Capcom doesn’t seem to be making a major change that Street Fighter 6 needs in Season 2

Street Fighter 6 is about to undergo it’s single, major yearly update, and while more than excited from all the interesting changes we’ve seen, I can’t help but acknowledge a tug in my gut that says they’re missing out on one big alteration that would make things a good bit better.

Said change is something we’ve seen implemented before, specifically after about the first year of a new Street Fighter, and that’s a general damage reduction. Hear me out.

The flow and feel of Street Fighter 6 is impressively good for an initial version, but few would say it’s perfect. Capcom is attending to the trend toward lopsided offense by globally buffing up Drive Reversals in some interesting ways, and offering the cast more tools out of sticky situations will surely swing the pendulum a bit in the direction it needs to go.

If I’m honest in my reflections, while playing I find myself regularly feeling like the climactic exchanges in second and third rounds are a little cheapened or cut short.

Especially by round three, it’s not uncommon for characters to have stockpiled a ton of resources that lead into their most devastating sequences, and while these combos are flashy and cinematic, stray hit into Drive Rush cancel into another Drive Rush cancel into level three Super being enough to lop off entire halves of health bars feels like it’s just a bit too much.

This isn’t an egregious issue, especially not when you consider the examples of other fighters or even other franchise entries, but it can often leave players feeling like things ended an interaction before they should have; I liken it to the feeling one gets when you’re excitedly eating something you love the taste of, but realize you’ve swallowed without fully enjoying the bite you took.

Damage output tends to be relatively high in initial releases, and we’ve seen Capcom specifically reduce it in significant ways in both of Street Fighter 6’s predecessors.

One of the defining facets of the transition between Vanilla Street Fighter 4 and Super Street Fighter 4 was a general reduction via slight damage nerfs to many individual moves, while Street Fighter 5 saw combo scaling increased from both V-Trigger activation and Crush Counter situations.

I’d argue Street Fighter 6 isn’t as bad as either of its predecessors were in this particular category, but rounds lasting for about one more interaction on average would likely benefit everyone.

Yes, the fireworks that come from big and bombastic combos are neat at first, but the fireworks that might come from all the potential comebacks we’re missing could very well be brighter, and creating an atmosphere where the more thoughtful player has a better shot at winning is always nice when it can be done practically.

It really doesn’t look like Capcom is nerfing damage given the footage we’ve seen of the upcoming build and the reports from those who have played it, but a simple scaling increase in Drive Rush cancels or level 3 Supers might be all the game needs to properly scratch this itch.

It’s true that the rounds in some titles simply take too long to resolve, but adding one interaction (especially in a game where Akuma will be doing 6,000 damage trial combos) doesn’t feel like it’ll turn Street Fighter 6 into a snooze fest.

We actually discussed this very topic a while back in a Talk and Block episode, which you can view the segment from below. As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter so please chime into the comments with how you feel about damage output in SF6 and if it needs some changing sooner rather than later.