Boss Character

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In the Street Fighter series, Boss Characters refer to unplayable characters seen in various Arcade Modes throughout the games. They are characterized by their high damage, incredible speed, superior hitboxes, and in certain cases, specific conditions to challenge.

Description

Boss characters serve as the ultimate challenge for players in Arcade Mode, being at the end of a standard playthrough. General traits of a boss character include fast walkspeed, average to high vitality, incredibly damaging combos, and a wide array of attacks to mix up their opponents. With their above-average attributes in all fields, boss characters break character balance drastically, and in the cases where they are playable in this state, are often banned from competitive play. They also can read the player's inputs, allowing them to "react" in an extremely short span of time.

Boss characters are also characterized with certain exclusive attacks or techniques completely inaccessible to the player. For example, Gill's Super Arts act completely differently from his playable counterpart Urien, such as Seraphic Wing being incredibly damaging on both hit and block on top of being unparryable, Meteor Strike's massive range and comboability, and Resurrection being able to completely restore all of Gill's health at the cost of disabling his Super Meter for the rest of the round.

A Boss fight should not be confused with a Rival Battle, while in both the CPU tends to be set at high, a rival battle character tends to not be stronger than a playable version.

There exist two types of bosses throughout the series, standard bosses that are faced at the end of Arcade Mode regardless of conditions and secret bosses that require certain conditions to be fulfilled before being challenged. The most common rules are a certain number of Perfect rounds, defeating the opponent with a Super Combo Finish, and not losing a single round. Atypically, Akuma in Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact is not only a secret boss, but can also transform into Shin Akuma as another secret boss should he be defeated with either a Super Art or a Perfect.

Playable Bosses

Following their debuts as powerful bosses, later versions of a particular series often tone down the characters to be on par with the rest of the cast, while still maintaining many of their strengths. This is often done via greatly lowering a character's stamina and stun, reducing the amount of invincibility frames certain moves may have, and modifying attacks to adhere to standard game mechanics. An example of the last example can be seen with Seth, who, despite appearing to perform combos that the playable Seth is capable of, is actually performing automatic combos from a single input that completely bypass Damage Scaling.

Atypically, Gill did not have a standard weakened variant like other bosses in the series. Rather, Urien served as his replacement, sharing similar attacks with charge-based motions and completely separate Super Arts. Gill's playable appearances in home versions of Street Fighter III maintained his boss status, instead being unlockable after beating the game with every other character.

History

Street Fighter

While Sagat is considered the boss character of the original game, every opponent faced in the Arcade Mode is unplayable, effectively making them all functionally Boss Characters capable of techniques that the player is unable to perform. However, Sagat is infamous for his exceptionally high damage on top of having one of the few projectiles in the entire game, with his Tiger Shot dealing 60% of the player's life.

Street Fighter II

Street Fighter II's massively expanded roster meant that a majority of the Arcade Mode had players fight against opponents they themselves could play as. However, the last four opponents in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, known as the Four Kings of Shadaloo, are notable for being unplayable bosses similar to the previous game. The bosses share various attributes:

• Most of their attacks register as fierce.
• Their attacks tend to have very little recovery, this is notable in their "real" fierce attacks.
• They have high speed (Vega and Bison both walk faster than Chun-Li)
• Their aerial attacks remain active throughout their jump arc.
• They tend to have one attack where they receive double damage.

In the Champion Edition update, these characters were made playable and considerably toned down, and in the case of Vega, Balrog, and M. Bison, had their attacks changed from standard motions to charge motions. Interestingly, the CPU uses the toned-down former boss characters.

Worth noting is that while the boss characters themselves were toned down, the actual AI-controlled characters for Street Fighter II often broke the rules of the actual game in subtle ways, such as charge motions being completely removed, certain attacks having startup or invincibility added, and mashable throws being capable of dealing 95% damage due to impossible mashing.

During this time, rumors of Sheng Long, Ryu and Ken's supposed master were spread around, most famously by the April 1992 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine. The supposed criteria for facing him involved playing as Ryu and going through Arcade Mode without taking a single hit until M. Bison's stage, then having neither Ryu not M. Bison take damage for ten rounds straight. Due to its widespread coverage and status by other gaming outlets, Super Street Fighter II Turbo introduced Akuma, who shared many supposed traits of Sheng Long, such as having requirements to face him instead of M. Bison as the final opponent. Akuma's unique abilities, high damage, and double Zanku Hadoken led to him being seen as the emblematic boss character, of which many other games use as inspiration for their bosses. While he has a toned down variant in the same game with a single Zanku Hadoken and much slower Gohadokens, his incredible strengths have led to him being banned from most tournaments.

Street Fighter Alpha

In contrast to Street Fighter II, Street Fighter Alpha features rival battles alongside M. Bison as the standard final boss, with the latter only having a faster Psycho Shot and not needing to charge as his primary boss attributes. Akuma returns as the secret boss, along with the addition of Dan, who also has hidden requirements to be challenged, but is ironically weak in spite of this status. All three can be picked as playable characters through a hidden input or by random select.

Street Fighter Alpha 2 makes the previous bosses regularly selectable characters, while also introducing Shin Akuma as the secret final boss, with less recovery on his attacks and his infamous double Zanku Hadoken.

Street Fighter Alpha 3 features Final Bison, a powered-up variant with larger hitboxes and the infamous Final Psycho Crusher as the final boss for every character excluding himself, who fights Ryu, and Evil Ryu who fights Shin Akuma by default. Shin Akuma is now fought only in Final Battle mode through a specific input, and does not appear as a secret boss. Juli and Juni also serve as penultimate bosses for certain characters, fighting in a Dramatic Battle style where the player must face both of them at the same time.

Street Fighter III

Gill serves as the primary boss character, infamous for his Resurrection Super Art effectively forcing players to deplete his lifebar twice if he is not knocked out of the animation. While initially only capable of using Resurrection in New Generation, 2nd Impact added Meteor Strike and 3rd Strike added Seraphic Wing, of which Gill could use all three at the same time as opposed to selecting just one.

In 2nd Impact, Akuma returns as a secret boss after defeating Gill, transforming into Shin Akuma under specific circumstances, granting him his infamous double Zanku Hadoken. Much like his other appearances, he is playable through a specific set of inputs on the character select screen, and retains his standard attributes of high damage in exchange for low health. Of note is that he does not have access to EX moves unlike the rest of the cast, effectively serving as a way of keeping him balanced while maintaining his power.

In 3rd Strike, Akuma is now a regularly selectable character, along with the removal of Shin Akuma as a secret boss. Q instead takes his place, however unlike most other secret bosses he does not appear to have any unique boss attributes, being identical to his playable counterpart.

Street Fighter IV

Street Fighter IV's initial arcade release had Seth as the primary final boss with Akuma and Gouken as the two secret bosses. Akuma would become playable after a machine had been played for certain period of time, while both Gouken and Seth were added as unlockable characters in the home release of the game.

Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition saw the addition of both Oni and Evil Ryu to the playable roster, along with their hidden boss counterparts within the Arcade Mode. Oni has the highest conditions to be fought against, requiring the player to never lose a round, get one perfect victory, ten First Attacks, and five Super or Ultra Combo finishes, with Seth being the one of them.

Street Fighter V

As Street Fighter V did not have an initial arcade release, it subsequently lacked a traditional boss character. Arcade Edition, to honor Street Fighter's 30th anniversary, included multiple routes based on the previous titles, and with the addition of Sagat, Kage, Gill and Seth, has each respective ladder come with their boss. While Sagat, M. Bison, and Kage are similar to their standard versions, Gill is upgraded to be similar to his 3rd Strike incarnation, wielding an infinite double V-Trigger, all three of his Super Arts, and visually having the same glowing effect. Shin Akuma may be encountered in the SFII and SFIV ladders with a perpetual V-Trigger as well, and Seth's appearance in the SFIV ladder makes him appear considerably taller to match his original body instead of his female body's proportions.

G is considered the boss character of Street Fighter V, despite his only appearance as the final boss being in Dan's route.

Extra Battle mode features various AI controlled opponents with unique properties and attacks similar to boss characters, some even being homages to previous ones, namely Shadow and Shin Bison.

Street Fighter 6

Battle Hub's Giant Attack event pits players against boss variations of existing characters with regenerating Super Art gauges and exclusive attacks. However, certain characters are able to transform into their SiRN variations by taunting under certain circumstances, granting them unique abilities for the duration of the round.

There are currently two SiRN forms available:

• SiRN Akuma, accessed by performing a Back Taunt followed by a Down Taunt after Akuma turns his head. Akuma proceeds to eat an onigiri, filling his Super Art Gauge to maximum, then transforms if not interrupted. SiRN Akuma can perform a Double Zanku Hadoken as well as his Misogi and Adamant Cleaver Level 2 Super Arts.
• SiRN Bison, accessed by performing a Forward Taunt while a Psycho Mine is implanted onto his opponent. M. Bison counts down with his fingers before manually detonating the mine, regardless of its timer. After the explosion, SiRN Bison can perform Bison Warp, Psycho Burst, and his unique Level 2 Super Art Final Psycho Crusher.

Playability

Boss characters occasionally receive playable status, this is even if their "playable" equivalent is available. In some games like Capcom Fighting Evolution Shin Akuma becomes playable at the cost of having very low HP. In "Double Impact" for the Sega Dreamcast, Gill is available for "New Generation" and "2nd Impact", alongside Shin Akuma, despite their playable versions (Urien and Akuma) being fully integrated. In this instance, both boss characters retain their same overpowered state.

Weakness Justification

The Akuma line of bosses tends to have a justification for their weaker status when chosen by the player. As stated before, the playable Akuma is holding back to not abruptly end his battle against "weaker" opponents. Oni is said to be stronger than Akuma, but the playable version is said to still have part of Akuma holding him back. This restriction is not present for the boss version.

M. Bison occasionally has boss forms as well. His stronger forms are justified as being enhanced by machinery or other means, while the playable version just fights using his base Psycho Power.

Gill is uniquely his own character, and in consideration with his "elite paragon" themes, has mastered his own ways of the Secret Society's martial arts along with his own birthright given abilities. This, along with how he is considered the Emperor and "messiah" of the Secret Society, demands his attention to leadership than street fighting and engaging with the world, unlike Ryu, or must "reserve" his strength for the "worthiest" of foes. Urien in turn, as the President and less powerful of the two brothers, serves rightfully as a "nerfed Gill."

Gouken is a unique case regarding boss characters, as he is considered to be a "shotoclone" or Ansatsuken character who limits himself in story, and player-wise, demands almost veteran experience of Street Fighter to realize his full potential, being a more defensive and strategic fighter. It is believed his boss form is him akin to Shin Akuma but instead powered by the Power of Nothingness as a benevolent counterpart.

Seth as a playable character is in fact the "real" personality in the line of "Seth" bodies created by S.I.N., being number 15, and yet, in a turn of events, the weakest one out of all of them. The cast fights the rest of the line of clones in Arcade Mode, and are implied to be powered by the Tanden Engine in the backgrounds of the Secret Laboratory and Destroyed Laboratory stages.

Trivia

• Boss version of playable characters tends to have visual cues to make them look more formidable than the playable counterparts. Shin Akuma visibly releases more red aura than the playable version and the boss Oni floats around rather than walk like the playable Oni.
• Final Bison is a rather odd example of a Boss Character in Street Fighter Alpha 3. Rather than him being considered different by the game, Final Bison is simply activated by a flag check (to see if it is the final battle of the Arcade Mode and M. Bison is the final enemy). With a cheating device, all a player has to do is have the check on and Final Bison becomes playable by selecting the regular Bison in the Character Select.
• In the post-Super Street Fighter IV installments, some characters included underboss characters in Replay Mode include the all of the Shadaloo Four Kings (Balrog, Vega, Sagat). This may be due to both the abundance of characters in other game categories and out of remembrance as the former three being once exclusive to fight against only in Arcade Mode in the original Street Fighter II.