The Street Fighter lore is out of order and filled with retcons and rewrites.
Our story guide will help you make sense of it all.
WhenStreet Fighter Vhit the scene, it got a lot of flack for being incredibly incomplete.
Finishing the game will get you a modernized take on that charactersStreet Fighter IIending.
That means that the more the character shows up in the series (ie.
Ryu and Ken), the more endings there are to unlock.
A fun way to play with the series history.
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Street Fighteralso crosses over with plenty of other franchises, whether theyre Capcom-owned or not.
Then again, they never seem to have an impact on the overall plot.
STREET FIGHTER
The first game is obviously the most straightforward.
You choose either Ryu or Ken to enter a fighting tournament and thats about it.
As the story goes, Ryu wins the tournament, defeating the ominous Muay Thai fighter Sagat.
Years later, Capcom made the final battle a bit more dramatic.
Ryu doesnt simply defeat Sagat by being a better martial artist.
Sagat kicks the crap out of the kid.
Sagat, being honorable and a bit egotistical, decides to offer Ryu his hand to help him up.
AlthoughAlpha 2has different endings, its still supposed to just be a rewrite ofAlphas storyline.
Its mainly two stories that intertwine.
On one hand, you have the aftermath of Ryus big win against Sagat.
Now everyone wants a piece of him.
Ken wants to challenge his old rival.
Sagat desperately wants his rematch.
Sakura wants to meet her idol.
On the other hand, you have the rise of M. Bison, ruler of the Shadaloo criminal syndicate.
Hes a big megalomaniac mass murderer and, aptly enough, has enough people out for his blood.
US Air Force dude Charlie wants to take him down for the good of mankind.
Chun-Li wants to avenge her fathers death.
The plan is to make Ryu a suitable host body for M. Bisons soul.
Meanwhile, Sagats anger becomes his downfall, causing him to lose to his own former student Adon.
In this moment of clarity, Sagat starts to realize that Shadaloo is for the birds.
STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 3
Once again, people are getting into random fights.
This time theres an actual endgame in that Bison has a doomsday weapon called the Psycho Drive.
Basically, its capable of taking out entire cities and as long as it exists, Bison is nigh-invincible.
At some point, the Psycho Drive is destroyed by one of the heroes.
M. Bison and his corrupted Ryu fight the team of Ken, Sagat, and Sakura.
Sagat defeats Ryu and helps him regain himself.
Ryu and Sagat agree theyll figure out whos the best another day.
Unbeknownst to them, Bisons soul survives and possesses the body of Rose.
Shadaloo scientists clone him a new body.
SUPER STREET FIGHTER II: TURBO
Or whatever the latest version of that game is.
This proves to be his undoing.
Despite being the most popular entry in the franchise, little is known about what actually goes down.
Who wins the tournament?
Personally, Ive always liked to think that Guile won.
But thats just me.
ULTRA STREET FIGHTER IV
Yes, again,Street Fighter IVcomes beforeStreet Fighter III.
Through some retconning, Akuma is shown to be all but worthless.
Not only has Bison survived with a new clone body, but it turns out Goukens not dead either!
Man, the Master of Fist just cant keep anyone down.
With Bison considered out of the picture, theres a void in the whole power-mad final boss department.
Another one of these dolls became self-aware and rebellious, calling himself Seth.
Seth would lead a Shadaloo division-turned-offshoot called SIN.
Many of the players end up at Seths headquarters when the final battles go down.
Presumably, Bison returns and kills Seth, unleashing the other dolls upon the other fighters.
The Shadaloo henchman Balrog comes across a scared little boy named Ed.
Regardless, Balrog abducts him, feeling that hes probably worth a lot of money to Bison.
As this is all going on, Akuma and Gouken finally meet again and duel over Ryus soul.
Gouken fights off Akuma and helps Ryu conquer his inner darkness, at least for a little while.
Oh, and at some point, Elena convinces Akuma to take a selfie with her.
STREET FIGHTER V
Shadaloo has replaced Sagat with FANG, a psychotic mad scientist.
Unfortunately for him, one of the hackers he kidnapped to make this plot happen sabotaged the process.
From there, there are two main factions out to stop Shadaloo.
One is run by the mysterious Russian woman Helen.
She has been able to resurrect Charlie into a Frankensteins monster with a very limited lifespan.
Also on her team are Rashid a close friend of the murdered hacker and Shadaloo-hating psychopath Juri Han.
Using her resources, shes able to bring in various street fighters and help gather the chess pieces.
Ryu is stalked by a mythological savage Necalli, who devours the souls of worthy fighters.
By finally conquering his inner darkness, Ryu not only cleanses himself of evil, but destroys Necalli.
FANGs plans are foiled.
All of Bisons Doll soldiers are no longer mentally controlled.
Helen tells her higher-up that Shadaloo is destroyed and will no longer be a threat to them.
Helen is revealed to be minorStreet Fighter IIIcharacter Kolin and her leader is that games final boss Gill.
The main hero is Alex, a military guy whose best friend was hospitalized after a match against Gill.
There was nothing sinister about it or anything.
During all of this, Ken is enjoying fatherhood while training his own student Sean.
Sean is most likely the worst fighter inStreet Fightercanon, making Dan Hibiki look unstoppable.
The Illuminati is still active and doing stuff, but theres no climactic endgame on their part.
Just plotting and random fights.
All of this is monitored by the mysterious Q.
Nobody knows who he is, whether hes a man, robot, or both.
Its been almost 20 years since this games release and were not a step closer to figuring him out.
Maybe some eventualStreet Fighter VDLC will give us some kind of hint.
