The cat is out of Capcom’s bag a little early, and the big news Capcom and Yoshinori Ono have been holding back for the biggest tournament in fighting games, this weekend’s 2019 EVO, has leaked via early Steam listings. The listings reveal that Capcom will be releasing all three DLC characters for Season 4 of Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition at once, and the Steam listing were taken down pretty quickly.
Shortly after the leak, Street Fighter Producer Yoshinori Ono confirmed that the character reveals meant for EVO were real on Twitter and that they would be releasing on August 4th, after the Street Fighter V Grand Finals on Sunday. Ono also added that he is not going be attending this year.
It’s been quiet on the Street Fighter V front since the surprise release of Kage and a balance update during last year’s Capcom Cup in December, and Ono-san has been asking for patience from fans and players of the game as there would be big news in August, obviously referring to a Sunday EVO reveal. Since there’s no putting the reveal back in the box, Capcom uploaded the character gameplay reveal trailers to their Street Fighter YouTube channel early.
Season 4 of Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition will add E. Honda, Poison, and Lucia to the roster.
E. Honda’s return to the roster has been hinted at for while, and now all the original World Warriors are playable in Street Fighter V. Honda looks to have his familiar moves like the Hundred Hand Slap and the Oicho Nage, and it will be cool to see how he fits in with Street Fighter V‘s style . Honda’s classic public bath stage “Edo no Yu” seems to be coming to Street Fighter V too as “Honda Sento.”
Final Fight crossover character Poison is also returning with a new look, which coincides with Final Fight‘s 30th anniversary. Poison’s got a whip, but doesn’t seem to have her fireball this time around like she did in Ultra Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter x Tekken. It will be really interesting to see how Poison’s playstyle has evolved, and if she can still play a neutral-based or zoning-based game.
Lastly, a “new” character named Officer Lucia Morgan will be coming to Street Fighter V with Season 4. Lucia is a playable character in Final Fight 3 on the Super Nintendo, a friend of Metro City’s new mayor Cody, and is talking to Haggar in her introduction about cleaning up after the Mad Gear gang. Maybe she’ll strike up a friendship with fellow law enforcer Chun Li.
Each character will also have a set of costumes, including Summer costumes for Poison and Lucia. Maybe Capcom’s got an ace in the hole with a special E. Honda swimsuit Summer costume.
The new character trailers all show off current game mechanics, with each demonstrating V-Triggers I and II. It’s pretty unlikely that Capcom would reveal three new characters built using current mechanics and then reveal new mechanics, so those looking forward to a system overhaul for Street Fighter V might feel a bit crestfallen. That doesn’t rule out a possible balance changes as a Season 4.5-style patch, which could help bring some lower tier characters up to speed with perennial S-tier character picks like Akuma and Karin.
Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition is also offering a Free to Play trial period that includes the Season 3 characters that will run from August 1st through August 11th. EVO 2019 is being held at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas from August 2nd through August 4th, with Street Fighter‘s Grand Finals scheduled for Sunday at noon PDT.