In an interview for IGN Fan Fest, Street Fighter 6 director Takayuki Nakayama and producer Shuhei Matsumoto discussed upcoming DLC character Ed, who goes live February 27.
Capcom’s popular fighting game adds a different take on Ed than the one we saw in Street Fighter 5. Nakayama said the “macho” visual style we saw of the Psycho Power-fuelled boxer has been toned down for Street Fighter 6. “In terms of the visual aspect of Ed, in terms of his design in Street Fighter 5, he turned out to be a little more macho and bigger framed than they were intentionally going for,” Nakayama explained. “For Street Fighter 6 we were able to nail that down a little more.”
The arrival of Ed comes with a brand new stage, Ruined Lab. This shows the aftermath of Shadaloo's fall as its laboratory lies in shambles. Look closely, and the new stage appears to tease the return of M. Bison, who was killed when his base was blown up with him still inside. We see what looks like M. Bison’s famous red hat on the chair as well as a figure in the background. Perhaps Street Fighter’s veteran dictator isn’t quite as dead as we thought.
“Maybe a lot of you weren’t expecting this to be the setting of the new stage,” Nakayama said. “So hopefully everyone is pleasantly surprised by this. This is the ruins of what remains of the Shadaloo base. Everything is dilapidated and destroyed. But if you look at the chair in the very center, there is some kind of red thing lying there. I think that’s probably the noteworthy item.”
Speaking of Street Fighter 5, Ed was unique in that game due to him having a simplified control scheme that meant players could perform special moves by pressing a direction and one button. Nakayama called Ed a “prototype” of the Modern control scheme we see in Street Fighter 6, which allows all characters to be played in this way.
In Street Fighter 6, all Ed’s buttons are punches. His kicks now perform long range flicker jabs, giving him decent potential in the mid-range. But as a boxer, he excels up close, with a number of target combos at his disposal.
“It was an experiment for the developers when they were working on Street Fighter 5 to make Ed the prototype of the modern controls we see in Street Fighter 6,” Nakayama said. “However, his move roster has been updated from the past title. It’s not a complete replica of what you get to experience in Street Fighter 5. We’ve made some tweaks and updates so his Modern controls in Street Fighter 6 are also fun and compelling.
“Ed is strong in close range combat with his boxing fighting style. He has a lot of target combos. Unlike his moveset in Street Fighter 5 he no longer has kick moves. They’re all punches. His kick moves are designated to these flicker jabs that have pretty good reach. So not only is he strong in close quarters but also talented in terms of mid-range attacks as well.
“However, he shines brightest when he is up in the face of the opposing character, and has a lot of unique combos only capable through Ed. We recommend you get aggressive. Get in there and show what you’ve got.”
And finally, Matsumoto gave us a tease for the hotly anticipated arrival of Akuma in Street Fighter 6. Akuma, due out at some point in the spring, is a fan-favourite, with many Street Fighter 6 players wondering about his design in this latest game, given most of the characters have aged up.
Matsumoto, as you’d expect, kept his cards close to his chest, but did offer this: “Obviously not a lot of information we can provide right now, but we’re all very excited for you guys to see him. He’s awesome looking with lots of great effects. We’re going to be carefully planning out how we present this character to you guys. So we can’t wait to show you this new character.”
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
