I don't really see the point in M. Bison

Street Fighter 6 sees Bison emerge with a severe case of amnesia, roaming the streets like a feral animal as he fights whoever he can find to quell his hunger for battle. Eventually, in an “unknown location”, he stumbles upon the answer to his questions: Juri, who accidentally reveals to him who he was. After defeating her, he adopts the identity of Bison and resumes doing what he does: seek more power, attempt to subjugate more fighters (as seen in Sagat’s story) and potentially rebuild his organization.

On one hand, this technically counts as a reinterpretation of his character? This Bison is basically a revenant, a beast hungering for power in contrast to the still insane, but more visually put together crime boss Bison from previous games who would have otherwise competed with JP in his role, at least design-wise. The dark hood and ripped cape over a bare chest and stomach in combination with his messy hair really works to emphasize this change. Capcom tried their hardest here, but I don’t think they should have bothered. Bison’s defeat in Street Fighter V, in my opinion, should have been the end of his character. Due to his constant reappearances, M. Bison has kind of become the poster child for “characters we should have left behind by now”, to the point that someone brought him up independently under my last short. In a way, he is a mark of stagnation and while I like the changes they made to him, I don’t think he should have made it here. Between JP and Neo Shadaloo, there are enough people competing for his legacy and dealing with the results of his meddling with their lives. I don’t see why he needs to be one of them. He’d serve the story much better as a specter hanging over these figures; a reminder of the destructive insanity brought fourth when one is consumed by psycho power.

Despite the makeover, M. Bison still feels like he’s here for the sake of it and I don’t think Street Fighter needs any more characters like that.


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