Street Fighter V

If I were to point the game series that was shaped and reshaped time and time again by its fans and community, it would definitely be the Street Fighter series. If you take a look back to how the series evolved, in terms of gameplay, you’ll see that it did by how the fans played it, or how they wanted to play it. Capcom adapted glitches and mods into new mechanics, and even extended a hand to the community during the development of SFIV, and made some of the community leaders an integral part of the development team, and same was done with SFV.

As a huge fan of the series, Capcom have out done themselves with SFV, but, and this a huge BUT, they did so only in terms of the gameplay and mechanics. So, what does that mean? It means: the game is a rough diamond; its core is amazing but it’s buried under a ton of used baby diapers, covered with Indian food and left under the sun.

In terms of the core gameplay, SFV is definitely an evolution towards the right direction. It landed midway between the skill-demanding SFIII, and the simplicity and fluidity of SFIV. The developers dropped the “revenge meter” in favor of a new mechanic (V-Skill). You spend the meter by either activating your V-Trigger, which will consume it all, or by executing a V-Reversal. The V-trigger is a unique Buff/Debuff/attack/stance...etc. For example Nash’s V-Trigger is teleportation. On the other hand Ryu’s is a buff that will add damage and stun damage to his attacks. The V-reversal is a tool for escape and lowering your stun meter, and using it will consume part of the meter only.

The other meter is the super meter. You fill it by doing any special move, and spent if you perform a Super or any EX version of the special moves. And the meter carry over from round to round.

The best part of how the game engine evolved is most definitely the hit-boxes. It changed the and strengthened the game fundamentally. I can easily play without Special attacks, and still be entertained. It gave the game another layer of gameplay.

Respect the juggs! 

Most characters were changed intelligently to suit the new engine and mechanics, but still keep original feel of the character. So if you’re used to Ryu and the flow of playing as Ryu, you will still find a cozy feel in him, but still find new editions that will keep it fresh.

The roster all in all, is very well picked featuring a wide range of diverse characters, in terms of visuals, as well as game design. So you will find lots of characters to experiment with out of the box.

But what you won't find of the box is what you expect from any other AAA 60$ game. It’s like going to a restaurant in March and paying for a burger, then, surprise surprise, a tray with a piece meat on it. You may ask “Hey where is the rest of my fucking burger?”. Well dear chum, come end of July, by then...maybe we will have given you the rest of your burger. It lacked a real story mode, and was slapped with a shitty mode that a baby can beat (literally, there is a video of a toddler beating the game) but the issue here is not that it was easy, it lacked content; no buns, no lettuce, no cheese, come back by the end of April for the top bun, old chum.

Context is everything.

One of the most frustrating, infuriating aspects of the game is micro-transactions. I bought a stripped down 60$ game, but no, a huge part of the game is just locked away, and you either have to buy it with real money, or in-game money. And to get the in-game money you have to slave for hours upon hours to get it. And don’t tell me “As long as you can unlock it in-game”. No, fuck that shit, my time is valuable and the way you get the in-game money is designed to frustrate you to the point of saying “Fuck it, take my money”.

In closing, the game is amazing, and the online code works beautifully (when it works), but know that it’s very much bare-bone and will take sometime to be filled with content that interest the casual player. If you’re a fan of the series then you probably already own it, if you don’t, what the fuck is wrong with you.