Surprise Street Fighter V Patch Notes Fire Up the Community!

When we all thought we’d be getting the Falke trailer after the FOX|Tokido vs. CYG|Daigo Umehara Street Fighter V final at NorCal Regionals 2018, we instead got something not many of us saw coming - balance changes. The so-called “Season 3.5” update provides a number of balance changes per individual character, as well as for the battle system itself. According to the official Capcom blog, here are the general changes to the game:

Crush Counters

Taking both rewards on hit and frequency into account, changed the combo scaling on crush counters.

Throw Escape

Changed so that a throw break cannot be performed after the move has been input, with the exception of normal and unique moves. This is to weaken the defensive technique of using certain special moves (primarily movement special moves) together with the throw break.

Note: Previously, throw escapes could not be performed only for moves that gave the character some kind of invincibility or armor.

Normal Throw Damage

Increased parameters for characters that have less reward on hit.

V-Reversals

Overall rebalancing for the moves’ start-up and performance.”

Translation: Crush Counters might not always be the best option anymore, your throw breaks need to be right, even though they’re slightly more damaging for most characters, and V-Reversals will hopefully be less wonky.

Reactions from the Get-Go

Since Capcom unveiled these changes right after NCR, pictures of SFV players reading patch notes while out to dinner or waiting for their rides quickly started popping up on social media.

Not to be outdone, YouTubers, like Total Sagat below, were already making videos to react to the balance changes. Here, Total Sagat discusses Ryu and Sakura in-depth, with some other changes thrown in here and there:

If you’re looking for more of an all-encompassing look at the cast’s changes, then VesperArcade has you covered. The FGC vet breaks down a number of top character changes, including Akuma, Urien, Abigail, and more.

We’ll have more coming the next few days once the patch goes live. For now, all we can do is speculate on the impact this will have on the future Street Fighter V. For more NCR goodness, check out our breakdown of Tokido and Daigo’s showdown in grand finals, or our quick recap of all the fighting game hype from Northern California!