Today, we got that lovely new gameplay footage of Sagat. He keeps his zoning tactics with fireballs and his bitchin’ high reach, while the community now stands divided because of the changes Capcom decided to make on his moveset. More tidbits on the Muay Thai king’s return were issued on the official Street Fighter Twitter account: the Tiger Shot was kept, though a bit of a contrary nature arises. Regarding the controversy, the low fireball is activated with a light punch instead of either a light or medium kick; and in rewriting decades of gamer muscle memory, many gamers are NOT happy.
That blog post that was linked in the Capcom tweet discusses the new moves Sagat learned in mountain training, but all eyes were awaiting the changes in controls instead. Longtime Sagat mains, like SuperArtFinish, admitted that LP Tiger Shot would “feel weird,” but they would adapt anyway. Others, like JoyFK, really wanted to know: “Like why, Ken has 3 kick specials, why can’t Sagat?” The debate went downhill rapidly, with accusations flying that SF6 is dumbed down for the casual crowd. TheGamingCynics lamented, “We’ll be stuck with Street Fighter 6: Guilty Gear Edition for a while.”
However, the new stuff was welcomed by Dexter Fret, who said, “New moves to original movesets are always welcome.” Alongside, there has been a lot of OMG-he’s-swole praise pouring in, to the point where mgosketches even called him a golem (in a good way), while BanannaSlamma64 was jokingly wondering whether paying her masseuse virtually for Sagat’s two-and-a-half-inch broad shoulders was something she should consider. In the meantime, this stage drama ain’t over yet. Confusion ran amuck after Johann Psackovich took note of a contradiction in the blog and store listings about whether or not Character Pass owners will receive Sagat’s new stage or if this will be only for Ultimate Pass owners; Capcom has yet to weigh in, leaving players to debate the fine print as if it was EVO finals.
That incomprehensible “W̵r̵e̵t̵c̵h̵e̵s̵” shown in the original tweet? No one knows. RipYaNewOne outright asked, “What is happening with that first word?” Capcom is yet to respond, leaving that air-gapped just like an unpunished jump-in. Classic good old Street Fighter mystery box.
With the Season 3 rollouts already dragging casuals over single-stage releases and then the ghostly mutant-level debate on Sagat’s reworked moveset, this FGC expanse has a lot to do in the lab before the king drops officially. One thing’s for sure: whether you’re hype or horrified, everyone has feelings about this tiger’s new stripes. Now excuse me while I go relearn fireball inputs for the 800th time.
