Fridge / Street Fighter 6

Fridge Brilliance

• The revised logo itself.
  • The logo still manages to get the Roman numeral in, being rotated at a 90-degree angle to form the number 6.
  • Additionally, the logo also faintly forms an "S" and an "F", for Street Fighter, of course.
• From a gameplay standpoint, it is astonishingly appropriate that the Drive System is a composite of mechanics from the last three games, what with this being the sixth numbered installment in the mainline series. Similarly, the Classic vs. Modern controls can be seen as not just a newbie-friendly approach, but something akin to the Modes and ISM System of past games, as certain moves become inaccessible while others become much more readily usable in Modern, effectively meaning each character has two "variants" between the control modes.
• Speaking of 6, if you remember Luke debuted in SFV before this one, then this game also has six newcomers in total - Jamie, JP, Kimberly, Lily, Manon, and Marisa. Even further still is that SF6 is the game with the most original female newcomers of any launch roster, having four new female fighters in total.^note  SFII only had Chun-Li before Cammy would be introduced in SSFII, Alpha 1 had Rose before the later introductions of Ingrid, Juni & Juli, Karin, Maki, R. Mika, and Sakura, SFIII initially had only Elena and Ibuki before Makoto would debut in 3rd Strike, SFIV had C. Viper before Decapre, Juri, and Poison would be introduced, and finally SFV had Laura in its vanilla roster before the introduction of Akira, Falke, Kolin (in playable form, as she was an NPC in SFIII), Lucia, and Menat.
• In an early build of the game, the stances returning characters take when the drive gauge is empty is intentionally reminiscent of earlier appearances. With Street Fighter 6 taking place last in the timeline, it’s entirely possible that these callbacks are being made because the characters, being tired and put on the backfoot, are less cognizant of their stances and reverting back to habits they had when they were less experienced.
• Considering The Generation Gap between the returning characters of yesteryear and the newcomers of 6, Luke's appearance is quite appropriate. Whereas Ryu serves as the classic archetypical Generic Guy Shotoclone, Luke, on the other hand, is a modern take, with his personality and moveset reflecting as such. His main color motifs are also blue and yellow, same as his creator.
  • Actually, on the topic of said Generational Gap, if Luke is essentially a new-age Ryu in terms of role as the Mascot of SF6, then Jamie and Kimberly would serve as the new-age equivalents of Ken and Chun-Li, respectively. If one compares the traits of Ken/Chun-Li to those of Jamie/Kimberly, respectively, then they'd basically be Contrasting Sequel Main Characters with how much they differ from and have in common with each other.
  • Even the way these characters interacts with one another shows a Generational Gap. Ryu and Ken are lifelong friends and the poster boys for the term Friendly Rival, fighting one another as a means to learn and test one another. Luke and Jamie, while they know one another for a while, is far more vitriolic and spend far more time trying to one up each other.
• The comparisons between Luke's SFV and SF6 selves:
  • Him being the only character so far with a returning Leitmotif makes sense when you consider that he's supposed to be a Street Fighter 6 character first. As one YouTube comment pointed out in his theme, he was merely Guest Starring in SFV. Comparing the SFV version to the new version, "Taking Aim", it's a nice reflection of Luke being Older and Wiser in 6, having come a long way since his Hot-Blooded days from V.
  • In a way, how his V-Trigger functioned back in V would pave the way for this game's Drive Gauge. As opposed to building it up over time by either receiving damage or using V-Skills, you start out with a full gauge at the beginning of every round. Thus, like his V-Trigger, in order to drain the opponent's Drive Gauge (to put them in Burnout and be able to Stun them with a Drive Impact), you have to be the one to take the initiative in a fight (whether you're the offender or vice-versa) instead of waiting it out. Additionally, enhanced attacks (aka, EX Moves) also drain the gauge, just like how using specials enhanced by Luke's V-Trigger are the only way to drain it.
• Thinking about it, World Tour is essentially one big Antepiece for the main game (particularly Fighting Ground and Battle Hub, which most players will cut their teeth in), and by extension, the Fighting Game genre as a whole.
  • As you level up and progress through World Tour and unlock more mentors, you gain experience points, which is the rough equivalent of growing as a player (most especially if you plan on competing in big tournaments like Capcom Pro Tour or EVO, for example).
  • The affinity system for the masters in World Tour is essentially a meticulous and slow way of training the player with a given character. The master teaches you one or two fundamental signature moves and their basic attacks, but the player then has to go out and fight all the other styles while leaning heavily on the signature moves and the basic attacks... which causes the player to become familiar with the character's entire moveset, not just throwing one special move out constantly. Once they level up enough, they get another move to slot into their move list, and this keeps going until the player has unlocked the whole movelist for the master. This is actually the process of "labbing", i.e. practicing and studying all of a character's moves in training mode.
  • Speaking of, your player avatar globe-trotting and meeting with prominent Street Fighter characters and receiving tutelage from them wouldn't be too far off from players being mentored by big-name pros (e.g., BrolyLegs or Brian_F). Their having an affinity system is also something of an analogy for the camaraderie that the Fighting Game Community is known for.
  • At certain intervals, enemies will flash white; striking them during the said interval will lead to a Counter Hit or Punish Counter. In other words, whiff punishing.
  • Some mini-games flat-out have the player honing basic skills in universal fighting game inputs, like the Fruit Ninja-esque minigame teaching the player the basics of motion inputs while the basketball minigame from Street Fighter III returns and functions much like it did in that game, teaching players how to utilize their Drive Parry.
• It’s mentioned in M.Bison’s backstory that he killed his master and most other Psycho Power users prior to his start of power. So, why’s JP still alive? Because not only would JP’s dislike of combat, shown in his character guide and Arcade ending, preclude any desire to engage Bison, but his modus operandi of showing up (possibly under an alias), doing his work and disappearing would make him difficult to track, even for an organization with as much power as Shadaloo.
  • In light of JP's actual backstory, where in Bison is the one who actually imbued him with Psycho Power due to being impressed with his evil while he worked as Shadaloo's financier behind the scenes, it's entirely possible that the above explanation is more stretching the truth than anything else. As in, half that explanation is true, namely JP's dislike for combat being a good reason Bison wouldn't come after him, since there would be no necessary overlap or clashing within their methods and goals, thus they could easily coexist or even work together while staying out of each other's way. Him being difficult to track down is the stretch, mainly because it's a moot point since he was part of the organization...but the public doesn't know this, making it the perfect cover to help obscure any connection between the two should authorities try to question him.
• In World Tour mode, while you can give your Master any gift to increase your Bond with them, some of them prefer gifts more than others do. For instance:
  • E. Honda likes rubber duckies. If you remember his home stage all the way from SFII (and the fact that he has his own onsen), that might have something to do with it.
  • Of course Dee Jay appreciates the Lukewarm Beer. Not so much because of it being lukewarm (he can just pop it into an ice cooler to chill it), but rather because he's, well, a DJ. And one who hosts parties, at that.
  • Juri responds quite nicely to being gifted a wrench. Being a Badass Biker, something as mundane as a wrench would help her quite nicely to keep her bike well-maintained.
  • Luke, naturally, likes playing video games, so the best possible gift you can get him is Red Elevator 8. Ironic, considering how he hates horror games in particular.
  • With her wealthy background, it's no surprise that Manon enjoys a dash of Beaujolais. She's a Cultured Badass, so of course she can't turn down a good glass of champagne when she sees it.
• On a meta level, Juri's advice about simply repeating whatever move an opponent hates may seem like her just being mean, but it's actually good advice for competitive play. If an opponent can't react to a move or a strategy properly, keep doing it since it'll give you an edge.
  Juri: Do all the crap your opponent hates. ALL of it. Repeatedly. Get it? Got it? Good. Make 'em miserable. No excuses.
• Chun-Li and Cammy share the same "turning their heads to look at their opponent" pose during the pre-fight walk-in before the Versus Character Splash. While it may seem like laziness, it all makes sense when you remember that these two are the original female characters of the franchise, having been allies and friendly rivals through many tournaments and cases. As such, every time they fight each other, their pre-fight walk-in feels like each one acknowledging their status as this.
• Juri taking the player on as a student in World Tour, considering she's on the verge of killing them at first for annoying her. But she's basically got nothing going on in her life after Bison finally died, and is only kicking around in Nayshall because there's a ton of criminal activity swirling around the place. The player showing a glimmer of potential for Taekwondo means she can do something meaningful by training them... even though she outwardly claims it's just a pointless whim and to get a source of entertainment.
• Why aren’t there any Street Fighter III representatives in the base roster or Year 1 DLC? A couple of reasons:
  • During their World Tour interactions, Lily and Guile refer to the events of Street Fighter V as taking place a few years back, and Street Fighter III followed shortly after V. When taken with the length of time it took to bring M Bison’s iteration of Shadaloo down permanently, it’s entirely possible the Secret Society hasn’t been conclusively dealt with and they’re still fighting them.
  • When looking at the place of SFIII characters in the stories of Street Fighter IV and V, they don’t have any investment in making sure Shadaloo stays dead like a lot of the characters introduced in other games, so they’d have no reason to look into a former Shadaloo higher up being active like others (e.g., Cammy, Juri, Rashid) would.
• It would make sense that the lower ranked Mad Gear members would wear cardboard boxes as masks: they're no longer The Dreaded like they were in the past. Belger and Retu's deaths, as well as Black of the Skull Cross Gang biting it, meant that most of the gang disbanded and went legit in the cases of Hugo, Poison, and Abigail. Only Thrasher remains with what's left of Mad Gear, even having to lick the metaphorical boots of Shadaloo just to keep afloat. However, that plan went belly up with Bison's death at the hands of Ryu. Now the only way for Mad Gear to stay relevant is through anonymity and subterfuge.
• Considering that F.A.N.G's loyalty is/was purely to Bison and he would frequently butt heads with Vega and Balrog, it's no surprise he would send A.K.I. after JP. He probably considers JP unworthy of inheriting his Master's throne and/or Psycho Power (along with the insult of dismantling Bison's organization for his own ends) and wants to remind him who's really in charge.
• Similarly, why does A.K.I.'s defeat of him leave JP so unnerved compared to Kimberly, Ken, Cammy, and the Player Avatar, where he's completely unfazed? Simple. Ken's been cut off from his company funds, and his reputation's in the toilet so no one will listen to him. Kimberly's just a kid with little to no influence over the public. Cammy works for MI6, so she can't do anything as long as he covers his tracks. The Player is just some random fighter who happens to get involved in his tournament, but also has no influence and can't affect his reputation either. But, A.K.I. is not only a fellow criminal with a connection to Shadaloo just like him, said connection involves her being a poison fanatic of the original poison fanatic. None of his money or connections would stop her from killing him, there's no way that JP could convince a fanatic like her to stop, and both of them know it.

Fridge Horror

• Oro's character story in V has him and Dhalsim discussing on how Psycho Power still haunts the earth, despite M.Bison's demise. As long as the power exists and influences people, the apocalypse could still happen. Their fears are confirmed when JP, the self-proclaimed successor of Bison makes his presence known. For many of the veteran fighters, it's gonna feel like old wounds opening up again.
• While Lily was still too young to remember the events prior to 6, the older members of her tribe, especially T. Hawk experienced the hellish horrors of Shadaloo firsthand. You gotta wonder if the trauma said elders experienced is something she knows about; Julia spent years brainwashed and used as a human weapon and T. Hawk risked everything to bring her back.
• Previous villains were incredibly overt with their actions and intentions, with Shadaloo only being "secretive" to not attract too much attention before their plans finalize, and once they had to act we consistently saw them just destroying anything in their path with callous disregard. JP fights smarter rather than harder, and uses modern technology to his advantage in every way. Deepfakes to frame Ken, rigging all of Ken's drones with an IED to be able to assassinate and cause terrorism, and internet presence to manipulate information and invoke a violent cancel culture retribution. Everything the cast takes for granted, especially with World Tour emphasizing social media and everyone having phones so readily, JP managed to twist and turn by using them against everybody with none the wiser.
  • Even common street thugs are following in his steps. The Mad Gear Gang and other criminals straight up utilize drones packing flamethrowers and aggressive roombas on the streets to attack anyone that goes near their territory. The age of technology means any tech-savvy member of a criminal group can weaponize delivery or service machinery to what amounts to street terrorism.
• When JP transfers part of his Psycho Power to the Player Character, he says that he "hasn't quite gotten the hang of this". This at least somewhat suggests that he tried that before, to significantly worse results. Those results could even be what happens in his level 3/Critical Art, which is... definitely not a pleasant thought.
• With Ed and Akuma appearing as DLC, JP would probably mock the former for trying to "remake" Shadaloo as a force for good and wonder what did Bison ever saw in the latter if it meant turning into a rabid beast if he ever lost control of the Satsui no Hado.'
  • Ed's actual arcade story mode is even worse: JP wants to make him a Puppet King of a revived Shadaloo with the Amnesia leader pulling the strings.
• If the Illuminati ever appeared in this game, JP would also mock Gill as well for having his prophecies not coming to pass as well as infighting within the group.

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