Yoshinori Ono Talks Super Street Fighter IV

Capcom is all set to give us first official video footage of Super Street Fighter IV's cast later today (for a preview, check out what was leaked out on Korean sites yesterday). But the real Super SFIV news came, as always, through this week's Famitsu, which hosted an interview with producer Yoshinori Ono. Here's a recap of that interview, as posted at Famitsu.com today. (See the Famitsu.com story for a picture of Ono doing his best Blanka impression.)

First some basics. As detailed in the Famitsu.com story, Super SFIV builds upon the original SFIV with new characters and gameplay changes. Confirmed new characters include old favorites like T.Hawk and Dee Jay along with completely new characters like Juri. As for gameplay changes, while the game retains the Saving Attack and other such systems, the Ultra Combo system will be seeing some currently unspecified changes.

As a hint to the Ultra Combo changes, check out how the Revenge Gauge has changed:

Not Super (left) and Super (right).

In addition to the new characters, all 25 characters from the original will be returning. They're being rebalanced in anticipation of the new combatants.

Prior to the main interview, Ono provided some commentary on the Juri character. First up, how the character came to be. Ono says that there hasn't been a Korean character in Capcom fighting game history. During the production of the SFIV arcade game, Capcom Korea's president asked about the lack of a Korean character in the game. Participants in the Korean preliminaries of Enterbrain's Tougeki event also asked him about the omission, noting that the King of Fighters and Tekken both have Korean characters. The Korean combatants even assembled a petition and delivered it to a game journalist. The concept of Super Street Fighter IV is to listen to users, said Ono, and thus Juri was born.

Yes, this is the first time a petition has every worked for something. It's also the last time, so stop writing petitions.

Regarding the character herself, Ono's personal image of her is a Feilong-like Viper. Currently, she's too strong, as it's apparently too easy to connect attacks. The staff is making adjustments in this area.

Ono also describes Juri as being just a bit on the erotic side, particularly when she connects her Ultra Combo.

In the main part of the interview, Ono explained the jump straight to Super. For the young'ns out there who don't remember how Capcom was nearly destroyed by releasing five billion Street fighter revisions, the original Street Fighter II wet through Dash (Championship Edition) and Turbo revisions before reaching Super.

When production on the sequel was decided upon, Ono and crew originally considered going with Dash, but because "Dash" was "Championship Edition" overseas, they felt that it wouldn't have as much impact with SFIV. (I'm not really sure what Ono is talking about here -- maybe this has something to do with the post-release Championship Mode update?)

Someone suggested "Super" as the only thing remaining after that. While some objected that the name felt old, others recalled the "doki doki" (this is the sound your heart makes when you get excited -- like when you see a girl you like) feeling that Super gave them. The reason for this feeling, explained Ono, was the change in gameplay, the addition of four new characters, and the change in visuals. A "Dash" update would mean, to fans, just a balance fix update, the Famitsu interviewer noted here.

(On the note of all this Dash and Super talk, I actually heard that the name "Ultra" was thrown out in meetings but was laughed down.)

Ono also provided hints at additional characters. There will be around 8 new additions to the cast, including the already confirmed three. Asked if completely new characters other than Juri would make the cut, he said probably... but he said it with one of those laughs that always appears in these Japanese interviews.

While not getting specific on the new characters, he said "We're selecting characters that as many people as possible would want." As another hint, he said that characters who were most desired at the official blog, or who were most written in by fans, would make the cut.

Elsewhere in the interview, in response to Famitsu's statement that it had heard "a certain play that arcade fans would be familiar with" is being revived for Super SFIV, Ono said that he's asking the development team to put in something that old time Street Fighter II fans want but did not make it into the original SFIV. It has something to do with things that roll and fall from above. It's not necessarily something that would be needed for SFIV's theme of being a "fighting tool," though.

While he wouldn't share specifics, perhaps old time Street Fighter fans can figure out what he's talking about.