Did Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition's Changes Help Or Hinder Players?
By Jeff Kotuby ·
Capcom revealed quite a bit of Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition info during this year's Capcom Cup finals, including new moves, new gameplay changes, and new characters. Some of these changes worked out, but some didn't have the effects Capcom intended (or even made things worse).
It’s been almost a month since Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition was released and we’ve had quite a bit of in-game footage to chew on. Each edition of Street Fighter games comes with their own changes, updates, boosts, and nerfs. In the case of Arcade Edition, certain changes went exactly as expected, while some didn’t quite have the intended effects, and some had the opposite effect Capcom may have intended. In any case, let’s look over some of these changes for better or for worse.
Before: Juri could be a problem
Juri was commonly referred to as a weak character in Season 2 of Street Fighter V. Her new V-Trigger, along with some changes to her moves, were supposed to help her get out of from the bottom and cement her as a strong character. If only we knew what was about to happen…
After: Juri wins Evo Japan
Just a few weeks into Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition’s life-cycle, GRPT|Infiltration and his Juri ended up taking the inaugural Evolution Japan. We knew Juri would be stronger, but we had no idea she’d be this strong. We also knew Infiltration would be back, but we didn’t realize he’d win his first major back. It’s only the beginning for these two, and I look forward to seeing what they’ll do together going forward.
Before: Ryu has the potential to climb back to his Season 1 perch
Ryu was one of the few characters to receive another special move in AE - his affectionately called “Donkey Kick” from Street Fighter III. While the move is great for combos, it’s unsafe on block without meter, which means Ryu can’t use it to pressure his opponent through blockstrings, since they’ll be able to hit Ryu before he’s able to start blocking again. Before AE’s release, I asked Twitch streamer and Ultra Diamond Ryu player BigPun1231 about Ryu’s potential, and while he downplayed the significance of the new special move and V-Trigger, he said, “They still haven’t released the frame data,” signifying the potential for Ryu to improve in the third season yet.
After: Ryu’s still not very strong.
Despite some early video of Daigo giving Ryu some run, he quickly switched back to Guile, leaving us Ryu players to wonder if the character truly got stronger. While the ordinary man’s moves got better, he’s still missing the key piece to being a great character - an insane V-Trigger. Until then, we’ll have to make due with the uphill battle we’ve been fighting since Season II started.
Before: Every character is getting a second V-Trigger, but they’ll probably be as strong as everyone’s Ultra II was in Super Street Fighter IV
Similar to how Super Street Fighter IV introduced a second Ultra to each character, Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition introduced a second V-Trigger for each character. These were created to give players more options and tools when selecting their favorite characters. However, we didn’t know the extent of how powerful they would be.
After: Holy crap, we broke Abigail and Urien!
Abigail went from being an annoying online character to being the problem character of SFV: AE. Now equipped with two powerful V-Triggers, better normals, and improved specials, Abigail complaint threads are a daily occurrence, and even EventHubs has tackled the case.
“Abigail's V-Trigger 2 gives the powerful combatant a quick way in,” says EventHubs writer and Abigail main Steven 'Dreamking23' Chavez. “Up close is where Abby wants to be, and with this shoulder tackle, he can get into prime position with the push of two buttons, all the while plowing through oncoming attacks if his timing is right.”
“The most frequent complaint I hear about it, though, is how difficult it is to stop. With a full charge, Abigail breaks his opponent's guard and leaves them susceptible to a big, albeit heavily damage scaled punish. A full charge also has hyper armor during the charge up phase as well as while Abigail is rushing forward, making it hard to counter.”
Urien’s V-Trigger 2 is literally broken, as found by Twitter user WydD and as reported by Shoryuken. When Urien’s Tyrant Blaze makes contact with an EX fireball, he loses his hitboxes. Time will tell how quickly Capcom will fix this obviously game-breaking issue.
Before: We need to fix Guile, Rashid, Birdie, and Akuma.
Three of the best characters from Season 2 were supposed to meet the same fate that Balrog met during Capcom’s latest round of balance changes. Balrog went from being the top dog to being neutered, and many Street Fighter fans were hoping some of the other top characters would be brought down to Earth too.
After: Guile’s still good.
John Takeuchi almost won Evo Japan with Rashid, Mago & Tokido said Birdie can still be a top 5 character this season, and Akuma is called the “only good shoto” by members of the Japanese fighting game community. At least there’s next year.
Need your daily fix of high-level Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition play? TG’s got you covered!
Check out our list of the top SFV: AE streamers and check out some of Daigo’s incredible Ryu play!