This is an addendum to my Street Fighter 6 review, which on retrospect was written entirely too early. Having spent a lot more time with this game and having beaten each character's story in arcade mode (and abandoned World Tour), I have some more thoughts about this video game, and now you've gotta listen to them.
I was pretty forgiving of World Tour's faults, citing its physical comedy (hitting cops in the back of the skull with Rising Uppercut) and fun character interactions. That charity only goes so far, however, and for me it dried up around chapter 10. I have probably 18 hours in World Tour alone and knowing that I am only 2/3 of the way through a mode who's only redeeming quality is short fits of comedy does not inspire me to sink another 6-8 hours just to see some credits.
It's not that a Street Fighter RPG is a bad idea on paper, but the execution here is all wrong. Most chapters break down into laborious runs between distant objective markers to talk to total non-characters, all while getting jumped by random goons in a way that feels more inconvenient than engaging. Even the more story significant characters present as these dry, dusty-ass create-a-character NPCs. You've got a roster full of genuinely interesting fighters to pick from, but characters like Zangief and Cammy are relegated to the role of "master," having zero agency in the larger narrative and ultimately being wasted for it. At a certain point, you don't even fight them directly to become their students, they just agree unconditionally to train you. But hey, you gotta run around and buy them gifts, give Cammy a metric ton of room temperature beer so you can max out your bond and get her Street Fighter 2 costume...
Or you can cave and buy it with REAL MONEY! You run past an incalculable amount of storefronts in Metro City and only like, one of them is actually open to sell clothing, and the only outfit parts you can find in there are dockers and buttoned up shirts. It takes about five chapters before it updates and they add maybe five more pairs of pants. Travel to other parts of the world like Rome or Japan and you'll be able to buy more unique items themed around these locations, but even then you'll sometimes find you have the option between two pieces of clothing. All of my issues with World Tour aside, had this mode provided more options to customize my character, I might actually feel inclined to stick with it. A carrot on a stick, sure, but at least it'd provide some sort of incentive. Unfortunately, Capcom would really just prefer it if you cracked open your wallet, because all you're getting otherwise is scraps. At a certain point, I just wish they stripped out World Tour entirely and sank all that energy into making more cutscenes for arcade mode. Just build out each character's story and cut this dead weight.
The true heart of Street Fighter 6 is playing it like a proper-ass Street Fighter anyway, and the small number of times I was able to coerce friends into playing with me was a blast, even if most of these sessions amounted to me getting utterly savaged. However, trying to coordinate private lobbies does have the unintended drawback of highlighting how poor Street Fighter 6's menus are. They're overly designed and full of superfluous options, and I really shouldn't have to spend five minutes trying to figure out where the hell a private lobby invite lives. I am over here fumbling through these menus in black and white, just knocking shit over in a panic - there's got to be a better way!
Playing online does highlight how good Street Fighter 6 can be, and were it the case that World Tour didn't exist to drag down the overall experience, I'd have no problem leaving up a 4.5/5, or maybe even bump it to a perfect 5. And, who knows, maybe one day it will be. This is a live service, after all, and I don't think any single part of this game is immune to change. So, that said, I know I'm coming at this from a pretty negative angle, but I'm trying to look at this as a whole, and where I fall currently - on June 20th, in the Year of our Jericho 23 - is that Street Fighter 6 is an incredible fighting game bogged down by a hideous in-game economy, dreadful single player campaign, and other assorted issues that while minor in isolation add up to be frustrating.
I was pretty forgiving of World Tour's faults, citing its physical comedy (hitting cops in the back of the skull with Rising Uppercut) and fun character interactions. That charity only goes so far, however, and for me it dried up around chapter 10. I have probably 18 hours in World Tour alone and knowing that I am only 2/3 of the way through a mode who's only redeeming quality is short fits of comedy does not inspire me to sink another 6-8 hours just to see some credits.
It's not that a Street Fighter RPG is a bad idea on paper, but the execution here is all wrong. Most chapters break down into laborious runs between distant objective markers to talk to total non-characters, all while getting jumped by random goons in a way that feels more inconvenient than engaging. Even the more story significant characters present as these dry, dusty-ass create-a-character NPCs. You've got a roster full of genuinely interesting fighters to pick from, but characters like Zangief and Cammy are relegated to the role of "master," having zero agency in the larger narrative and ultimately being wasted for it. At a certain point, you don't even fight them directly to become their students, they just agree unconditionally to train you. But hey, you gotta run around and buy them gifts, give Cammy a metric ton of room temperature beer so you can max out your bond and get her Street Fighter 2 costume...
Or you can cave and buy it with REAL MONEY! You run past an incalculable amount of storefronts in Metro City and only like, one of them is actually open to sell clothing, and the only outfit parts you can find in there are dockers and buttoned up shirts. It takes about five chapters before it updates and they add maybe five more pairs of pants. Travel to other parts of the world like Rome or Japan and you'll be able to buy more unique items themed around these locations, but even then you'll sometimes find you have the option between two pieces of clothing. All of my issues with World Tour aside, had this mode provided more options to customize my character, I might actually feel inclined to stick with it. A carrot on a stick, sure, but at least it'd provide some sort of incentive. Unfortunately, Capcom would really just prefer it if you cracked open your wallet, because all you're getting otherwise is scraps. At a certain point, I just wish they stripped out World Tour entirely and sank all that energy into making more cutscenes for arcade mode. Just build out each character's story and cut this dead weight.
The true heart of Street Fighter 6 is playing it like a proper-ass Street Fighter anyway, and the small number of times I was able to coerce friends into playing with me was a blast, even if most of these sessions amounted to me getting utterly savaged. However, trying to coordinate private lobbies does have the unintended drawback of highlighting how poor Street Fighter 6's menus are. They're overly designed and full of superfluous options, and I really shouldn't have to spend five minutes trying to figure out where the hell a private lobby invite lives. I am over here fumbling through these menus in black and white, just knocking shit over in a panic - there's got to be a better way!
Playing online does highlight how good Street Fighter 6 can be, and were it the case that World Tour didn't exist to drag down the overall experience, I'd have no problem leaving up a 4.5/5, or maybe even bump it to a perfect 5. And, who knows, maybe one day it will be. This is a live service, after all, and I don't think any single part of this game is immune to change. So, that said, I know I'm coming at this from a pretty negative angle, but I'm trying to look at this as a whole, and where I fall currently - on June 20th, in the Year of our Jericho 23 - is that Street Fighter 6 is an incredible fighting game bogged down by a hideous in-game economy, dreadful single player campaign, and other assorted issues that while minor in isolation add up to be frustrating.
2 Comments
@Noimjory It definitely has that use, and I'm glad you were able to get more out of it than me. I consider myself pretty bad at fighting games and stuck to modern controls, so the value World Tour had as far as tutorialization wore off for me a few hours in. Given how lengthy it is, the lack of good incentives/rewards, and the fact that it really doesn't change much at all just started to add up in a negative way.
Noimjory
10 months ago