Month: November 2016

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Jessica, Rick, J, TWO.P and Phantom Bison Bring the CFN Portal Site to 200 Character Profiles

Since March 30th, 2016, the CFN Portal site’s Shadaloo Activity Report–with the help of Shadaloo’s Private Nakagawa–has been bringing fans a variety of character profiles from throughout the Street Fighter universe. From chronicling nearly every single playable character in the entire series to this point, to spotlighting various non-player characters (NPCs), a large portion of the cast of Final Fight, to alternate universes like the canceled Capcom Fighting All-Stars & Street Fighter 2010, and even–most recently–the cast of the Street Fighter EX series. Back in July, the CFN Portal commemorated its first 100 profiles by detailing Ryu, the first playable member of the current Street Fighter V cast to receive one. Now the Portal hits its second milestone of 200 profiles, with a variety of characters on display in this next batch!

With Lucia and Dean rounding out profiles on the protagonists of Final Fight, we turn out attention to Mayor Mike Haggar’s beloved daughter: Jessica!

Private Nakagawa: She’s the daughter of that macho mayor. It seems that, for awhile, she formed a happy couple with Cody, who had saved her life, but…

street-fighter-v-jessica

Basic Info:

Name: Jessica
Height: 176 cm
Weight: Unknown
Blood type: A
Birthday: October, 31
Home Country: USA
Likes: Travel, Poker
Dislikes: Selfish Men

Private Nakagawa: As the mayor’s daughter, she was abducted by the criminal organization Mad Gear when the continuous efforts of her father to improve the public order proved to be too much of a nuisance for them. She was rescued by Haggar, Cody, and Guy, and became Cody’s lover. However, when Cody was imprisoned for his numerous acts of violence she estranged herself, and ultimately broke up with him. We heard she’s currently studying in France.

Next up, we move on to Dee Jay’s good friend and manager, who’s existed as a concept since the Street Fighter II days, but is finally making his first appearance: Rick!

Private Nakagawa: He certainly exudes the same mood as him. He’s actually a good friend of Dee Jay, and joins him on tour. It seems he’s his manager.

rick-street-fighter-v

Basic Info:

Name: Rick
Height: 179 cm
Weight: 77 kg
Blood type: A
Birthday: January, 9
Home Country: Jamaica
Likes: Music, Showy Birds
Dislikes: Alcohol (he can’t take it)

Private Nakagawa: He has parrot chicks on top of his head. All chicks of Rick’s own pet. While Dee Jay tends to abuse him, he supports his friend in various activities. He is particularly able to play the djembe, a type of drum played with clapping and striking, between his legs. It seems he once practiced it until it gave him bloody urine.

Our next profiles take us back to Final Fight. But with all of the heroes and the bosses of Final Fight 1 covered, it’s time to move on to some of the first game’s “generic” members of the Mad Gear Gang, starting with J!

Private Nakagawa: Finally, a fighter who gives off the same smell of our lower rank soldiers. Even his name is cool: a simple letter!

street-fighter-v-final-fight-j

Basic Info:

Name: J
Height: 181 cm
Weight: 78 kg
Blood type: B
Birthday: January, 9
Home Country: UK
Likes: Health Foods, Punk
Dislikes: Meat

Private Nakagawa: He’s an extremely introverted personality. But when it comes to fighting, he makes his opponents suffer with his quick steps and razor-like jabs. It’s almost impossible to escape his punch combos. After Mad Gear’s destruction, it seems he’s hanging out with Abigail and Axl. In contrast with his appearance, he’s a health freak and drinks only decaf.

Now we feature his partner/”head swap,” who bears an uncanny resemblance to a “forgotten” classic Capcom character: TWO.P!

Private Nakagawa: If you think of an orange Mohawk, that’s him. The green dragon print on his back is cool, don’t you think? You can write his name as TWO-P or TWO P, too.

street-fighter-v-two-p

Basic Info:

Name: TWO.P
Height: 183 cm
Weight: 82 kg
Blood type: B
Birthday: He forgot
Home Country: USA?
Likes: Green Salad, Dark Places
Dislikes: Steel Pipe, Lizards, Earthworms

Private Nakagawa: He was rescued by a Mad Gear member who found him collapsed half-naked in the street. It seems he lost his memory, so he doesn’t remember details such as his birthday. Also, it seems he’s good with heavy weapons [direct reference to Forgotten Worlds, whence his name came]. He has a sense of humor, and speaks mixing jokes in his sentences. His favorite phrase is “Yeah, me too, man!” [player 2’s quote in Forgotten Worlds’ ending]

Finally, we close things by bringing you to the 200th Profile: Phantom Bison!

Private Nakgawa: And we’ve reached 200 profiles! I didn’t think we’d ever continue this long. Obviously, for this milestone, we have to do Lord Bison! Aaah! His body is transparent! Lord Bison, are you alright?

phantom-bison-street-fighter-v

Basic Info:

Name: Phantom Bison
Height: Roughly 182 cm
Weight: Unknown
Blood type: Unknown
Birthday: Unknown
Home Country: Unknown
Likes: World Domination
Dislikes: Weaklings, Incompetent Subordinates

Private Nakagawa: So, due to a certain accident, Lord Bison had his body turned to pure thought. Even with his body destroyed, his power and will won’t disappear. If you want to know why he became like this, try the General Story Mode.
But even in that state,
Likes: World Domination
Dislikes: Weaklings, Incompetent Subordinates
…that never changes, I’m in awe! So cool!

A member of the community also created a special piece of fan art for the occasion, which depicts some of the more notable and obscure characters that have been profiled by the CFN Portal, including Nadeshiko, who was the very first entry, Enero, the leader of the Shadaloo Dolls, Fair Libra from the Judgment Girls, holding a sign of Private Nakagawa, Ruby, Goutetsu, Skullomania, Blade, and Sodom, the first playable character to be profiled. The artwork also features one of the “Extra” characters, Capcom Fighting All-Stars’ Ingrid, as well as her evil counterpart, Dark Ingrid.

cfn-portal-200-profiles-commemorative-photo

That does it for the latest group of CFN profiles, as the Shadaloo Activity Report now looks to embark on the road to 300! Do you have any fond memories of smacking around J and TWO.P in the original Final Fight? Did you recognize him from playing Forgotten Worlds back in the day? What do you think about finally meeting Dee Jay’s manager after all these years? Do you have any thoughts on Phantom Bison’s “predicament”? Let us know in the Comments below!  If you want more, you can check out profiles of Ryu’s and Chun-Li’s Red Bull BC One Costumes here.

Sources: CFN Portal; io_housenka (Twitter)

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CPT Player Analysis: How is Fuudo Post-Evo?

Editor’s note: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not reflect Shoryuken.com as a whole.

Keita “Fuudo” Ai was on a tear in the beginning of the season. At Street Fighter Crash, he was the player on Team Razer to beat. He then took his teammate Infiltration to the limits during the Grand Finals of Evolution 2016.

With him getting into Capcom Cup on points, what will become of Fuudo when he hits Anaheim?

The True Pro Wrestler

Fuudo has made huge changes in style between Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter V. In the former game, the 2011 Evolution champion was almost boring to watch, with a very rigid and straightforward Fei Long. He was a great player, but it was almost too difficult to watch–unless you were looking for a masterclass in spacing and stage control.

In Street Fighter V he has proven his versatility by switching to a very mix-up heavy character in R. Mika and not just making it work, but becoming one of the most successful proponents of the character. While Liquid|NuckleDu may be the Mika taking the titles, Fuudo was the originator of many of the setups and mix-ups and traps that all R. Mika players are working with now.

The man is the walking compendium of Mika play, and can hit you with anything out of his arsenal at any given moment. Just as an example, during one salty suite at ArcadeStream after Street Fighter V Crash, Hyunkyu “Nin” Park (Yes, the Nin from Tekken fame) was sitting behind him the entire night, taking notes on his play as an aspiring Mika player. By hour two, Nin had taken at least ten pages of notes regarding Fuudo’s play.

That is the amount of approaches and match-up dependent plays that Fuudo has and makes on a regular basis. When you have that sort of depth of understanding, you are going to see solid results.

The Infiltration Influence

Much like Infiltration, Fuudo has taken it easy since his crazy performance at Evo. Although he has played more tournaments than Infiltration has since July, he has only played four, and three of them were smaller Japanese events. While one of those, he won, the players he had to face are players such as Itabashi Zangief, and GGP|Kazunoko–both great players, but only one of them has a shot of making Capcom Cup, and is the lowest seed in the bracket currently.

One thing that Fuudo has got going for him is his respectable 5th place finish at ESL’s Brooklyn Beatdown. This bodes better for him than Infiltration’s results at the same tournament. However, beating players like YouDeal MJS|Haitani and Arturo Sanchez–who aren’t in the playoff picture–and dropping games to EG|Momochi, and losing in the runback against Haitani–does not instill confidence in Fuudo going into December.

Further, he has been noticeably absent in the tournament scene since that very tournament, which occurred at the beginning of October. If this continues until Capcom Cup, there is a very real risk of rust going into the tournament.

Never a Long Shot

Here’s the thing though; Fuudo is never the odd one out. He came out of virtually nowhere (though players that followed the Japanese scene in SFIV closely would beg to differ) to win Evo 2011 when he was more known for his Virtua Fighter play. He was always on the cusp of a top placement after that win, staying within the top 32 every year before getting third place during RB|Luffy’s warpath to the championship at Evolution 2014. These results came despite the waning strength of Fei Long in the SFIV series after the 2012 and Ultra updates. Fuudo, unlike some other Fei Long players, simply adapted.

At this point, as everyone is getting force-fed their collective dosage of Mika match-up experience from NuckleDu, one thing cannot be discounted: Fuudo does not care how much you understand about his character. He does not care whether the character stays popular or high in the tiers. If there’s a way to make it work, he will make it work. While Mika may be under fierce scrutiny thanks to her mix-up oriented style, Fuudo will go into Capcom Cup confident that he has the tools, and understanding of the tools at his disposal, to make them work.

fuudo-evo2011-622x

Download Complete?

How much has Fuudo been tooling his game since Evolution? Obviously he has not on the tournament circuit as much, but this is a player who will no doubt be in the lab practicing. He knows how Infiltration got into his head that night in Las Vegas. He knows that Infiltration won by reading him like an open book. Fuudo is not the type to just resign to that fate. He has likely been working online and offline, making sure that mistake doesn’t happen again.

Should he face Infiltration again, will the results be different? It’s quite possible, given Infiltration’s slump and Fuudo’s ability to adjust to the meta.

Final Thoughts

It’s very hard to judge Fuudo’s chances because, much like GAM|DR Ray, Fuudo hasn’t been traveling enough to draw conclusions from. He has all the experience at the highest level to pull off a win, but with not a lot of tournament and international experience, it could be hard for him to capitalize on player knowledge, which could be costly. We’ve seen his ability to adapt well in the past, however, and that may well come into play.

Despite the problems he potentially faces, I still like Fuudo’s chances enough to see him make top 8. Like what Mika’s going to do after a knockdown: it’s really an unknown from there.