While sitting down with Famitsu Capcom’s Kouichi Sugiyama talks about Fang the last launch character for Street Fighter V and that there was a chance to see him earlier. Basically Kouichi explains that while coming up with Street Fighter 3 line up their was a toss up between a poison character and Remy. Remy for those who have forgotten was I would like to describe him a Guile/ Nash character as he had most of their moves or awful similar with the animation that we see with Ash from the KOF series that came later.
After touching up on the old note Kouchi starts focusing on now and what we can see from Fang since he is the poison fighter in SFV.
“Famitsu: Well then, let’s move on to the main subject. Among the characters playable at release, you recently announced F.A.N.G., what’s the story behind this character anyway?
Sugiyama: He’s the newest member of The Four Kings of Shadaloo. After Sagat left, F.A.N.G. joined as its newest member. As such, he’s an important character that’s deeply intertwined with the story.
Famitsu: What’s special about him?
Sugiyama: We wanted to make the tallest character yet, so to begin with, he’s big. Beyond that, he’s also very particular about the number 2, so we made it that when he stands on his tiptoes he’s actually 222 centimeters tall, haha.
Famitsu: Haha! So, what’s special about him as a fighter?
Sugiyama: He’s a character with very long range who uses an unpleasant fighting style. As for something we haven’t seen so far in Street Fighter, he uses poison. He puts his opponent in a poisoned state if he hits them with a special move.
Famitsu: You’re right, there’s never been a poison-themed fighter in Street Fighter, has there?
Sugiyama: Actually, during the development of Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike, the team were choosing between a poison-themed character or Remy to enter the fray.
At that time, they ended up going with Remy, so said poison-themed fighter never saw the light of day.
Famitsu: Really?! I had no idea!
Sugiyama: After hearing that from people who’d worked on the game, I spoke with the game director and said “I’d really like to bring a poison-themed character in”. And now, we’re bringing him in. Just between us, we actually considered him having tons of weapons hidden up his sleeves, at one point.
Famitsu: How does he use the poison?
Sugiyama: As I mentioned briefly earlier, when he hits you with certain special moves, you end up with a purple tint on your character, which means you’re currently poisoned, and your health will begin to gradually decrease.
Also, with his V-Skill he shoots poisonous projectiles which poison his opponent. By putting your opponent in a poisonous state, you can make them start to panic.
Famitsu: Making your opponent’s health start gradually decreasing sounds like a really good way to frustrate them.
Sugiyama: Yes, I agree. This also plays in with his general movements and the great performance that Mr. Shigeru Chiba put in as the character’s voice actor. F.A.N.G. is all about putting your opponent on tilt, I think, haha.
Famitsu: And his V-Trigger causes poison as well. This V-Trigger is unlike anything we’ve seen so far, is it not?
Sugiyama: F.A.N.G.’s V-Trigger envelops him in a poisonous cloud. When he activates it, the cloud starts gushing out around him, and if you get too close to him, you’ll end up in a poisoned state. Even if you block, your health will start decreasing, so it’s definitely meant to frustrate.
Famitsu: So would you say that his play style is to zone his opponent with projectiles and long-reaching moves, and then once he activates his V-Trigger to start moving in on his opponent?
Sugiyama: Yes, I would. He has really long reach, so he can chip away at his opponent’s life with those attacks, and then start moving in more offensively once his V-Trigger is active.
He also has command movement, and projectiles with curved arcs so he can use that together to rush his opponent down. Stay away and chip at them or move in and rush them down – he is capable of both, so efficiently switching between these two styles will likely become the main point of the character. ”
As always thank you for reading.
