Street Fighter V

Street Fighter V, or Street Fighter 5 for those of you unfamiliar with roman numericals, is the highly awaited next step in the legendary fighting series Street Fighter.

As an avid fighting game fan, this is without doubt something I have been looking forward to a whole lot, but what I did not expect, although having played during all of the BETA phases, mashing the "any" button for hours, just to get a few minutes of gameplay in, was how this finished product feels so extremely bare-boned.

Story Mode

Story Mode is told in drawings and voiced by the voice actors. Completing story mode takes around 4 to 10 minutes, including fights. Yes, believe it or not, you actually fight between 2 to 4 characters before it all is over. Yes, you read that right, TWO fights. Each character have their own unique story, and in some instances, ties together with other characters' stories.

What I appreciate with the story mode is its attempt to tie things together, but it ultimately ends up with feeling outright confusing when trying to align it all together. This however, may be the fault of mine, not having played every single Street Figher game. Also, just a personal tip, do not use the cringeworthy English voices when playing story mode, go for the Japanese ones.

Tutorial Mode

This is about time. When I saw Tutorial Mode, I got all excited, thinking this finally would be an in-depth tutorial going through why you would want to do certain moves in certain circumstances, and when not to do them to let newcomers know what to think about. My excitement was for nothing. What you get is essentially a button test and an introduction to the game's mechanics with no further explanation.

Remember the Trials Mode from Street Fighter IV which allowed for at least a bit more of an understanding to the game? Yeah, that's not here either.

Network Battle

...or Online Mode, if you will. Kagemusha is what CAPCOM named their netcode, and the netcode seems to be working pretty well. It is not flawless, far from it, and I have to say that some matches felt outright unplayable. However, this is a step forward, but do expect a bit of really annoying rubber-banding, and disconnects.

Something that had me surprised was the lack of lobbies and the ability to spectate, both are glaringly absent. But do not despair, it is coming in March, for free.

I just wonder if "for free" means "if you have bought the season pass for $27.99" or not.

Online Update

Online is fucked as of release, and CAPCOM is working on fixes. There is little to no reason to buy the game as of now, and if you are on STEAM, you should use your 14-day refund option and get your money back. This game is far from finished.

Survival Mode

I'm about to say something absolutely fucking stupid. True, but stupid. Survival Mode is the most fun I have had with this game, and that is no joke. After each fight in Survival Mode, you get to choose buffs for your character, and as you progress forward, your character becomes more and more ridiculous.

It has this addictive feel to it that has you returning, eager to beat the damn thing, and once you do, you unlock colors for your character.

Other than the RPG element, there is nothing interesting about Survival Mode as far as I can tell.

Training Mode

Training Mode feels robust, and is now probably on-par with Soul Calibur V's Training Mode. You can do a lot in this mode, from setting up your opponent's behavior, to adjusting meter gain and so on. Oh and by the way, you can now immediately reset the positions with a single button press. About freaking time.

Something that is absent, AGAIN, is the hitbox viewer which players have kept asking for since Street Fighter IV was released.

CFN

Capcom Fighters Network introduces Rival Search, which allows you to search for players to see their matches and when they are online.

That's it? Yes, that's it. Oh wait, not really, also, you can watch the world map glow with red spots, send friends requests, and get info on patches. THAT is all.

Gameplay and Animation

This is a fighting game, so it is absolutely vital that the animations are smooth, and that the gameplay is smooth and fun. So, are the animations smooth? Is the gameplay fun?

Each character feels unique, and the playstyle of each character feels intuitive. Ryu can now summon lightning to enhance his air-pressured Hadokens, whereas Zangief spins around, and around, and around, and around, and around, and around while punching your opponent's legs to death. These, are V-Triggers. But that's not all. The fundamental way of how to play certain characters have changed. I'm mostly thinking about Zangief in this case, but even M.Bison, Vega, and Ken feels like new characters! I can't say whether this is good or bad because that really is up to ones own opinion. You may like Street Fighter IV Zangief, or Street Fighter V Zangief. Hell, you may dig 'em both despite the difference!

Now, not all is well with the gameplay, the Network Battle mode sometimes feel outright broken. Other than that, there isn't much negative to say about the gameplay except for sudden frame drops at times.

Animation and modelling-wise, some of this is outright unacceptable. Something that people have been vocal about since Ken was revealed, was not just a small part of his face, but his entire face. ALL of it. I wonder if CAPCOM hired someone who was new to modelling and were too lazy to correct this absolute abomination of a model, and that includes his travesty called "hair". CAPCOM, for fucks sake, fix it. As for the animations, they do feel pretty good but it has to be said that there's a bit of clipping in the game which there simply shouldn't be.

Street Fighter V introduces Critical Arts which basically are super moves that either deal a lot of damage or is for setting up traps for the opponent. They are often very well animated, but some of these feel outright lazy. An example would be Zangief's Critical Art; "Bolshoi Russian Suplex" which has absolutely no sense of power, looks stupid, and, as I just said, just feels lazy.

Something else that stands out is the lackluster backgrounds that reminds me of an almost 10-year-old game named Street Fighter IV.

It is quite clear that SONY and CAPCOM had no intentions of doing some actual work to make their game look good in all of its aspects.

Conclusion

Street Fighter V is in the end a bare-boned product that is in urgent need of simple and basic things such as a spectator mode, lobbies, and 1P vs CPU mode.

The gameplay feels okay, if a bit sluggish and rubber-bandy when playing online. The animations do feel good, if a bit glitchy and lackluster for certain characters with hair clipping through the bodies along with other things that could easily have been adjusted, but simply wasn't.

When playing a fighting game you expect a few things that simply isn't here, that SHOULD be here. You cannot play a simple exhibition match VS the computer. Yes, you read that right, there is no 1P vs CPU. You cannot do any Trials, because they aren't in the game, which they should be. You cannot train with your friends online, which was a fun thing to do in Street Fighter IV. Why it is not here, I do not know. Also, lack of lobbies. And then there were the alternate costumes that you can "unlock", but NOT get until March, because for some reason, the Store where the costumes are, cannot be accessed until then, which is outright bullshit.

What you can do is to play Survival, do the outright rotten "Tutorial" ... Fuck that. Look, it isn't a Tutorial, it is a button test which introduces you to the game's mechanics and then proceeds to say nothing of what it actually means. You can do the Story, or do some 1 VS 1 online fighting.

So, is Street Fighter V worth the $60 they're asking for? As of the release, FUCK no. $30 is where I can see it being reasonable, but you should NOT pay $60 for something so bare-boned.

CAPCOM and SONY can do so much better. The game feels unfinished, and not ready for release. Let's hope that updates or season 2 can rectify this travesty. Something that annoys me a whole lot, is that this seems to be an accepted practice in these times.