Back when this game launched, and a decent several weeks after (a month and a half, even), I praised this game. I truly felt Capcom was going back to their roots in both gameplay roots and quality during that honeymoon phase.

As I grinded out World Tour, low-to-high Platinum across the entire SF6 roster, followed up with the competitive scene and the ongoing community drama over every, stupid little thing and kept up with every bit of news about content and monetization for this game, however, my concerns and burnout both grew, leading up to this moment.

Before you begin with my updated review, here's a link to my old one for everyone to see how passionate I was, and ultimately, still want to be for this game: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wN5SA-4fmQL58WfnpDry2MvXl3Wme8KdmdPEXH890Sg/edit?usp=sharing

Pros:
+ RE Engine is still a massive step up from Capcom's MT Framework from the X360-early PS4 era for graphical fidelity and physics, allowing...
+ ...the most dynamic animations Street Fighter has seen since Street Fighter 3rd Strike and the many iterations of SFIV.
+ ONLINE: The online experience still holds up excellent. Fighting Ground allows for simpler lobbies and faster matchmaking. The Battle Hub is one of the most immersive online lobby systems I've seen in a game in such a long time, filled with excitement of meeting other community members and even professionals! Speaking of...
+ NETCODE: While it has hiccups here and there, the netcode is still mostly smooth, even against people with relatively high ping.
+ FIGHTING GROUND: offers the most intricate, settings-rich training mode offered in a fighting game, alongside a classic mode which offers bite-sized stories to get to know the characters well. The tutorials are also the most in-depth a fighting game has been, next to MK11.

Mid/In-Between:
+- WORLD TOUR: I find this mode to be humble, immersive and engaging compared to many AAA games and their overpromised, empty open worlds. The concept of battling different AI and playing minigames to hone fundamentals is brilliant, but the execution led to certain enemy types being too gimmicky to represent SF6's core gameplay. Being able to bond with the roster of this game by presenting gifts and listening to their stories is sweet, but given how much lore the SF universe had across the span of multiple decade's worth of games, the lack of a proper story is an utter disappointment. The difficulty spike rises to an utterly ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ degree from Chapter 14 > 15, to the point where the game goes from "you don't need to use items" to "get ready to use up your whole inventory!" This difficulty spike is so cruel that every bit of love and immersion gets CRUSHED. It's a damn shame, really.
+- RESPONSIVENESS/INPUT: the game's input delay itself is better than most fighting games offer. This, however, is utterly bogged-down online, with an input system so absurdly stupid that it EATS UP YOUR INPUT depending on both you AND your opponent's inputs and connection. This creates a lot of misinputting or outright un-registered hits that can make or break a match. (i.e. you do a hadoken motion and it registers a shoryuken instead, SPDs register as a double quartercircle-forward motion, etc.); an issue that was genuinely NONEXISTENT with other fighting games, including previous SF games, input-laggy-ass Smash Ultimate with their 9 frames of delay, Samurai Shodown reboot with their 5 frames of input delay, etc.
+- SOUNDTRACK: Certain songs like Genbu Temple's theme or ANY of the main menu OSTs SLAP. Others, like Ryu's theme ("Viator"), get repetitive or don't fit a character's vibe at all.
+- VISUALS: the graphical fidelity, color and artstyle are VERY fitting of a next-generation fighting game taking place in a modern pop-culture/urban-punk atmosphere. On the other hand, the stages look the most generic they have ever been for Street Fighter standards. Some characters fit incredibly well in this new aesthetic direction. Others make you feel they're better off retaining a more cartoony-artstyle reflected in older SF titles.

Cons:
- MONETIZATION: Holy CRAP where do I begin? You can't get fighters for free anymore like you could in SFV, or have them as part of the base game in each SF2 - 4 iteration. They fixed the prices so that you're forced to buy $10 worth of premium currency for a character worth $7, which is already ridiculous for a single character. In a $60 game no less. Bad enough? What if I told you they sell premium costumes but ONLY for your World Tour avatars, instead of costumes for actual characters, and they sell a costume's PIECE for $5? Whole sets for $15, for characters you hardly put in actual combat. Third party outfits that you have to spend $10 EACH on? All of this costing more than an ACTUAL CHARACTER, and NONE of these costumes for an actually playable character. Battle passes? Mostly garbage, nothing-burger loot with less-than-a-handful of interesting things that are also overtly-generous to progress.
- The overall character roster is STILL HEAVILY LACKING

BALANCING: (Or moreso, CAPCOM's philosophy/approach behind how this game will be balanced)

Oh BOY. This is a WHOLE BEAST in itself.

For starters, DRIVE MECHANICS:

DRIVE IMPACT's lack of meter-cost turns this mechanic into a free, spammable reversal tool in low levels. At high levels, this mechanic becomes TOO MUCH of a RISK due to better opponents leveraging this already, scrubby-ass mechanic into A FREE COUNTER-REVERSAL. No matter what level you're playing at, using and countering D.I. both is too much of a commitment but in different ways. It's unfun to use, unfun to go against.

DRIVE RUSH, by concept, was supposed to be what separates the good and bad players by rewarding high resource commitment and execution barrier with longer combos and damage. In execution? Like Drive Impact, Drive Rush also costs HARDLY ANYTHING in meter, and allows hit-confirms off almost anything, thus fundamentally breaking the game by allowing ANYONE to perform long, high-damage combos with HARDLY any risk nor barrier.

Now for CHARACTER BALANCING: On one hand, it's great that it's the most "balanced," in a way where every character is strong enough to be tournament-viable... except Ryu, who's pick rate and strength as a character are both at a Dan-Hibiki-levels of an all-time low in series history. Why? It's the same reason why characters being "balanced" feels artificial:

...Everyone else feels balanced because they're all overpowered, gimmicky and/or downright ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ annoying in their own respective ways. Everyone else in this game have safe normals, abnormal hitboxes, overtly-generous meaty hitboxes and frame-traps, inconsistent ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crossups that sometimes work against your favor or against your opponents, mobility and zoning, alongside *COUGH* drive mechanics that ALL feel like they belong in an ARCSYS fighter; the very thing I play Street Fighter for to AVOID. ALL of this feels centered around either counterplay using their shiny-new drive mechanics or trying too hard to re-create Daigo's parry in EVO Moment #37.

Am I saying there's no counterplay? Absolutely not. There's absolutely counterplay to all this annoying ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. However, NONE of that changes the fact that this is the most artificial, toxic, unhealthy and unenjoyable way to keep the whole roster balanced.

DLC characters also have potential to be DISGUSTINGLY P2W in a $60 GAME.

The worst part? CAPCOM has officially confirmed there will ONLY be ONE BALANCE PATCH throughout an ENTIRE YEAR, so if you find a certain character(s) or the entire meta annoying? Well, GOOD LUCK BROTHER. I'll be here, hoping you don't burn your ass out like mine did.

While I still recommend this game for its sheer value, Capcom seems to take a step or two forward, and then the same amount backwards...

Back when this game launched, and a decent several weeks after (a month and a half, even), I praised this game. I truly felt Capcom was going back to their roots in both gameplay roots and quality during that honeymoon phase. As I grinded out World Tour, low-to-high Platinum across the entire SF6 roster, followed up with the competitive scene and the ongoing community drama over every, stupid little thing and kept up with every bit of news about content and monetization for this game, however, my concerns and burnout both grew, leading up to this moment. Before you begin with my updated review, here's a link to my old one for everyone to see how passionate I was, and ultimately, still want to be for this game: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wN5SA-4fmQL58WfnpDry2MvXl3Wme8KdmdPEXH890Sg/edit?usp=sharing [b]Pros:[/b] + RE Engine is still a massive step up from Capcom's MT Framework from the X360-early PS4 era for graphical fidelity and physics, allowing... + ...the most dynamic animations Street Fighter has seen since Street Fighter 3rd Strike and the many iterations of SFIV. + [b]ONLINE:[/b] The online experience still holds up excellent. Fighting Ground allows for simpler lobbies and faster matchmaking. The Battle Hub is one of the most immersive online lobby systems I've seen in a game in such a long time, filled with excitement of meeting other community members and even professionals! Speaking of... + [b]NETCODE:[/b] While it has hiccups here and there, the netcode is still mostly smooth, even against people with relatively high ping. + [b]FIGHTING GROUND:[/b] offers the most intricate, settings-rich training mode offered in a fighting game, alongside a classic mode which offers bite-sized stories to get to know the characters well. The tutorials are also the most in-depth a fighting game has been, next to MK11. [b]Mid/In-Between:[/b] +- [b]WORLD TOUR:[/b] I find this mode to be humble, immersive and engaging compared to many AAA games and their overpromised, empty open worlds. The concept of battling different AI and playing minigames to hone fundamentals is brilliant, but the execution led to certain enemy types being too gimmicky to represent SF6's core gameplay. Being able to bond with the roster of this game by presenting gifts and listening to their stories is sweet, but given how much lore the SF universe had across the span of multiple decade's worth of games, the lack of a proper story is an utter disappointment. The difficulty spike rises to an utterly BULLSHIT degree from Chapter 14 > 15, to the point where the game goes from "you don't need to use items" to "get ready to use up your whole inventory!" This difficulty spike is so cruel that every bit of love and immersion gets CRUSHED. It's a damn shame, really. +- [b]RESPONSIVENESS/INPUT:[/b] the game's input delay itself is better than most fighting games offer. This, however, is utterly bogged-down online, with an input system so absurdly stupid that it EATS UP YOUR INPUT depending on both you AND your opponent's inputs and connection. This creates a lot of misinputting or outright un-registered hits that can make or break a match. (i.e. you do a hadoken motion and it registers a shoryuken instead, SPDs register as a double quartercircle-forward motion, etc.); an issue that was genuinely NONEXISTENT with other fighting games, including previous SF games, input-laggy-ass Smash Ultimate with their 9 frames of delay, Samurai Shodown reboot with their 5 frames of input delay, etc. +- [b]SOUNDTRACK:[/b] Certain songs like Genbu Temple's theme or ANY of the main menu OSTs SLAP. Others, like Ryu's theme ("Viator"), get repetitive or don't fit a character's vibe at all. +- [b]VISUALS:[/b] the graphical fidelity, color and artstyle are VERY fitting of a next-generation fighting game taking place in a modern pop-culture/urban-punk atmosphere. On the other hand, the stages look the most generic they have ever been for Street Fighter standards. Some characters fit incredibly well in this new aesthetic direction. Others make you feel they're better off retaining a more cartoony-artstyle reflected in older SF titles. [b]Cons:[/b] - [b]MONETIZATION:[/b] Holy CRAP where do I begin? You can't get fighters for free anymore like you could in SFV, or have them as part of the base game in each SF2 - 4 iteration. They fixed the prices so that you're forced to buy $10 worth of premium currency for a character worth $7, which is already ridiculous for a single character. In a $60 game no less. Bad enough? What if I told you they sell premium costumes but ONLY for your World Tour avatars, instead of costumes for actual characters, and they sell a costume's PIECE for $5? Whole sets for $15, for characters you hardly put in actual combat. Third party outfits that you have to spend $10 EACH on? All of this costing more than an ACTUAL CHARACTER, and NONE of these costumes for an actually playable character. Battle passes? Mostly garbage, nothing-burger loot with less-than-a-handful of interesting things that are also overtly-generous to progress. - The overall character roster is STILL HEAVILY LACKING [b]BALANCING:[/b] (Or moreso, CAPCOM's philosophy/approach behind how this game will be balanced) Oh [b]BOY.[/b] This is a WHOLE BEAST in itself. For starters, DRIVE MECHANICS: DRIVE IMPACT's lack of meter-cost turns this mechanic into a free, spammable reversal tool in low levels. At high levels, this mechanic becomes TOO MUCH of a RISK due to better opponents leveraging this already, scrubby-ass mechanic into A FREE COUNTER-REVERSAL. No matter what level you're playing at, using and countering D.I. both is too much of a commitment but in different ways. It's unfun to use, unfun to go against. DRIVE RUSH, by concept, was supposed to be what separates the good and bad players by rewarding high resource commitment and execution barrier with longer combos and damage. In execution? Like Drive Impact, Drive Rush also costs HARDLY ANYTHING in meter, and allows hit-confirms off almost anything, thus fundamentally breaking the game by allowing ANYONE to perform long, high-damage combos with HARDLY any risk nor barrier. Now for CHARACTER BALANCING: On one hand, it's great that it's the most "balanced," in a way where every character is strong enough to be tournament-viable... except Ryu, who's pick rate and strength as a character are both at a Dan-Hibiki-levels of an all-time low in series history. Why? It's the same reason why characters being "balanced" feels artificial: ...Everyone else feels balanced because they're all overpowered, gimmicky and/or downright FUCKING annoying in their own respective ways. Everyone else in this game have safe normals, abnormal hitboxes, overtly-generous meaty hitboxes and frame-traps, inconsistent goddamn crossups that sometimes work against your favor or against your opponents, mobility and zoning, alongside *COUGH* drive mechanics that ALL feel like they belong in an ARCSYS fighter; the very thing I play Street Fighter for to AVOID. ALL of this feels centered around either counterplay using their shiny-new drive mechanics or trying too hard to re-create Daigo's parry in EVO Moment #37. Am I saying there's no counterplay? Absolutely not. There's absolutely counterplay to all this annoying bullshit. However, NONE of that changes the fact that this is the most artificial, toxic, unhealthy and unenjoyable way to keep the whole roster balanced. DLC characters also have potential to be DISGUSTINGLY P2W in a $60 GAME. The worst part? CAPCOM has officially confirmed there will ONLY be ONE BALANCE PATCH throughout an ENTIRE YEAR, so if you find a certain character(s) or the entire meta annoying? Well, GOOD LUCK BROTHER. I'll be here, hoping you don't burn your ass out like mine did. While I still recommend this game for its sheer value, Capcom seems to take a step or two forward, and then the same amount backwards...