For months fans of Capcom’s Street Fighter 6 have been demanding signs of Ed, the next DLC character in Street Fighter 6’s first season lineup and, at last, it seems their prayers have been answered. Ed was given a teaser trailer just this Thursday, a trailer that was rather unceremonious but very pleasant, as well as a general timeframe as to when to expect him: sometime in February.
The trailer is a cutscene from Ed’s World Tour section. As with all characters in World Tour, they’re given a short introduction video before taking you in as their student, and it seems that this is no different. But just because it’s a cinematic trailer doesn’t mean there’s no gameplay to parse through here, they wouldn’t feature moves in this trailer if they weren’t in his movelist.
The most notable move in the video comes at the very end; Ed’s Snatcher was one of his most iconic moves in Street Fighter 5 and it looks to make a return as probably the centerpiece of his kit come this game. There’s also the jabs and sways he uses against the Shadoloo goons, indicating that he hasn’t abandoned his identity as a kickboxer, and you can expect moves like Flicker to make their return. Also, his dash around the big guy before the Snatcher is very reminiscent of his V Reversal from Street Fighter 5, where he would reposition himself around his opponent; positioning is very powerful in Street Fighter 6, so the ability to move around an enemy is a very powerful one and has exciting implications for the future.
In terms of story, we don’t know too much. Ed is practically the centerpiece of Street Fighter 6’s World Tour post-game, though we don’t know what Street Fighter 6 main antagonist JP has in store for him, and from the previews neither does Ed. There’s also the possibility of a liaison NPC for Ed, both Rashid and AKI had them in the form of Azam and FANG respectively, so there should be an exciting cameo to feature as Ed’s NPC. It could be a number of characters from Ed’s group in Street Fighter 5, dubbed Neo Shadoloo, though the frontrunners would be his adoptive father Balrog or his love interest Falke.
In the end, this was merely a short preview for Ed, but Street Fighter 6 players are chomping at the bit for any news whatsoever so this trailer was a pleasant surprise. We think we can speak for every Street Fighter fan when we say that we’re very much looking forward to his release come February, and Akuma’s release in the Spring, likely during Capcom Cup, after that.