What you’re about to read is a fictional Street Fighter 4, one person’s view on how it should be. The reason I wrote this article is to share my vision of the next installment in the SF series with all of you. I hope you all enjoy my creativity when it comes to the story and characters, personally I thoroughly enjoyed writing this so I hope you too can thoroughly enjoy reading this. 
----------
Story
----------
Without a form of continuity, there really isn’t a point in calling the next SF game, Street Fighter 4 or even associating it with Street Fighter. This is why I’ve decided that the best and most presentable version of SF4 is one that acknowledges the past and the future, a SF that moves the story forward instead of taking it no where (SF3 anyone?).
In ‘this’ SF4, there is a balance of old and new cast. However the old cast is not re-introduced without logical and plausible reasoning. Every character is in someway interconnected with another. There are several sub plots going on, everyone has their own agenda and everyone story will be resolved in one form or another.
The general plot of SF4 is that it takes place in 2006, several years after SF3. It’s been years since Urien took over the Illuminati and started his plans for a ‘posthuman’ world. What started out as a cult religion now has temples all over the world, Urien’s influence is growing, so him hosting the SF tournament comes as no surprise.
The story of SF4 is divided among several characters, all which are discussed in detail below. I’ve come up with ‘resolutions’ (IE endings) for every story I’ve introduced (but I’m not going to post these just yet). What SF4 does is settle old questions and introduce new ones, it sets the stage for new villains and new heroes.
These aren’t all the characters. I think there is more room for 3-5 new characters and 1 or 2 oldies. I still didn’t make up my mind about those though.
Character: Ryu
Appearance: Generally looks the same except a bit more aged. He has a slight stubble (dirty face beard), his hair is longer, slightly shorter than Ken’s in SF3. We can also see some gray hair near his temples.
Stage: Japan - Ryu’s stage is the yard of master Gouken’s dojo; surrounded by a lush forest with leaves falling from the trees.
Story: Having trained under Oro since the last tournament, Ryu now feels that if he is able to win the SF tournament once more he will be ready to battle Akuma.
Notes:
- Although we have waited for this, Ryu will NOT get his fight with Akuma (although he will try to but it will be too late). His story will take a drastic turn.
- Ryu knows Goku but because it’s been many years, fails to remember her. He however encounters her one day near Gouken’s dojo and strikes a friendship with her, not realizing he knows her from before.
- Ryu can fire his hadoukens using one hand; he can also fire them diagonally. He can do this now thanks to Oro’s disciplining.
- In fact, Ryu should have new specials or modified capabilities thanks to Oro’s training. We need to make him as different from the other shotos as possible. Got ideas?
Character: Ken
Appearance: Looks exactly the same except his hair is longer (not as long as Alpha) and tied back.
Stage: Seattle, USA - Ken’s stage is his personal dojo where he trains his students. His stage is an inside environment with some of Ken’s students cheering the fight; Sean, Eliza and Ken’s son Mel are visible in the background.
Story: Ken’s very own dojo received a personal invitation to join the tournament. At first he was hesitant, thinking he should send one of his students to represent his dojo instead,. However once word got out that Ryu is joining the tournament, Ken rushed at the chance to fight him again and show off a modified version of his original martial arts that he developed himself.
Notes:
- I didn’t consider what possible modifications Ken has developed but I imagine it follows in the footsteps of ShinRyuKen, IE flaming fists. It’s best to make Ryu and Ken as different from each other as possible to avoid grouping them.
Character: Chun Li
Appearance: A modified version of her costume. The shoulder puffs are gone so you see a little bit more shoulder skin. The costume itself looks more modern now than traditional but still the same. Her hair is the same (I’m starting to think its a wig).
Stage: China - A traffic jam (surely caused by the fight), a very crowded street you see a lot of people walking and a lot of people on bicycles moving around. Very chaotic.
Story: Caught up in the tragic murder of her long time friend Guile, Chun Li finds clues that lead her to the SF tournament and eventually to the killer himself… Or herself?
Notes:
- When Chun Li was at the scene of Guile’s murder she found a flyer, sort of like an advertisement for the SF tournament. She concluded that the killer left her this as a clue of where to find her.
- Chun Li notices that the Guile’s body has several cuts, but the cuts come in 3 as if they were done with a claw… She assumes it’s a ninja of some sort until she receives word that Vega escaped his prison.
Character: Vega (Balrog)
Appearance: Vega is topless (still tattooed), wearing very dark green army pants with 2 black boots. His hair is much longer and is braided like it usually is. His face is covered with a mask although when the mask falls off, it isn’t so beautiful anymore. Vega’s claw is also modified, looks more like a Predator wrist blade.
Stage: Spain - A caged arena in Spain. Everything is caged, even the ceiling and the crowd is cheering with spotlights overhead. Very underground fight club-ish.
Story: After years of being confined in an insane asylum, Vega finally escaped (with some help from an old friend). Vega seeks revenge against the woman who put him there, the same woman who scarred his beautiful face forever.
Notes:
- Vega isn’t well. Everything from the loss of his beauty to years of confinement has taken a toll on him and he’s a little koo-koo really (Oddball from Thrill Kill anyone?).
- Vega’s elegant fighting style isn’t the same, he’s much more violent and ruthless - Lots of stabbing and he doesn’t yodel anymore, he just laughs like an insane man or shrieks.
-Vega was ‘rescued’ from his prison by Bison whom he immediately recognized (the uniform and smile is a dead giveaway). Vega asked Bison on the spot “How will I find her?” and Bison replied “I’ve taken care of that, she’ll find you!” (GET MY DRIFT!!! =D)
Character: Akuma
Appearance: Akuma has aged, his hair is COMPLETELY white (with a few red streaks if you like). The top part of his GI is dangling from his waist, so he’s topless. His chest has a few scars here and there and on his back the “ten” symbol is practically carved into his back (I wonder how he did that).
Stage: Japan - A dark forest (thinking Living Forest from MK2) on his island lair, it’s a very moody misty stage. You can see some objects hanging from trees that imply that Akuma hung them there for training purposes.
Story: Still searching for the ultimate opponent worthy of a fight, Akuma is mysteriously invited by the host of the tournament to join, the host promises Akuma the ultimate fight if he joins.
Notes:
- Akuma WILL meet his match in this tournament and he will lose, but not without leaving us with a parting gift.
Character: Bison (Vega)
Appearance: Imagine Rose, with her long hair tied back either left dangling or neatly made into a single bun. Imagine her wearing Bison’s outfit, with the shoulder plates, leg pads and wrist armor, with the same cap. She has glowing white eyes and her voice is something out of the exorcist. I’m not sure about the high heels though.
Stage: Antarctica - Bison’s stage is an underground base in Antarctica; Some Scientists are visible in the background but so are large test tubes with semi-naked fighters such as Juni, Juli and Balrog inside - That explains their disappearance.
Story: After several years of hell (literally) Bison’s demonic soul escaped the trenches of heck and found refuge in the body of an incapacitated Rose (who’s been in stasis for many years in an abandoned Shadaloo base). Now many years later, a stronger, rejuvenated Bison with everything to gain and nothing lose, seeks to take back what’s his.
Notes:
- Ok let me just get this straight to avoid the inevitable. How did Bison come back? This version of SF4 assumes that after Alpha3, Bison and Rose’s soul merged in Rose’s body. When Shadaloo built Bison a new body, he exorcized himself from Rose’s body again (just the bad side NOT Rose) and went into the new body. When Akuma SGSed Bison, his soul went to hell for several years, till about 98 or 99, that’s when Bisons DEMONIC-IMMORTAL-ULTRA HUMAN soul managed to escape hell, it found refuge in Rose’s body which was kept in stasis in an abandoned unknown underground base. There was no one there when Bison came about and he started from scratch. Many years later (2006), Bison made his existence known.
- Bison wants a new body desperately, a better one and the only organization capable of supplying him one is Uriens. Make sense?
- I wouldn’t be surprised if Bison also wants to take control of the Illuminati but that isn’t his main priority right now.
- I also wouldn’t put it passed Bison to try to learn some of the Illuminatis secret teachings to survive the raging demon like Gill.
- I haven’t considered the possibility that Bison knows Urien and Gill from before or if even he was part of the Illuminati decades if not centuries before.
- Is Rose still alive in Bison? Fighting for control of his body? Possible.
- Bison is just as strong as SF2 if not a little bit stronger. Why? Bison had more time to recover from SF2 to SF4 (almost 10 years from the moment he escaped hell) than the time he had to recover from SFA3 and SF2 (3 years)
Character: Urien
Appearance: Generally looks the same, except that he wears an elongated pharoahesque helmet on his head and he isn’t wearing a thong anymore (no he isn’t naked!), He’s wearing this piece of armor “skirt”, I don’t know what it’s called but it’s like what Shao Kahn from MK wears around his waist.
Stage: Atlantic Ocean - On board Urien’s floating pyramid fortress (ala Stargate) which levitates over the sea next to a major city. The stage itself is comprised of a very Church-ish background, with lots of gold and priests worshipping in the background. Orchestral music is a MUST.
Story: Having binded Gill’s powers, Urien took this chance to destroy his brother and take control of the Illuminati. Urien started his own self-worshipping religion and seeded the world with temples in his honor. Now Urien hosts an SF tournament in hopes of assimilating the perfect qualities from the best fighters to create the perfect human that will replace the existing “mistake”.
Notes:
- Urien didn’t just kill Gill (reminds me of Kill Bill) for power, he killed him because he thought he was a fool to even consider any humans are worth saving. Urien wants to cleanse the world of humanity himself and replace them with something he deems worthy, something that worships him.
- Why start a religion and seed the planet with temples if you’re gonna kill everyone anyway? Through fear, Urien will use his influence to turn humanity against itself, make them kill each other and get it over with. Who needs armies when you have RELIGION!!!
- Urien wants to study the fighters in the tournament on a biological level mostly, he wants to see what makes them so powerful. The best of the best will then have the good parts of them extracted and used for Urien’s “Posthuman” experiments.
- Urien has this incredible floating fortress that looks like a giant silver pyramid, it acts as a base of operations for him and it moves from city to city overseeing the tournament as it happens.
- As the boss, I don’t think Urien should be playable immediately.
Character: Otomei
Appearance: Otomei wears a torn (like Akuma or Ryu) dark green Gi. She has long dark black hair tied into a pony tail.
Stage: Japan - Much like Ryu’s stage, Otomei’s stage is the yard of master Gouken’s dojo; except it is at night and it’s a stormy rainy night with rain and thunder.
Story: Trained by the same man (Gouken) that trained Ryu and Ken, the mysterious Otomei believes that she is finally ready to exact her revenge and with the help of Urien, she will.
Notes:
- Otomei is the Alex of SF4, as in she IS the main character of SF4.
- Otomei is NOT a young woman, she’s about the same age as Chun Li, a few years younger than Ryu. She’s a hard-headed cold character much like Ryu, very driven and determined.
- Otomei’s fighting style is something of her own PLUS bits and pieces of Ryu/Akuma.
- Otomei’s wants revenge against Akuma for killing Gouken, she has trained all her life for it and there is no boundaries to what she would do to kill him. Her vengeance has almost taken over her life. However she is having a hard time tracking him, so she approaches Urien and tells him if he brings her Akuma to the tournament, he can have Akuma’s body for his ‘Posthuman’ experiments, too bad Urien has plans of his own.
- Otomei meets Ryu one day at her father’s dojo but doesn’t tell him who she is, she however knows who he is and grows fond of him. She does not reveal to him her intentions.
- Otomei tries to keep a low profile at all times, hence when she starts a match she has a straw hat (Like Raiden from MK) on.
Character: Amy
Appearance: Amy wears an outfit similar to Guile, IE tank top + army pants + boots. Her hair is short and dyed light pink.
Stage: USA - An airfield with jet fighters landing and taking off in the background.
Story: Guile’s daughter and in the army herself, Amy joins the tournament to help Chun Li find the one responsible for the murder of her father.
Notes:
- Amy is to SF4 what Remy was to SF3, the Guile replacement. NOT!!! She does utilize similar powers to Guile however. Although she’s more offensive than defensive.
- Some of her moves include a horizontal version of the Flash kick that hits twice and a backwards dash that launches a short-lived sonic hurricane in its wake. She also has the traditional flash kick.
- Amy considers Chun Li like family because she has been in her life for a long time and she is a close friend of Guile.
- Amy always felt that she let her father down because Guile always wanted a boy, hence why she joined the army, followed in his footsteps and now wants to avenge his death.
Character: Scorpio
Appearance: Topless with a Scorpion tattoo running down his shoulders to his upper abs. He’s wearing a mask that covers his entire head and colorful tight wrestling pants (Like most Hispanic/Latin wrestlers).
Stage: Puerto Rico - An outdoor wrestling ring on a sunny day with a crowd cheering, holding posters that change according to the name of the fighters. (If Ryu is fighting one of the posters would read “Ryu” or “Ryu rules”)
Story: A famed Puerto Rican wrestler notorious for dramatic acrobatics and powerful maneuvers that send opponents hurling in agony. Scorpio joins the tournament in hopes of being recognized worldwide instead of just Latin America.
Notes:
- Scorpio isn’t Zangief II, he’s more of a combination of Vega, Zangief, R. Mika and Blanka. He’s a very acrobatic grappler, most of his moves do consist of throws though.
- Scorpio isn’t a very big guy for a wrestler, I imagine him to be 5’7 or 5’8.
Character: Nefr
Appearance: Princess Leia slave costume! I imagine her with lush rich brown hair, she’s wearing a veil to cover her mouth and nose but you can see her beautiful eyes. Another possible outfit for her is one similar to Pullums from SF EX series
Stage: Iran - A colorful palace chamber with lots of pillows and fabrics, you can see bowls of fruit and a fountain as well, several beautiful women in the background (belly dancers too!)
Story: A Persian princess renowned for her beauty. Her face is so beautiful that NO MAN can resist her once they’ve seen it. Nefr joins the tournament to demonstrate that even a god like Urien will fall to his knees for her beauty.
Notes:
- Nefr means beautiful and it’s pronounced Ne-Fur.
- Vega greatly admires Nefr’s beauty and tells her at one point that she reminds him of himself. (Although that won’t stop him from skinning her like a rabbit)
Character: Celestine
Appearance: As tall as Urien, a tad bit leaner and is completely bald. His skin is dark but he is not black. He wears a golden piece of armor that covers virtually his entire upper torso and also gold wrist armor (Like Bison’s). He has a gold bracelet on each leg that extends from his ankles to a few inches below the knees. He wears the legendary thong (death to pants everywhere!!!)
Stage: Morocco - The ruins of one of the Illuminati temples, the time of day is dawn (symbolizing a new beginning I bet)
Story: The last of the 3 Illuminati overseers (The Emperor, The Oracle and The Sage), Celestine the Sage witnessed first-hand Urien massacring his own brethren, his own brother for power. Celestine seeks to bring order back to his secret society and put an end to Urien’s disgraceful reign.
Notes:
- We find out in SF4 that the Illuminati was run mostly by Gill (The Emperor) but alongside him was the Oracle and the Sage. They form a trinity of some sort, one dictating what gets done (The Emperor), one predicting what will be done (The Oracle) and one suggesting what should be done (The Sage). Urien has already terminated the Emperor and Oracle, Celestine managed to survive the initial onslaught but once Urien learns that he survived, he will surely be killed.
- Celestine is old, very old (although it doesn’t show too much). He along with the Oracle have witnessed many Emperors rule before them over the centuries but never has he witnessed a betrayal on the scale of Urien.
Character: Beta
Appearance: It’s hard to figure out how to make something like Beta look like considering that he is a shape shifter. The best I could come up with is a taller Twelve with a straighter posture.
Stage: India - Outside the steps of one Urien’s -very Greek in appearance- temples in a village in India. You see people making offerings and worshipping in the background. It’s a sunny, colorful stage.
Story: Having delved deeper in gentech, Urien produces the latest version of the shape shifting Twelve experiment. The experimental soldier aptly named ‘Beta’ is being put to the test in this tournament in hopes of proving itself worthy of mass-production.
Notes:
- Even though Beta is an evolution of Twelve, their fighting styles are not the same. They both are capable of metamorphosis but Beta’ fighting style is much more organized and disciplined. He utilizes a variety of martial arts combined with his metamorphosis abilities. He’s more “stiff” to say the least.
- One of Beta’s supers is called “Osmosis”, where he turns into hundreds if not thousands of tiny particles and passes through his opponent causing damage.
Character: Gordo
Appearance: Wearing a one piece exosuit with a jet pack on his back. He has blonde hair and wears weird hitech goggles. Same height as Ryu/Ken.
Stage: England - On a London bridge and you can clearly see Big Ben in the background. You can see some cars in the background with the drivers out either cheering or pissed off.
Story: A young Englishman who believes that true power is derived from superior technology. Gordo, armed with a jetpack, a wrist cannon and other enhancments joins the tournament to prove his point.
Notes:
- Gordo is a young handsome ‘lad’ who’s bored with life, he’s extremely wealthy, inheriting billions from his father (very Bruce Wayne-ish). Having studied martial arts for most of his life, Gordo felt that the human body can only go so far so he decided to use his wealth to enhance his fighting capabilities. An exosuit that increases his pain threshold, a high-powered jetpack for extra agility and a wrist cannon that doubles as a light plasma cannon and plasma saber.
- Gordo is an overly confident egomaniac, he has so much faith in his technology that he challenged the US martial arts champion Ken Masters.
- Although Gordo has technology on his side, he doesn’t ignore his skills in fact he uses them in conjunction with his tech.
- One of Gordo’s moves is a jet powered forward lunge attack. Another is an aerial attack where Gordo uses his jet pack to dive head first into his opponent, smashing them into the ground. As a mockery of Ken’s fighting style, Gordo also has a dragon punch-ish move that utilizes both his wrist plasma saber and his jet back. Of course Gordo also has a high impact fast-moving projectile attack.
Character: Chandra
Appearance: African, About 6’3 wearing several off-white robes and holds a long wooden staff. Both his eyes are white because he’s blind. His hair is about shoulder length and completely braided, tied in a bundle.
Stage: Nigeria - Afternoon, in the middle of an Elephant herd in a grassy region with a waterhole. The Elephants are doing their thing as if there is no fight taking place.
**Story:**An African Shaman who predicts that Urien’s tournament will create an imbalance in nature, he sees a great shift in power and untold damage to humanity. Chandra’s concern for his people and nature itself lead him to the conclusion that he must put an end to Urien’s plans before its too late.
Notes:
- Chandra’s fighting style is very quick and evasive; he’s a mix of Rolento and Eagle since he utilizes his staff quite a bit.
- Even though Chandra is blind his reflexes are extremely fine tuned, it’s almost as if he can predict when your next attack is.
- Chandra spends most of his time with animals, some claim he actually can speak to them.
Character: Onozuna
Appearance: By far the largest Street Fighter ever. Onozuna is as tall as Hugo and as fat as Honda. His attire is similar to sumo wrestlers; he leaves everything (IE fat) hanging out.
Stage: Japan - On a busy Tokyo street with skyscrapers on both sides of the road. You can see some of Onozuna’s fans dressed like him and his manager cheering on the sidelines. There are TV reporters and cameras as well, the road is packed!
**Story:**The reigning champion of Sumo wrestling in Japan for the last 4 years, the massive Onozuna has remained undefeated since he first appeared. However Onozuna feels that he is much more than a fat sumo wrestling champion and he will prove this by defeating major non-sumo fighters from around the world.
Notes:
- Onozuna is not Honda II, he’s closer to Hugo and Zangief really. His moves consist of several grappling throws, head butts and forceful pushes. He shares no moves with E. Honda whatsoever.
- Onozuna took the championship from (you guessed it) Honda who retired permanently after that.
----------
Game Play
----------
Much like how SF3 added new gameplay options and built on SF2, SF4 will do no less. However in SF4, I thought of taking things to the next level. Each character will have a specialized, individualized style with its own gameplay options and gauge, no two characters will have the exact same abilities.
We’ll call this a ‘mode’ (ism and groove are taken). In single player Arcade, a player can only use O-mode. O-mode stands for Original Mode, as in your character gameplay style and abilities are unique, every character have their own unique O-mode that no other character has. What O-mode consists of is a variety of options that suit your character. For example, someone like Vega will have an O-mode that has several mobility options such as wall jump, double jump, run etc - Because that’s how the character plays. Vega being a very quick-attack character might have a depletive gauge.
Someone like Ryu might have an all round balanced O-mode since that reflects the character himself.
When in Versus mode, things change a bit. When players select their characters they will have the option to pick one of two or three ‘modes’. However the other modes are universal and not character-unique.
A perpetual concern is balance. While this ‘modes’ system certainly doesn’t make balancing easier, I seriously doubt it will make it harder. When it comes to O-mode, it will be easier to balance a character’s O-mode because it won’t affect other characters, just as easy as nerfing a special move or super. The Universal Modes may pose a balance issue similar to the groove system seen in CvS2, it will definitely add versatility in 2P matches to say the least.
Possible Universal modes include A-Mode (Advanced Mode) which is hardest to master; it is the only mode in the game that allows parrying. V-Mode (Versatile Mode) which contains a bit of everything, for an all round fighting style. I will go into more detail on these later.
Below I have a list of possible gameplay options and gauges. The only options that are available to every character in the game are the universal ones, everything else is scattered about, no single character will have all these options.
Universal Options:
-
Supers: Supers use up a portion or all of your gauge and do more damage than regular moves.
-
Ex Moves: One of the best and most clever additions to a fighting game. EX moves are stronger versions of regular special moves, they use up a portion of your gauge.
-
Power Up: Uses up a portion of your gauge to make your normal attacks do 10/15% more damage for a few seconds (3-5 seconds?).
Variable Options:
-
F/B Dash: A quick dash forward or backwards.
-
Wall Jump: Also known as a corner jump, when a character jumps onto a wall then jumps off the wall. (Vega and Chun Li had this before)
-
Double Jump: Jumping again while you do a normal jump, allows you to go higher up.
-
High Jump: Jump higher than normal but not as high as a double jump. You can’t double jump when you high jump.
-
Safe Fall: Allows you to recover quickly after you’re thrown or knocked out in air, you land safely on your feet.
-
Roll: Not like the CvS incarnation. A roll is kinda like a dash, you can roll forwards or backwards but you’re not invincible. You can also do a roll before you hit the ground.
-
Run: An extended dash that allows you to move quickly.
-
Counter: Cancels any special move or normal move (even throws) you receive and pushes your opponent away from you. Causes minimal damage. Requires a portion of your gauge.
-
Reversal: Cancels any special or normal move (even throws) you receive and allows you to perform an attack instead. Requires a portion of your gauge.
-
Reciprocate: It’s a new kind of throw but the intention isn’t to cause damage but rather to just switch places. When it connects, you and your opponent switch places. Can be handy in corner traps.
-
Dodge: Exactly like the CvS version (although less abuseable). Your character momentarily moves into the background, avoiding an attack.
-
Custom Combo: Only available to characters who utilize a Depletive gauge. Basically the same as the Custom Combos we’ve grown accustom (no pun intended) to.
-
Parry: Same as SF3 except it is exclusive to A-Mode.
Gauge types:
I’ve come up with 4 effective gauge styles (If you have ideas for more, please tell me). Each character’s O-mode would utilize one of these gauges. For example, someone like Bison who relies on Psycho Power, the aggressor gauge is suited for him. The more angry and riled up his opponent becomes the stronger Bison’s gets because of the negative energy so his gauge would increase in accordance to this.
You might notice that not all gauges can perform supers with the same strength and frequency. This needs to be fined tuned but there is always a good side to things. For example, a character with a depletive gauge can only perform ‘strong’ supers so to make up for the lack of a ‘strongest’ super, he or she can custom combo.
—Legend—
Weakest = 25%-30% damage super
Strong = 35-40% damage super
Strongest = 45%-50% damage super
-
Aggressor Gauge: Whenever your opponent attacks you, whether you block it or not, even if your opponent misses (although the increase is less in this case), your gauge increases. This gauge is divided into two, allowing for either two ‘weakest’ supers or one ‘strongest’ super.
-
Regenerative Gauge: Automatically increases at a steady pace and is not affected by attacks received or given. Gauge divided into 3 which allows for 3 ‘weakest’ supers or one ‘strong’ super which uses up 2/3 of the gauge.
-
Chargeable Gauge: Increases with every attack done or received, much like the Alpha standard gauge. Divided into 3 which allows for 3 weakest supers, 1 strong super or 1 strongest super.
-
Depletive Gauge: The quickest gauge to fill up but only increases with every attack you do that isn’t blocked. Once the gauge is full, it will start to deplete giving the player a specific window of time to perform 1 ‘strong’ super. Once depleted the player must attempt to fill it up again.
This gameplay system will allow several things that we’ve never really experienced. One, you’ll be able to ‘feel’ the difference between each character. Every character will be more unique, the experience of picking and playing a character won’t be the same again. In addition to this, it forces you to explore all characters just to see the one who has the play style that suits you like a glove. This gameplay system is also very versatile and allows for a variety of play.
----------
Graphics
----------
I’ve decided to briefly touch upon the subject of graphics. All though having heavily animated and hi-res 2D graphics is a dream come true, in all practicality it won’t happen. Unless an angel drops down from the sky and commands Capcom to churn out money for a hi-res SF game, they probably won’t do it. But enough with the painfully obvious, let’s look to the future.
The best and most presentable way graphically for an SF4 is cel-shaded graphics. We’ve seen games like Dragon Ballz and Viewtiful Joe do incredible things with cel-shaded graphics. Someone is gonna raise his hand and argue, 3D graphics will destroy the 2D feel of SF game. It’s possible that they will, although I for one enjoyed the gameplay of SFEX+@.
Here’s the idea, manga looking cel-shaded 3D characters on a 2D plane, the backgrounds are similar to some of the 3D-ish backgrounds we’ve seen in games like CvS2. The special effects are rich in color and 3D. The characters appear as big as they do in the 2D games we’ve grown accustom to.
The camera is fixed like a 2D fighter, it can zoom in and out depending on the action and distance between fighters. The only time the camera angles become dynamic is during throws and super moves (Ever play that 3D X-Men fighter?). The dynamic camera angles that come into play during supers and throws give off a very Matrix-ish feel, it’s definitely a nice touch to gameplay.
The stages are bigger; they could be multi-tiered not just smashing through floors and ceilings. But if for example you are fighting in an inside environment, you could be smashed through the wall and the fight is taken to the street. Destructible environments are not a must but definitely enhance the experience.
Having said all this, there is nothing better than 2D graphics. SF was made to be 2D and I’d love if we can get GGX style graphics. I don’t think 3D can ever truly replicate the gameplay of a 2D fighter. SF EX was fun to play but it wasn’t the same.
This is just a first draft, so if you have any ideas and/or suggestions please share them with me. Credit will be given where credit is due.