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V-Triggers became Street Fighter 5’s most defining feature, but also the most controversial among players, and it seems like the idea of bringing the mechanic into the game may not have originated with the main Japanese development office.
In a recent interview with Japanese publication Oricon News, Street Fighter 6 director Takayuki Nakayama revealed that mostly American developers (and maybe gamers) are pushing the idea for more and flashier comeback mechanics for the Capcom fighting games.
Although the Street Fighter 4 games offered Ultra Combos as an “easy” comeback mechanic, Nakayama feels the inputs were still not intuitive enough for new players.
“I think to do something amazing you don’t need difficult input,” Nakayama said of Oricon, translated by our very own Nicholas ‘MajinTenshinhan’ Taylor. “In Street Fighter 4, the ultimate move, the Ultra Combo, required you to do a long press and then press exactly 3 keys at once, but it’s a major ordeal.
It’s not difficult for intermediate players, and while there’s a certain sense of accomplishment when you pull it off, at the end of the day it’s just “remember the input” and “force the input” and I don’t start from there . I don’t think it’s very modern.”
“It’s not difficult for intermediate players, and while there’s a certain sense of accomplishment when you pull it off, at the end of the day it’s just ‘remember the input’ and ‘force the input’ and I start from there I don’t think it’s very modern”
He doesn’t specifically mention that SF5 received the impetus to go further, but considering Nakayama didn’t work on SF4, the final mainline entry seems to make the best of what it describes.
“Back then, we heard from American development partners and players saying, ‘I don’t want the inputs to be too difficult,'” said the SF6 director. “They all said the same thing. The members of the American development team also said, ‘There should be an easy way to get a comeback’ and ‘Please do it in such a way that the fight keeps heating up as the round progresses’ and ‘Always more conspicuous movements’.
Basically, it was about making everything even more dramatic. When we got that feedback all I thought was ‘not surprising from the land of entertainment’ haha.”
Given the lines about how to heat up battles with flashier moves, that certainly sounds like what V-Triggers would end up becoming.
It’s likely that the “American developers” in this case are largely referring to the Capcom USA staff, but some of the PlayStation representatives may have been involved as well.
“They all said the same thing. The members of the American development team also said, ‘There should be an easy way to get a comeback’ and ‘Please do it in such a way that the fight keeps heating up as the round progresses’ and ‘Always more flashy moves'”
We can certainly understand the suggestion of making fights more dramatic and exciting over time, but we’re not sure the American and broader FGC agreed with this idea for what Street Fighter needs.
This comeback idea was made more for newbies, but Street Fighter 5’s poor launch state in 2016 only put them off in droves.
Capcom is seemingly throwing most of that combat concept out the window with Street Fighter 6, considering there’s no dedicated comeback mechanic at all outside of Critical Arts’ damage boost at low life.
Instead, the developers are targeting new audiences by including modern and dynamic controls and more single-player content than any other game in the franchise with the World Tour mode.
Whether or not this approach will make Street Fighter 6 a booming success remains to be seen, but early signs are looking a lot more positive than they have been for well over a decade.
