Street Fighter 6, Capcom’s new fighting game announced for (PC/PS5/Xbox Series X/S, PS4) was officially announced on June 3, 2022. Since the announcement, a lot of information and gameplay trailers have been released to express the appeal of the new title and its unique elements, and the impressions and the feedback of the players were overall positive.
This article is a translated summary of the interview between the team of 4gamer, producer Shuhei Matsumoto and director Takayuki Nakayama. They talked about a lot of things Street Fighter fans might be interested in, such as the battle system, world view, balancing, netcode, and other interesting topics. The translation is prepared by the author of this article.
Street Fighter 6 Developer Joint Interview
The Visuals
The visuals for Street Fighter 6 have a much more pop or street-art feel to them this time around, and Mr. Nakayama explains that the series has always gone well with cultures such as graffiti and hip hop. Just like how you punch through the wall in 3rd Strike and the logo shows with a bang. That’s why he decided to settle on the aspects that resonated with the players in the past the most.
Another point they focused on was the changes in the e-sport genre, and the need to make sure that not only the people who are playing but also the people who are watching the game can understand what happened on the screen. As an extension of that, “Strike 6” has enhanced the visual aspect. Not only is it flashier, but it is also easier to understand visually, such as the red and blue coloring of the strength gauges for 1P and 2P.
The size of the characters on screen was adjusted according to the camera movement, and the position of the UI elements on screen. The title logo was simplified, and numerals were changed from roman to Arabic to make it easier to type about the game on social media websites.
The Characters
The chronological order of the entry will be after Street Fighter III. Legends of the series such as Ryu and Chun-Li were designed to be different from the new generation, and to give them a sense of mastery. Ryu’s Kesa (Monk’s robe) was designed from the beginning to make him similar to his master Gouken, and that he would evolve in the same direction as his master at a time.
As for Chun-Li, her make up and the texture of her ear piercings were changed to give her an overall calmer look, and also to make it suitable for the world tour, the new open world section of Street Fighter 6.
World Tour Mode
World tour is made for people who enjoy the world of Street Fighter and the characters as much as the battles, or can’t get into the fighting aspects of the game. It is a single player mode in Metro City, which is the same setting of the Final Fight series. Mr Nakayama has always valued the world view of Final Fight, and that was reflected in the additional characters and costumes in previous titles. Street Fighter 6 is pursuing this even further.
The director hinted at the possible resurrection “Vega”, which is easy as long as he has a new body, and the introduction of the young girl from Chun-li’s story in Street Fighter III. Characters from Mad gear also were subtly hinted at, and the director asks players to go back and watch the trailer again for all the hints they carefully inserted for the players.
Control scheme – Classic and Modern
Mr Nakayma says that the new control scheme was not made for beginners, but instead for gamepad users and people who are not good with arcade controllers. The new control scheme is not more or less advantageous than the classic one, however the power of special moves with modern controls is reduced, but you can still preform the same special moves using classic controls and deliver a blow with its full output.
It eliminates the need to remember hard combos, and balancing of characters is done on a regular basis to accommodate for different types of control schemes. There are detailed parameters for every action, and adjustments is considered from various perspectives, such as whether a character is stronger if his attacks occur faster or weaker if he is hit more frequently. Other subtle balance elements are also present like changing the stance of a character after the drive gauge runs out, variations in hit animations and many other new details.
Drive System and Player Individuality
Street Fighter 6 is not about one unique new things, but an amalgamation of details, such as the motions of the techniques which have been redone from scratch. The addition of new fun offensive and defensive elements. The new Drive Impact and Drive Parry systems are also easy to understand. The drive system was designed with the individuality of the players in mind, and what types of moves (Overdrive, Ex Special moves, etc…) do they use often. EX Special Move and Critical Art gauges were separate for putting less stress on players.
Drive Parry is still being adjusted, in the image of a “defensive system”, while the Drive Impact is learning more towards offense. Some characters have a strong overdrive, so it’s better to lean on Drive Impact, while others benefit from a defensive parry. In this way, the director felt that he wanted to prepare a lot of means to influence the player’s taste and thinking about how to attack, while having strengths and weaknesses in terms of character performance, such as Luke running out of energy after using his strong overdrive.
Automatic Live Commentary and Netcode
An idea that was adopted from the start of the development to change the mood of the match, and also to reflect the increasing interest in e-sports and competitions. Live commentary for other languages than English and Japanese are also hinted to be planned, and the possibility of the voice actors adding their own take on the matches.
As for consoles and netcode, loading times will of course be longer on PS4, but a smooth 60 FPS fighting experience is guaranteed on all consoles. Rollback will also be implemented, and there are many other things that are not yet announced, but the director assures there is a lot of content waiting for fans, for every type of players, even beginners and those who are not interested in fighting ganes,