Hiya!

I just realized how much it must suck to be Guile, one of the big named characters from Capcom’s Street Fighter games. Not only did his best friend get murdered by an evil dictator, sending him on a revenge journey which led him to abandoning his family and nearly ending his career in the Air Force, Guile also has to contend with his birthday being near Christmas! As someone who is familiar with people who have birthdays very close to the holidays, this means no one can really go to your birthday parties as their all busy with their Christmas duties. You also have to contend with having the dumb “combined birthday and Christmas” gift idea. Yeah, like that’s going to make up for the one lousy gift instead of getting two!

As it was just Guile’s birthday a few days ago and he just so happens to be my main in Street Fighter 6, I would like to talk about the character a bit here but not in an incredibly positive light. I do think Capcom did an excellent job in making him a really good character as he is pretty beginner friendly, if you ask me. However, the flipside is you have to really get good with his specific mechanics and upgrade your skills if you intend to fully master Guile.

I do like to talk first about why Guile eventually became my main character in Street Fighter 6. For one, I’ve always had this affinity for charge characters. I realize I’m probably in the minority but doing a charge motion just feels more natural. You hold back or down for around a half a second and then push the controller in the opposite direction with either a punch or a kick button. Why is that harder than having to do this weird Z-motion in order to do a Dragon Punch? I guess it’s more of having to stop moving or trying to sneak in the time to charge up the attack but, like I said, I’ve never had that problem.

Another thing which makes Guile beginner friendly is his special moves are straightforward but multi-faceted. He has a Sonic Boom, a projectile attack which can be used to attack from afar. Doing a slow moving Sonic Boom allows Guile to safely walk behind it in order to get in. The Overdrive version is a super fast missile which can catch opponents off-guard if you train them with the slower Sonic Booms first. His Flash Kick is a fantastic anti-air attack as well as a powerful combo ender. He also has a new move called Sonic Blade, which can be used in conjunction with his Sonic Boom to make it a 2-hit projectile. Honestly, that’s all you need in Street Fighter 6 to stay competitive. I should know; I’ve been doing it for quite some time.

While this is all well and good, Capcom decided to make Guile retain the more simplistic special move scheme but add a lot of complexity to the character in several aspects. That would be with proper spacing for some of his combos to work, something called “charge buffering” combined with expert charge and cancel timing and his new “perfect” special move versions. I’ll talk about the “perfect” special moves first as that’s the easiest to explain.

Guile’s new gimmick in Street Fighter 6 is the new “perfect” special attack system. Essentially, a “perfect” version of his Sonic Boom or Flash Kick is executed when you hit the attack button pretty much at the same time as when you push forward or up. It has to be done within around 3 frames or something like that. Capcom has generally been generous with some latency in execution so the “perfect” system rewards Guile players who do the special precisely. For the Flash Kick, it does more damage, around 100 points more if done with “perfect” execution.

For the Sonic Boom, you also get a smidge more damage. However, what’s more important is the Sonic Boom gives Guile a single frame more advantage. It may not seem like a lot but it is enough for Guile to do a crouching light punch and it’ll combo! This is especially great for when your opponent is cornered as, if you can get the charge timing right, cancel that light punch into a Flash Kick for more damage! A lot of pro players have made this a part of their central gameplay but the problem is most intermediate players probably will not have the proper conditioning to do a “perfect” Sonic Boom in a combo. I’ve tried and it’s hard for some strange reason. Either I’m pressing the attack too early or too late. In any case, it’s just feels easier to do a “perfect” Sonic Boom when not in a middle of a combo.

There’s also the matter of proper spacing. Now, footsies and spacing has always been an integral part of Street Fighter combat. Getting into your range while weaving out of your opponent’s is central to getting your hits in without taking some yourself. In Street Fighter 6, everyone does seem to have some kind of attack where he or she has some forward momentum and, if you hit the opponent with the very tip of the move, will allow you more advantage and creating more combo opportunities.

Guile has always had his Knee Bazooka and you can hit the enemy with the very tip or use a Drive Rush for more advantage. However, this also applies to his Sonic Booms now as, if you throw one out in specific ranges and it hits, you can use some move which would never combo if done either too far or too close. I’ve seen some pros like Caba and NuckleDu execute a perfectly spaced “perfect” Sonic Boom so it links right into Guile’s standing heavy kick! I didn’t even know that was possible… but it is!

Now, the biggest reason why Guile is so difficult to master in Street Fighter 6 has to deal with charge timing and execution. Rather, when you have to hold down-back to start the charge. There are combos like his standing medium punch to heavy punch Target Combo into Flash kick. I understand how it’s done as you have to first do the standing medium punch and then, the instant you press the attack button, start holding down and then press the heavy punch button to continue the Target combo. That should give Guile enough time to charge the Flash Kick. There’s also a split second window where you can “delay” the execution of the Flash Kick from the heavy punch to give you a little more charge time. It seems simple enough but executing the immediate charge to get enough time for the Flash Kick is a whole other difficult story.

This is actually the most important skill you have to learn as a Guile player in order to really master the character. I’m not saying you can’t get to Master rank without it but I do believe this is the biggest reason why people like me are not maximizing our damage output with the character while in neutral. Being able to do this on the fly while in the heat of battle allows you to drain more of your opponent’s like rather than the dinky 2-hit combo intermediates like me do.

There’s also another aspect of Guile’s charge moves which also limits damage output and that’s being able to sneak in a normal attack while performing the charge attack. Even in the combo trials, Capcom explicitly show you can do something like a standing light kick into Flash Kick, which, in theory, should be impossible. However, if you press the light kick in the middle while you’re moving the controller to the up position, you can do it! If some pros are unable to do them, how does Capcom expect little old me to do them?

This doesn’t mean I’ll be quitting Guile. Like I said, I still find him the easiest to wrap your head around as his basic gameplan has remained the same. Keep charging so you’re ready for anything and go on the offensive once you get them off balance. Still, I will acknowledge I’m not getting the most of the character because of how beyond difficult he is to play in higher levels. Maybe I could get better and improve my skills in the future… but that just seems like too much work.

Byee!

Who’s your main in Street Fighter 6? Do you think you’re getting the most out of the character? Let me know in the comments section below!