We're all eager to know who the Street Fighter 6 characters will be, and as is the way when a new fighting game is announced, from that first trailer until release, there’s always a drip feed of information regarding the launch roster of characters. With Street Fighter 6, it's no different, as Capcom have been slowly showing off the members of the day one roster at various events since that first trailer with the really wide Ryu gave us our initial glimpse at the new art style.
Street Fighter 6 hands-on: A multitude of new moves, and some polish for the past.
There is one key difference this time around – Capcom have actually announced the entire roster of eighteen Street Fighter 6 characters and confirmed both the names of classic characters who are making the cut and newcomers to the Street Fighter universe. They haven’t, however, actually shown all of the characters in action yet, so although there’s a few names in the base roster that have appeared in previous titles, we don’t know for certain how they’re going to play as of yet. Here’s everything we know so far, including all of the names on the Street Fighter 6 roster confirmed by Capcom and a little detail of the characters who we have managed to have some hands-on time with.
Returning Street Fighter 6 characters
Ryu
Mr. Street Fighter himself, Ryu predictably is the first name on the roster, this time with a slight redesign to convey his older, wiser outlook after overcoming the Satsui No Hado. He’s grown a bit of a beard, basically. Like always, he’s a great character to learn the basics of Street Fighter due to his toolset – legendary moves like the Shoryuken, Hadoken and (breathe) Tatsumaki Senpu Kyaku, as well as a few other additions, allow him to control the play area and put out a lot of damage for relatively low effort.
Luke
The final character to make it into Street Fighter V and, apparently, the protagonist of Street Fighter 6, Luke feels more at home in the new game than he did in SFV, where he sits near the top of the tier list. His modern MMA style hits like an absolute truck and with skillful timing, players can charge his special moves so that they inflict more damage and can chain together in combos to knock a whole load of health off the opponent’s energy bar. Someone important at Capcom must main Luke because they have also given him an air fireball now, making him even more deadly.
Chun Li
Ms. Street Fighter herself! Chun Li returns older, wiser and now free of the shackles of her quest for revenge, finding herself in a role more akin to a martial arts master this time around. Once again, she’s a character for the more technically minded, as she has her characteristic good pokes and command normals, a mixture of both charge and motion special moves, high movement speed and a new stance she can take that offers a load of attacking and defensive possibilities.
Guile
America’s hero returns and this time he’s got a whole THREE special moves to his name after decades of just the two! Guile has always been about dominating the horizontal and vertical planes, with his Sonic Boom fireball forcing his opponent’s to jump towards him, before unleashing a Flash Kick to knock them out of the air – remember, NEVER jump at a crouching Guile! This time around, his Street Fighter V V-Skill Sonic Blade is now a standard special move, a stationary projectile that can be used as a shield or to power up a Sonic Boom, as well as mess with the rhythm of his attacks and force a mistake from the opponent.
Juri
The foot fan’s favourite and the character from Street Fighter IV who still seems to make the cut these days, is very similar to her previous incarnations, this time playing like a sort-of half and half version of her Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter V versions. Her core mechanic of ‘storing’ Fuha stocks that she can spend for specific moves is still present but she’s less reliant on it than in Street Fighter V. She always has her various special moves at her disposal and none of them require stocks to be accessed, with spending a stock now extending these existing moves in her arsenal or giving them different properties, allowing for bigger combos and more damage. Oh, and she got her divekick back, which is always a deadly weapon to have in a character’s toolbox.
Ken
Ken has fallen on hard times since Street Fighter III: Third Strike (yes, SFIII is the ‘last’ game if we’re going in chronological order, but that’s a whole article in of itself) and is now working on the Metro City dockyard. The billionaire playboy is now a scruffy, unkempt mess of a man, with only the pants of his iconic red gi any indicator of his classic look, now largely covered by a big duster coat. Despite a visual overhaul, he’s very much the usual more aggressive, more front-foot focused version of Ryu that he has been in most of the games.
Other returning characters
Although we haven't seen anything of them yet, we know the following fighters will be returning Street Fighter 6 characters:
- Dhalsim
- E. Honda
- Blanka
- Dee Jay
- Cammy
- Zangief
New Street Fighter 6 characters
Jamie
The first newcomer to be announced and the first attempt at a drunken boxer style character in the Street Fighter series, Jamie is a character that has a lot of complex moves and a reliance on being able to confirm stray pokes into damaging combos. His key mechanic is his drink level. As a drunken boxer, Jamie can take a big swig from his flask, raising his drink level and not only improving the moves that he has but also giving him access to new ones, becoming utterly deadly when at the maximum level, with extra damage and additional utility to all of his moveset. Some of Jamie’s moves and combo strings have the option to end them early and take a swig, sacrificing damage but gaining a level, so there’s some nice risk/reward to his play style.
Kimberly
A sort-of newcomer, in that although she is a totally new character, she is the disciple of Bushinryu and a student of Final Fight’s Guy, who has already made his mark in a few Street Fighter games and as such, she shares a few parts of his trademark moveset. She’s inherited his Bushin Senpuyaku, his command run with its slide/overhead mixup and his ability to change his jump arc, among others. Her main focus is to attack, put relentless pressure on her opponent, constantly change between throws, overheads and low strikes to overload their mental stack and make costly mistakes that lead to big damage.
Other new characters
Again, we've yet to see them in action, but we know the following new fighters will be joining the roster of Street Fighter 6 characters:
- Manon
- Marisa
- Lily
- JP
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