Ed is slated to be the penultimate character of Street Fighter 6’s Year 1 Character Pass once he’s released on February 27, 2024. We recently got a better understanding of how he’ll play with his Street Fighter 6 gameplay trailer and with the overview for his moves.
As it turns out, a lot has changed for Ed since his playable debut in Street Fighter 5. The fact that Ed was trained to fight by Balrog might actually be more apparent in Street Fighter 6 when compared to his Street Fighter 5 iteration.
“His attack animations have also changed significantly from Street Fighter 5,” said the PlayStation Blog of Ed in Street Fighter 6. “To respect his background as a traditional boxer, all his attacks are now punches (except for his Level 2 Super Art). His kick buttons have been designated to various flicker attacks.”
During Ed’s level 2 Super Art, Ed throws a slow moving projectile, which behaves similarly to his V-Trigger 1 in Street Fighter 5. In other words, even though Ed doesn’t throw a punch with his level 2 Super Art, he still doesn’t perform a single kick within his new moveset.
This major change should be immediately apparent just from seeing Ed’s recent gameplay trailer. During the sequence, it’s demonstrated that Ed will now sweep with his fist instead of his leg, like how it was in Street Fighter 5.
Despite being a boxer, kicks actually were an important part of Ed’s moveset in Street Fighter 5, so this is actually a pretty impactful change. For example, Ed’s standing heavy kick typically acted as Ed’s go-to reversal punisher due to its Crush Counter properties.
Regardless, it would appear that Ed is now effectively intended to be the Balrog or Dudley of the game, though it should be noted that Balrog was known to “cheat” at times by utilizing low-hitting stomp attacks. Either way, it would appear that Ed intends to stick with the rules of traditional boxing and only throw punches in Street Fighter 6.