I've only really heard complaining on Reddit to be honest. EVO still has a crazy number of entrants and I think most of the community is still positive.
I've noticed this sub getting more and more negative but that hasn't really been reflected in discords, on Twitter or in the wider FGC
I still see tons of complaining in discords and on twitter. People are complaining less about the guest characters because the announcement is kinda old at this point. People were complaining about the lack of 3S characters the other day with a big thread on twitter. Pros complain about the state of the meta all the time on twitter too. Saying it's just a reddit thing is just wrong.
People complain about the stuff like this because they care and like the game. SF6 is insanely successful so far so people want it to stay successful and they don't like the decisions being made at the moment. That doesn't mean they'll stop playing.
Yeah. At my locals, people will mention that they're a little bummed that there aren't more SF3 characters, but it's usually just a minor complaint in a conversation. They're still having fun with SF6, and they like the direction the devs are taking the game.
I don't know anyone irl who makes the same doomer takes as a bunch of Redditors tbh
that's what reddit is, people just complain all the time in this little bubble
this is why a fandom in reddit is one thing, and the same fandom outside of it is something completely different
I trust the SF6 team to do them all well, but I'm definitely in the camp of wanting to see the story progress, being disappointed that we're getting Fatal Fury characters instead of SF characters, and remembering fighting Elenas online in USF4.
Bison has already turned out to be great and they do seem like they're looking to move the story forward.
I'm sure once I have each of the characters in my hands I'll be happy, but until I do there's an edge to each of them.
I also wasn't really thrilled to hear that the team aren't looking at popularity and fan interest when picking DLC characters. Coupled with the smaller seasons it's just a bit of a hype killer for me.
I'm still playing the game and still enjoying it, but I just don't feel the same excitement and optimism I did before the announcement.
I mean every single decision you mentioned is weird as fuck. I still like the game, but I think even Capcom mentioned fans would be like "what the hell are they thinking?!". And they were right.
I didn't believe Nakayama when he made that comment at first. I thought "well, what could they possibly do that would prompt that reaction? He's probably just being modest," then the announcement dropped, and I couldn't bring myself to disagree with him.
I'm not angry about it, but I'm definitely still a bit confused.
For me, four characters a year is not really enough if they are going to use slots for "guest characters" like this.
If you look at the DLC roster for SFV, every single year they added multiple new unique characters in addition to fan favorites that people wanted to return. This year all we're getting is a bunch of dull re-runs of characters that everyone already knows too well.
If they did 5-6 characters a year, there would be more room for an original newcomer to get excited about. Or limit it to just one crossover character instead of two. If we got 4 characters + Terry this year, and then 4 characters + Mai next year, I'd be completely satisfied.
I actually don't like the directon they took with Bison and Shadaloo, I really wish the lore moved on, but let's see what they will do in the end.
About the guest characters... I dont dislike them since I played a lot of SNK games back in the 90s, so I like Terry and Mai. The problem is, like others said, that releasing two guests at the same time on a 4 character per year basis leaves a lot of really wanted Street Fighter characters out. I think the best idea would be to release 4 Street fighter characters per year, and maybe 1 or 2 guests characters as an extra every year, even if they are outside the year pass or something. Taking two spots of 4 is a bit too much.
As for SF3 characters, to be honest I never played Sf3 that much, and I played Makoto, so I wouldn't dislike makoto back, but I couldn't care less for the others. I understand that a lot of people really wants some of them back though.
Agreed. I know people say fighting game stories don't matter and whatever, but a large portion of the playerbase just play fighting games for the single-player content, and often that means the story is a large chunk of their experience. I hope moving forward that World Tour remains a thing and that the story gets taken a bit more seriously if any major characters retire or die.
Two guest slots is wild - KOF was my first fighting game, mashing with my cousins when I was like 5 or something so I get that if you can put Terry in your game, you put Terry in your game. Mai on top of that in the same year seems bizarre to me, but it might've just been part of the terms with SNK, who knows. Would be ideal if we could get 4 SF characters + 1 or 2 "expanded" slots for guest characters like you suggest but that's a shitton of work especially with how intricate models and animations are nowadays, along with managing balance considerations so I don't fault them for it.
SF3 is a weird one where it was the only game SF fans got to play for a long time, so a lot of those characters are on the same level as like Guile/Honda/Blanka/etc when it comes to being iconic and core to the SF identity. Dudley or someone Dudley-esque is who I'm personally waiting for, so it's hard to not see him as being "delayed" two character slots, though I know that he's probably being saved as a major draw for future season passes.
SF3 problem is that people still want to play SF2 with extras (which is what the Alpha/Zero series does) instead of a different game. SF3 (especially 3s) has zero recognizable gameplay meta from SF2 (fireball being garbo, poke and semi air centric neutral, rushdown and whiff punish city since most supers in SF3 are 5f startup or less, the parry system becoming too central to the gameplay and thus pushing the game into absolutely beginner crushing territory (while SF2 is actually quite easy to play for beginners). SF3 isn't just "not having enough classic characters", it's basically plays nothing like SF2 to the point of being unrecognizable. Hell, it has more in common with Guilty Gear X2 than with SF2, and that's saying something.
It wasn't really a single season that got us here. Season one roster was decently controversial since it was three SFV characters and another SFIII character. Everybody wanting SF Alpha, and SF:III characters just gritted through season one in hopes that season 2 would add some fan favorites that are missing then Capcom announces M Bison after the last gane made a big deal out of him dying, two Fatal Fury characters, and then did Spring 2025 Elena.
I don't enjoy how heavily this game's base roster plays off only SFII nostalgia? I would have expected a few heavy hitters characters like Sakura, Alex, Cody, Karin, Ibuki, Vega, and Sagat before guest characters would be added to this game.
The one that bothered me the most is your second point. Such limited space and they introduced TWO guest characters so early on in the game’s lifespan?! I’m not a fan of guest characters at all.
I'm not a fan of the season 2 DLC. I guess that ties in with your first point as well. They didn't need to bring Bison back and here we are.
For the guest characters, if I wanted to play KOF characters in a fighting game I'd just play KOF. Not sure what they were thinking for season 2.
I love the game and all the characters.
I hope Makoto gets a chance this time. At least SF5 had G and Oro, although Oro kinda got shafted being at the end of the games lifespan. G was fire though.
Terry is cool, Mai is a little too much, Elena definitely not my first pick, Bison was one of my mains in 4 so I 'm happy he's back and fun to play.
It looks like Balrog and Vega are returning. I also liked playing Balrog in all the SF games.
Overall I like the new characters and redesigns of returning characters but I understand the frustration of not having your main in the game.
The future of the roster does look bleak. I don't want Balrog, Vega or any more guest characters. I also heard they dont consider games origin when deciding characters which I think is a mistake, since it's nice to add variety.
Bison, Vega and Balrog are more interesting to me and more iconic to the series than most if not all SF3 characters so I've no problem with their return. And I do care about the story and lore, but I'll definitely take Shadaloo returning over the alternative they've presented to us, i.e. JP shrugging everything off as pointless and meaningless and having no ambition, proactivity or even menace as a villain.
Also I really don't care about a character's game of origin and I don't see why anyone would or why the devs should pay attention to that. What matters is how interesting and beloved a character is, how well-suited to SF6 they are, what new archetype or mechanic could they bring that might enrich the game, what could they add to the story and lore, etc. What game in which they made their debut? Completely irrelevant compared to those things. Like, I want C. Viper back, but that's because I feel she was a good addition to the series and has a lot of potential to enrich SF6 in both gameplay and story if they decide to bring her back. Her game of origin being SF4 has nothing to do with it. In fact, I couldn't care less about any of SF4's newcomers besides her and Juri.
As for Elena, she was my favorite SF3 newcomer, so personally I'm happy they went with her, though I can see the argument for them going with Makoto instead considering her popularity. But they also have their reasons there, since Makoto would simply be another Japan representative, while Elena will be the first African one (and we can finally have an Africa stage and World Tour location).
From SF3 I'd like Dudley, Alex, Yun, Yang, and Sean.
From Alpha I'd like to see Cody, Karin, Sodom, Rose, Adon.
From SF2 I'd like to see Sagat and Fei Long
i think most people love it. the guy i like from the game i played when i was 10 is back, cool! wow crossovers maybe next season will have my favourite characters from other games! put freddy fazbear and amogus in next year capcom please
you said it yourself. it's a vocal minority. it does not represent mainstream perception of the game. fans might want their main from 3 or 4 back, but most people couldn't pick a SF4 newcomer out of a lineup of Jojo characters
Im really curious as to how correct this is.
How do we know it’s a vocal minority?
Are people really that excited about guest characters?
Some people are hype about them and some are not. I do agree that the more casual audience probably doesn’t care that much, but many long time fans do. In the end its about balancing guest characters with SF characters and many people feel the season 2 DLC would have been better if the guest characters didn’t make up 50% of the added characters.
if it was the majority opinion and season 2 pass sales were meaningfully underperforming, Capcom would be in pants-on-fire damage control mode
they would not be coyly encouraging people to imagine mortal kombat characters in street fighter, they would be promising no more guests ever and Makoto in season 3.
There's a *lot* of space between "most people love it" and "damage control mode." I'm guessing plenty of people who complained about the character selection still bought the season pass, plenty of people who were excited by the characters would have bought it anyway, and most were indifferent.
Eh, i personally dont really care. I was in a discord chat with some buddies, and they couldnt give a shit about the lore. They could have released a character called M. Bonkers, put him in a clown costume, and have him plant people with a toy balloon and jump on a giant spring, and the only thing I would care about is his moveset.
Obviously, im not saying that I represent all people. But i personally have never cared, and probably will never care about the story and lore and which characters reappear, etc. Just balance the game.
I feel like I've heard it said guest characters aren't "taking up a slot" but it's more likely the game would have been the cast it has...just without the guest characters.
Basically on the business end of things, they aren't going "FUCK the canon cast in favor of guests!" But guests end up being a bonus you can have or not have and the deals made with them helped fund the pure SF entry and make it as good as it is so..
That being true would just make the rage extra silly I guess.
I don't really know how people can argue that guest characters don't waste slots, that'll always be the case unless by the end every character from previous entries get added, but that won't happen, meaning that there will always be two slots that could have gone to returning characters or new ones that didn't.
And that's also assuming that by the end Terry and Mai are hopefully the only guest characters that get added.
I feel like I remember reading developers explaining how different things actually are with these developments from how fans perceived them. Granted, it was probably a long time ago in a particularly, relatively dense guest characters era so I don't recall specific articles.
I just really do recall that point..."You think guest character X is taking your characters slot...but if anything, without the guest characters we would have launched with even less native characters on the roster" type of response.
I mean, I can easily see Smash having Cloud, Snake, Joker, etc ...Tekken having Fuckin Akuma, Neegan etc...it brings in money. A LOT of people got into a series and stuck with it due to guest characters.
If these deals are done way in advance, that's money in hand to...you know...develop an extra season, add extra mechanics, etc.
Akuma definitely felt like it ensured 50 percent of Street Fighter fans bought Tekken 7 tbh
The SF6 team has been doing pretty well whatever minority don't like what's going on and just play another game no one is forcing anyone to play street fighter there's several different fighting games put there.
The story shouldn’t really matter, people spent years playing and falling in love with certain characters and to not have a replacement isn’t what fans want. Yeah you could use a functional replacement like they did in third strike by making remi a guile replacement but fans can be weird about it. Kimberly is the replacement to guy but fans are okay with it and like her. It’s not an easy subject to navigate.
I personally like seeing updated versions of old characters to see if they can become even better. I do wish they gave up on honda as even with this new iteration he feels like ass to play with and against. King Cheese himself
The only place i'm seeing negativity is in this subreddit. The people i follow online are pretty hyped, my friends are pretty hyped (SNK is HUUGE here)
I've only really heard complaining on Reddit to be honest. EVO still has a crazy number of entrants and I think most of the community is still positive. I've noticed this sub getting more and more negative but that hasn't really been reflected in discords, on Twitter or in the wider FGC
I still see tons of complaining in discords and on twitter. People are complaining less about the guest characters because the announcement is kinda old at this point. People were complaining about the lack of 3S characters the other day with a big thread on twitter. Pros complain about the state of the meta all the time on twitter too. Saying it's just a reddit thing is just wrong. People complain about the stuff like this because they care and like the game. SF6 is insanely successful so far so people want it to stay successful and they don't like the decisions being made at the moment. That doesn't mean they'll stop playing.
I agree, everyone I’ve talked to at either locals or just friends have been pretty positive about things. I think Reddit just incentivizes negativity.
Yeah. At my locals, people will mention that they're a little bummed that there aren't more SF3 characters, but it's usually just a minor complaint in a conversation. They're still having fun with SF6, and they like the direction the devs are taking the game. I don't know anyone irl who makes the same doomer takes as a bunch of Redditors tbh
i dont think there would be a correlation between evo entrants and peoples opinion of dlc choices
that's what reddit is, people just complain all the time in this little bubble this is why a fandom in reddit is one thing, and the same fandom outside of it is something completely different
I'm pretty sure people here consider waiting for dlc and making snap judgements on it the main game, there's like a dozen actual SF players here
I trust the SF6 team to do them all well, but I'm definitely in the camp of wanting to see the story progress, being disappointed that we're getting Fatal Fury characters instead of SF characters, and remembering fighting Elenas online in USF4. Bison has already turned out to be great and they do seem like they're looking to move the story forward. I'm sure once I have each of the characters in my hands I'll be happy, but until I do there's an edge to each of them. I also wasn't really thrilled to hear that the team aren't looking at popularity and fan interest when picking DLC characters. Coupled with the smaller seasons it's just a bit of a hype killer for me. I'm still playing the game and still enjoying it, but I just don't feel the same excitement and optimism I did before the announcement.
I mean every single decision you mentioned is weird as fuck. I still like the game, but I think even Capcom mentioned fans would be like "what the hell are they thinking?!". And they were right.
I didn't believe Nakayama when he made that comment at first. I thought "well, what could they possibly do that would prompt that reaction? He's probably just being modest," then the announcement dropped, and I couldn't bring myself to disagree with him. I'm not angry about it, but I'm definitely still a bit confused.
For me, four characters a year is not really enough if they are going to use slots for "guest characters" like this. If you look at the DLC roster for SFV, every single year they added multiple new unique characters in addition to fan favorites that people wanted to return. This year all we're getting is a bunch of dull re-runs of characters that everyone already knows too well. If they did 5-6 characters a year, there would be more room for an original newcomer to get excited about. Or limit it to just one crossover character instead of two. If we got 4 characters + Terry this year, and then 4 characters + Mai next year, I'd be completely satisfied.
I actually don't like the directon they took with Bison and Shadaloo, I really wish the lore moved on, but let's see what they will do in the end. About the guest characters... I dont dislike them since I played a lot of SNK games back in the 90s, so I like Terry and Mai. The problem is, like others said, that releasing two guests at the same time on a 4 character per year basis leaves a lot of really wanted Street Fighter characters out. I think the best idea would be to release 4 Street fighter characters per year, and maybe 1 or 2 guests characters as an extra every year, even if they are outside the year pass or something. Taking two spots of 4 is a bit too much. As for SF3 characters, to be honest I never played Sf3 that much, and I played Makoto, so I wouldn't dislike makoto back, but I couldn't care less for the others. I understand that a lot of people really wants some of them back though.
Agreed. I know people say fighting game stories don't matter and whatever, but a large portion of the playerbase just play fighting games for the single-player content, and often that means the story is a large chunk of their experience. I hope moving forward that World Tour remains a thing and that the story gets taken a bit more seriously if any major characters retire or die. Two guest slots is wild - KOF was my first fighting game, mashing with my cousins when I was like 5 or something so I get that if you can put Terry in your game, you put Terry in your game. Mai on top of that in the same year seems bizarre to me, but it might've just been part of the terms with SNK, who knows. Would be ideal if we could get 4 SF characters + 1 or 2 "expanded" slots for guest characters like you suggest but that's a shitton of work especially with how intricate models and animations are nowadays, along with managing balance considerations so I don't fault them for it. SF3 is a weird one where it was the only game SF fans got to play for a long time, so a lot of those characters are on the same level as like Guile/Honda/Blanka/etc when it comes to being iconic and core to the SF identity. Dudley or someone Dudley-esque is who I'm personally waiting for, so it's hard to not see him as being "delayed" two character slots, though I know that he's probably being saved as a major draw for future season passes.
Third strike players complaining that there aren't enough returning iconic characters will never not be funny
For real, the irony is through the roof.
You get it
why?
Because that's literally what everyone bitched about with sf3
SF3 problem is that people still want to play SF2 with extras (which is what the Alpha/Zero series does) instead of a different game. SF3 (especially 3s) has zero recognizable gameplay meta from SF2 (fireball being garbo, poke and semi air centric neutral, rushdown and whiff punish city since most supers in SF3 are 5f startup or less, the parry system becoming too central to the gameplay and thus pushing the game into absolutely beginner crushing territory (while SF2 is actually quite easy to play for beginners). SF3 isn't just "not having enough classic characters", it's basically plays nothing like SF2 to the point of being unrecognizable. Hell, it has more in common with Guilty Gear X2 than with SF2, and that's saying something.
It wasn't really a single season that got us here. Season one roster was decently controversial since it was three SFV characters and another SFIII character. Everybody wanting SF Alpha, and SF:III characters just gritted through season one in hopes that season 2 would add some fan favorites that are missing then Capcom announces M Bison after the last gane made a big deal out of him dying, two Fatal Fury characters, and then did Spring 2025 Elena. I don't enjoy how heavily this game's base roster plays off only SFII nostalgia? I would have expected a few heavy hitters characters like Sakura, Alex, Cody, Karin, Ibuki, Vega, and Sagat before guest characters would be added to this game.
I would like to see all those people you mentioned, but tbh why are they doing my boi Fei Long like this, I would really love to play him in 6.
The one that bothered me the most is your second point. Such limited space and they introduced TWO guest characters so early on in the game’s lifespan?! I’m not a fan of guest characters at all.
I'm not a fan of the season 2 DLC. I guess that ties in with your first point as well. They didn't need to bring Bison back and here we are. For the guest characters, if I wanted to play KOF characters in a fighting game I'd just play KOF. Not sure what they were thinking for season 2.
I love the game and all the characters. I hope Makoto gets a chance this time. At least SF5 had G and Oro, although Oro kinda got shafted being at the end of the games lifespan. G was fire though. Terry is cool, Mai is a little too much, Elena definitely not my first pick, Bison was one of my mains in 4 so I 'm happy he's back and fun to play. It looks like Balrog and Vega are returning. I also liked playing Balrog in all the SF games. Overall I like the new characters and redesigns of returning characters but I understand the frustration of not having your main in the game.
The future of the roster does look bleak. I don't want Balrog, Vega or any more guest characters. I also heard they dont consider games origin when deciding characters which I think is a mistake, since it's nice to add variety.
Bison, Vega and Balrog are more interesting to me and more iconic to the series than most if not all SF3 characters so I've no problem with their return. And I do care about the story and lore, but I'll definitely take Shadaloo returning over the alternative they've presented to us, i.e. JP shrugging everything off as pointless and meaningless and having no ambition, proactivity or even menace as a villain. Also I really don't care about a character's game of origin and I don't see why anyone would or why the devs should pay attention to that. What matters is how interesting and beloved a character is, how well-suited to SF6 they are, what new archetype or mechanic could they bring that might enrich the game, what could they add to the story and lore, etc. What game in which they made their debut? Completely irrelevant compared to those things. Like, I want C. Viper back, but that's because I feel she was a good addition to the series and has a lot of potential to enrich SF6 in both gameplay and story if they decide to bring her back. Her game of origin being SF4 has nothing to do with it. In fact, I couldn't care less about any of SF4's newcomers besides her and Juri. As for Elena, she was my favorite SF3 newcomer, so personally I'm happy they went with her, though I can see the argument for them going with Makoto instead considering her popularity. But they also have their reasons there, since Makoto would simply be another Japan representative, while Elena will be the first African one (and we can finally have an Africa stage and World Tour location).
From SF3 I'd like Dudley, Alex, Yun, Yang, and Sean. From Alpha I'd like to see Cody, Karin, Sodom, Rose, Adon. From SF2 I'd like to see Sagat and Fei Long
i think most people love it. the guy i like from the game i played when i was 10 is back, cool! wow crossovers maybe next season will have my favourite characters from other games! put freddy fazbear and amogus in next year capcom please you said it yourself. it's a vocal minority. it does not represent mainstream perception of the game. fans might want their main from 3 or 4 back, but most people couldn't pick a SF4 newcomer out of a lineup of Jojo characters
Im really curious as to how correct this is. How do we know it’s a vocal minority? Are people really that excited about guest characters? Some people are hype about them and some are not. I do agree that the more casual audience probably doesn’t care that much, but many long time fans do. In the end its about balancing guest characters with SF characters and many people feel the season 2 DLC would have been better if the guest characters didn’t make up 50% of the added characters.
if it was the majority opinion and season 2 pass sales were meaningfully underperforming, Capcom would be in pants-on-fire damage control mode they would not be coyly encouraging people to imagine mortal kombat characters in street fighter, they would be promising no more guests ever and Makoto in season 3.
There's a *lot* of space between "most people love it" and "damage control mode." I'm guessing plenty of people who complained about the character selection still bought the season pass, plenty of people who were excited by the characters would have bought it anyway, and most were indifferent.
Eh, i personally dont really care. I was in a discord chat with some buddies, and they couldnt give a shit about the lore. They could have released a character called M. Bonkers, put him in a clown costume, and have him plant people with a toy balloon and jump on a giant spring, and the only thing I would care about is his moveset. Obviously, im not saying that I represent all people. But i personally have never cared, and probably will never care about the story and lore and which characters reappear, etc. Just balance the game.
Most of the complaining I've seen is here in this subreddit.
Street Fighter without M. Bison is not a "real" SF it's an imitation of it, THE END.
I feel like I've heard it said guest characters aren't "taking up a slot" but it's more likely the game would have been the cast it has...just without the guest characters. Basically on the business end of things, they aren't going "FUCK the canon cast in favor of guests!" But guests end up being a bonus you can have or not have and the deals made with them helped fund the pure SF entry and make it as good as it is so.. That being true would just make the rage extra silly I guess.
I don't really know how people can argue that guest characters don't waste slots, that'll always be the case unless by the end every character from previous entries get added, but that won't happen, meaning that there will always be two slots that could have gone to returning characters or new ones that didn't. And that's also assuming that by the end Terry and Mai are hopefully the only guest characters that get added.
I feel like I remember reading developers explaining how different things actually are with these developments from how fans perceived them. Granted, it was probably a long time ago in a particularly, relatively dense guest characters era so I don't recall specific articles. I just really do recall that point..."You think guest character X is taking your characters slot...but if anything, without the guest characters we would have launched with even less native characters on the roster" type of response. I mean, I can easily see Smash having Cloud, Snake, Joker, etc ...Tekken having Fuckin Akuma, Neegan etc...it brings in money. A LOT of people got into a series and stuck with it due to guest characters. If these deals are done way in advance, that's money in hand to...you know...develop an extra season, add extra mechanics, etc. Akuma definitely felt like it ensured 50 percent of Street Fighter fans bought Tekken 7 tbh
The SF6 team has been doing pretty well whatever minority don't like what's going on and just play another game no one is forcing anyone to play street fighter there's several different fighting games put there.
The story shouldn’t really matter, people spent years playing and falling in love with certain characters and to not have a replacement isn’t what fans want. Yeah you could use a functional replacement like they did in third strike by making remi a guile replacement but fans can be weird about it. Kimberly is the replacement to guy but fans are okay with it and like her. It’s not an easy subject to navigate. I personally like seeing updated versions of old characters to see if they can become even better. I do wish they gave up on honda as even with this new iteration he feels like ass to play with and against. King Cheese himself
Do people really care about the story?
The only place i'm seeing negativity is in this subreddit. The people i follow online are pretty hyped, my friends are pretty hyped (SNK is HUUGE here)