The long-awaited March Update for "Street Fighter 5" is almost upon us, with Capcom announcing on its official blog that the update along with the various tweaks and additions that will come along with it will arrive next week.
"Street Fighter 5's" March update will come in two parts, the first coming on March 28 and the second coming two days later.
March 28's update will introduce challenge mode, which will include tutorials, demonstrations and trials aimed at improving a player's skill level, as well as an online rematch option, eight-player battle lounges and bug fixes/gameplay tweaks. March 30's additions will finally add Alex to the roster and introduce the in-game shop.
However, due to real money not being integrated into the in-game shop at the time of its release, Alex will be free as a "trial period to all players, until the Zenny shop launches." Capcom came to this workaround since Alex and additional costumes would have only been unlockable by grinding out fights to accrue the neccessary Fight Money to purchase them and Season Pass owners would have not automatically unlocked them. Granted, completing story mode will provide the required amount of Fight Money for the purchases, but that won't be coming until a future update.
Capcom did note, however, that this only temporary: "This also will apply to any future DLC character that releases prior to the Zenny shop launching. Once the Zenny shop launches, the free trial for any DLC characters that released prior to the Zenny shop opening will end, and players will need to either use Fight Money, Zenny, or the Season Pass to access those characters."
"We have taken a long hard look at this part of the store, and after much review, have decided it is not ready to launch just yet," Capcom added. "As Zenny is purchased with real money, we wanted to be extra careful and make sure it's fully tested and optimized before launching it. There is currently no ETA on the Zenny store and we will release it as soon as it's ready."
Once the Zenny shop launches, Alex, as well the other DLC characters - Guile, Balrog, Ibuki, Juri and Urien - will cost 100,000 Fight Money, whereas character costumes will cost 40,000 each.
As an added bonus, Capcom is throwing in Ryu and Chun-Li's story-mode costumes as part of the update free-of-charge "as a way of saying thanks for everyone's patience and understanding throughout the beta phases and game launch."
Here is a video with an overview of the March Update:
A full list of the notes can be viewed below:
March 28:
• Demonstrations: Learn the ins and outs of Street Fighter V through helpful demonstration and tutorial content. Contains content for each of the 16 characters, as well as advice geared towards players of all skill levels:
• Beginner Tutorials: 12 lessons covering, movement, normal attacks, special attacks, V-System, throws, counter hits, chip/recoverable damage, etc.
• Intermediate Tutorials: 11 lessons covering projectiles, invincibility frames, armor and armor break, recovery, cross-up attacks, anti-air options, etc.
• Advanced Tutorials: 4 lessons covering back dashing, frame advantage/disadvantage, combo potential, button priority, etc.
• Character Tutorials: 16 lessons covering each individual character.
• Trials: Put your skills to the ultimate test with combo trials for all 16 characters, ranging from basic to pro combos. Completing Trials will also earn you some extra Fight Money.
• Online Rematch Option: Salty from a close loss online? Want revenge? Players can now play a 2/3 set in Ranked Match and Casual Matches, provided both players accept the rematch.
• Battle Lounge Improvements: Enjoy up to 8 person lobbies, complete with match spectating.
• Bug fixes and gameplay balancing: Various game bugs have been fixed, along with minor gameplay balancing.
March 30:
• DLC character #1: Alex
• Story mode costumes for Ryu and Chun-Li for free
• In-Game Shop: Spend your hard earned Fight Money to purchase extra game content, such as DLC characters (100,000 FM each) and the Story Mode Costumes (40,000 FM each).
