Bonus Round…
SF2 Ryu edit
been waiting for this for a long time
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@Cestus_II Good points. I guess I like my fighters having reached the top in their respective fields before actually taking on the world, but if I accept that Balrog never amounted to anything in the boxing world, yet is still on of Bison’s top men (and we know the guy values power) and a powerhouse in itself, I can accept that Honda didn’t reach the peak in his field due to outside reasons not purely out of lack of skill.
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Well, the “top” in SF universe is relative…
Btw if you think about it, none of the very top tiers is “World Champion”, actually most of them are unknown by the big public, without official titles
Zangief was literally considered too dangerous to partecipate Slammaster, so no gold belt for him, you can see him forced to watch from the audience in Slammaster 2 LOL
The one i can think that got that kind of audience recognization is Sagat (in his SF1 days while at it), and a decent number of chars can likely fuck up SF1 Sagat
Nash is another good one, Ken another
This just to say, i will not be surprised if Honda is able to fuck up the Yokozuna, despite the title he got
On other hand, could be very be possible another (or more) SF level sumo guy exist, maybe even better
Think in SF2 we got Guile, but later we discovered Nash was same style but essentially better.
Yet Guile still have reason to exist… he offer better defense than Nash, he looks tougher/stronger etc
Or the example before Dudley-Rog… Dudley may be overall better, but Rog still got more punch power/strenght and his out of the rules style make him vicious
Got no problem at imagine in SF world a Yokozuna that weight like 2 Honda, able to outmach him at brute strenght or palm strike or throws… but being unable to replicate/do better Honda’s signature stuff
Like i will find stupid if 1000slaps faster than Honda, but i will accept him having a single epic powerful double palm
I will find stupid if missile headbutt as Honda, but i can totally accept an HUGE sumo stomp as signature special
After all, watch pro wrestling: Alex, Zangief, Hugo, Darun, Victor Ortega, Haggar
All big body pro wrestlers with very different characteristics, all SF level
Well even a not so special like Titanic Tim was partner of Birdie, so i guess entire Slammaster cast is worthy of SF, i mean we got sakura, Poison, Dan, Sean etc, the bar it’s not that high to be in
Honda can represent A FACE of what the top of sumo can be, just not all faces
Not all SFers achieved the official #1 at theyr discipline (large majority of them does’nt), but the common trait is that most have the potential to do it
I think this easily applies to Honda, being a WW to me he surely have a good shot at defeat any other sumo guy, Yokozuna or not 
Hope they drastically change honda if he has to be in this game.
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I think some stuff is TOO iconic of him to change: headbutt, 100slaps, butt smash
I guess oicho throw will be in too
Again, i think like for some other SF4 Omega mode will be a possible indication… wich is’nt necessary a bad thing as Honda was one of those that was improved the most in Omega version
But yeah overal i don’t expect him to change radically, more expand in existing direction
Where i think we may see new stuff are V-skill and the two VTriggers
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Funny thing he will already have a stage that can fit to him even if he does’nt get one (wich i doubt, if he’s in he will get SF2 dlc)
Sumo ring example
SFV Ring of Pride
v
@Dracu found more on the admission to Yokozuna rank, seem essentially Ozeki are good enough to win it, is more an honor achievement than a whole “superior league”
> Criteria for promotion to yokozuna
In modern sumo, the qualifications that an ōzeki must satisfy to be promoted are that he has enough power, skill and dignity/grace (品格 hinkaku ) to qualify. There are no absolute criteria, nor is there a set quota: there have been periods with no wrestlers at yokozuna rank, and there have been periods with as many as four simultaneously.
The power and skill aspects are usually considered with reference to recent tournament performance. The de facto standard is to win two consecutive championships as ōzeki or an equivalent performance. In the case where the “equivalent performance” criterion is used the wrestler’s record over the previous three tournaments is taken into account with an expectation of at least one tournament victory and two runner-up performances, with none of the three records falling below twelve wins. Thus a consistent high level of performance is required. Winning two tournaments with a poor performance between them is not usually sufficient. The rules are not set in stone and hence in reaching their conclusion the Yokozuna Deliberation Council and Sumo Association can interpret the criteria more leniently or strictly and also take into account other factors, such as total number of tournament victories, the quality of the wins and whether the losses show any serious vulnerabilities.
The issue of hinkaku (dignity and grace) is more contentious, as it is essentially a subjective issue. For example, Hawaiian-born ōzeki Konishiki, in particular, was felt by many to be unfairly kept from yokozuna status due to his non-Japanese origin, and many Sumo Association members even openly said that foreigners ( gaijin ) could never achieve the hinkaku needed to be a yokozuna. In the case of Konishiki, other issues such as his weight were also cited.[1] Other wrestlers have also been held back. For example, Chiyonoyama in the 1950s was not immediately promoted due to his relative youth despite winning consecutive tournaments, although he later achieved the top rank.[2] On the other hand, Futahaguro was given the title of yokozuna in 1986, despite immaturity being cited in opposition to his promotion.[3] After being promoted, he was involved in several misbehaviors that embarrassed the Sumo Association such as hitting one of his tsukebito (manservant or personal assistant) over a trivial matter in a scandal that had six of his seven tsukebito decide to leave him.[4] The promotion again proved to be a fiasco when it was later revealed that he had a heated argument with his stable boss, Tatsunami, and stormed out of the heya , allegedly striking Tatsunami’s wife on the way. Futahaguro eventually retired after only one and a half years at the top rank and became the only yokozuna in sumo history ever to retire without having won at least one top division championship.
Since we seen Honda wrecks mountains of sumo guys, i guess the core problem in his case i guess is he lacked the hinkaku (dignity and grace)… wich considering the char is not hard to believe
On a less canon level i guess Japan just have so deep respect for Yokozuna meaning that Capcom did’nt wanted a Yokozuna to get his ass whooped by foreigners in embarassing street fights
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Bathhouse or bust!!!
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ring of pride -> SFV path
bath house -> SF2 path
this is more or less what i was thinking
Still prefer classic Zangief though, truly a timeless design
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Wish it wasn’t tied to such a garbage character.
Just put Mask de Smith from Killer 7 in the game.
It’s a Capcom game and he has grenade launcher guns, Ono just do it.
“Children are pure, they know who’s the strongest”
Really happy to hear that! This place has been a Godsend, I remember waaaay back when I used to think about stuff like this there was no real way to communicate and discuss this. Also yeah, a blog may work nicely!
I’d be totally fine with that!
RE: Honda.
I always liked him after seeing him in that manga and SF2AM, I played him every once in a while, but I wasn’t having him as a main. While I’m not begging for him to come back, a redesign could work wonders. I never seriously played Birdie, but man oh man, I love playing as him now.
Ooh! Tellmetellmetellme!
Whaat?! That’s awesome! Gotta love the Titan ref, I kept hoping Birdie would reference that to Mika or Zangief, but was disappointed no past connections were made previously.
This. I still have a bad taste in my mouth from all Cold war era depictions of him as a villain.
I like it more than I’d thought to be honest. Though yeah, it probably isn’t permanent.
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Tbh i liked the idea of “Cold War” Zangief, but not as villain, just as opposite side of the american Guile
Was also fun see them cooperate/team in ASF(India), was like say these days are gone
Both were patriots who believed in theyr countries, cultures, ideologies etc
Tbh i think in SFV they missed a gigantic opportunity of made a Rocky 4 tribute out of Alex vs Zangief LOL
It will have been an epic cool way to introduce Alex as pro wrestler and having Zangief being legendary (wich he did anyway in ASF lol)
Imagine in SFV Russian stage Alex vs Gief staredown with Zangief saying “i must break you” , fucking priceless 
Also even if is rarely mentioned in favor of Hulk Hogan/Axl Roses, Alex took stuff from Stallone too… both Rambo and Rocky lol
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“I must break you” followed by intense, crazy match…then reluctant handshake from Zangief afterwards…but then, as the crowd goes crazy, Zangief leans in “Good show, yes? Real, how you say, ‘old school’ rivalry! HAHAHAH” to Alex who is absolutely confused.
Zangief keeps kayfabe alive and would be a consummate pro wrestler taht knows how to give the audience exactly what they want and what will create a pop. Meanwhile, Alex would be baffled at the surprising insight of the giant Russian.
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See that idea is cool, a friendly rivalry or something that doesn’t come at the cost of either character’s respect, I’m more referring to the portrayals where Gief was big, dumb, nearly illiterate in favour of the “hoo rah! USA USA!” Jingoism of that era lol.
Yeah but “American Guile” doesn’t really seem to care much about American interests. He only cares about finding/avenging Nash and stopping Bison.
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Reconcept and Re-purposing Honda and Son Son 24/7 Stage.
So how?
Remember Bustling High Street
Since we have already a sumo like stage and were lacking new interactive nostalgia stages. I think this would work wonders, plus it’s a decent for individual story mode stages for many different characters.
The most time consuming is required thought to analyze and how re-imagine the whole scene to be one and connected to each other without any map or something else.
It’s also a good call back to multiple Capcom games like Puzzle Fighter, Mahvel and CVS.
No doubt, but on other hand i liked they keept some kind of naiveness
After all he’s a rural family siberian guy who thought was good idea training in speedo at -40° to fight gigantic brown bears… and all not for money or fame, but to get a strong body 
Zangief in some way share Ryu’s naiveness
His archetype is being the shoot wrestler that can absorb damage going straight against the strikes
His medals are fucking bear claw scars all over his body, i’m fine with him being not the sharpest tool of the shed lol
I liked this
" In Street Fighter Alpha 2 , it was revealed that the President wants Zangief to train and fight around the world primarily to boost his own prestige abroad, although Zangief fails to realize this and continues to fight for the glory and honor of Russia, no matter what the reason may be." *
It’s really how i see him
He’s a proud patriot with focus on achieve incredible results with iron will and simple mind, any politicization of him is done behind his back
*While at it
Putin next time MMA heavyweight GOAT, olympic medalist judoka, wrestling superheavyweight GOAT
SF explain life lol
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The guy finally got around to making a SF theme. A SF3 style theme for Akuma. Really like the slow paced and mystery surrounding the theme, could imagine an high-paced DnB remix for Shin/Oni.
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Has this been posted yet? It’s a pretty interesting alternative take of SFV story
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Yeah, that was posted a few weeks ago. But it’s a great video. I think he makes some very good points, and I would rather have the story mode done that way.
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