Attack him if you dare, he'll crush you! Ken Masters is looking pretty damn cool in this new trailer. New threads, too!
TrailerThe sky is blue. Water is wet. Ken is in Street Fighter V. Come on, that shouldn’t be a surprise. Of course Ken was going to be announced for the game. He’s been there since the beginning. He’s been in every Street Fighter game to date. What we didn’t realize was how different he’d be.
Today at San Diego Comic Con, Capcom released a trailer showing off Ken’s new look and a play style that does a great job separating him from his best buddy Ryu. They also showed a slide that describes him with, “The hot-headed Shoto fighter returns! Aggressive, in-your-face fighting style. Big damage, flashy combos.” Not the best description, but luckily the footage spells it out better.
As I said earlier, Ken Masters has been part of the Street Fighter series since the first game in 1987 where he and Ryu were the only playable characters. Player one would control Ryu and player two would control Ken. Ken has remained identical in his play style for the first few games, outside of some cosmetic differences. Then they started emphasizing the fire aspect to the character and made him more combo-heavy than his headbanded counterpart. No matter how different he’s played, he always felt like a different flavor of Ryu, but they might be breaking the mold a bit more this time around.
Storywise, Ken spent his youth training under Master Gouken alongside the more serious Ryu. The two became close and grew up as friendly rivals. Around the time of Gouken’s supposed death, Ryu and Ken wandered off into the world to test their might against other opponents and gain experience. During his journeys, Ken met Eliza, the love of his life. Eventually, Ken dropped his obsession with besting Ryu and settled down to marry Eliza, raise a son named Mel, and run his rich father’s conglomerate. He still trains and competes when possible, usually dominating the US fighting tournaments, much to the chagrin of the rotund martial artist Rufus. Prior to Street Fighter III, Ken took in a student named Sean Matsuda.
Speaking of Sean, just the other day Capcom announced a Brazil stage for Street Fighter V. While many would initially think of Blanka, it’s just as possible that fellow Brazilian Sean will be making his return. Other rumored returning characters include Alex and Urien.
But who knows? Maybe we’ll get a new character for once! How novel would that be?
Gavin Jasper needs to see Capcom pull off some Dan Hibiki vs. Sean Matsuda action. Somehow they’d both lose. Follow Gavin on Twitter!
