrounded by booths for guests. They could be seen enjoying bubbling pots of chanko stew, and watching other patrons fight against Honda's stable of wrestlers.

It was easy to get lost in the details placed inside the restaurant. Enormous saké barrels were stacked next to modern refrigerators. There were paintings, and prints of ancient sumo wrestlers adorning the wall. The names of previous yokozuna, ozeki, the ranked sumo wrestlers, and the banzuke or list of current wrestlers were were pinned on the rafters. Sumo autographs were very unique, they would often sign a handprint. Fans could see how massive their palms were compared to regular people. The restaurant had an entire wall dedicated to the other legends in the sport. Honda himself was no different, his hands were as thick as his belly. It was apparent in his dialogue, and the other NPCs that he was beloved in the sport.

What the game never could have prepared me for was the wholesome writing throughout. You were not only learning how to fight using the styles of the various masters, but you were also building a friendship with them. They were sharing their history, cultures, and traditions with you. Even the more reserved, and introverted characters like Cammy could be won over in time. She would open up a little, and build a bond with you as long as you put in the effort. When it came to Honda he was not doing a surface level overview about sumo culture. He was giving you a deep dive on Japan itself. In fact, Capcom was making sure that he would be bringing a part of Japanese mythology with him. As I was exploring the Chanko House I noticed a young woman named Shoro Nogitsune wearing a fox mask, and standing outside. She had unique yellow eyes. I talked to her to see what she had to say. In one dialogue tree she said that she had no relation with E. Honda. In fact she said “As if I’d give the time of day to young folk like Honda or K-er… did I say young? I meant older than the hills. Why, I’m simply an innocent shrine maiden, lured in by the wafting aroma of fried tofu.” When I returned during the daytime the woman was gone, and instead there was a fox sitting in the rock garden, about the same spot that Shoro was at.

A kitsune was a fox, and had a long history in Japanese mythology, a nogitsune was a fox without a divine spirit this meant they could change shape, and take the appearance of a young woman. Previously we had seen a playable character from the fox myth named Ameth. The 998-year-old fox spirit appeared in the game Xuan Dou Zhi Wang / King of Combat. E. Honda oozed so much Japanese spirit that the spirits followed him to the USA. He explained what the shikona, or ring names meant for the wrestlers themselves. He explained that he never made yokozuna, the top rank in the sport because he was too busy competing outside of the standard tournaments. The sumo schedule was demanding, you had to compete even while injured or else you would lose rankings. He certainly had the skills to be the greatest ever, but his passion extended beyond the ring. In a way it was bittersweet but this self awareness gave the character more dimension than anything else had in the past 30 years.

E. Honda was introduced in SFII as the dramatic sumo. His kabuki face-paint flew in the tradition of the sport. Sumo was closely aligned with Shinto spiritual beliefs. Every tournament was layered with religious ceremonies. Then Honda turned up one day and was turning it into theater. That silliness was supposed to appeal to American players more than Japanese audiences. For the majority of his existence he was presented with a comedic tone. This time however he had some actual dimension. The way he acted, the wisdom he spoke, the way he presented himself was deliberate. He was filled with joy, and it was palpable. He would ask you to help find new disciples to work at his restaurant. His passion would rub off on them too. I ended up having much more love, and respect for this character than ever before.

I never expected the SF6 team to go out of their way to give us realistic portraits of the World Warriors. They showed us how they thought, and let us hear in their own words what they were fighting for. The World Tour did much more for all the characters than any arcade story could have ever done. Even the smallest details were explained in the game. For example your avatar would take damage, and lose energy during the fights. You would have to buy something to eat, or drink from the local vendors to recover energy. The food at each business was unique. At the Chanko House you could get udon, tempura, or any other type of traditional meal. Every food item had its own history, and benefit. Some allowed you to earn more experience points, others allowed you to deal more damage for a limited time. There were even unique items that you could order while you were traveling. A drone would deliver your food to you. 

It seemed absurd to me that the SF6 developers would go out of their way to explain every dish in the game, and its benefits, but this was a tiny detail that was important for world building. It would set the standard for the company moving forward. It was an example of the work that Capcom was putting into Street Fighter 6. You weren't expected to just run from fight to fight, but to experience the world that they had created in between all of those battles. We will dig even deeper into this side of Metro City in the next blog. 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!