Back in July, Capcom’s first attempt at a Street Fighter V beta was an abject failure. A handful of people got in and played some matches, but many (myself included) never even got past the start screen. About a month later, with some tweaks on their end and regional stress testing under their belts, the first round of the beta completed without a hitch. Between the stress test and the few days of the beta I got to participate in, I played as much of it as I could.

I have a lot to say on the subject. So much so, that the first draft of this post was over 2,000 words long and I had only covered about half of what I wanted to say. With this spiraling out of control, I’ve decided to break this up into a series of posts that will probably still be huge, but at least a bit more readable. Let’s get right into it by covering its gameplay systems!

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