Today, Capcom announced their intentions regarding the anticipated story mode for their forthcoming fighting game sequel, Street Fighter V. In the press release, Capcom explained that by playing the characters in single player mode, you can experience their narratives and come to a greater understanding of how they fit into the overall plot and their relationships with one another. As one can see by looking at the image gallery below, the art style in the hand drawn pics recalls older games in the series, especially Street Fighter Alpha 3, and is being handled by Capcom legend Bengus.
Based on these images, it appears that Capcom is actually making the effort to recall the series’ previous storylines, friendships and rivalries. In the first five images, we see Chun Li fighting Vega, M Bison lording it over what is likely a group of Shadaloo stooges, best buddies and Air Force officers Guile and Charlie (or Nash, if you prefer), Rainbow Mika and her idol Zangief and Ryu and his master Gouken. These relationships are all firmly cemented in the Street Fighter mythos, so it’s great to see them continuing the stories here.
The five images featuring the game engine are all part of what Capcom is calling the Cinematic Story Expansion, a free download available to all owners of the game in June 2016, and supposedly establishes exactly where in the continuity this game takes place, which they are stating is between Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter III (in case you weren’t aware, IV happens before III). According to Capcom, SF Vs story will bridge the gap between the two games and explain how Ryu and his fellow world warriors got from ‘there’ to ‘here’.
But Story Mode isn’t just something for the Street Fighter faithful to appreciate purely on an aesthetic level. There is an actual in game reward system tied to all of the single player modes called Fight Money (a clear reference to Shadaloo boxer Balrog’s treasured ducats) that can be used to purchase new characters and other rewards from Street Fighter V’s in-game store, which will be launching in March. There is no day one DLC planned for release when the game launches on February 16, 2016, and this gives players plenty of time between the release and the in-game store’s debut to build up their funds so they can unlock as much content as possible when it becomes available. Capcom has stated that real money can also be used to unlock the content, but as they have promised all along it is not necessary to actually pay out of pocket to get your hands on the expansion content.
Capcom also released an intense trailer teasing the Story Expansion mode, which you can watch right here!
Street Fighter V will be available on February 16, 2016 for the Sony Playstation 4 and Windows PC exclusively.
SOURCE: Press Release
