Capcom is cleaning up one of Street Fighter 6’s strangest recent story additions. Game director Takayuki Nakayama has confirmed that a future update will revise parts of Alex’s in-game story text after backlash over his relationship with Patricia, which many players read as incestuous.
Nakayama also posted an apology for the confusion and pointed players to a new supplementary story on Buckler’s Boot Camp meant to add more context around the characters’ emotions and backstories.
Many players took offense to his calling this a “confusion,” as the outrage goes beyond just unclear phrasing and possible Japanese-to-English translation issues.
The controversy came out of Alex’s new story ending after he joined Street Fighter 6, as the added lore leads to events where he marries Patricia, a character connected to him through Tom, the man who raised him. Tom is Alex’s adoptive father, but Patricia is also his second cousin.
The bulk of the outrage comes not from the fact that Alex and Patricia are related, but because Alex has known her since her birth, as pictured in this image, with her progressing from a toddler to his wife.
What’s unclear is just how exactly Capcom intends to rectify this. Nakayama was very clear that there’s no intention of rewriting the entire story, only to add clarifications and clean up “confusing wording,” so those who expect Alex and Patricia to no longer be married after the fix will be sorely disappointed. Capcom is trying to steer the story in a softer direction. The aforementioned Buckler’s Boot Camp short story, ‘A Toast Between Fathers,’ adds more context around Tom, Alex, and Patricia after the wedding, but it doesn’t address any of the issues.
It’s still unclear why Capcom decided to go in this direction in the first place. Street Fighter usually does not end up in this kind of lore mess. The series is full of absurd stories, but they are usually absurd in the “secret dictator with psycho power” sense, not personal relationships.
Capcom has not attached a date to the revision yet, only that it is coming in the near future. It’s doubtful that this helps calm the outrage, but it’s nice to see them try.
