Fighting Games Friday: Luke and the Future of Street Fighter
The last character for Street Fighter V’s fifth and final season, an identity the shuffled Street Fighter development team at Capcom kept secret for almost precisely a year (and not leaked beforehand, thank you), was confirmed to be Luke. He was, needless to say, not the kind of character any fan figured would be saved for the final roster addition in a game that’s thus far enjoyed five-and-a-half years of support. But no one can say it’s not an interesting choice. His design is as over the top as any Street Fighter character introduced since Street Fighter IV released, with a body adorned with tattoos and a ridiculous hairstyle.
Luke himself isn’t that interesting design-wise, though I admire the development team’s collective guts on ending the game’s roster support with a brand-new character. It’s better than closing the curtain with another Shadaloo doll created with assets from another character. (Note: I’m taking about Decapre from Ultra Street Fighter IV, who surprisingly never made it to SFV despite having a character model.) What makes Luke interesting is the style he utilizes, and what he represents in terms of the Street Fighter brand.
Luke uses an MMA kickboxer style that relies on fast punches and occasional kicks, already enough for him to stand out from the rest of SFV’s roster. He can also use his fists for quick projectiles, the faster variants of which look to be part of powered-up forms granted through either a V-Skill or a V-Trigger. His move set is combo-heavy, with target combos, links, and attacks that juggle the opponent. They made sure to hide how much damage individual hits and combos do, because nearly everything about the character is still being adjusted, but he could be formidable depending how difficult it is for him to damage opponents.
Again, it’s why he’s here that makes for a more interesting story. Capcom mentioned in their press release that Luke “will help expand the world of Street Fighter and provide fans with a glimpse into the future.” The trailer revealing Luke is about as long as all the other character reveal videos, nowhere near long enough to get a feel for him. But it is enough to showcase how he has a little bit of everything. Multi-hit combos? Yup. Long-range attacks? He has that quick-hitting beam fist. Anti-air? There’s a Shoryuken-like uppercut. Mid-range attack? He’s got an elbow charge, though it looks unsafe on block. Overhead? There’s a flip kick for that, and an overhead punch that could also accomplish that goal. This dude’s the total package.
It’s tough not to read the part about Luke being a “glimpse into the future” of Street Fighter as Capcom implying that he’ll be one of the central new characters in Street Fighter VI, which I’m hoping implies a couple of points. It gives me hope that SFVI’s characters will feel feature-complete at launch, unlike a bunch of characters who were lacking in terms of having a fulfilling move set near SFV’s launch. Launching a game specifically for the eSports and tournament crowd that would receive necessary and constant updates for years was a nice idea in theory, but it’s better when games and characters at least feel complete for the main game you drop $60 (or, goodness, $70 in the future) on.
I’m also hoping this means SFVI’s cast will be led by new faces like Luke, but this is admittedly wishful thinking. I’d like for it to be the new equivalent to the Street Fighter III games, where the cast largely consisted of new characters. But Capcom may not be brave enough to do this after the SFIII games were financial disappointments, even after they abandoned the plan to entirely reboot the cast and added Ryu and Ken to the first SFIII version (and Akuma and Chun-Li in subsequent versions). There’s no chance of them leaving familiar faces out with Ryu becoming a mascot for the company, and Chun-Li to a lesser extent. The other new characters will ideally have better designs than Luke.
I don’t intend to undersell the other characters coming to SFV before Luke, of course. Oro and Akira will arrive well before him. Oro debuted in SFIII, and the gameplay trailer shows how his move set has been adapted to SFV’s style well. Akira is the slightly more interesting addition here, with this being the character’s first playable appearance in an SF game. She hails from the Rival Schools/Project Justice series, with a move set that needed serious modifications for the franchise. She excels at short and mid-range combos, and is one of the few to have an air combo. Both characters will arrive on Monday, August 16th, so it won’t be long before good players have time to experiment with them.
Luke, on the other hand, won’t arrive until November. His arrival will be bittersweet by being SFV’s final roster addition, but the core game will still receive at least a couple of updates for balancing after he arrives for future tournaments — which will hopefully happen in person again one day soon. The countdown for SFVI will subsequently begin, but it’s unlikely to arrive until 2023 at the earliest.
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Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
