One of the most exciting and mysterious elements of Street Fighter 6 has been a World Tour, a single-player open-world exploration mode Capcom had previously only shown glimpses of. Thankfully, today’s Street Fighter 6 Showcase finally pulled the curtain back on what World Tour entails and it looks delightfully bonkers.
World Tour begins with players creation a custom fighter that serves as the mode’s protagonist. Upon creating your avatar (which can be used outside of World Tour in the online Battle Hub), you’re dropped into Metro City from the Final Fight series, one of the World Tour’s many explorable city hubs. Other destinations include the developing Asian city, Nayshall.
As a fledgling fighter, you’ll embark on a quest to become a world warrior. You’ll accomplish this completing quests while running around and picking fights with citizens, who all happen to martial artists. You’ll also get jumped by silly enemies ranging from thugs with boxes on their heads to literal refrigerators, depending on which city you’re in. Gameplay transitions seamlessly from exploration to 1v1 bouts, and some battles even offer specific objectives to earn extra rewards, such as performing certain moves. Additionally, using a special ability called Drive Stall lets you bring time to a crawl to escape pursuing enemies or get the jump on them before initiating a battle.
A world map lets you travel between multiple cities across the globe, and each one boasts familiar and unexpected faces. You can become students to legendary fighters, which consist of all 18 launch fighters such as Chun-Li, which allows you to adopt their fighting styles in combat and acquire special signature moves used for exploration. For example, you can learn Ryu/Ken’s hurricane kick which can let you soar over gaps while platforming. The more you train with a legendary master, the stronger your bond with them becomes. Raising bonds unlock new missions as well as story content for that master, and bringing them gifts also raises their affinity for you.
You can purchase gifts and other items by visiting in-game merchants. Additionally, you can buy food that restores health or grants temporary stat buffs/debuffs in and out of fights. Winning fights awards XP as well as skill points used to unlock permanent stat boosts from a skill tree, as well as special traversal abilities. Additionally, a bevy of main and side missions as well as other options can be selected and managed on a smart phone-like device.
World Tour looks as robust as it does absurd (in a good way), and we’re excited to get our hand on it. Thankfully, a demo lets players take an abbreviated stroll through these dangerous streets. Street Fighter 6 launches on June 2 for PlayStation consoles, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. You can also read about the game’s first wave of DLC fighters here.