Hiya!
It’s been a week since Capcom added Arjun to Street Fighter 6‘s roster. All throughout the week, I’ve taken a break from Grand Theft Auto V, which I’ve been playing for the past several weeks, to test out the character and see how he plays like. When I first saw him when Capcom was showing off the Year 4 DLC roster, I thought he was the least interesting character as I didn’t think much for his aesthetic design. I still had to give him the benefit of the doubt then because we didn’t see any gameplay then.
However, even when Capcom did show us his gameplay trailer, I still thought he wasn’t going to be my cup of chai tea. He did come off like a monster as he would create stone pillars from the ground and bash people with it but there was just something off to me. I still had to give him the chance as I didn’t get my hands on the character. Maybe if I actually played Arjun something would click in my head and I would really enjoy playing as him.
Well, now that I’ve been using Arjun for an entire week and even got him to Master rank, I can still say he’s not for me. That’s not to say Arjun is a terrible character. I’m just saying he didn’t click with my playstyle.
First off, one things I find off-putting about Arjun is his visual design. I don’t mind how he looks like a hobo in his default outfit as I can simply pick his more dapper Outfit 2 look. I actually like his skin tone and how he looks like he slathers his entire body with shea butter at night so his skin would shiningly gleam. I also do like his yellow eye color because it is very distinct. What I really strongly dislike about Arjun’s overall look are his proportions! His torso and above takes up around 2/3 of his entire height, meaning the lower parts of his body, his legs, comes off as stubby and short! I get Capcom did this to highlight Arjun’s fighting technique of breath control as he uses air to expand his chest and arms. This also looks really disconcerting to me! Have you seen those horror movies where one of the characters would blow up like a balloon and explode? Whenever Arjun does his inhaling technique, that’s what it reminds me off! Eww!
Arjun’s buttons are also very weird to me. Capcom tried to make him a unique character when it came to his normals and it took me a while to get used to them. Like his walk speed, most of Arjun’s normals are slow. That’s par for the course for a character Arjun’s massive size. My problem is all about what his buttons do. His plus on block is, get this, his standing light punch! This is also his fastest normal but, despite being large, it’s very stubby, making it hard to use unless you Drive Rush in. Well, if he’s going in with a Drive Rush, he’s already going to be plus on block already, right?
There’s also the fact Arjun has 2 sweeps and both of them are awkward to use. His “main” sweep would be his crouching medium punch and this took me a while to wrap my head around! With most characters, their crouching medium punch is a good poke in neutral but, since it’s a sweep with Arjun, you can’t really use it in that way. His other sweep is his crouching heavy kick. While that is the standard input for most characters in Street Fighter 6, Capcom still gave Arjun’s crouching heavy kick sweep extra properties. It can actually juggle off of some moves and also, if you connect with it on a counter state, will bounce the opponent upwards. Oh, it’s also cancellable so you can perform special moves when you use it as a counter hit. Once again, as this isn’t something we see with most characters, I had to rewire my brain to recognize it. I’ve left so much damage on the table because of not comboing off of this!
He does a couple of notable normals, though. Arjun’s standing medium punch may be slow but it is a pretty good poke. Although you can’t Drive Rush cancel out of it, his crouching medium punch does reach deceptively far despite his visually stubby legs. It can also naturally link into his crouching light punch, making for a cute combo. His overhead with forward and heavy punch can catch opponents off-guard, which is good when you have them thinking about the crouching medium kick. I also do like his standing medium kick into standing heavy kick target combo as the 2nd part hits low. Once again, this is neat if you have the aforementioned overhead in their mental stack. I do have to mention his jumping heavy punch as it’s a phenomenal jumping attack as it’s also his crossup! There aren’t many jumping heavy attacks which can cross up an opponent! While these are good, the rest of his normals do not really work all that well in my playstyle as they’re pretty slow.
Arjun’s special moves also highlight why he’s not a character I enjoy playing. He’s essentially a gimmick character, relying on setting up your next move and applying pressure as much as possible. Arjun’s central gimmick is, if you block any of his special attacks, he will cause gray life damage. You can actually safely pile up a lot of gray life damage over the course of a round if you know what you’re doing with the character. The problem is I’m more of a cash-out kind of gal. It just feels like a lot of work to do gray life damage and then cash it all out with one big hit. I’d rather just do big damage outright than patiently whittling down my opponent’s health with gray life.
His Arm of Justice, performed with quarter-circle forward with punch, is decent. The light and medium versions are safe on block and can combo from some of his normals. The heavy version, however, isn’t but is safe on block. He also has a follow-up out of the Arm of Justice but, for some reason, it does not naturally combo. There are ways to mitigate this, like juggling your opponent or hitting the first part at max distance. The follow-up may seem useless but, since the 2nd part is safe on block. He also has a weird projectile with Breathing Ring, executed with quarter-circle forward with a kick. The projectile stays in front of Arjun, making it a wall against foes who love to dash in. He can launch the projectile with forward and punch. The direction depends on which punch button to use. This is also good as you can keep your opponents grounded with Breathing Ring as they might be too frightened to jump in while this is active since you can fire it upwards. However, like I said, you have to set it up… and I don’t like setting things up.
Arjun also has probably the weirdest counter moves I’ve seen in a Street Fighter game or any other fighting game for that matter. By pushing down twice and then heavy kick, Arjun will enter his Indomitable Defense stance. This move will defend any physical attacks and will counter with an explosion of gray life damage. Indomitable Defense will defend against any strikes. This means any projectiles, normals and special attacks which involves his opponent striking him with an attack, even if these attacks are Super Arts and Critical Arts, will lead to the counter! He is, however, very vulnerable to throws. Arjun can actually perform an attack out of Indomitable Defense by pushing any punch button but, even though the attack does linger for quite a while, it comes out very slow. From what I’ve seen, the follow up attack is mostly used in combos, which I’ll get to.
Even though Arjun’s movement speed is slow, he does have a way to get in quickly with his Cruel Shoulder. This was a move which really took me a while to adjust to because of its motion input. As Arjun dashes in with a shoulder check, it only seems natural it’s input would be quarter-circle forward with a kick button as to mimic other moves of this sort like Lily‘s Condor Spire and Terry‘s Power Charge. Instead, it uses a dragon punch motion with punch. In hindsight, it does make sense as the light and medium versions are invincible to jumping attacks. Still, this is a very awkward anti-air as its startup is slow. It is good for catching people jumping back I guess? The heavy version isn’t immune to jump-ins but it is plus on block, making it a really good way to get in somewhat safely.
However, the special move which is causing so many people to hate on Arjun (including myself) is Divine Pillar. Done using quarter-circle back with a kick button, Arjun blows air into the ground (which in itself can hit if close enough to his foe) and a pillar of rock will spike upwards after a second or two. The actual Divine Pillar attack itself isn’t that scary. It can be used to enact pressure on Arjun’s foe as he can control when the spike shoots out by holding the kick button. The thing which makes Divine Pillar utterly frightening is, if you use the Cruel Shoulder and he rushes past the Divine Pillar, Arjun will wallop you with the pillar! If it hits, Arjun’s opponent will be launched into the air, leaving them vulnerable for a follow-up attack, usually with the follow-up from his Indomitable Defense or any of his Super Arts. If it is blocked, whacking them with the stone spire will do massive amounts of gray damage! This is essentially a scrub killer as defending against the pillar follow up will destroy newbies or, at the very least, cause them to panic. This move, just this one move, has actually led to a lot of pros putting out “how to beat Arjun” guides left and right!
Finally, Arjun was one of the weirdest command throws in the game with Ghastly Interrogation. It’s weird for a couple of reasons. One, all the normal versions have the same amount of range and do the same amount of damage to Arjun’s foes. The Overdrive version, however, has a very slow startup but that’s actually a good thing as you can cancel into it from a blocked normal and it won’t whiff. The other thing which makes Ghastly Interrogation strange is it normally doesn’t do any regular damage. If you do grab your opponent with it, it’ll just do gray life damage but a significant amount of gray life damage. If you’re opponent does have some gray life damage already inflicted, connecting with this command grab will then do regular damage as well as cash out the gray life damage. This feels like more of a setup move again as you still have to cash out the gray life damage and I just don’t have that patience.
When it comes to his Super Arts, I think Capcom really didn’t think too much creatively with him. His Level 1, Howling Destruction, has him spitting out air rapidly towards the floor. It may look like it’s a good counter to projectiles but it isn’t because he doesn’t really shoot out that far away instantly. It is invincible to strikes and throws so it can be used as a reversal. Instant Oblivion, Arjun’s Level 2, is completely invincible but has pretty poor range but is actually a good anti-air. Finally, Yaksha’s Order, his Level 3 and Critical Art, is the big damaging attack but it is interchangeable with his Level 2 as a reversal since it has around same range.
Now, I did mention I got to Master rank with Arjun and it took me around a couple of weeks to do so. So, why am I so down on Arjun then? It’s because it did take me a couple of weeks to get him to Master rank! I won’t say I’m incredible at Street Fighter 6 but I have gotten every character to Master rank already. Sure, it took me a while to get the regular roster up to the Year 2 cast to that level. Starting with the Year 3 characters, things did sort of click for me and I would usually take, at the longest, a single week of playing around 1 to 2 hours per day. The one character which did take me a week was C. Viper because I just didn’t know how to do her Feints during a match. I just used fundamentals and her Intermediate combos to outplay my opponents.
With Arjun, I felt like I was just relying on my opponent’s lack of knowledge on what to do when fighting against him. I’d use his Arm of Justice and follow ups to get in some gray damage and be plus on block. I’d jab them, do a Drive Rush and then hit them with his weird command grab to scare them. I’d use the Breathing Ring and leave it in front of me so they wouldn’t get close. Mostly, I would be setting up the Divine Pillar and the charge in with Cruel Shoulder to inflict massive gray damage and pressure the beejeezus out of my foes. Even with that, my win-loss ration would be something like 2-1. I never got more than a 5-win streak with Arjun. It just took a lot out of me and I wasn’t having fun. Once I did get Arjun to Master rank, I actually breathed a sigh of relief! I didn’t have to play using him anymore!
I know there are going to be more tech for Arjun in the future and I know even more counter-tech against Arjun is being developed. For me, Arjun is like E. Honda during the early days of Street Fighter 6. All you needed to do was fly in with either his Sumo Headbutt or Sumo Smash and it felt like your opponent couldn’t do anything to counter it. That’s simply not the case anymore, is it? While I do think Arjun feels like a nightmare to fight, tech will be developed to make him less scary and I just know Capcom will nerf his gray life damage a smidge in the future because of how overwhelmed newbies are feeling. Even so, he’s just not for me.
With all that being said, it’s time for a DANCE BREAK!
Byee!
What do you think of Arjun, Capcom’s latest character to enter Street Fighter 6? Let me know in the comments section below!
