Carrying on the theme of Street Fighter Alpha characters making it into Street Fighter V, Capcom has today confirmed that Karin will be making a welcome return to the series.
Most remembered for her appearance in Street Fighter Alpha 3, her actual origins come from 1996 Street Fighter manga Sakura Ganbaru.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the character, she is the heiress of the Kanzuki Zaibatsu, a global conglomerate whose family motto of “In all things be victorious!” she definitely lives by. While being a pampered rich girl, Karin isn’t one to go down without a fight; she has mastered multiple martial arts, all of which are combined to make her unique “Kanzuki style” of fighting.
Capcom describe Karin as being a very well rounded character, with many different options at her disposal. It also looks as though she will have a good mix-up game, with a heavy reliance on high-low combos. Her play style will be fast-paced and rush-down, with Karin applying a lot of pressure throughout the match. Add to that how versatile her moveset is, and you’ve got a winning combination.
Details of her V-Skill and V-Trigger were also released, both of which give her even more options to pressure the opponent. Her V-Skill, Meioken, is a forward lunge, striking with an open palm straight through any projectiles and knocking her opponent down if the move hits. It can also be charged for a split second, giving it improved hit and block properties.
Her V-Trigger is probably the most promising, though. Known as Kanzuki-Ryu No Kata, it gives her access to a move called Guren Ken. While this may not sound like much, the Guren Ken attack can be followed up instantly by over half a dozen different attacks. Some of the options available to her after a Guren Ken include a flying throw, an overhead, another flurry of strikes or even a back dash. All of this can be transitioned to nearly instantly, meaning you’ll never know what she may throw out this time.
While you would think announcing a returning fan favourite would be enough for Capcom to keep the hype train rolling, they also went ahead and unveiled a revolutionary new online system. Since the death of arcades across the world, the fighting game community has made a transition to online. Capcom know this all too well and are giving the players a responsive and interesting looking online system.
Known as the Capcom Fighters Network, this system is designed to help build a stronger community across the globe. While details are still thin, Capcom say that some of the features will include the ability to mark people as “rivals” and monitor their performance, keep track of their favourite professional players, get up to date tournament information in game, search and watch replay files, see what countries are most active using something called the “heat map” and view detailed profiles of other players.
It seems Capcom know what the fans want and are aiming to please with both these announcements. Who do you think will be next? Is there anything you would like to see from the Capcom Fighters Network? Let us know in the comments. Don’t forget to check out the trailer and screenshots below.
