What once felt light on content is now bursting at the seams, between the cinematic story, short cut-scene based individual stories for each character, multiple arcade modes patterned after the history of the franchise, and an online suite laden with options and alternatives. Capcom released a full story mode within a few months of launch, and has added 24 more fighters, both new and familiar, through DLC. It felt like a game that didn’t really have any reason to exist, outside of Capcom’s financial interest in continually making new Street Fighter games. Its impact at the time was muted, and not just because it was (and remains) exclusive to the PlayStation 4 and PC.
The actual fighting was fine-although the new V-Gauge system felt a bit confused, as it tried to simplify some parts of the game in a way that’s a little complicated and confusing. When it came out in 2016, it felt unfinished it had a relatively small pool of fighters, and lacked some of the basic options usually found in fighting games, including a story mode.
Street Fighter V launched with an identity problem.
