In the twilight of its lifespan, Street Fighter 5 begins its final content season this week, bringing with it several important and requested changes. After its almost five-year lifespan, the final round of characters and updates to Capcom’s premier fighting game will bookend its often-controversial release. Despite criticisms of lacking content, a detrimental online multiplayer experience, among other gripes, the fifth entry has come a long way from its troublesome beginnings. Consistent improvement and content updates have made Street Fighter 5 a far-improved experience, even with the latest Season 5 update, which makes several key changes to the game.
While this update ushers in the new character Dan, as well as the beginning of the last Street Fighter 5 character pass, a ton of balance and mechanic changes are also on the way. Whether that’s as big as the new V-Shift mechanic, or as small as minute frame date changes, nearly every character was adjusted significantly in this patch. Additionally, several quality-of-life changes continue to improve the initially maligned experience of the fifth Street Fighter game. Now, in 2021, Street Fighter 5 is in a much better place with these changes. Even if the netcode issues and other smaller issues are present, now is truly a great time to return to Street Fighter 5.
Starting with the defensive mechanic, Street Fighter 5‘s Season 5 update introduces the V-Shift capability. After inputting MK+HP in neutral stance (no direction), players can expend one portion of their V-Gauge for an invincible back dash. Unlike V-Reversals, which are activated specifically during block stun, V-Shifts can be used on any actionable frame to initiate the back dash. However, using the V-Shift as a sort-of “parry” (when a player is about to be hit) causes a slowdown that only uses half of V-Gauge, and allows for a fully-invincible follow-up attack as well. Each V-Shift “Break” has a ton of range, and can punish any hit/projectile/etc. from a short distance.
Additionally, there were significant changes made anti-air normals. Anti-air normals have existed in practically every Street Fighter game, but was a particular problem in Street Fighter 5 because of how easy and safe they were to do on reaction. Now that’s not necessarily the case in Street Fighter 5, as serious changes to aerial attacks and grounded normals make anti-air normals much less viable. Hurtboxes on all descending jumping attacks (regardless of strength) now have invincibility from grounded light anti-air attacks. Additionally, several grounded medium normals have also been adjusted with similar characteristics, making anti-airs much more committal.
Also worth noting, some character-specific aerial moves and wall jumps now have a special counter-hit state that occurs when they’re challenged. Now, certain countered aerial attacks and wall jumps will force a knockdown and/or allow for additional follow-ups after the counter hit. Changes to the hitstun and visual effects will denote when this new aerial counter state has been inflicted on an opponent.
Several characters were buffed/nerfed in this patch, as not many characters were safe from significant moveset changes. This particular portion won’t cover all of the character buffs and nerfs, rather the ones that are most significant to the lower and higher tier characters. A full list of patch notes from Capcom is available here for all character-specific changes.
Starting from the top of the tier list, the best Street Fighter 5 characters that received the most changes were arguably Akuma, Guile, G, Poison, Seth, and Urien. Specifically for Akuma, one of his most potent side-switch combos has been changed, as he can no longer use light Hurricane Kick after his V-Skill to swap sides mid-combo. Urien’s Aegis Reflector no longer activates if crush-countered during activation, while his EX tackle and Knee Drop frame advantage were nerfed. Guile’s Sonic Boom projectile is no longer +2 on block, and nearly all of his normals have increased recovery and bigger hurtboxes.
On the flip side, several key characters saw some big buffs in the most recent patch. Perhaps the most noticeable changes come to Ryu, who’s been notoriously lower on the tier list in every season of Street Fighter 5 after Season 1. His overall damage output has increased, alongside faster moves with greater frame advantage, a new target combo, greater combo potential with/without bar in general, and more. Nash is another character who saw some pretty significant buffs in general, though not even close to the same level as Ryu. Arguably G was buffed and simultaneously nerfed, but really his game plan really isn’t changed with any of his level changes.
Outside of characters and the new defensive mechanics, there were also several miscellaneous changes made during the Season 5 patch. The combo counter received some very specific air combo-related value changes, though this change really is not particularly noteworthy. Some recovery actions were adjusted to help support auditory and visual feedback: Quick-rising backwards produces a visual effect right after the motion starts, and all quick-rises now use different voice sounds depending on direction. One change, specific to damage scaling, mentions that any combo beginning with a throw/command throw will now count towards damage scaling in all combos.
Overall, this patch does bring a lot of really great changes to Street Fighter 5. The changes to anti-air normals are a much welcome fix, as many players from various skill levels criticized the game’s leniency on anti-airs with non-special attacks. V-Shift adds another element of defensive play in Street Fighter 5 that doesn’t immediately appear to be too overpowered, giving many characters another potential pressure escape option. While some of the balance changes may be unfortunate for some fans, many of them were much needed. Especially for Ryu, the poor low-tier hero who’s basically been at the bottom of tier lists in every season after Season 1.
Street Fighter 5 is available now on PC and PS4.
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