Remy (Street Fighter)

''Street Fighter III'' is a Capcom developed fighting game series and part of their ''Street Fighter'' franchise. Intended as the follow up to ''Street Fighter II'' and its subsequent re-releases, the series began with the arcade release of '' Street Fighter III: New Generation'' in 1997. The games featured a whole new cast, with the only returning members being Ryu and Ken, two characters introduced in the first ''Street Fighter'' video game. Subsequent sequels would add additional characters, with the third game, named '' Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike'' also seeing the return of Chun-Li from ''Street Fighter II''.

Conception and design

Production at Capcom on the first game in the series started in 1994, and was initially planned to be a separate fighting game franchise entirely. ''Street Fighter II'' series producer Noritaka Funamizu felt fatigued with the ''Street Fighter'' franchise due to dwindling sales on home consoles, and the emerging 3D fighting game market thanks to titles such as ''Virtua Fighter''. Capcom however insisted to stick with 2D sprites for their games, and to this end started development on the CPS-3 arcade hardware to support higher color counts for said sprites. When executives at the company pushed for a follow-up to ''II'', Funamizu instead wanted to try and make a new game entirely. At this point, producer Tomoshi Sadamoto at the company had started work on a game titled ''New Generation''. Capcom character designer Akira Yasuda felt that the game's roster lacked personality. Additionally he asserted the company was likely going to make the game into a ''Street Fighter'' title, and suggested pre-emptively to add that franchise's protagonist Ryu to the game's roster. He proved correct, as the game was re-christened ''Street Fighter III: New Generation.

Though several other characters were also initially considered for inclusion from the ''Street Fighter II'' roster, particularly Ken and Chun-Li, the development team instead chose to focus on a mostly original cast. This proved some difficulty however for Sadamoto as he felt most of the designs were not as well established as those in ''II'', and had particular difficulty in creating female character designs. Yasuda however suggested to make the first female character a ninja, stating "Ninjas are cool!" While this led to the creation of Ibuki, another idea suggested was to introduce a character that was "Yuki in Africa" based off model Yuki Uchida. Yasuda designed the character, leading to the creation of Elena, which helped solidify the development team's vision for the rest of the game's roster. As development progressed Ken, Ryu's counterpart character from the series, was later also added to the roster. Meanwhile when choosing a protagonist, they selected an American character, Alex, as they felt martial arts were more popular at the time in America and wanted to target that audience.

The finalized cast however still proved difficult to create. Yasuda continued to work on the character designs, attempting to stay within Sadamoto's design constraints unlike previous games where he made the design choices more directly. In an interview with gaming website ''Polygon'', when asked if in retrospect the game would have done better if it had not been a ''Street Fighter'' title, Yasuda stated while he liked some of the characters, "if I had to change the past, I'd rather just not have worked on that game at all". Meanwhile, Capcom's North American branch's design support for the title, Chris Tang, expressed shock at seeing the new character designs once they were revealed, with the character Oro in particular causing him to question if Yasuda had left Capcom. Other issues arose from a lack of software support to develop for the CPS-3 hardware, and the amount of detail the higher resolutions demanded of the designs. Character balance also proved an issue, as unlike other Capcom fighting games each developer was in charge of fine tuning their own character's gameplay, resulting in some feeling more suitable for ''Street Fighter''s gameplay, while others felt more in line with Capcom's '' Darkstalkers'' fighting game franchise. The long development meanwhile caused one planned character, Hugo, to be delayed until the game's follow up title, ''Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact'', alongside other new character and returning character Akuma.

Introduced in ''New Generation''

Alex

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is a wrestler from New York who first appears in '' Street Fighter III: New Generation'', and his design and character are based on Hulk Hogan. He serves as a protagonist of Street Fighter III. His parents died at a young age, so he was raised by his father's friend, Tom, who trained him in fighting. In ''New Generation'', Tom loses a fight with Gill, the president of the Illuminati and gets injured as a result. This angered Alex and prompted him to enter the third World Warrior tournament hosted by Gill in order to kill him. Alex beats Gill and wins the tournament, but spares Gill, who is impressed about Alex's skills after their encounter. Alex eventually returns to Tom as a changed person after fighting various people around the world.''All About Capcom Head-to-Head Fighting Game 1987–2000'', page 299Capcom. p. 12. ''Street Fighter III: Double Impact, instruction manual''. Retrieved 2008-07-03. '' Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact'' retcons ''New Generation'', but Alex's story stays the same, but he now has a rivalry with Hugo, a German pro wrestler of extreme height. Alex returns in '' Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike'' with a slightly different personality. He meets Ryu and fought him, only to lose, in which Ryu told Alex to explore the world and find worthy fighters.

Alex makes an appearance in '' Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars'' as a playable character, alongside other ''Street Fighter'' characters, Ryu and Chun-Li. He also appears in '' Capcom Fighting All-Stars'' and ''Capcom Fighting Evolution''.Kashavin, Greg (2005-06-16)
Capcom Fighting Evolution (XBox) XBox Game Reviews
. CNet. Retrieved 2008-07-03. Alex reappears as a playable character in ''Street Fighter V'' as the first of 6 characters to be released after the game's launch in 2016. In the story mode of ''Street Fighter V'', "A Shadow Falls", Alex is first shown winning a pro-wrestling tournament. He then competes in a tag-team exhibition match with Laura against Zangief and R. Mika, which is broadcast live on television. However the signal cuts out due to a Black Moon detonating over New York City, causing a blackout. Dhalsim comes to his trailer, wanting the chess piece, but Alex believes Dhalsim is a mugger and fights him. Dhalsim successfully convinces Alex otherwise and receives the chess piece from Alex. Dhalsim then tells Alex that big things will happen to him in the future, foreshadowing his role as the main character of the ''Street Fighter III'' series, and teleports away.''All About Capcom got Head from Fighting Games 1987–2000'', page 74

Alex was created early in development to be the series' protagonist, and was designed by Akira Yasuda. Early versions of his character established him as a police officer that used to be a professional wrestler, influenced by how popular the World Wrestling Federation (later renamed WWE) was at the time. They wanted a character that stood apart from Ryu, and was intended to be a simple protagonist so the supporting cast could be "flashy", with Sadamoto comparing it to how manga ''Saint Seiya'' approached its cast.

In December 1997, Alex ranked 44th on Gamest's "Top 50" video game characters, tying with Goro Daimon, and in January 1998 was named the 22nd-best character of the preceding year, tying with Ryuji Yamazaki. IGN voted Alex one of their top 25 fighters. He was ranked as the sixth-best ''Street Fighter'' character by UGO.com. Alex was also named as 10th-best character in the series by ''Complex''.

Dudley

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is an upper class heavyweight boxer from Britain with powerful techniques and speed. He seeks perfection both in and out of the ring, always behaving as an impeccable gentleman. He is also the son of an athlete who later became a successful businessman. When his father's business began to fail when he was in college, Dudley was able to recover his losses thanks to his boxing career.Capcom. p. 18. ''Street Fighter III: Double Impact, instruction manual''. Retrieved 3 July 2008 In '' Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact'', he fights outside a London pub called the Sherlock Holmes, while Knightsbridge tube station and the Harrods department store can be seen in his 3rd Strike background. When his father's prized Jaguar XK120 is purchased from a debtor's auction, Dudley goes after the buyer, a man named Gill. In '' Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike'', Dudley has received the honorary title of "Sir" after making a comeback and winning the championship title, and is invited into a contest that will be held in the presence of the royal family. Now known as Sir Dudlington, he decides to travel the world and improve himself before the day of the match. He is also shown to have a great interest in the gardens of his illustrious country estate, occasionally losing track of time, or getting lost, as shown in his ''Third Strike'' ending.

In ''Super Street Fighter IV'', Dudley returns as a playable character and joins the tournament in search of new roses for his garden. He also claims he needs something to get his mind off of his missing car and encounters Balrog who challenges him to a fight. In his ending, he is shown lamenting the fact that he was unable to procure the new roses for his garden. As he does so, Dudley notices a flower bloom and comments on its beauty to his butler, Mr Gotch. He also appears via DLC in ''Street Fighter X Tekken'' with his official tag partner, Elena. In a small cameo, Dudley can be seen in the background of the England stage in ''Capcom vs. SNK 2'', reading a newspaper while wearing boxing gloves, and he has another small cameo in Pyron's ending in ''Capcom Fighting Jam''.

During development, they considered how boxing was seen as a "gentleman's sport" that was "currently being perfected in England". Feeling they had only previously portrayed boxing as being used by villainous characters, they chose England as Dudley's country of origin, and built the character's framework from there. When creating his design, they gave him pronounced shoulders to emphasize his role as a boxer. Additional artwork also frequently displayed him enjoying tea, to help emphasize his British nationality. Sadamoto considered Dudley they easiest character to finalize.

Elena

Gill

Ibuki

Necro

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, whose real name is , was born in a poor Russian village near a lake. He is the third of four children, with two older brothers and a younger sister. He also has massive data. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he wanders off from his home village and into the vicinity of Moscow, where he comes into contact with Gill's organization, which remodels his DNA to turn him into a living weapon, granting him superhuman flexibility. His fighting style is simulated by a computer, then programmed into his brain with cyber implants.Capcom. p. 17. ''Street Fighter III: Double Impact, instruction manual''. Retrieved 3 July 2008 Necro has a long reach and can use throws and electrocution. In his ending, he is tricked by Gill and left for dead in a facility, until he is rescued by a young girl named , and the pair go on a journey together. Necro's story is the same in ''2nd Impact'', in which he gains the nickname "super electromagnetic alien". In this game, however, he also has a role as one of Hugo's potential final bosses and tag partners, forming the tag team "Thunderbolt". In ''3rd Strike'', Necro and Effie are pursued by agents of the organization, but still live in hope of "truth and liberty". In his ending, Necro saves Effie from falling and thwarts agents of the Illuminati at the Siberian railroad.''All About Capcom Head-to-Head Fighting Game 1987–2000'', page 331

Necro was designed by Yasuda, who made a model out of paper clay for the sprite artist to reference.

Ken Masters

Unlike Ryu, Ken lacked any early design sketches, with the work progressing directly to the sprite design phase. The development team found his design easily to build around, but with ''3rd Strike'' they focused on improving the character's gameplay and adding more leg-based techniques to help subtly differentiate him further from Ryu.

Oro

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is an ancient martial arts master who lives a secluded life of an immortal hermit. His lack of attachments has allowed him to exceed his legendary fighting skills beyond those of an ordinary person, though he does seem to have a weakness for cute girls. He attained such extraordinary abilities through the mastery of an extreme fighting style known as . He sets out on a journey to find a worthy successor of his secrets in order to kill time. Through the use of magic, he sealed one of his arms in order to even the odds in favor of his opponents as he could accidentally seriously injure or kill his opponent if he did not. Oro decides that the only martial artist he met worthy of inheriting his secrets was Ryu.

Oro later reappears in ''Street Fighter V'' during Dhalsim's character story as Dhalsim encounters him while teaching a police officer named Mahesh how to breathe fire. Oro engages a discussion with the yoga master about mastering one skill before he leaves sensing another interesting person in the area. He was later mentioned in Karin's character story as Karin travels to India to find Oro, but is told by Dhalsim that he had already left a few days prior. He is also seen in Menat's character story when Menat, sent by her master Rose, warns him of an evil power in their world, which Oro is already aware of. He was made a playable character in the game's fifth season, in which he confers with Rose and Dhalsim about this lingering Psycho Power left behind after M. Bison's defeat. He once again fights using only one arm, carrying a tortoise named Yamasen in the other. Outside of the video game series, Oro also appears in the '' Street Fighter Legends: Ibuki'' comic book miniseries where Ibuki's final ninja exam is to challenge him. Together with her friends Elena and Makoto, she goes to the shrine on Mount Atago, where Oro has travelled to meditate. After the fight, Oro says that she actually made him think about using both hands and commends her on an entertaining challenge.

Despite appearing only in ''SFIII'' at the time, Oro was voted 35th-most popular out of 85 ''Street Fighter'' characters in Capcom's own poll for the 15th anniversary of ''Street Fighter''. Oro also ranked 21st in a worldwide ''Street Fighter'' character poll held between 2017 and 2018. UGO Networks listed Oro as one of the top 50 ''Street Fighter'' characters due to his "unorthodox, powerful, and unique" design. He also ranked in ''Den of Geek'', ''Complex'', and ''Paste Magazine''s favorite ''Street Fighter'' characters lists. Meanwhile, GamesRadar named Oro one of the worst ''Street Fighter'' characters.

The character that became Oro was originally planned to be a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu fighter, inspired by the Gracie family. As development progressed, they looked over previously suggested designs, and Oro's finalized appearance stood out to the development team, with the sprite art team pushing to utilize it so they could see the character in motion. Oro's additional art was designed to make him look more intimidating than his in-game sprites. At one point in development he was also intended to have a scar on his back.

Ryu

Ryu's design required few early design sketches because of how recognizable the character had become within the company. In particular they wanted to emphasize his white headbang, in contrast to the red headband that was exclusive to the ''Street Fighter Alpha'' series of games that had released during ''New Generation''s development.

Sean Matsuda

Yun and Yang Lee

: (Yun)
: (Yang)
In their backstory, The Lee Brothers, and were separated from their birth parents when they were young. They were raised by an adoptive grandfather who runs a restaurant in Hong Kong and have eight underground bosses as godfathers. By the time of ''Street Fighter III'', the two brothers are the leaders of their local town. Yun, the elder of the two, is described as being more responsible, while his younger brother Yang is calmer and more analytical.

In '' Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike'', Yun and Yang set off to fight a mysterious organization (Gills group, the Illuminati) threatening to take over their village. In their respective endings, Yun and Yang end up driving away Gill from their home town and the two return home to be greeted by their female friend Houmei and her younger sister Shaomei, who both harbor a respective crush on Yun and Yang.

Prior to ''Street Fighter 6'', when their cousin, Jamie was still a young kid, the brothers saved him from being beaten by common thugs, thus serving as Jamie's inspiration to be a fighter like them.

After the ''Street Fighter III'' series, Yun appeared as a playable character ''Capcom vs. SNK 2'', in the portable versions of ''Street Fighter Alpha 3'' for the Game Boy Advance and PlayStation Portable and in ''Capcom Fighting Jam''. They both later appeared as playable characters in '' Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition''.

The twins later made a cameo in Chun-Li's introductory cutscene in the console versions of ''Street Fighter IV'' and in again in her ending in ''Super Street Fighter IV''. They also made a cameo in the Half Pipe stage in ''Street Fighter X Tekken''.

The Lee brothers were intended to be "popular from the start", and "flashier" than series protagonist Alex. In particular their designs were built around the parry system, a new gameplay element unique to ''Street Fighter III'', and they were given kung fu as a martial art to highlight this aspect. In addition to giving them the most consideration during development, they also wanted to emphasize the pair's boyish youth. Of the cast they had the smoothest development, going from concept to completion with little revision in between.

Introduced in ''2nd Impact''

Akuma

Hugo

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is a member of the Andore family, recurring enemies in the ''Final Fight'' series whose designs are based off real life professional wrestler Andre the Giant. A German man of massive height, he acts as a professional wrestler himself. Managed by fellow ''Final Fight'' character Poison, they seek to develop their own wrestling promotion by forcibly recruiting other fighters. Hugo would return alongside Poison for its sequel as well as ''Ultra Street Fighter IV'', ''Street Fighter V'', ''SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos'', and ''Street Fighter x Tekken''.

Urien

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Within series lore, Gill and are the children of gifted parents who excelled physically and intellectually. The Illuminati separated the brothers from their birth parents at the age of six and gave them a specialized education to become candidates for the organization's presidency. Gill was ultimately chosen, leaving Urien bitter with resentment.Capcom. p. 16. ''Street Fighter III: Double Impact, instruction manual''. Retrieved 3 July 2008 In ''2nd Impact'', Urien challenges Gill for the presidency. He eventually gains the title, only to learn that Gill has been promoted to Emperor, the true leader of the Illuminati, whose existence is known only to its presidents and chairmen. In ''3rd Strike'', in spite of his new position, Urien still resents the supremacy of his brother. He decides to eliminate Gill permanently and destroys the preservation facility where Gill is still recovering.''All About Capcom Head-to-Head Fighting Game 1987–2000'', page 344 During the character introduction that precedes every match in ''Street Fighter III'', he is presented as wearing business attire prior to the beginning of his fight, where shortly afterwards his skin darkens and his clothes disappear, leaving him wearing only a white loincloth like Gill.

Gavin Jasper from ''Den of Geek'' placed Urien 34th place in a ranking list of ''Street Fighter'' characters, noted that his role as a disgruntled underling plotting to usurp his brother calls into question who is the true main villain of the ''Street Fighter III'' series. As Urien is essentially a head and palette swap of Gill's in-game model and gameplay mechanics, Jasper praised the developers of ''2nd Impact'' for differentiating both characters by applying select variations to Gill's moveset and visual design to create Urien. Ian Walker from ''Kotaku'' noted that Urien was popular with players in both casual and competitive spheres of ''Street Fighter III'' due to his distinct look and abilities.

Introduced in ''3rd Strike''

Chun-Li

When working on Chun-Li for ''3rd Strike'', the development team ran into a problem as they needed input from Yasuda, who had originally designed the character. However, he was unreachable as he was currently working on character designs for the ''Gundam'' franchise in Tokyo, Japan. The development instead traveled to him, and were able to finalize her design for the game.

Makoto

Q

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Q, who first appears in ''Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike'', is a mysterious individual in a trenchcoat and hat, whose face is concealed by an expressionless metal mask, based on the main character from Tokusatsu series Robot Detective (Robot Keiji K). Q is being tracked by the CIA because of his presence in numerous strange disasters.''All About Capcom Head-to-Head Fighting Game 1987–2000'', page 308 Nothing of his background has yet been revealed. All of Q's techniques are named in "descriptive" form rather than with traditionally-styled move names, as if they are given by people who have watched him fight.

Remy

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, who first appears in ''Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike'', is a young turquoise-haired savateur from Paris who seeks revenge against his father, a martial artist who abandoned him and his sister. After Remy's sister died, he encased her body in an iced casket, which he keeps in an underwater cove in the Bay of Biscay. Remy takes his aggression out on other martial artists by challenging them to battle. Remy's rival match illustrates this, as his sudden appearance and challenge surprise Alex, who thinks him nothing but a troubled man. In his ending, Remy realizes that he has been inadvertently following in his father's footsteps. He makes peace with his sister and follows a new path. His attacks are similar to that of Guile and Charlie, but no notable connection to them has been established.''All About Capcom Head-to-Head Fighting Game 1987–2000'', page 347 Remy was voted 8th in Capcom's popularity poll of 85 characters for the 15th anniversary of ''Street Fighter''.

Twelve

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is a humanoid creature with a solid white body, and has a rounded head that features black eyes and a thin mouth. Physically a prototype of the body intended for Necro, Twelve is a shapeshifter that can transform parts of his body into various weapons or fully mimic other fighters.

When developing Twelve, the aimed for a design that was "deliberately weird and atypical", revolving around a concept of breaking rules they'd established for the series. An early design of the character featured short and a harness, and would have had camouflage patterns on his skin. At this stage, he was intended to be a "face swap" for Necro, and was initially conceived to be a "perfected" version of what Gill had intended for Necro, before becoming a prototype instead. His design was meant to have simple coloring while they focused on making his movement and animation interesting, while his role in the story was meant to further flesh out Necro and Gill. Several attacks were considered for his design that were never implemented, such as being able to swim on the ground, and another where he could spray poison mist from his mouth.

Critical reception

The introduction of ''Street Fighter III''s cast proved controversial at the time, particularly among the players of the franchise. Matt Edwards of ''Eurogamer'' described the series' first game as "a mixture of baffling design choices" particularly in how it handled the characters, noting that many of the characters felt too similar to previous characters introduced in ''Street Fighter II'', with Yun, Ibuki and Alex being particular standouts in his eyes. Sam Stone of ''Comic Book Resources'' meanwhile suggested by being released after the ''Street Fighter Alpha'' series of games, which featured characters more recognizable to the fandom, Capcom was essentially competing with itself, which helped to severely hamper ''New Generations'' sales to the point they were one-fifth of those of the much older ''Street Fighter II''s and caused the franchise to remain untouched until the 2008 release of ''Street Fighter IV''.

Not all reception was negative however. Edwards emphasized by comparison with the release of ''3rd Strike'' the characters felt more refined, even if the introduction of Remy felt too similar to previous character Guile. ''Paste''s Elijah Gonzalez attributed some of the series' cult favorite status to how the cast was made up of "oddball characters ..each with a distinct look that catches the eye" that was emphasized by how well the game's pixel art expressed their personalities.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Characters In The Street Fighter III Series
Street Fighter characters
Street Fighter