Street Fighter fans are still reacting to Street Fighter V Champion Edition season 5 picks. Some of those fans are at Eventhubs.net and have now given there take on the picks mentioned so far. Remember we still have 1 unknown here to look forward to hearing about in the future. With that said check it out.
Dan Hibiki
Nick’s Thoughts: While I can definitely say that I wasn’t expecting Dan to be part of Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition’s final season, I’m definitely not against his inclusion.
Dan has always been a highly entertaining character and while his history shows him being very much of a “bad on purpose” kind of character, it does feel like the stakes for him are a bit different now that he’s a DLC character. Not to say that DLC characters have to be strong — we see plenty of weak ones in any game — but when you’re trying to sell a product to your fans, making one of the characters deliberately weak is a hard sell.
Thankfully, there’s no iron-clad rule saying that Dan has to be bad just because he does goofy moves and is weak within the lore. My hope for Dan is that Capcom put a bit more effort into solidifying the character into someone who’s not just fun to watch and laugh at, but also fun to play and has a good chance of doing well against other characters, too.
He’s a decently popular character and even though a lot of that likely stems from his goofball personality and wonky moves, there’s nothing saying that those can’t be intact while still having him be a viable pick in competitive play. I welcome him as an addition with open arms, though I hope Capcom pay extra attention to how he comes off this time around, particularly at a competitive level.
John’s Thoughts: Dan is kind of a curious choice to have leading the bunch. We don’t know if he’ll be a full on joke character or a legit addition to the competitive roster, but both have their positives.
We all sort of reeled back in our seats when he first revealed and asked “is this a joke?” which probably isn’t the best of signs. If it were up to me, I’d probably sandwich Dan between two especially hype reveals (Rose and Oro would be fine) but this isn’t the most egregious sin ever committed.
He’s definitely earned his place at the Street Fighter table and will surely add to the game whether players use him solely to attack opponents’ pride or if he simply winds up being a valid tournament character.
Steven’s Thoughts: Dan is a choice that I feel makes sense, but I honestly would have preferred to see that slot go to someone else. I’m not completely opposed to him being in, and I think with him being a joke character it’s a good way to diversify the roster even further, but at the end of the day there were others over Dan that I would have liked to see make the cut.
Jon’s Thoughts: I wasn’t nearly as upset by Dan’s reveal as most other people seemed to be. I think his taunt cancel stuff will make him an interesting character. Yes, while he’ll probably either be the worst or among the worst characters in the game, even in Street Fighter 4, we saw competitors use this guy in tournament and make an impact with him. He’s a very popular character despite mainly being used to troll other players. I think at this point in Street Fighter 5’s lifespan, adding Dan makes sense.
Dakota’s Thoughts: Unlike some players, I knew Capcom wouldn’t joke around with announcing Dan for the game even if he ends up being a joke character again.
I’ve never had a huge connection to Dan, but it was always hype to see competitors win with him in SF4. I’m always down for more of that though from what little footage we’ve seen, I wouldn’t be surprised if Mr. Hibiki was the most viable he’s ever been — which I’d hope considering they’re asking us to pay for him this time.
Rose
Jon’s Thoughts: Couldn’t be happier they’re adding Rose, but also taking the character in new directions. She was a very simple character in Street Fighter 4, and while I hope she’s not as complicated to play as Menat is, I am glad to see they’re adding additional layers into the mix for her this time around.
Lore wise, Rose is on par with M. Bison in terms of their power levels, so there’s a lot of different moves and approaches Capcom can take with her, which is apparently exactly what they’re doing. I’d like to see Rose end up as a “sorcerer” type character who controls the match with her powers, but once you get around those, she’s weaker. Mid-range control characters still aren’t prominent in Street Fighter 5’s existing meta, so making another one with Rose would be a good idea.
Steven’s Thoughts: I can’t say I’m too surprised by the inclusion of Rose, and I think she’s one that will bring some interesting things to the table. The thing that most excites me about Rose joining the roster is the fact that she’s getting her own stage. Assuming it’s a remake of her Street Fighter Alpha 3 stage, I will be thrilled to see how it looks in Street Fighter 5.
Dakota’s Thoughts: Rose was technically my main in Street Fighter 4 as well, so I too have been keen to see her return for Street Fighter 5 which I thought was a lock years ago.
Menat receiving Soul Spiral for her V-Skill 2 made me believe her master wouldn’t end up making the cut, yet here we are.
I know all non-Rose players hate the move, but I hope Soul Satellite returns as one of her V-Triggers and maybe even give it an extra option or two given the crazy stuff Menat can do with hers.
It was exciting to see her name pop up once again with that artwork, but it’s going to be difficult to wait at least six months to get my hands on her.
John’s Thoughts: Rose needed to happen. Perhaps we at EventHubs have been feeling this way more than the average SF5 community member due to the fact that Catalyst has been extremely excited at the prospect of her being added for a good few years now, but many in the FGC have echoed such a sentiment.
The character has traditionally been particularly annoying for a handful of other character types, but her intriguing and unique design has ultimately made her a welcome addition.
While I don’t plan on using her, I am interested in seeing what Capcom does in terms of implementing her particular arsenal of attacks into the Street Fighter 5 template. Many are happy to see her en route, and I think she was all but a must for this batch.
Nick’s Thoughts: On a personal level, I find Rose a fairly boring character who I’ve never been particularly invested in. That said, she will hopefully bring some more defensive play to Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition which, while it does exist, is still somewhat lacking compared to the wealth of offense-based play present in the game.
As my colleagues have stated, this was Catalyst’s absolute dream pick since it’s his favorite Street Fighter character bar none so of course I’m happy for his sake, but I really don’t feel much excitement to see what they’re doing with her as a character or have any particular requests on what I’d like to see changed up or added to her.
I don’t think she’s a bad choice by any means — she’s consistently placed high in Capcom’s popularity polls, she has a lot of legacy behind her and she’s intricately tied into the lore, even moreso now that we’ve been introduced to her highly popular cutesy disciple Menat.
Much like DreamKing, I’m finding myself mostly excited about seeing what her stage ends up like. It hasn’t been outright confirmed whether it’ll be a remake of one of her old stages or a brand new stage that’ll simply be billed as Rose’s home stage, so I’m pretty pumped to see what we end up with. Whether it’s a modern rendition of a classic level or something entirely new, I’m sure it’ll be a joy to look at. Rose has always had quite the elegant sense of style, and surely her stage will match that as well.
Oro
Steven’s Thoughts: Out of all of the announcements, I am definitely the most excited to try out Oro. The dude still fights with only one arm, but this time he’s balancing a damn turtle! I cannot wait to see what kind of interesting gameplay mechanics that leads to.
Jon’s Thoughts: Based on his history, Oro may end up being the most technical character they add into Season 5 of Street Fighter 5. Considering we haven’t seen a playable version of him for a long time, you can bring back a lot of the moves people love and still have him feel fresh.
This guy was lower tier in Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, but in the hands of a highly skilled player, he could still net solid tournament results. I don’t expect Oro to come out of the gate as a top tier candidate, especially if he remains highly technical, but I would assume he’ll have a lot of potential that can be unlocked by dedicated players.
Nick’s Thoughts: Even though I don’t play him at all in Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike and I find myself quite unlikely to do so in Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition as well, I’m really excited to see what Capcom do with Oro this time around. They’ve already mentioned that he’s going to keep his one-armed status, though for entirely different reasons than in the past, which makes me think they already have some ideas on how to keep him familiar but also fresh.
The character is quite frankly one of the more grotesque-looking in Street Fighter series history, but also has a fantastical coolness about him that comes from his hermit-level mastery of martial arts and all the mystery surrounding him. Given that his story in the Street Fighter 3 series eventually leads to him deciding to train Ryu, I’d imagine we’ll be getting some more information on that with his Street Fighter 5 appearance, despite the latter taking place before the former canonically.
Oro is a character people have been looking at as a likely addition since very early in Street Fighter 5’s lifespan, and it’s only been enhanced the more we’ve seen him appear in other characters’ story modes. As such, I think a lot of people — myself included — have built a bit of an image in our heads of what Oro might be in Street Fighter 5 once he finally makes the jump to the roster.
The only real worry I have is that he’ll end up having Tengu Stone as one of his V-Triggers, since I can’t really imagine any scenario where this move ends up being anything other than far, far too strong and rough to deal with or just completely useless and far too weak to ever bother to even use. While this move made sense in Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike and its system, I just can’t imagine a way it would work well in Street Fighter 5 without ending up far too overpowered or woefully underpowered.
As such, I’m hoping that they either shelve Tengu Stone for now or incorporate it in his Critical Art or other moves for just the cinematic effect of it. It would be a shame to see such an iconic and cool move of Oro’s be reduced to either a target of extreme hate or the butt of a joke.
Dakota’s Thoughts: Oro is a character I’ve wanted to see return since forever though I’ve always been curious how he’d look fully rendered as a 3D model considering Capcom has completely shied away from it for the past 20+ years.
The old hermit could bring a lot of excitement to the table though I do worry his moveset might end up severely toned down compared to where he ended in Third Strike. Maybe he’ll at least get to double jump in one of his V-Triggers.
As long as he’s a weirdo, I’ll probably be content with what they do with Oro which if the turtle gimmick is anything to go by, seems right on track to keep up his one-of-a-kind appeal.
John’s Thoughts: Oro hasn’t been a playable character for nearly 20 years now as he’s really only been in Street Fighter 3. The extremely powerful hermit may not be the best known Street Fighter, but he rapidly garners interest as soon as you start listing off his attributes.
His style was fairly different than anyone else’s as he’s something of a hybrid with his projectile attacks, command grab, and ability to summon orbiting rocks. He’s actually one of the most powerful characters in all SF canon, and only uses one hand while battling in order to keep things fair.
My interest was definitely piqued by this whole turtle mechanic Capcom is teasing. It seems players may have to play some sort of mini-game while using Oro in SF5 as he balances a turtle in one hand, which might wind up falling flat, but could also be really cool.
Akira Kazama
Dakota’s Thoughts: If you remember from a little article we did a while back about our most-wanted characters, I actually called out Akira as my pick, so I just about did a spit-take when her portrait appeared on screen.
I really wasn’t actually expecting her in SF5, but maybe for 6, but seeing Akira as the first Rival Schools rep really made my day and perhaps even SF5 in its entirety so, so much better.
I’m so shocked that I don’t actually know I want Capcom to update her design after 20 years because it feels as though there’s endless possibilities which is perhaps the most exciting thing.
The reality that Akira won’t be ready to go for like a year, however, is a bit of a gut punch, but I can still hold my head high that she is coming — and Capcom even picking her over other characters like Batsu makes me think they have some fun things in store for her arrival into the world of Street Fighter 5.
Nick’s Thoughts: As a huge fan of Rival Schools who’s been a massive proponent in the past for the series to make a return, Akira Kazama’s inclusion in Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition’s final season is an absolute joy for me and should be counted as a huge win in the book of any Capcom fan.
While Akira herself may not be my favorite from the series, I’m massively excited to finally see Rival Schools become a more official part of the Street Fighter series. It’s been established since the very first Rival Schools game which released 20 years ago that they share a universe, and we’ve seen cameos several times, but this is the first time we’re truly seeing a bridging of the gap with Rival Schools getting to enter the fray of its big brother Street Fighter.
Akira is a very interesting character both in personality and fighting style, and one we haven’t seen in action for over 15 years, which means that seeing a newly rendered Akira in motion is a super exciting prospect indeed. On top of that, Rival Schools is very different from Street Fighter despite both being part of the fighting game genre, so seeing how they adapt her to the Street Fighter style of play piques my curiosity in a big way.
As for the meta aspect of her inclusion, this means an increased presence of Rival Schools as a series in the public mind and can only increase the odds of us getting characters I’m more passionate about (like Hayato Nekketsu and Daigo Kazama) for future Street Fighter titles or, if I dare to dream, a Rival Schools 3 like Hideaki Itsuno has been pushing for.
Akira’s inclusion is already great because she’s a cool character, but it becomes even greater when you consider the implications it could have on Capcom’s future decisions.
John’s Thoughts: Akira is a fine choice as far as guest Capcom characters go, but I definitely would have sampled from Darkstalkers instead of Rival Schools if it were up to me.
That said, we hear love for RS all the time and now is a pretty good time for developers to take a chance like this and incorporate a relatively unknown character from a less known franchise.
I really don’t know what to expect from her, but I’m keeping an open mind and looking forward to seeing how creative developers get with her special “Rival Schools mechanic,” whatever that ends up being.
Steven’s Thoughts: Officially bringing Rival Schools into the mix is a great idea on Capcom’s part, and though I don’t know that much about her, I am intrigued by what Akira might be bringing to the table. I do hope that Capcom goes all out for her and adds in a ton of references to the source material, and they could easily do so with Akira having her own unique stage.
Jon’s Thoughts: This was such a deep cut pick, that I assume Capcom has something special in mind for her. I’d be very surprised if we get a cookie cutter character here, because I think the reason you tap into a character as obscure as Akira is because you have a very inspired reason to do so.
I am really looking forward to seeing what they do with her, as I believe she’ll add a new and diverse style to the game. These characters tend to be hit or miss in terms of their power though, as adding a fighter who breaks traditional molds can either make them terribly powerful, or terribly weak.
Fifth unknown character
John’s Thoughts: I’d like to specifically state that I think just about everything Capcom has done here is “fine” at worst. Maybe things could have been ordered a bit better, maybe character choice could have been a little more hype, but the stakes don’t feel as high as they have been in previous times.
There’s a lot of “win” in the very fact that we’re still getting new content, especially with the pleasant surprise of a new mechanic. The lengthy schedule is definitely a turnoff, but given the backdrop of COVID chaos and the likelihood that this all is being designed around Street Fighter 6’s development kind of gives Capcom a pass.
I’m less in the business of expectations (when it comes to character choice) and more into execution. Whatever the team decides to do with their final SF5 character, be it C. Viper, Fei Long, Goutetsu, or someone totally unexpected, I hope it makes for a fun experience that makes more people want to play the game.
Dakota’s Thoughts: I have zero inkling as to who that final character is, but I’m so fascinated that they’d choose to save one singular, last entry after showing us beyond early reports for the other four.
Given that it’s almost assuredly going to be SF5’s last addition to the roster, I could see Capcom wanting to go out with a bang which could be something like a Darkstalkers character though I’m not sure they’re ready to make that commitment yet. That’ll open a new can of worms alongside all of the Rival Schools requests we’re going to see now.
I do feel, however, that the mysterious fighter could be the game’s most experimental entry because even if the character somehow messes up SF5, at least there’s probably a new game around the corner to start fresh again.
That’ll be kinda crazy if they are the most out there though considering Oro and Akira will be dropping right before them with their own shenanigans.
I’m just trying not to think about it too much since we still have probably a year before we even learn who they are.
Jon’s Thoughts: The most likely name I’ve heard for this spot is C. Viper, but considering this fighter isn’t coming until Fall of 2021, it really could be anyone. Capcom is known to change character lineups if stuff leaks, so we’ll see what happens.
I personally like C. Viper and a flashy character who’s highly technical, and specializes in rush down and mix ups wouldn’t be a bad thing to add with this DLC pack in my opinion. She has a rich history of people playing her and doing well at the highest of levels in Street Fighter 4, so bringing that back at the end of this game’s lifespan I feel wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Nick’s Thoughts: To be honest, given what’s happened to the characters I love in the past for Street Fighter 5, I’ve long since stopped hoping for anyone I actually like to join the roster. Cody was an absolute disaster for me and while I know that some people enjoy Poison’s new whip-based moveset, I strongly prefer her old one so for me I just feel like any character I ask for gets ruined.
Because of this, I’d rather pray that they don’t include any character I like, so my only real hope for the final character is that it’s not Maki. Thankfully, we know that the final character will be getting less costumes than Rose and Akira are, which suggests (although does not confirm) that they’ll be male, as Capcom are much more liberal in handing out costumes to female characters.
Regardless of my feelings on upended movesets, I do think that there’s a clear reason why the last character is hidden from us when the others aren’t, despite the roadmap showing that we’re likely waiting a full year before we get to see Oro and Akira joining the fray. This reason, in my mind, is because the final character is someone brand new and there’s no point showing them to us in advance.
The main reasons for me thinking this is the heavy emphasis on brand new characters throughout Street Fighter 5’s lifespan, but also the fact that they went out of their way to show us concept art and tell us about Akira, a fairly shocking revelation, but still a pre-established character who people have played as before, albeit in a different franchise of games.
Whether the final combatant will be someone brand new that’s never even been mentioned in lore or someone previously seen but not playable like Goutetsu I couldn’t say, but I do think that it won’t be a simple returning favorite. Call it a hunch, an educated guess or just the ramblings of a disheveled former Cody main, but that’s where I’m at.
Steven’s Thoughts: For the fifth and final character, I am putting on my tinfoil hat in saying that I think they will be another crossover character. I think we might be finally getting a Darkstalkers character in Street Fighter 5, and if I could have my wish granted that character would be Victor. Just give me Victor already, Capcom!
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