I’ve been a big Street Fighter fan since Street Fighter II: The World Warrior way back in 1991. As such, I wanted to play Street Fighter V on the PlayStation 4 prior to launch. I didn’t buy in, though, because I’m against pre-orders on principle – something that rankles Grumpy Joe to no end. Also, there’s no Akuma. Thanks, Capcom!
Unfortunately, Capcom justified all the reasons I have for not pre-ordering games. Street Fighter V was half a game by normal fighting game standards. Capcom wanted an entry for EVO 2016, and didn’t care about players like me who didn’t want to spend approximately 672 hours fighting online. They also wanted $60 for this half a game
There was no proper offline gameplay like prior games in the series. I couldn’t work up my skills like I usually do. The game had a “story mode”, limited to character story arcs the CPU opponents were set to the “BEAT ME, MASTER!” difficulty mode. At launch, this game wanted players to cut their teeth online with other players. I only try my luck online when I especially hate myself, so…yea.
Let’s not forget that the game’s online servers were a mess at launch. So Capcom releases a game that’s meant to be played online, and the online servers are busted. 10 outta 10!
A recent patch had added General Story Mode to the game, as well as other mechanics aimed at appeasing folks like me who don’t live and die online. Combined with lower prices for the Collector’s Edition on Amazon, which includes a 10” statue of Ryu? I decided I had to jump in!
(Before I get into the game, I’m gonna go off on a slight tangent. Sony…what the FUCK??? Are you REALLY gonna stay that stingy with storage options??? The Street Fighter V1.05 update was a large one at 8.5 GB. The General Story DLC download was an extra 8.1 GB. I couldn’t even download the update, however, because my PS4’s hard drive was nearly full. I had to begin the same dance I do every time I play a big game on the PisS4 for the first time: see what files I can delete. I have a 500 GB hard drive in my PS4. My Xbox One also has a 500 GB hard drive, but Microsoft allows me to attach an external drive to the console. That external drive now houses my game library. I have tons of LEGITIMATE games installed on it, and I have no storage issues whatsoever.
Sony doesn’t allow me to attach external storage and keep games on it. Maybe everyone who wants to do so is a pirate in their eyes. Get your head out your ass, Sony!
Okay, done with the tangent. Back on message, I promise.)
Once I made space for the patch, I tried out the game in offline training mode prior to the update finalizing. My goal was to get used to the differences in mechanics from Street Fighter IV. I was only mildly disappointed.
Gone are the Focus Attacks that I disliked from SF IV. The old Focus Attacks always felt cheap to me. In its place are V-abilities that I dislike somewhat less. The promise of V-abilities is to make character choices more strategic because different characters have different V-abilities. I personally haven’t found any benefit to the new system in my brief play time, but I shall continue trying.
More important is the timing issues I noticed when trying to pull off combos. I used Ken (again, no Akuma!) and had to adjust my timings a bit to pull them off. Supers – called Critical Arts here – are also slightly easier to pull off. I expect that from new iterations of fighting games, so there’s no harm here. Still, it warrants mentioning.
I ended up having to wait a LONG time to update this game. It didn’t help that I had to download a separate patch just to add General Story. It didn’t update automatically; I had to manually grab it from PSN. After a near-complete day of updating, I was finally ready to try General Story. And it is, without a doubt, the CHEESIEST thing I have seen outside of Dragon Ball Z!
Street Fighter V takes a page out of that last two Mortal Kombat games’ books with General Story and ran it through Google Translate a few times. Players alternate as all the World Warriors during the story, just like MK.
And just what is the story?
Well, there is an overarching plot involving Bison trying to launch some man-made moons into space for some reason, and the World Warriors hop from place to place to stop him, and one of them has declared all warriors part of his all-he-can-eat buffet, and Captain Gunyu is upset with the way Recoome has been posing lately, and…huh? Uhh…where was I?
Yea, that last part was a bad joke. But honestly, parts of General Story were as well. Whereas Mortal Kombat’s story mode tries to play it straight and has good storytelling with minimal cringiness, SF V’s General Story has all the anime-inspired cheese you can ask for.
It is, however, a good diversion from all the online play. As I went from one hilarious scene to another, I got the hang of the game’s new mechanics. Soon enough, I was pulling off V-Reversals and stringing combos like I used to. Granted, the mode’s difficulty is not tough. Still, I’d rather learn offline than in the midst of a 71-loss streak in online Ranked.
Overall, I enjoyed my time playing Street Fighter V. It sucks that I had to wait so long to try it because of the game’s incomplete state at launch. And it doubly sucks that I had to spend the better part of an entire day installing patches just so I could fully play. But I was not put off by the result. Clearly, this is a beautiful fighting game, and the mechanics, although slightly dumbed down, still have enough depth for veteran players. I’m glad I finally got to play SF V. As a fan of the series and the genre, it would have been a shame if I had to swear off this iteration because of principle.
Now, Capcom, about Akuma…
