Elena’s release for Street Fighter 6 is just around the corner, but her Healing move is not only on the hearts and minds of the community, but the developers as well.
Most people remember this move because of the infamous decision by Ultra Street Fighter 4’s developers to make it use her Ultra Combo system, which effectively meant Elena could build the meter required to heal herself — by taking damage.
Numerous players in the Fighting Game Community have called out this decision back in 2014, and the subsequent years. As such, I wanted to discuss how this move may look with Street Fighter 6’s mechanics and talk about where its fit may be most ideal.
One of Elena’s Supers being her Healing move seems the most likely, with one particular level being the stand out candidate, but let’s cover all three.
Super 1: This option I consider to be the least likely of her Supers, as character’s Level 1s tend to serve a number of purposes for adding on damage and providing a reasonably invincible reversal. Not all characters have a Super 1 that functions in this way, however.
Giving Elena the ability to heal herself for the cost of a single Super meter may be way too strong, though, and I can see the developers heavily struggling with balancing this move if they were to implement Healing as her Level 1. As such, I feel like this is a fairly unlikely scenario.
Super 2: A number of characters have utility Super moves as their Level 2s, because of this I feel like Elena’s Healing falling into the same category is the most likely outcome. This may mean that Elena can heal herself twice per round, and we know that with a character like Rashid, the ability to get two Tornadoes out in a single round gigantically boosts his odds to win that round.
This may be the case for Elena’s Super 2 as well, if it ends up being her Healing move, which is the biggest case against making it her Level 2. Regardless, this feels like the most likely candidate.
Super 3: These attacks tend to be the highest damage options for the cast members of Street Fighter 6, and losing the ability to land this and end matches by cashing out your major resources may not be the best choice for Elena. However, considering how strong Elena’s Healing move can be, it may make the most sense to lock it behind a very expensive resource.
While I think Elena’s Healing being her Super 2 is most likely, this is the second most likely candidate given how strong this move can be.
It’s possible that Elena’s Healing move won’t be tied to her Supers at all, and instead use Drive Gauge in some way, which would heavily echo the decision Capcom made back in the Ultra Street Fighter 4 days, tying it to her Ultra Combo.
While I’d love to say this shouldn’t be a possibility for Capcom, we know that in the Fighting Game Community, history repeats itself, and the developers might try and get tricky with her this time around once again.
Drive Gauge is a constantly replenishing resource in Street Fighter 6, so how to balance this fairly could be a nightmare, but the developers could make it so that Elena only heals at a 1 chunk of life for every 2 Drive Gauge meters spent, or add quite a bit of recovery time when Elena attempts to Heal, or something akin to these things.
Also, pushing herself ever closer to Burnout for Healing could be a reasonable trade off, depending on how it’s implemented.
Regardless of these potential balance options, this is the setting that probably scares the Street Fighter 6 player base the most.
Limiting the amount of life restored for the meter consumed, adding a number of frames of recovery, or some other outside the box solutions are all possible here from Capcom.
The developers have stated they’re very familiar with Healing’s reputation and that fans shouldn’t worry about this move.
We’ll know a lot more when Elena is released as the final DLC character for Season 2 Street Fighter 6 in the spring time of this year.
Which option do you like the most for Elena’s Healing move in Street Fighter 6? Sound off in the comments below.
Source: Event Hubs
