Fighting Games Friday: Street Fighter V Should Go Omega

I’ve been thinking about the content Capcom’s preparing for the final season of Street Fighter V since it was revealed in the summer update a couple of weeks ago, because I clearly have nothing more important to ponder these days. The upcoming characters like Dan, Rose, and Oro will receive move set changes compared to their previous iterations, but adapting Akira Kazama’s move set to the Street Fighter universe will be the most interesting among them. Can you believe it’s been more than two decades since she’s was last playable in a fighting game? Geez. Maybe they’ll implement moves originally planned for her in the cancelled Capcom Fighting All-Stars: Code Holder, if there were any.

There’s also a fifth character planned for the end of the season, who they’ve provided no hints for. There are, of course, plenty of guesses as to who this could be. My personal as-informed-as-can-be guess is for Yasha Nadeshiko, the wrestling heel version of R. Mika’s tag-team partner Yamato Nadeshiko. I will not fully commit to this guess, but it’s the best one that came to mind that sounds realistic. It could be anyone, but I’m sure they’ll provide a hint through writing and a silhouette, or both, closer to the release in, uh, fall 2021. That’s going to be a while.

The biggest mystery, however, surrounds the extra gameplay feature they have planned. They’ve provided no hints for this either, but it’s hard to believe that the team would plan something that could drastically alter how the game is played during the very last season. Who knows what it could be, but it will ideally not make the game overly complicated.

I can, however, tell you what I’d like to see from it: One similar to Ultra Street Fighter IV’s Omega Mode, a feature added to the last big update in the last Street Fighter game.

With USFIV’s Omega Mode, the development team cut loose with each character’s move set. Every character was given updated normal attacks with altered properties, new combos, and new and altered special moves. The mode wasn’t online, which allowed for them to focus less on balance, though it was tough to determine if any character was broken. It took inspiration from the infamous Koryu version of Street Fighter II, though it wasn’t quite as crazy as that — regrettably.

Interestingly, some changes were previews for updated move sets in SFV. Ryu, for instance, gained the “Hanagashi” technique in Omega Mode, one that mimicked the Parry feature from the Street Fighter III titles. He later received this as his first V-Skill in SFV. Guile gained the Sonic Break that allowed him to fire several Sonic Booms at once, taken from his dead and then not-dead friend Charlie/Nash, which he could later perform with his first V-Trigger in SFV. Cody regained the Final Combination from Final Fight in Omega Mode before he could perform it as part of his standard move set in SFV. There are plenty more examples and semi-examples, but you get the picture by now.

Capcom should do the same for SFV, to let players preview features planned for the next SF game (likely called “Street Fighter VI,” but you never know), along with other features they previously played with during development but don’t plan to implement. If they have any kind of other feature planned for the main game, it would be a good idea to abandon that and focus on this instead. Does anyone really want a new feature that further alters the gameplay after it’s been on the market for four-and-a-half years — potentially five by the time the feature arrives? They probably don’t.

(If you’re in the group that does want this, feel free to yell at me.)

This is, again, assuming there will be another Street Fighter game after SFV, and that Capcom’s higher-ups don’t become resistant to the overall idea of making fighting games as a whole. This scenario isn’t that likely, but possible given the impending departure of producer Yoshinori Ono. Even if they don’t make another game, as I mentioned above, there would be little stopping them from including planned features in an experimental SFV mode.

If the rumors about the next SF game’s development being rebooted after Ono was removed as producer are true, they could find a home for the tag-team-ish feature in an SFV Omega Mode. This is despite it sounding eerily similar to the Strikers feature in The King of Fighters ’99, 2000, and 2001. Well, unless they’re planning on adding it as a bonus mode for the next game when it releases, but the chances of that are low. If there’s even a hint of bad blood between the team and Ono, they won’t want to place too much focus on these features because of that. Including them in an SFV Omega Mode would be ideal.

It will be a while before Capcom even hints at what this feature will be. But if they aren’t sure what they want it to be yet, they’re free to take my advice. I’m certain someone on the team will happen by this post and find this a good idea. You’re welcome in advance.