Capcom 'underestimated' popularity of Street Fighter 5's single-player features
In a recent interview, SF5 producer Yoshinori Ono apologizes for game's current state, and promises more to come.
Street Fighter 5? More like Street Fighter 4.5, am I right?
For everything SF5's gameplay nails, the game is likely to go down in infamy for what can most kindly be described as a disappointing launch: threadbare single-player modes, server snafus, and barely there A.I.—and that's just for starters. Producer Yoshinori Ono is aware of the game's paucity of content, and admits he and the team didn't quite plan on the absence of Street Fighter staples like Arcade Mode ruffling so many feathers.
Speaking to Game Informer (via Gamespot), Ono admitted "that we underestimated the popularity of some of the single-player features. That said, we are excited about the two all-new single-player modes--character story and survival--and we have plans to continue to refine and expand onto those experiences."
Not that Capcom will be resting on its laurels until then. "As we've stated in the past, Street Fighter V is an evolving platform that will continue to get more refined and built upon over time," Ono said. "For us, this is a marathon and not a sprint, and we appreciate all of the words of support as we embark on this journey together."
Sorry, Mr. Ono. You won't be getting much in the way of "words of support" from me. Speaking as a fan of the Street Fighter franchise since being gob smacked by the colorful characters and fluid animations of SF2 the first time I laid eyes (and quarters) on its sleek arcade cabinet, I'm pretty bummed at how cobbled-together SFV has felt. Ono 'fessed up in the interview that Capcom all but pushed the game out of the nest before it could fly to get it in front of pro players in time for Capcom Pro Tour in February.
But for players like me, who don't play much multiplayer online or with friends (note: I'm not as sad and lonely as that clause implies), Arcade Mode was the bread-and-butter of Street Fighter 2, 3, and 4. I can even overlook the absence of Story Mode. This is Street Fighter: Ken's a goof, Ryu wants new and better challengers, Guile combs his hair. Who cares about backgrounds for these two-dimensional toons? I wanted a ladder-based, traditional arcade game mode with A.I. that toed the line between cheap and dumb.
Will I ever get that? Maybe later.
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replyDavid Craddock posted a new article, Capcom 'underestimated' popularity of Street Fighter 5's single-player features
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Lack of arcade mode is why I haven't picked it up.
I don't have a collection of friends who are into video games, let alone the niche corner of video games that is fighting games. I played these games doing my best to master everyone against the CPU and they offered a ton of replayability for the single player. -
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I don't quite understand it, either. Fighting game AI has always been dumb. Either not challenging in the slightest, or input reading cheap with very little middle ground. Even when it appears to be balanced, the victories feel hollow and pointless. The only thing it's good for these days is telling a dumb story like MK9.
If I'm not playing real people online or offline, I have little reason to play a fighting game at all these days. But if a fighting game came out with a Forza-like drivatard system that turned AI opponents into realistic human amalgams based on their behaviors, that could be interesting.
Like if you could "play" anyone on the leaderboards, friends who aren't online, the best players in the world for fun, anyone around your rank when the matchmaking is taking forever and not finding anyone, etc. -
It's not about whether or not I like it. It's about rounding out a sequel by including a feature that's been there since the franchise's beginning, and shouldn't be that difficult to implement.
More to the point, the absence of more single-player content speaks to Capcom rushing a product and trying to cash in on it.-
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You can do that in training mode and also the crummy survival modes in SFV.
Training mode is probably best for learning in the way you want, because you can set the CPU level with no waiting between rounds for casual sparring and testing of moves, or just beat on the stationary training dummy and alter settings (like block after first hit for combo practice, if he blocks successive hits your timing is off, incredibly useful for learning). They also added a challenge mode with trials that teach you some basic and advanced combos for each character.
While survival mode is basically this game's arcade style mode. You go from round to round to character to character, but it's just real crappy how it's done. The AI doesn't even try for the first 3/4 of the ladder. A huge waste of time all around.
But even with some basic knowledge, the best way to learn and improve is to play real people. Getting stomped is part of it, you'll keep picking up new things you can then try to integrate into your repertoire. Arcade mode can only teach you so much, and like survival in this game also corrupts you with some bad habits that will only serve to get you crushed online, because the AI never fights like real people, so you in turn don't play or counter them like a real person would.-
btw I'm not excusing them for not including an arcade mode, it's a series staple, a no-brainer inclusion and should always be there. Just saying there are far better ways to learn than slogging through standard arcade mode AI matches. Training mode gives you options to go at your own pace with the dummy options, and also adjust CPU difficulty on demand.
Personally, arcade mode was always a chore for me, something you had to do to access locked or hidden characters or whatever. So I wasn't upset that it was gone, but I was really bummed they tied the unlockables to the horrible survival mode instead. Getting new character & costume colors is such a fucking chore in this game. It's unbelievable, straight up waste of time grind. Unlocking Gouken in vanilla SF4 was far less of a hassle.
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Because it's a known quantity. You can build and adjust and develop based upon whatever limited time you may or may not have. Love playing against AI, can't stand playing against humans for that very reason.
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My comment was a generalised statement based on your saying you didn't understand why people liked playing against an A.I. Some of the most memorable games for me were with Q1/2 and HL1 bots.
For some of us, the draw is SP and offline botplay. It saddens me that people think it's less valid than going up against an opponent that would potentially always be better than you because of their physiology (age, neural response, reflexes). Bots are a known quantity, but at the same time, some of the most advanced Quake bots exhibited amazingly adaptive behaviour, and they were fun, so much fun.-
you compared Quake bots to SF arcade ai. statement invalid.
quake bots are way more like the SFV training mode in that you download bots or got specific bot maps for a specific skill training. whereas sfv arcade mode was just like playing quake 3 single player 'campaign'.
all that said, I do understand that a large enough amount of people do want arcade mode that I was surprised that it didn't ship on release.-
I didn't compare the AI to anything.
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I make an airplane "whoosh" and "doot duh doot du dooo" between starting ai fights. it's good enough for me. sometimes I'll do a https://gaming.youtube.com/watch?v=a3nLDgC2dO0 as well
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Will wait for the inevitable Super Street Fighter Ultra Extreme - R Alpha edition. No, I won't. I barely played 4, so I'm cutting my losses.
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When I was 11 or 12, I walked right up to a guy playing SF2: Hyper Fighting and popped in 50 cents. The guy, who looked to be in his early 20s, blew his top. He settled down and we played. I beat him. He walked away fuming.
I thought he overreacted. It's an arcade game; you're in a public place, not your living room. Still, I made sure to ask people playing competitive games solo if they'd mind if I played against them from that point forward.-
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Lol, underestimated? How?! Everyone, everywhere knows that a casual fighting game player's introduction to a game is through single player story mode. It's basically the most important thing about getting someone in to the game.
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Some other fighting games are trying to teach fundamentals through tutorials with in engine mini games check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMH6OABh7bw (fast forward to like 2 minutes). I'm wondering if that type of stuff actually helps beginners and makes things more accessible.
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they also 'underestimated' popularity of good graphics. visually, sfv is one of the ugliest games ever released. it's not just the hair clipping either, it's much more than that . some of the background characters look like they are ripped straight from a ps2 with how shitty they are animated and modeled. fuck you capcom
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They catered to the pro crowd a bit too much.
