Street Fighter V hasn’t even been out for two weeks, but already fans are feeling a little disappointed. The problem is that Street Fighter V feels less like an official release and much more like a platform for future content, which is a problem when it’s being sold as a full-priced game. Although a storm of updates and content releases are surely scheduled for the coming months, there are still a number of pressing gameplay issues that need to be addressed immediately. In this list, we will address 12 of the biggest problems that have resulted in Street Fighter fans being less than impressed with what is supposed to be the fifth major title in the classic fighting game series.
12. No Standard Arcade Mode
As far as fighting games go, this is a most egregious error. The omission of a basic versus CPU mode has been a lot of players’ biggest complaint since the game’s release. And for good reason: not having an arcade mode where players can practice against the computer in various match set-ups (best of 3, best of 5, etc.) and difficulty levels just feels weird, especially given how easy it would have been to implement.
As an alternative, some fans have suggested going into the Training mode and setting the dummy up to represent an A.I. fight by swapping characters and various regimens until you’re satisfied. But the truth of the matter is that we shouldn’t have to be doing that in the fifth major installment of the most iconic fighting game of all time. Competitive fighting games require vs. CPU options that include tweakable settings for everything from difficulty to round time and arena selection. In this respect, Street Fighter V definitely feels like it took a step backwards.
11. No Difficulty Setting In Story Mode
First off let it be noted that, in its current state, Street Fighter V‘s story mode is atrocious. Although Capcom has stated that there will be a full-fledged story mode released free of charge later this year, the fact that they didn’t just wait a little longer and include it at launch seems like a horrible decision — one that’s all the more emphasized by the absence of difficulty settings in the game’s current version. Even someone who has never played a Street Fighter game can whip through the story mode without feeling the least bit challenged. As it stands right now, the only thing that the story mode is good for is trying out new characters, and that’s only because there’s no arcade mode anymore.
Without an arcade mode or the ability to increase the difficulty in story mode, the single player features of Street Fighter V are sorely lacking. If you happen to be someone who’s just getting into the game and you don’t have anyone to play local multiplayer with, then chances are you’re going to be very disappointed with this offering.
10. No Online Character Select
Most veteran Street Fighter players have a main character they’re best with. Perhaps you like the balanced abilities of Ryu, or the quickness of Chun-Li, or the brute strength of Zangief. Following that logic, Street Fighter V‘s online mode attempts to speed up the matchmaking process by doing away with the traditional character selection screen before each match and instead having you choose a preferred fighter as part of your profile. In practice, this means there’s no way to switch characters in between fights without going back to the options menu and adjusting your profile.
Capcom must have known that some people would be annoyed by this, so why not make a feature that can be toggled on and off? We understand that they want to streamline online play, but sometimes people like to mix things up a bit and this really seems to discourage that. New players especially aren’t even going to have a specific character in mind, so to force them to choose a preferred character without even knowing who they’re best with just seems wrong.
9. Buggy Servers
For long-time Street Fighter fans, the biggest problem with SFV so far would have to be the crippling server issues. When the game launched people almost immediately started reporting crashes, connection problems, and fatal error messages.
The good news is Capcom has already provided an update on the post-launch status of Street Fighter V, which highlights a handful of pressing issues which have now been resolved. The developers noted several network and sever issues across both PC and PlayStation 4 that have all been remedied. As for the online community, although random disconnections do sometimes happen, it’s been reported that that problem is occurring less frequently. And thanks to a “server side fix,” the hiccups that many players were experiencing during matchmaking have been eliminated. However, on the PC side, the developers are still looking into problems associated with Fighter ID corruption and game-crashing bugs.
8. Dropped Frames
Some people are having issues with frame drops during fights, but it only seems to occur on specific stages. It’ not the same stages for everyone, but a lot of players appear to be having this problem. If you happen to be experiencing this issue and it’s hindering your game, some players have reported that fighting in the Training stage can alleviate the problem. With any luck, Capcom will address this bug in a future patch.
7. Gamepad / Arcade Stick Problems On PC
On PC, Street Fighter V doesn’t support DirectInput, meaning that if your gamepad or arcade stick isn’t Xinput-enabled you’ll be forced to use something else like Joy2Key or X360ce, which might not operate as smoothly. If you notice you’re having problems with an Xinput controller, try exiting the game, unplugging the controller, then plugging it back in and restarting the game.
6. No Tutorials or Challenge Mode
Street Fighter IV’s Training and Challenge modes did a great job of providing players with a useful way to learn all the ins and outs of any given character. Street Fighter V, on the other hand, leaves you with virtually no options to hone your skills other than repeated trial and error. And since the story mode has no adjustable difficulty setting, you’re forced to practice either against the pitifully easy A.I. or the often too challenging online opponents.
Street Fighter has always been a game that’s very easy to pick up and play but incredibly difficult to master. Street Fighter V brings with it a number of new game mechanics that are left almost completely unexplained. For instance, what do the various V-triggers and V-skills do? Where are we supposed to go to find this information? Why are we forced to look these things up on internet game guides and YouTube videos? This is all fundamental game design stuff and it’s just not included. Street Fighter V desperately needs a mode where players can look up and practice things like special attacks, combos, Ultras, and, most importantly, the new V-Mechanics.
5. The V-System Is Poorly Implemented
Speaking of the V-System, it comes with its own set of problems. In a game as competitive as Street Fighter, tweaking even the smallest aspect of gameplay can have huge implications. Street Fighter V serves up a few game-changing features with the introduction of the new V-System — a trio of mechanics that include ‘Skill’, ‘Trigger,’ and ‘Reversal,’ all of which will have different status effects depending on the character they’re used with. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t make any attempt to explain these abilities. and there’s no way to bring up a list of them all to try each one out and get a feel for how they work. Instead, you’re basically left to analyze what happens when an opponent uses one of them on you or in the off chance that you trigger one by accident. After awhile, you might be able to conclude on your own that certain V-mechanics increase your characters damage or speed, but this is an aspect of the game that’s really begging for a tutorial. New players will probably have absolutely no idea what they’re doing.
4. The Character Roster Is Too Small
Along with the lack of game modes and absence of difficulty settings is an utter lack of characters, character unlocks, maps, and all the other basic building blocks of what a fighting game should be in 2016. Of course, in the age of DLC, we know there will be plenty of other characters released in the future, but right now the availability of only 16 fighters seems like a slap in the face when you consider that the last release in the series, Ultra Street Fighter IV, had a 44 character roster.
Granted, Capcom probably wanted to limit the number of launch characters so players could better utilize the V-System for differentiation, but they seriously couldn’t have expected to leave out series mainstays like Blanka, Sagat, and Akuma without experiencing a huge backlash from players who have literally been using those characters for decades. Of course, we’ll likely be getting all of those characters in the future, but it remains to be seen whether or not we’ll get them for free. For now, players will just have to make due with the paltry selection that’s available.
3. Too Much Catering To The eSports Crowd
This could ultimately be the source of all of Street Fighter V’s problems. There’s nothing wrong with Capcom making a game that’s more geared towards hardcore players and competitive pros. In fact, it’s great that they’re devoted to seeing Street Fighter remain a staple of the emerging and exciting world of eSports. However, focusing on eSports to the detriment of the offline experience and the wider fan base just seems like a mistake from a game design perspective. A game like Street Fighter should have no problem providing an experience for both hardcore players and more casual gamers. If anything, opening up the game to a wider audience would give the eSports community a boost because more players would be interested in watching the pros to see what they can learn.
2. Key Features Missing
Some of the more experienced players might be able to forgive Street Fighter V’s lack of modes, but when the game’s actual functionality seems so buggy to the point where the whole experience feels disjointed, it leaves people who just paid $60 for a triple-A title with a bad taste in their mouths.
For example, the game’s online store is MIA. After you complete the three fights in any of the character’s “Story Mode,” you receive virtual currency that you can use to buy DLC costumes and characters in a store that doesn’t even exist yet. Apparently the storefront will go live sometime in March along with the Challenge Mode that currently remains greyed out on the menu screen.
1. The Game Doesn’t Feel Finished
For all the reasons mentioned above, Street Fight V is a game that ultimately feels very unfinished. We know that Capcom will be releasing a bunch of updates in the coming months, including a new character and two new (old) game modes. Over timem the online mode will hopefully become much more stable as they smooth out all the bugs and glitches. But if Capcom wanted fans to be understanding about why they’re playing a half-baked game, they could have done a better job of mitigating expectations by releasing what is essentially an “Early Access” Street Fighter V.
The very idea of Early Access is built around the idea of paying for a game before it’s finished and then watching it come together in the weeks and months leading up to its official release, but this model doesn’t really feel right for a full-priced, triple-A game such like Street Fighter V. Nevertheless, Street Fighter V will more than likely be a great game eventually; it just didn’t live up to the expectations of what a “full game” release should be.
