One of the things that makes Street Fighter such an enduring and legendary game series is its iconic characters. Players will fondly remember the first time they attacked an opponent with Ryu’s Shoryuken, sent Guile a Sonic Boom, or smashed Chun-Li’s Lightning Kick. Many of the series’ favorite characters return for Street Fighter 6, but with fresh designs that convey the cast’s long-established personalities and skills. We sat down with Capcom to discuss giving the old Street Fighter a new look.
Takayuki Nakayama is the game director for Street Fighter 6. He joined Capcom in 2012 and began his Street Fighter journey with his work on Ultra Street Fighter IV. “We are working on a new numbered series title, so this was our chance to redesign all the characters,” he said. “As a sort of challenge, we wanted to give all of our Legacy characters striking new designs and make them look very different from past designs of characters we’ve seen before.”
Some characters like Chun-Li were particularly challenging. “It took us several years to arrive at the final design. Chun-Li has long been one of the most important and outstanding characters. is such a beloved character that people have strong feelings about what Chun-Li should look like in a modern Street Fighter game.”
The RE engine pops any character model onto the screen. However, a closer study of them reveals that each of the 18 strong starting members has a different muscle tone. This is the result of an experiment involving a 3D photo scan of her in person by a small team at a studio dedicated to more accurately portraying muscle definition given age, gender and fighting style. For example, a wrestler like E. Honda has a completely different definition of muscles than a professional wrestler like Zangief.
But the Street Fighter II-era fighter, whose redesign generated a lot of social media buzz, first appeared in Super Street Fighter II and has been a fan favorite for decades. It was Cammy White, a blonde, bombshell British brawler.
When Cammy first hit the town, she wore a bright red beret and matching gloves, accented by a signature green leotard that accentuated her legs. This was fitting for a femme fighter who could crush his opponents with his powerful thighs. This became her classic look known as Delta Red, named after the elite Special Forces unit Cammy was in in Street Fighter legends.
When X-Men vs. Street Fighter premiered in 1996, she wore a chunky, long-sleeved baby blue dress and hat, but with big red gloves and, most notably, thick pointy bangs. A long blond ponytail and the scars on her face remained intact. This “Killer Bee” outfit represents a time when she was influenced by supervillain M. Bison as one of her “dolls” and, as it was later revealed, his DNA It was a female clone that holds most.
A lot has changed in the world of Street Fighter 6. Shadaloo no longer exists. Cammy’s quest for revenge against Bison seems to have come to an end. But she’s still there and continues to fight in her new outfit. Gone are the sexy leotards, replaced by bright sky blue jackets and navel-baring crop tops. Her legs are covered by her training pants in stretch fabric. A smart choice for athletic women.
“Cammy feels that the end of Shadaloo is another milestone that will allow her to chart her own path and live a more normal life. The leotard is a more combative outfit,” explains Nakayama. “When I first met her on her world tour, she was in London, and I realized that in that context, it might seem strange to see her in a classic outfit. I try to keep that in mind when designing new costumes.”
The most notable change is Cammy’s hairstyle. Gone are the long braids that came with her other standard outfits, replaced with a new and perky short trim. But she still has big sharp bangs that look amazingly intimidating as an accent to her short haircut.
Ms. Nakayama explained the thought process behind her bold new ‘behavior’. “We thought it would be an interesting challenge to give her a short hairstyle. She doesn’t have a classic braid, but that seems to be the defining point of her design.” During the development of Street Fighter V, I had the opportunity to change it, and while I was afraid the fans would react negatively, the idea seemed to be well received. I decided to use it in Street Fighter 6. Her hair may be short, but the straps on her jacket are meant to remind her of her classic braid. , that’s our creative callback touch.”
So how do you change something as big as an iconic hairstyle and keep your character recognizable?
“The silhouette of the character is very important,” says Nakayama. “As you may know, Cammy is quite petite compared to other large characters in the game, so we wanted to keep the essence of the character.”
The design team stayed true to her previous designs and also left some recognizable features like her gloves and boots to help with gameplay. “When a particular attack hits an opponent, it has to be obvious. That’s why we kept her gloves. Once the attack connects, it’s easy to see what happens.” The rings on her boots are like hit detection point indicators, so they’re easier to visually identify when playing games.”
But if you’re very attached to your old look, don’t despair. Many long-standing legacy characters have classic costumes available in-game, including Cammy. Take a look at the outfits below.
The team also took the opportunity to add many clever little touches. “When a character uses up all of their Drive Gauge, they go into Burnout Mode, and while in that mode their stance changes slightly. It turns into something reminiscent of the sketch inside.”
There is also a lot of fan service that goes further. “When you see her victory pose after a match or on the character select screen, you’ll notice a little cat walking by her. The ending refers to her illustrations.”
With Cammy’s new look, it’s no surprise that the gameplay has changed a bit. “Cammy is historically a difficult character to develop. It’s hard to give her new moves because she doesn’t have super powers. Giving Cammy projectiles is like killing the essence of her character.” One of the ideas we came up with was to reference the Street Fighter II animated movie.” As you’ll notice, the studio deliberated on giving her a projectile attack that matched her background.
“We thought, ‘What if we gave her a grenade she could throw?’ put away. In the end, we were able to enhance her existing moves set in Street Fighter V. We continued that in Street Fighter 6, allowing her to “hold” her special moves and apply different attributes to those moves. ”
The love that goes into the characters of Street Fighter 6 is evident not only in Nakayama’s words, but also in what you see on screen. We can’t wait to see all your old favorites and build your own legendary Street Fighter when Street Fighter 6 hits the ring on June 2, 2023.
