Over this past weekend, Capcom offered a closed beta session that we were invited to participate in for Street Fighter 6. The game isn’t due to launch until next year, but it provided an idea for the direction of not only the game, but also the series. While new characters have been announced, there will be classic characters used to add to the mix. The series' major changes date back to Super Street Fighter II with the addition of Super Moves. This would translate over to opening up fighting options in the Alpha series and eventually Third Strike.Street Fighter Vwould see updates to counters and further move updates to classic characters. With Street Fighter 6 and the move to the RE Engine, the fighting looks to be much more defined and animation-dependent, but also looks to be approachable for new fighters.
The biggest update to the game comes with the Battle Hub, which is a central and living location to match up with other users to compete against. The game will include cross-play, which was enabled at the time. Players will have their own avatar that they can customize with purchasing new outfits. It’s too bad that it doesn’t seem like the avatar can’t be added as an option to fight. The Battle Hub is basically an encircled arcade with different modern stations setup. Players can sit down and request a fight or simply spectate a fight that is happening. Some of the design implementations with the mode are confusing and separate from the other offline modes. Jumping into fights were quick and the mode offers an in-game live text chat that allows for easy communication. Players will select a region and a room prior to hopping into the Battle Hub or they can quick connect.
The Battle Hub almost looks like a dance club and you’ll find players doing just that on the center floor. Avatars have emoji animations they can pull off. Players can set themselves to also be open to fights or just take in everything that’s going on in the hub. Street Fighter 6 is including a new “modern” control option that simplifies attacks during fights. Players can customize multiple control schemes, but this all has to be set per character in a specific player option menu in the mode itself. Anything set in the global options does not carry over to this and it was rather frustrating. With eight characters to choose from, players will select their preferred character for fights prior to entering a match. Command lists can be viewed in this menu, as well, and players can also opt for training in the Battle Hub to learn character move sets.
The new modern controls aim to simply the ability to pull off moves and this may help out with traditional button mashers. The way this works, however, is rather than having the traditional kick and punch options, it’s set to the level of attack that the player is aiming for. This causes frustration for traditional players such as trying to pull off a dragon punch, but the game automatically selects a kick instead. This option, again, has to be separately set for each character prior to fighting and cannot be changed. The whole theme of the game feels very much to attract new, young players and it seems Capcom is looking to do this with the addition of the modern control scheme.
Every classic character in the game is geared to look old while the new ones look extremely young. While the art design falls in line with what the series has offered since Street Fighter IV, the RE Engine offers stunning art complete with colorful visuals and animations. The actual fighting requires more strategy as the varying power of attacks are determined by animations. This means heavy attacks take longer to pull off and come off as easier to counter. No longer will players be able to simply stick with heavy punches and kicks or just special moves. Timing is impeccable and some of these moves don’t do the damage that one would think. There are time where I needed to get in close and land light and medium attacks just to change things up or to initiate a combo. There are still modified heavy moves that can be pulled off, but there ends up being more attack options in the game that it’s almost too much to map to the controller.
Another big change to the actual gameplay are the two types of counters. One counter allows players to block multiple attacks for a short time while the other, which pulls off colorful animations, allows for players to blow through the defense of the opposition. The Drive System further advances the gameplay and it all ties into a new experience. The Super Finishers are still the goal for finishing each match as the game cuts to animations of the move. With the different fighting styles of each character, this makes matches feel more attached then ever to what style and character works best. This may be a reason why players have to pre-select there character, at least in the Battle Hub, since this would be the character that works best for them.
The closed beta offered a solid idea of what to expect and what can be worked on. The big change to fighting with having to learn proper timing to pull off heavy moves and implementing the new aspects will require a learning curve to even the most grizzled veterans of the series. Based on the chat logs within the game, everyone is looking to turn off the modern controls as fans of the series are accustomed to a specific way to play. This may change in the future, but the design with implementing controls and selecting players in the Battle Hub should be addressed. The game also defaults to the modern controls when most of the fanbase is going in expecting the classic layout. In its current state, Street Fighter 6 looks to be the biggest departure from the formula in the series yet.
