Hiya!

Is it mean to say I’m very disappointed in Capcom for not giving us a lot to go on with AKI? She’s the next slated DLC character to come to Street Fighter 6 and we still have very little to go on regarding how she’ll actually play. All we have so far is that one UDON comic where she takes on Rashid (and loses badly) and a very brief glimpse of her crazy personality via her World Tour trailer. It’s been good so far but I can’t help but want more.

My main concern regarding AKI is we still don’t know how she’s going to play. However, we can speculate on that aspect but it doesn’t really give me a lot of hope. That’s because, as far as we know, AKI is FANG’s student, which means she’ll probably play a whole lot like her master. That doesn’t exactly inspire a lot of confidence for the character because, frankly speaking, FANG was not a good character. In fact, an argument could be say he’s one of the worst characters from Street Fighter V!

However, I would like to keep a positive mindset on the matter and would like to think the folks of Capcom can make AKI more than just a FANG clone ported over to Street Fighter 6. However, I am trying to think of ways they can make her work in the game. So, while I’m no game designer by any stretch of the imagination, I’d like to try my hand on how AKI could work in the world of Street Fighter 6.

First, I have to address what’s definitely going to be AKI’s central character gimmick: the poison mechanic. This was central to FANG’s gameplay in Street Fighter V so I guess it’s going to be AKI’s as well. We can even get an idea of how it might work in Street Fighter 6 as, in World Tour mode, as there are drones which can inflict the poison debuff on your Avatar. I will say the poison does feel slightly more deadly there. However, that just might be because, when I did encounter them, I wasn’t at a very high level so the poison brought my health down much faster than I thought. Still, it wasn’t much of a bother as, once you did hit the drone, the poison debuff would stop.

However, it did make me think why just limit AKI to simply poisoning an opponent’s health. Why not make her poisons affect her foe’s other resources in order to make it much more scary? Maybe give her a gameplay mechanic where she can switch out what poisons she uses so it won’t affect an opponent’s life but her Drive Meter or her Super Gauge. Better yet, Capcom could make it so her EX moves poison both her opponent’s life and Drive Meter. This would make it very dangerous to get in on her if you’re near burnout.

I also hope Capcom doesn’t make her a full-fledged charge character like FANG was. Now, I like charge characters but it’s like they made FANG to be weird for weirdness sake. His projectile was done by charging down to up with a punch button and that just felt awkward! Since the UDON comic does show AKI throwing a blob of poison at Rashid, she’ll probably have a poison projectile when she becomes playable. At the very least, I hope they make it so it’s something like a quarter-circle motion to back with a punch like Guile’s Sonic Blade.

In Street Fighter V, FANG was supposed to be this zoner who would use his different projectile arcs to keep opponents away while the poison slowly drains their life. I don’t think this would work in Street Fighter 6 because of the universal Drive Rush mechanic, making it much easier to get in on your opponent to deliver pressure. Besides, it didn’t really work for FANG as most of his defensive options were passive movements, like his Senpukuga (the one where he falls flat on the floor) and his NikanKyaku (the dumb dash he does). I guess AKI can have these moves but they have to be more effective, like having the command dash leave a trail of poison or something.

I would also want for AKI to have a command throw. Now, that may sound weird but it would follow along with what we saw in the EVO trailer. It would be something like AKI slithering all around her opponent, forcing their mouth open to drop a poison pill in their gullet. I just think it would make a nice and disturbing visual, which is totally in line with what we got with the AKI trailer.

The biggest thing I do hope they don’t carry over to AKI is FANG’s love for the number 2. This was really a dumb idiosyncrasy Capcom leveled on FANG as most of his attacks would do 2 hits. Once again, this is unnecessary for AKI as having her more of a straightforward fighter is more than enough.

Finally, with her Supers, I guess her Level 2 is going to be something like FANG’s V-Trigger 1, where she envelopes herself in noxious fumes which poisons everyone around her. I can live with that. However, I don’t want to see AKI flapping her arms around and dropping poison balls or anything like that! Her Level 1 should be something simple, like a super version of her poison projectile. Her Level 3 and Critical Art could be something akin to Gen’s Shitentetsu, AKA his Ultra 2 Pressure Points of Doom, which does massive damage and will also cause poison damage on top of it.

Now, I know I’m just spitballing here and this is essentially all fanfiction I made up in my head regarding AKI. None of it will probably be true but I’m just stating the things I think would make AKI stand out more than FANG. She already has an uphill battle as she’s being mentored by one of the worst characters in Street Fighter V. I just hope Capcom just doesn’t make her a female version of FANG and then call it a day.

Byee!

What are your thoughts on AKI? How do you think she’s going to play? Let me know in the comments section below!