Street Fighter 6 entering its second year can only mean one thing – a meta-breaking balance patch. About damn time.
May 22nd is an important day Street Fighter 6, as it brings classic series icon Akuma into the game. Even so, Akuma won’t be the biggest news of the day – as the Raging Demon brings some more terrifying and potentially terrifying demons to the game’s first major balance patch.
When I got my hands on Akuma’s SF6 variant, the version of SF6 I was playing also happened to be the one with the balance changes. While I was there, it seemed only right to highlight a few additions and tweaks that stood out to me.
Now, before I continue, I need to emphasize to all the fighting game geeks out there – These are not all the balance changes in the patch – These are just a few that have been conveyed to me during practice. I didn’t have enough time, or even enough training mode, to test anything that isn’t in these notes, but there was enough to make me feel like the upcoming patch could be very interesting.
First up is my beloved E. Honda. Reports from an event in Japan said his sumo headbutt and butt slam were blunted. I wouldn’t dare confirm to all members of the sumo fraternity that this is true, but it’s not like there aren’t quite solid enthusiasts.
So, yes, the blocked ass slam now puts Honda out of command grab range, eliminating one of the dirtier tactics Honda used in its first season. However, a successful Butt Slam now results in a serious knockdown, allowing Honda to continue the offensive pressure as the opponent recovers right where they were hit, right next to the big man. Therefore, movement is weakened when blocked and strengthened when hit. I’ll take it.
Manon has a new combo line, with her back and punch attacks now connected to the kick that follows her OD Renversé move, but the biggest change is that her level three super now scales with her medal level harm. So not only does her command grab get stronger with every landing you make, but it also buffs her level three super and her critical art and does a frankly ridiculous amount of damage. You have to see it to believe it.
The DLC character AKI has several very useful buffs. The LP version of her Snake Whip attack, which is great for punishing the opponent’s button, now stuns other players when it lands as a punishment counter and allows AKI to rush towards them and continue the combo. She can also combo into her level three super with her Cruel Fate move, which is a really nice tweak that I’m sure all AKI players will be happy to hear.
The second hit of Zangief’s Power Stomp can now be canceled as a special move, allowing for more combo opportunities, while his Crouching Punch can now knock opponents away when hitting them as a penalty counter , once again offering new ways to deal damage and execute combos.
Kimberly’s OD Wuxin Zhanfengjiao can now be canceled into her aerial secondary super, which is pretty good damage for a reliable means of defending against air opponents. She’s also getting a tweak to one of her support combos that you can perform when using a modern control scheme, which seems to be a quality-of-life change rather than anything that primarily improves or weakens the character.
Jamie’s crouching mid-punch hit advantage changed from +3 to +5, allowing for some significantly improved combo routing, especially when used after driving a dash, and all in all, all characters Luke got some small buffs! Firstly, the Standing Punch can now be comboed with the light version of the Flash Glove, and the damage of the OD version of the Flash Glove following his DDT has also been increased. He obviously needs it.
Again, these aren’t all character tweaks, but indicate some very interesting changes happening around Akuma. I always say that in modern fighting games, that period after a new character or balance patch is released is one of my favorite things in all of video games because everyone who plays the game goes through this great shared journey of discovery , which has cool stuff shared on social media and Discord servers.
On May 22, we’ll get both. The second season of “Street Fighter 6” is about to begin. It is an exciting time for all “Street Fighter 6” players, and the competition in the professional tour next season will also be very fierce.
