CESTUS III

Yeah, it's like Dolls are made of 2 layers Base: a standard minimum level of physical/athletic prowess and hand-to-hand fighting skill that as enhanced soldiers they ALL possess, including Aprile, Marz and Enero. So NONE of the Dolls is weak, but at same time that make just them superior to average goon. To use an example i did before, Marz(probably the weakest) can still be dropped in Metro City streets and alone beat up bunch of basic FF goons, who are still supposed to be stronger/tougher than average man Advanced: the actual specialization they're truly elite at, and those who have it about actual fighting (hand-to-hand or weapons) may be able/decent chance to beat lowest levels of main cast... but again it's big question mark as Birdie seems weak af in SFV canon and still defeated 2 of them in the only two fights he got, one of wich against Fevrier who's a "battle type" kind of Doll. To be fair Fevrier being a firearm user is'nt at her best playing close range/direct type of fight, but at same time it's not like they started the fight grappling, she even got free shot to fire at him and he just blocked bullets with chains... from there was up to her keep fight at her comfort distance, wich she failed Given what ASF gave us, to guess how Dolls measure next to SF cast good question would be if/wich Dolls would haved decent chance to defeat Birdie in a "fair" 1v1 fight, my guess is probably less than half of them Tbh i'm not sure how we should consider them, but overal i agree with you One side i feel like canon wise their real threat potential was as team like in their first appearance, and that they got elevated as "worth of a slot" fighters only because... it was easy, all the (mostly recycle) sprite work was done Like, at that point you created them, they become cheap way to add characters on the console version. Sure they were unlockable in Arcade too but there were essentially "bonus" characters there if you get what i mean On other hand as team they did'nt operated as regular opponent, but as SUB BOSS, wich mean that despite their obvious 2v1 advantage they at least offered to your character a challenge higher (not just equal) than normal fight against another from main cast So question is how they would fare 1v1 against SFers and reality is we don't know... iirc back to SFA3 both missions they got were just about track down characters, no idea if they even officially fought anybody Skipping to SFV we know that Juli got her ass whooped by a Cammy that was likely holding back a bit (no shame, Decapre is more powerful and got same result), but SF cast offer a decent amount of characters that are weaker than Cammy and may be in her range To use same example of before i guess Juli/Juni have decent chance of defeat/draw with Birdie 1v1

Tbh most of character story Win/Loss are'nt actual canon W/L in the sense we should not take the gamplay parts result (everybody win that in their story, even Dan) but we should consider how the story show the outcome right after, for that reason is lot an interpretation thing In Birdie's case in the Chun fight they were not having a normal fight, more like he wanted to escape and she wanted to arrest him (so likely neither gone all out trying to destroy the opponent), he managed to drop Chun on her ass and run away No shame in her being temporarily stunned by being run over by Birdie, dude's charge is likely more powerful than a truck and pure toughness is'nt Chun's main trait... keep in mind in ASF even fucking Zangief, probably the toughest char in the game, got stunned enough by Rog's suckerpunch to let Rog and Ed escape Fun thing he's not even the only that in SFV 3D model got similar look alike inspiration from real people, but this would be bit longer to take on, we can if you want Definitely, and i think SF main cast can benefit immensely from having a "second-tier league" (or even some at same level) of fighters you can still consider dangerous, it make the world feel bigger and don't force Capcom to make them only fight each others over and over to show their skill... too bad ingame we never got that much beyond Dolls and bunch of lesser weak shada-troops It's implied that in ASF probably Azam fought Cammy well enough to keep her out of Rashid vs Chun (she wanted interfere to help Chun, but Azam blocked her way), and at the end of it he was unharmed Even just counting ASF you have Byron who probably can give Guile a good sparring, Shibasaki can probably offer decent one too, we know Max got his ass whooped by Alex, but we seen just the end of it, he could have offered a decent scrap before that Of course we seen former main cast Abel being there too And this was just with very limited point of view on ASF story, more on general SF lore would offer so many chances to show SF main cast take on NPC fighters... personally would love play shit like Ken doing his martial arts championship, Alex jumping in MMA/interstyle tournaments (maybe the one where he fought Balrog in the final) or Zangief wrecking poor wrestlers(Pulk Hogen!) lol Hope in SF6 ASF counterpart we get bunch of fights like that, Capcom can recycle from existing movest (or scrapped content, they surely have plenty of that) after all being just story NPC stuff they don't need any balance or over-think it

Thanks bro, glad to have found you guys in time to go through SF6 hype together 😺 Guess your rhetorical question end up being bit too subtle 😄 @sKreetFighteZif you reply to a long ass post (like mine usually are lol) try don't quote it entirely so people don't have to scroll it twice to go past it, you can cut it and keep just a small part you want reply to 😉👍

Tbh i may be one of the few that liked the change, one of core points of SF character design is that with subtle or big elements they ever try to give each character a distinctive body type... despite being similar size big body characters fat Birdie have pretty unique build next to Zangief (they was different also back to SFA, but now much more), i like how their build reflect theyr lifestyle: Gief is obsessed with training 24/7, while Birdie still lift (he mention that in one quote) to keep strenght, but beside that he pass time either eating or being a lazy fuck I'm ok with it, at the end he still looks strong af, to some extent remind a bit some strongmen But more than that back in the old forum i pointed out that new SFV Birdie is heavily inspired on Bob Sapp, who's a gigantic black MMA fighter (who was ripped af for a 170kg man) super known/loved in Japan and gone through similar body transformation getting older, see below Even lot of his SFV face expressions and food gimmicks seem to come from Bob Notice these were commercials in japan, so capcom people were familiar with them We almost even had white suit alt for Birdie wich could have been another reference lol Last but not last fat era Sapp became notorious to be the kind that takes a dive and give no fucks about lose, he would essentially accept big pay fights and then just drop at very first minimal hit to call it a day relatively unharmed and still grab money lol. Would not be surprised if even this influenced a bit SFV jobber Birdie, who does'nt care anymore about being a fighter (or have ambitions, like he was in SFA) but just want take advantage of riches to get his belly full I find it cool, when SF dive hands in fight world (combat sports, martial arts, pro-wrestling etc) to get inspirations is best SF to me

Well, his body hint that he let himself go since the alpha days (or pro-wrestling days) and his whole character in SFV his about being lazy fuck who can think only about next meal, but i doubt he regressed much... after all his main traits ever been strength/power and with the extra weight he may even improved at these Adult Karin of SFV is just too good for him, her using him as 24/7 dummy for sparring sounds about right... he can take the damage and he's strong/insidious enough to offer good level of treath for basic daily training, but he's more the kind of exercise that keep her in shape rather than the real occasional challenge that make her improve Tbh glad he cover that punchbag role because i think that having somebody else doing it helped Zangief get all the long waited and well deserved respect he finally got in SFV, they had Birdie to make technical/speedy/small character shine over a big brute lol And even Birdie can't complain much, i seen nothing outrageous (beside his belly lol) as while he's being portrayed inferior to characters that are indeed superior to him and he lack a relevant win (like vs a main cast char, unless we count knock Chun on her ass to avoid arrest a serious fight/W, i don't) he did'nt been "sold" much, in ASF only time we seen him get knocked out has been by suckerpunch (kick/knee) from behind... not much shame on that They even had the chance to use him as jobber vs Ibuki (who's still kinda weak in SFV) and instead they made some sort of draw over it, he really can't complain lol

I said i expected him MORE acrobatic, not that would bother me 😄 Similarity with Zangief does'nt have much sense, yeah they're both pro-wrestlers and are part of same club ("Muscle Soul Fighters Club") but beyond that they should give him his own original stuff, we don't really need a third lariat user after Haggar and Zangief lol They could have gone for a pro wrestler big dude version of Rashid style, wind powers and spinning stuff But all of this is really minimal problem, i doubt he will become a playable char in SF6 tbh Being weak next to a SF main cast character =/= being weak, SFers are exceptional individuals Example while very low in the SF food chain Birdie is still immensely strong compared to normal people, dude fucked up a train back to the alpha days lol For what's worth for the little period he's been in Shadaloo in V, he was likely the physically strongest guy in the whole org Even Dan is incredibly powerful and tough next to normal people, like you can drop him in some Final Fight street and he will be able to fuck up dozens of hardened criminals lol (most of dolls would probably defeat Dan though, he's still joke character) For how i ever seen Cammy/Decapre are true SF level ones (meaning they have decent chance 1v1 against main SF cast) and are indeed considered the superior members of the dolls group, rest is at least a step below to various degrees and like ASF showed they're likely to lose most 1v1 clashes against main cast. Again one of the "weakest" characters, Birdie, defeated two of them... one of wich (Fevrier) was specialized in combat situations Consider Cammy is clearly superior to all of them, and she's not particular strong in the SF food chain either In terms of pure potential i think Satsuki and Noembelu are more or less at same level, or maybe not but so far we have no way to say wich would win a 1v1 She's great with her katana, is said to be skilled also in hand-to-hand and on general she's specialized on fighting Also Santamu as weapon user seems the fighting type too, but iirc was described somewhere more like a spy, while Noembelu/Satsuki have more "warrior" head on role, so would place them bit above her That's true See Aprile who despite being the medic of the group (and probably one of the weakest ones at fighting) still can make Birdie giant 200+kg ass flying with a single side kick wich even stunned him a bit... even if she attacked him from behind and he was'nt expecting it, it still show ridicolous power, specially considering she's a kinda little 50something kg girl herself

That's pretty cool, i ever LOVE read info about fighters that are part of SF Universe outside playable cast, make the world feel bigger and not limited to same few characters spammed over and over Strange see it's supposed to be some sort of mini-zangief (he's much lighter built), considering he's Rashid's master ever thought about a more acrobatic big dude style, more like T.Hawk She's ever been my favourite of the dolls (wich tbh i never liked much as group), specially now that T.Hawk seems ever more destined to not be in playable cast she may be SF next native american rep She also seems quite powerful for how she quickly handled Birdie even if by cheap shot... sure, SFV Birdie is weak (of the cast guess canon wise only Dan is worse) but still he defeated other weaker dolls like Aprile and Fevrier Gave the impression she's the toughest of the dolls (maybe not counting Decapre)

More than new moves they could have given Azam some stuff from existing characters without care much about balancement... a couple of specials taken from Rashid (tornado projectile and spinning one) as he's his Master, then some normals from male cast and one throw (Guile's suplex would have been just fine) Could have been a nice fight for Cammy, since canon wise they fought Max could have been made of Balrog and Guile/others stuff with maybe one special recycled from somewhere, same throw as shadaloo goons Also we missed the legendary opportunity to get at some point a canon Zangief vs Mecha Zangief at Shadaloo base, there they would not even need add moves lol Wish they gave red hood shadaloo soldiers more specials to make them stand out next to lower goons, they looked cool

Well dolls got already more coverage than any other potential NPC Before see more dolls, i would have liked see some other characters fight as story-only opponents in ASF Abel, Azam, Max (Alex opponent in ASF), Shadaloo's robots etc, would have helped variety

Not sure if already debated, but we now know the 4 Neo Shadaloo characters special abilities + the name of the Gorilla M. Bison divided his abilities to each member of Neo Shadaloo. Whether or not he knew he'd confront Ryu one day or that he wants to continue fighting as a fighting king even after death is unknown.[2] Ed inherited M. Bison's ability to eject Psycho Power.[3] Falke inherited M. Bison's ability to inject Psycho Power into objects.[3] Baba inherited M. Bison's wisdom and high intelligence.[3] The unnamed member inherited M. Bison's ability to teleport.[3] In Swahili, Baba Mwalimu means "father teacher" which ties into it's wisdom and intellect. This is the wiki, here original japanese post from Nakayama's twitter ⬇️ The name of the gorilla is Baba Mwarim. It's insanely smart. (ゴリラの名前はババ・ムワリムといいます。めちゃくちゃ賢いです。) from Nakayama's twitter "There's a reason for splitting up Bison's abilities. Maybe he knew he was going to have a confrontation with Ryu, or maybe he wants to come back in some way and continue as a king of fighting even if his body is destroyed... I hope we can talk about that someday! As for the names, as someone noticed, the initials are B (Baba Mwalimu), E (Ed), F (Falke), and G (I'm reaching Twitter's character limit...). (能力を分けたのには理由があるんです。リュウとの対決がわかっていたとか、ボディが滅びても何かしらの形で復活し格闘王として戦い続けたいとか…その辺はいつか語れると良いですね～。名前も誰かお気づきになってましたが頭文字が「B（ゴリラ）」「E（エド）」「F（ファルケ）」「G（文字数が・・・)) from Nakayama's twitter In fact, the members of Neo Shadaloo (and the companions you may find in the future) have inherited the characteristics of Vega. Falke injects psychopower into a substance, Ed ejects psychopower, and those with knives can warp. So the gorilla is in charge of wisdom. (実はネオ・シャドルーのメンバー（と、きっとこれから見つかるかもしれない仲間）はベガ様の特徴をバラバラに引き継いでいるんです。ファルケは物質にサイコパワーを注入する、エドはサイコパワーを射出する、ナイフ持ってるヤツはワープ出来る、といった特徴があります。なのでゴリラは賢さ担当です。) from Nakayama's twitter Fun thing when i seen concept where the gorilla had a little girl on his shoulder, i thought she was somehow "the brain" and eventually controlling him somehow But reality is, now with what we know it's more likely that he's the one teaching stuff to the lil girl lol (maybe she gave him the "father teacher" name?) -more random theory- Some post before i said i think it's possible Luke will face "possessed" Ed, as they seem pretty compatible/specular + even without be high tier canon wise Luke will fullfill his role of "hero" if punch-wakeup Ed, stopping Bison from return walk on earth. Could work as side-story while adults take care of the real BIG threat If that happen, was thinking we may have a group of 4 "new generation" good guys doing their side mission Menat could be a good help, like Rose is busy with main Boss stuff but sense Bison's energy and send Menat to help Luke & co We already seen Menat get interested/warning about Ed's future And if we think about it Menat and Falke can be perfect specular rivals... both charge objects of energy, former infuse her globe of Soul Power, latter her staff with Psycho Power If whole NS team will be in that may mean we need rivals for a Knives User who can teleport and a super intelligent gorilla

No, only version i found is this You're welcome dude

Since we are posting book stuff i post here too the SFV concept sketches scans... too bad no recent characters, would be curious to see HUGE gallery btw https://imgur.com/a/FcacENG Most curious still is "monster" G version, curious to know if was only a very early dropped idea or if there's some still untold lore behind that

Well, Shinkiro have like 5 faces range, at some point you will have bunch of twins lol (but got to admit he got better since old KoF days, but still lol) 🤣

Thanks dude, that's awesome I like in particular see the character proportions with them next to each others in static pose, give me idea they still need to work on scale between each others, because some barely make sense canon wise lol

Well, lot depend of what kind of "protagonist" they have in mind, i mean watch this pic by Nakayama Alex defeated the Boss, but giant asterisk next to that W Abel was barely present in the grand scheme of SF4, basically just helps Guile and Chun Li Rashid is a cool guy who helped a lot, but feels waaay more a supporting character than classic anime hero/game protagonist We don't know shit about SF6 beside what we can guess will continue from V... so anything at this point is very wild guess But my 2cents, I think his destiny is to get something middle way between Alex (pure fighter) and Rashid (supporting role, does'nt face final Boss) My theory is he's going to get an enemy within his range, not the actual super powerful final boss... let's say, something that can be considered sub-boss level We know Ed is on a path to become controlled by Bison, and with his Neo Shadaloo team he can offer a good villain for a "secondary" line of the story, while the actual BIG Villain (G?Or something linked to G? Something else?) go all out with usual planetary threats and characters more powerful than Luke have to deal with him If you think about it Luke vs Ed are evenly matched style wise: two similar size young guys who prefer mostly punching, Luke more powerful while Ed have Psycho-Power One may say Ed have big advantage due PP, but i think it's balanced by him being mind-controlled as a potential weakness... basically Luke will need just to offer good enough fight to wake up true good Ed/break the control "ghost of Bison" have on Ed Yeah i remember that one too lol We can add that even before send to coma Abel, he drop from the sky like a fucking boulder and knocks Abel away like nothing just flexing Then we had this too [starts at 6:18] Zangief successfully mimic (well, his own version lol) fucking Kanzuki's secret technique after see it one time, then get praised for "sharp movements and honed skill" after sparring with Karin Damn i will miss Zangief reaching meme level of mightiness lmao 🤣 That's because Mika already opened her heart to the holy path of Muscle Power, while Ibuki was exposed as blasphemous unbeliever But morning after Ibuki was spotted hidden in a cellar training and taking peds 3 months later

- HOWEVER - SFV story may have 99 problems, but i will miss canon muscle power god Zangief -Break psycho powered katanas by flexing -One shot psychoberseker Abel into spinning coma -Balrog with his best punches was unable to do shit to him (till Ed distracted Gief) Too bad they ruined it a bit by having Alex defeating him in some shitty ending lol PS: Merry XMAS everyone 😄

Tbh we already know -relatively- a lot about the Secret Society, even if the characters themselves don't show that much https://streetfighter.fandom.com/wiki/Secret_Society For Kolin powers i think most likely scenario is that when they want somebody to gain elemental powers they somehow find out wich element is the one you have more affinity with and "give" it to you... even if is not clear if is something "external" given to you as a gift, or if they have a ritual/method to unlock something wich already exist inside the person. Before SFV used to think the gem they nailed into Gill/Urien's foreheads (wich link to pineal gland/"third eye") was theyr way to unlock the powers, but Kolin not having it mean it's not needed... at least in current canon, idk what was in SF3 Necro may proof was'nt needed even back to old canon, but i'm not sure if his electric powers have to be considered part of all other changes made with scientific experiments (like rubber body, extendable skeleton and the chip in his head) or if that ability has been given to him with techniques closer to Gill/Urien/Kolin elements. Would be cool to know if Necro rubber body has been given him also to work also as self-protection (as rubber can protect from electricity) wich would show a difference with Gill/Urien/Kolin that don't need anything to protect themselves by their own powers and may hint different(inferior) method used for him... but this is pure speculation My 2cents as now is that the forehead gem is not needed for the element thing, but to use the secret techniques Gill and Urien are the only two secret techniques users (resurrection and aegis reflector) and only two with the forehead gem, so maybe while elements are more a ki thing the techniques need also a physical operation to be unlocked Strange fact Seraphic Wings despite being apparently Gill's most powerful technique does'nt have a canon "explanation" and it's not considered one of the 66 secret techniques Another curious thing is the wiki says the maximum number of elements an human can control is 3, but so far the one we seen with most is Gill at 2 (fire and ice)... so i guess at least at that an unknown character (that maybe is'nt even currently alive) had greater potential Some consider Urien at 2 too (electricy and metal) , but i think he's at 1 with his element being electromagnetism wich give him both purple electric stuff and magnetic control over metal particles Kolin at 1 (ice) Necro possible case of 1 (electric, as said before if is'nt different method) G possible case of 1 (metal/gold, as Gill seem to recognize G's power, so seems at least possible he seen in G same kind of elemental power used by SS members)

Fun thing is at this point even if they chose to reveal us more about Secrety Society in next games (wich i think is likely), we have no way to know if the new pieces of story we get are completely new/made up at the moment or ifthe new canon fit in some way ideas that they had back to SF3 There are pretty clear hints back then they made SF3 thinking they will have chance to further develop the story in next game not SO long after following events of 3, while today we know things gone differently Who knows how much of the original post-3 lore will be used, current team may ignore it and go completely new route or they can write something that will follow to some extent what they had in mind for the future more than 22 years ago (SF3ThirdStrike) I think we will get something like 80-20 or 70-30 in favor of completely new stuff, but we know Capcom is good at keep record of obscure stuff was planned/dropped as concept even in further past

I still want to see the Namco one that never happened

Yeah, iirc both Gill and Urien used to have a crazy weight (745lbs/338kg) back to SF3 data, but i took it as an intentional hint from capcom that their body, modified through Secret Society tech and genetic manipulation, had much higher bone/muscle density and weight compared to normal people... making them essentially "superhumans" Essentially something like Kengan Ashura manga (wich got released after SF3, just using it as example) character Wakatsuki Takeshi, who weights almost 200kg (440lbs) despite being relatively "small" for that weight(way larger fighters than him weight much less), because he's born with a condition that made his muscle mass super dense ever thought SF3 Gill and Urien used to have a similar condition, but artificially caused by Secret Society eugenics and experiments In SFV Capcom seems to have dropped that idea though, and Urien is listed as "just" 120kg, wich in SF could work for his size, while Gill is listed just as "unknown" iirc We knew also that Q had probably incredible density and weight, would guess higher than Gill/Urien... and maybe he was a Secret Society experiment too, but we still don't know the truth about him (some other freaks from same game like Necro and Twelve are the result of SS experiments though, even if their abilities are pretty different)

Lol SF weights stats have been random af for decades 😄 SFV have mostly good ones, probably the best we ever got (aside Abigail lol)

Hi dude! Going straight to the point before lose myself in usual review shit, my impression of Luke is very positive, let's say a 7.5/10, but would have been an 8 or more with few adjustement In short he's not perfect and have wide room for improvement, but at same time he's much better than some internet people gave him credit for (specially in terms of early reactions after first trailer or SF-hating eventhubs trolls lol) and reassured me on some things regarding SF6 Longer version ⬇️ Review shit aside, dude is fun af to play Thanks dude! After join i sent a PM to Tatsuroko too, hope he reach us here, he was a cool guy

Dhalsim praying to Agni put him on hinduism boat 😄 Somebody pointed out Luke tag that have him on Jesus crew I remember back then on SRK when we tried to figure out nationalities, Kolin being -probably- ukranian from Kyiv may link her to some kind of christian belief background, wich may have made for her easier see in Gill some sort or Archangel Michael (saint protector of the city). Guess eastern orthodoxy... but now she believe simply in Gill i guess Considering how many japanese we got in SF safe bet at least some pratice Shintoism, Buddhism or both Example in Akuma's and Gouken's case the religion theme is bit more evident (to begin with they got prayer beads, but not only that) Also Ryu offfer some room for spiritualism, see the whole Kage thing being related to religion Oro aim at become a Sennin, wich mean he believe Taoism to some extent G believe seems to believe in Gaia as the deity of earth, wich is not made up but part of ancient greek beliefs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia Rashid being muslim guess is safe bet Chun Li pray on her father's grave, not sure her religion but she's a believer of some sort We know Ken married Eliza, but in one SF2 ending we seen him carrying her to church, meaning they did christian religious marriage (not full proof as she may be the only religious one in the couple, but still) Also we know from xmas side story they celebrate christmas in their family From same side story we see Zangief play as Ded Moroz (some sort of russian Santa Claus), but is not much clear if you can count it as religious proof as from what i understand is a figure sometimes considered non-christian, sometimes linked to orthodox If anything back to soviets we may say he was some sort of anti-religion symbol "Due to the suppression of religion during the Soviet regime,St Nicholas was replaced by Ded Moroz or Grand father frost or Father frost the Russian Spirit of Winter who brought gifts on New Year’s not Christmas .He is accompanied to Snyegurochka , the Snow Maiden , who helps distribute the gifts." My 2cents, Zangief believe in Mother Russia and Muscles Necalli and Aztec world is easy link, but hard say if he was a believer of anything beyond devour devour. But guess at least part of him (the Warrior Prophet) was a believer of their gods T.Hawk guess probably share same religion of his native tribe Bonus: Seth have biblical name, a fucking tao in his belly and probably believe in nothing lol