What to Expect: Street Fighter 6

Street Fighter is one of the most popular and celebrated fighting game franchises and a cornerstone of the genre that has been around and releasing new titles for 35 years. It has been over 7 years since a main title release in the Capcom series and on June 2nd the main series will get its highly anticipated next installment, Street Fighter 6! This article will cover what can be expected for the upcoming fighting game and what players can look forward to on the June 2nd release.

Character Roster:

One of the most important aspects for fighting games is to have a solid roster of characters. The launch roster for Street Fighter 5 consisted of 16 characters with 4 new fighters to the franchise. Street Fighter 6 launches with a roster of 18 characters and includes 6 brand new characters added into the mix. The increase seems small but the characters in Street Fighter tend to be in-depth and expertly tailored to have a unique and specific fighting style and personality. The 6 new fresh faces all bring their own flavor to the franchise: Lily is a small but powerful fighter descended from the Thunderfoot tribe, Jamie is an expert dancer who defends Chinatown, Kimberly is a prodigy with dreams of becoming a ninja, Manon is a super model and judoka world champion, Marisa is a jewelry designer with ancient Greek ancestry, and JP is a successful NGO owner. These unique fighters join a roster of the 8 original Street Fighter world warriors and 4 returning franchise favorites. There has also been 4 fighters confirmed to be added to the roster post-launch arriving in summer 2023 - Winter 2024. These fighters will be A.K.I., Rashid, Ed, and Akuma.

Launch Roster

RYU	JURI
KEN	DEE JAY
CHUN-LI	LUKE
GUILE	LILY*
ZANGIEF	JAMIE*
E. HONDA	KIMBERLY*
BLANKA	MANON*
DHALSIM	MARISA*
CAMMY	JP*

* = New Characters

Solo Content:

The new chapter in the Street Fighter saga brings brand new solo content to the franchise in the form of "World Tour". In World Tour the player creates a custom character and fights the whole Street Fighter 6 roster while traveling the world. The game mode includes character progression with learning the other characters fighting styles and special movies and RPG elements like items, stats, and skill points for character improvement. The World Tour game mode will bring a completely new aspect to the franchise that could bring new life to the series as it pertains to single player gameplay.

Online Modes:

Online play is a very important aspect in fighting games and it has been revealed that there will be new exclusive rooms for organized private and public matches and more importantly there is a new ranking system for Street Fighter 6. The eight tiers of SF6 ranked are as follows: Rookie, Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond, Platinum, and Master. The early tiers allow players to obtain win streak bonuses to climb the ranks faster as the higher tiers disable win streak bonuses and enable league demotion up until Master. These changes are in hopes of a more consistent player base for ranked modes as fighting games sometimes have trouble retaining ranked players. World Tour is also not the only mode that will allow players to show off their custom characters. The "Battle Hub" will allow players to use their custom characters against other players' creations. There will also be "Clubs" where you can interact with other players and create clans to join forces to increase your reputation.

Graphics:

The multiple showcases for Street Fighter 6 have displayed a great increase in the graphic quality and aesthetic improvements that the new game will bring to the franchise. The fighters are wonderfully detailed and the stages are vibrant and beautifully made but one big change seems like it could elevate the fighting genre as a whole. Characters will now take physical damage as they fight in the form of cuts and bruises that will be inflicted on the characters in real-time. Characters will even start to sweat as they fight to beat their opponent. These settings can be turned off but they should add greatly to the atmosphere and make the battles between fighters seem even more real. We can't wait to see how this game looks and feels on launch and from the gameplay and new technology that has been shown, there is high hope for the appearance and quality of Street Fighter 6.

Conclusion:

Street Fighter 6 is slated to bring about a whole new form of the Street Fighter franchise with a ton of improvements and fresh new content. The reveals and showcases have shown the new installment of the series in a great light and we can only hope that the highly anticipated fighting game lives up to players' expectations. Fighting games have been in a bit of a rut as if late and hopefully Street Fighter 6 can help bring the genre back to its former glory and possibly to new heights. The combination of new online modes, single player content, updated graphics, and an improved character roster give us high hopes for the future of the Street Fighter franchise.

Street Fighter 6 releases on June 2nd, 2023 on PS4, PS5, XBOX Series X/S and PC

Head over to the Street Fighter website for news and a more in-depth look at the upcoming game:

https://www.streetfighter.com/6/en-us/

And here you can check of the Street Fighter 6 showcase video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-UYIzbNcvs

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