Extra Battle boss Ryu has a second Critical Art in Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition - a badass Shin Shoryuken
I don't want to be THAT guy, but... were those second Critical Art rumors actually true at some point?
Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition's Extra Battle mode has a new mission this week that pits you against a boss character-type Ryu. For those unfamiliar with boss characters in fighting games, traditionally they're tough to beat and have moves / move properties that are really good and aren't reflected in their playable counterpart.
The "A True Martial Artist" mission will run you 1,000 Fight Money per attempt, and defeating your opponent will earn you a special title and XP. But the rewards aren't the interesting part here.
What's really interesting is what this boss version Ryu is capable of. While facing him, you'll see the overpowered Shoto perform a more powerful Tatsu, combo crouching medium kick after overhead, oh, and he has two Critical Arts.
This Ryu has his Shinku Hadoken super, but instead of a big cinematic camera we see a simple slight zoom-in effect and the Critical Art only costs him two stocks of meter. But the big draw here is his Shin Shoryuken Critical Art, which is something that regular Ryu definitely does not have.
Using a similar camera style to boss Ryu's Shinku Hadoken, the Shin Shoryuken hits three times, does a ton of damage (because he's a boss character), and looks awesome. U/Delacos over on Reddit made the discovery and managed to grab footage of the second super in action.
As Reddit user alchemeron points out, the Shin Shoryuken doesn't appear to just be a copy/paste of Ryu's EX Shoryuken. Obviously, the attack does away with the yellow effect tied to EX moves, it adds a third hit (the second hit in the animation), and we see added ink and water effects incorporated with the Critical Art.
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Seeing a second Critical Art tied to an Extra Battle boss can't help but make you wonder: were there supposed to be two Critical Arts for every character in Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition?
Back in August of last year, prominent (now inactive) data miner X-Kira reported that files showing proof of new V-Moves and Critical Arts for every character on the roster were found within the game. File names noted as "ver = 2" were discovered for V-Skill, V-Reversal, V-Trigger, and Critical Art.
X-Kira went on to say that each of these categories would be customizable, which led us to believe that perhaps this means we'd see something along the lines of Ultra Street Fighter 4's "Ultra Combo Double" -- the ability to choose both Ultras in a match, but at the expense of toned down damage.
One thing's for sure, Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition introduced a second V-Trigger for every character on the roster, allowing you to pick your poison at the character select screen. Perhaps a second Critical Art for everyone was also planned for the Arcade Edition update, but was ultimately withheld.
Do you want to see a second Critical Art for everyone in Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition? Let us know in the comments below.
