Street Fighter 6 has been out for a little while now and it’s been an undeniable success. It has reinvigorated the genre and brought a breath of fresh air to a series formerly tarnished by its previous entry. Capcom’s Second Golden Age is well and truly established, and we are loving every moment of it.
Of course with an influx of new players, one question continues to be asked: “What character should I play?”. With 18 to choose from it can be a bit overwhelming. In this guide, we are going to go over some of the best characters to get started with when playing Street Fighter 6.
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Ryu
Ryu is the poster boy for Street Fighter. Recognised the world over, Ryu is the epitome of balance. He can engage in just about every form of combat, and he does really well at most of it.
Ryu has fantastic normals, a great projectile, and of course, he comes with one of the best dragon punches in the business. Ryu can be as defensive or aggressive as you want, allowing new players to get a feel for all the mechanics Street Fighter 6 has to offer. Not only that, but Ryu is a pretty powerful character to boot, which means you can pick Ryu and be confident that he will only get stronger as you get more competent.
When it comes to Modern or Classic controls, Ryu works wonderfully with both.
Lily
If Ryu is balance, then Lily is all about aggression. Her whole shtick is mixing people up with powerful gap closers and aggressive combos and command grabs. Lily loves being in people’s faces, and she can apply quite a lot of pressure once she’s there.
Lily is so straightforward in her game plan that Capcom recommend her to new players. If you want to press buttons and see cool stuff on screen, then Lily is absolutely for you. Just be careful of being too aggressive and predictable. Players will learn your tricks if you aren’t mixing up your approach, and if that happens, you will quickly find yourself on the back foot.
Lily, like Ryu, is great with both Modern and Classic controls.
Marisa
Marisa is all about hitting people very hard with powerful punches and kicks. Her reach, power, and sheer size are second to only Zangief, and even then, it’s debatable. Marisa is all about pressure, and her amazing neutral game lets her apply that from a distance. Even without combos, Marisa will chunk her opponents for daring to interrupt her.
Her Specials are also very easy to input, with most of them just being quarter-circle motions. Throw in buckets of armour, a parry-stance, and a command grab, and Marissa is the complete bruiser package. Short, punchy combos are the name of the game here.
Marisa is excellent with Classic controls due to her simple inputs. She loses too much with Modern, however, so we’d recommend avoiding that control method entirely.
E. Honda
E. Honda is one of our favourite characters. E. Honda wants to push people into a corner and then never let them leave. His combo game is incredibly simple often only comprising of 3-or-so inputs, making him ideal for picking up and playing. Once you get better, however, E. Honda’s combos can get rather ludicrous giving him a wonderful progression curve.
This chap has some of the best buttons in the business with his Medium Punch and Crouch Light Punch being outstanding for poking and initiating combos. His specials are excellent too, with Headbutt being the clear winner here. Throw in fantastic anti-air options and multiple ways to avoid projectiles and close distance, and you have a very forgiving character with a lot of fun toys to mess around with.
Similar to Marisa, E. Honda doesn’t do too well with Modern controls as he loses many of his key buttons. We recommend sticking to Classic here, which is great because E. Honda has very simple inputs.
Guile
Guile is probably the easiest character in Street Fighter 6 to learn because his game plan is exceptionally easy to grasp and even easier to execute. Guile is all about defensive play. He likes to stay back, pressure with Sonic Boom then punish jumps with Flash Kick. His neutrals are also very effective, allowing him to play footsies with the best of them.
The only downside to Guile is that he is a Charge character, which sounds daunting and is often considered a downside to characters by new players. However, the difficulty of Charge is overblown, and Guile is incredibly forgiving and an excellent character to learn how to do the motions.
Guile can be used with Modern, but he loses some of his best attacks in the transition. We’d once again recommend Classic here.
That’s all we have on controllers today. Be sure to check out our other articles for more Street Fighter 6 guides, lists, and the latest news.
