Street Fighter 6’s Year 4 Has Fans Divided Like Never Before

The latest DLC announcement for Street Fighter 6 revealed the game’s line-up of fighters for its fourth Character Pass, showing an unpredictable arrangement of new arrivals. Four characters are coming to Year 4 of the game, but none of them hold any history within the franchise itself. As a result of this, many fans are either surprisingly excited or furious at the Character Pass, leading to a division that has sparked relentless discourse.

Year 4 characters come after Capcom decided to end support for World Tour, the single-player and pseudo story mode for the game. Originally, new characters added through Character Pass DLC would also be implemented into World Tour, where players could learn about their personalities and history while training in their fighting style. With new Avatar arcade mode, players no longer have to meet characters through World Tour to unlock their alternate costumes either.

Street Fighter 6’s Year 4 Character Pass Introduces Tifa From Final Fantasy & Three Newcomers

By far the biggest news regarding Street Fighter 6‘s Year 4 Character Pass was the inclusion of Tifa Lockhart, the skilled brawler and fan-favorite fighter of Final Fantasy 7. Tifa has been a highly requested character in fighting games for some time now, with many hoping for her inclusion in the Tekken or Street Fighter series. Confirming some leaks, Tifa acts as the third DLC character in the Character Pass, being brought into Street Fighter‘s world as a guest through the cosmic strings pulled by recent arrival Ingrid.

However, no characters in Year 4 are returning fighters from throughout Street Fighter‘s long history. In fact, they are all original fighters, with the exception of one character who played an important role as your Avatar’s rival in the World Tour mode. The roster of Year 4 includes:

• Tifa Lockhart (Early 2027)
• Yasmine (Summer 2026)
• Arjun (Autumn 2026)
• Bosch (Spring 2027)

Details shared by Capcom reveal more information about these fighters, who begin to arrive with Yasmine in Summer 2026. Yasmine is described as a highschooler from the Philippines joining the Street Fighter roster in search of her long-lost brother. Wielding a karambit knife, Yasmine’s usual shy and gentle personality sharpens into a confident fighter by using high speed techniques to fight just like her Lolo taught her. Meanwhile, Arjun is a disciple of series mainstay Dhalsim, using a bare knuckle Yoga fighting style far different from his master’s.

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Arjun remains on the run after being accused of killing a colleague as a cop in India, with his Street Fighter appearance marking his search for the real culprit. For those who played World Tour, Bosch is your character’s rival, someone who was also initially trained by Luke. From the nation of Nayshall, Bosch is someone searching for the meaning of strength, using both ancient techniques from his homeland and modern fighting styles to express Nayshall’s warrior faith.

Veteran Fans Are Disappointed That Returning Fighters From Other Games Didn’t Make The Cut

Although many fans are satisfied with Tifa’s appearance as Street Fighter‘s biggest guest character yet, the other fighters have caused plenty of division. Plenty of players are disappointed that faces from Street Fighter‘s past haven’t appeared, especially from underrepresented games like SF3: Third Strike or Street Fighter 4. Among the many fan requests, characters like Vega, Makoto, Dudley, Sean, Necro, or Abel were hoped to be included in SF6‘s Year 4.

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On the other hand, some players argue that newcomers for Year 4 is ultimately a good thing, as Street Fighter 6 has already been praised for its brand-new fighters. Characters like Manon and Marisa have grown into beloved figures, but the last newcomer for Street Fighter 6 was years ago with the inclusion of Aki in the game’s first wave of DLC. Although Street Fighter 5 had more returning characters that dominated its DLC content, even it had Luke as an original character introduced in the same way.

Regardless of player opinions, having three out of the four DLC characters be original fighters is a large risk Capcom is taking. Unlike someone like C. Viper or Sagat from the previous Character Pass, players don’t have a connection with these fighters to invest in buying them, even if they are interested in their gameplay. Without nostalgia to drive some players, these fighters may not generate the excitement around the game Capcom was expecting, even if Tifa drives up a lot of sales.

However, negative thoughts on fighters like Yasmine, Arjun, and Bosch could turn around if their gameplay is interesting enough to encourage fighting game fans to give them a try. Competitive players will want to know how these characters play to learn match-ups regardless, but larger audiences will need to be convinced to care. Although an army of players will likely pick up Tifa in Street Fighter 6, the division behind other characters will take more information to heal.

What are your thoughts on the characters for Street Fighter 6‘s Year 4 Character Pass? Leave a comment below or join the conversation in the ComicBook Forum!