User experience is a crucial part of any business or service. If the consumer doesn’t have a good experience in the sales funnel, they’re not likely to return and may even spread negativity about the business. There’s a reason companies use the UX solutions offered by enterprises like Qualtrics. Without a good UX, a business simply can’t survive. It doesn’t matter whether the company is in the financial industry, retail sector, or, in this example, the gaming industry. Gaming companies who don’t listen to feedback usually struggle. Buffs and nerfs are okay. But Capcom should really buff out these aspect of the overall Street Fighter V user experience.
Street Fighter V is on its second season and with it came a slew of upgrades and downgrades for the entire cast. Some characters like Urien, Guile and Laura received some really big buffs, making them seem like they’re unstoppable. Others, like Nash and Alex, were hit pretty hard with the nerf stick that some fans may be dropping them soon. Hopefully, Capcom will address some of these complains as they’ve announced plans to tweak each character once more soon.
While these buffs and nerfs are all well and good, Capcom is forgetting one key aspect of the game they need to buff: the user experience. I’ve been playing Street Fighter V ever since the game got release last year and, although I still enjoy playing the game, there are just some points in the game that just grinds my gears. There are still some things that need to be tweaked in Street Fighter V that would make the entire experience of playing it better.
And, here they are, in no particular order:
1. Add an Arcade Mode already!
Let’s get this out of the way quickly. This is what most people complain about Street Fighter V and rightfully so. Okay, there is a somewhat substantial single player experience built within the game. You’ve got Survival mode as well as the individual character stories as well as the free Story campaign DLC. But that’s not enough Capcom!
An Arcade ladder is a staple of virtually every fighting game out there, which makes it seem really, really odd that Street Fighter V doesn’t have it built in right out of the box. It’s actually incredibly important as well for attracting new blood into the fighting game community since it’s a good way to get their feet wet before they dive into the shark infested waters that is online matches. Capcom should really get to work in getting a proper Arcade mode, where you face off against different AI controlled characters in two round matches which culminate into fighting an end boss (M. Bison or Akuma with infinite V-Trigger would work).
2. Updated Combo Trials
Street Fighter V Season 2 has started and Capcom updated and tweaked a majority of the cast. Some moves are better and some are not that good any more. Because of these changes, each character now have new combos and some of them don’t work now. In fact, some of the Season 2 combo trials, like Guile’s Trial 9, doesn’t work anymore because his Crush Counter that launches the opponent into the air is now his crouching fierce punch, not his regular standing fierce.
Well, shouldn’t Capcom make some new trials showing off these new combos? I would definitely want to see a bunch of new combo trials in Season 2. I understand that most of the bread and butter combos still work but some of the newer attack strings should be in the spotlight.
3. Speed up the Load Times and Screen Transitions
There’s an old saying: Count to ten before you lose your temper. Sound advice. Essentially, take around ten seconds before you blow your top so you can calm down. You know what else takes ten seconds? The Win/Lose cutscene after a match. Ten seconds may not seem like a long time, but when you’ve just finished a match and you’re chomping at the bit to hit that rematch button, ten seconds can seem like forever.
But it’s not just the win/lose screen that takes time. There’s the “Another Fight Is Coming Your Way” notification screen where you’re informed that an online match is about to begin, there’s the one that displays you and your opponent’s character as well as that damn white screen before you actually get to the match. All-in-all, it can take around maybe two to three minutes to actually get into an online match. That’s just too long!
Capcom should really find ways to make the load times shorter. A lot of it probably has to do with the netcode of the game. Also, there definitely should be a way to shorten the amount of time in between rematches. I think it would be possible to put up the rematch menu on the bottom of the screen while the winner’s character poses and struts his or her stuff.
4. Switch to Secondary Character When Losing
One of the primary reasons why Street Fighter V gives you the option to rematch your online opponent as it follows the fighting game tournament standard of fighting two matches before you’re booted to the losers bracket. This is a really smart decision as it allows players to sort of adapt to an opponent fight style to, in fighting game community lingo, “download data.” While Capcom was smart to follow the “two match rule,” they didn’t implement another rule: the loser can switch characters.
I would love it if Capcom allowed the loser of the first match gets to switch to their secondary character. There are some times when my Vega/Claw would get matched up with an M.Bison/Dictator, which is a matchup I hate. But I just know that, if I can switch to my secondary Guile, I would stand more than a chance. There wouldn’t be a need to send them back to the character select screen, mind you. You just have to select your secondary character beforehand. Then, if you lose, you’re given the option to use him or her.
5. A Built-In Frame Data and Hitbox Analyzer
This is the biggest thing I really want to see in Street Fighter V and all fighting games in the future. In fact, some games, like Mortal Kombat already are doing this.
Veterans of the fighting game community know that games like Street Fighter and the like is mostly about data, data and more data. Specifically, it’s all about frame and hitbox data. It’s something that isn’t shown to you but it’s what determines everything little thing that happens. It determines how fast your attack comes out, how long it takes you to recover, if an attack connects or whiffs and everything in between. Most of the time, you’d have to get that information from third party sources or official guides.
I say that Street Fighter V should make all that information made available within the game. Add an option in Training mode make the hitboxes visible. Make the frame data available in the in-game options menu. It may seem like a lot but, hey! It’s already in the game. Might as well make it available for viewing at any time.
BONUS: Fight Money Bets
I hate to admit it, but I love Street Fighter V‘s Fight Money system. It’s the in-game currency you accumulate to buy some of the DLC. You can earn Fight Money by performing the daily/weekly challenges, winning Ranked matches or by doing other things like viewing the Demonstrations and completing Survival mode. However, it’s getting harder and harder to earn enough to buy new characters and stages since you can only make so much and a lot of the stuff costs so much Fight Money.
Well, I’m not sure how legal this would be but why not make it possible to bet your hard earned Fight Money in matches? Don’t make it mandatory but it would be a fun experiment to see if some players would like to put their money where their mouth is and put some fake money down on their matches. Of course, the payoff would be more Fight Money to bet with!
