Earlier today at Paris Games Week, Capcom unveiled a familiar face for its upcoming fighting game Street Fighter V: the stretchy-limbed yoga master, Dhalsim. Dhalsim is a veteran from the original lineup of Street Fighter 2, but his moves have been drastically reworked to make him a much more slippery and elusive combatant, featuring new traps and opportunities for mind games that use his trademark elastic punches and kicks, teleports, and fire attacks. He has also received a visual makeover, now sporting a beard that accentuates his status as a wise old sage.
You can see snippets of Dhalsim’s gameplay in action in the video below, as well as read about what new techniques the yoga guru has picked up in his latest appearance here.
Capcom’s past pattern for reveals has been to reveal characters whose nationalities match the location of the expos where they are revealed. Why Dhalsim was chosen to be revealed at Paris Games Week, and not at India’s new gaming convention, Indian Games Expo (IGX), in Mumbai next month, has Street Fighter fans questioning who the next reveal will be.
Dhalsim’s reveal runs concurrently with another development in the world of Street Fighter V that has fans on the edges of their seats. This thread on NeoGAF, posted yesterday, examines a laundry list of code datamined in the last beta test’s files that is a treasure trove of future SFV content. Included in the breakdown are code strings that detail how many characters and stages will be available at the game’s launch, as well as theme songs for each character and assets for potential future characters. These characters – Urien, Alex, Ibuki, Juri, Balrog, Dhalsim (who was unrevealed at the time the post was made), Guile, Nadeshiko, and two more mysteriously labeled “FAN” and “TUT” – are far from confirmed by Capcom, but the fact that their character meshes (the collection of triangles that connect to form a character’s 3D model) closely match those of the current playable characters is enough to hype up Street Fighter V’s fanbase.
At the same time, Street Fighter V’s producer, Yoshinori Ono, has invited fans to speculate on the identities of the below six silhouettes, which seems to lend the above leaks more credence.
This latest datamine echoes a past leak for Capcom’s 2013 title, Street Fighter X Tekken, wherein dataminers discovered finished characters and content locked away in the release copy of the game. This incident enraged many players and proved to be a public relations disaster for Capcom. Whether the latest slew of leaks will elicit similar reactions remains to be seen, but for now, most fans seem to be more excited than angry.
In addition to these tantalizing details, Capcom has announced some more mundane information about the game itself. The above post by Capcom USA’s Digital Media Manager, Haunts, confirms that the game will be receiving plenty of post-release content:
In case you haven’t heard, Street Fighter V is moving away from doing large bundles of post launch content, such as our prior Super or Ultra upgrades, and instead will be continuously releasing new post launch content on a regular basis. No longer will you need to wait one or two years for new Street Fighter goodness; it will always be right around the corner.
Capcom also plans to implement a leveling system that they are currently calling the “Fight Money System.” Players will be able to earn characters, stages, and other features by accruing Fight Money, an in-game currency that can be acquired in two ways. The first method is by completing daily goals, which resembles the Daily Quests seen in games like Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm that task players with performing certain actions or playing as certain characters in matches. In the context of Street Fighter V, these ‘dailies’ could include landing X number of counterhits, landing X number of anti-air attacks, or landing X number of a certain special move. Players will also be able to earn Fight Money by ‘leveling’ characters; that is, by playing them in matches and earning experience points. Leveling a character will not give it a statistical advantage. Rather, it will simply demonstrate how much time a player has put into mastering a character. Both systems encourage players to experiment with different characters and playstyles to maximize their Fight Money income.
If players don’t feel like grinding for Fight Money, they can purchase SFV’s premium currency, Zenny, with real money to instantly buy a character.
This latest bundle of info has revealed much about the future of Street Fighter V, but more is still yet to come in the coming months. Fans now crack their knuckles in anticipation of the next revealed character, who is likely slated to be shown at IGX next month.
Street Fighter V is set to release in February 2016 for PS4 and PC.