Hey everyone!

A ton of awesome news to share with you all today; the first being details about the much anticipated first new character being added to the SFV roster, Alex! 

Check out more Alex screenshots at our Facebook Page

Alex has been one of the most fan requested characters for Street Fighter V and we’ve put in a lot of work to make him appeal to old school and new players alike. Having made his first appearance in Street Fighter III back in 1997, Alex is a brash grappler whose bold attitude tends to get him in trouble. His parents died while he was still young, so he was raised by his father’s friend, Tom, who taught him everything he knows about fighting.

Above: Alex in Street Fighter III

In Street Fighter V, Alex returns as a powerful grappler that can inflict big damage with his close range Power Bomb command grab and his long limbs to fight from midrange distances. The threat doesn’t end there however, as Alex has a variety of special attacks that can cover a large portion of the screen for those times when the opponent keeps him out. Players looking for a methodical grappler who can do big burst damage up close, yet still do well at midrange, will find themselves perfectly at home with Alex.

V-Skill: Overhaul

Alex stretches and gets ready to land the next killer blow. Once Alex finishes his animation, the very next attack he pulls off will count as a hard hit and damage the opponent as if they were counter attacked. If that attack misses or is blocked however, he loses the hard hit bonus.

V-Trigger: Rage Shift

Alex channels his wrestling training and gains access to a brand new clothesline attack. This attack can be charged and during that time, it can parry an attack. Upon full charge, if Alex makes contact with a blocking opponent, he will break their guard, leaving them open to an immediate attack.

Critical Art: Heavy Hammer

Alex hits the opponent with a thunderous chop that knocks the opponent around. He then grabs them and takes them up to the highest of heights in a crucifix hold, only to viciously drop them down on their heads at the fastest of speeds.

Alex will become available when the update is scheduled to go live later this month. Remember, by playing through all Character Story Mode content, you will earn more than enough Fight Money to buy Alex for free!

The update also comes with a slew of new modes and content, as well as bug fixes that are designed to improve the overall gameplay experience. Check out all the new modes and content below!

• Challenge Mode
• Demonstrations: Learn the ins and outs of Street Fighter Vthrough helpful demonstration and tutorial content. Contains content for each of the 16 characters, as well as advice geared towards players of all skill levels:
  • Beginner Tutorials: 12 lessons covering, movement, normal attacks, special attacks, V-System, throws, counter hits, chip/recoverable damage, etc.
  • Intermediate Tutorials: 11 lessons covering projectiles, invincibility frames, armor and armor break, recovery, cross-up attacks, anti-air options, etc.
  • Advanced Tutorials: 4 lessons covering back dashing, frame advantage/disadvantage, combo potential, button priority, etc.
  • Character Tutorials: 16 lessons covering each individual character.
• Trials: Put your skills to the ultimate test with combo trials for all 16 characters, ranging from basic to pro combos.  Completing Trials will also earn you some extra Fight Money. 

• In-Game Shop
• Fight Money Expenditure: Spend your hard earned Fight Money to purchase extra game content, such as DLC characters and the Story Mode Costumes.

• Online Rematch Option
• Salty from a close loss online? Want revenge?  Players can now play a 2/3 set in Ranked Match, provided both players accept the rematch.   

• Battle Lounge Improvements
  • Enjoy up to 8 person lobbies, complete with match spectating.

In addition to all of this new content, the following bugs will be fixed in the update:

• Bug: Sometimes you don’t get EXP from casual matches
• Bug: On a rare occurrence, if you restart the game after you unlock colors, the colors you unlocked will disappear

There are a few gameplay related bug fixes and balance changes as well:

• Vega:
  •  If you hit V-Trigger Bloody Kiss (anti-air) in certain situations, Vega will no longer continue to rise off the top of the screen.
• M. Bison:
  •  If M. Bison is interrupted by an opponent’s V-Trigger or Critical Art during his invisible frames of Double Knee Press in V-Trigger mode, M. Bison will no longer remain invisible until his next move.
• Rashid:
  • Rashid will no longer float in the air for a moment if you perform his V-Trigger after he touches the ground upon a missed Eagle Spike.
• Chun-Li:
  • During V-Trigger activation, the hit stop and block stop has been made the same for multi-hitting moves (medium or heavy attacks for both normal and special moves).
    • She was previously able to perform option selects involving standing HP into Houyokusen, so this has been removed.
• Vertical and Back Jump Frames:
  • All characters except Birdie and Zangief: Vertical jump and back jump frames have changed from 3f-> 4f.
  • Birdie: Vertical jump and back jump frames have changed from 4f-> 5f.
  • Zangief: No changes to jump frames.
    • These changes reduce the effectiveness of throw tech option selects involving jumping (also known as “jump grab”). Changing forward jump frames would affect the game balance too much so those remain unchanged.
• Throw Escape Change:
  • If you push buttons during the normal throw delayed tech window you are unable to escape throws for 2 frames.
    • Prevents using light attacks to option select with throw escapes.
  • If you execute specific special moves during the normal throw delayed tech window you are unable to immediately escape throws. Each characters V-skills, V-triggers, V-reversals, critical arts, and moves have been set individually.
    • Prevents throw escape option selects involving specific moves such as Shoryuken, etc.

All of these new SFV features and game improvements are planned to be ready later this month and we’ll share an exact date soon. More new content, including the Cinematic Story Mode, and game improvements are in the works and we’ll provide those specifics as soon as we can. 

That’s all I have for now, but stay tuned to Capcom Unity for the latest SFV news. Until next time!