Not to play armchair manager, but there’s a part
of me that feels like it’s wrong for Daigo “The Beast” Umehara to play anyone
but Ryu. I’m not about to go doubting
his skills or anything -- even if he was in a coma, the guy could play Street Fighter better than I ever could
-- but you’d think that a guy who put so much into the franchise as well as
embodies the tireless wanderer would have found his soul mate. But in his recent EVO showings, he’s picked
guys like Yun and Evil Ryu. And I’m pretty much left saying “Is this
it? Has Daigo been corrupted by the
power of the Dark Hadou?”
Well, it’s not like he’s turned evil in real life
(or has he?!), so he’s free to do as
he pleases. But still, the allure of the
character is just too great in Street
Fighter IV’s latest -- and probably final -- iteration. His damage output is incredible, he has
nearly all of the tools Ryu has (and then some), and it only takes one hit for
him to get started, i.e. melt an enemy’s life bar down to zero. It’s almost poetic that one EVO had Daigo and
his Evil Ryu beaten by
John Choi and his normal Ryu, but
that didn’t stop The Beast from sticking with the Dark Hadou.
So now I have to wonder: once Street Fighter IV gets phased out and the sequel gains traction,
what does that mean for what’s ostensibly the most heinous power in the
canon? Frankly, I’m hoping for a lot.
Okay, I can do without Evil Ryu. I get what he stands for, and I appreciate
it, but I’ve always thought the original Ryu was -- and always will be -- way
cooler. He’s a guy who dropped
everything to travel the world in search of good fights and the
self-improvement tied to it; his lifestyle isn’t exactly glamorous, but there’s
a sense of nobility and romanticism to it.
In that sense, even if SF has
never had the most detailed canon,
there’s still a canon. There are still
ideas that get communicated in-universe that anyone can at least get a good
understanding of.
But I’d be nuts to pretend like SF’s context and reach out-of-universe
didn’t matter. It’s a game that’s
inspired untold millions to become world warriors, even if they have to do so
with pads and arcade sticks instead of fists or muscles (or the odd
fireball). The competitions small and
large born from the game -- and its offspring, and its contemporaries -- end up
giving birth to stories in their own right.
Personal stories, of triumph and defeat, friendships and rivalries, joy
and anguish. Fighting games can let
anyone become, if only for a little while, Ryu and all his fellow
fighters. Nothing’s ever going to change
that, even if there’s an angry version of him that’s higher up on the tier
list.
In a lot of ways, SF doesn’t need a story. On
the other hand, it wouldn’t hurt for Capcom to add one in -- and BOY is there a
lot to work with.
I saw Necalli’s reveal with my brother, and the
first thing I said was “Check out that Heavenly
Sword hair tech.” I didn’t even know
how right I was, because I said that before
he popped his V-Trigger. And then
red hair went flying everywhere, and now I wonder if most of the game’s budget
went toward that. Whatever the case, I
think Necalli’s a good first step in introducing some new blood into the SF cast, even if he’s close to being
“Violent Blanka”. I don’t intend on
playing as him, but he still makes me eager to see the new guys instead of the
returning, albeit remixed cast.
Still, what’s got me all amped up isn’t
necessarily Necalli, but what he represents.
Before his reveal, producer Yoshinori Ono -- as he often does -- teased
with partially-covered screenshots, one
of which showed off a red and black aura.
It led some people to believe that Akuma was on his way back in, but as
it turns out, it probably belongs to Necalli (in what form gameplay-wise, we’ve
yet to know). So the implication here is
that the new fighter is the owner of a dark and mysterious power, one that
corrupts him into the form we know today.
Or forms, as it were;
reportedly, one has him as a mad berserker, while the other -- his V-Trigger
mode -- makes him brilliant and ruthless.
You’d think it’d be the other way around though, right? It should, arguably…unless that’s entirely
the point.
There’s a joke in The Simpsons where Krusty explains that his addictions and vices
have left him a bad place -- that he has to get his fix from moon rocks “just
to get up to normal”. So my guess is
that Necalli is a lot like that; without the “mysterious energy” flowing
through him, he might as well be a slobbering animal…or an idiot. The most we’ve heard out of him so far is
“Devour-our-our”, which doesn’t sound like the words of a man with his head on
straight. Once he’s powered up, then
presumably he actually can express some sentient thought -- even if that
thought is “I’m gonna beat the crap out of you and like it”.
So there are at least two questions that need to
be answered right now. One: What is the “mysterious power”
Necalli is tapping into? Two: Where did it come from? Asking how or why he can use it is kind of
important, but not as much; the wiki explains
that the Dark Hadou (or Satsui no Hado, if you prefer) is “a form of ki that is
rooted in the darker aspects of the natural human instinct”. On top of that, using it requires the person
to “be so consumed with the desire for winning, or else possess such intense rage,
that they are willing to murder”. A
younger Ryu first used it to put that scar on Sagat’s chest, and Akuma is one
of the most notable users -- if not addicts -- to the stuff. But as you can see, it’s clearly had no
negative effects on him whatsoever.
Thinking back, I feel like the SF canon has always made a push for
these mysterious energies. The Dark
Hadou is the obvious one, but there’s also M. Bison’s Psycho Power, Rose’s Soul
Power, and the Tanden and Feng Shui Engines from SFIV (belonging to Seth and Juri, respectively). Rose’s is the only one among them that comes
close to either being a positive force, or used by a good person -- meaning
that in general, the moral of the story is that fighters should use their
bodies, minds, and spirit to win instead of banking on outside forces. Sure, you can
win with Psycho Power, but at what cost?
So you can be doomed to wear a smile so big it’ll tear your cheeks
apart?
The counterpoint to all of this is the Power of
Nothingness (Mu no Hadou), discussed on occasion in SFIV and used extensively by Ryu’s master, Gouken. Like the name implies, it’s a Zen state where
the user can tap into the full power of their heart without any corruptive
influences or desires. Apparently, it’s
a force that Ken managed to tap into in SFIV’s
tie-in movie, and blew off C. Viper’s attacks when even Ryu couldn’t --
because Ken was intent on protecting his family. It’s more than a little interesting that Ken
can and has tapped into the power before Ryu did, even with all of the latter’s
training. The canonicity of that movie
is debatable, but there’s a SFIII manga that depicts more or
less the same; Ken’s love for his family allowed him to become so strong that
he mopped the floor with Ryu.
I guess the answer lies in the heart of marriage.
Okay, so what does all of this have to do with
Necalli? Nothing directly; I can’t
imagine the barbaric brawler having a serene state of mind anytime soon, and
the other powers are much too specific to apply. So my theory right now goes one of two ways:
either Necalli is a brand-new user of the Dark Hadou, or he’s a user of a new power that’s just similar enough to it that
any layman would have the right to be confused.
Personally, I think it’d be really exciting to see him as a user of an
earlier version of it -- a sort of proto-Dark Hadou, if you will. In fact, maybe Necalli is from more than just
parts unknown; maybe he’s from some long-bygone era.
Imagine this scenario. Necalli is a warrior from an ancient tribe,
one that put plenty of stock in fighting and strength -- not unlike a whole
city’s worth of Ryus. But somewhere
along the line, their lust for battle became corruptive; as a result, people in
droves developed and used a new form of ki -- the proto-Dark Hadou -- to gain
an advantage over their opponents. The
problem? Use of it became so widespread
that it brought more ruin than it did victory, and Necalli’s people ended up
wiping themselves out. Necalli is the
only survivor, preserved partially because his devotion to -- and corruption by
-- the proto-Dark Hadou gave him a body and mind perpetually primed for battle.
I say “partially” because there’s any number of
villains that would want to probe him and tap his power for themselves. Shadaloo, S.I.N, and…well, guys like this.
Eagle-eyed fans have noted that some of SFV’s art has teased the return of the
Illuminati to the canon, AKA the bunch of baddies whose organization is
spearheaded by everyone’s favorite boss, Gill.
(Plus the reveal trailer has Nash with the same jewel in his forehead as
Gill and Urien, so there’s that.) It’s
hard to say what this means for the story right now, but based on my
headcanon? The Illuminati found the
preserved body of Necalli and want to reverse engineer his body to obtain a new
source of power -- especially if the new game is in a post-SF3 world where Gill was presumably killed by a well-placed Shin
Shoryuken. But Necalli was too much for
them to handle, and he broke free; now the warrior, despite his addled mind, is
out to devour-our-our whatever crosses his path.
So potentially, SFV is a manhunt across the globe to find and beat Necalli before
he can do any harm. And “harm” in this
case means more than just beating up Dan.
Remember, his debut trailer had him firing off huge amounts of dark
power square into Ken’s face; who says that the guy isn’t radioactive? What if just by moving around -- by being around -- he can infect others
with his power and drive them insane?
What happens when the whole world runs the risk of becoming a home for
fight-happy madmen?
I ask this because I still remember Street Fighter X Tekken -- and with it,
Pandora.
I’ve always thought there was a HUGE amount of
potential in the Pandora power. Pretty
much none of it went tapped, save for some eerily-lavish yet
ultimately-wasted promotional vids for the game’s Vita port. I mean, sure, the gameplay and story
integration was interesting enough; commit the heinous act of sacrificing your
partner’s life just so you can gain more power and win. That’s some heavy stuff. But my understanding of Pandora is that anyone can tap into it whenever the need
(such as it is) arises. Even little
Jimmy Xbox can gain superhuman abilities without the need for training or
skill. It’s a dangerous power on a small
scale -- so just imagine what it would be like if people could use that on a
larger scale. City-wide, then
state-wide, then country-wide, then worldwide -- it’d make for a disaster much
bigger and more frightening than any zombie apocalypse, that’s for sure. Presumably, the people infected couldn’t be
beaten with a shot to the head or a sufficiently-deep moat.
The way I see it, SFV is a way to make up for past mistakes. There’s plenty of stuff it can do with a
straight narrative -- which Capcom’s execs have alluded to, if only in response
to the story modes in NetherRealms’ games -- but even if they don’t go as far as a multimillion-dollar
campaign, it’s the thematic heft that matters here. All of these powers, Pandora and Necalli’s
energy well among them, are shortcuts.
They’re ways for a person to gain and use power, and win at any cost. That’s in stark contrast to Ryu, Ken, Gouken,
and the entire point of SF as a
whole. It’s all about the purity of the
fight -- about self-improvement, clear-minded resolve, and a push toward
completeness using flung fists as a means of expression.
There’s a right way to approach a fight, and a
wrong way. Evil Ryu, Akuma, Bison, Juri,
Seth, and (potentially) Necalli are all varying examples of that; they teach
the same lesson, which to be fair is kind of a drag, but it’s still a
worthwhile lesson nonetheless. (Given
some recent news, it might be a more worthwhile lesson than ever.) In order to preserve the heart of battle,
it’s up to some of its greatest champions to resolve the situation before
everything and everyone -- street fights included -- become twisted versions of
their former selves.
In that sense, if Ryu’s going to be the story’s
main character (and why wouldn’t he be?), then SFV gives him the chance to have some personal stake in the
matter. He knows what the Dark Hadou is
like, and I’d bet that as long as he’s in his neutral state, he knows just how
wrong it is to tap into that, willingly or otherwise. So in a way, stopping Necalli becomes
something of a responsibility -- both to save the innocents from a fate Ryu
narrowly avoids every day, and to try and bring back the pure heart of a
warrior from ages past. On the other
hand, there’s still a dark side to Ryu that Necalli is dragging out; if he’s
going to pursue the savage striker, then it means he’ll have to engage in
battle -- meaning that there’s an
inherent selfishness to his altruism.
In other words?
By doing the right thing, Ryu runs the risk of doing the wrong thing. And in the end, he might not be able to come
back from the brink.
Plot-wise, there would still be a lot of details
that need explanation for my hypothetical headcanon version -- how Necalli is
traveling the world chief among them.
(Walking and swimming, I guess, however impractical that may be.) And as others have noted, this is one new character, and probably not even
the final boss. Are there even more
fighters affected by the proto-Dark Hadou?
Would anyone really try to chase after him? If there’s the typical “world tournament
spearheaded by a shady benefactor” plot, then how would Necalli enter? Or would he just show up whenever and
wherever?
If it were up to me, I’d axe the tournament angle
completely -- either that, or have a tournament start up, but Necalli wrecks
everything on day one and puts himself in the competitors’ crosshairs. Ryu begins his pursuit for the aforementioned
reasons, and Ken tags along to help his best bud in his personal quest. Agents and military forces want him
contained, so that gives Chun-Li and Cammy a good reason to give chase (and
Guile if he returns…which I’m seriously hoping
for). Bison wants to harvest Necalli’s
power to beef up his Psycho Power, on the grounds that maybe it’ll keep him
forever young and/or take care of those wretched gray hairs he’s got. Nash is a failed experiment by the Illuminati
to create a new breed of human, and got thrown in the dumpster -- but in the
wake of Necalli’s power, he self-activates and decides to go on the
attack. Birdie gets involved to…I don’t
know, prove he’s a tough guy. It’d be in
character, at least.
The way I see it, there are two things that an
expanded SF story can do, especially
with this game: it can explore and untangle the mythos with a straight up story
instead of the usual “Character X won the tournament because that’s who you
beat Arcade Mode with -- even if that leads to 90% of the game being non-canon”. On top of that, it can explore ideas and
themes using the characters it puts in the players’ hands. Honestly, I’d be happy if the actual game
focused more on the latter. Would I
enjoy learning about the mysteries of Necalli’s corrupted and ruined
civilization, and how their obsession gave birth to the Dark Hadou? Yes and no.
It’d boost the game’s story, but done poorly it runs the risk of
spoiling some of the mysticism of the canon.
(See:
midichlorians.)
But here’s the thing: SF has endured with a bare-bones story on the strength of its characters
-- whether they’re blatant stereotypes or not.
People love Ryu. People love
Ken. People love Chun-Li, and Cammy, and
Bison, and Nash, and even Birdie. And
even if that love comes from their fighting ability -- the synergy between
player and avatar -- that love could be deepened even further. Vanilla SFIV
gave every character a prologue, and then gave them all another prologue in Super SFIV. Even if their
endings didn’t really matter in the end, there are threads that keep getting
woven into the canon. Capcom’s been
taking baby steps toward something grander for years.
So isn’t it time for the world warriors to get the
endings, and the journey, they deserve?
People in the real world handle crises in
different ways -- but in a world where people can shroud themselves in
electricity after watching eels do it, all bets are off. Seeing the world warriors act and react in
response to a corruptive force -- a power that can make the entire world go mad
-- would be an amazing treat (if done well).
There’s personal investment for the small-scale emotional moments and
epiphanies; there’s a huge level of stakes when even the average postman can
turn into a violent berserker. Spectacle, intelligence, heart -- the
potential is all there, gift-wrapped and ready to drop into the hands of
players expecting “just another fighting game”.
Historical precedents suggest that I’m probably
not going to get the SF I envision --
and rest assured, I can envision a whole lot.
But even if the worst comes to pass -- if somehow Capcom backs down and
throws up a couple of pictures before rolling the credits -- then it wouldn’t
be so bad. Disappointing, sure, but
it’ll at least be a disappointment on top of a supremely-satisfying game. And besides, they’ve already laid the
groundwork. They’ve given us enough to
sink our teeth into, even at this early stage.
So do we really need them to give us a story when we can make our own? Maybe not.
Maybe for now -- and for years to come -- the
possibilities are all we need.
Man. One of
these days, I need to write a revisionist history fanfic of Super Mario Bros. I know just
how to work Bowser Jr. into my theoretical and needlessly-ridiculous canon.
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