New defensive mechanic using V-Gauge
The Street Fighter 5 community has known for about six months now that their game will undergo a relatively big change, as developers promised a new combat mechanic in August 2020 and said the mechanic was revealed during today’s winter update as V- Shift.
This new mechanic allows players to get rid of sticky situations. Similar to V-Skill, this maneuver is used to counter attacks, but where it is unique is that it can be used freely and does not need to be blocked to activate.
This new mechanic drains a V-Gauge bar on use. During his animation, V-Shift makes the player invincible in throws, attacks and projectiles.
When this maneuver is used in the same way that an incoming attack is about to land, the fighters will enter a slow-moving state and the character who used the V-Shift will become temporarily invincible. This turns it into a parry type technique, although a bit more complicated than what we saw in Street Fighter 3.
The slow-moving V-Shifting player can alternatively perform a “V-Shift-Break” that sees them launching forward with an invincible attack. The idea here seems to be that if the V-Shift is used to counter an incoming attack with a lot of recovery, the defending player can secure a penalty if he doesn’t have an attack in their standard arsenal that gets far enough forward.
It looks like it will add a lot of depth to many interactions, as it offers a new way to defend in this hard-to-attack game. Players will need to be more careful about how they want to use their V-Gauge, and V-Shift interactions have more possible routes and results, as players have a choice immediately after hiring this new mechanic.
Below are a handful of screenshots showing V-Shift and its various uses:
Click on images for larger versions