Street Fighter 6: A.K.I Was Supposed To Be A Charge Character -Woshige

A.K.I., one of the new characters that joined the cast of Street Fighter 6, was supposed to be a charge character but was later made to be a motion input character for the sake of players who might have struggled otherwise. 

This was made known by Ryuichi Shigeno, popularly known as Woshige, in the Street Fighter 6 World Guide book. There he said that when A.K.I. was created, she was to be a charge character like her master, F.A.N.G., but her style of play made this difficult to execute, so Shigeno made some adjustments to her to make her a motion input character. 

Woshige started with Capcom in 2007 and was the battle director for Street Fighter V and 6. 

A.K.I. is a compelling character with an interesting playstyle, however, she is also one of the weaker characters in Street Fighter 6. It has been discovered that this is the case because the character was nerfed before her release as a DLC character. 

This was made known by Broski, a pro player from the UK who uses A.K.I. as his main character. When he was made aware of a video which showed developers using A.K.I. before release, the video revealed that A.K.I. already had some very strong tools, but it seems these were taken away before release and now we have the A.K.I. of today. 

Since A.K.I.'s release we have had Ed which was then followed by an announcement of Akuma who will be released sometime in Spring 2024.