To the dismay of some fans, the fifth and final new character for Ultra Street Fighter IV was revealed to be Decapre, a Bison Doll and disfigured clone of Cammy. While the reveal was met with severe criticism from the FGC and the Street Fighter community, USFIV Assistant Producer Tomoaki Ayano states that Decapre was chosen in order to flesh out the story of the Dolls, and to “introduce a character that would interest newcomers”.
A new interview between Japanese gaming aficionado Siliconera and Ultra Street Fighter IV Assistand Producer Tomoaki Ayano reveals more information regarding Capcom’s decision to include Decapre as a playable character in the upcoming fifth version of Street Fighter IV. (Yes, fifth: SFIV, Super SFIV, SSFIV: Arcade Edition, SSIV: AE Ver. 2012, and now USFIV.) Apart from the obvious factor that Decapre is a physical clone of Cammy, several of her attack animations are borderline identical, though her “High” attacks are derived from Vega’s animations. Ayano states that while the Bison Dolls appear in the animated short for SFIV, the group lacks a “presence” in the overall series. By including Decapre as a playable character, Ayano believes that the Dolls will be drawn “deeper into the story”. Bison’s Cammy-doppelganger was specifically chosen among the Dolls, as her story will expand upon the backgrounds of Shadaloo and Cammy herself:
“We settled on Decapre because she plays an important role in the stories of Cammy and of Shadaloo itself. When users finish Arcade mode as Decapre, they’ll be treated to a substantial bit of story told in high-quality animation that delves into angles of the story that we hadn’t touched on in the SFIV series until now.”
Decapre’s “Charge Character” status is questioned (i.e. holding a specific direction, then quickly changing to the opposite direction while attacking), as characters with Charge-based moves are typically more difficult to learn for new players. Example characters would be Blanka (Street Fighter), Parasoul (Skullgirls), and Christie (Dead or Alive 5). Ayano debunks this, saying that Capcom made Decapre a Charge Character in order to “introduce a character that would interest newcomers”:
“Actually, we wanted to introduce a character that would interest newcomers, which is why we went with charge moves…charge characters were originally conceived as a way to bring a second style of play to users who were after a simpler control scheme. This hasn’t changed since the era of Blanka, Chun-Li, and Guile as they appeared in Street Fighter II.”
However, it’s made clear that Decapre isn’t entirely composed of Charge attacks, as she has a spam-based attack titled the “Rapid Dagger”. It seems that Decapre is cemented into Ultra Street Fighter IV as a “love or hate” character, so where do you stand? Are you excited to play as a Bison Doll, or do you still feel like this is a lazy move from Capcom? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!