Annotated Appendix: Sean

Secret: I love Sean. I don't know if it's because he's such an underdog or something else, but he's always appealed to me as a character, and I love pulling Sean out of my pocket when I used to go to weeklies or the occasional tournament. Sean's got a lot going against him, as this video certainly demonstrates, but his moves are so odd, his short-range game so quirky, that other players just don't know how to deal with them (the fact that nobody plays Sean probably helped, too).

For this video and his spot in the series, though, Sean is an important link in the chain of truth that I'm trying to pull on regarding the Street Fighter III games. The prevailing myth around them, that Ryu and Ken were never meant to be part of the cast and that angry/ bewildered players demanded them at location tests, is only partly true. Honestly, it even seems that it's only a small part, too, if recent interviews are to be believed (and they are).

What gets tricky here is that there is a lot more info out there about the SF3 games, but very little of it is translated in English for us to comb through (again, we need to bow down and thank whatever god you believe in for shmuplations.com). I have a handful of Japanese strategy guides and fan books that are just pages and pages of text from developers, and mostly about the first SF3 game, New Generation, that I certainly can't read. I know others out there are working slowly on getting some of these things localized and on the internet for people like me to use for projects like this, but this takes time and can be expensive if you hire someone to do it for you (though the price is typically worthwhile). What I'm getting at it is that there could be more info about what actually happened with development, and perhaps some evidence that refutes what I personally found, but this info isn't readily available yet, so we have to use what's at hand. And what's at hand, in this case, is that Sean was a super late-game development inclusion. If you play him in New Generation, I would argue, you can tell.

Anyway, this episode came a little quickly because I worked two scripts in advance after the Attract Mode episode. It also helps that I know Sean and his gameplay. What I don't know, though, is depth for Ibuki and Necro, the next two on the roster. Sure, development notes and design info aren't a problem, but I need to get into the lab for these two to really dig into them. That means the next episode or two might come a bit later than others (especially Ibuki. She has nine target combos and nine command normals. Nine. Apiece!). I'm going to try to go a few scripts in advance with these two as well, because I think that worked out pretty well.

Last thing: Sean's MP-HK target combo definitely links into SA3, but it's frame perfect, meaning the timing is absolutely fucking bonkers. But it works. I promise.