Developers had an idea of what Guile was supposed to be back when they first designed him in Street Fighter 2, and the better part of the next few decades, he would widely define the defensive “zoner” archetype. He had some attacks to keep foes at bay if they got close, but his preferred game was the simple combination of throwing his speedy Sonic Booms and thwarting jumps over them with his trusty Flash Kick.
Fast forward to Street Fighter 6 and while Guile still bases his core approach around Booms and Flash Kicks, he’s also capable of some incredibly strong offense. This change didn’t happen overnight, though, and MC Mura has a new video out detailing this evolution that seemed to start in the transition between Street Fighters 4 and 5.
In their quest to appeal to more eSports audiences, fighting games have naturally trended towards becoming more offensively explosive. Developers tend to add mechanics that heavily favor offensive decisions (FADC, V-Trigger, Drive Rush) while often needing to later buff up defensive mechanics (Delayed wake up, V-Shift) to save their games from becoming too unbalanced.
What does this mean for characters who have traditionally relied on old “the best offense is a good defense” adage? It could mean they simply get left in the dust as their fellow roster mates increasingly garner abilities that allow them to rush down and power through defenses, or, as has been the case with Guile, it could mean they evolve into hybrid zoners.
Guile isn’t quite on Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, and Akuma level, but he’s one of the franchise’s most recognizable and therefore important figures. He’s in almost every Street Fighter to date, and to imagine a game wherein Guile simply sucks is to imagine a game that doesn’t quite feel like true Street Fighter.
Mura examines Guile’s main tools in Street Fighter 4, where he was decent as players like NuckleDu, Dieminion, and ImStillDaDaddy routinely placed high in major events with him.
The ability to extend combos and pressure was noticeably enhanced compared to previous iterations of the character thanks to the Focus Attack Dash Cancel mechanic, but he was still unequivocally a zoner who played primarily by zoner rules.
This changed fairly drastically in Street Fighter 5 when Guile’s V-Trigger suddenly turned him into the most combo-savvy character in the game’s early seasons. He was still hellacious to try to get close to, but now Guile could also decide to move forward with more potential and prowess than ever before.
Street Fighter 6 now grants all characters the ability to burst forward and extend combos with the Drive System, and these resources are available from the start of each round and thus do not have to be carefully built up. Pepper in even more potential with Guile’s Super combos (one of which is essentially his first V-Trigger from SF5) and you have a zoner that can look an awful lot like a rush down fighter.
Instead of allowing Guile to become antiquated, Capcom has evolved him, but is it for the best? Is he, out of necessity, becoming a character who checks too many boxes and thusly will be destined to be a top tier in just about every game he’s in?
Give Mura’s video a watch and let us know what you think of Guile’s journey thus far as well as where you think he’s headed in the comments.