Love it or hate it, Street Fighter 6 has the most thoughtful and considered meta game the franchise has ever seen. It’s not to say the game is balanced perfectly (whatever that even means) but rather that developers had tons of information over years of releasing games and getting feedback that they used to curate just about every attack and maneuver in the game.
In his latest video MC Mura puts Street Fighter 6’s approach to knockdowns and general offense under the microscope, then digs back through the hard lessons learned in both Street Fighter 4 and 5 to show us how Capcom got to where it currently is.
Rarely is a fighting game ever based more around defense than offense. While a keen tactician may appreciate the subtle nuances of two players goading one another into making a first move, audiences and greener players tend to want to watch and play through explosive action.
Given this general truth, fighting game developers are effectively tasked with making games that favor offense to the degree of being fun to watch and play, but are simultaneously balanced defensively so that a conspicuous amount of thought and strategy is still evident.
Mura presents Street Fighter 6’s knockdown meta in a nutshell, pointing out the various options both defenders and aggressors have following a sweep or a throw scenario. He then time travels back to the days of Street Fighter 4, where vortex and limited defensive options heavily influenced the direction of the franchise, to show the lessons developers learned during that time.
The changes made during late Street Fighter 4 carried over into Street Fighter 5, which brought with it its own issues. That same process of evolution stayed at work throughout SF5’s life and into Street Fighter 6, which has now been out in the wild for a full 18 months.
Mura’s breakdown offers viewers a stronger understanding of why SF6 exists as it does and just how meticulously-placed all pieces of the overall puzzle are. More evolution is, of course, needed, and informative videos detailing both the what and why of the current state of things stand to help us move through that evolution with maximal efficiency.