Hmm. It certainly COULD mean that. But there have been non-canon characters in SF stages before.
First, I’d like to confirm that A. Those are actually those characters, and not just look-alikes/people in costumes. Unlike the various Capcom characters that appear in Ken’s Alpha 2 stage.
And B. That the stage itself is canon. Unlike the SFxTekken stages in USF4(I still don’t think Mechazangief is a real character in SF, nor is Belger alive).
If they are merging Rival Schools into SF, then I’m sure we’ll see a RS character in the Character Reference eventually. I’ll wait until then before I consider it official.
SF4 has potential for hakkan and decapre…
SFz/SFa likely be Sakura and Rose
Final Fight more likely Sodom and hopefully a Haggar far from Zangief special moves like some of his UMVC movelist
SF3 maybe Necro and Dudley
SF one some might be…
Nah, i don’t see overlapping as RS cast are kids, no SF tier
Ryu can bitchslap Batsu using only the left and yawning
Ken can pimphand Roy at will
Gief can SPD Gan fatasswithout sweat
Good luck at Daigo try his highschool badass in a world of Rogs, Sagats, Necallis, Abels and so on
It’s Capcom kids league, SF is the World tournament
Only RSer not humbled by SF cast is Tiffany’s boobs, legit high tier there
ps: i know Sakura in SF kinda negate this mindset, and in fact Sakura is a disgrace lol
Like I said, I’ll still wait for a character profile, or something more official from Capcom themselves that confirms it’s more than just an Easter Egg.
Now, to be honest, I’m really not looking forward to it if it turns out to be true. The RS cast is severely lacking in diversity(like 90% of the characters are Japanese high schoolers), and is plagued by some of the stupidest fighting styles imaginable(photography, every fucking Gorin High character)
That said, there ARE a few cool characters there though with fighting styles I’d love to see. Akira uses Tai Chi. Hayato uses Kendo.
The Final Fight cast was smaller because we only had a couple protagonists, but remember that was done back then when there were only three sagas to represent:
[list]
[] Street Fighter One (which by the way still remains largely ignored)
[] II
[*] Alpha original characters.
[/list]
Also, crossovers/shared universes were in vogue because of King of Fighters.
Nowadays they still have to find ways to represent, on top of that, characters from:
[list][] Street Fighter III (which had a HUGE roster, since it was almost wholly new people)
[] the 8 IV newcomers
[*] The new V characters (and I’m pretty sure they’re going to introduce at least a couple completely new characters).[/list]
Adding Rival Schools characters (I mean, even if it’s a single one), on top of that would make for years to come people will demand for more Rival Schools guys to be added every new installment. And that’s even more mouths to feed.
Also, let’s admit it, most characters from Rival Schools are pretty wacky, some of them (like Shoma or Hideo) pretty awesome but usually just wacky (the photographs girl, the guy that swims in the air, the girl that attacks using musical energy, Roberto, the chibi tennis girl, etcetera).
The only characters I think could be viable for Street Fighter could be:
[list][] **Hinata **(but we already have Sakura)
[] Akira
[] **Batsu **(kind of… the Ryo-like gameplay and student uniform are , also he’s too much of a protagonist to not steal too much attention)
[] **Kyosuke **(perhaps too young and bishonen for Street Fighter; doesn’t practica a very definite martial art)
[] **Kyoko **(she’s still a bit of a stretch because she doesn’t look much like a fighter)
[] **Roy **(nice gameplay but a little too cheesy for Street Fighter)
[] **Kurow **(too anime)
[] Hyo (his gameplay’s not great, though, and perhaps too much of a bishonen/anime archetype, he lacks attitude[/list]
In the end, Rival School is generial not viable as to be integrated to Street Fighter.
Dat Akira, though… I’d really love them to do something with her, she fits perfectly with the “new generation” cast from Street Fighter III (and I mean Makoto, Ibuki, Elena, etcetera…).
I don’t official confirm is need when it’s so obvious. Am I suppose to think that a tall blond woman with a long curly ponytail, an American flag motif and oversized boxing gloves is not Tiffany. Th girl next to her is has Hinata signature hairstyle and headband.
Here’s a wider screenshot
I think those girls might be the judges from SFIII.
I think Akira could be more or less at the same level as Makoto, Ibuki, Yan, Elena, etcetera… she’s great at martial arts and has (doesn’t fight shooting tennis shoes or sport balls like others XD). From the characters of the game, she’s one of the few that could be easily integrated.
Kyosuke has a nice design and gameplay, and there’s a lack of male high school students in the game, but we all know how poorly received are “bishonen” characters for Street Fighter, specially after Remy.
Other characters like Kyoko, Roy, Hideo, have nice gameplays but they would have to be drastically redesigned in order to fit (because let’s admit it, a schoolteacher and a school nurse with badass martial arts and ki usage are too much of a stretch even for Street Fighter) and I don’t think Capcom would be willing to do that.
It’s ridiculous to dismiss characters on wackiness when SF has characters like Blanka, Rufus, El Fuerte, Hakan and FANG on it’s roster. I wouldn’t dismiss the fighting styles from Sports neither since SF got those too. Did you forget that Sean fights using a basketball?
Batsu being too much of a protagonist is ridiculous. As mentioned before Cody is in without a problem. Alex is the protagonist of SFIII and he ain’t threatening Ryu, Chun and Nash spotlight and is involved in something else entirely.
Kyosuke to bishonen for Street Fighter? No one told Ken and Vega. You know there’s plenty of High School girls in this series yet a High School guy is out of the question? Nigga what? No definite material art has never been a problem for SF. Cody has no definite material art neither. He’s a pure street brawler that just straight fucks you up.
And? You got Urien fighting dudes in a business suit, Sakura and Ibuki fight in a school uniform, Guile fights in his Air Force uniform which is not practical fighting attire. Weak as fuck excuse for Kyoko
Roy is cheesy not Rufus and Fuerte ain’t? Nigga what?
Kurow being “too anime” is also weak as fuck. You talking about a series that once had Skullomania as a character. I can argue that for Bison and he’s the series signature villain.
Hyo, I again direct you to Ken and Vega.
None of this shit prevents any Rival Schools character from showing up. Street Fighter has at least one or two characters that exhibit the traits you say prevent any of them from showing up.
But Basketball isn’t his fighting style. Matsuda Jujitsu/Anstatsuken is. It’s just one of his moves. That’s like saying Dudley’s fighting style is roses, or Guile’s fighting style is sunglasses.
With the RS characters, those characters’ fighting styles ARE those completely non-combat related sports.
I don’t see sports combat to be a completely bad thing. I don’t know about you but I can buy baseball as a viable fighting style. Doesn’t one of Mika’s wrestler friends have a football background?
[list][] Blanka is a fucking savage beasts, of course he’s a credible fighter.
[] Rufus may have a ridiculous appearance, but his moves are from a convincing martial art. Same for El Fuerte and Fang. I understand what you’re trying to say, though.
[*] Sean doesn’t fight using basketball, that’s only some extra gimmick.
[/list]
Haggar and Guy are more protagonists of Final Fight than Cody, who was only present in the first game. Not to mention, Cody’s personality and role were altered a lot for him to fit in the Street Fighter Alpha series without taking too much protagonism (he’s now a lazy rebel guy that doesn’t care too much about fighting for justice).
Alex has always been downplayed by Ryu, since the Street Fighter III series. Not to mention, SFIII storyline is pretty vague and we can’t fight a clear protagonist.
Both Ken and Vega are really muscular, and Vega is everything but a conventional archetype, he’s a mix of a lot of influences and has a psychopath personality.
The girls of the game go mostly for a different persona, Ibuki uses the ninja persona, Elena the capoeira persona and Makoto the karateka persona, for the most part you don’t see them simply “being schoolgirls”, they have other sides that connect more with the idea of martial artists. Elena is a princess and an exotic fighter, Ibuki is a ninja apprentice and Makoto is a credible martial artists (albeit a young one).
The only examples that don’t fit are Sakura and Karin, who are mostly part of the waifu shit thing that was sort of characteristic of the Alpha series. But at least Karin is a martial artist and she doesn’t have ki/supernatural powers out of nowhere. You actually have that on the Rival School series. What is Roy’s martial art and how did he learn to create ki energy waves? How does that fit in the background of an American rich student?
What goes for Sean, Sakura, Dan, etcetera, at least they’re supposed to follow the way of the hadou to some extent…
He’s a street fighter, so he does fit in a game titled Street Fighter.
Urien and Guile… not until now. As for Sakura, you know how much shit does she take for using the school uniform all this time? Well, that’s her archetype, and like I said before, it was the “waifu shit” era of Street Fighter.
Thing with Kyoko is that the “school nurse” persona is not too believable to fit in Street Fighter, because school nurses don’t have much of a motivation to enter to a world martial arts tournament. The thing was just there to fit in the Rival Schools universe. If you transplant her fighting style/gamestyle to Street Fighter, she would probably have to be a sort of assassin similar to Juri or Nina from Tekken.
Roy is simply an anime archetype of the “American guy”: He’s a student, he’s buff as fuck, he doesn’t practice any real martial art (since there are no American martial arts), his fighting style is supposed to be based on American Football, he shoots ki waves just because, and he becomes the President of the United States in his ending. That’s as deep as you go with him. His design’s nothing to go crazy about, by the way, he’s just a plain American guy that stands out in a Japanese cast.
To fit in Street Fighter they would have to give him more attitude and more of a persona, the only thing I can think of is making him a Football-themed fighter but that would risk him to look too much as Johnny Maximum or Brian Battler for the Neo Geo games.
At best, I think he could be a hell of a boyfriend for Karin, ha ha.
Kurow looks like a KOF fighter (Krizalid, Adelheid) and doesn’t use believable martial arts, his fighting style is based on “fantasy techniques” which are mostly over-exaggerated unreal attacks like any anime. He’s also sort of a bishonen and a “family drama” character. Skullomania at least is a fighter with a theme.
They’re more believable martial artists. And his outfit is a bit of an “anime fancy” cliché, nothing special. Hyo’s kendo is fine but his gameplay’s nothing to go crazy about. Also there’s serious worrying about weapon-users in Street Fighter, his reach was fine in Rival Schools because they had larger than life 3D stages, but here he could be a litlte overpowered.
It would have to be a leap of faith from Capcom, and I’m pretty sure they won’t risk.
Only Blanka is not presented as a savage. He’s an misunderstood monster man who’s silly and acts child-like.
If I recall, in Rufus backstory he learned to by fight by copying stuff he’s seen in material art movies. He’s not legit at all.
Cody’s personality didn’t change at all. His attitude was hinted at in the ending of Final Fight. The guy chose to walk away after Jessica was rescued. Guy had to knock on his ass to get him to talk to her. He then gives her some half ass excuse over why he can’t stay with her. He more than likely in it to feed his addiction to fighting than trying to save his girlfriend.
We do know that Alex was the one who won the SFIII tournament and Gill has a special interest in him.
Bishonen only refers to a character’s look. It has nothing to do with character traits. Just need to check all the necessary requirements on his looks and the character can be anything a creator wants. Psychopathic Bishonen ain’t a new thing.
It doesn’t change the fact that they are school girls thus making them young. You basis for Kyosuke’s dismissal was that he was too young which is contradictory to the characters who are already present in the series.
That was Sakura’s thing in Alpha when she actually was a school girl. There’s no point of here to continue wearing it after Alpha. Not when SFIV canonized her gym teacher look. As for other characters who don’t look like fighters there’s also Viper and Remy. The former’s default being a suit and the latter wearing a casual outfit.
Who’s to say she would still be a high school nurse? She could move on to being an actual nurse or some other medical profession. Also, not every Street Fighter game is a martial arts tournament. Alpha series and 3rd Strike weren’t. SFV ain’t doesn’t have a tournament setup neither.
Sounds like a Street Fighter to me. Most of the Street Fighter cast are a bunch of stereotypes. Roy being the stereotypical American is all he would need. It already puts him above T.Hawk and Dee Jay who got nothing going for them.
When your a beast of a man like Kurow who needs believable material arts. He could get by with his incredible power and speed for a man his size.
I don’t see the problem with Hyo when Karin is your typical anime rich bitch. I personally have no issue with weapon users in Street Fighter. I would like to see more of them.
