Street Fighter 5: Other Fighting Games Should Learn From SFV's Dan Balancing
The developers at Capcom found an ingenious solution to a balancing problem in Street Fighter 5. Through its five year lifecycle, Street Fighter 5 has seen numerous, consistent changes to its balance as well as adjustments to each of its fighters and the introduction of brand-new mechanics. The latest season of SFV brought with it a new mechanic and six characters to the mix. Among the newcomers was the return of Street Fighter's infamous joke character, Dan Hibiki.
Dan Hibiki started as a parody of the characters Robert Garcia and Ryo Sakazaki of SNK's Art of Fighting (and, later, King of Fighters) fame. As a result, Dan's moveset consists of satirical versions of moves used by the two fighters, themselves bearing similarities to Street Fighter's Ryu and Ken. This normally resulted in Dan's tier list placement in his numerous appearances to be on the lower side. However, Street Fighter 5 allowed Dan to excel, granting him a unique tool.
Unlike most characters, his Gadoken projectile is used at short-range, owing to its status as a parody version of Ryu and Ken's signature Hadoken. With its status as a short-ranged projectile, it enables Dan, with proper spacing, to land an infinite combo against an opponent who is backed into a corner. As difficult as it could be to pull off given Street Fighter 5's netcode troubles, this combo was executed during a Capcom Pro Tour event, showcasing Dan's newfound effectiveness in the competitive scene. When the game received a balance patch to remove the infinite, Capcom's method of doing so eschewed the typical method of simply removing the problem and, instead, dug into Dan's backstory as a character.
Dan's backstory has indicated potential within his Saikyo-style of combat, owing to his apprenticeship under Ryu and Ken's master, Gouken. Leaning into this, Capcom's patch to remove the infinite tweaked the Gadoken to randomly fire a red version of the technique that goes further and provides a knockdown, placing Dan in an advantageous position should it proc. In a breakdown of the patch, Capcom stated that it had "made the solution consistent with Dan's history of random move enhancement", referencing how, in previous games, Dan would gain random properties on some of his special moves. This change reflects Capcom's awareness of their own history, Street Fighter characters, and a lore-friendly approach to game balancing.
As lore-heavy and rich in story as fighting games have become, titles in long-running franchises now have a unique opportunity, something that Capcom took advantage of when Dan's infinite combo had to be removed from the game. This opportunity could be utilized in other fighting games, allowing them to explore their own lore and backstories in an effort to rebalance characters, especially after events have transpired in the game's narrative. A game like Mortal Kombat 11, with its narrative told both in the base game and through DLC, could have seen characters like Liu Kang and Shang Tsung receive balancing tweaks, adjustments, or even new moves factoring in the events of the game's story as part of the reasoning for the adjustments.
Fighting games have always had a rich grounding of lore and history to set the stage for the characters to battle. However, even with games as enduring and well-loved as Tekken, it is rare that the backgrounds of the characters come into play as it relates to the balancing of the gameplay. Dan's consistent low tier-placement fits the vibe of the character through the years, and the change to his infinite in his latest appearance further leans into his background, acting less as a direct nerf and more of a slight buff. This unique solution ties the character's backstory into the gameplay as a nod to the game's lore, tying it to the game's gameplay and enables a unique solution to a potential problem within the game's balancing by leaning into the established history of the character. Rather than a standard removal of the problem, Street Fighter 5 opted for a route that was both unique and respectful of the game's own lore, a method of balancing that other fighting games could learn from before getting ready for the next battle.
Source: Capcom