Not just nation but they even updated the logo in Guile stage
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/228878-street-fighter-30th-anniversary-collection/76673455
1 Like
Tbh while the Russia flag change was obviously something to do, i disliked that they removed any reference about Gief being a 100% commie (he was in a good way while at it)
new version (but still was a PAST SFA route)
Another past route (SF2) flag get replaced by Superman cape
It will have been fun if they keep him somehow unaware of the change (in fact he still call people “comrade” lol) and somehow still full commie lol
A nice wink was his rival fight with Abel in SF4
Despite being “french” Abel is based on a Russian Sambo/MMA legendary Champion, his costume is classic russian Sambo uniform and they meet in Russia.
Gief call him comrade and he’s willing to “help” him (with piledrivers)
I loved in SFV ASF was still Zangief to help his comrade (with piledrivers) LOL, but this time he just call him “Abel” iirc
Think like a not-villain Mother Russia from Kickass LOL
I liked in ASF they made him team up with Guile and behave to each other like old friends, there’s a distensive vibe as to recognize cold war it’s over (it is?) and they’re now free to collaborate
There was a build up rivalry back then i remember both an anime (2V) and a mange playing on it…
will have been cool if they gave Gief-Guile a line to remember it as sign of times being changed
A smart touch they did in SFV is make his stage what seem to be a bar wich was a former factory, as to show again times changed
SF on general offer so many more “mature” (even if ironic) ways of characterization but sadly often they keep all of them as far they can to avoid any controversy
Imagine Gief having an epic natty vs roider feud with Abigail for the latter being on roids
They could even played on the fact that “Gear” is a way to call steroids LOL
Will have been fun if Abi VT1 (where his muscle mass grow af) was just Abi going full “gear” lol
Fun thing iirc Gief in the past took Shadaloo roids and he’s had a bad memories about it lol
But roids remind drugs so another nono
1 Like
Those elements should not be in SF Guile and Gief shouldn’t adopt those conflicts because those were never been highlighted or hinted in the past.
Having anime reference and real life similarities doesn’t make it automatic correct as justification. Even if it’s on SF2V than only thing that makes sense in that anime for the current SF is alt costumes because the characters plots(not ryu or ken) but the rest and motivation is radically different.
Let those two had simple life onward because the later stories should be more of the newer characters not them especially when shadaloo is not around for a while. It would just create more narrative inconsistency in the future that can also complicate more areas about them if they are need for another shadaloo saga.
Unnessary confict doesn’t make good stories let SF2 characters rest for awhile even in game they should be just mentors or characters that are bumped into. Making unnessary thing with classic characters only make it tiresome and overdone for somethinh irrelevant to begin with. Let the center stage flourish for the newer SFV characters together with SF3 which had a lot of potential to be focussed with. Like the neo shadaloo, effie and necro then etc.
I’m no fan of gief but I rather not see him be a outdate stereotype. Street Fighter using a sliding time scale no point of bring it back up.
7 Likes
Tbh that outdated stereotype is good % of Gief, without the whole MotherRussia component he lose a lot of what he was as character
In SFV he’s more “just” a wrestler, even if a very respected one (i like Gief and appreciated his rep upgrade in SFV)… He used to have more layers
I like him ti stay old school and a bit anachronistic but if they want change that, will prefer them to adapt his char to the times just like they did in a good way with the Russian SFV stage (one of the best SFV stage a while at it)
Just “remove” make things more poor and flat
I agree that removing elements of a character’s identity is bad, but only if they don’t incorporate something better to replace it. In Gief’s case, they removed one of like two personality traits (MUSCLES and patriot). He was already boring and flat, and as much as I’d like to see Capcom make him interesting, I’m not sure what that would look like.
Flags were never really meant to portray, like, a characters birthplace. Just what country they represented.
So it makes sense for Zangief’s flag to change given that SF games don’t take place during specific years. It doesn’t make sense for Zangief to represent a country that hasn’t existed for 20 years.
I’ll be honest, I’m not really obsessed about flags the way a lot of people seem to be. While I think it’s dumb that so many characters these days are from “unknown”, I only really need that information to be, like, a line of text in the characters bio. I don’t need a giant graphical representation of the character’s country on the character select screen.
Like, I think a character’s fighting style is even more important to the character than their country, but I don’t go around demanding, like, a kata diagram of their martial art on the character select screen.
6 Likes
Wanting them to be that and this because this I felt it’s cool. Is a bad idea and just complicate things.
Zangief is in a better place in the narrative making him in a more poor stereotypical character because of those references are bad narrative it’s like a sudden change and forced.
Complication and new exploration to make future SF stories interesting should be in focus with the tons of new characters not the sudden conflict of the original world warriors just to align a outdated idea that weren’t there in the first place.
Lol people should realize even gief in SF2V was a whole different Gief and a Bison henchmen. Trying to reference those as a justification is very qrong to begin with even how much you act and persist along with flooding the thread and echo the same thing over and over again to hide a wishlist of bragging rights. It’s still obviously wrong lol.
Gief never worked for Bison. That was crap from the movie.
The point was that Gief was also portrayed as a Shadaloo henchman on the Anime SF2V, not canon obviously, just a curiosity.
It’s weird that they would remove any reference to the actual Hammer and Sickle flag of the Soviet Union in any of Zangief’s endings or artwork, but a slight redesign of the Soviet Union flag is clearly visible in Kolin’s story mode. The only difference in the flag is that it has a crescent moon in place of the sickle and an anvil shape under the hammer.
This is clearly supposed to resemble the Soviet Union Flag without actually being the same thing. Kolin is portrayed as being Russian due to her features and accent but her nationality and birthplace are unknown.
6 Likes
Kolin really should’ve been from Ukraine.
7 Likes
I mean in the anime (SF2v) that cestus used as a reference and justification to favor what he wanted things to be turned into. Lol
Thats why I disagree with it.
That’s the thing, old SF will not have pussied away from just design the flag as It was 
Btw not necessary Russian, Kolin can be from some east euro nation that was part of soviet union… iirc something in her story made think she was’nt from main Russia
I remember as @Dracu said Ukraine being good candidate, but i don’t remember wich were the hints, must check
Agree
I don’t ask for kata either, but even there i will prefer they put more attention/care at style definition
1 Like
Would have made sense, Ukraine is weak!!
8 Likes
Tbh i don’t remember where, but back to Kolin release i read some guy in another site making up a long detailed point for Kolin as soviet-era ukranian
i searched a bit of my own and i think Kolin’s shoulder patch symbol come from a re-elaboration of soviet Kiev coat of arms
is still possible see the curves of the horizontal bow and possibly the two upper round leafs
i think they just took the triange and put it upside down below (a different older flag got an arrow on the bow, wich can explain the downward triangle)
5 minutes shoop of what i think they did
If they really did this will be cool af also because give another layer of Gill symbolism for her
Not only Gill’s fire-ice body colors remind the coat of arm she fought for, but in the story in her first vision of Gill she compared him to an “Angel”… Kiev symbol is
Also at some point they wanted to make her have hopak as martial art
" The hopak is often popularly referred to as the “National Dance of Ukraine”"
7 Likes
I think she probably is from Ukraine. I’m guessing why they didn’t say so is because of the current situation in Ukraine, granted it’s no longer as bad as it was before but why would you make your character openly from a semi-war torn instable region? It’s like making a Syrian or North Korean SF character in 2019.
12 Likes
Tbh sound reasonable if you watch the specific case, but watch the whole figure chicken out of nationality is just theyr new way to do… SFV got 8 new characters with “unknown” lol, instead be exceptions they outnumber easily newcomers with known one
Compare it to SF4, there basically every newcomer got it, with the exception of Seth who got a very good argument to have SIN labs as “homeland” lol
While the argument itself stands, they will likely have listed her as somewhereineasteurope anyway just like Rashid is a somewhereinmiddleeast
One thing i noticed watching an old mma PRIDE FC GP poster
Curious to know the symbolism behind the butterfly used in that context, will like to know from somebody that know japanese the line there
bigger version https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/max_1200/b0058035737637.56062a889054f.jpg
Pride FC posters often used to have a symbolic meaning, so i guess the butterfly there got one too
Fun thing Capcom used to be a Pride FC sponsor