Update #2 []:
Capcom has apologised for the “confusion” caused by its incestuous new storyline, which sees Street Fighter 3: New Generation protagonist Alex marry and impregnate his second cousin and step-sister.
As detailed in the original articles below, it’s understood through a combination of classic lore and comments made in World Tour mode that the wrestler grew up with Patricia, the daughter of his adopted father, Tom.
Other text suggests the pair are related, as Tom is the cousin of Alex’s Mum.
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So, it all gets a bit weird and has attracted an understandable backlash.
Now director Takayuki Nakayama has said it “plans to revise certain text passages that may have been misleading”.
We assume this will remove any mention of Alex potentially being related to Patricia, although there’s still artwork in the game which shows the character holding her as a baby.
In an attempt to explain that away, Capcom has released some new lore on its website which claims Alex left home at a young age. The idea here, we suspect, is to attempt to put some distance between the character and Patricia when they were growing up to make the marriage seem less weird.
But so far, fans aren’t buying it.
“There's no confusion. You made Alex’s sibling-like relationship with his second cousin go from him holding her as a baby to marrying, and getting her pregnant. The emotion you're seeing from Street Fighter fans is not confusion, it's something else – I promise.”
Another shared the following image to illustrate their thoughts:
We’ll reserve further judgement until we see what changes Capcom actually makes, but we can’t help but think it’s written itself into a corner here and there’s really no easy way to resolve it now.
Update #1 []: Even OG Capcom employees are stunned by Alex’s incestuous new storyline.
As outlined below, Street Fighter 6 casts the DLC addition as the spouse of Patricia – a character which many understood to be his adopted sister. She’s also pregnant, by the way.
Writing on X (or Twitter), Street Fighter 3: Third Strike planner Hidetoshi Ishizawa had his say on the unexpected development.
He wrote, as Google Translated:
“I hadn't gotten around to it yet, so I ended up peeking at Alex's spoilers. But man, so that's how it turned out. It wasn't the ‘little sister treatment’ route, but the ‘childhood friend’ ending where they end up together, right? Well, yeah, I was definitely surprised like, ‘Oh, so that's how they went with it, huh?’”
It’s going to be interesting to see if Capcom ever addresses this, or just carries on like it never happened.
Original Story: Street Fighter 3: New Generation protagonist Alex is available now in Street Fighter 6, but it’s not necessarily his gameplay that’s got tongues wagging.
Some bizarre lore changes have sent ripples through the Capcom community, as it turns out our favourite facepainted wrassler may be engaging in a spot of the ol’ incest. Well, sorta.
Look, the evidence mounting against Alex is somewhat comprehensive but crucially not conclusive.
But to cut a long story short, Alex’s story in Street Fighter 3 is effectively one of revenge, as he seeks payback for the injury to his adoptive father, Tom.
Now there’s some debate here over whether Tom actually is Alex’s father or just a mentor, but he does refer to him as a parental type figure in World Tour.
The problem here is that Tom’s daughter is Patricia, who throughout the past has been treated as a kind of younger sibling to Alex.
But in Street Fighter 6’s story, well, they’re married and having a baby. It’s also revealed that Tom is the cousin of Alex’s mother, which would technically make him related to Patricia – although that doesn’t necessarily have to be a blood relation, we suppose.
Anyway, the bottom line is that this is all weird and unexpected. There’s some artwork in Street Fighter 6 which shows Alex holding Patricia as a baby, so even if you don’t buy into the incest stuff, it’s still all a bit odd.
We genuinely think Capcom was going for a heartwarming plot here, but it all just reads a bit weird when you break down the details.
Street Fighter’s not known for its story, of course – and that’s fair. But there are hundreds of comic books and novels based on this franchise, so expecting fans not to care at all doesn’t really wash with us.
We wonder if this will all get retconned again in the future? Either way, Capcom’s got a hole to write itself out of here.