Ken announced for Street Fighter V!

Ken has been formally announced for Street Fighter V!

Trailer, from CAPCOM UK:

Also, gameplay demo, as seen on IGN.

So, what do we know? First off, of course, is that glorious ponytail. Ken eschews his traditional red gi for a shirt, and has pulled back his hair in a functional ‘do. (which this author actually also rocked for a while during his own martial arts training) This seems to be a serious attempt by the Street Fighter team to differentiate Ken from his long-time moveset brother Ryu, but not just visually; Ken seems to eschew the classic Shoto mechanics that we know and love and has mixed it up quite a bit since we last saw him. So, what do we know?

There’s the V-Skill and V-Trigger of course, Ken’s V-Skill being a command dash (shades of SNK vs Capcom, but this looks more efficient) that feels like it’ll step up Ken’s rushdown gameplay. In the videos and matches released since his announcement, we’ve seen lots of juggle shenanigans that would make frustrated kara shoryuken wannabes weep with joy.

We’ve consistently seen SFV characters cancel into their V-Skills, and Ken seems to be no different. Trailer’s shown aerial tatsuumaki being used as a divekick(!) of sorts, launching the opponent, then V-Skill ‘Quick Step’ being used to chase for the finishing touches. Since we brought up the tatsuumaki though, how about the arc on that hurricane kick?

His tatsuumaki doesn’t seem to travel in a straight line anymore, and travels in a slight arc that reminds me of Sakura’s kick; We’ve also seen it launch when coming down from the air, particularly vicious when paired with his V-Trigger. Ken’s V-Trigger ‘Heat Rush’ gives him an incendiary state on his moves. I don’t know what special properties it adds to his attacks yet, but we’ve seen launches, and I’m pretty sure it does additional damage.

So, Ken seems to be packing the same arsenal (Shoryuken, Hadoken, Tatsuumaki) but the way he’s been packaged into this system, we’re given a whole new way to use one of the two classic shotos of the fighting game genre. Ryu feels like he’d be more rock solid, what with his parry as a skill and clean-cut attacks, but Ken here feels like he’s got some top-rate rushdown designed to keep even the most deliberate of players on their toes.

In additional Street Fighter V News, Capcom announced three beta test phases; the first being on July 23 as mentioned on a previous post, with the two others yet to be announced. Also, rumors abound that a lot of Street Fighter alums may be making their way to this game. Nothing guaranteed yet, but Alex and R.Mika seem to be mentioned a lot. (Edit: Also, Urien and Karin.)

Speaking of new characters, though.

 
Who’s this dude? Teased at the end of the Ken trailer, he doesn’t look like anyone from previous rosters; so far, people think this might be the new brazilian character who was hinted at in previous news, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Street Fighter V is currently in development to be released for PC and PS4, estimated to be launched sometime around Spring 2016.

Sources:
Official Capcom UK
IGN
Eventhubs
Polygon
Shoryuken.com