Street Fighter V is in an interesting predicament. When launched, it faced countless issues including missing content, network errors, and the 8 frame delay. Fast forward to today, and we still have a myriad of issues plaguing the title. It’s by no means a bad game, or one undeserving of your hard earned money. But with many other fighting games on the market that offer more bang for your buck with less headache, it’s important to realize just how much better this game could be! I’ll break down the ways in which SFV can retain the title as king of fighting games.

1 | Fix the Frame Delay

As noted in an Event Hubs Article, Display Lag took note of a discovery they made about SFV not too long ago. They discovered that the game had an 8 frame lag in between when you pressed something, and when your character executed the movement you designated. This means that there’s a 13.3% difference in how you react to something in conjunction to what actually happens. I can’t wait until this is fixed, as Capcom stated recently during an Evo panel that they would look into it after the Capcom Cup pro tour was over. Forwude also explained how the 8 frames of input lag actually do effect the game.

2 | Add More Content for Offline Players

Competitive and online warriors don’t care too much for this detail, but most of the population who game at all, do. In July, we finally got the single player story mode content, in addition to the trial/challenge mode, survival, training, and pre story content for each character. That’s literally all there is for single player gamers. There are no variations of arcade modes, or mini games, time trials, or secret instances like fighting off against Akuma under specific conditions. This would have been a huge opportunity to do something unorthodox or interesting, like potentially incorporating a Capcom Puzzle Fighter mini game! The offline offerings could undoubtably be improved, and these are just some of the examples of how.

3 | Simplify the online experience

This shouldn’t be rocket science, but apparently it is. There are problems with the online experience in addition to the single player offerings. For ranked play, players are required to to select their character before they are matched with another player. You also must have your character selected prior for ranked online play when you’re in other modes as well, like training, or survival mode. This forces you to stick with one pre-selected character, instead of selecting who you want to use at a particular time. This has been an issue since the game released, and I’m surprised it hasn’t been fixed. Additionally, as someone who pretty much livestreams any time I play this game, I find it infuriating that inviting someone to a non ranked lobby actually kicks you off of your broadcast. Every. Time. Further more, another online issue, which I’m hearing has been fixed a bit, is the ranked matchmaking. When I was at a bronze, or even super bronze, I would often get paired with silver, super silvers, and sometimes sold players, when I know without a doubt, there were plenty of bronze or super bronze players active on PS4 or PC. Make it easy!

4 | Incorporate Crossover Characters

This may be asking for too much considering there is already a slated roster release of all of the street fighter characters. But I’d be remiss if I said I wouldn’t be incredibly excited to see characters from other Capcom IP’s like Morrigan from Dark Stalkers, Samanosuke from Onimusha, any character from Rival Schools, or even characters from other games like what Tekken is doing with Tekken 7. I don’t think a full on crossover roster is necessary, but some cameos would be a really welcome fun element down the road!

5 | Utilize More Transitional Levels

I certainly mentioned this during my Through the Lens article, but one of the main selling points for SFV was that it would have transitional levels and background interactivity. We’ve seen a bit more background interactivity elements, but no more transitional levels like the “Bustling China” level. I’d love to see more attention towards this, even though many of the level designs are quite beautiful.

What are some things you’d like to see changed in the future? What did I leave out in the now? What elements do you agree, or disagree with? Let’s open this up for discussion!