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Street Fighter IV Q&A with Ono San

Yoshinori Ono, producer on Capcom's upcoming fighter, answers 3 questions, posed by users on the Capcom forums:

Nabil Mishima: Will SF3’s parrying system be implemented in Street Fighter 4?

Ono-san: The short answer to that is no. I think blocking was just too hardcore for most people and there were only few that could actually pull it off. Street Fighter 4, being a fighting tool, is made primarily based on the SF2 system. I’ve been using the metaphor of SF4 being like a game of chess, but I honestly can’t find a better way to put it than that. SF3 is rather like a world pro chess tournament in terms of difficulty and complexity, but on the other hand a game of chess can be enjoyed at home with friends. SF4 aims to be exactly that where it can cater for any level of playing but starts off quite beginner friendly. This doesn’t mean it isn’t deep, but it is just a lot easier for people who are not used to this type of game to get into. To prove that it isn’t an ‘EZ mode’ game, instead of blocking system there now is the ‘Focus Attack’ and hardcore players will be spending many hours perfecting their skills in making a full use of this new feature.

Ryu Kazama: Online play is a huge deal in the modern age however, there are some issues that plague online gaming. How will you ensure that matches are kept fair as possible? How will those who disconnect be punished whilst those with legitimate connection problems be kept exempt?

Ono-san: In fighting games lags and disconnections are inevitably fatal, since we are talking about the advantage over a frame here… but then again even Capcom can’t, very nearly but can’t quite, change the law of physics and make data any faster than the speed of light. We are working on the ways to go around it by cutting the lags within the game system and the interface that are not directly connected to the actual data travelling process so to make the lag time as small as possible, i.e. the real time it takes for the light to travel the whatever distance.

Samuel: Do you design a character and fit a fighting style to them, or do you fit a character around a fighting style?

Ono-san: This really depends on the case. For instance the new character C.Viper, her concept design came first (hell yeah!) and the moves and combos came afterwards to fit that image. Abel, had his moves and the concept design developed in parallel and for El Fuerte the moves came first and then the character. Oh by the way El Fuerte is my favourite character at the moment, he is cool. That’s about it I think… oh, ehh Rufus! I hear people commenting on his rather unique appearance, but have him stand next to Blanka for example, now he is pretty normal, right? I think one thing that is really good about Street Fighter is that these characters are so themselves. I love it.

Some nice information there, as we eagerly await what should be a gigantic step for beat-em-ups. Also, over at the main Street Fighter 4 Page, Capcom has unveiled the u.s and european box art. So which character has the coveted spot as the face of Street Fighter IV? Chun Li? Ryu? Maybe Akuma? Or perhaps someone entirely new?

Head over and check it out,
PaddyBass, Over and Out!

Published on 2008-10-06 13:08:06