NowGamer has a new quick interview with Seth Killian where they discuss Street Fighter X Tekken, roster sizes, unlocks and more. You can catch a piece of the interview below, and the rest on the website.
NowGamer: What’s your stance on having to unlock characters considering many people see fighting games as something they just want to play straight away with their friends?
Seth: We actually started that with Street Fighter IV – we brought that back and only nine – was it nine? – characters unlocked out of the gate so it took some time – including for me and I’d been playing the game for a long time [laughs] – to unlock them all.
That’s kind of a Japanese way of looking at things and there are fans in the West who like that approach, but I would say on average it was not popular.
People were like ‘I don’t want to have to work to unlock this. I just want to play.’ So attitudes vary, but if you’re playing Call Of Duty and you’re waiting to unlock a perk or something like that people don’t genuinely have a problem there so I think the mindset is a little different across different types of games and player bases.
Personally I didn’t like unlocking the characters. I enjoyed playing through the game but, you know, by my third or fourth – or probably 800th time for me – I didn’t need that on the day of release when I wanted to play with my friends, so I think right now we tend to be on the available side rather than unlocking.
NowGamer: Can we expect any more characters from both the Street Fighter and Tekken side?
Seth: We have a few months till release with this game and we plan to announce characters right up to the finish line. The character select screen will be covered with characters, so we have quite a lot still to come including some from Street Fighter history that have not been in a game for quite some time, so we want to make both sets of fans happy.
NowGamer: Do you have a final number?
Seth: I do but not one I’m going to share today [laughs]. I think, overall, it’ll be almost impossible to be disappointed with the number of characters in the roster. This is the most robust roster we’ve had for a Street Fighter game. I don’t want to say ever because someone will get me if I say that, but it’s a lot of characters.
Tip from an anonymous submitter.
I remember when Vanilla came out and I had a tournament coming up and needed to unlock all the characters on like 5/6 Xbox's. I had a buddy come over just keep playing through on 1 round, easiest level and as payment I kept giving him free beer to keep playing lol. Took about 3/4 hours that night.
so does that mean yun jin and lee still have a chance of making the roster?
Ah..I remember the days when characters had to be unlocked. I remember how psyched I was to discover Evil Ryu in Alpha 3 way back when on the PSX...nice. I don't particularly mind it too much but I understand why its not as popular as it was then.
No new info on Gems won't surface until AGS on December 23rd, so it'll be a bit of a wait. But the number of character reveals they have to make alone makes it worth it. In the meantime I still have AE, got Umvc3 today, skyrim, KofXIII on the way...I'll be fine..
Give me Sakura and law and this game will make me flip out
Unlock All Hidden Characters from the start Gem - $8.95 DLC
I find it quite sad if Sf x Tekken has bigger cast of characters than Umvc3(a game name for its large cast). ono knows how to make a game(that is if the gem system doesn't turn out to be a train reck. Imo Capcom should never do business with Marvel ever again.
huge roster (featuring 30% guest characters and cats)
@18
Nothing wrong with getting a full use out of the game. Using one character to unlock your favorite brought out an appreciation for both fighters when I did it in SF4 (using Ken to unlock Fei Long.) I only wish they had secret characters which you can unlock, but in this day & age nothing much is secret on a Video Game.
I say have some characters locked in the game. Gives us Achievements/Trophies to gain and possible new teams to make since it forces you to take up the mantle of another fighter.
I have no problem with gems at all but that's me I'm pumped it sounds interesting and new super customization not to mention I haven't played it yet so I'm not gonna quit before I even play it
(Unlocking characters can be tedious in today's world, when you have multiple systems/saves/etc.
Unlocking features and other stuff I'm fine with, however)
"This is the most robust roster we’ve had for a Street Fighter game. I don’t want to say ever because someone will get me if I say that"
So, which game does have the most characters? I'm thinking CvS2 ;]
so we should at least get 40 characters, since ssf4ae had 39 and "some long time no see" mean at least 2
unlocking characters can be nice, the thing i didn't like in mvc3 is gaining all those points and having nothing to do with them, mk9 and bb are better in that way
make gem optionnal and the hype is back
I think we all know what characters I want... (Elena and Eddy/Christie :P)
I'm not sure how I feel about lowering the execution barrier. I am a fan of no input shortcuts though :D.
(They have to give UMVC3 it's spotlight, #26 - Ono's tweeted tons of times reveal will be at the end of dec. at some asian game show...)
@24
Mike is NOT Balrog! They have different birthdays on SFwiki and Mike fights for money to save his sister that is in the Hospital.
And it's been said that the two have appeared in the same game. SF2! Mike and Joe are fighting in the opening intro. So clearly they are not one in the same.
However... I think it would be cool if they treated Mike on a Ken/Ryu basis and made a Brand New Boxer based on Balrog's move set. But have him look/move/fight with his own special attributes!
His dash punches could all be crazy different than Rogs.
btw, what I'm kinda disappointed about is that they haven't added any orginal characters from the SF Universe like instead of doing Cammy why not do someone else from The Dolls like *Noembelu or The Delt Red Squad like Colonel Keith Wolfman or Yun & Yang's uncle Lee, the list goes on and on -
http://streetfighter.wikia.com/wiki/L...
Maybe they'll get it right for TEKKEN x Street Fighter
*describtion Originally from Mexico, she specializes in fighting with twin hatchets. Her name was originally "Little Eagle" and she was part of T. Hawk's Thunderfoot tribe
@Aluppoj
Mike is also believed to have been Balrog (whose Japanese name is Mike Bison). Capcom, however, because of lawsuit issues, was very insistent that they were always meant to be two different characters. On 2010-03-26, Capcom officially stated and admitted on their blog that Mike (SF1) and Mike Bison (Balrog) are "probably one and the same"
Dude, how many time have they reiterated they had to change his name because of infringement here? They changed his name to not get sued by Mike Tyson...
@Aluppoj
Before you say anything else, that top paragraph is from the Street Fighter Wiki...good job on being a know-it-all and not knowing it all lol
Yoo wen I went to pick up umvc3 this morning at gamestop this guy that works there (that sounded like he knew wat he was talking about) promised me that there will be 4 more dlc characters for umvc3 b4 the new year nd 1 of the 4 is a xmen. He sed he knew ppl at marvel, I trust him..
@awad
That is huge...I'm calling Colossus as the new X-Men, just being hopeful though because it's gonna be Psylocke if this is true...I think
Sorry for so many double posts, but someone said the rumor is that the four characters will be X, Gene, Medusa and Anti-Venom...too sketchy for my liking but if this is true...I love X but this is all about Gene baby!
Thats the main thing that worries me about sfxt, the level of execution . I think sf4 found the perfect balance that would appeal to the greatest amount of fighting game fans without dumbing it down to a level that lost the respect of veterans. I worry that this game will be all style and no substance . There are other issues that concern me (pandora, gems) but I can't do much about that now and rest my faith in the hands of the developers to bring us the best form of creation they are aiming for. When we strip fighting games down , it is the fundamental mechanics that will stand the test of time and define the brilliance of the game. Thats why many people would consider chess to be one of, if not the greatest game of all time. A simple game on first glance but a depth of mastery lies beneath.
@#30, Mike's previous appearances are quite minor and incredibly obscure. Despite what they said earlier about him and Balrog PROBABLY being the same, it would be easy to retcon that and have them be one and the same in modern games.
I do think it would be cool to bring back SF1 characters. However, the quickest way to bring Mike back is to give Balrog his clothes as an alternate costume and call it a day. Having the two in the same game and people would complain that Mike is a waste of a slot. Have Mike in without Balrog and they'd complain that a known character was dropped for an obscure character. What they should do is just give Balrog Mike's clothes as an alternate but remain quiet on whether they are the same character or not. The Street Fighter series does not need three black boxers. Another idea is to give Mike a different fighting style than boxing and explain that he used to be one but is not any more.
No..... Just no. Players hate unlocking perks too.
Why don't they just have unlockable characters but include a temporary password that auto-unlocks everything. That way, both types of people are happy (because, really, the only point of unlocking things is to create extra longevity for the single player experience)
And if people really care about making legitimate unlocking special, then just include some non-tournament feature/bonus that only comes with legitimate unlocking. (e.g. a stage)
Really...this isn't rocket science.
I too like the unlock characters gimmick, i have had it that way since forever, and knowing that to unlock shin akuma or something weird like that i had to some bit of trouble, it would be worth it as long as it was not near impossible.
But on the other hand i also apreciate having them all unlocked, going into Ae and booting up Oni with no restrictions was great, but in that case if capcom would ask people to unlock charcters in SF4, SSF4 and SSF4AE...
I would liek some good sistem where you have an option to unlock them all (for tournaments, new saves or whatever)
and unlocking as you play, fulfiling obscure conditions, like finish eveyr round in 30 secs, geting first hit, and perfect-winning your rival. it crates a challenge.
or even keeping the unlock system but nothing to complicated, good systems might be point/currency sistems, where finishing arcade in hardest, and most perfects least time, converts into currency where you can buy the chars or they automaticly unlock.
ill use Naruto Ultimate Ninja 2 here as an example, you play that game for the story, and you unlock characters troughout, with only 1-3 chars being harder, unlocking in side missons or harder to get ones.
and as you finish eveyr batler, depending on your performance, you get SP (?) wich at certain milestones unlock characters, and other goodies, in a specific order.
it is still faster to unlock trought story mode, but since the game had titles for playing with each char 15 times, i unlocked all the chars while doing that with a friend, for fun.
we sat down online, each with their char, and as we got titles, we would get new chars, and so on.
TL;DR: i support unlock sistem, as long as it meets both "unlock fans" and "already unlocked" fans reasoning.
"...including some from Street Fighter history that have not been in a game for quite some time..."
Street fighter 1 characters?
@MadMetal
I hope so, just to see what they would change about them now. As far as SFA and SF3 goes, Q, R. Mika, and I kinda wanna see Necro and Twelve just to see how they would look in the SF4 engine...I'm sure there are more people, but off the top of my head this is where I start...don't have any wishlist for Tekken because I got King already so they made me happy a long time ago.
@33
"Being a Know it all"? Wtf are you talking about? Did I try to hide the "SFwiki" reference?
I don't care what they said in some random quote back in the day. It's fairly clear that regardless to whatever they had originally planned they are now two different characters! Different name, different plot, different B-Day!
I might also add that Mike fights at Mt.Rushmore and Rog fights in Vegas.
Just like how poison is now a trannie. Just like how the "Sheng-Long" joke became Akuma! Just like how Alpha 3 Cody was going to be Joe!
Saying "Mike is Rog" implies too much based off of the "Law suit" name change. They don't fight anything alike. Meanwhile Ryu,Ken,Gen,Sagat retain the same styles from SF1?
Way to call me out like a douch when you are clearly an amazing noob when it comes to SF.
From a FAQ on the storyline of SF:
MIKE
Height: 196 cm
Weight: 103 kg
SF1 action: left hook
Represents: America.
SF1-era nickname: "Killer Boxer with Godly Fists"
Street Fighter 1: Mike is the former heavyweight boxing champion. He got
kicked out of boxing because he killed someone in the ring. He now
participates in the Street Fighter 1 tournament in order to make some money
for a living, and to help his hospitalized little sister. [Official]
Where he is now: Contrary to what videogames.com stated, Capcom has never
remotely given any indication of what happened to Mike (sorta like how they
didn't really give much definitive info about where Geki is). Got
knocked out by Joe possibly.
Miscellaneous Facts and Notes
Is Mike M. Bison? No. Mike was once a champion class boxer. Bison
continually aspired to become champion but never did. Also, Mike disappeared
from the boxing world after killing an opponent. Bison permanently injured
opponents but has only been known to have killed Kodal's father (Kodal's the
elephant Dhalsim rides in his SF2 ending).
Mike and Joe are rumored to be the fighters at the intros of SF2, SF2
Dash, and SF2 Dash Turbo.
A larger cast should hopefully mean that we'll see more variety in the characters people choose to use. If there's more characters to come I'm hoping to see Elena and Christie.
ok, so even though Capcom admits they only separated them because of not wanting a law suit, it doesn't matter because you don't care what they said back in the day? It's their character. Might I also add the Mt. Rushmore is in USA and Balrog IS from USA, right? One of your arguments is that he's in a different part of the SAME country? Awesome. So does that mean it's a different Sagat since he doesn't fight in front of the statue? When SF starts specifically naming landmarks and states, then that will make sense lol I won't even go into the fact that Mike is obviously a boxer by the way he fights (look at his jump and look at Rog's pose/jump and tell me that's not the same pose/jump)
And IM the amazing noob...wow
Capcom admits that they swapped the names to avoid a law suit. True. Wtf does that have to do with SF1 Mike!!!!
Your talking about two things that happened YEARS APART YOU TARD!
SF1 had been out in the US for YEARS at that point! He was Mike the entire time!
And yeah, the US is BIG Country! Fighters in Street Fighter have Specific areas the hail from! Dhalsim doesn't just switch to Japan whenever he feels like it!
I've listed a a$$ ton of info to support my case. You've just said "name change over and over!
Why are they listed with completely different stats? Why was the "Little Sister" dropped from Balrog's story if he is in fact Mike? Why doesn't Capcom recon the story to say that Mike intact killed Dhalsim's elephant?
Weak.
Yes, you are a weak noob.
@49
You also realize that Capcom implied that SNSM Gunlock is Guile's brother right? Proven to be untrue.
Sodom has two brothers. The Katana Bros. Making three in total.
Andore Family is an entire family of Giants to explain a pallet swap.
The years between Final Fight and SNSM are all screwed up in the American SNES version. Capcom messed up on former/future mayor StreetFighter/Pro Wrestler.
But they NEVER modify anything after the fact right?
No matter what the origins Mike and Balrog can easily be two different people. And clearly are.
"Capcom admits that they swapped the names to avoid a law suit. True. Wtf does that have to do with SF1 Mike!!!!"
They were talking about Balrog being SF1 Mike...don't tell me you think they planned on making two black guys that box named Mike in multiple games...you will tho lol
"Your talking about two things that happened YEARS APART YOU TARD!"
Can't even spell you're right but I'm the tard...excellent.
"SF1 had been out in the US for YEARS at that point! He was Mike the entire time!"
And his last name was never Bison in SF1(being a play on Tyson, obviously)...It's not like they could be sued over a first name
"And yeah, the US is BIG Country! Fighters in Street Fighter have Specific areas the hail from! Dhalsim doesn't just switch to Japan whenever he feels like it!"
They have specific COUNTRIES they hail from, and Mt. Rushmore is in USA just like Vegas, so he is still from USA...what's your excuse for Sagat's stage not being in front of the statue? With your logic, it should be.
"I've listed a a$$ ton of info to support my case. You've just said "name change over and over!"
Correction: you have said dumb stuff, over and over lol
"Why are they listed with completely different stats? Why was the "Little Sister" dropped from Balrog's story if he is in fact Mike? Why doesn't Capcom recon the story to say that Mike intact killed Dhalsim's elephant?"
Because they had to make them different people, as I believe I have stated already lol
I love how you looked all that stuff up, still got most of it wrong, but I am the noob...you are killing yourself, I no longer have any reason to keep going, but I will because it is amusing...I love you, Joppula
Actually how am I the noob when you had to look up the SFwiki just to come with inaccurate info?
I like to unlock stuff, it was alot of fun in MvC2, keeping characters locked should be in story mode only but capcom really needs to change the way they make a storyline for it to work well for everyone. As for "including some from Street Fighter history that have not been in a game for quite some time" if that means a few from SF1 then their is hope for a SF1 REMAKE.
Nice Try, Jop, but I told you I love you already, *Christopher Walken voice* why are we fighting?
You know what I mean, too, as in they had them being "separate" until On 2010-03-26, Capcom officially stated and admitted on their blog that Mike (SF1) and Mike Bison (Balrog) are "probably one and the same"...
But since you are trying to nit-pick something out of nothing, with more of your logic, Ryu is a red head that wears...OK, you got me there, I have no idea what that footwear is called, but the point is that the Ryu from SF2 and beyond has NEVER been a red head and I have never seen a pair of shoes on his feet, unless you want to count SF 2: V or something, so I guess that's not the same Ryu either, even though his name is Ryu and he acts and fights like Ryu?
Listen home slice.
Maybe 25 years ago Mike was originally the same boxer as Balrog. Maybe by 1992 he wasn't. If that was Mike in the SF2 intro, then he and Balrog cannot be the same person.
Who knows. They've said a lot of crazy things over the years as pertains to story. Changing, Correcting, rince, repeat.
But as it stands NOW! And as we've BOTH stated! They are clearly TWO different ppl with TWO different Bio's!
Things change. Birde used to be a White dude! So I'm pretty sure Mike and Rog can be separate boxers. They seem to have created a story for him right? One that doesn't match Balrog's.
Peace.
Damn it, why won't you just embrace me! This is EH.com, if I can't debate here about SF jargon, where can I?
Where's all of this proper grammar coming from? Who are you people? Eventhubs is no place for articulate discussion! Be gone with you!
On another note, it greatly saddens me to hear Seth comment on SFxT's roster size. A potential waste on this apparently gimmicky addition to the SF series.
@58
I have embraced you. You need to realize that things change over time. Ryu beating Sagat did not originally include the Scar by Satsui No Hado. That's stuff that got added to the existing story in recent years.
The Japanese still call Boxer, M.Bison right? No worry of a law suit in Japan... Yet the Japanese sites don't merge SF1 Mike and Balrog's story together. They remain separate bio's with different stats and story.
Every Official SF literature states that Balrog's first appearance was SF2.
Nuff said, you've been embraced.
@59
Good thing it's not an addition to the Street Fighter series. It's an addition to the Versus Game Series.
I feel better about SFxT when I think of it that way. If I think of it as a SF game I get madly depressed lol.
No, you haven't embraced me, you went nitpickin again lol
@61 Oh, no you di'n't...
But, I kind of agree, at least with the part that few people want to work for anything nowadays.
I think that if it's a few characters that are mysterious and boss-style, then it's fine to have the unlocks. But, it really depends on who it is that you're unlocking.
I'm confident the roster size will be substantial.
I'm also confident that people will complain it's not large enough and missing people.
I'm also certain that Gems will take up the bulk of the replay value, rather than characters. Where's my Gem info, S-Kill?