As most of you have seen or heard, Street Fighter V have bare bones content and being labeled as Early Access game right now. So the question is, why did Capcom release it in that state? In my opinion, to ensure that the Esports players get skilled enough before the beginning of the tournament in March which is definitely a good thing for Pros or people with friends that will buy the game alonside him/her. And its a bad thing for casual people who just want to have fun alone.
Ok, let’s look at the bad things first and then we will talk about the good things and the upcoming things we will surely see in Street Fighter V...
So Let’s See What Capcom Did Wrong Here …
1-First, the current Single Player mode is short and way too easy, it feels more like Practice mode and why the hell is there no difficulty settings for the story mode in the game?
2-And there is no Formal VS Cpu and the only way to play against CPU is by playing the extremely short and easy Story mode and Survival mode in the game which is pretty stupid for a game like this especially for those who prefer to play Solo.
3-No Basic Arcade Mode or a Proper CPU Mode at Launch is a huge bummer especially for casuals players. Come On Capcom! Those two things are essential for any fighting game. Yes, those updates are coming but I believe the game should have been delayed at least until March and those modes were in the game.
4-The Battle Lounge Mutliplayer or Lobby system is supporting two players only at launch and eight players later on, that is a bit low for the launch but It will get better.
5-Also no Rage Quitting Penalties will sure upset people here.
6-Survival mode needs a complete overhaul because currently its not fun at all. Its just grinding and grinding until you get bored.
7-The tutorial sucks, the information in the game was lacking and you have to rely on videos from YouTube or gaming websites to understand more about the mechanics in the game.
8-And one thing that might annoy some people is that it has only 16 fighter at launch when other fighting games that are coming this year like Tekken 7 (31 characters so far) and King Of Fighters have XIV (Insane 50 characters) have much more. The current Street Fighter V Roster is extremely small in comparison. In my opinion, the people who will be upset the most about this will be the casuals as the Pros will take their sweet time to master every character in the game which by then the roster will most likely increase.
9-Server Issues, I am not sure why many of the so called Professional reviewers didn’t say anything about this, the game was plagued with tons of server issues at release and we hear nothing about it from them. But at least its better now.
What I think Capcom should have done is clarify to the people who wanted it for Single Player to wait until the future updates because right now, the game feels like its meant for the Hardcore fans or the Pros and Esports. Now that we are done with the bad...
Lets Talk About What The Good Things Are…
1-The gameplay is superbly terrific and much more accessible than Street Fighter IV and the quality of the game is top notch, the characters looks amazing, the stages are detailed and awesome and the game is a bit easier for newcomers to get into which is a good thing.
2-While there is a Season Pass, you do not need to buy it in order to play with the new characters. All the dlc characters can be bought with in game currency without paying a cent for the Season Pass or 5$ per character like many fighting games do right now and in my opinion that is what all fighting games should do. And it has no Pre-Order to get to play as a character.(I am looking at you Mortal Kombat 10 with your Pre Order to play as Goro crap).
The game is supposedly going to be supported for five years as Yoshi Ono said and I quote…
“Simple maths suggests it’d take five years to get to the roster of Street Fighter 4, and we want to keep the game going for that amount of time. We want to support it as long as we can, we honestly will have to see – we don’t know anymore than anyone else does how it’s going to turn out next February, once we do this completely new way of doing things.”
So we are talking 5 to 6 characters will be added every year to the Roster and all that for free until we get to a number similar to Ultra Street Fighter IV character amount in the end. So in my opinion that is amazing, you are no longer forced to buy the characters in order to play as them. You earn them by your skills Old School Style. And finally no more Super Hyper Alpha Street fighter Ultra Omega Kryptonian Galactic Edition anymore. Just one version of Street Fighter V with all the characters, stages, improvements, new modes and mechanics to the game.
3-The Cross Platform feature. Every multiplatform game must have this feature. Period.
I think with all the good things Capcom will do with the game here, they should be applauded for it.
Yes, the game launched with bare bones content and yes, all the rage is justified and the game should have been delayed until March at least. But when you look at the big picture here especially in Street Fighter case, would you rather get the game with Bare Bones content at launch with a serious extensive future updates or would you rather the game not get made at all? Because knowing that one of my beloved franchises was not getting another instalment while other mediocre titles are getting made every year with expensive Season Passes really pisses me off. Of course Capcom is to blame for their financial position in 2013 because of their greedy tactics and the decision to Outsource their games to the West but now, they seem to be doing much better with games like Dead Rising 3, Re Revelations 2, Re HD Remaster, Dragon’s Dogma and Monster Hunters etc etc etc selling very well and earning them some good profits in 2014 and 2015 and they seem to be no longer Outsourcing their games which is an awesome decision but let’s get back to Street Fighter V and why I think we should wait and calm down before judging Street Fighter V and look at it as a $60 investment for a 5 year plan.
The only reason I am supporting the game is that because the plan they put sounds pretty good. I believe the price is fair for a game with 5 year plan. No shady tactics, no need to purchase Season Pass, no in-game disc dlc or any of those shenanigans. I think right now, you got two options. One, you either buy the game now, enjoy it for what it is and what it has right now and wait for the updates to come. Or two, simply wait until the game have enough content to justify the $60 price tag (It will probably be cheaper than $60 when that happens) .
Also I want to point out is that the game is by no means bad, it’s definitely one of the best fighting games out there when it comes to gameplay mechanics but does it deserve a 9/10 or an 8/10 right now? No way unless you are a pretty Hardcore Street Fighter fan who will get his money’s worth by playing it for hours and hours and will be happy to wait for the update. Does it deserve the 2/10 and the 3/10 its getting? HELL NO!
I believe the game should have not been reviewed In the state it’s in right now because neither the extremely high or the stupidly low scores are justified at all. And I believe Street Fighter V will be among the best fighting games this generation but it will take some time for that to happen.
Can I recommend this game in its state right now? Yes, If you are a hardcore fan of the series and if you have friends who will buy it and you can play it together with each other and no, if you are a Solo player because you will be extremely disappointed with what the game has to offer, you should wait until a decent single player mode is here.
Also one other thing i should note, there was a game with a similar case last year and that game right now has changed completely, that game is Splatoon. I remember reading about how the game launched with 5 Multiplayers maps and also a short single player, yes, the single player was longer than the one we got in Street Fighter V but it was still short and the fact that many challenges and content was locked behind Amiibo was disgusting. But look at the game now, you would swear its a different game from what we got at launch. Give Street Fighter V a chance to prove itself, dont buy it now if you dont want and buy it when it have more content but dont just go and give the game a low score and base your opinion right now.
Anyways, hopefully you enjoyed the blog. Sound off in the comments below if you Agree/Disagree with the points I made and please let’s try to have a friendly and rational discussion, shall we? Thanks!
This Guy Better have a badass theme in Street Fighter V.
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I knew it would be a mess when they were not sending out the usual number of review copies and requests to posr release day press releases.
I disagree. There are way too many negatives to many anything seem positive. Sure, the game looks good but the game-play has actually regressed from SFIV and even SFIII. Yes, it's more accessible / user friendly and that's great. Though when those people who are up to the challenge of online mode, that story may change. And this isn't just from me, but many players from the fighting game commnunity.
You talk about the season pass and while I agree on your points, especially with earning points to get the bonus characters that way, you neglect to state that this comes from playing online, which not many people, especially though who are daunted, will do.
They charged us full price for an incomplete game and everyone thinks it's fine. When Double Helix and Microsoft did this with Killer Instinct, everyone was calling foul, so it's also a biased opinion on what's going on. Promising us content but asking us to pay upfront is wrong and a bad business practice.
I agree that this game will be great, but not right now. Capcom has a full plate of issues and content to address, especially if they want SFV to be the E-sports title it can be and that is the entire plan from the get go.
I just wish games would come out conventionally these days. All i keep seeing is excuses to get games out earlier and earlier to hit the holiday season or the next FY, etc.
Meh, Capcom just took a giant dump on the franchise. Street Fighter is a dead on arrival title.
Lets hope Capcom deliver all this stuff. I already have the game and im really enjoying it, despite his lack of content. They made it more accesible but depth at the same time. The future seems bright if they keep true to their promises. Do it right Capcom. (im actually kinda worried looking at Capcom history) Lets see if this new way of making videogames pays off. This could be the beginning of a new trend of games without (or optional at least) DLC. Patiente fellow gamers. Nice blog.