I remember discussing those ‘weird’ endings, including Elena’s. She’s a girl who likes to travel the world and fights to meet people like her. I think that selfie is really and so very Street Fighter - which at its core celebrates humor. Since the selfie doesn’t brazenly affect the canon or contradict it, I don’t think it does any harm that she managed to take a selfie with Akuma (he was holding the camera btw). Elena’s ending was written to directly lead into her SF3:2i story/ending so at least whoever did it had the interest of the canon at heart.
I think Elenas ending in IV definitely crossed the line from humor/character straight into wtf territory.
There’s a careful balance that needs to be adhered to but wasn’t, it was bad taste. Something I’d expect from Udon not Capcom.
To be honest, it felts like A LOT of SF4’s endnings lead to pretty much nowhere or are out of place or have concluded in a weird away
For example:
- Rufus’ ending. It leads to nothing, made just to make fun of him before Ken (as if there’s not enough humilation of his during their rival battle)
- Blanka’s ending. Uh okay, so he’s with his momma again. Happy end, I guess?
- Abel’s ending. That one left me like “…okay?”, especially with Chun just leaving like that
- DeeJay’s ending. (well just like his character, it’s pointless)
- Hakan’s ending. Guess he has a hot waifu
- Dan’s ending. Just more unneeded comedy that isn’t even funny, it’s downright fucking sad of an atempt at poke at Dan’s character
- Honda’s ending. Suddenly he’s obsessed with making Sumo the best martial arts out there and bothered to go to the Olypmics to prove so
- Ibuki’s ending. Even more comedy. Next…
- Dudley’s ending. It also lead to nowhere. Pretty much just like his entire storyline in the game
- Gouken’s ending. “Yeah I’m back but you can’t follow me so fuck you Ryu and Ken”
- El Fuerte’s ending. Same as Dudley - a lame and stupid storyline
- Balrog’s ending. Not because it’s silly or something but because it’s so… MYSTERIOUS. Like, it leaves more questions than answers, really. His prologue is him being hired by Bison again into Shadaloo, but his ending turns out to be a completely different beast altogether, all because of that boy he found in the SIN’s base
I think the endings I liked the most personally are Guy’s, Decapre’s, Viper’s, Sagat’s, Fei’s, Rolento’s, Sakura’s, and Vega’s
I came across a critical detail regarding the Charlie canon storyline, that may explain the discrepancy between his Alpha 1/2 and Alpha 3 stories. It appears that Charlie may have survived Alpha 1/2 and have been in fact part of the Alpha 3 episode after all. Previously I thought that Charlie’s very existence in Alpha 3 is not canon, but this is not so. I wanted to see if Guile’s SF2 and SFA3 plots matched (since the latter is a retelling and reimagining of the former). They do. Kinda.
In both SF2 and SFA3, Guile is searching for Charlie. However in the updated Alpha 3 plot, Guile was ordered to search for Charlie (who is missing) and bring him back by his superiors. As you play Guile’s story mode he meets Chun-Li for the first time who tries to stop him from finding Charlie. Why? Because if Guile finds Charlie it will lead the corrupt Army officials and ultimately Bison to Charlie. Later on, Guile finds Charlie and loses him again to Bison. This leads directly into his SF4 prologue that takes place months after Alpha 3. This timeline of events also makes more sense considering that Guile would still be realistically affected by Charlie months after he really went missing, rather than years since the event would still be fresh in his mind.
Basically according to Guile’s SFA3 arcade mode, Charlie’s Alpha 1/2 ending did in fact take place - But Charlie survived. Charlie went dark, appeared to be missing to try and defeat Shadaloo without the help of his government because he discovered that they were in fact in allegiance with Bison as we saw in his Alpha 1/2 ending. His only ally was Chun-Li through out it all, until Guile joined him towards the end. The Charlie comic mirrors these events to some extent, and this also explains how Charlie was able to find/free Abel who would’ve been created AFTER Alpha 2 but before Alpha 3.
Guile’s Alpha 3 ending is likely not the way things happened (See: Viper Aftermath OVA) but it may partially have happened in the sense that Charlie died in an exploding base rather than from the waterfall. This version of events also better explain Charlie’s SFV injuries which are more consistent with burns or explosions than gunshots and falling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2risVtc1Yjg
The Alpha series continues to have remarkably consistent story telling. Take that haters.
I don’t see a problem with Elena’s ending. Why would Akuma want/need her dead? She’s hardly a challenge for him. Even in the photo, he just looks confused as to what Elena is doing.
While I wish the 3S characters had more of a real story, I guess Capcom didn’t want to give them too much material to overshadow or conflict with SF3. That said, the twins and Makoto’s endings fit perfectly.
Hello everyone,
I wasn’t very interested in SFV since my incursion into SFIV was awful and never managed to win a single fight (especially since I couldn’t afford a stick) but a few hours ago I checked some videos on the current Beta involving Bison and seeing how he plays I began to wonder: What if this is Bison’s final appearance into the SF saga? He seems to be using all of his psycho power this time and also looks way older than before, maybe he wants to have one final moment of glory before fading into oblivion?
First off, welcome to the forums!
Second, don’t worry about being bad in SFIV. SFV is a totally new game, so you can have a fresh start there.
Third, I think that the Shadaloo organization does reach it’s downfall in the canon storyline. I think with the state the characters are in right now, I think shadaloo is just crumbling, but it isn’t dead. And even if shadaloo does fall and Bison is ultimately defeated, that doesn’t mean Bison would be gone forever. i wouldn’t be surprised if he appears in the next game as like a shadow-zombie of his evil form or whatnot. but Shadaloo may fall, but Bison will rise time and time again.
Something I’d like to add to my point I made earlier about Gouken’s and Gouki’s name in Japanese katakana. In the first statement of Gouki’s SFZ ending he mentions having defeated Goutetsu, Gouken, and Vega. We are all familiar with the kanji form of Goutetsu (鋼鉄 “Steel Iron”), however during the ending, Goutetsu’s name is written in katakana script; ゴウテツ “Goutetsu”. From a story perspective, it would almost seem as if the kanji writing of their names would serve as monikers, but their “true” names would be written in katakana (hiragana in Sakura’s case).
So we have…
Goutetsu- ゴウテツ (鋼鉄 “Steel Iron”)
Gouken- ゴウケン (剛拳 “Adamant Fist”)
Gouki- ゴウキ (豪鬼 “Great Ogre”)
Ryu- リュウ (龍 “Dragon”)
Ken- ケン (拳 “Fist”)
Dan- ダン (弾 “Bullet”)
Sakura- さくら (桜 “Cherry Blossom”)
Sean- ショーン…
Sorry Sean, but your name cant be described through a kanji symbol, thus no nickname.
Edit: Albeit, apparently Sean shares his surname; “Matsuda” (マツダ), with a relatively famous automotive company. So his symbol could be expressed like this.
… E.Honda…S.Mazda…L.Mazda, I see what you did there Capcom! Now you know who’s been providing all the cars for the Bonus Rounds throughout the years.
It almost makes me wonder; if Akuma hadn’t of embraced the SnH and taken the moniker of 豪鬼 “Great Ogre”, would his moniker be something akin to 豪気 which translates into “Sturdy Spirit”? All are pronounced the exact same way; Gōki! It would seem more in line with what the katakana spelling of his name would infer about the virtues that come from his name meaning; Fortitude ゴウキ. It’s almost as if he would’ve been the perfect parallel to Gouken with his Constitutionality “ゴウケン”, and Adamant Fist “剛拳”. Like Yin and Yang.
I may share your concern for Dictator’s well being, especially after seeing how amazingly complete his current reimagining is. There are a few things you need to take into consideration:
1- Shadaloo is just a vehicle for Bison, much like the bodies he keeps switching in between from, to achieve his ambition for psycho powered world domination. He built it once before, destroyed it, and can rebuild it again (He has all the time in the world you can say). The point is though that even if Shadaloo falls, and my gut tells me this is it in SFV - Bison himself doesn’t have to fall with it.
2- This is mainly due to the fact that since Alpha 3, Capcom has decided that Bison is going to be like one of those immortal villains that torment many other franchises. The ones that die and die again, but like the evil they stand for can only be kept at bay or postponed. Bison may die in SFV, but don’t be surprised if he returns in the future but in the body of a boy, girl, man, woman, or even machine. He says so himself in Cammy’s Alpha 3 ending. He tells Chun-Li in her Alpha 3 ending, that as long as fear or hatred exists he will live forever (which is very reminiscent of another immortal villain’s catchphrase). More recently in SF4 he says, “I will be reborn as many times as it takes! Bison is eternal!”.
3- Story-wise Bison continues to be a central character and a means to credibly introduce many new characters and arcs. In SF5, 3 of the 4 new characters are tied to him. The Illuminati organization is being brought in through him as well. Even if he is not the focus of the story, his presence is always there.
4- From a realistic standpoint, Dictator is a very mature and popular intellectual property with roots embedded deep in video game pop culture, and over all pop culture thanks to his numerous appearances and interpretations. He’s simply not the kind of character that is replaceable. He has a strong following too and that helps him continue to be a focal point of the franchise.
Bottomline is that chances are Bison will be in Street Fighter, in one form or another, for as long as Ryu, Ken, and Chun-Li are. He may skip a game (that will bomb commercially :pirate: ), the good guys may buy some time and send him into remission even, but he always comes back.
If the worst case scenario happens, and this is really his last appearance ever in the mainline series, then we must look to the bright side: We can still enjoy that grin in the spotlight for at least another 5-6 years.
Here’s a question that I have yet seen posed. USF4Ω mode techniques, are these canon moves the characters can actually do? Obviously some characters could be argued against like Ken and his Hadoken Kicks, but some of the characters Omega techniques were moves featured in other games. Akuma has his “Tenma Gouzankuu” from SF3 and Alpha series as an Ex move, Sagat has his Tiger Raid from Alpha series.
Some moves were pulled from non canon games like Sakura’s “Hadosho” from CvS, or Dhalsim’s “Yoga Legend” from SvC and SFEX.
Some of the techniques are just moves used in characters intro animation like Gouken’s “Fudoshin”, similar to how Rose’s Ultra II Soul “Satellite” was originally apart of her win animation from SFA series to SF4 vanilla.
The reason I asked this is because I found something ironic about Hugo and his Omega counter technique “Diamond Body”. Gouken too has a counter technique that has been with him since his introduction in SF4, aptly named Kongoshin “金剛身”, which translates into Diamond Body.
Going by this, it would seem that Gouken and Hugo bodies are strong that their imperviousness is comparable to that of a diamond!
Spoiler
I know I’m showing Hugo’s Ex Monster Lariat but you get my point.
Ryu’s kanji is actually 隆 for “prosperity,” not “dragon.”
Matsuda is 松田, roughly “pine tree clearing.” Mazda would be マズダ, different middle kana.
I don’t recall Bison saying that to either Cammy or Chun, but then I haven’t played SFA3 in several years so I may have just forgotten about it.
While I do like Bison a lot, it’s feels as if Capcom keeps reusing him over and over again because they simply don’t have the creative capacity to come up with someone new. It’s true that no new villain could take Bison’s place in gaming history, but using that as an excuse for laziness and relying on him all the time to keep the plot and characters going makes Dictator more of a plot device than an actual fighter.
I really don’t want to see a mecha-zombie Bison feeding on the souls of his defeated opponents, I’d rather keep good memories on one of gaming’s most iconic villain’s.
You should try to see things this way. There are 2 Street Fighter eras separated by a ‘dark age’. The golden age of Street Fighter which was in the 90s, and the modern era. In the modern era, Bison has not been a whole and complete villain through and through. There is an entire generation of gamers who never experienced by Bison as the main villain, and this is why we are seeing this Shadaloo plot device resurgence, among many other plots that have been recycled, rebooted, and repurposed.
SF4 rewrote everything and in more than one sense was indeed a series reboot., SF4 was also intended to build up towards SF5 (story-wise I mean). Capcom was obviously going to reboot the Shadaloo arc for a new generation, and this time properly lead into the Illuminati arc.
You should also consider that Bison was not the boss in SF4, and possibly won’t be in SF5 either. He’s been just another member of the cast, a prominent one albeit, that has his own agenda that he is fighting for, developing his own story - along with others. We’ll see how this plays out in SF5 because I think it’s probably still early to judge Capcom’s creative output on SFV’s story (keep expectations low though).
Personally I don’t think it matters which evil organization is manipulating events and pulling the strings. The Illuminati are a knock off, just another plot device like Shadaloo, and are not a good example of creative capacity. What matters more is the individual character developments rather than the overarching plot. Bison’s status as an iconic villain is secure, whether he lives on to develop into new things or whether he dies - it won’t matter. Consider this though, getting rid of Bison/Shadaloo won’t magically make the story better or make Capcom better writers, because the problem you mention is in the laziness of Capcom themselves.
From a gameplay standpoint, the Shadaloo characters are some of the most unique, popular, and fun. I would hate to lose them because “oh the Shadaloo arc is overdone”. This is a game first and foremost after all, and characters that add to the gameplay shouldn’t be neglected or abandoned.
I’m not sure about the canonicity of Omega mode, but generally speaking gameplay does not reflect canon abilities or power levels. As a rule I think that gameplay is the floor of a character’s abilities, but they likely know and can do a lot more in their story canon (their ceiling). of While they may both possess and ability that makes them temporarily impervious, it doesn’t mean their techniques are the same or that they are on the same tier.
I can totally see them both having that kind of strength though in their canon. Hugo is extremely strong, and Gouken ridiculously disciplined (he blocks a raging demon with his back turned).
Seems legit, but since he’s going f****ng ape shit this time we may be seeing the last of him… for a while at least.
On another note… do you think Laura is related in any way to Blanka? I know she’s Sean older sister but her moves and electricity skills must have some sort of connection with the Brazilian roller everyone loves.
To take a stab at this…
In some chi theory, lightning is actually closely linked to the spirit of the Earth. Like Blanka’s “Shout of Earth”. It is simply possible that Brazil has a strong link to the Earth’s chi and this manifests in some of its fighters.
Usage of earth-chi/lightning can also be seen in something like Tenjho Tenge with Fu Chi’en tenjoutenge.wikia.com/wiki/Fu_Chi’en
From a more real-world stand-point, both Blanka and Laura are primarily green in color. Giving them a lightning element makes the nice color contrast of green/yellow on them which is both aesthetically pleasing AND the colors of the Brazilian flag.
Basically, no I doubt they are related in any way.
Thanks for clearing that up. I guess this would make sense, given that the Eastern concept of a dragon is supposed to be one of good fortune and prosperity. I had just assumed that his name came from the “ryu” in “Shoryuken”.
Revised
Ryu- リュウ (隆 Prosperity)
Sean- ショーン (松田 Matsuda)
Ryu should definitely stick to not using SnH, it doesn’t seem very prosperous at all. He would fit a more Western view of a dragon that brings devastation.
The thing you mention about the middle kana in Matsuda, the Japanese SFV site has the middle kana ツ instead of ズ . Also if you just try to do a simple Google translate on “マズダ”, it comes up as either showing the translation for マツダ, which is Mazda, or Mazuda. The irony of doing this, is that it says "Did you mean “マツダ” at the bottom of the translation page. マツダ is even on Mazda’s official Japanese website in at least 8 different places. Back translating Mazda from English to Japanese gives you マツダ, or Matsuda.
Spoiler
自由奔放でスリルを楽しむ豪快な性格。
独自にアレンジした マツダ 流柔術の達人。
素早く相手の懐に踏み込んで、得意の関節技を極める。
http://i.imgur.com/Nggwvt9.jpg
Link to Laura’s SFV profile in Japanese
Mazda’s Japanese site
I kinda got side tracked with the whole Gouken and Hugo thing. I’m not talking about gameplay mechanics per se, I just mean could an Omega Mode move be seen as canon? I’ll use Gouken and Rose as an example. Rose has had and animation which she has used since SFA that would later become the basis for her Ultra 2 in SSF4.
Gouken has an Ex attack in Omega which basically turns his intro animation into a usable move, which is similar to Rose’s situation. Could it be considered a “canon” technique?
You do know that Laura’s electricity is just a glorified static shock she generates by rubbing her hands through her hair? She say’s so in one of her win quotes.
He hasn’t gone ape shit yet. If anything his organization is in decline and he is in dire need of a body switch. If we see Final Bison again, then we can say he has gone apeshit (fingers crossed).
I believe it was Rashid’s win quote against Laura where he is surprised to learn that people from Brazil are ‘electric’. So that is how Laura and Blanka’s electricity is related. Must be something in the water or food, or just good genetics.
I want to say yes to your question, I really do, but then I remember those god damn feet hadoukens. 
Re:Laura and Blanka connection
I think the similarity is too close not to have Laura in part influenced by the myth that Jimmy created in his early days. Perhaps, like Sakura, seeing this WW in action is what awakened her fighting spirit leading to her being THE heir of the Matsuda fighting style. What if she thinks Ken could similarly inspire her brother so goes to meet him?
wanted to say “it just feels right” before the Mazda de-confirm.
read below…
…but i like saying Goh-Tet-sou
if tsu=z
then True Taz? :shake: my handle is a lie. I’m a looney shotooney mammal with a speech impediment?
It’s not though, Matsuda is Mazda.
Take a look at how both Goutetsu and Matsuda are presented in katakana .
ゴウテツ Goutetsu
マツダ Matsuda
When pronouncing both, the long “u” or “you” sound is silent. You wouldn’t pronounce it like Goh-Tet-sue and Maht-sue-Dah. Rather you would say Goh-Tets and Mahts-Dah.
Try saying Matsuda without the long “u”, and you’re basically saying “Mazda” The “ts” is pronounced as a “z’”, like in the word “Tsar”.