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Street Fighter 6 director reveals World Tour mode’s true purpose

Tomas Franzese
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While Street Fighter 6’s traditional Fighting Ground experience made a solid first impression at Summer Game Fest, its significantly more ambitious World Tour mode is still shrouded in mystery. We briefly got a look at this ambitious mode during the game’s State of Play trailer. We see what appears to be a player-created character explore Metro City and other locations from a third-person perspective, breaking boxes and getting into fights with the people he meets.

In the press release for Street Fighter 6, Capcom describes World Tour mode as a “single-player immersive story mode that pushes the boundaries of what a fighting game is and allows players to leave their own legacy with their player avatar.” While Capcom isn’t revealing more about the mode’s moment-to-moment gameplay just yet, I spoke with Game Director Takayuki Nakayama at Summer Game Fest Play Days and learned how World Tour is emblematic of Capcom’s goal to make Street Fighter 6 the premier entry point to the fighting game genre.

Street Fighter 6 - Announce Trailer

Finding World Tour’s Purpose

In World Tour, players will explore Metro City and other iconic Street Fighter locales with a player-created avatar. Nakayama hopes this experience will strengthen Street Fighter 6’s appeal to those who aren’t already diehard fans of the series or genre.

“World Tour is a completely different mode that delivers a completely different experience than the traditional fighting,” he said. “Even if someone’s not a hardcore fan of fighting games, we wanted to incorporate things to make people become fans of Street Fighter outside of the traditional fights.”

World Tour certainly looks unlike anything the Street Fighter series has done before. Still, Nakayama hopes that World Tour players will learn more about the world and characters of Street Fighter along the way and fall in love with fighting games as a whole.

“We want players to dive into this mode and be able to learn how to love fighting games through the things that you do during the journey of World Tour,” Nakayama proclaimed. “There will also be opportunities to meet some of the fans’ favorite characters, like Ryu and Chun-Li, through World Tour. We want to provide an experience where players can learn more about those characters’ backstories and discover what kind of people they are within Street Fighter 6.“

A player stands in Metro City's Times Square equivalent in Street Fighter 6 World Tour.

World Tour is one of Street Fighter 6’s three main pillars, the others being the standard Fighting Ground mode and the multiplayer-focused Battle Hub. He commented how it’s always hard to tell how much is enough to put in a game for fans, especially following Street Fighter V’s rocky reception at launch due to a lack of content. However, he hopes World Tour provides enough to negate that criticism.

“We were definitely aware of some of the criticism that we faced with Street Fighter 5, and we want to continue to learn from those criticisms and make Street Fighter 6 a better product,” he explained. “It’s challenging to decide how much is enough for the users, but we continue to work very hard on it and strive to create something that will get appreciation from players.”

Still, World Tour seems like it could occupy players for a long time while introducing them to the concept of fighting games and the world of Street Fighter. That’s not too shabby of an addition when Street Fighter 6’s core fighting game mechanics are already fantastic. And Capcom’s goal to make Street Fighter 6 one of the most approachable fighting games ever can be seen outside of World Tour mode.

Everyone is here to fight

During our discussion, Nakayama constantly reiterated that he wants Street Fighter to be something that can entertain and entice those who’ve never played a fighting game before. Part of the developer’s method for making Street Fighter 6 more approachable and accessible is the addition of the Modern Control Type, which allows players to execute flash combos with simple button presses.

A player runs through a Chinese neighborhood in Street Fighter 6 World Tour.

Nakayama believes this Modern Control Type removes one of the biggest roadblocks potential fighting game fans face. “We understand that one of the frustrations newcomers face with the fighting game genre is that it’s very hard to execute combos and special moves,” he explained. “We wanted to provide a new way to play so some of those frustrations could be mitigated while simultaneously allowing people to enjoy this fighting game.”

Still, he feels strongly about Modern Control Type not being an “easy mode” in Street Fighter 6 but something that will enable more people to love fighting games. He even gave his blessing to use the control type in official tournaments.

“By no means are we saying this is easy mode,” Nakayama stated. “This is just a new way to play Street Fighter that addresses some common frustrations that a lot of people have. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad player if you choose to use modern mode; it’s just another way to play the game. So if people want to enter tournaments with Modern Control Type, then there’s nothing wrong with that. We want to have a world where players have a choice in how they play Street Fighter 6.”

This is a document explaining how to pull off all of Ryu's special moves with the Modern Control Type in Street Fighter 6.

Nakayama also hopes that players stick around once they fall in love with Street Fighter 6. He confirmed that active discussions are happening about how to handle Street Fighter 6’s live service post-launch, though he knows the best way to add to the game’s longevity is to make it the best point for the fighting game genre as a whole. World Tour is simply one of Capcom’s secret weapons in achieving that goal.

“I’m making a fighting game, but beyond that, I’m making a Street Fighter game that is for a much wider audience. Street Fighter 6 is not just for hardcore fighting game fans, but for people who might not be versed in the genre as well,” he concluded.

Street Fighter 6 will be released for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S in 2023.

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