Street Fighter V’s final character has arrived, bringing with him an offensive playstyle and unique mechanics never seen before in SFV. With his confident demeanor, Luke is looking to make a major impact in the world of Street Fighter, present and future.

We did a deep dive into Luke and his gameplay mechanics in SFV during the SFV Fall Update, so be sure to check out the video and blog for all the details.

Street Fighter’s Future is Luke-ing bright!

Brand new to the Street Fighter series, Luke is an eager and headstrong character who experiences a tragic childhood event that brings him to enlist in the U.S. military.

By playing Luke’s story you’ll discover more about how he came to meet up with other members of the SFV cast and how he ties in to the overarching narrative.

Combining Military with MMA

Luke’s various costumes incorporate aspects of his military background and MMA-inspired fighting style. Here’s SFV Director Takayuki Nakayama to explain the inspiration with these concept art images:

Default Costume

“The BUCKLER written on the upper right is a private military company. The president of the company saw Luke’s performance and felt that he was a young and active fighter, and decided to sponsor him.”

Story Costume

“Luke has a unique way of wearing his uniforms. He is not particular about his clothes and doesn’t seem to care much about the size of his shoes. He seems to have a habit of stepping on the heels of his shoes.”

Battle Costume

“Luke has loved basketball since he was a child and today he loves both sports and action games. However, he stays away from horror games as they’re too scary.”

Luke is Fully Armed and Ready

Shown off during the SFV Fall Update, Luke’s move set involves unique mechanics that are brand new to SFV. In addition to standards, such as a zoning projectile in “Sand Blaster” or an anti-air with “Rising Rocket,” Luke comes equipped with various target combos and methods of getting in on his opponents.

His V-Trigger is special in that the V-Timer increases as time goes by or as he does damage using specific moves, giving him an edge against opponents who run away once Luke activates his V-Trigger. On the other hand, if Luke takes damage, his V-Timer decreases, rewarding opponents who manage to stay on offense versus Luke.

And that wraps up the introduction of Luke! Luke’s here to make waves in SFV, but he’s also preparing to be a major player in the next Street Fighter project. Luke is available now on PlayStation 4 and Steam as part of the Season 5 Character Pass, the Season 5 Premium Pass, and individually for $5.99 or 100,000 Fight Money.

Also don’t miss out discounts on SFV, Champion Edition, and the Upgrade Kit through the PlayStation Black Friday Sale (ending soon!) and Steam Autumn Sale!

With Luke’s inclusion, the SFV cast rounds out to a total of forty-five characters, full of newcomers as well as returning veterans. This completes the Season 5 Character and Premium passes! Although Luke is the last character in SFV, there’s still more content coming next year! We still have a Battle Balance update to look forward to in March 2022 as well as the Capcom Pro Tour 2022 bundle. Once again, we thank you all for your continued support throughout these years and look forward to bringing you more Street Fighter news soon!

Hey there, fighters! Over a year ago in the summer of 2020, we set out to improve communication with the Street Fighter V community. Since then, we’ve hosted four digital events delving into upcoming Street Fighter V content. The SFV Fall Update marks our fifth and final digital event focused on SFV, culminating with a deep dive into Luke, the game’sfinal character. Luke will be a major part of the next Street Fighter project, so we hope you are excited to get your hands on him. While we’re not quite ready to speak about that project just yet, we have plenty of details to share about Luke in SFV, our collaboration with Brawlhalla, and Capcom Cup VIII!

Catch the full SFV Fall Update here:

Luke is Amped and Ready to Go in SFV!

We kicked off the SFV Fall Update with a preview of Luke’s story. SFV’s newest character experiences a dramatic childhood event involving his father that inspires him to become a fighter and join the military.

During Luke’s military service, he runs into a familiar face. We won’t spoil too much more here, so be sure to play Luke’s Character Story to learn more!

Luke Keeps on the Offense
Luke’s fighting style is geared around forward moving attacks that keep the pressure on. All three of his normal punches propel Luke forward, allowing him to quickly close distances. Luke also has two target combos: “Triple Impact” (LP -> MP -> HP) and “Snapback Combo,” (MP x4).

Luke has an arsenal of special moves to close in safely and create offensive opportunities. His go-to zoning tool is a mid-to-long range projectile called “Sand Blaster” that shoots energy from his hands. “Rising Rocket,” Luke’s trusty anti-air attack, launches him upwards to strike opponents.

Luke also has a forward-moving command dash called “Avenger.” This maneuver can be used in combos and allows him cover more ground. “Avenger” has two follow ups. Pressing a punch button following “Avenger” executes “No Chaser,” a shoulder charge that can be used in combos.

Meanwhile, pressing a kick button after executing “Avenger” will have Luke use “Impaler,” a mid-range overhead kick that can catch crouching opponents.

“Flash Knuckle” is Luke’s go-to combo starter and extender. Each punch leads to a different forward-moving attack. LP moves slightly forward, MP moves a bit further, and HP will go nearly half-screen.

Holding a punch button when using “Flash Knuckle” gives it different properties, depending on the button pressed. Charge them up and experiment with each one to find which best fits your combo style.

A New Kind of V-System

Luke’s V-System has some unique aspects compared to the rest of the SFV cast, especially with his V-Triggers. For his V-Skills, Luke can either play a more in-your-face style or make some hard reads and predict opponent’s throws and command grabs.

Luke’s V-Skill I, “Hard Shot,” powers up his “Flash Knuckle” move, allowing him to use the charged version of the attack without holding the button down. Charging a “Hard Shot” enhanced “Flash Knuckle” can lead to even more devastating damage and more combo options.

V-Skill II, “Suppressor,” has Luke take a back step before executing a close-range body blow. With proper timing, this move can excel against throws and command grabs. Utilize it to keep pressure on your opponents or when you notice them throwing a lot.

When it comes to V-Triggers, Luke’s are quite special. Both V-Triggers cause his V-Gauge to become a timer that continuously fills in a neutral state. Additionally, in a first for SFV V-Triggers, Luke can gain V-Timer by doing damage. Conversely, he loses V-Timer when taking damage or using his V-Trigger-specific moves. This also forces opponents to approach and prevent Luke from maintaining a filled V-Timer. V-Trigger I, “Fully Armed,” gives Luke access to two new moves, which we revealed during the SFV Summer Update 2021. Pressing HP+HK after activation throws out three long range projectiles similar to “Sand Blaster” called “Rock Smasher.”

If you press HP+HK after an EX “Sand Blaster” while “Fully Armed” is active, the screen will slow down and Luke will throw out a flurry of impactful projectiles in quick succession called “Thermobaric Thrash.” This move adds tons of damage, but is also resource heavy. So make sure you have EX-meter for that EX “Sand Blaster!”

Luke’s V-Trigger II, “Vanguard,” lets him cancel Flash Knuckle” into another of a different strength. This opens up previously unavailable combo paths, allowing Luke to double up on “Flash Knuckles” in his combos. This V-Trigger synergizes well with V-Skill I, “Hard Shot,” allowing Luke to chain together powered up “Flash Knuckles!”

Luke is fully armed and ready to enter the ring on November 29^th with additional costumes. Get yourself ready by picking up the Season 5 Character or Premium Pass! 

The Capcom Cup Returns

Capcom Cup is back with Capcom Cup VIII! The exciting announcement revealed that there will be Exhibition Matches, Last Chance Qualifiers, and the Street Fighter League Finals! More info on all this is coming soon, so stay tuned to the Capcom Fighters channels for updates.

Brawlhalla x Street Fighter

Ryu, Chun-Li, and Akuma have entered the Grand Tournament and are ready to throw down with the Legends of Brawlhalla! Play as classic characters from Street Fighter to K.O. your opponents while utilizing weapons and familiar moves in a new setting!

To commemorate the collaboration, there is a new Game Mode in Brawlhalla called “Street Brawl,” where players will fight Street Fighter-style with health bars on a 2-D setting. There’s also a new map added based on Ryu’s stage Suzaku Castle. Ryu, Chun-Li, and Akuma are all available now in Brawlhalla as Epic Crossovers, so be sure to pick them up as well as all the extra goodies including avatars, a K.O. effect, and more!

You can download and play Brawlhalla for free at brawlhalla.com/play.

SFV Sales and Free Trial

To help celebrate Luke’s launch, there are SFV discounts available as well as a Free Trial on PlayStation 4 through November 29 that grants access to all characters from Seasons 1-4.

Get the following content at a discount (PS4) | (Steam):

• Street Fighter V 60% off
• SFV: Champion Edition up to 35% off
• SFVCE Upgrade Kit 40% off

And that wraps up our final SFV digital update event! Thanks to everyone who tuned in to the SFV Fall Update, and every other update we released since Summer 2020. We would not be where we are today without you, the players, who have given us continued support. We’ve been watching everyone’s reactions to the announcements and are thankful for your passion for Street Fighter.

Although Luke brings an end to our SFV digital updates and character releases, we’ll continue to support SFV in the future. After Luke’s released, our next SFV update will be the Battle Balance update and CPT 2022 bundle coming in March 2022. We hope you’ll enjoy Luke in SFV and you can look forward to seeing more of him in the next Street Fighter project. We’ll be back next year with more Street Fighter news!

Hello everyone. Our team is hard at work on the project, but to ensure this will be an unforgettable adventure, we’ve decided to shift the release window to 2023. In the meantime, we have a brand new artwork to share with you. Thank you for your patience.

You can read more about PRAGMATA in our announcement blog.

In October, we released the Street Fighter x BCRF pink-themed costumes in Street Fighter V for our partnership with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. All proceeds from purchases of these costumes will support further research, and donations will be directly given to the non-profit organization. Huge thanks to everyone who has helped contribute to BCRF so far! Speaking of contributions, we wanted to highlight the artist who created these awesome BCRF costumes, Chisato Mita!

Mita-san’s skillset include concept art, environment UI, character design, and illustrations. One of her specialties is that she can quickly accomplish design work when there is an established concept. Some of Mita-san’s past work include:

Capcom Games (Japan-only):

E.X. Troopers – Environment, UI, Character Design

Toraware no Palm & Toraware no Palm Refrain – Art Director, Character Design, Environment Design and Still Illustrations

Animated TV Series:

Macross Delta – Character Design

Here’s her explanation on the costume’s inspiration and the design direction:

Since I knew this would be a collaboration costume with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, I started the design process with pink being the base color

Our Director (Takayuki Nakayama) explained to me that each designer decides on the design direction of the paid DLC costumes at their own discretion, so I decided to follow the same practice. I drew the costumes within the in-game screenshots, to keep in mind what our players would see on game screen every day.

I decided to go with a modern sportswear look for both of them, and then applied specific details that match the characters’ personalities.

For Chun-Li, I wrapped her hair buns with the pink ribbon that BCRF uses for their logo. I thought it would be nice to have something that makes large movements during battle, so I wrapped belts around her arms.

For Ryu’s shoulder support, I thought of a fusion between a Japanese-style gauntlet and a modern-looking protector. I felt this costume also needed moving parts, so I designed it so he’s not wearing his jumpsuit all the way and let the sleeves hang down.

Thanks, Mita-san, for your hard work and contributions to this charity collaboration!

If you want to see more amazing artwork from Mita-san, you can follow her on Twitter: @mitaChisato.

And if you want to support BCRF in this campaign, there’s still time! You can make direct donations via our Tiltify page, or purchase the Street Fighter x BCRF costumes:

• PlayStation 4
• Steam

100% of the proceeds Capcom receives from the campaign will be donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation with a guaranteed minimum donation commitment of $25,000.

Good day to all Monster Hunter fans around the globe! Our TGS 2021 Monster Hunter Spotlight live stream just wrapped up and it was packed with fun tidbits about development, musical performances, and news. If you missed it, I highly recommend watching the VOD to catch all the segments… but if you’re just looking for the latest news, here’s the recap:

We’ll focus on one game at a time. Ready? Let’s go!

Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin Updates

You’ve come very far in your journey as a young rider, but there are still some high-stakes challenges on the horizon.  Are you ready for a battle of historical proportions? High Difficulty Fatalis is the star of Title Update #5, coming October 21^st! So put together your most powerful team and bring your best bud to take on this epic Co-Op Quest.

A great way to start gearing up for the battle against Fatalis is the Title Update #4 content, which just dropped yesterday, and features a High Difficulty Kulve Taroth Co-Op Quest and a couple of hot-tempered Monsties. Check out the latest trailer below to see what’s out now and what’s to come:

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Monster Hunter Rise (Nintendo Switch) Updates

Since the launch of Monster Hunter Rise on Nintendo Switch, we’ve been working on a total of five collaborations with other Capcom games. Four of them are already live in the game. Here’s a quick recap:

We started off with a Tsukino Palico outfit as a tie-in with Monster Hunter Stories 2, followed by a divine Palamute costume that makes your Canyne look like Amaterasu from Okami. Soon after, we had Akuma from Street Fighter make an appearance as a Hunter costume, and most recently, we summoned Mega Man’s best bud Rush as a rad Palamute layered armor.

Now, for the fifth Capcom collab, we present to you… Arthur, from Ghosts ‘n Goblins: Resurrection!

As with our past collaborations, you can expect to see some custom flair this time too. I’ll tell you one cool thing: your throwing kunai transform into Arthur’s iconic throwing LANCES!

This collab Event Quest will go live on October 29^th, and will be available for free for all Monster Hunter Rise players.

But that’s not the last of our collaboration content…

2021 was a big year for Monster Hunter, but there’s another beloved gaming series that also had a massive milestone this year: Sonic The Hedgehog! So to celebrate, we’ve teamed up with SEGA to create an exciting collaboration in Monster Hunter Rise. We’re not quite ready to share any info yet, but the collab is scheduled to drop this November. Stay tuned so you don’t miss out!

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Monster Hunter Rise (PC) News

Earlier this year, we announced plans to bring Monster Hunter Rise to PC in “early 2022.” Let’s set an actual date for this release, shall we? Monster Hunter Rise will launch on Steam on January 12, 2022!

Quick sidebar: before we move on to some of the PC-specific details, I know you’re wondering about all the fun updates we just covered above for the Nintendo Switch version. To address that, I’m happy to report that Monster Hunter Rise will launch on Steam with all major post-launch content available in the Nintendo Switch version through the end of November 2021. We’ll have more info to share on future updates at a later date.

Now, onto those Monster Hunter Rise PC-specific details… our dev team has been hard at work at implementing some popular features and requests, such as uncapped framerates, 4K resolution, high-res textures, mouse & keyboard support and ultrawide (21:9) support. Here’s some of it in action:

Oh? Did you catch that info bit at the end? That’s right! We’re launching a Demo of the PC version on October 13^th so you can try out some of the features listed above and, if this is your first time with Monster Hunter Rise, try out a lot of the new awesome additions to our classic gameplay formula!

The Monster Hunter Rise Demo will offer two Training Quests and three Hunting Quests. The targets for those are the sharp Great Izuchi, the bubbly Mizutsune, and the malicious Magnamalo! For each quest, you’ll get to pick one of 14 unique weapon types and take at least one helpful buddy with you: your choice of Palico (trusty Felyne friends) or Palamute (all-new Canyne companions).

The Demo will also feature the new Wirebugs along with the Wyvern Riding technique. Be sure to try them both out and let us know how you feel after tasting this newfound freedom of movement and control.

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Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak News

Last week we pulled the curtains back on our next big project, the monstrous expansion Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, showing off a glimpse of some of the new content we have in the works. Part of that reveal was the flagship monster of the expansion, an ominous elder dragon…

And today, we get to know its name: Malzeno!

Are you ready to come face-to-face this menacing Master Rank threat?

But that’s not all we had to show you at the TGS 2021 live stream! Keeping with the dangerous tone set by Sunbreak’s reveal, we thought it’d be a good chance to reveal a crafty returning monster: Shogun Ceanataur. This carapaceon is known for deploying razor-sharp claws from its front limbs and shredding anything in its path. It also uses other monsters’ skulls as its shell. Savage!

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Now for the ultimate recap…

• Monster Hunter Stories 2 Title Update #5 featuring Fatalis (High Difficulty) arrives October 20^th.
• Monster Hunter Rise collaboration with Ghosts ‘n Goblins coming October 29^th. Collaboration with Sonic The Hedgehog coming this November.
• Monster Hunter Rise release date on Steam (PC) is set for January 12^th, 2021. Free demo is coming October 13^th, 2021.
• Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak will launch simultaneously on Nintendo Switch and Steam (PC) in Summer 2022.

Happy Hunting!

Starting earlier this year, you’ve taken up arms as a Hunter of Kamura Village, fended off the ongoing Rampages, and finally put the mysteries of the Thunder and Wind Serpents to rest. Well done, Hunters.

However, the work of a Hunter never truly ends. A new, ominous chapter is about to unfold in the Monster Hunter Rise saga: enter the monstrous expansion Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, coming to Nintendo Switch and PC in Summer 2022.

Behold the thrilling teaser trailer we debuted today:

So, what did you think? The eerie music and the new locale come together to set the stage for that menacing monster reveal… It gave me the chills!

As the direct expansion to Monster Hunter Rise, you can expect a massive amount of content coming with Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, including an all-new storyline with more new monsters, new locales, gameplay elements, a new quest rank, and more!

We’re keeping some of the finer details concealed in darkness until a later date. In the meantime, we have more fun game content coming up for Monster Hunter Rise (including one more Capcom collab!), so stay tuned to the Monster Hunter social medial channels (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube) for the latest news and updates on all things Monster Hunter!

Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak will launch simultaneously on Nintendo Switch and PC in Summer 2022.

Hi, everyone! It’s Janet Hsu, localization director of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, back again for one last blog about the history and literary culture of the Meiji and Victorian eras.

It’s been three weeks now since the release of the game – how are you all finding it so far? As some of you are wrapping up your first playthrough (of many, I hope!), I thought I’d share a little bit about the background of the era and point out a few literary references you might have missed. There might be a few small spoilers in here, but I did my utmost to avoid the big ones! Also, I’ll be using the Japanese order of surname, first name for any real life Japanese historical figures I discuss.

Finally, please remember that while The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles draws on historical events and situations, it is by no means a historical game. Many of the portrayals are only veeery loosely based in history, and even things like the names of certain treaties are different in the game to reflect the fictitious nature of our in-game world. Also, this blog article is all based on my own research, and as much as I try to be accurate, I may not hit every point exactly on the head. So, uh… no angry tweets from history majors, please…?

Now then, I guess for a lot of players the first question is: What is the Meiji era? And what does it represent to modern Japanese people?

The Meiji era was kicked off by the external forced opening of Japan to the Western powers by US Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853 and the internal political struggle that resulted in the Meiji Restoration (明治維新) or the Meiji Revolution, which culminated in 1868. One of the reasons why these events were so big is due to the technological gap that had developed between Japan and the Western powers during the long period of self-isolation known as ‘sakoku’ (鎖国 / lit: closed country), and the sense of danger to Japan itself that the Japanese felt as a result of that display of power.

During the Edo period (1603 – 1867), which started after Tokugawa Ieyasu unified all of Japan, the country closed all of its ports (with the lone exception of Nagasaki and a few other designated ports in Kyushu) to outside traders (with the lone exceptions of the Dutch, Chinese, Koreans, and the Ainu). This closure led to internal political stability and peace, but it severely limited the free trade of ideas and technology, in addition to goods and people. Japanese people were not allowed to leave to learn from other countries, and foreign nationals were generally not allowed to come into Japan to set up trade or to share knowledge. So, when Commodore Perry and his Black Ships arrived in modern-day Tokyo Bay, it was a huge catalyst for change.

Most modern Japanese people look back on the Meiji Era as a time of great social change and modernization. New ways of thinking in all areas of life were being discussed and codified. This included not only political things like their system of government, but also the legal system, which was updated to be more Western-like, and less reliant on the whims of your local daimyo (大名 / feudal samurai lord) and his interpretation of ‘the law’ (let’s just say that Ryunosuke’s joke about a samurai cutting a person down to test his blade’s sharpness is a version of something that was officially outlawed, yet was still somehow allowed if a commoner was being rude…).

Part of the reason the ruling class of Japan were so motivated to modernize was the hope that by doing so, they could raise their standing enough to nullify the unfair treaties they had been forced to sign initially. In The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, our Japan has just signed a treaty that has been in the works for a long time (though whether it was one of the renegotiated treaties is left up to your imagination), and as Kazuma and Auchi’s verbal sparring shows, not everyone was in agreement on how Japan should proceed in these sorts of political negotiations with the West. This was one of the great internal struggles of the era.

Of course, many other areas of society were undergoing modernization as well for a variety of reasons. One of these was in women’s education. Until the Meiji period, compulsory education for boys and girls was not a thing, so one of the ways in which Japan revolutionized was to provide primary and secondary education for all children. Despite good intentions, women were unfortunately not always afforded the same chances as men, and this was especially true in higher education. The first women’s institutions for higher learning weren’t established until 50 years after their male counterparts in 1900 – 1901, and women weren’t admitted into men’s colleges until much later. Now, I’m not saying that’s exactly what Susato and her best friend’s situation was since this series takes huge liberties with history, but this backdrop shows how special these two young ladies would’ve been had they lived in our real world during that time. Certainly, to attain such high levels of education, they might have had private tutors, or in Susato’s case, we know she learned alongside her father and Kazuma.

One figure who’s especially famous and well-known in the field of women’s education is Tsuda Umeko, who spent her youth in the U.S. as a part of the Iwakura Mission and who worked tirelessly upon her return to Japan to bring women’s education up to standards with the American schools she’d attended. One of her greatest achievements was the establishment of one of Japan’s oldest institutes for higher learning for women, Joshi Eigaku Juku (modern day ‘Tsuda University’), in 1900. Her story is a truly fascinating one, and if you have the time, I highly recommend giving at least her Wikipedia page a read. Starting in 2024, you can find her gracing the front of every 5,000 yen bill (around US $50).

Another area of change was in clothing. While many men of the upper classes and certain occupations quickly adopted Western clothing, traditional Japanese clothing were still worn by women of all classes and the average citizen. Many people also mixed and matched their styles like Soseki in Episode 1 of Resolve, and as Ryunosuke and Susato’s designs show. The Western boots Susato wears stand out in contrast against the traditional hakama pants and the pink kimono she wears underneath, while Ryunosuke’s arm guard is evocative of kendo (Japanese sword fighting) and other Japanese sports against a Western-style suit.

In the field of science, the Victorians were still making new discoveries, but one of the things that Resolve touched on was the introduction of germ theory in Europe. I didn’t know how relevant some of these scientific issues would become when we were making the second game originally in 2017, but it became especially eerie when the translators and I came across lines about masks and soap just as the current pandemic was hitting its stride. The characters treating these concepts as ‘new’ ideas really makes you think about how immutable the laws of nature are, and how far our understanding of them has come.

Finally, no overview of the era is complete without acknowledging how the language and literature of the time was greatly affected by all these social changes. With gendered terms like ‘she’ and ‘he’ existing in the languages of Europe came a need to create a new word ‘kanojo’ (彼女) for ‘her’ and the reassignment of the word ‘kare’ (彼) to the realm of the exclusively male ‘he’ for translation purposes, which has since become the norm as we see in modern Japanese today. Any and all Japanese clothing, which was just ‘kimono’ (着物 / lit: things to wear), gained a new term ‘wafuku’ (和服 / lit: Japanese clothing) to go along with the equally new word ‘youfuku’ (洋服 / lit: Western clothing). If you think learning new tech words is hard now, imagine having words about anything and everything in your life constantly changing!

But the new influx of European texts also brought interesting new ideas and technology. One of the greatest cultural influences that was more broadly re-introduced to Japan at this time was Shakespeare and his plays.

…Ahem.

Shakespeare was so beloved by the people of Meiji Japan that he even gained an affectionate nickname, Saou (沙翁 / lit: Old Man/Elder Sa), though many may not have even heard of this name in modern times… until now!

Indeed, the reason a Shakespeare-inspired character appears in Soseki’s episodes is because even he was inspired by and was in direct competition with Shakespeare himself! As a part of his studies into English literature (and NOT the English language as our game pokes fun at!), he studied under one of the preeminent Shakespearian scholars of the time, William James Craig, who did indeed live just off of Baker Street. To this day, Shakespeare’s works continue to inspire countless stories and anime, and even inspired the mighty filmmaker Kurosawa Akira.

Speaking of Soseki, he really is the literary juggernaut he seems to be in Resolve by the end of his career (he was even on the 1,000 yen bill between 1984 – 2004). In addition to his ground-breaking novels, his paper ‘Theory on Literature’ (文学論) is still as insightful today as it ever was on the nature of literature and why people read. It digs into these issues through the lens of then-cutting-edge sociology and psychology. But, also as shown in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, Soseki had a pretty miserable time in London, which he describes in the forward of his paper, and he also apparently really did send a blank piece of paper to the Ministry of Education as his annual progress report.

In naming the episodes of the first game back in 2014, Mr. Takumi had wanted me to come up with their English titles as well. The Japanese title of the Soseki-centric Episode 4 made reference to his novel ‘I Am a Cat’ (吾輩は猫である / Wagahai wa Neko de aru) with the word ‘Wagahai’ (吾輩). Wanting to keep some sort of Soseki reference in the title, I suggested ‘Clouded Kokoro’ (a reference to his novel ‘Kokoro’, which heartbreakingly explores the themes of cultural shifts, and ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ Japan in the Meiji era). Initially, Mr. Takumi thought the ‘Kokoro’ reference might bring a melancholy mood to the episode title, lest it drew attention to the real-life Soseki’s depression, but our Soseki was so different, and the concept of a ‘clouded mind/heart’ also fit well with the other themes in his episodes, so that’s what we went with.

But did you know? The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is actually not the first crossover between the great detective and Soseki. In fact, there are a number of Holmes pastiches, including the arguably most famous one available in English, a Japanese story from 1953 called ‘The Yellow Lodger’ (黄色い下宿人) by Yamada Fuutarou where Holmes solves a case thanks to Soseki’s help. Another famous Japanese story is Shimada Souji’s 1984 novel, ‘Souseki to Rondon Miira Satsujin Jiken’ (漱石と倫敦ミイラ殺人事件 / lit: ‘Soseki and the Case of the London Mummy Murder’, which doesn’t seem to have an English translation yet(?), and is currently running as a serial manga!) sees the two solving a mystery like no other. The story is written from both Soseki and Wilson’s perspectives, and you could not read more disparate depictions of the same great detective in one story! It’s funny to think that perhaps the reason people are so easily able to imagine Soseki as a fictional character is thanks to Soseki himself – he’d actually written a series of short stories about his adventures in London where he is the star character in them! Soseki’s writings and Mr. Yamada’s ‘The Yellow Lodger’ pastiche are available in English in ‘The Tower of London: Tales of Victorian London’, translated by Damian Flanagan.

Of course, Soseki and Sholmes aren’t the only literary references in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. The Victorian era is known for bringing the mystery genre to the fore. People have long thought (and conducted research into this) that as police departments and detective work became more established as an institution during the Victorian era, so too did the public’s fascination with grisly tales of crime and murder grow. People wanted to read fantastical stories about the police and detectives who solved crimes similar to the ones they saw as headlines in the newspaper. In a sense, these fictional detectives were the superheroes of their time. As a reflection of his great love of the genre, Mr. Takumi included references and pays homage to quite a number of mysteries and their famous detectives from the Victorian era and the ‘Golden Age of Detective Fiction’ of the 1920s and 1930s. These homages include, but are not limited to:
・‘The Hands of Mr. Ottermole’
・Monsieur Lecoq, and his creator Émile Gaboriau
・Dr. John Evelyn Thorndyke
・Solar Pons
・the Black Widowers and the club waiter Henry Jackson
・Baroness Emma Orczy, who wrote what was considered at the time to be the rival of Holmes, ‘The Old Man in the Corner’

And my favorite reference of them all: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective by Shu Takumi! *wink*

Basically, anything that seems awfully specific and not a pun, well… that just might be a reference to something!

In Escapade 6, we also talked about a contemporary of Soseki’s named Mori Ougai, who was a real-life contemporary and rival (but only in the sense that their approaches to life and their writing were due to their circumstances at birth). But he’s not the only literary figure to make an appearance. In fact, there’s a little hidden appearance featuring Mark Twain and his adventures in bicycling that Iris and Susato refer to…

The Meiji and Victorian eras were a time of great change and societal introspection, for no segment of life was untouched by the great internal struggle. In Japan, it was keenly felt in that push and pull that tugged at each person’s heart over the questions of how Western was ‘too Western’ and what traditions were worth keeping or were integral to the core of Japanese identity. And in London, a similar struggle was taking place due to the industrial revolution and everything it brought to the lives of the average citizen – from moving into cities from the countryside to overcrowded working conditions indoors and in mines. Regardless the period, these themes of change are always relevant, though it is felt stronger in some eras by some people than by others. Still, it seems especially relevant in today’s world to me, where technology has taken over a good portion of our lives, and some people wonder if we’ve advanced too quickly, or if the speed of technology’s advance has been allowed to dictate the rate at which society changes, for example. That’s what makes the literature of the era timeless and endlessly relatable, in my opinion, as life is never quite as static or as stable as we’d like to think it is.

And that brings me to the end of these dev blogs! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them. I hope you’ll join me in one last ‘Thank you!’ to the wonderful people who made this game possible – from the producers and the director, to the translators at Plus Alpha Translations, our recording partners at SIDE UK, and the rest of the dev team. And, of course…

Thank YOU, the fans, for all your love and support of the series!!!

Take care of yourselves and each other!
Until we meet again!

Hot on the heels of the SFV Summer Update 2021 earlier this month, Oro and Akira have now arrived in Street Fighter V! Quite fitting they are paired together: Oro being a fighting master while Akira is always striving to learn more. Both are set to teach their opponents a lesson or two by bringing different gameplay styles to the roster.

Oro and Akira come fully equipped with unique moves and quirks, such as Oro’s ability to double jump, and Akira’s Rival Schools style “Air Bursts.” We’ve already covered both characters’ move sets in-depth before, so check out the Summer Update blog for those details. Today, let’s start with talking about how Oro and Akira fit into the overall world and story setting of SFV.

Oro, the Street Fighter III Veteran, Returns to SFV!

Oro, fighting master and hermit, has made his return into Street Fighter V!Although Oro is a bit reclusive, he has been seen wandering throughout various Street Fighter V’scharacter stories. He has appeared alongside Dhalsim, given advice to Menat, and most recently, felt a strong energy presence with Rose that has called him to action. Perhaps a new challenge?

Oro’s playstyle in SFIII has been faithfully brought into SFV featuring a set of V-Skills and V-Triggers that combine older moves with new ones. I personally like his V-Trigger II, “Tengu Stone” which opens up tons of combo paths. In addition, “Tengu Midare Stone” adds even more damage and makes combos even flashier. If you prefer an in-your-face style of play, I recommend his V-Trigger I, “Manrikitan,” which gives Oro access to his command throw “Kishinriki” for a more direct approach and high damage. Unlike most other command throws, “Kishinriki” can be used as a combo ender, adding significant damage to combos.

When it comes to Oro, you can’t go wrong with any combo of moves! Check out the Summer Update 2021 blog for the full breakdown!

Akira Kazama Graduates from Rival Schools and Rides into Street Fighter V!

Akira hails from the Rival Schools series and, much like Oro, is no stranger to the cast of SFV.Akira and Sakura trained together back in their high school days and got to know each other through fighting. It seems like others are looking to challenge Akira too!

Akira is also unique in that she is the only character to have two voice actors provide voices for her in her Character Story! She has a slightly lower-toned voice when with her helmet on, posing as a male student in the original Rival Schools game. When she removes her helmet, she speaks with her normal voice. A very nice touch added to keep Akira true to her Rival Schools roots.

Akira also brought a variety of different outfits that are throwbacks to her attires in Rival Schools. Hardcore Rival Schools fans may notice one costume in particular that is a reference to the Japan-only PlayStation version of Rival Schools. This version contained a bonus Disc 2 called “Evolution,” and featured a Friendship Simulator where you would interact with the various characters from the game in a visual novel style. During Akira’s story, she dons a maid outfit. This outfit has been brought over to Street Fighter V as a homage to this rarely seen side of Akira!

Akira’s moveset has also been updated for SFV. Here you can see that her “Kiko Kai” is an adaptation from the move in Rival Schools.

Also, like in her alma mater series, Akira can call her brother Daigo as an assist of sorts using her V-Trigger I “Otoko No Senaka.” If ever you’re facing off against Akira using her V-Trigger I, the most important tip I can give is this: respect Daigo.

When Daigo arrives, he cannot be attacked or interrupted. You can, however, use V-Reversal or V-Shift on his attacks, so save meter wisely and choose the right time and move to get out of tricky mixups from Akira! Check out the Summer Update 2021 blog for the full analysis of Akira’s moveset.

New Stage, Mode, and V-Shift Balance

In addition to Oro and Akira dropping, there is also the brand new stage, “Rival Riverside.” This stage is available now in-store for $3.99, in-game for 70,000 Fight Money, or as part of the SFV Season 5 Premium Pass.

There is also a major adjustment to V-Shift. You can now execute the move outside of a neutral state either while moving forward or backwards. The Battle Balance team feels this will help give more opportunities to utilize the move in different scenarios. Check out the Shadaloo C.R.I. page for all the details.

We’ve refined and released Online Tournament Mode which was previously in a beta phase. With this mode, you can create and participate in tournaments made by you, your friends, and SFV community members. Check out the Online Tournament Mode blog for more info on how the mode works!

Major Sales and Free Trial!

We have discounted various SFV related versions and bundles! Alongside these sales, we also are holding a Free Trial of Season 1-4 of SFV happening now ending August 18. For more info on the sales and Free Trial, check out the Summer Update 2021 Blog.

And with that, we hope you all enjoy both Oro and Akira in SFV!Both characters are available now as part of the Season 5 Premium Pass and Character Pass, in-store for $5.99 each, or in-game for 100,000 Fight Money each.

With Oro and Akira now available, that leaves one more character left. Luke is getting revved up and ready to go for a November release. We look forward to sharing more about him with you in the future!

With the arrival of Oro and Akira also comes the long awaited Online Tournament Mode! This free mode is now available to all Street Fighter V players and will allow you to participate in player-created tournaments and even host your own! In this blog, we’ll go over the details on how to join or start your own tournament.

First up, we have a video that highlights the main features of this mode:

Creating a Tournament

To create your own tournament in SFV, start by navigating to the “CFN” menu on the Main Menu. From there, scroll all the way to the right and select “Tournament.”

From here, you’ll see a list of tournaments already created. Press the “Options” button to enter the tournament creation mode. You’ll start by determining the basic details of your tournament. Keep in mind that the name of your tournament will be your Capcom Fighter ID followed by “CUP” (e.g. a player named “Fighter01” will get a tournament called “Fighter01 CUP”).

After creating your tournament, you’ll have the option to modify the following:

• Start Date and Time – Time zone is determined based on your location.
• Max number of Players/Teams – Max of 64 total.
• Password – If you wish to limit who can enter, they will need to know the password.
• Tournament Format – Double or single elimination.
• 3^rd Place Playoff – If you wish to have a playoff match for 3^rd place.
• Character Select – If this is off, players will be defaulted to their favorite characters for online matches.

• Regulations – 1-on-1 or 2-on-2 / 3-on-3 Team Battles.
• Match Format through Throwaway Matches – Rules set for Team Battles only.
• Rounds – Number of rounds per match.
• Match Time – How long each round will be.
• Victory Settings – First to 1, 2, or 5 rounds.

• Hardware – PS4, PC, or no preference.
• Entry Preference – Open to all players or limited to nearby players only.
• League Restrictions – This applies to rank such as Bronze, Silver, Gold, etc.
• Character Restrictions – Limit certain characters only or allow any character!
  • Note: participating players can only use characters they own.
• Stage Restrictions – Limit which stages can be chosen.
  • Note: only stages owned by the tournament creator can be selected. Random Stage setting is set by default.

From here, the tournament is created and the creator can monitor who enters and they can remove any players they want. Entrants can also view the list to see who their potential opponents will be.

Tournament Creator can also live spectate matches if they reserve in advance. Participants and all SFV users can watch the replays after the bracket concludes.

Once a tournament ends, you can view the winner and the results of each match from the entire tournament.

Joining a Tournament

Joining a tournament is even easier than setting one up! Simply go to the Online Tournament Mode and see the list of available tournaments.

You can change the display order to filter tournaments out or search directly via Fighter ID (FID) or keywords. As a reminder, tournament names will be the FID + “CUP” so if you are looking to join a specific tournament, search for the creator’s FID.

If you are entering a team tournament, you can send requests to friends to join your team.

Once entered, you can view the participant list until the tournament begins. You’ll have to check in before the tournament begins, including teammates if it is a team tournament, so take note of the tournament’s date and time. From there, you participate as normal and fight to become the champion!

We hope you enjoy Online Tournament Mode and that this gets your Street Fighter V competitive juices flowing even more! For more info on Online Tournament Mode, check out the Online Manual. Also, be sure to check our Twitter and Facebook for info on upcoming tournaments!

Hi, everyone. It’s Yasuyuki Makino, the main producer of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. It’s been about a week since the game’s release. How have you been enjoying it so far?

So, last time, I shared a few of my thoughts and memories of the Ace Attorney and The Great Ace Attorney series with you. This time, I thought I’d talk a little about the creation of the brand new Chronicles logo in both Japanese and English. I hope you’ll indulge me in a little reminiscing.

Designing the Japanese Logo

As some of you may already know, in conjunction with the release of the Nintendo 3DS version of Resolve, we released a special limited-edition double-pack containing both Adventures and Resolve (we packaged them together into one thick box). So when it came time to think about what to do for the package and logo of this multi-platform collection, I initially thought I could reuse the old logo design since the title was going to be the same… but I quickly realized that we absolutely had to use a different design if we were to avoid any player confusion.

Knowing that we were definitely going to up-res everything, and definitely add some in-game bonuses, and definitely make some quality of life adjustments to the game, the scope of this project was going to be far greater than simply bundling the two games into one and call it a day. As I mentioned last time, this was to be a chance to re-introduce The Great Ace Attorney to the whole world, so as a producer, I approached this as a totally new title – complete with a new marketing campaign! With that intent in mind, I asked our graphics design team to come up with a few different color and design variations for the logo. Broadly speaking, I asked for designs that were reminiscent of the original, and designs that presented the game in a new light (basically, ones that went in a different direction). These are a few of their suggestions.

And then… after listening to feedback from the game’s director, localization director, and other dev team and promo team members, we struggled through a few iterations to arrive at this. It’s a pretty bold design, really, if I do day so myself.

I chose to go with this divergent design because I thought it was more important for the logo to be eye-catching than to stick with the original design. So, we proceeded to use this logo until, one day, I received a simple, “We need to talk” from the original art director and character designer, Mr. Kazuya Nuri. I’d asked him to create a new illustration for the package art of this title, so I quickly set up a meeting for us. Wondering what could be up, I entered the meeting room, where I was immediately blown back out by an intense “What the heck is with that logo?!” In all the time I’ve worked with Mr. Nuri on various projects since the release of the 3DS version of Resolve (and even now after we’ve finished making Chronicles) I’d never been told off quite so soundly by him. But this time, I’d apparently “really gone way too far!!!!”, as he put it. After I explained my rationale to him (about how I wanted to make sure the logo didn’t look too much like the old one and how I wanted to approach the marketing of this game as a new title), he said, “All right, let me see if I can’t strike a better balance”, and took up the job of redesigning the logo himself. The final logo is the product of his hard work, and before long, Mr. Nuri also turned in his new key visual for this game’s box art. In a way, I suppose you could say that I got everything I wanted as a producer out of him. After all, I’m sure you were as dumbstruck as me when you first laid eyes on that illustration, weren’t you? This is an excellent example of how one quack producer’s rational thinking can be defeated by a super talented creator’s sensibilities through his art.

Designing the English Logos

Because of the importance of the English version to this project, we obviously had to create some English logos as well. Early on in the development, the localization director and I discussed the English title, and we quickly settled on including the word “Great” in it. As for the subtitles, our overseas offices advised us that the name ‘Naruhodo’ itself is unfamiliar to most players, so it seemed natural that we should simply go with “Adventures” and “Resolve”. With the title squared away, we asked the graphics design team to send us a few ideas based around these three concepts:

1. Must convey that this is an Ace Attorney game (similar-looking designs to the existing logos were acceptable)
2. Must convey the Victorian setting
3. Should feature a stylish steampunk aesthetic (as an extension of concept number 2)

And here are some of the initial designs we received.

Ideas in hand, it was a relatively short journey to our final designs for Adventures and Resolve, but the road to the Chronicles logo was very long and winding… You almost have to see it to believe it, but here are the initial design ideas we received. I think you can imagine just how bumpy the path must’ve been from this starting point…

Along with the graphics design team, we poured over reference materials of all sorts – fonts and typography, Victorian signage, steampunk images, and even previous Japanese promotional materials for the series. The main dev staff, the localization director, and I would send detailed feedback to the design team, and they’d send a few more suggestions our way. Back and forth we went, before finally settling on on the final version you see today. You might think that in the course of creating something, it’s only natural to iterate on a concept over and over, but the process this time was so painfully long… Still, all the pieces fell into place eventually, so let’s just say, “all’s well that ends well”!

And that’s where I think I’ll end this story. Thank you for sticking with me over two blog entries. Next time, it’ll be our localization director Janet’s turn again. I can feel this strong aura of incredible enthusiasm radiating from her desk behind me, like she’s just raring to talk about Soseki Natsume and the Meiji era for those who want to know more about the historical and cultural context behind The Great Ace Attorney’s setting. I hope you’ll join her then!