Story thread?
I’ve been doing this in every other post I make here for years, usually just to make fun of specific characters and then play them out in actual matches.
It was never an issue before.
EDIT:
Is the reply function messed up?
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In what way?
And what exactly is terrible about him? His costume and movements are dead on for “poison guy obsessed with the number 2”
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Now that I think of it, the “wajiku” part does sound a Japanese pronouncation of the word for face وجه (El Wahja) and in a North African accent esp in Libyan and Tunisian it can sound like “Wuhjak” . So it could be a pun of “friendly face”. Though, like you said, just unintentional. Though it’s interesting to point out that Blade from Red Earth is named Jihad (ジハード) in Japan and Blade’s appearance and mannerisms is basically the “honourable Arab swordsman” stereotype that Japan sometimes employs.
We really should give the localisers more credit than they get. Esp in Capcom’s case. If what Alyson Court said is true, then back then the translation process was that the Japanese staff would translate it themselves and then send it off to the west. That’s probably why we got such botched scripts like Megaman X5 and Vampire Saviour.
Well, setting aside the fact the whole "obsessed with the number 2” thing is stupid, there’s the fact that they gave him bizarre alien-like proportions.
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I’m okay with that part, yet his not really like that in my opinion, his more like someone who had overcame trauma by being a fanatic of Bison, but the whole fighting animation in-battle is meh and contradicting to his appeal.
Most SF proportions are kind of off anyway. The males (except FANG) are jacked to the point of caricature, and the assets on some of the women can be excessive at times. Unlike all of them, FANG is supposed to seem off, similar to Hugo/Abigail’s size and Rufus being fat. If he was just a regular dude in a funny outfit that had all the same mannerisms, he’d be nowhere near as memorable.
Unlike some other cases of characters having odd proportions, Capcom actually followed through on it with his gameplay and animations. He doesn’t throw straight punches because he lacks the raw power to make them impactful. Instead he uses his long arms to rake and jab opponents with his nails, in order to break skin and better apply poison. He’s obsessed with the number 2 because it was a revelation in his story that instead of being the best, he could only aspire to be #2. He completely owns it and uses it to inform his fighting style: instead of focusing on powerful strikes, which he was never good with, he tries to enact a “death by a thousand cuts” since he really only needs to hit once to poison someone.
FANG is supposed to be alien, as he represents an alien mentality to how fighting is normally seen in Street Fighter. The design does everything it sets out to do.
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I could not see who I was replying to for a moment.
I didn’t want to make any mistakes.
No argument there. But FANG is especially awkward.
Yeah…that’s fucking dumb. The fact that it’s INTENTIONALLY dumb doesn’t make it good.
Like, I’m pretty sure Rufus’ design accomplished everything they wanted it do as well, that doesn’t make it any less shit.
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My reaction to F.A.N.G.'s reveal was pretty similar to the one I had back in the USF4 days when we got Hakan’s trailer
, albeit I gotta admit it wasn’t nearly as severe as that one.
It’s just like the developers in the last two entries have had the tradition of including at least two extremely-annoying, extremely goofy and over-the-top-intended “trollzforthelulz” characters.
Rufus, El Fuerte and Hakan were that in SF4 (although I’m actually ok with Rufus).
But for SFV one would think they learned the lesson, we got F.A.N.G. and then Abigail. And in the long run I think they end up being waaay more annoying and facepalm-y, in the ‘What the hell where the developers thinking? Was their intention to singlehandedly ruin the game with this level of cringe?’ way.
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Everyone’s got different tastes, I like big ol’ dumb Abigail and FANG, but, if we’re talking cringe, you’re the guy who’s idea of an OC is Akuma assaulting Chun Li and producing an edgey baby…
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This ia the sort of shit that Ono ruined SF with. Whats a shame is that could have done a really cool turkish wrester instead of what we actually got.
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I’m kinda okay with Hakkan if it just wasn’t for that hair.
It’s hard to make an argument against stupid hair though in the series that brought us Guile and Rose.
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This is a thing that i loved, it helped SF get a new body type
First time they got a tall/lanky guy, a classic fight world archetype
One can argue that there was Sagat, but aside SF2 sprite Sagat has ever been portrayed as a powerful built fighter… and on reality even in SF2 he was portrayed as a very strong fighter in art/endings
Fang looks legit lanky frail, his whole appearance seem to hint you just have to reach him and land a solid punch to break his ribs…
…but to do that, you have to dodge the poison jelly balls he’s throwing at you, avoid the poison gas trap he placed on the ground, don’t be touched by his poison hands that keep you at bay with loong arms.
Suddently his ribs don’t seem so close anymore, and when you finally get close he fly away. Laughing.
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Weird thought, but my new pet theory (that is probably a bit too insane to be real) is Poison’s face and body were modeled after the soap opera actress (known as the portrayer of Phyllis Summers/Phyllis Newman on The Young and the Restless) Michelle Stafford in SFV. Like, it’s uncanny, the way her face looks, like the sharp, angular jaw and chin and the long nose and the large but squinty eyes are all features Stafford has, and Stafford as Phyllis has had Poison’s regular hairstyle in the SFV game AND her story mode hair. Same for Michael Mealor (portrayer of Kyle Abbott on The Young and the Restless) being a face model for Cody. It’s crazy, but people have based Street Fighter characters’ facial features off celebrities before.
Cody = Dawson from Dawsons Creek IMO and R.Mika looks like Melissa Benoist
Nah, I don’t really see it. Cody’s jaw is shorter than Dawson guy, and Melissa’s cheeks aren’t as plump as R. Mika’s (face cheeks, I don’t mean anything dirty I promise). Her mouth isn’t as like, miniscule either.
Yeah, the thing is, when you go to the extreme, you definitely create something polarizing. They clearly tried to go over the top with one concept, that’s how you lose a part of the audience.
SF2 didn’t have any “over the top” character.
3 neither. Maybe Twelve was sci-fi over the top levels, but it wasn’t an over the top personality.
Alpha neither, for the case.
Yeah, there was Dan, that was their version of a “troll/comic relief”, but there were many things that made him easier to swallow: he was more of an anime stock personality, his design was similar to the protagonists, and his gameplay made it clear he was a joke character.
Then you have Sodom, but aside from his quips outside of the gameplay, he was a quite respectable fighter.
Hakan looks like a character that doesn’t it with the rest of the cast. He’s got a completely non-human color scheme, yet he’s supposed to be a normal human being and everyone treats him like that. And his gear looks like it came from Monster Hunter or something.
He kinds of breaks the game. I feel like he’s not coming back.
But at least we didn’t have to bear him in the Character Story Mode like we had to do with Abigal. Jeez, f**ing Abigail…
At least Rufus had nice winquotes/dialogues.
Yeah SFV used some real life actors as base, Cody imho one of them
For Cody i believe they used as base directly Micheal Parè, the actor that played Tom Cody in Streets of fire (the character FF’s Cody is inspired on)
Fun thing his new costume with light blue shirt + brown elements on gilet/tie may come from Ken in the 90s street fighter movie
Others i think
Pretty sure on
Zeku - David Carradine
Birdie (SFV) - Bob Sapp
Capcom loves that last pic lol
Fun thing Bob Sapp in his later/recent fat years is a known jobber who accept fights, lose quickly (with least damage possible → less hospital to pay) and then do it again… in SFV Birdie seem to lose a lot too lol
Kinda strong suspect on
Abigail, who may have been inspired on Brock Lesnar
Aside being wide af, built like a fucking tank + generous rain of roids, there’s something on his face/expression that may have influenced Abi’s SFV look
Guile and MMA fighter Brian Stann, who’s also famous to be a USA soldier before UFC
Last i can think, i ever thought SFV Bison face have a bit of Raul Julia going on,may be my eyes playing tricks but it’s not so impossible, seems the SF old movie got some winks here and there, like Cody’s clothes possible inspiration or SFV Nash fight pose coming straight from Van Damme’s Guile
I also remember somebody else here making a case for
- Karin - but i admit remember nothing about it, possibly some local japanese celebrity
- Kolin - being possibly inspired by a very long ago (black-white era) russian actress
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