Street Fighter 6 Might Be Ruining Its Story

First things first, Street Fighter does not have the most engaging story. But, if you have played it for any length of time, the lore should interest you. Ryu was always the protagonist pitted against the evil Bison with his psycho power and quest for world domination. With his rag tag group of friends, acquaintances, and rivals, they all try to take down Bison in one way or the other. 

However, recent developments have caused me, and I am sure I am not alone in this, to worry a bit if the Street Fighter story hasn’t gone a bit stale. 

The Re-emergence Of Bison

Bison is one of the most iconic villains in gaming history. This is a fact that no one can dispute, however, it is also true that part of what makes a character memorable is when they know when to exit the picture. M. Bison (or Vega in Japan) has been the main villain since Street Fighter 2 and has endured in the series until Street Fighter V when in the story, A Shadow Falls, it seemed that he was killed for good. Sure, there was visual confirmation, and you know what they say about not believing a villain is dead till you get a visual, but fans were lulled into a false sense of security believing Bison to be dead. 

Well, he’s back. Now, is his design great? Yes! He looks amazing. But, from a story perspective, having him return is a bit weird. First off, there was a perfectly serviceable villain in JP who while not as mad as Bison, was extremely cold, calculating, and oozed class in a way that made him a very compelling villain. With Bison back, he’s certainly going to take center stage from JP, not allowing the latter to shine and kind of bringing all the characters back to square one. So, all the effort to take him down in Street Fighter V is now wasted? Nash sacrificed his life to make this happen, and this cheapens his death in a way that is rather frustrating. 

Street Fighter loves doing this. In Street Fighter IV, Seth was looking like the villain, now granted, he wasn’t as good a villain as Bison, but Bison has had several game story modes with which to cement his legacy. Even Heihachi, his counterpart in Tekken is dead, and yet Bison still skulks around. 

Where Are the Street Fighter 3 Characters 

The other thing with the Bison issue is that it kind of obscures the path of other potentially great villains such as Gill and even G. Yes, I know Gill and Bison were in Street Fighter V story, but Gill barely featured with all the attention going to the takedown of Shadaloo. 

On top of that, having Bison return as a major villain in SF6 also necessitates his former enemies to come after him. So, characters like Ryu, Ken, Guile, and Chun li, who seem to have moved on with their lives and are even passing the torch to new characters, are essentially called from retirement to fight against Bison once more. The hints we get in the game that Balrog and Vega may return means every character from Street Fighter 2, bar Sagat, is coming back. That is a little frustrating as it seems Capcom isn’t giving a chance to characters from Street Fighter 3 to shine. 

Street Fighter 3 might have had its problems, but some of the characters introduced have really developed a fandom. The likes of Dudley, Makoto, Alex, and even Sean have all seen a rise in popularity. Sure, Elena is coming back, but with only 4 characters per patch, one worries that it might come too late to bring in some of the great characters from Street Fighter III. 

But how does this affect Street Fighter as a story? Well, for one, it is conservative storytelling, and feels like Capcom is unwilling to take risks in the story. So, Street Fighter 6, which is the first game that actually moves the Street Fighter story forward since Street Fighter 3, is now relying on the characters that made it famous. 

Is this a call for the World Warriors to be retired? Maybe. While it would make no sense to have a game with none of the World Warriors (Street Fighter 3 tried it and while it wasn’t the only reason for its failure, it didn’t help matters either), it would be nice to see characters from newer iterations of the game, and even new characters altogether help to move the story forward. 

A Predictable Future?

The future of Street Fighter 6 on a competitive level looks fairly secure, but from a lore standpoint, perhaps it is a bit worrying. Obviously there is a lot to look forward such as the entrance of Terry and Mai and how that affects the story. Also, with Elena joining the cast, maybe there is more to come from the Street Fighter 3 cast. Also, there is hope that we get more insight on the Neo Shadaloo faction led by Ed with the help of Falke and others. We can only hope that there is some genius plan that Capcom have up their sleeve to liven up the story.