When Street Fighter V was released, it was very bare bones. I gave it a 9.5 (and yeah, I heard about it) saying the gameplay is perfect, and it’ll likely go down as the great fighting game of this console generation, as long as Capcom delivers on all the future content they’ve promised. Although online play was flawless for reviewers, the launch was abysmal, and players have been begging for Capcom’s promised updates, in hopes this skeleton of a game, becomes the giant we expect.
Well guess what kids? Update 1 is here. We now have Street Fighter V Version 1.02, and COGconnected is bringing you all the details! Thankfully for me, and my credibility, we are seeing Capcom take the game in the direction I knew they would, which will make my outlook on the game stand strong while the sour puss reviews suddenly become antiquated.
The most exciting part of this first update is that we can now use Alex from Street Fighter III as a playable character! His design is a little bulky for me, and his hair kind of looks like an emo mullet if you think about it, which is a bummer for those of us who loved his original design. I don’t like his short, Zangief-like strikes, but his special moves are fantastic. He’s a mix of a Ryu, with a charge character, who has an awesome powerbomb, and anti-air move. His V-Trigger is called Rage Shift, which is an awesome clothesline attack that can break guards, leaving opponents open to further attacks. I’m definitely going to be using him a lot; totally my kind of character.
Challenge Mode now has a Demonstrations menu, with Tutorials and Trials for each character. There are 12 Beginner Tutorials, covering basics, special attacks, the V-System, counter hits, and chip damage. But there are also 11 Intermediate Tutorials covering projectiles, invincibility frames, armor, recovery, cross-up attacks, and anti-air attacks, as well as 4 Advanced Tutorials covering back dashing, frame advantage, combo potential, and button priority. There are also character-specific tutorials (one for each character). And Challenge Mode, logically, now has Trials, which get players to put their combo skills to the test, and allow them to earn fight money. All of this is fantastic for players to get used to playing Street Fighter V. It’s a very effective learning system, but is maybe the most glaring element missing from the game’s launch.
The in-game Shop is now open for business! Players can spend the Fight Money they’ve earned in-game to purchase lots of stuff. Alex would normally cost 100,000 fight monies, but he has been made temporarily available for free. The reason for this freebie is that Capcom did not succeed in getting Zenny (real-life money) into this first update like they had planned. Sadly, Alex will eventually become unusable once Zenny is introduced, unless he has been purchased with Fight Money, or gets purchased with Zenny.
But there’s more to buy in the Shop than just characters. The alternate costumes (risqué as always, it seems) unlocked in Story Mode can now be purchased for 40,000 Fight Monies, and there are additional costume colors which can be purchased for either 10,000 or 2000 FM. There are also 5000 FM cosmetic purchases you can make for your Fight Profile, including Titles (which are like Facebook moods), and Profile Designs (backgrounds). There was an option in the Shop to purchase stages, but I didn’t have any available, and am fairly sure there aren’t any yet.
Other additions include, being able to make online matches best 2/3 if both players accept, 8 person lobbies in the Battle Lounge, match spectating, bug fixes, and balancing tweaks.
All of this new content is great, and there are no hiccups to be found. I would have liked an in-game message covering the changes, as such I can’t tell if my Season Pass is active or not. There has also been a massive outcry from the online community for an update that creates penalties for rage-quitting. Capcom says this is on the way, however. I’m most looking forward to the Cinematic Story Mode that’s been promised, but for now, this is a handsome update, that’s step 1 of keeping me playing Street Fighter V for a long time.
For more info as Street Fight V gets updated, keep it locked, to COGconnected.