New defensive mechanics using V-Gauge
The Street Fighter 5 community has known for about six months that their game will undergo a relatively big change, as the developers promised a new battle mechanic in August 2020, and said the mechanic was revealed during today’s winter update. as being V-Shift.
This new mechanic allows players to escape from complicated situations. Similar to V-Skill, this maneuver is used for counterattacks, but where it is unique it can be used freely and does not require being in block to be activated.
This new mechanic drains a V-Gauge bar by use. During its animation, V-Shift makes the player invincible to pitches, attacks and projectiles.
When this maneuver is used when an attack is about to land, the fighters will go into a slow motion state and the character who used the V-Shift will become temporarily invincible. This turns it into a parry technique, although a little more complicated than what we saw in Street Fighter 3.
The V-Shifting player in the slow motion state can alternatively perform a “V-Shift-Break” that makes him launch forward with an invincible attack. The idea here seems to be that if V-Shift is used to prevent an approaching attack with much recovery, the defending player can guarantee a punishment if he does not have an attack in his standard arsenal that goes far enough.
This looks like it will add a good deal of depth to many interactions, as it provides a new way of defense in this heavy attack game. Players will have to pay more attention to how they want to use their V-Gauge, and V-Shift interactions have several possible routes and outcomes, as players have choices to make immediately after engaging with this new mechanic.
Below are some screenshots showing the V-Shift and its various uses:
Click on images for larger versions