or would he be another reserved body but a male one. 
I hope they make the fighters up to 24.
Seth Killian confirmed that more characters will show up, so itās really more a question of how many. But I think chances are good this next update will be as big as the last one.
I have no question there will be another 4 new characters. And if Onoās comment on the select screen holds any weight, there should be four returning characters from post WW games- ST, SF3, SFA. Ono implied Cammy was in it when he was talking about the female count (hence, allowing one of the next new 4 to be female). Then thereās Sakura and Ibuki; he may have mentioned them as console-exclusives to fuck with us because they would need to add another two if that was the case. And then thereās Dudley from the poll results.
So thatās 24:
Original 12 + Cammy/Sakura/Ibuki/Dudley + New 8.
Give us Akuma and we have 25.
The only thing that concerns me now is who the boss will be- Bison or someone new? If heās new, then he should be unplayable and more akin to Gillās status.
Where did Ono state or otherwise confirm that weāre getting one or more girls as new characters besides C.Viper?
Is that in a new interview or are we just basing this off the old interview before we knew about Viper?
Returning girls? I can almost be certain if itās just one, itāll be Cammy.
If thereās more then one, I expect to see Sakura since sheās next closet to āIconicā status (sorry SF3 fans).
UNLESS they really want to throw a curveball out there and trot out Rose.
The old interview when he was asked about upsizing the proportion of female to male characters. He said there would be enough new characters to offset Chun-Li and Cammy, possibly more, so Viper canāt be the only one.
Sakuraās iconic indeed, but theyāre conscious of the following that SF3 has. The polls speak for themselves. If Sakuraās in it, itād be stupid not to put in Ibuki.
But Iām really just basing that on the likeliness of Cammy appearing because sheās not part of the original 12. And just having her return would make the roster uneven, which we know they donāt want.
IIRC all he realy said in that interview was that the original SF2 had an offset ratio of 2 girls to 14 guys. I donāt ever recall him explicitly stating he was going to add more girls. Even if he adds Cammy as we presume he might, that would give us 3 girls and 19-20 guys which is the same ratio even though you have 2 more female characters then the original SF2.
And I know people cite that poll as evidence but itās not really. I think the somewhat lagging Sales numbers for the SF3 series, especially compared to the popularity of the Alphas, make those poll results rather suspect. Epecially since none of the SF3 girls would make sense time-line wise. Theyāre already stretching things with regards to Bison/Vega/Dictator.
If Cammy alone of the New Challengers and Akuma are added that would give us 18 characters [8 WW + 4 Shadolooish kings + 4 (Abel, C.Viper, El Fuerte, Rufus) +Cammy + Gouki/Akuma] which is sort of a balanced roster.
Iām also going to predict that Viper is either a CIA or NSA agent and her crossing paths with Chunli will likely inspire the latter to follow the story she has in 3S where sheās a foster mother of sorts.
I do remember him saying there would be āa lot of new charactersā in the game, so Iām expecting there to be eight total. It sounded like he was hinting at more than 2 females, so weāll just have to wait and see I guess. But the roster has to amount to a multiple of 4 for it to be balanced. Cammy and Akuma arenāt enough, and Akuma would just be a hidden character anyway, so itās better to make room for someone else.
Character popularity isnāt affected by sales. Whenever Capcom makes a new Vs. game, for instance, they always set up polls. They put Ibuki in Pocket Fighter. They put Yun in CvS2 and then SFA3 Advance. Not every character has to fit in a game officially to be in it. Why should it be different with SF4?
A better example is Warzard, an even more obscure title. Sales for that game were a lot worse (in fact, nobody in the US knew it ever existed), but the following it had in Japan was strong enough that Tessa was added in Pocket Fighter and SvC.
Ono may have said he was pushing for more iconic characters, but from a business standpoint, you donāt openly say that youāre listening to fans of other games and then not follow up on in it. Iād rather they not bring back Cammy or Sakura at all if no SF3 characters are in.
The thing is though, SF4 was begun largely after Capcom of Japan started seeing the very favorable and high interest in the US in the SSF2T games on Xbox live. In other words, they figured out via that, that there was a very high interest here in SF, probably more so then Japan at the time.
And here, nobody embraced SF3 until well after the fact, where as the Alphas were very popular.
I would be very surprised if we got any SF3 characters or references but if we get more Cammy and Akuma as new characters, I would almost guarantee you that one of them will be an Alpha character, even if its just Adon.
That still didnāt stop them from crossing SF3 characters into other games, let alone Pocket Fighter which came out a year after NG. Sales had nothing to do with it. But Capcom knows thereās a US tournament base for 3S. Thereās the Japanese audience to think about too. If there was no sufficient interest in the game, they wouldnāt have re-released it on SF Anniversary Edition.
And honestly, Sakuraās the only Alpha character that anyone cares about, so Iād be more surprised if she wasnāt the only one to make it in.
Unless theyāve been working on STHD since 2005, I doubt STHD āinitiatedā SFIV.
Iāve never held much weight in ONoās comments vis-a-vis the number of female characters, and especially not about Sakura and Ibuki. Donāt hold your breath. If you get ONE additional female character (who may or ay not be Cammy), that would be plenty.
The character screen certainly has room for 24 slots at current icon sizes. But Iām not betting they will all be filled. Maybe theyād want to leave room for a couple random select boxes. Iām certainly hoping for more than 4 more (and BTW, if there are 4 more, donāt count on any more than 2 being brand new), but Iām not getting my hopes up.
However, I would place money on there being a new last boss.
I wasnāt talking about STHD. In fact, I wasnāt really talking about ST either. It was HF on XBL that got Ono to push SF4.
If Onoās lying, then heās in for a serious ass kicking/firing.
Ultima, Iām pretty certain as well as that there will be a new last boss.
And Iām going to guess right now the āstoryā of this game will revolve around C.Viper and Abel as they seem to be the two positioned to A)have reason to engage this new Boss type character and B)Theyāre stories are likely to be self-contained.
Kind of like how SF3 had Ryu, Ken, and Chunli in it but they werenāt art of the actual storyline of the game.
Kataklysmic:
> I wasnāt talking about STHD. In fact, I wasnāt really talking about ST either.
You need to be more careful when typing.
> If Onoās lying, then heās in for a serious ass kicking/firing.
I wouldnāt say he was lying per se. More like feeding folks bullshit to get them off his back, like when he said that they didnāt use sprites because āthey had done all they couldā, when it was almost guaranteed than sprites were a 100% no no. Maybe he intended to address the gender imbalance, but really, SFA3 aside, SF has never been big on females.
I also seriously wouldnāt hold my breath for Sakura or Ibuki.
Heh, Hcparker said it was ST first and I carelessly rolled with it.
edited
Yeah, my fault.
If not Sakura or Ibuki, maybe Rose then? Dictatorās re-appearance after his supposed death is going to be one of the bigger mysteries in the game after all.
I hope this doesnāt become a compilation game like Tekken Tag, where all the favs get thrown together. Thatās what the crossovers are for.
aerialgroove:
Why not? Not that Iām expecting it, but why not have characters that people actually like in the same game? Itās not a dream match, but not every character has to be involved in whatās going on.
Hcparker:
Actually, I was thinking that Rose would be a really good addition as well. Far better than Sakura or Ibuki. She counts as an Alpha character, and sheās tied in Bisonās story, so it would go a long way to clearing up that whole mess. Iād rather have Rose back than, say, Cammy, though both is a possibility.
Maybe itās just me but Iād rather not see any Zero or 3 characters in SF4. SF1 characters seem to capture the more realistic / less anime look (Crimson Viper aside, kind of) SF4 is going for. Iād much rather a SF1 character return (Zero redesigns like Birdie 2.0 = no) than anyone from Zero or 3. However unlikely that may be.
I remember when SF3 came out and how I was thrown that they went for the anime look from the Zero series. I felt that was okay for a spin off, but not the core series. SF1 and 2 (especially the earliest version of 2) had a way more realistic look. That being said Iām happy with the direction SF4 is taking with designs of the newer characters. Me personally anyway.
Well if Sakura or Ibuki show up, it should be 100% Easter Egg anyway. Making Sakura older or Ibuki younger to have them fit seems a bit silly and kind of forced to me. That would be like making Yun 5 years old or so in SFZ3ā¦ Well that would take more work to do I guessā¦
Iād rather have characters from 3, but thatās MY opinion.
When will artwork for Rufus show up?
And, whenās the next fightingstreet update coming, Aerialgroove?
OTOH, didnāt Tekken Tag sell really well? I only ask because sales are ultimately going to be really important to CoJ.
Not just you. I also say that SFI and II had a more realistic look and I think that III looked to much like Zero (despite TAS screaming āIII looks nothing like Zeroā).
Iām not very happy but also not very unhappy with the 3d models. They could be a lot more Bengusish (edgy, same proportions, not that Ikeno fat/bully-style). I do like the character select screen art a lot.
To me other things matter than sales, Iām not a Capcom salesman but a costumer, I can have my personal preferences. I find it weird for a customer to always think of what the majority wants and accept it, instead of asking for variety and not exactly the same as every other company does.
Not sure when the next update comes, hella busy.