The SFV May-July update appeared in download queues of PS4 owners around Friday 1st July. It’s not exactly the kind of thing you want to have to write, especially after the release of Guile went so smoothly, but (as you can guess) the SFV May-July update shouldn’t have had to happen anyway. The original plan was for Capcom to release a new playable SFV character – or some gameplay additions or balance tweaks – each month. Alex would arrive in March, Guile would arrive in April, Ibuki would arrive in May, the cinematic story update would arrive in June and Balrog would arrive in July. However, Alex and Guile just squeaked into the end of each month, and the SFV May-July update has emerged after a long wait whilst Capcom tried to finish tweaking the cinematic story mode and returning character Ibuki. Anyone who bought SFV on launch and is familiar with the waiting and polishing won’t have been too surprised, but for a while it was anyone’s guess as to when this content would ever be revealed. Some hope was restored when PS4’s notifications sprung into life and began downloading one 8Gb patch on June 30th – and then another 8Gb patch the next day – and once these updates were completed, the SFV May-July update was ready to enjoy.
SFV May-July update – Ibuki
The SFV May-July update was particularly exciting for me because of the release of Ibuki. A kunoichi character who first appeared in the Street Fighter III series, Ibuki was my favourite character to play as in SFIII: Third Strike, and one of my most played characters in the Street Fighter IV games. She had always been a character with lots of mobility, great sliding neckbreaker moves with throw properties, command dashes that could pass through opponents, plenty of kunai projectiles to throw and more besides. In SFV’s May-July update, Ibuki is familiar in some ways and very different in others. Take the teleporting command dash; it’s still a motion (SFIV) rather than a double-tap (SFIII). However, in the last game each dash would move her forward and a dash performed with HK would allow her to dash through an opponent. Here, a dash with LK moves her toward an opponent, a dash with MK moves her through an opponent, and a dash with HK goes up and forwards. Another change from SFIV comes from the magic series target combos; in the previous games you could perform a string of light, medium, then heavy punches or kicks for an easy combo; here, only the punch variant seems as achievable as before.
Even so, some of Ibuki’s other moves are somewhat familiar; the command grab and kazegiri special move both work as before, for example. That said, Ibuki has some brand new toys to play with too – a V-Skill that knocks down opponents in a blast of energy, a V-Reversal that sees her transition from a teleport into a blow that knocks down opponents, and the bombs seen in the trailer. These bombs are Ibuki’s V-Trigger ability, and depending on the direction held when pushing the two heavy attacks, you can change the length of the fuse to provide an immediate hazard or a delayed threat. Ibuki in SFV is much more of a departure than IV’s iteration was, but fans will still have a lot of fun with her.
SFV May-July update – Balrog
The SFV May-July update also managed to provide a generous amount of humiliation during training mode – let’s just say that Balrog isn’t quite what I expected. The character also known as “Boxer” (due to the confusion that arises from the various name changes in different versions of Street Fighter) has familiar special moves and unusual V-System abilities that took a little while for me to get used to. First, the familiar: you can still charge punches that either come out straight (charge back, push forward and punch) or low (charge back, push forward and kick), and he still has his traditional turn punch. There’s also an upwards punch that you can perform by charging down and then pushing up and a kick. None of this seems particularly outlandish for anyone familiar with Balrog in previous games, but then his KKB V-Skill introduces a new set of attacks. Pressing and releasing both medium attacks sees Balrog perform a nimble dodge that is projectile invincible, and holding and releasing the attacks results in an attack followed by a dodge. However, you can also press and release both medium attacks during a special move for a variation of that move. For example, if you charge back and push forward and MP Balrog will charge towards the opponent with his fist extended. Then, if you try again but hit both medium attacks before the end of the move (where ripples of air are around his fist), you can change the ender into the KKB move that you would normally get from holding and releasing the medium attacks.
Outside of this, the V-Reversal is a strangely familiar rising headbutt, and the Critical Art is based around quarter-circle motions, which is quite a departure for Balrog. In SFIV his super and ultra combos demanded everything from Guile inputs (charge back, push forward, back, forward and attack) to 720 motions (pre-patch Dirty Bull) and half-circle motions (post-patch Dirty Bull.) Here, the critical art is as simple as a Denjin Hadoken; two quarter circles forward and any punch putton sees Balrog deliver a devastating single blow that sends the opponent flying.
SFV May-July update – Cinematic Story Mode
Aside from the new characters, the SFV May-July update introduces a new story mode that uses in-engine cinematics to tell story in-between battles, rather than the illustrated stills of the original story mode. Unlike a traditional arcade mode, the character you play as is determined by the direction of the story, and there are a lot more in-engine scenes in-between battles, so in a way it seems somewhat more ambitious than a typical arcade mode story. Sure, you may wonder who buys a Street Fighter game for the story, but I appreciate the effort that’s gone into the cutscenes and chatter – it all helps to make the game feel much more “complete” than it was on launch.
Despite the delays and lack of communication, I’m still happy with the content we’ve been getting from these continued updates to Street Fighter V, and future characters Juri and Urien have already been teased in trailers, so there’s a lot more to look forward to. Until then, I’ve got to decide whether or not I want to retire my Rashid in favour of Ibuki’s new moveset…