If Gemless, later-balance-changes SFxT had been the launch game, that may have been the case.
It is a shame.
It really is, I wish it had replaced IV entirely, but a lot of their decisions just pushed it too far for that to happen. Ugly NEON MOD OMGOSH I CAN'T TAKE THIS GAME SERIOUSLY stuff really made it seem like a joke, along with the gems being viable for normal play, rather than put into their own crazy megamix mode (Such as how Virtua Fighter and Soul Calibur games push modifiers like that into special modes).
I had so much fun with Julia and Askua in that game...
I have been playing Guile since Turbo days (was that 1994?), and while I kind love the fact that they didn't change anything about him until SF4, I am kind of tired of the lack of a redesign they did on Cammy, Zangief and Vega (it's great they changed Ken a bit).
Everyone talks poorly of Cammy, but I really like how her moveset in V trigger feels as if she's going to the next level of her abilities. I wouldn't mind if they did a bit more (give more variation to Hooligan and Spinning Backfist, for example), but Cannon Drill, Spike and Strike get nice buffs, and even some animation changes.
You might be partially right: what if Zen is Retsu's pupil, or his redesign (like Cody for Joe, Balrog for Mike)? I wouldn't mind either scenario though!
It'd be pretty nice for Zen to have a connection to the former cast, in some way. Maybe someone that's even connected to SFIII characters. Or maybe they could make Zen the Rose to the Illumanati's Bison; an antagonizing figure with deep ties to the central evil, in their own faction.
Sorry for disagreeing but of all the ST characters I actually would put Cammy at the bottom. I never understood her appeal outside of her sexiness and I'd even easily choose T. Hawk or Deejay over her. As such I also wish they hadn't chosen her for the first 16 in V either. To me, she looks far too similar to Karin (whom I prefer) in terms of her face and overall build. Again, I like visual variety, so Karin would have been enough for me in terms of petit, puppet-like but surprisingly strong and athletic, blonde young women.
Cammy always seemed like a pretty fresh concept for SF, like a female version of Fei Long, to a degree. They're both spry and technical in their combat, rather than bigger and overpowering. She definitely feels more "down and dirty" than Karin, who tries to put some elegance and class with things that... generally have none, like elbow and palm strikes.
I never really seen her sexiness as a real significant part of her existence. They make a big deal of showing off her butt, but they also make a big deal of showing off Chun's Legs, or Sagat's scar. I'd wish they'd focus on her diminishing scars more, especially with Mika taking the butt thing even further.
Other than having some mild visual similarities, I've never felt like one has any thing to do with the other. I guess the worse thing about Cammy is that you could basically take any of Bison's dolls, and have them play similar enough to her, to take her spot on the roster..one of them could be a perfect protégée for her, allowing a modification of her playstyle to still be in the game.
They really do a crappy time at using the Killer Doll concept. It's a perfect way to get girls of every look and nationality into the game, and the most recent doll we got was... Cammy with a slightly changed face and a mask. Eesh.
- Apart from characters I'm really curious what else they will be announcing these coming months. I especially want to know if 8 stages are all we'll be getting (going by the current stage select screen, which has one empty 8th slot, but also technically could be expanded as well) and if they'll all have multiple sections and easter eggs like only the Bustling Side Street seems to be having so far.
I hope they used the coming months to really flesh out the game. Rebalance / Improve some characters, add the depth to the stages (day / night / weather cycle, rotating spectators), and start fleshing out the story, and hopefully varied Single player modes.
- I'm also hoping we'll get a unique boss + stage, and some kind of bonus round that allows us to practice the V-trigger (it being this game's unique mechanic), but I have a feeling that both might be asking for too much this time (and that a pumped up Necalli or Nash ends up being the boss).
If there's one thing I don't really want in fighters anymore, it's unplayable boss characters that are normal characters in everything but damage values only. I mean, if they're some 2 screen tall mecha or something, sure, that's a fun bonus fight. But if it's basically A normal sized character with no reason to not make him playable other than "lol, unbalanced!", just... don't waste time on that.
As far as bonus stages, I actually hope they have some, yeah. Don't know if they'd need to be in story though. Maybe part of a separate arcade mode, or just their own unlockable things?
- Final note on stages: I might be misremembering but have they chosen not to link each stage openly to a country this time? I don't think I've seen a flag or country name of any kind so far? Sure, we all assume the Bustling Side Street is China or Hong Kong and that the Train station is England, but is that made explicit anywhere? If not, then this might be the first SF where countries are no longer displayed, perhaps as an extension of further downplaying the characters' nationalities (since they went to having no flag between versions of IV) in order perhaps to avoid creating a sense of country bias/preference due to roster limitations. We should look into this some more.
Eh, maybe it just has story ramifications so far. Locations matter when you're trying to tell a more coherent tale.
I'd love to see them have similar stage classes taking place at different places of the world (like a variety or street corners, a variety of estates, bars, etc), and just turn those into the variations. But that's probably expecting way, way too much from modern Capcom.
