Hiya!

Street Fighter 6 has been out for… what? 3 years, right? Wow, it’s been some time, huh? Then again, the game is still going strong since, as of last year, Capcom announced they have sold more than 6 million copies of the game. Throughout all that time, Street Fighter has been adding characters slowly but surely, ballooning the original roster of 18 to a really buff 30 fighters. Even with a more than healthy roster of characters to choose from, Capcom still has plans to add more as the next “season” is incoming shortly.

There’s already a whole lot of speculation regarding who Capcom will be adding in Season 4. In fact, there’s a rumor floating around saying it’ll be Vega, Gouken, Haggar and, surprisingly, Tifa from Final Fantasy VII. I know a lot of fans would love to see Tifa join Street Fighter VI. I would, too! She seems like a very unbelievable pick. Weirdly enough, that’s not the reason why I don’t believe the rumor. The reason why I don’t think this leak is real is because of Haggar because I would assume he would play more like Zangief. Still, seeing Tifa throw hands against the likes of Ryu and Chun-Li would be awesome!

The leak, however, got me thinking how Capcom seems to be relying on legacy characters when they want to bolster Street Fighter 6’s roster. While I do like seeing returning characters and seeing how they would play in Street Fighter 6, I also think Capcom is forgetting to add fresh faces to the character selection screen. I mean, the last real “new” character they added was AKI.. .and that was way back in Season 1! Isn’t it about time they added someone new as it’s been quite a while since they did? So, as a thought experiment, I decided to debate with myself and ask if Capcom should try bringing in some new blood to Street Fighter 6.

On one hand, I understand why they like bringing in legacy characters. Throughout the years, Capcom had already created a really deep roster of fighters for the franchise and fans have been clamoring for them to bring back their favorite fighter to Street Fighter 6. I personally would love to see someone like Sodom. Yeah, I’m weird like that. What I’m saying is Street Fighter fans have a vested interest in Capcom when it comes to legacy characters. So, of course Capcom is more than glad to oblige. After all, there’s a chance they can bring back a wayward fan who quit playing Street Fighter 6 if they realize their previous main is joining the roster.

On the other hand, it does feel like Capcom is also shortchanging fans by denying them the chance to find a new main character. Sure, I understand them bringing back the original 8 Street Fighter II playable fighters as they are the most recognizable characters in the franchise. What they’re forgetting is, since then, they’ve added a host of new World Warriors who have gained a following. Characters like Cammy, Sakura, Makoto, Juri, Menat and many more have slowly but surely been added and they have gained a following. Yes, I do realize I mentioned only female characters, but you get the idea. Now, imagine Street Fighter if Capcom didn’t bother creating these new fighters. It just wouldn’t be the same! So, if Capcom doesn’t create new characters, then they’re essentially denying fans the potential of a new main!

Then again, Capcom right now does seem to have a problem with creating brand new fighters for Street Fighter. Street Fighter 6’s base roster actually came with 7 new characters; I’m including Luke in the count since he was technically created for Street Fighter 6 and just dumped into Street Fighter V‘s roster to fill out the last DLC slot for that game. That means almost half of Street Fighter 6’s base roster were new characters. How many of them are actually good characters? While they all have their strengths, besides JP, everyone of them aren’t all that popular as they seem to have trouble against the legacy fighters for the most part. This is why you hardly see characters like Lily, Manon, Marisa and the rest of the newcomers in tournaments. They simply have too many weaknesses so it does look like Capcom just can’t really figure out how to make new fighters now.

However, that doesn’t seem to really be the case as a lot of the DLC do feel like brand new characters, even though they’re from previous games. There are a couple of examples for this already in Street Fighter 6: Alex and Ingrid. Let’s talk about Alex first. Capcom has already tried to make Alex a cool character for a good while. The problem is he wasn’t particularly a good character. However, Capcom gave Alex a major glow up when they transitioned him over to Street Fighter 6. Instead of just being a big grappler with some striking moves and an anti-air grab, he also became a stance character. This made him a much more nuanced character who is actually good at mixing up the opponent with all of the options he can do from the stance.

When it comes to Ingrid, she was a very boring character in her initial appearances. While her backstory is she’s supposed to be a god, Ingrid’s moveset never really felt godlike. She felt incredibly plain. Capcom reinvented Ingrid’s moveset by giving her new special moves like a counter and a teleport. She can also buff some of her specials now that she’s a stock character, meaning she can upgrade some of her specials and even her Super Arts now in Street Fighter 6. Ingrid looks and feels like a totally different character in Street Fighter 6 and now the fans approve of her!

So, both Alex and Ingrid don’t exactly play like they did before. Capcom made them feel like totally new characters by giving them new stuff. This does mean there’s nothing stopping Capcom from using this level of creativity when it comes to developing new characters. In fact, it would be better because they would have a clean slate and they can let their imaginations run wild!

Then again, it’s almost never the new characters who bring in the people. They kind of learned this lesson the hard way with Street Fighter III. It did feel weird how the sequel to Street Fighter II, basically the progenitor of all of today’s fighting games, only had Ryu and Ken returning. I bet a lot of fans felt kind of down as they couldn’t play as their favorites and the game suffered for it. It took a while and a couple of more iterations of Street Fighter III to find its footing and it certainly helped they eventually added characters like Chun-Li and Akuma to the roster for familiarity.

In the end, I understand Capcom’s reliance on bringing returning characters in each of Street Fighter 6’s seasons. They’re the fighters we’ve come to love and, while we claim we crave new and fresh things, we always go back to what we feel safe and familiar. However, I do believe there should be room for new characters as well. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t have the likes of Sakura and Makoto, who have become fan favorites and fans have been clamoring for Capcom to bring back in Street Fighter 6. They don’t have to make an entire season of new characters. Maybe add 1 per season and then show a really kickass trailer of what this new character can do to hype up the fanbase.

Byee!

Do you think Capcom should add more fresh faces to Street Fighter 6 in the future? Do you think it’s fine to just rely on returning characters? Let me know in the comments section below!