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Street Fighter IV: How To Unlock Gouken & Akuma

Capcom finally breaks down and tells you EXACTLY what you need to do to unlock the last three fighters.

Gouken!
Gouken!
OK, I thought I had this stuff down, as I've already unlocked Akuma and Gouken twice. But it turns out the methods I previously thought were accurate for unlocking Akuma were way more complicated than the real methods, and somehow the Gouken unlocking process is a bit more complicated.

Either way, after message boards were set afire last week with people trying to tell other people how to unlock Street Fighter IV characters, Capcom has posted up the actual, official methods. Once you have these two guys, you'll just need to beat the game with every character to get the final fighter, Seth.

As always, I recommend setting the game to Easiest and to one round if you want to make this process as short as possible. If you actually want to get better at the game and better understand how the different fighters operate, then stick with the default settings. I used to have trouble fighting El Fuerte players until I ran through the game with him myself. Now that I understand how his fast-moving stuff actually hits, I'm better at the game. And, really, isn't that the point? OK, less "stop complaining about unlockable characters" soapbox, more method. Here:
To unlock Akuma as a playable character:

You need to get at least one "perfect" win in a round, and more than one depending on how many rounds per match you are playing.   

- 1 round match: 1 perfect round or more

- 3 round match: 2 perfect rounds or more

- 5 round match: 3 perfect rounds or more

- 7 round match: 4 perfect rounds or more

(including the last battle against Seth)


To unlock Gouken as a playable character:

1. Complete Arcade Mode playing as Akuma and watch (not necessary to watch everything) an ending.

2. Then, unlock Gouken as an opponent, and defeat him.

Necessary conditions to unlock Gouken as an opponent:

- Play with any characters with which you watched the ending once (so play using a character you have already beaten the game with)

- Do not continue at all.

- Do not lose at all.  Not even one round (easier if you only play 1-round matches)

- Achieve certain number (or more) of "Perfect" rounds.  The number of Perfect Win you need to achieve are:

  If you play on

  - 1 round match: 1 time or more

  - 3 round match: 2 times or more

  - 5 round match: 3 times or more

  - 7 round match: 4 times or more

- Achieve certain number (or more) of Super Combo -OR- Ultra Combo Finishes.  Super and Ultra finishes both count toward this number. The number of perfect win you need to achieve are:

  If you play on

  - 1 round match: 3 times or more

  - 3 round match: 5 times or more

  - 5 round match: 7 times or more

  - 7 round match: 9 times or more

 
- Achieve certain number (or more) of First Attack (this means you must score the first strike in a match--the screen gives you the "First Attack" message, and you can mostly do this without even noticing):

  The number of First Attack you need to achieve are:

  If you play on

  - 1 round match: 5 time or more

  - 3 round match: 10 times or more

  - 5 round match: 15 times or more

  - 7 round match: 20 times or more

 
- Then Gouken will appear.  Kick his butt to unlock him!
Jeff Gerstmann on Google+

91 Comments

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benderunit22

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Edited By benderunit22

Whooo, my thumb is sore now, but I finally got Gouken.

I wish I was more into fighting games and could justify an arcade stick, I can't for the life of me make a QCF work on a consistent basis with a d-pad.

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ImpendingFoil

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Edited By ImpendingFoil

Take that cutscene skipping people.  At least now I know why my friend couldn't unlock Gouken for the longest time.

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Seppli

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Edited By Seppli

This is how I did it. Played on easiest setting. 1 round matches. Unlocked Akuma with M. Bison. That's super easy, because he's sooo cheap.

Then I completed arcade mode with Akuma. Since that's one of the requirements to get Gouken.

Finally, I did do the actual unlocking of Gouken with Ryu. Just nuke the bastards with projectiles. Supereasy to get the perfect round and first hit requirements this way. The Ultimate Combo requirement too is supereasy to get with Ryu this way. Just 'hadoken' the enemies low. Then get hit to fill the Ultimate Combo meter. Ryu's Ultimate Combo, that supercharged Hadoken, is sooo easy to unleash, you will surely meet the requirements to unlock Gouken.

It's actually quite the piece of cake, unlocking Gouken with Ryu. I took me several runs though, but sooner or later, following this way, will reward you with Gouken. I did it, and I'm a major 2D Fighter nuub.

So get to it, Gouken is far from impossible to achieve.

P.S. if you fail, do finish the arcade mode with one of the characters, since you have to finish arcade mode with each and every character except Seth to unlock Seth... you sure don't want to let your time spent failing at unlocking Gouken to go to waste. After all, unlocking Seth is the one true annoyance in SFIV.

P.P.S even though I'm getting my ass handed to me way more often than not, I do love this game dearly. Enough to go the distance and learn to play the fucking game. Just wait and see! The tide of battle will turn!

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ImpendingFoil

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Edited By ImpendingFoil

Also getting Akuma in HD Remix was way fucking harder then getting Gouken.

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John1912

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Edited By John1912

"Also getting Akuma in HD Remix was way fucking harder then getting Gouken."

Pushing up on Guile or Honda was hard?

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Vickers24

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Edited By Vickers24

A lot of ppl say they didnt  think they got the first attacks or watever. well think about it, if u have a perfect round then they didnt hit u therefore u hit them first lol

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MAST

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Edited By MAST

At what point in the developmental process to you sit down and say "Hey, let's make unlocking all the characters as tedious, and annoying as possible."

Good thing i don't really care about any of the unlockable characters. Only one i'm curious about is Gouken.

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lordofultima

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Edited By lordofultima

Skipped all cutscenes, so I don't think that end of the story holds up, I suppose I watched about 3 seconds of all of them.

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c1337us

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Edited By c1337us
LiquidPrince said:
"This is too complex, just to unlock characters..."
As far as getting Gouken goes I agree sounds a bit complex. I havent unlocked Akuma yet, but based off of that explaination I should have onlocked him as an opponent already. Hopefully I will be able to unlock all of the characters sooner or later.
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EvilJester1214

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Edited By EvilJester1214

Gouken wasn't nearly that hard to unlock when I got him
I just got 2 or 3 perfect rounds and 2 or 3 ultra combo finishes and not use a continue before i fought seth, then beat him afterwards
and bam
got him

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brydello

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Edited By brydello

Can I just have a character unlock code? ROFL

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Media_Master

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Edited By Media_Master

I need the game first

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CrescentFresh

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Edited By CrescentFresh

Wow, I better get on this. Akuma is a badass!

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makari

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Edited By makari

Easiest way is 1 round matches on easiest, pick pretty much any character except el fuerte, j.HK > c.HK, walk back a bit, rinse and repeat. Time it so your j.HK will hit them as soon as they stand. This works on everyone, including Seth (Seth only starts being cheap once he's knocked you down. If you repeat this tactic, he'll never be standing to attack you or teleport much at all). You're bound to get at least one perfect, pretty much all matches with first hit, and doing this combo until they have enough health to be killed with your ultra then letting yourself get hit until you can indescriminately bust it off (the cpu will not block it on easiest), so you should get Gouken on your first try at getting him. To be safe, I beat the game with everyone (including Akuma) and picked Ryu, since his j.HK > c.HK works fine, and his ultra is ranged so its super easy to pull off against easiest cpu's regardless of where you are. NOTE: j.HK > c.HK = jump in + heavy kick comboed to > crouch + heavy kick.

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Rourkey

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Edited By Rourkey

Awesome Cheers Jeff. Should get Akuma today but Gouken should be pretty tough... : |

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Kohe321

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Edited By Kohe321

Thanks for the heads up, this makes it a lot easier..

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Elazul

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Edited By Elazul

Thanks Jeff, but I already unlocked them four days ago. I have to say that the process for unlocking Gouken is a lot more specific than I thought it was. I guess I just got lucky with the first attack and no round loss conditions.

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Jothel

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Edited By Jothel

Argh, anyone else find Seth much harder when you're Akuma? so annoying

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KnifeySpoony

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Edited By KnifeySpoony

So I got Akuma, but I for one reason or another cannot figure out his super/ultra, which is preventing me from being able to unlock Gouken =/.

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Beaudman

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Edited By Beaudman

Don't you have to have all other characters unlocked before you can unlock Akuma, Gouken and Seth?

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TheIneffableBob

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Edited By TheIneffableBob

This is impossible. What the fuck.

It's not humanly possible to unlock these characters.

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deactivated-5d7bd9e4bef30

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Beaudman said:
"Don't you have to have all other characters unlocked before you can unlock Akuma, Gouken and Seth?
"
Yup
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deactivated-5d7bd9e4bef30

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KnifeySpoony said:
"So I got Akuma, but I for one reason or another cannot figure out his super/ultra, which is preventing me from being able to unlock Gouken =/.
"
Super: Weak punch, weak punch, forward, medium kick, strong punch
Ultra: Weak punch, weak punch, back, medium kick, strong punch

It's tricky getting the timing right, but it seems way more lenient with the input than in previous games.
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UPTWONGFX

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Edited By UPTWONGFX

ITS NOT THAT HARD... JUST MISSIN SETH NOW...

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SkadooshTD

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Edited By SkadooshTD

Damn, I tried to unlock Gouken but I just got Akuma again?

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Farley_Lives

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Edited By Farley_Lives

Once when I trying to unlock akuma I got to the end, and someone sent me a message mid fight, I got distracted lost and then raged.

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ImperiousRix

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Edited By ImperiousRix

I swear I've done one round matches on Easiest and gotten a FEW perfects and never lost and somehow I still don't get Akuma.
Is there some other part I'm missing?  I just can't get 'im.

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mike

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Edited By mike

If you're not unlocking Akuma, you're doing something wrong.  You have to follow the instructions exactly.

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ImperiousRix

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Edited By ImperiousRix
MB said:
"If you're not unlocking Akuma, you're doing something wrong.  You have to follow the instructions exactly."

Yeah, I unlocked him not but ten minutes after I posted that.  I didn't realize you had to use a character you already beat the game with.
Then I realized how much of an ass I made of myself for my insolence! *hangs head in shame*
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MrBrowne

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Edited By MrBrowne

can you unlock gouken using akuma

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hoody

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Edited By hoody
LiquidPrince said:
"This is too complex, just to unlock characters..."
Agreed. Why the hell are we unlocking characters to begin with? If Capcom insisted on it, why not just make it a really simple, straightforward affair, rather than a convoluted mess? Very stupid design. The only thing going for SFIV is the fighting which, thankfully, is really what matters at the end of the day. As for the rest of the assembly of this game... there's quite a bit of fail.
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InsanePotato

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Edited By InsanePotato

Video Demo of how to do it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oItjpbB40DM

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Hansoe

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Edited By Hansoe

Darn it, unlocking Gouken seems apparently easier than I thought it would be, but, as it happens, I stress too much about Seth! I tried to play it through with Akuma using these instructions, which, well with the regular PS3 control is a piece o' cake, 4 perfects 4 ultra finishes and First Strike on all, but to Seth, which really is esier than he seems, you just have to predict and counter all his movements, I lost so easy it's pitiful. For some reason I was so stressed by it that I couldn't even pull off one descent Ultra, Akuma just stood there shaking and waving his arms to no avail.
I hate it when the fault is in me, but I hate it even more when the fault is in the controller! I seriously oughta get a descent FightPad or a FightStick or something...

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FluxWaveZ

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Edited By FluxWaveZ
@Hansoe: Do you realise you just bumped a 6 month old thread?
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snotti

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Edited By snotti

Awesome discribe. It did work for me...Now let's farm for Seth -_- lamest part have to use all char, only one + with it. U learn how to play'em all xD 
 
cheers

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FluxWaveZ

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Edited By FluxWaveZ
@snotti said:
" Awesome discribe. It did work for me...Now let's farm for Seth -_- lamest part have to use all char, only one + with it. U learn how to play'em all xD  cheers "
It's amazing to see that I posted in this thread and it's actually me being a smartass and telling someone they bumped an old thread.  Now I'll say it again: Do you realise you bumped a 2 month old thread?  Of course, I'm sure like the other person you'll never post in these forums again.
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deactivated-5d7bd9e4bef30

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Would you rather they make a new thread?
 
Don't people usually bitch about posters not searching for old threads?

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FluxWaveZ

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Edited By FluxWaveZ
@TeflonBilly said:
" Would you rather they make a new thread?  Don't people usually bitch about posters not searching for old threads? "
It would be great if the user had an actual, relevant reply that gave possibility to an interesting discussion.  These responses that are basically useless are just there to bump this thread for no good reason.
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lordofultima

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Edited By lordofultima

I love zombie threads, so funny.

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deactivated-6204297b0c601

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Argh -- I unlocked all the characters (excpet Gouken and Seth) when I got the game months ago, but my save file got corrupted and I had to start all over again.  I've unlocked everyone except for Akuma, Gouken, and Seth, and I can't get Akuma to show up...am I missing something?  I'm playing 1 round matches on easiest, getting multiple perfect rounds each playthrough, and can't get it.  I know you need to 1) play with someone you've already beaten the game with, 2) get at least 1 perfect round, 3) not die/continue (I actually don't know this last one for certain, but I'm assuming).