Street Fighter 6 / YMMV

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General

Awesome Art:
- The menus and UI of this game use a very intricate graffiti aesthetic, giving everything a colorful urban look that fits the street tone in street fighting.
- The overworld of Metro City is quite a blast to look through; the props, buildings and NPCs all create a very lived-in feel that brings the world of Street Fighter to life like never before.
Base-Breaking Character:
- Luke is still considered as divisive as he was in V. His new design and more fleshed out personality are either seen as improvements, or just as uninteresting as his debut depiction, and people remain split on whether he's good enough to be the new face of Street Fighter, or find him too generic and lacking charisma to be worthy of that role. Him, once again, being a High-Tier Scrappy also hasn't helped.
- Reception to Lily has been mixed. For some, she’s an adorable, charming character with a fresh take on T. Hawk’s style of grappling. Others think she's an out of place moe-blob with an awkward character model and a gimmicky moveset with a game plan that boils down to “get Wind Clad, make the opponent block Condor Spire, then strike/throw mixup.” Her launching at a Low-Tier Letdown state also hasn’t helped.
Best Level Ever:
- Bathers' Beach is essentially Kanzuki Beach without the water on the far right of the stage that made it That One Level in the previous game. The serene backdrop of fighting in a beach at sunset paired with the game's amazing visuals really does the setting justice.
- The Colosseo stage. Being Marisa's home stage aside, just the fact that you get to fight in it is honestly one of the best feelings ever, especially if you gave your character a Gladiator outfit that'd be right at home in something like 300.
- Fête Foraine. One of the prettiest and most atmospheric stages in the game (if not the entire franchise), the setting is just drop-dead gorgeous to look at. The stage battle theme and it being Manon's home stage neatly ties it all together for one of the best stages in the series.
Broken Base: The soundtrack. Simply put, you either enjoy it for what it is at best, are indifferent to it and find it generic or, at worst, find it to be a massive step down in quality. Especially compared to SFV before it.
Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
- Playing Ken, and playing against him. Regardless of skill level, Ken is one of the most popular characters due to his ease of use and high tier status. Him being a common pick for players means understanding the matchup will make fighting him easier in some aspects.
- Luke and Juri are common picks. Luke has fantastic damage, great pressure, and benefits greatly from the Drive system. Juri also benefits thanks to possessing a fast Drive Rush, which gives her a solid rushdown game and can overwhelm her opponents.
- As far as Avatar Battles on the Battle Hub go, you can count the number of times you came across someone whose Avatar doesn't have Screw Piledriver in their moveset with one hand. Heaven forbid they pair it with a moveset with high mobility (i.e., Kimberly or Cammy), or else you'll be eating SPDs like no tomorrow. It doesn't help that it is one of the only moves with a 360° motion input, allowing it to easily be incorporated into most builds.
Creepy Awesome: Being so sadistic and deranged that she makes Juri look sane by comparison? Slithering on the ground like a snake to avoid projectiles? Having a poison-centric fighting style that puts F.A.N.G to shame? Wrapping around her opponents like a boa constrictor? Having a Level 3 attack that disrupts her opponents' ki with poison and makes them explode like in Fist of the North Star? Newcomer A.K.I. is this full stop.
Evil Is Cool: JP may be a heartless sociopath, but his fancy attire, high intelligence, and fighting style where he uses Psycho Force like a wizard (while still being built like a tank) make him a really cool one.
Foe Yay Shipping:
- Despite the two being bitter rivals in canon, Luke and Jamie have gotten a not-inconsiderate amount of fan content shipping the two. Before the game released, a GIF went viral of the characters' end-of-round animations colliding in a way that makes it look like Jamie is going in to kiss Luke.^noteHOP ON STREET FIGHTER 6. And the ship only got more popular once people saw the two interact in their arcade mode stories and reinterpreted their heated rivalry as Belligerent Sexual Tension.
- With the reveal of the seductive, sadistic A.K.I., some fans came to the conclusion that (a) she and Juri would despise each other due to being Too Much Alike, and (b) this would, if anything, only accelerate them ending up in bed together.
Fountain of Memes: Luke became this before and after the game's release, thanks in no small part to his English voice actor, Aleks Le, as well as having some memorable lines in-game, particularly during two of his Super Arts, Eraser and Pale Rider. This also overlaps with Memetic Troll to a certain degree thanks to his infamous mocking Hadouken taunt and the "BOOM! DIVORCED!" meme:
Luke: You took the wrong guy to Memphis!^note
Genius Bonus: Marisa's Enfold grab resembles the Roman statue The Wrestlers, which (despite the name) shows two men competing in pankration, Marisa's fighting style.
High-Tier Scrappy:
- Though not the most common pick, a character that has become a nightmare for many a player turned out to be Blanka. 6‘s incarnation is among his most dangerous when mastered, boasting powerful attacks, amazing range, special moves that are exceptionally hard to punish (including a jump back Rolling Attack that is a brutally effective anti-throw move), and one of the best Supers in the game, Lightning Beast, that lets him chain electrified Rolling Attacks, offering an amazing amount of pressure and damage output. Blanka also has a set of Blanka-chan dolls he can throw out as traps to electrify, creating suffocating set-play and okizeme. And he has a lot of anti-air options (Standing HK, B+MK, Vertical Roll, and Wild Bites, his brand-new air throw and first since Alpha 3) In a game that gives many characters new specials and abilities, Blanka has had amongst the best glow-ups overall.
- JP has proven himself to be one of the most annoying zoners to ever grace a Street Fighter game, due to the fact that his style of zoning is more akin to that of an anime fighter like Guilty Gear. He can near-effortlessly keep the opponent away from him using his Torbalan shadows, stop them from approaching him with his Triglav ground spikes, and enforce mixups easily with his Departure portals. His Level 2 super, Lovushka, also instantly enforces a blockstring akin to Nu-13's swords in BlazBlue. He got nerfed in the February 27, 2024 balance patch, mostly nerfing his crouching heavy punch as an anti-air and adding heavy damage scaling on combos from OD Amnesia.
- Ken was at one time seen as one of the best, if not the best character in season 1. A Master of All effective at any level of play, Ken has a very versatile move pool, lots of moves that are safe on block, a simple yet effective hit/throw mixup game, can pressure his opponent toward the corner easily, and can deal a crap-ton of damage if he’s willing to burn meter. However, players have found ways to defend against many of Ken's moves. For example, drive parries, especially perfect parries, blow up Ken's Dragonlash Kick. He has since fallen in the tier list behind Luke, but Ken is still considered by most to be in the top 5 strongest characters of season one. He got some slight nerfs in the February 27, 2024 patch. He has a tighter window to do throw loops in the corner, his air Tatsumaki has been weakened as a corner escape option, and his standing light punch has a bigger hurtbox.
- Luke is widely considered to be one of the best characters in season 1. He has it all; a solid projectile, great anti-airs, a strong throw loop, solid damage (meterless or otherwise), and the ease of use to go with it. He also synergizes well with the Drive System, and can spend his Drive Gauge however he sees fit. Luke doesn't have many exploitable weaknesses, so it's just a matter of skill when fighting against a Luke player. The February 27, 2024 balance patch toned down some of his more egregious tools, mainly making crouching medium punch and air Flash Knuckle more punishable on whiff.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Tomokazu Sugita has been well known in the past for his amazing impression of Norio Wakamoto. Here, he plays JP, the designated successor of Wakamoto's character M. Bison/Vega.
- A running gag about Ken and his new look is that he must have lost all of his money after investing in NFTs. Then the prequel comic revealed that he actually did run a failed crypto campaign that landed him in trouble with his director board. Though it's not quite why he's on the lam during the game.
I Knew It!:
- Luke was described prior to his release in SFV as playing a big part in the future of the series, which many took to mean that he was going to be the central character of Street Fighter 6, an assumption that was proved to be correct.
- A number of fans called A.K.I. having some sort of connection to F.A.N.G. as soon as she was revealed, owing to her similar name and design.
Les Yay: Street Fighter V already had this with Cammy and Juni's interactions in her character story, and Cammy's arcade route carries on from there. In the intro, it's shown that Juni has given Cammy a cat-shaped charm that hangs off her phone, engraved with the words "Thinking about you". The end cutscene also includes an image from Cammy's point of view showing Juni on the opposite end of a café table in what looks like a date.
LGBT Fanbase: While Marisa and Manon have garnered plenty of love from straight and male-presenting folks, they've been eagerly lapped up by female fans for representing different sides of female beauty, on top of being interesting fighters. It's understandable, given one is an extremely tall, muscular heavy-hitter who looks equally intimidating and attractive, and the other is a graceful dancer who forces her opponents into various choreographed attacks. It's joked that since both are domineering women specialising in punches and kicks, there's a little something for everyone. Marisa has also been confirmed as biromantic/bisexual, bolstering her popularity even further. In the game, the two even get a little Ship Tease with each other.
Low-Tier Letdown:
- Despite some early hype, A.K.I. quickly fell into low tier status after she launched. Her main issues come from her underwhelming neutral. Her normal buttons don't lead into much, and her best pokes are easily whiff punished. Even after Drive Rush she doesn't have many moves that are hugely plus on block. Her fireball is a key part of her game plan, but there's only one speed for it and majority of the roster has answers to it. Her approach options like Cruel Fate are highly commital. Hindering A.K.I further is her poor defense. OD Snake Step is easily beat by jabs or throws, and her level 1 super is slow. Finally, she's Difficult, but Awesome but leans too much on the "difficult" part for most to play with. While she has her strengths (mid screen oki, OD fireball, corner carry), more often than not A.K.I. is fighting uphill. She got buffed in the February 27, 2024 balance patch.
- Most pro players have Lily listed as one of the worst characters as of season 1. Despite her frame, she’s as slow as a traditional Street Fighter grappler. She gets buffs with her Windclad mechanic, but has to sacrifice pressure and space to charge up. Her approaches are very linear, committing to a Condor Dive can mean eating an anti air, and Condor Spire is easily beat by Drive Reversal. Additionally, her reversals are lackluster and highly committal, making her extremely vulnerable to rushdown and zoning characters. Even if she does get in and land a Mexican Typhoon, she’s back full screen and has to burn Drive Gauge to get in again. While Lily isn’t considered bad like low tiers in previous Street Fighter titles, she usually has to put in far more effort than other characters to succeed, which results in many finding her an unappealing pick in a game full of easy-to-use, but vastly more varied, fighters.
- Manon had a large player base in the early part of 6's competitive life, but as the months rolled on, her player base dwindled and found herself near the bottom of most pro player's tier lists. Her strengths are clear, (long reaching normals, and the threat of huge damage with the medal system) but her weaknesses far outweigh them. Her neutral game is lacking, with her main approach option of Dégagé being highly committal and very unsafe on block. She lacks pokes with meaningful conversions and, even worse, ANY normal move that's safe on block, meaning that whenever her opponent blocks an attack, they can always challenge her. This also has the side effect of making her meter hungry to get any momentum, let alone normals that are plus on block. Much like fellow grapplers Zangief and Lily, Manon folds under pressure due to having no reversal outside of her Super Arts. But unlike the other grapplers, Manon doesn't have any major punishes for opponents that jump back when she starts her offense. The end result is Manon having one really solid gimmick with her medal mechanic, but doesn't give her much to work with. Though unlike other low-tier characters in previous Street Fighter titles, Manon isn't so much bad as much as just outclassed by other characters. She got some minor quality of life adjustments in the February 27, 2024 patch, but not enough to change her placing in most tier lists.
- Ryu was ranked by many to be among the weakest characters. His play style is basic and honest, lacking gimmicks unlike the other characters. His most notable additions, Denjin Charge and Hashogeki, are considered underwhelming. Ryu has to give up oki to charge, which many consider to be a poor tradeoff, and will spend it with the next Hadoken or Hashogeki, meaning if he wants to spend it on the latter then he can't use the former. Not only is Ryu considered weak but also redundant due to being a Master of None compared to other shotos (Ken and Luke) being Master of All. It's not uncommon to hear players say "Why play Ryu when you can play Ken or Luke?" The February 27, 2024 balance patch addressed some of Ryu’s issues, mostly giving Hashogeki better frame data and Denjin Charge Hadouken more utility.
- Zangief, despite a slew of quality of life changes from Street Fighter V, was seen as one of the weakest characters in SF6. Zangief is very slow, and has a hard time maneuvering around projectiles. He either has to spend Drive Gauge or take huge risks to get in on his opponents. And even if he gets in, his combo routes are surprisingly limited, and his level 1 and 2 supers are notoriously inconsistent. Many of his pokes are slow and are just begging to be whiff punished. Even if he gets in and lands a Spinning Pile Driver, it resets Zangief back to full screen where he has to guess to get in again. Zangief also doesn't have much in the way of reversals, making him vulnerable to rushdown and vortex characters. Overall, Zangief is a character with a lot of damage but not much else to rely on. He got some much needed buffs in the February 27, 2024 patch. He can now combo into his level 3/critical art from OD Spinning Lariat and Aerial Russian Slam has a bigger hitbox, making it far more reliable as an anti-air and combo finisher.
Memetic Loser:
- With his design getting leaked and the interim before his official reveal, poor Ken ended up as the butt of many jokes within the fandom, as the most prevalent rumor about his current circumstances was that Eliza had divorced him. Memes about him losing his fortune to Bored Apes, fan art depicting him as uncharacteristically depressed, and phrases such as "She took the kids, Ryu" and "I used to wake-up DP, now I don't even want to wake up anymore" spread like wildfire. This particular interpretation got discredited when the real reason behind his disheveled appearance (namely, a criminal organization framing him for crimes and forcing him underground to clear his name) was established — only to return once it was canonically established via the prequel comic that Ken had invested in cryptocurrency:
  Woolie: (reading chat) "He gives new meaning to the term 'Super Cancels'!"
- Cammy and Zangief got this reputation among fans, where despite being very popular recurring characters, they were the last characters to get a gameplay reveal trailer, which wasn't until the February 23, 2023 State of Play event.
- Chun-Li. In her case, it's mostly due to the return of the universal parries from the Street Fighter III series, having her Hoyoku-Sen super back, and Ken likewise having his Shippu Jinraikyaku back as well that would inevitably bring back the EVO Moment 37 jokes in full force.
- A move-specific example: Jamie's Luminous Dive Kick gets made fun of a lot by Jamie and non-Jamie users for its god awful hitbox that loses to nearly everything. Many players like to joke that his cousins, Yun and Yang, trained him wrong as a joke.
Memetic Mutation: Has its own page.
Moe:
- Kimberly at times can come off as this. Genki Girl mannerisms aside, her youthful look and her Game Over animation in Arcade Mode definitely contribute to this, if not the way she dances after her Level 3 Super Art.
- Lily, so much. It's already enough she's the starting roster's Token Mini-Moe, but her adorable facial expressions in the character lead-in and the loading screen are nothing short of precious.
- Cammy of all characters has a particular moment of this with one of her facial expressions on the loading screen being a rather wholesome smile.
- Li-Fen's design is very endearing, coupled with her being all-around helpful and quite adorkable at times. Being Chun-Li's star pupil probably has something to do with it.
Nintendo Hard: Besides the CPU's higher levels in Versus and Arcade play that will Perfect Play A.I. you into compliance, the higher level fights and more notable characters in World Tour all fight like proper opponents compared to the rather basic enemies and citizens strewn about. If you get a 3-round match setup, expect the opponent to know exactly how to use their moveset on you because you're in for a real match.
Most Wonderful Sound:
- You wouldn't expect something as mundane as "Sonic Boom!" to sound so good, but Ray Chase's smooth delivery makes it so satisfying to hear every time.
- Ken yelling Shippu Jinraikyaku in a mainline game again after it was missing in SFV brings a certain catharsis.
- "Sit down, and SHUT UP!", when Ken finishes the opponent with a punch to the face in his "Shinryu Reppa" Critical Art.
- The sound of Luke's fist utterly decimating the opponent's jaw in his "Eraser" Super. Never gets old.
- Nailing a perfectly-timed Flash Knuckle with Luke will have him yell "PERFECT!" upon doing so. Your reward is a not-insubstantial amount of damage and a gratifying audio cue alongside the delivery of the line. The same goes for Guile and a perfectly timed Sonic Boom, too.
- The visual spectacle of a successful Drive Impact Counter. A split second slowdown and an incredibly satisfying SMACK as the blow crumples your opponent and a splash of multi-color paint blooms from the strike before falling on the ground. Even better if you counter a Drive Impact with your own.
- The punch, kick, and special move hit sound effects in SFV were noted as being underwhelming and a little “splashy” when compared to previous iterations — particularly the hard punch sound effect, which lacked the usual satisfying snap. SF6's hit sounds have been beefed up considerably, sounding much more dramatic and punchy.
- The "aluminum bat hitting a baseball" noise coming from a parry is incredibly satisfying, especially during a perfect parry when accompanied by your character making a quip. Parrying a multi-hit attack (like the Hundred Hand Slap) causes the noise to ring out for every hit parried.
- The slowed down sound effect of a normal parry and the visual flair of landing a Perfect Parry even more so. Its the sound that you have a moment of opportunity to turn the tide of battle in your favor, or lay the beatdown even harder. The effect is only amplified if you Perfect Parry That One Attack.
- "MY LOYAL FANS!" and the entire speech that follows when Zangief lands his Critical Art are beloved by his players and fans alike.
Older Than They Think:
- Ryu wore footwear in the very first game in the series.
- While Marisa is notable for being a heavily-built female fighter, it isn't a new concept for fighting games. Angela Belti from the 1993 game Power Instinct is a massive, heavily-built wrestler, predating Marisa's character. There's also wrestler Mary Ivonskaya from Tobal, who'd debut three years later. Additionally, she isn't even the first one in Capcom history, as Black Widow from Saturday Night Slam Masters's sequel, Ring of Destruction/International Blowout, stands at 6'6", just two inches below Marisa.
- Though many view the Modern control scheme as a novel concept, this is not the first traditional fighting game from Capcom to have an option for a simplified control scheme. Some earlier entries in the Marvel vs. Capcom series, as well as the Nintendo GameCube and Xbox versions of Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium had simplified control scheme options. Even within the confines of Street Fighter alone, the 3DS port of Super Street Fighter IV allows the player to set special moves to shortcut buttons on the touch screen, and some ports of Street Fighter II, namely the Game Boy Advance version and Super Turbo HD Remix, also have options for simplified control schemes. The Modern controls also resemble the Stylish mode seen in some Arc System Works games.
- Genre Mashups of Fighting Games and Role Playing Games, as seen in World Tour, have been around before. Soulcalibur VI featured such a mode in "Libra of Soul", which not only also featured a customizable protagonist, but entailed said protagonist traveling the world and engaging in fights along the way (albeit via a map screen instead of in a Wide-Open Sandbox). The concept of this mashup can be traced back even further to 1994 with Revengers of Vengeance (though not executed nearly as well as those that came after).
- While cross platform online play was a touted feature for Street Fighter 6, it isn’t the first time a Capcom fighter had this feature. Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium offered online play between Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 owners as far back as 2001.
Preemptive Shipping: Manon and Marisa got this from just the Pre-Order Trailer alone, for the sole reason of both of them being tall and beautiful power-style fighters. Granted on a narrative level, the pair had a ton of synergy just through their character profiles ^note. Once the game came out and the two characters interacted through Arcade Mode, the ship actually got even more popular.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
- Compared to his previous outing, Dee Jay not only got a much-needed revamp in his visual design, but also his gameplay, too. As opposed to being a (worse) composite of Guile and M. Bison/Dictator, here, Dee Jay is a more well-rounded character with an emphasis on mobility^note and trickiness.^note Combined with the universal benefits of the Drive System as well as all-around good frames, and Dee Jay went from one of the weakest (usually bottom five) characters in SFIV, to one of the best early into SF6's lifespan.
- Though Luke was widely played in SFV due to being extremely good, he was often disliked for being viewed as The Generic Guy. In SF6, he gets a lot more time to show off his personality, which has benefited him. It also helps that his English voice actor, Aleks Le, became popular in the community for goofy videos featuring Luke, making him a lot more endearing and characterizing him further as a Lovable Jock.
- While not a major glow-up considering he only appears as an NPC in World Tour, F.A.N.G. received a much warmer reception in this game than his debut in V, owing largely to 6 playing him much more seriously rather than trying to balance him out with goofier elements that heavily divided fan opinion. His appearance is not nearly as ridiculous and off-putting as before (with his new outfit being praised as making him look properly dignified, sinister, and badass), and his unsettling relationship with A.K.I. is a dynamic that many fans have found to have made both of them substantially more interesting.
Suspiciously Similar Song: The game's main theme, "Not on the Sidelines", is basically Street Fighter's take on Fort Minor's (and Styles of Beyond's) "Remember the Name".
Tainted by the Preview:
- The announcement that SF6 would release on the PlayStation 4 garnered this, with accusations that the PS4 would be "holding the game back" being rife immediately after it was announced. Not helping matters is that it was confirmed that the Xbox One wouldn't receive a version, which caused resentment from Xbox One owners due to the absence of SFV on the console.
- The starting roster has been met with mixed reactions for several reasons:
  - For one, the game launched with a meager 18 characters, only two more than what SFV had at launch and certainly smaller than SNK's The King of Fighters XV. Granted, unlike SFV, SF6 has much more content besides the roster (World Tour, Extreme Battle, an expansive training mode, etc.). However, it's still a bitter pill to swallow for some, though others understand it's probably a result of the new models each character has and the new modes.
  - Another issue is that ten returning cast members are taken wholesale from SFII, and one representative from SFIV, Juri. Despite the game being set after 3rd Strike, there's a massive disparity with the lack of SFIII or even SFV (or SFA for that matter) characters in sight, and this is discounting Luke as an Early-Bird Cameo in SFV. It makes one wonder what the point of taking place after SFIII is when almost everyone is from SFII instead. The first wave of DLC remedies this to a degree, with Rashid and Ed representing SFV as part of the pack.
  - With Metro City being a fully modeled Wide-Open Sandbox that you can explore and the return of the Mad Gear Gang, it's a little surprising that no actual Final Fight characters are playable in the base roster. The closest we have to that is Kimberly being a pupil of Guy's, and Carlos appearing as an NPC.
- Minor example, but the reveal of the game's official cover art was met with a Lukewarm response. While it was expected that Luke would be the poster boy for the game, quite a few people were caught off-guard by him being on the cover art with the biggest, most glaring example of a DreamWorks Face that only Barry Benson would be proud of. Granted, this isn't anything new for the series since this has been done several times◊ before◊, but how it was handled here leaves a lot to be desired.
That One Attack: From playable characters:
- Luke's crouching medium punch is one of the best normal moves in the game period. It comes out fast, is next to impossible to whiff punish thanks to its low recovery, it hits farther than the animation shows in a case of Hitbox Dissonance, it's safe on block (even without Drive Rush), and on hit Luke can special cancel it or go into a Drive Rush for a combo with huge damage. In short, Luke's crouching medium punch is a swiss army knife of a normal that most characters can't contend with. The first balance patch knocked Luke’s crouching medium punch down a peg by giving it more recovery on whiff, as well as expanding Luke’s hurtbox.
- Blanka's Rolling Attack (Blanka ball) series has been buffed to insane degrees. Blanka shoots across the screen at lighting speeds while being able to mix up his recovery. Trying to hold parry stance? Blanka can throw out a light Rolling Attack, and recover in time for a throw. While vulnerable to anti-air attacks or Perfect Parries, it travels so fast and has so many built in mixups that the defender usually has to make a hard guess against Blanka. The aerial version is even nastier; it can be only used from a backwards jump and can be done low to the ground making it damn near impossible to react to with a Perfect Parry or anti-air. That's not going into the OD version of Aerial Rolling Attack, which is safe on block.
Underused Game Mechanic: There's a third control type, Dynamic Controls, that uses a simplified control scheme in combination with AI to help the player out in deciding what moves are best for a given situation. Sounds nice in theory, but it isn't able to be used in online matches (only being usable offline in VS Battle), so most players just stick with Modern or Classic Controls. Then again, given how some people already feel about Modern controls, that's probably for the best.
Unexpected Character:
- Dee Jay returning as a member of the base roster caught many off guard, given his relative lack of popularity among the Street Fighter cast and Capcom seemingly not caring much for him.
- Carlos from Final Fight 2 showing up as an unplayable opponent took many players by surprise, due in no small part to his general lack of appearances and relative obscurity.
- Retsu is another character no one could've seen coming back, even as an NPC that you can fight against in World Tour mode (and as a background cameo in The Macho Ring stage).
Visual Effects of Awesome:
- The game's first gameplay sample wowed fans when it was revealed, showcasing visuals that blow SFV's out of the water. The animation returns to the iconic exaggeration of 3rd Strike, giving every attack an incredible sense of weight and impact. The visual effects on every move, including motion trails, impact sparks, and dynamic shading, are a visual delight and further enhance that intense sense of impact.
- A month after the game's release, Rashid was shown off in-game for the first time, and he looks absolutely amazing. His new design, with its many articles of clothing, show off some beautiful cloth simulation on account of the RE Engine, and gives his movement a great sense of follow-through. And the animators flex with his vastly more elaborate parkour maneuvers, really accentuating the flashy and acrobatic style central to his character.
Win Back the Crowd: After Street Fighter V proved to be a highly contentious title due to several divisive approaches to game mechanics, presentation, and content rollout, Capcom had their work cut out in regaining the confidence of its fanbase with SF6. Astonishingly, they largely managed to pull it off — the new art style received praise on sight, the updates to gameplay and the many new features it (re-)introduces to combat have been well-received, as well as having much new and exciting high-scope content right out of the gate, including the World Tour mode. The game sold over a million copies within its first week, and has gained near-unanimous praise from critics and players alike as an excellent entry in the series.

World Tour/Story

Adorkable: Given how World Tour goes into better detail on every character's backstories with you interacting with them directly, this is bound to happen.
- Cammy, so much. Being very clingy whenever she texts you is one thing, but the amount of times she's Not So Above It All really offset how much of a stoic she typically is. Needless to say, you'll be chuckling pretty often at her antics as you deepen your bond with her in World Tour.
- Luke. The mere fact that he can mock Ryu's Hadoken in the most hilariously disrespectful manner is one thing, but his Hidden Depths coupled with his love for video games and overall grounded and laid-back personality makes him very endearing. Not to mention that Aleks Le is clearly having the time of his life voicing the character.
- Ryu's simple, earnest sincerity can be quite charming, whether he's reminiscing on the time Chun-Li took him clothes shopping (since his gi kept getting him held up at airports) or approaching learning to use a smartphone with the same seriousness and diligence he applies to martial arts.
Catharsis Factor: A.K.I.'s arcade ending sees her beat and threaten JP into staying out of F.A.N.G.'s business, which leaves him completely shaken. While A.K.I. is no saint herself (and F.A.N.G is not only about as cruel as JP, but was a bit more controversial in his debut game), it can be satisfying to players frustrated at JP being a Karma Houdini for the hell he put Ken through as well as Bosch's death.
Complete Monster: JP is the leader of the cyberterrorist organization Amnesia who wishes to restore Shadaloo back to its former glory. Previously M. Bison's financial advisor who was chosen to be his successor after mastering his Psycho Power, JP frequently poses as a wealthy philanthropist who establishes many companies in Third-World countries, creating destructive conflicts such as civil wars just so he can set up charity organizations from which to launder money. Setting up shop in Nayshall, JP frames Ken Masters as a collaborator of Amnesia to ruin his life, then holds his son Mel hostage while forcing him to activate a series of drone bombs that would kill hundreds of people in order to save him. Sensing a resistance trying to stop him, JP tries to trick the Player Character and their friend Bosch's little sister Yua into getting killed by a hidden bomb.
Cry for the Devil: Juri. With M. Bison dead following the events of V, all she has left to drive her in life is the prospect of fighting, which she uses as a distraction from her loneliness and psychological scars. She's also deeply envious of Chun-Li's ability to find peace and acceptance in the wake of Bison's demise, while she herself remains unable to move on. As unrepentantly terrible a person as she still is, her inner misery and emotional pain are nevertheless pitiable.
Demonic Spiders:
- The automated Refrigerators. They have full super armor at all times and are only vulnerable while their doors are open, during which they are either shooting food at you or attempting to suck you in for a command grab. Attacking them before they have a chance to attack back can be tricky, as the initial animation for their doors opening often blends in with their white coloration. If the door itself hits you when it swings open you'll be sent flying, all but guaranteeing you'll miss your oppurtunity to attack unless you've got a a ranged, projectile-piercing Super Art. They also have a heavy slam attack that comes out like Honda's slam, and it hits like a proverbial truck for sheer damage. And to top this off, at higher levels they get a new attack in which they open their bottom door to shoot food at you, which is functionally the same as their regular food shot except it doesn't leave them vulnerable. If all of this sounds bad on its own, the fridges are never alone, often paired with Assault Drones, Hyoombas, or, worst of all, more Refrigerators. And then there's that one corner in Nayshall, where stumbling into the wrong part of town will get you ambushed by three of the damn things plus a Hyoomba and a Drone; it's entirely possible to be stunlocked to death and utterly crushed by the sheer, absolute nightmare this specific encounter becomes. This bastard of an encounter is mandatory in the story progression, though by that time if you've been leveling, you won't die as fast.
- Any fighters packing the Cammy or Zangief Styles. The former will be far more aggressive than most other combatants, playing a crazed game of footsies and ready to Spiral Arrow you the instant the AI realizes your guard is down, even if you're prepping a special. The latter will abuse super armor and command grab throws with impunity, to the point that a number of late-game foes with his style outright will march at you with projectile-proof armor and grab you for heavy damage the moment they touch your hitbox. You can expect a lot of damage at the minimum when you run into these types.
Difficulty Spike: Up to Chapter 13, the game has had a fairly generous difficulty curve. While some fights can be rough, and certain bosses hurt like hell, it's nothing a decent player can't manage with some healing items on standby. Then you have to climb Mount Vashal, and the game suddenly jumps from a level 30-40 average to level 50 and above; even with the best, maxed out gear you could have up to this point, every random encounter can shave off an entire health bar in seconds, they all become much more aggressive in general and will try to stunlock you if they can while abusing invulnerable rolls, and many fight conditions for restorative items become notably stricter. Without some grinding or an excess of restoratives on-hand, you're in for a world of hurt. And this isn't even getting into the Optional Boss encounters that unlock at this point, who all dramatically skyrocket up a solid 20 levels, and are well outside your range of hoping to take down at that point for most players without them knocking you out in a handful of blows.
Epileptic Tree:
- When it was first revealed the Ken had been framed for a crime he didn't commit by a criminal organization, many fans jumped to the conclusion that the criminal organization in question would turn out to be the Mad Gear gang due to Metro City being one of the story's main settings alongside Nayshall. Some fans even began acting as though this theory had already been confirmed to be the case, to the point where there even used to be entries on This Very Wiki that stated that the Mad Gear gang were the ones who framed Ken. The prequel comics would later reveal that it wasn't the Mad Gear gang who framed Ken but a terrorist group known as Amnesia, secretly led by JP. And while the Mad Gear gang are present in World Tour mode, acting as the Starter Villains of the story, they have zero ties to Amnesia, debunking this theory even further.
- Due to the abrupt and sombre nature of World Tour mode's ending, many speculate that the mode will eventually receive a story expansion that continues from where the base game's story left off and delivers a more satisfying conclusion to the narrative.
Goddamned Bats: Even when they aren't accompanying more dangerous enemies, Drones and Hyoombas can be an absolute chore to deal with. They are too small to hit with most attacks, and they have a habit of constantly dodging out of the way the moment you get close, forcing you to chase after them until they decide to sit still. Hitting them with any attack causes a knockdown, which is a double-edged sword: attacking them right as their Mercy Invincibility wears off allows you to stunlock them to death, but missing the timing means they will likely dart away and start the chase all over again.
Iron Woobie: Manon. While she's got plenty of achievements to her name, it unfortunately came with a pretty hefty price. So much that not only does she hate being called "strong", but her mother flat-out abandoned her after the fact. She doesn't show it openly (and is quite well-adjusted, all things considered), but even so, the poor girl could do with a hug.
Moral Event Horizon: The official prequel comic definitively cements JP's villainy by having him launch a full-scale terrorist attack on Nayshall, the very country he is operating in, and then forcing Ken into a Sadistic Choice where he has to choose between saving Nayshall's people or his own son, Mel. And this is after he had Ken framed for backing the attacks.
Older Than They Think: Some have found it absurd that the Avatar is able to copy so many styles and moves in such a short period of time with basic training under each Master. Sakura Kasugano's been doing it since Alpha, where she literally watched Ryu on television to create weaker versions of his techniques (including figuring out how to do a Hadoken from just the hand movements), compared to the Avatar managing to get direct, hands-on training. Which also means being able to fling fireballs of spiritual energy and turn one's body into a stretchy, rubbery means via the power of Yoga is just par for the course in the Street Fighter universe; this is further emphasized by just how widespread street fighting is during World Tour.
Play the Game, Skip the Story: World Tour is acclaimed for its fun Wide-Open Sandbox, highly customizable avatar, and the ability to mix and match each of the playable roster's fighting styles. The story, by comparison, is seen as lackluster due to its barebones plot, Padding, and having an abrupt And the Adventure Continues ending where JP gets off with little more than getting beaten up and the central theme of "What is Strength" goes unresolved.
Salvaged Gameplay Mechanic: After Street Fighter V alienated casual players with its lack of single-player content, a story mode with an open world and a customizable main character was sorely needed.
Salvaged Story: Many rejoiced when it was announced that SF6 will take place chronologically after Street Fighter III. A common criticism of the last two games — but SFV in particular^note — was setting everything before SFIII, which not only made the continuity confusing but also contributed little to the progression of the world and characters.
Scrappy Mechanic:
- Defeating someone on the field will render them unfightable for a period of time, and not even changing the time of day at a Hideout or outright leaving for somewhere else on the World Map and then coming back will guarantee that they will be ready to be fought again. This means if you know you can't complete a very specific fight condition on a character, you're better off using the Escape to try again from scratch, or else you have to leave and, in the cases of both Metro City and Nayshall, find your target all over again for another chance. This also makes grinding for experience and style points ^note take far longer than it should. This mechanic doesn't apply to the disposable mook forces, though, who will respawn soon enough or outright keep respawning in the same area over and over later on.
- Continuing is Painful, mainly because the game's auto-save system won't save you from strange choices of where you continue from if you either don't spend the Miles to try again, or fail the second attempt. Die in specific boss or story encounters? Enjoy being planted right back at the dead center of the city/town region, having to make your way back to where it happened, taking on all the random and story encounters in the process and hoping you can survive this time.
- Those interested in the role-playing aspect will be disappointed to learn that the options for character customization are surprisingly restrictive beyond the otherwise robust creation system. You can only have one Avatar, and their name cannot be different from what you set as your player name. Clothing and mentor/moveset options are limited early on, and the rate at which more become available relative to story progression is rather slow ^note. If you created a character with a specific build or aesthetic in mind, you may be forced to use clothes and moves that clash with what you envisioned for most of the game. What makes this go from merely annoying to outright damning is that you can't even start a fresh playthrough once you find what you want for your character, as all the clothes, styles, and special moves you've unlocked are lost if you restart the story.
- There's an odd limit on the types of moves (specifically their inputs) you can equip. For some reason, moves that share the same motion input but use different buttons (e.g. Luke's Sand Blast and Ryu's High Blade Kick) can't be used together. Half-circle inputs and quarter-circle inputs (i.e. Luke's quarter-circle Flash Knuckle and Manon's half-circle Manege Dore) do not have this limitation, even though they're more likely to overlap than the former. This means it's impossible to have Ryu's Hashogeki and Ken's Dragonlash Kick with other moves like Hadoken, Tatsumaki, and Shoryuken due to this odd limitation. In some cases, you have to make a choice between two moves that the fighting style normally relies on (such as Cammy's Spiral Arrow or Hooligan Combination, or Jamie's Bakkai and Freeflow Strikes - the latter two of which are the very first moves given to you when you enroll as Jamie's pupil), which alternates between uncomfortable and crippling.
Spiritual Successor: To the Final Fight series. And the closest there will ever be to a Final Fight 4 given the primary setting of Metro City, the modernized 2D Beat-'em-up gameplay, the abundance of references to said series (including the appearances of Carlos, Roxy, and the entire Andore family), and the presence of the Mad Gear gang as a persistent enemy to tie it all together.
That One Attack: Carlos Miyamoto uses an exclusive katana attack where he swings the blade around him several times in a row. You cannot armor break, Drive Impact, parry, or even attempt to projectile it without getting drawn in if it tags your hitbox. The only two things that can interrupt it are a fully charged Gladius or throw, and the latter requires you to be ready since the attack is fairly short-notice. If it hits you in full, that's upwards to a third of a health bar gone at that point in the game, and getting suckered into the final hit is by itself almost a fourth. Luke even lampshades how cheap the attack is when you lose to Carlos.
That One Boss:
- Though it's not necessarily a boss fight, the Vagrant Fridge is a mandatory fight late in the story. Already being a souped-up Refrigerator, it may not have much health, but it can only take damage while it's vulnerable. And it gains an additional attack of opening up to near-immediately fire a giant frozen tuna at you. It breaks Drive Parry, it breaks Drive Impact, it breaks Super Armor, and it even breaks Overdrive/Enhanced projectiles and Super Arts. Because the door opening is already a knockback and would place you in hit/block stun, you can't bait the attack either. This means the only real opportunity to attack it is when it's doing the regular fridge food spam with a projectile-piercer. And since this is late game, that tuna shot takes off upwards to a fourth of a health bar per hit.
- Bosch has been fought twice prior to his penultimate fight at the endgame, and he's not an easy customer as is, but this third fight gives him a unique Super Art that is just mean. It breaks Drive Parry and Blocking, it repeatedly tracks for your position on the ground, he's invulnerable during the wind-up for the attack, and if a single attack hits you and racks you into the combo, it'll deliver the final powerful blow while also chewing through a huge chunk of your Drive Meter. He also breaks the rules of the rest of the game solely so that he can spam this Super Art as much as possible and make your day hell as not only does he get Super Meter extremely fast, but the Super Art itself restores some of his Meter with every hit. You don't have to win the fight to progress the story, and it's entirely possible someone will find this out because of how damn cheap this fight is. If you didn't have enough fun fighting him that one time, you can potentially run into him again in the Metro City tournaments where he's still just as hard, but they let you block that aforementioned Super Art this time (and if you screw it up, it'll still rip you apart here).
That One Level: The Crow's Nest isn't the first "dungeon" you have to run through for plot purposes, but it is the nastiest one up to that point as you have to go through multiple narrow spaces to get to the end, filled to the brim with Crows gang members that will cheap shot you if you don't abuse the Drive Stall. Even worse, the enemies respawn; the area right before the plot fights can swarm you with seven Crows at a time over and over if you linger, which is especially mean if you go for the SiRN crate that carries mere, easily-gainable Flight Tickets as if to intentionally occupy you for another assault. Adding to the fun is how easy it is to just jump over the safety railings on the roofs there; approaching a ledge causes your character to hesitate (stopping you from falling unless you want to), but you automatically vault waist-high barriers. Approach the waist-high blockers on the edge of the roof, and you're extremely likely to watch your character throw themselves straight out the "dungeon" and forcing you to climb back up.
That One Sidequest:
- Of the countless fight conditions for nabbing extra items, experience and gear, there's too many to list as "that one". From asking for Perfect Drive Parries against erratic and vicious foes, to the game having stat-crippling items solely so you don't outright KO a foe that's weak or low-level for certain conditions, to outright requiring you to lose and use a continue. And some really good items are hidden behind some of the most obnoxious conditions, as well.
- Luke's side quest when you reach rank 18 with him to find and defeat three Dash Eats. Dash Eats are not dangerous foes, by the time you unlock the quest you ought to be able to handle them with little effort. The problem is that they are an extremely rare spawn so it can take hours of searching to actually find enough to complete the quest. And they don't even show up on the map unless you're already within visual distance of them.
- The Ryan side quests of defeating him in a No-Damage Run. He'll telegraph most of his attacks, but he's not afraid to use fast projectiles, and if you let him get close thinking you can abuse the Drive Parry to win, he will grab you. Given the AI's habit of frame perfect grabs, this means even remotely letting him get close is tantamount to an inevitable failure. It's not unreasonable for players to leave these quests alone until they're high enough level to make their damage soar through the roof for cheesing him.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- Bosch is billed as The Rival early in the game, albeit something of a Friendly Rival for the player, but quickly ditches Luke's training regimen. After he steals from the Mad Gear Gang and Juri drags him off, he doesn't appear for a good number of hours again until re-emerging as his Psycho-enhanced hulking form in Chapter 11, and he's treated like some deep, personal friendship with the player despite barely doing anything with them; all he can quote for the alleged bond is that "fighting and eating pizza was fun." The game then proceeds to make him commit a Heroic Sacrifice while making you know how much he loves his family and country, but feels like he was so barely there that it comes off a bit hollow.
- The major roster members as Masters suffer a bit of this. A few characters such as Luke or Chun-Li help set the player on their way, and Juri acts as an early antagonist before rounding about, but the vast majority of the Masters mostly exist as an excuse to give players abilities to learn and the chance to interact with their favorite characters. A majority of them are also stuck to their fighting stages, effectively leaving these characters entirely out of the plot and instead standing around on the equivalent of small dioramas for players to come to them. For contrast, World Tour's main free-roaming environment of Metro City hosts 7 Masters^note whereas the endgame location of Nayshall has 3^note; the rest of the characters must be visited in the aforementioned static home stages.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: A lot of reviewers and players seem to share the opinion that while it's fun going through World Tour, getting countless bits of Continuity Nod to Street Fighter and Final Fight lore as the latest entry in the universe's timeline, and mixing and matching the various character's techniques and abilities, the actual plot leaves a lot to be desired. Besides the wastes of the roster and Bosch above, most of the story is running around getting into tussles with criminals (mostly the Mad Gear Gang) and doing three separate yet brief tournaments to fight through. Everything in-between is mostly an excuse for a few plot fights with threadbare justification. And when it comes to resolving the prequel comic's story, there isn't really a proper ending; Bosch dies from a Heroic Sacrifice, JP is beat up but gets to keep running his profiteering schemes unhindered, and the entire plot ends with an abrupt And the Adventure Continues, meaning everything set up for Nayshall gets no actual payoff or conclusion and the running theme of, "What is strength," effectively goes unanswered.
The Woobie: Ken is put through absolute hell in the prequel comic. He's framed for a terror attack that kills one of his closest advisers and seemingly spends days fighting for his life as everyone is trying to shoot him on sight. Then JP kidnaps his son and forces him to pick between saving Mel or letting a bunch of civilians die. By the end of chapter 3, the poor dude just looks done with it all.

YMMV / Street Fighter 6

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