I dunno bison just fits so well for his character.
“Don’t worry charlie. I’ll find balrog and make him pay.” That sounds so weird.
Wait, Sakura’s only 4 years younger than Ryu? Damn, I thought Ryu was actually a bit older than that. Well, I guess Sakura/Ryu isn’t too crazy now, with him being the karate version of a celebrity crush for Sakura.
You know, with the names translated and a cynical view, Sakura comes off as kinda trashy:
Vega is actually the fifth brightest star in the night sky while Betelgueseis the ninth.
Vega also has the distinction of being the second most luminous star in the Northern Hemisphere and at one point in the past was the Northern Pole Star, and will one day be again in the future (if Earth is still around).
It suits the Dictator imo (Fist of the North Star anyone?).
bak, does Retsu’s encyclopedia profile differ from the one about him on the SF1 page? Here it is:
Spoiler
I know that Betelgeuse wasn’t the brightest, however I was referring to what FSE said, which was that Vega was the largest star. Then I said that Vega wasn’t even the brightest OR biggest which, if you read it carefully, was a point about how even in two different categories Vega isn’t #1 
Hold on… If Blanka is a play on Blanco/White, then it is one pretty insulting name. He already lost almost everything, and now you wanna make fun of his skin?
Street Fighter EX Story:
各国 の 強者 たち 世界格闘選手権 その 裏 で は 、 もう ひとつ の 闘い が 展開 さ れ て い た 。 呪わ れ た 血 に 苦悩 する 者狂気 に 身 を まかせる 者 …… リュウン の ほか 新た に 加わっ た 戦士 たち を ベガ が 、 豪鬼 が 、 そして 両者 を 凌駕 する ほど の 強敵 が 待ち受ける 。
Street Fighter EX 2 Story:
さまざま な 思い を 胸 に 闘い を くり 返す戦士 たち を 待ち受ける の は 、 殺意 の 波動 に 食わ れ た 者 の 魂 の 象徴_____ ガルダ. 彼 と 向き合う こと は 、 果たして戦士 た ち に 何 を もたらす の か ? そして 、 己 の 血 に もてあそば れる 哀しき兄妹_____ ほくと と カイリ の 運命 は ?
Street Fighter EX 2+ Story:
麻薬組織 シャドルー の 総統 ベガ 。 彼 が 世界征服 の ため に 製造 し た 新薬 は 世界各地 で 惨事 を 引き起こし た 。 復讐 の ため 、 名誉 の ため 、 新た な 力 を 得る た め …… シャドルー の もと へ 格闘家 たち が 集まっ た とき 、 彼ら の あいだ で さら なる ドラマ が 展開 さ れ て いく 。
How much money would I have to pay you guys to make it canon that Guile fought in the “no guns war” and trained at “camp boot”?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM31DOUblxc
>_>
The EX stories are pretty interesting.
In EX2+, Bison develops some kind of experimental drug called SH-11 that supposedly has some type of effect on the mind. The drug is mentioned in Bison and Claw’s ending text, and it also has its own entry in the encyclopedia. Definitely gonna get those up here. That might give us more of an explanation on the story.
I only ever read part of the EX stories but I always thought it was strange how they retconned Skullomania. I definitely preferred his original origin story about being a businessman who puts on a costume.
Yes this is more of a character bio as the others were describing how the character plays in game.
日本代表 の ひとり で 、 僧形 の ストリート ファイター かつて は 少林寺拳法 の 師範 だっ た が こっ た 私闘 を くり返し た ため に 破門 さ れ た つる ピカ の 坊主頭 が 特徴 。
Whoa, that’s pretty cool.
I’m almost finished the Bison compilation, and his encyclopedia entries alone look to have a whole lot of information.
I’ll post all of the SF1 encyclopedia profiles in the meantime.
That’s great, it’s actually really interesting how accurate the SF1 characters sound compared to their updated counterparts. It’s like they’ve all kept an essential theme or attack throughout the years. I never knew Gen had the concept of sleight of hand chops (lighting hands) all the way back in his debut, or that Joe’s special attack setup the premise of a cross up, or how Birdie’s original special ended up being one of his normals (Double Hammer Fists) and one of his normals ends up being his special (Headbutts).
So far I’ll post the remaining characters of Skullomania and Q. Keep in mind that these aren’t character bio’s, but more or less descriptions on how they play.
Skullomania SFEX:
技 の ひとつひとつ が オーバー アクショ ンぎみ な ので 、 ちょっとした ミス が 命取り に 上級者向け の キャラクター
Skullomania SFEX2:
スカロヘッド から スカロダイフ に 移行 できる よう に なっ た 。 これ に スーパー キャンセル を からめ て いく と 強い
Skullomania SFEX2+:
新 スーパ コンポ の スカロポール など を 攻め手 に おりまぜ て いく と 、 相手 に フ レッシャー を 与える こと が できる
Q SF3TS:
攻撃力 の 高 さ と リーチ の 長 さ で 、 鈍重 な 動き を カバー する 「 捕獲及び痛恨打撃 ( 仮 ) 」 から の 連続技 が 強力 だ
In all honestly, both the Japanese and NA versions of Shadaloo’s names are wrong.
Japan gets Mike Bison right. He’s a big dumb ox. The name is a perfect fit for him.
America gets Vega right. It’s a Spanish name. It’s fitting for a Spaniard.
A Balrog is a demon of fire and darkness by Tolkien. It’s a perfect name for Dictator. Neither region gets this one right.
Thanks for posting the story sections. Looks like they weren’t really keen on the general backstory. The SF2 plot is pretty thin.
Funny thing:
“and who is the man wrapped in an evil aura, Vega…?”
Ironically, the game itself doesn’t answer this at all.
If you had just “Street Fighter II - The World Warrior”, you wouldn’t find out who he is. You would find out that he has something to do with Charlie’s and Chun Li’s father’s death and that he has some evil organization. But that’s about it.
The other endings don’t even reference that he’s any kind of threat: Dhalsim stands with him on the winners’ podium and doesn’t seem to notice his evil aura. And Gorbachev has no qualms getting near him. Ryu doesn’t seem to care about him either as he just leaves while Bison is still perfectly fine.
Ryu was born in 1964. Before they dropped definite years, SF2 canonically played in 1991, later they switched it to 1993. “Final Fight” is 1989, so the “Alpha” games that play later must be set somewhere shortly after 1989.
I would say that if Vega was Claw’s canon name, it wouldn’t even refer to the star anymore. Since he’s Spanish, this would just be a regular Spanish name.
They couldn’t just have switched the names Vega and Balrog around. Because the reason why the change was done in the first place was the name of Mike Bison.
I’ll still never understand why the decision to mix-and-match the names, when it would have been so much easier and caused so much less confusion to just give Boxer a completely different name if they were worried about a lawsuit.
I bet when the American team localized the Japanese names and noticed the predicament they were probably stretching what little time they had and coming up with an idea for a name would be too tedious so they just did the quickest cheapest thing in swapping them.
This has probably to do with the fact that the names in the character select screen are not just put together with separate letters, but they are individually drawn graphics. (Note how the letters have a variable width, unlike with every other font in the game.)
And they probably didn’t feel like creating new graphics for the American version.
On a SF2 board, only the ROM chips for the actual program code in the bottom right are different among versions. The ROM chips for graphics in the top left are completely identical in every version and revision.
(With revision I don’t mean “Champion Edition” and “Hyper Fighting”, but the various builds of the game. There isn’t just one board per region, but a whole bunch of boards with minor bug fixes which can be distinguished by the time stamp when the boards boots up as well as the letters on the chip labels.)
So, creating a new name would have required to draw a new name tag and to use a new ROM chip in a collection of chips that is otherwise always identical.
A little side note: The American board wasn’t created after the Japanese one was completely finished. It looks like they were done at roughly the same time.
The first public Japanese version has the number 910214 and there exists an American version with the same number.
And an old interview from 1991 with the main developer confirms this: He remembers how he did the last changes before the game went into production and that it was Valentine’s Day.
So, they created the first Japanese version and the corresponding American version on the same day.
Ironically, the oldest American board is 910206, i.e. eight days older than the first Japanese one. So, it looks like they already shipped some boards to the US before the game was officially finished.
However, this shows that both versions were pretty much created at the same time. It’s not that they published the Japanese game and then they sent the source code to the American team.
So, the name change was done while the Japanese version was still in development. It was not an afterthought.
Another proof for the simultaneous creation of both versions: The “Winners don’t use drugs” slogan appears only in the US version. And yet, the graphics chips are 100 % identical. Which means the Japanese board also has these graphics and they’re just not triggered.
Thanks, bak. I really appreciate you taking the time to translate this stuff. This book seems to have a ton of information. I’m just glad we’re all able to read about it.
I’m almost finished with the SF1 profiles. For right now, I’ll post all of Bison’s encyclopedia bios, including stuff the section on the Grandmasters and some other stuff:
SF2 Bison:
Spoiler
Spoiler
Grandmasters/Shadaloo:
Spoiler
Spoiler
Alpha Bison:
Spoiler
Spoiler
Spoiler
Psycho Drive:
Spoiler
EX Bison and Bison 2:
Spoiler
Spoiler
SH-11 and EX2 Claw’s profile:
Spoiler
Spoiler
VS series Bison and Pocket Fighter:
Spoiler
Spoiler
Now to the SF1 bios:
Ryu:
Spoiler
Ken:
Spoiler
Gen:
Spoiler
Lee:
Spoiler
Joe:
Spoiler
Mike:
Spoiler
Eagle:
Spoiler
Geki:
Spoiler
Birdie:
Spoiler
Adon:
Spoiler
Sagat:
Spoiler
That should be all for the SF1 characters.
Here’s some other stuff:
Gill:
Spoiler
Spoiler
Urien
Spoiler
Spoiler
Q
Spoiler
Yo, damn. Time just flew right by!