The long wait is almost finally over with Ed set to release next week for Street Fighter 6, but some lucky players got to take him for a spin a bit early — and that includes a few of us now.
EventHubs’ own Jon ‘Catalyst’ Grey and John ‘Velociraptor’ Guerrero are currently at the venue for Capcom Cup X, and they both got to test out the new DLC character for some early impressions of what’s to come.
One of the first notes that we got from Catalyst is that Ed is a very mobile character. A good chunk of that is thanks to his new command dash that lets him “move in fast and out float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
That being said, however, he worries Ed may not be that great up close, which is interesting for a boxer, because some of his normals and tools are pretty unsafe the closer you are unless you burn meter to stay on the offensive / not get punished.
Ed may end up best as a mid-range character, especially with his flicker jabs that give him Dhalsim-like limbs with strong reach for whiff punishes and ones like crouch heavy kick and stand medium punch that can be canceled into specials or Drive Rush to go in for a combo.
Catalyst calls him a whiff punish monster.
Velociraptor basically agrees with this sentiment that Ed doesn’t seem like he wants to be super close in the opponent’s face unless actively applying pressure strings.
He notes the crouch medium punch flicker jab pushes the boxer back surprisingly far, which could be really useful for space traps.
Unless he starts preemptively, Ed boy may struggle to keep up in the projectile battle at certain ranges against characters with good fireballs because his Psycho Spark / Shoot has a long startup — though the first part can still be used to cancel out incoming projectiles.
Psycho Knuckle doesn’t seem like it can be errantly tossed out anymore since it seems to leave him unsafe or at least negative on block, but might be safer if spaced correctly.
The flying punch can also be stopped clean with Drive Impact or Drive Reversal unless you mix things up with canceling it into command dash.
Psycho Upper may also be a bit worse on paper than it was in Street Fighter 5 since the reversal appears to have an even longer delay on it, so the move can still be easily baited with a meaty light attack and punished.
This may make it harder to turn back momentum in his favor without using a Super.
Velociraptor does feel that Ed has a clear gameplan from all ranges with his fireball and command dash at a distance, Psycho Snatcher and flickers at mid-range and Drive Rush from those pokes to get up close.
He also notes that Ed’s sweep, crouching heavy punch for him, also seems like a pretty strong tool with its speed and reach that players will have to look out for since the crouching flickers don’t actually hit low.
If you want to know more about Ed before his February 27 release, we’ve also recently covered some discovery clips from the first day he was available on the event floor as well as a more in-depth breakdown from Tyrant to check out.
Velociraptor and Catalyst will have quite a bit more to say about Ed too once they get back from Capcom Cup early next week, so stay tuned for more coverage.