A big reason we enjoy these games is because of how much we identify with the characters
It’s no secret that Rose is my favorite fighting game character of all time, and there’s a chance EventHubs wouldn’t exist if she didn’t make her debut in Street Fighter Alpha back in 1995.
Her Street Fighter 5 iteration was released just about a week before my birthday, and would become my favorite version of the character ever created — making me fall in love with the much derided predecessor to SF6 in a whole new way.
And it all started with a move I initially thought would be worthless and not used by competitive players — oh how wrong I was.
Words of @CatalystEH – The thread below contains why Street Fighter 5’s Rose is my favorite fighting game character, and it all starts with the Tarot mechanic. pic.twitter.com/c433D0PCtk
— Event Hubs (@eventhubs) December 28, 2023
The history of RNG (Random Number Generated) moves in fighting games is spotty at best, so when we heard that Rose’s V-Skill 1 drew a random Tarot card out of four, and you were supposed to use that to aid you in battle, my immediate thought was to write this off as a joke move.
Doing an insanely low 10 damage if it hits the opponent — jabs do about 30 damage in Street Fighter 5 — this thing was hands down one of the weakest attacks in the game, or so I thought.
The real juice to Rose’s V-Skill 1 is how much V-Trigger gauge it builds, and how that unlocks her ability to access her Soul Illusion (V-Trigger 2) multiple times per round, which makes her a much stronger character.
However, if your opponent doesn’t expect a Tarot card throw at the very end of the round, they’re down to almost no life, and you actually manage to pull a card you can throw — which is a 50/50 chance — I knocked out about 100 people with this at the end of matches, and it was one of the things I really enjoyed doing in Street Fighter 5.
This was one of the hardest K.O.’s in all of Street Fighter 5 to land, and I was doing it with a move that I initially thought was worthless.
This gave me an all new appreciation for game designers at Capcom and staying true to the characters that we love in fighting games, by incorporating something which is incredibly important to who Rose is, her Tarot cards.
A lot of characters in fighting games throw fireballs, but there’s nothing as iconic as Ryu, Ken or Akuma throwing a Hadoken if you ask me, because these characters really popularized the move.
If you removed Ryu’s fireball, he’d cease to be the Ryu we all know and love. The fireball is his signature attack and should always be his stand out special. That’s what makes him Ryu.
As such, it’s important for the game designers when they’re looking at adding, or taking away attacks from fighters, that they heavily consider the history and culture that surrounds them.
I’ve ran into countless players through the years who have been very upset that their favorite fighter lost an iconic move, or several of them, and they no longer feel like the fighter that they once knew.
That’s not to say characters can’t and shouldn’t evolve — they all should. We’re all growing older and adding new skills, so should these fighters.
Street Fighter 5’s Rose added several new moves which all fit the character perfectly, and made it the best version of her in any game in my opinion, all while keeping her Soul Spiral, Soul Spark, and Soul Illusion intact from prior games. Her original essence was still there, but with new and awesome highlights.
What’s important when updating characters for a new game is that the core part of what made them popular remains, otherwise they cease to be what the fighting game community fell in love with originally — all the while adding new flavors and abilities to keep things interesting and fresh.