What to Expect From Street Fighter 6's Ed DLC Character

Summary

Street Fighter 6 is hailed as one of the best fighting games in the series, rectifying the issues of its predecessor, Street Fighter 5.
Ed, a unique character with a blend of boxing and psycho-power abilities, is set to be introduced in Street Fighter 6, catering to fans of boxer characters.
Ed's control scheme, which uses button inputs instead of motion inputs, makes him a suitable character for players transitioning from Modern to Classic controls, bridging the gap between the two styles.

Street Fighter 6 is one of the series' strongest entries and one of the best fighting games of the last twenty years. While Street Fighter 4 was a beloved game, the fifth entry in the series did not enjoy the same acclaim due to its oversimplification of core mechanics, come-back abilities, and a heavy bias towards defensive play for much of the game's life. Street Fighter 6 has reversed many of these decisions. While it took until Street Fighter 5's final revision for it to truly resonate with the fighting game community, some parts of the game were always great. One of the most standout parts of SF5 throughout its life was the new characters it brought to the series.

Ed first appeared in Street Fighter 4 but was not playable until SF5. First appearing in Rose's arcade mode in SF4, he was captured to serve as a potential vessel for M. Bison, the series' main antagonist until this most recent entry. Ed is a protege of Balrog, Street Fighter's most iconic boxer character, but can wield psycho-power like Bison. While Ed's move set is dominated by punches, his use of psycho-powers and kicks means that he is not a true boxer. Ed is unique in the franchise due to the way his move set combines multiple archetypes.

Ed Is Coming To Street Fighter 6 Next Year

Ed is the next new combatant coming to Street Fighter 6, a fact that will surely please fans of boxer characters, a fighting game archetype that is currently absent from the game. Like Street Fighter 5, Ed will almost certainly accel at short-ranged rush-down combat. Ed has always found his strength in his ability to create constant pressure. In SF5, he has a dive-kick style move to punish from the air or end launcher combos and a strong projectile super useful for space control. Ed is a strong character for players who like to stay close to the opponent and berate them with pokes, and that is unlikely to change.

Street Fighter 6 redesigns each character, and Ed will likely receive a fresh coat of paint as well. His concept art shows him dressed in civilian clothes, now free from Shadaloo. While Ed will likely lose much of his dark and edgy aesthetic, his unique input method will likely remain. Rather than using motion inputs, Ed triggers special moves by inputting multiple punch or kick buttons simultaneously with a directional input. In SF5, this made Ed one of the easiest characters to learn inputs for, but the addition of Modern Controls in SF6 changes the value of Ed.

Ed Will Bridge Modern and Classic Controls

Modern Control Scheme for Street Fighter 6 — Street Fighter 6 Modern Controls

Ed only used motion inputs for his super in Street Fighter 5. In this way, Ed's controls were something of a predecessor to the Modern Controls in Street Fighter 6. While the Modern input style has made the game more accessible and has even been effectively used at high levels of competitive play, it sacrifices the amount of control the player has, and with some characters like Dhalsim, these sacrifices make the fighter substantially weaker.

Ed's relatively few motion inputs mean that he could be the perfect way for players learning Street Fighter or the genre for the first time with Modern inputs to move to the Classic control method. Classic controls will still require more precision but not the same level of coordination as characters that are heavily reliant on motion inputs.

Street Fighter 6 is a thriving fighting game, and adding characters like Ed, who will most likely act as a bridge between Modern and Classic controls, will help pull in new fans and keep existing players engaged. The first two DLC characters, Rashid and AKI, were both excellent additions to the roster, and there is no indication that Ed and Akuma will be any less fun.