Street Fighter 6 Director Says Ed Is “The Reason We Have Modern Controls” And World Tour

Capcom’s Street Fighter series has scratched the ceiling with hyperbolic action and vibrant warriors since its debut in 1987. Spawning various spin-offs, crossovers, and an upcoming live-action movie – which just received its first logo – the fundamental mechanics that drove one of the highest-grossing videogame franchises to success has evolved significantly in the latest entry, and there’s one character who steered this growth.

Street Fighter 6 completed its Year 1 Character Pass this month, rounding off the lineup with the heavyweight Great Demon, Akuma. Guesses are already flying in from the fandom regarding the Year 2 roster, but the game’s director wants to put Balrog protégé Ed in the spotlight before moving on, as the fighter helped bring a few key features to fruition.

Street Fighter 6’s Ed Was Pivotal In The Development Of Modern Controls

Game Informer interviewed Street Fighter 6 director Takayuki Nakayama and producer Shuhei Matsumoto, who highlighted Psycho-Powered Boxer Ed’s importance in the seventh entry’s development.

Ed arrived after Street Fighter 5 newcomers, Rashid and A.K.I., in the Year 1 DLC roster, and his addition was questioned by the community who doubted his relevancy. However, from Nakayama’s stance, the director thought Ed was a “very important character in the series now” and confirmed he was behind the implementation of Modern Controls in Street Fighter 6.

“He was actually the reason why we have Modern Controls in Street Fighter 6, because in Street Fighter 5, that was the character we tested out with simplified commands for specials, and that eventually evolved, and we learned from implementing him in Street Fighter 5, and we took those learnings to create Modern Controls in Street Fighter 6,” Nakayama explained, referencing the new control type that reduces the button pattern for basic attacks.

Ed’s also the reason Nakayama decided to create World Tour Mode – a single-player open-world RPG in Street Fighter 6 where your avatar can train under classic fighters – thanks to a fan of the boxer’s response on social media.

“When we were working on Street Fighter 5, and Ed was released, I was looking at my feed on social media, and I took note of someone who said they’re a really big fan of Ed, and they love how he looks, they love how he plays. ‘I feel like I could actually play a fighting game! It’s my first fighting game, and it’s so much fun!’,” Takayama shared. In light of this fan’s love for Ed, the director felt a “responsibility” to paint characters like him in a more powerful position, instead of “seeing Ed get bodied by other players” in Street Fighter 5’s smaller scope.

Furthermore, Nakayama understood gamers would question certain character additions like Ed’s, possibly asking “What’s the significance of them? What’s their connection?”, but he was confident World Tour and Arcade mode would make those intentions “more evident and clear in some way”. This circled back to the fandom’s cooler reception when Ed was announced, emphasizing a trust-the-process mentality, and learning the impact Ed had on development certainly frames the boxer as a muse of the franchise’s evolution.

Check out our 9.2 out of 10 review of Street Fighter 6, praising its Drive System and experimental fighting styles, before you take the fighter for a spin.

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