Four years after its release, Street Fighter V is finally worth owning. In today’s announcement of the future of Capcom’s premier fighting franchise, it was revealed that Dan Hibiki would be the first of five new DLC fighters coming to this eSports darling in the near future. Currently scheduled for a Winter 2020 window, everyone will finally be able to experience the magic of Saikyo Martial Arts while attempting to become the best fighter in the world.
Dan was practically a given for inclusion, though. He’s not really surprising, but more very welcome. The real surprise is that Capcom remembered Rival Schools exists and will be including Akira Kazama in Summer 2021 alongside Oro from Third Strike. Street Fighter Alpha’s Rose rounds out the currently announced cast in Spring 2021 with a fifth character planned for later next year.
That final character is likely a newcomer to the cast, which is why Capcom doesn’t have any details available. With season five being something of a stop-gap between this generation and a potential Street Fighter VI, it seems the development of the next installment of this franchise has been delayed quite a bit. We likely won’t end up seeing another sequel until 2022 at the earliest.
In addition to those new fighters, additional stages, costumes, and mechanics will be heading to Street Fighter V over the next year. Capcom didn’t spill the beans on what that means, but a roadmap shows off what looks to be some very promising changes to this mishandled fighter. Dan might not be the magical fix that everyone was expecting, but he seems to be ushering in a much better era for Street Fighter in general.
Considering the last few characters have been some of Capcom’s best in recent memory, I do feel confident in saying that Street Fighter V will go down as a relatively solid entry in the series. Capcom rushed the game out in 2016 to have it ready for EVO that year, but its frequent bungling of updates and additions did no favors in promoting the title.
For as important as Street Fighter is to the industry, it’s nice to see Capcom finally give this game its due.
Source: PlayStation Blog
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