CESTUS III

In his defense Blanka come from Hokuto no Ken's Madara... ...and Tiger Mask's Gorilla-Man Dude never had much chances to be a cutie LOL

As hilarious would be, fuck Garuda too, would be just more stronk japan Would give me "it takes stronk japan to beat stronk japan" Baki style circle jerk philosophy Apex of SF food chain already is filled with stronk japan, i think at the moment a good guess on who are the Top 5 may have 4 out 5 lol Oro, Akuma, Gouken (?), Gill (?), Ryu (?) @YagamiFire idea of Gill being the one giving Akuma an ass beating would be already something less Baki and a little step to return in that old SF feel of world being big place full of powerful fighters Had hopes for Necalli when trailer vs Ryu was showing him "eating" Ryu's SnH, could have been perfect candidate to pull a Garuda on Akuma... then they did nothing with it. Or better, they used Necalli to show how stronk Akuma is Another could have been G, dude had new big villain hype going with him (plus empty promises by Capcom), but reality is they did nothing with him except make him play fool guy gimmick and getting his ass beaten by Gill and Rose lol

The problem is that to make things interesting they could have worked of give ultimate villains different balance on how and why are dangerous Like put more effort on show how straight physical abilities, martial art skill, raw ki firepower, ability to control that ki or have a particular/special power are all different elements and that a Final Boss does'nt need necessary to excel at all these, because in that away you can have an asymmetric dynamic instead just have shonen power level new bosses having to 1up the previous one or pay the price of not being considered credible threat Hokuto no Ken somehow managed to do it and still build a shone style rise of opponents level Think about it, stuff like Souther secret giving him edge over Raoh and many more examples the series offered... they definitely had "power levels", but an HnK Master facing another Master was never truly 100% predictable outcome, maybe some W were, but the price in blood was'nt Like, if done right we should be left think that example in shit like Akuma vs Bison vs Gill vs Oro vs Gouken everybody should have a decent chance at kill one of the others if they can play right on their own strenghts and on opponents weakness Each of these characters seems to be compatible with have areas were they excel over others, and weaker traits too Would throw there even Necalli and Seth if they were written completely differently, and Gen if was'nt sick Of course Capcom threw us a bone in the form of Akuma getting a draw with Oro and Gouken's technique (even if suspect current Akuma would murder Gouken), but as general rule let them write all these in some bizzarre what if Boss level Tourament and aside Oro (but still in a forced life or dead one, they would rather kill Oro) you will get Akuma's fist too much stronk Akuma's tryhard dark ki too much great Akuma's technique too much technical Akuma's power too powerful! (and stronk) Only case where i truly appreciated straight Boss >Boss, were Bison>Sagat because it was hype see the previous King working as #2/bodyguard, and because we had to move on into a much greater scale world (something i still want) Other was Bison>Seth just because fuck Seth... but that mean rare time we got a SF new boss, it sucked and was fake Boss

I mentioned it, in the improvement group "Cody - very good even if have design problems" The concept itself is cool and the idea to make him new major making Metro City as some sort of family company is pure genius, specially because put also th jail time in perspective too lol I think it have some character design problems on technical level, like patterns and color scheme choice generating bit of confusion or at least not being much done in the classic SF way, dude have bunch of parts that visually don't link with each other much nor play on repetition -warning, boring design analysis- Hard to explain as it goes bit more technical on how you build a character design that follow a scheme, but short version is when you take single elements seems like they designed him without usual "harmony" and link between parts Easy examples could be that instead black they could have gave him brown shoes to link with gilet brown leather parts, or creating metal parts (belt buckle and watch case) they could have picked either gold or steel (probably latter better as is more neutral and even link with knife) for both, instead done one steel one golden Also have bunch of visually close but different colors with gilet purple-blue and pants blue is kinda strange choice, wich get worse reaching shoes that add one more dark close-but-different color Also very thin subtle lines patterns shirt choice seems bit unusual next to SF classic way of favor bigger more clean elements that are easier to read, exaple the idea of have a shirt with azure and "white" pattern is nice if done to call back mind previous prisoner uniform and on general Cody colors (likely), but would have truly done that job with thicker, same width azure & white vertical lines, wich could have been still compatible with a business shirt Instead they gave it same pattern of pants with different colors, wich is'nt how they usually use the repetition Again is not easy to explain if one does'nt start from a design scheme/patterns perspective, specially if the design itself is perceived as "cool" and so it get people's approvation despite being "wrong" (if we want use this word) on technical/design level... and get even harder when you have to explain people on other hand, something UGLY af as SFV Birdie actually got a pretty solid fundamentals design People are inclined to defend what they perceive as "good/cool" and attack what they dislike and see as ugly, even if technically solid and was the intentional point of it SF is filled by designs that are either overrated or underrated based on people's perception rather than design quality itself (wich can easily lead to the argument of SF being a product and so people-who-pay perception is most important thing, but this is another story lol) I don't care about it being "sensible" tbh, i find original SF2 Cammy (and even more dark green one of SF2tAM) to be awesome on so many levels, but i'm just jumping out from Cody's analysis above, so i will stick to "awesome on many levels" (some of wich have been fucked up in SFV's apparently soft but actually huge redesign) lol Not saying it was'nt thirsty fanservice too (as vast majority of FG girls), but i have no problems with it and btwmost important was thirsty fanservice done right, without sacrify character design in any way (somewhere as we speak SC Ivy is crying) AND had the merit to be designed around Chun Li's design to work as complementary figure next to her... fun thing decades after SF4 Juri, wich i consider one of the very best designs of post-SF3 era SF, i think had to thanks same method as feels strongly designed to fit as third figure next to Chun and Cammy, managing to become instant iconic next to characters that have decades of history Not a fan of either, but the concept SF4 Seth with clothes we never got was good. These cyborgs ever been in SFimagery since SF2tAM days (and maybe before, would have to check release of some SF2 mangas), and the idea of one evolving above others and developing personality could have been even great if handled correctly. They could have picked the elegant concept and built his image around his obsession of wanting hard to be human, maybe building up a stage heavy based on art, culture and other shit to show how he's crazy and delusional on deny his own nature Instead they made him express his reject of be seen/considered as a lab freak piece of shit cyborg, by fighting like a naked piece of shit cyborg in a shitty crumbling scifi lab But that's lead us to how SF handle characters(specially new ones), and if SF cast could read this post we woud get dozen of #metoo lmao

This Not saying that i WANT it to happen, just that i think will happen I think the problem with Akuma is that Capcom thinks that this glorified sprite edit is their most badass villain, and they keep down cooler villains to suck his stronk japanese dick They could have him "just" as a very dangerous old son of bitch, who's not the world's ultimate fighter able to fuck up everybody, but VERY dangerous to Ryu specifically because he knows all Ansatsuken tricks better than him and strikes ever to maim and kill Think about somebody that know very well the offensive/defensive patterns, have moves to counter hado/shoryu/tatsu shit and ever try to put a finger on your eye or kick balls lol But no, we had to have 1-punch-island-destroyer and while at it they find excuses to have him beat up other bosses to make clear you may think new villain is badass, but you're not allowed to think he's better than Stronk Japan Akuma Sadly i doubt it's going to happen, we're locked in a Yujiro Hanma bullshit Closest would be the scissor-rock-paper story gimmick they did in SFEX with Garuda>Akuma>Bison>Garuda situation, but even there they made it more about a pokemon bad match up due nature of their energies rather than Akuma getting straight overwhelmed by a superior or at least more powerful fighter

Yeah, that's true KoF have different approach when it comes to redesigns and i think on general it give them indeed a lower % of "very bad" ones next to SFV(using it as the first SF that put lot effort on redesigns) KoF ever had that endless wave of small changes that give the feel that nothing truly change (it does, but you have less shock), SF showed to be more like static af for a while then drop big changes (with various results) I mean, they can still take something glorious as Tizoc was and turn it into dinosaur crap, but it's rare outcome... overall they tend to hit slighty above or slighty below the previous incarnation of the char Would also add that to be fair they often struggle too when it comes to beat the original, but definitely redesigns are'nt their main chara design weakness May have saved Ryu from NeoGaf/Eventhubs people, but SF6 teaser at this point is a thing

SF3 Alex was one of best design of his game (would say Alex, Dudley, Yun and Ibuki) though, SFV one is possibly THE worst redesign of the game. No easy feat Guile one as simple he was, still used to be one of the most iconic characters and had pretty definited imagery and colors, they throw all that away to drop on him a generic look that feels like an alt costume (would have been good at that) rather than a redesign... kinda betray the original design spirit, rather than a tough af old dog ready to fuck up people on the battlefield with bullets flying above his head, seems a pissed guy that just left office to throw hands Think tactical SF4 one (or similar CPT SFV one) is more the natural evolution of original design Poison is just bit a mess. Aside change of hair (prefer previous, but no big deal) they added bunch of stuff (black parts), without improving anything much but making the figure just more confuse. On other side was just effective, took SF3 look and improved it without moving much away from it. I have to admit though that change of weapon in SFV has been huge improvement I agree that IF they wanted redesign Cammy (not something i asked for) they should have gone for a drastic change Problem is one we got is SF2 Cammy without some characteristic elements (face scar, Delta Red triangle, camo legs) that helped enrich her image and color scheme, while in return we got only bunch black belts that yes, help bit the color scheme (they link with boots), but ultimately don't compensate much what she lost leaving her with lost of flat surfaces Guess to link with black they could still have added the belts (maybe just torso ones) to original SF2 Cammy, but not removing what was there Also SF4 had the good idea of give her that dark green that remind lot SF2tAM and made interesting contrast with her skin, SFV fucked it up with shitty very saturated bright green that stand there as one more proof somebody in SFV team is color blind Well, did'nt mentioned her because she's not a redesign, but if we are at it she's possibly the weakest new design (if we ignore Kage as everybody should lol) When not even be a waifu leave a mark, that's next level weak (on her defense we may say she was designed to be functional to Ed design, but still) But would say she's bit an exception, as i think large majority of SFV newcomers were within various shades from good to very very good... specially if we count that Falke is'nt a BAD design (some redesigns are way worse), she's just a weak af design that end up being extremely forgettable despite trying hard on sexy nazi stripper waifu gimmicks lol If we go on newcomers design (not story, that in some cases was weak af) SFV ratio is indeed positive Very good: Zeku, Menat, Necalli, Kolin Good: Rashid, G, Luke Decent: Laura, Fang, Ed Weak: Falke Kage: Peter the brazilian cop, Kage Imho does'nt reach the highest level of chara design touched by some SF4 newcomers (underrated work for many reasons), but it gave us LOT of new characters with average good quality Female Seth is female Seth, hard to rate as redesign mostly because it's basically a new design Would say that concept/anime SF4 Seth (one with clothes) > SFV Seth > SF4 ingame shitty naked Seth, but on reality would be kinda pointless, are just straight different things I could have done without and give that slot to some other returning char, but that's me lol Yeah, if you see i recognized they did neutral but good job with Karin/Sakura, as they were forced to change them due time jump and somehow made decent job Being totally honest i feel if target was reach the original designs they did'nt fully made it, but they got close enough to make me think was unfair drop them on downgrade On Sakura color scheme i agree and she even have a color (#3) that clearly use the old scheme, but they intentionally dodged it as standard color option, guess reason being change the color scheme better help show the character entered a different phase of her life... and unlike for Guile, i think they may have done a good choice in her case because make more clear have nothing to do with her old schoolgirl uniform What surprised me is that they did gone as bold with Karin (both as lines, theme and colors) who as concept could have gone much more far from her original self, but guess since she was played as heavy fanservice/hype card, they did'nt wanted move too far from what her fans waited for decades Her not having bit more mature new style made even more awkward see her declare herself the GI-joe leader of SF vets (and them accepting it, but that's the legitimacy a GI-joe style SF adventure deserve), but guess her fans passed every second of these moments jizzing on their screens, so i guess at least somebody got his happy ending Did'nt found neither great but at least they did'nt fallen too far from the target, so as said keept them on neutral job ones wich by itself has been a bit an achievement

Including previously unplayable ones that we had the chance to see, and leaving out who's almost the same Bit or lot worse Akuma Alex Abigail (due shit proportions) Juri (specially thinking SF4 Juri was one of best things SF did in decades) Ibuki Guile Poison Cammy (more bland version of what she was) More or less neutral R.Mika Vega Birdie (know lot hate it, still not THAT worse, make sense for new concept. Problem is people think "cooler" = "better") Sakura and Karin (equal as previous one, but does good job show time passing) Evil Ryu, because lmao at calling it Kage (similar crap level as SF4 one) Improvement Urien (overkill here, new design is very good + still include old one) Dhalsim Balrog (truly great upgrade, may be one who gained most) M.Bison Ken (broke "Ryu clone" effect, represent well him take a western approach) Zeku Sagat (also if i like classic too) Honda Cody (very good even if have design problems) Oro Not easy to rate/would take analysis Seth Nash Lucia PS: Agree on problems on 3D models, but i still blame on art direction if something that end up on final product suck

And that's one more assumption on what i'm saying, Zeku is a very good character design one of the best new ones in SFV Would say Zeku and Menat are probably the best new character designs in V But i like many others tbh Despite what people say SF4 was pretty strong at it too SF don't suffer THAT much on do new designs, they struggle bit more at redesigns Find their position kinda specular opposite of KoF one, who's usually classy at renew old designs but recently have a problem of high % of sucking dicks when it comes to create new faces

You sound defensive as if i would disagree, i recognize SF character design is on decline too I can offer you many more SFV names beside Akuma if you want lol Both series (and some others i may add) got weaker, to different levels both in redesigns and new characters

Shun'ei looks like crap to me, but is part of a whole path that started decades ago with Kyo/Iori and progressed chapter after chapter Kyo original design was pretty good FG design to me though, and while i never been much fan of Yagami's was still solid Then each level they doubled in that "non fighter" direction K looked even more skinny and x10 more tryhard edgy Ash makes Benimaru look like an alpha male neanderthal Shun'ei is Shun'ei I don't like it, as i'm a fan of Fatal Fury style SNK, but at the end that's clearly the way they chosen to quit being Capcom younger brother and -successfully- build their own visual identity Essentially does'nt matter if i find it crap (i do), because he's designed for a different audience... if they find it cool, then SNK nailed it Same thing of shit taste people that wanted gritty Street Fighter and SF6 lol

Yeah that's ever been what i thought will be the heaviest punishment Ryu will inflict him Not only will defeat him, but spare his life denying him that ultimate life or death battle he dream for, showing he threw away his soul/humanity for nothing Being killed by Ryu would be still a moral victory for him, but be spared will cripple his soul forever Would even allow have him becoming much weaker as result, wich can still make SF world move beyond Akuma the stronkest bullshit without make him disappear (wich sadly will not happen) Agree on the predictable father thing, but would not dive in much as that ever lead to endless debate here lol Expect to happen =/= WANT to happen, but seem hard to explain lol

As somebody who is Ryu fan but hates the whole Aluma bullshit, i wish we can close it as soon as possible We will ever trapped into "Akuma stronk the stronkest" bullshit till he's finally defeated by Ryu Same way Baki is crippled by Yujiro Hanma infesting that universe, no boss will ever be allowed to shine till we get rid off this fucking glorified sprite edit As positive side Akuma does'nt carry much plot, so you can have a SF chapter where a bunch of heroes tackle on new Boss, while on the side Ryu finish his business with him on top of a volcano or some shit Only way to make Akuma somebody that carry a SF story on his own as enemy would be change his current lone beast path, wich can even be cool if handled correctly* But Akuma and cool are not compatible, so i doubt lmao *Akuma getting "followers"... NOT much as Ansatsuken disciples(fuck that), but fierce fighters with their own style/design/background that recognize Akuma's "alpha" status and embrace same kind of martial path... so you can have bunch of "good" fighters involved to stop them. from corrupting martial arts world or some shit Only way i can imagine to have multiple different characters involved in anything Akuma-related

As said he does'nt fit traditional "evil" villain on psychological level, but on pratical level SFV told us whatever he support would be an absolute planet scale threat to human kind, and as such he will likely be handled as the classic villain-that-must-be-stopped G becoming just a tournament host and ignore the threat he represent would not fit what we have been told so far... unless he play host role in 6 and the threat thing is handled in future Btw i would absolutely support a different new character doing that host thing you say. Just some martial arts fanatic, rich af, undefeated dude that want make up a tournament inviting all the best fighters of the world (lot of wich new) hoping to find a worthy rival able to give him his first L Boring like that, no world conquest shit needed... all you need is make him slighty bad guy so Luke can scream "terrorist!" at him and have excuse to punch him with hero cape on Lets be clear, if you ask me i would LOVE the simple international martial arts tournament setting as it encourage more martial arts nation-rep characters, wich is what i ever loved and wanted for SF, while on other direction GI-Joe plot encourage GI-Joe bs characters Like, Ed or Falke (and Knife/Gorilla) were designed with that kind of Shadaloo GI-Joe plot in mind, designs functional to that shit

Yes and no I mean, we already had in SFV a bit of consideration by characters with great insight about power, and has been hinted that while he does'nt fit the traditional villain his dream would be a threat to human kind, "end of everything" according to Rose "I don't know who you are, but you appear to be the manifestation of a natural disaster." (Oro to G) What's not clear is if G is the wave or just somebody who's surfing it

If fucking Ryu got redesign, everybody get redesign lol They will probably keep her classic color scheme though, or at least not move too far from it

The fact this meme use new star wars movies should give shivers to everybody

About the "ancient earthling" thing, may be related to this "Upon their deaths, the brain of the previous leader is removed and then preserved for future guidance. It is unknown how many previous leaders have been preserved in such a way, but it has been stated that such practice has existed for 2000 years since. " Maybe the current Emperor (or President, if there's not an Emperor) can someway connect with the knowledge of his predecessors

That would be too big change and lot would cry, but perfectly in line with story would be that simply Gill trolled Alex for whatever reason in same way he trolled Urien (pretending to lose in SF3, "giving up" President position) when he could have just defeated him -apparently easily- as shown in SFV The hilarious thing of Gill is that pride wise does'nt even seem to care fake lose to weaker people To Zangief "If it's a tempered body you seek, you should play with your opponent." 😄 Back to SF3 days Oro was waaay stronger than Ryu, and Ryu himself way waaay stronger than Alex We don't know much about how Ryu-Oro gone, but was surely very one side in favor of the latter as Oro thinks that while Ryu is exceptional talent, he will need 15 years of training 😄 For perspective Oro was more or less powerful as Akuma Of Ryu-Alex we know more, as Alex himself admitted he could not do shit to Ryu http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/arcade/a/sf3-3alex-1.png For what's worth at some point after SFV Alex defeated on 2nd round a washed up Rog http://www.noe-v.com/images/articles/rf39.jpg

Tbh they can continue from after SF3 Only thing i hope with story they at least clear up Gill losing to Alex because left like that it was sketchy af story lol By Oro quotes Gill and Ryu were the ones truly standing out as potential, let's say for a moment they're more or less equal When Alex face Ryu in SF3 could not land a finger on him, end up ass to the ground completely whooped Yet at that point Alex already defeated Gill apparently We know Gill have history of troll people and lose on purpose (fun fact even a SFV quote hint at that) After the fight Gill found something "special" about Alex, wich may mean he was testing him rather than all out fighting him, but no canon thing at the moment suggest it I know lot people love Alex and would prefer leave it like that,so he at least accomplished something befor SF6 left him behind, but still with elements we have that story does'nt hold up much On positive side all that may mean that Alex and Gill story is'nt over yet

Will not blame you for SF2 love as i'm guilty too and on general i will ever point at SF2 if somebody ask me wich chapter i want see most represented in a future game, as i like almost all of them Both because the characters and because the character design approach behind them... must say SF4 tried do that too, SFV at very begin and results in both case were good If you ask me what i would like to see SF6 picking from 2 Ken- we know 100% must Chun Li- we know 100% must Cammy- we know 100% must Guile- Ok... Luke no more soldier, they can still play USA soldier gimmick on Guile, plus they're completely different. Also Nash is dead so 50% of this gimmick is gone already Zangief- Cestus 100% must, fuck other people opinion lol Dhalsim- Like him but can do without, could accept successor. I think Necro may steal his slot (not saying they CAN'T cohexist btw), hope he stays at least as NPC for story Blanka- Like him but can do without, could accept successor or nothing Honda- Like him but can do without, could accept successor. But want Sumo rep, important martial art and best to create "fat guy" slot lol Fei Long- Would like him, missed him in SFV. But i can accept another Bruce Lee wannabe successor. But fuck it, just use Fei Long at this point lol DeeJay- T.Hawk- I will not miss him, there are other "giant guy" characters that are much better (watching you, Hugo) Balrog- Grown as Mike Tyson fan, but Dudley is just way more interesting boxing rep. Style, character design, even nationality Vega- I would like him, pretty iconic and unique in fight game world, plus classic Spain rep of SF Sagat- 100% must. I mean if alternative is nothing like in SF3 i can accept another thai Muay Thai rep, but fuck that Sagat is just too iconic M.Bison- Conflicted here. I like him as Boss but blame Capcom for spamming him too much. I say YES, but in later (2 or 3) season using the Kage-like spirit gimmick Akuma- I dream i will never see him again in a SF game, then wake up and realize he will never leave because SF developers apparently watch his pictures, think how stronk japanese Akuma is and the start fap all together

It's less pathetic, but still pathetic Problem is it's intentional You can fix errors, but not the fact they're 100% on fuck the standard to sell that new shit is the new thing and you have to let go the past Wich is bit worrying considering "the past" is why SFV survived, and the little i seen so far does'nt scream exactly absolute objective quality improvement

Problem is, as much i like Urien and hope to see him in 6, unless they invent some shonen power boost gimmick based on his inferiority complex dude is not Boss material, never was Again, i like Urien way more than Gill, but it is what it is Realistically unless new people want to shit on SFV too, G is going to be 6's final villain They said he was "SFV final boss", and absolutely did nothing with him SFV ended pointing clearly at him as world's next threat But i agree, he's not credible as he is Now G showing his true face and much greater potential (maybe even hinting to save appearances he had to hold back vs Gill in SFV), yeah that can work Neo-Shadaloo is Capcom's way to keep Bison/Psycho Power as a thing without involve conventional Bison, with all that push for change they're best chance for Psycho Power to keep exist on story level I think they can easily add playable Bison as a non-physical level entity, making Ed fight him in his own mind/nightmares, more or less like Kage was... but ironically for that you will still need Ed I would guess also that fully possessed Ed is actually your best chance of see again Bison as boss one day lol Tbh i'm never a fan of use multiple slots for same group, don't like bunch of people with same uniform Shadaloo Kings were exception because variety was key there, they were designed as individuals and linked only story wise But said all that Knife or even Gorilla are'nt anything incredibly absurd for SF style, if new art can't deal with SF crazyness maybe problem are'nt characters themselves(good or bad they may be) but crappy attempt to make SF become realistic shit, wich is something that SF never truly needed outside of shit marketing cunts that if left free would erase everything to sell 1 more copy 🤣 (but also😭) I would like that too Only problem is in these scenario people ever imagine "old" will include his fav characters wich may not Personally i got not incredibly large number of characters that to please me "MUST" be in and not replaced by similar style new face, but what i really want is still all most important/iconic martial arts represented and lot of nationality variety Do that and i welcome lot of new faces, they expand SF world

Yeah, but i was'nt thinking at Kenshiro himself, but how mass is used to portray power and aging in HnK as a whole and told you may have influenced the development of Gouken/Akuma figures, NOT Ryu... "But playing devil's advocate that seem the direction if we watch the Ansatsuken masters we can see right above him: Akuma is way bulkier than Ryu and Gouken is a fucking huge bearded boar Guess if we go back to the river's source Hokuto no Ken used lot mass to express power" again if we want use them as how an Ansatsuken Master age going into middle age/early elder age, they both are big motherfuckers Gouken is just huge, Akuma just got larger/heavier looking in SFV To use HnK example, we can look how they made old Masters in HnK... Ryuken and Koryu were fucking massive (and both inspiration for SF Gouken, bulk included), Jukei (who passed roids to Akuma) while not being as big was still a stocky motherfucker too and his muscle mass got boosted when he was possessed I absolutely AGREE with you with the analysis of Kenshiro being portrayed as a dynamic figure, the anime/manga "hero" of his world, wich lead me to latter part of what i said: on character design terms i think the move to a less dynamic/youthful figure is a clear move by Capcom to try push Ryu out of his "Kenshiro" status forcing audience (specially non-western one that would not like old looking, stocky, bearded protagonist) into look for a new hero figure To me sucks, but this would lead to much larger analysis of options wich would end up much bigger than the post itself lol

Tbh give each character unique distinctive body proportions is probably one of SFV character design best merits Btw Luke -at least in SFV- stats wise was supposed to be heavier guy than Ryu, 90kg vs 85kg (but he was also 10cm taller)