After the accidental release of the Street Fighter V teaser yesterday, we published a fun piece positing the game’s place in the franchise storyline. But now that we have a longer piece of gameplay to check out, there’s only one thing to do: endlessly pore over every frame for details on the system mechanics.
While I’ve been messing around with Street Fighter for most of my life, I wouldn’t really classify myself as one of the most knowledgeable players around. As such, this breakdown shouldn’t be seen as exhaustive in any way, shape, or form. Still, it should work as a fun discussion starter, so let’s get going.
(A couple of quick notes: like yesterday’s article, this write-up will feature numerous GIFs. In an effort to cut down on load time, you will have to hover over each image to see it in motion. Also, as this is very early gameplay footage, what we see here may not be indicative of the final release, and many things may change between now and launch.)
First off, let’s just take a moment and appreciate these fireball collision graphics. Fellow new generation fighter Killer Instinct opted to go a more…spark-y route with their projectiles, but Street Fighter V’s graphics are a bit more fluid. I’m not going to go on record and say one is better than the other, but the image below sure is pretty.
Next up, we’ve got a quick Chun-Li combo (incorporating the Street Fighter III-esque air special) that demonstrates a few interesting things.
First, it seems as if Street Fighter V will feature launchers that can lead into juggles and true air combos. While a cut is introduced between the moment Chun kicks Ryu into the air and continues her attack, it seems as if this is all one string.
Second, after knocking Ryu back to the ground, Chun attacks him once more while he’s on his back. Whether this will function as a way to OTG opponents or is simply a combo ender for extra damage is currently unknown, because that’s where the combo ends.
In the earlier teaser, Ryu showed off an interesting technique, surrounding himself in electricity and ink swirls (reminiscent of Street Fighter IV). At first, this seemed like a simple intro animation, but the new gameplay has changed my mind on this.
As you can see above, Chun-Li appears to have a similar animation, replacing the wandering warrior’s electricity with what appears to be flowing water. While quite nice in an animation sense, I believe these are our first glimpses at a new gameplay mechanic that powers up a fighter’s abilities.
As you can see in these clips (all of which come after the “power-up” animations), each attack has been granted some additional flair. It seems as if the trailer is making sure we notice there are differences (two fireballs instead of one during Chun-Li’s Kikouken, Ryu’s Hadouken causing knockdown) by showing them later in the trailer, following the normal versions.
But the characters aren’t the only pieces of Street Fighter V possibly receiving some updates. At one point in the trailer, Chun-Li is shown knocking Ryu through a wooden door, seemingly opening up another area of the stage to continue the fight in.
As health bars aren’t included in the footage, we can’t tell if this is a way to inflict additional damage on opponents (after which they will, presumably, return to the main fighting area), a stage transition similar to the Tekken series, or even an animation unique to knockouts.
And, last but not least, this beauty: guard breaks! Obviously, we can’t be certain of this, but the piece we’ve included above looks an awful lot like Ryu is punishing Chun-Li for blocking too much. The use of a special attack (instead of something like, say, a focus attack), leads us to believe Street Fighter V may include this mechanic alongside a much-desired guard meter.
There you have it…all the random stuff I was able to spot in Capcom’s initial batch of gameplay footage. We’re guaranteed a closer look at the game come Capcom Cup later this month, so stay tuned for more.
Of course, we also want to hear from you, our readers! Did I get something completely wrong? Have you found something I missed? Let us know in the comments.