Street Fighter 5 Walkthrough: Understanding the New Game Mechanics

Capcom has made several new changes to the in-game mechanics for Street Fighter 5.

It hasn't been long since Capcom first revealed the new and upcoming Street Fighter 5 to the world. While the game's previously launched beta version may not have kicked off in the way the company had wanted, it hasn't diminished the fact one bit that the next Street Fighter will be one of the best fighting games around.

As expected, Street Fighter 5 will be released with some new game mechanics, although most of them will seem quite familiar to the ones we have come across in the Street Fighter titles of the past.

That being said, expect Street Fighter 5 to be a lot harder to play compared to Street Fighter 4.

And so, without further delay, let's take a close look at the new and improved in-game mechanics that will arrive with Street Fighter 5.

Street Fighter 5 – New Game Mechanics

For the new Street Fighter, it seems like the option to chip anyone to KO has been successfully removed, unless you follow it up with a Critical Art super move.
Overall, the concept of super moves has been kept to the minimum for SF5. So, if you are down to a single shred of health in the game, your opponents will still have to land a blow before they can get the better of you.
In the Street Fighters of the past, super moves were commonplace to finish off a fight. Now, however, with the new changes in place, unless you have a full super meter, you'll have to confront the opponent to score a win when their health is low.
One of the major changes applied to the new Street Fighter involves the way backdashing has been tweaked to make the game even more challenging.
While in most of the fighting games (like Street Fighter 4 and Mortal Kombat X), backdashing gives you a sort of invincibility for the first few hits, it seems things have changed for SF5. While you will indeed be able to perform a backdash to move out of range, don't expect invincibility to back you up.
Sure, there will be many who will complain about the changes made to the backdashing ability in the game, but from a neutral point of view, players now won't need to anticipate a backdash in the game. Even if the opponent performs backdash, you can still attack and land a hit on him or her.
For Street Fighter 5, Capcom has done enough to remove the dropped combos complaint. In the past, it was somewhat difficult to land combos with some of the characters, especially when you are looking to link up one hit with another. But things have been rendered differently for SF5.
What Capcom has done with Street Fighter 5 is that it has removed the screen-frame barrier that prevented most players to successfully pull out of a combo. Combos will now take place over a three-frame link, rather than a single-frame link. Sure, it will take some practice to master, but it is far better this way.
Capcom wants the new Street Fighter to have a more enticing experience factor, and hence, for Street Fighter 5, the company has replaced the Revenge Gauge (Ultra Meter) with the V-Gauge or Variable Gauge. This will help in controlling the V-Skill, V-Reversal and V-Trigger abilities.
Know that the meter fills up every time you take damage, and your V-Gauge will increase each time you are dealt a hit by your opponent. However, the V-Gauge remains different for different characters in the roster. Some of them have a two-bar V-Gauge, while others have a three-bar one.
There's also the V-Skill that remains unique to each character. For example, Ryu's V-Skill gives him the ability to parry while Birdie's V-Skill allows his to eat a donut, or throw a banana peel on the ground.
Apart from that, V-Triggers also remain unique to each of the characters in the game. With it, some characters gain increased damage ability, while others gain special armour.
Lastly, there's also the Alpha Counter that's returning from the Street Fighter Alpha series, this time in the form of V-Reversal. So, when you block an attack, just press Forward and all three punch buttons to execute a reverse attack. However, note that this will drain one bar from your V-Gauge.