Much of Street Fighter 6’s World Tour mode is focused on the relationship between the player avatar and Bosch. At the halfway point of the story, Bosch is defeated and abducted by Juri who is apparently working for Neo Shadaloo.
Though Bosch is believed to be dead initially, he ends up returning with Psycho Power as a result of being experimented on by Neo Shadaloo. Unfortunately for Bosch, this transformation ends up being his undoing in the end as he is supposedly killed by JP at the conclusion of Nayshall’s Suval’hal Tournament.
Though JP took the most direct hand at Bosch’s demise, it can be argued that the leader of Neo Shadaloo also had a hand in this outcome, right? With that in mind, we last knew Ed as the founder and leader of Neo Shadaloo during the events of Street Fighter 5, though it’s not known if Ed has retained his leadership role at Neo Shadaloo or if he was somehow ousted since then.
Notably, Ed’s teaser trailer for Street Fighter 6 was released recently. We also learned that Ed will become available at some point in February.
However, the scene that plays out is kind of strange. If Ed is the leader of Neo Shadaloo, then why is he alone and being chased by a bunch of box heads on a train?
Those that are after him all appear to have the Shadaloo logo on the front of the boxes that they’re wearing. Needless to say, the entire battle ends of being symbolic of Ed’s entire journey up until this point.
Upon defeating the largest member of his pursuers, it briefly looks as though the player avatar is about become collateral damage before Ed uses his powers to pull the opponent back towards himself before that can happen. Ed screams out that their fight is “not finished,” but it honestly feels like Ed actually did this to prevent harm from befalling the player.
Regardless, it seems that Ed can become another mentor for the player avatar in World Tour, irrelevant of whether or not Ed is still the leader of Neo Shadaloo. It might seem peculiar that the avatar could be befriending someone who potentially had a hand in Bosch’s ultimate fate, but it’s not like that sort of thing stopped them from interacting with Juri and JP.
Just like with other characters in World Tour, Ed’s inclusion will give us the opportunity to discover what Ed has been up to since the events of Street Fighter 5. As such, we expect to finally learn more about other members of Neo Shadaloo such as Baba Muarim and the tall man whose name apparently starts with a “G.”
Additionally, we’ll probably also learn more about the growing conflict that seems to exist between JP, F.A.N.G, and likely Ed as well. With M. Bison out of the picture, there now seems to be at least three separate factions that have dispersed from the remnants of Shadaloo.
Is Ed an antagonist or is he just an anti-hero of some sort? We’ll just have to see how things have changed for Ed when he’s released sometime in February.