In an article for Game Informer, the director of Street Fighter 6, Takayuki Nakayama, recently confessed that the reason why World Tour exists in Street Fighter 6 is because a person on social media was a huge fan of Ed. As Nakayama states:
“When we were working on Street Fighter V… I took note of someone who said they’re a really big fan of Ed, and they love how he looks, they love how he plays. ‘I feel like I could actually play a fighting game! It’s my first fighting game, and it’s so much fun!’… [T]hey didn’t like seeing Ed get bodied by other players. And because he or she loved him so much, I felt the responsibility of creating a new mode that shines the different characters in this master spotlight and doesn’t show them really getting hurt too much by other masters and characters. That was one of the big reasons we decided to make World Tour for 6.” https://www.gameinformer.com/2024/05/27/how-street-fighter-6-was-shaped-by-a-social-media-users-love-for-ed
Moreso, the article states that Ed was also instrumental in the development of Modern controls for 6 as well. As Nakayama puts it, “Ed is actually a very important character in the series now.”
He’s not wrong, either. Ed’s story, and by extension, the story of Neo Shadaloo, is the one that’s moving the plot. Falke’s disappearance, the mystery of Bosch, JP’s scheming, F.A.N.G’s investigations, and even the resurrection of Bison are front and center to World Tour’s story. The best thing of all is that it’s actually compelling, and you as the avatar are right in the middle of it Even the beloved Juri Han gets involved at multiple points in the story.
To top the craziness, there’s a gorilla, a dolphin, and a baby with Psycho Power in Neo Shadaloo, their names being Baba Mwalimu, Amrita, and Goliath respectively. However, it’s the man with the triangle hair who I’ve been keeping track of all this time.
A while ago, I had theorized that the man was named G based on the evidence that was there. In “Good Game: The Tale of Two Gs”, I presented my argument that he was created as an answer to the G we saw in Street Fighter V. https://manestreetblog.com/2022/02/09/good-game-the-two-gs/
It turns out the man’s name is Cypher, which begins with a “C”. How did I miss on this one, you may ask? This theory was based on a tweet that Director Nakayama made in 2021, in which he clearly stated the triangle-haired man’s name began with a G.
So, what happened here? My guess is that there was some tweaking done to keep people from predicting the story. Each of the names given to the seven main Neo Shadaloo members are all supposed to hold meaning; Amrita, Baba, Cypher, Dobermann, Ed, Falke, and Goliath. Each member represents the first seven letters of the English alphabet. However, the names are a bit unusual for the characters representing them. Goliath, a name typically used for large people and things, is the smallest member of the group, being a baby. Baba Mwalimu, meaning “father teacher” in Swahili, is used for a gorilla who, while sapient and intelligent, isn’t typically known for being on the intelligence level of humans. Dobermann, although a common German surname, is mostly used in context with the dog of the same name, and Dobermann, being someone who can change his own body mass, has no special power that ties him to dogs. The name Amrita means “immortality” in Sanskrit, and while dolphins can be long-lived depending on the species, Amrita, being a bottlenose dolphin, would only have an average lifespan of about 15 years. Moreso, although there are some cases of bottlenose dolphins living far longer, Amrita’s lifespan would actually be dramatically shortened thanks to her Psycho Power-enhancements. Ed, Falke, and Juli of the Shadaloo Dolls all canonically suffer from this, and so too would everyone else affected by Psycho Power experimentation.
This leaves Cypher as the lone standout, as his name does fit his mystery and terseness, as he typically only gives one-word answers when responding to others. However, “cypher” is also a slang term meaning a group of people, like rappers, slam poets, and breakdancers, who get together to create music and dance (incidentally, it’s also part of the song title “NinjaStar Bushin Cypher”, which is Kimberly’s theme). In a way, Cypher’s name is the opposite of who he is, an introvert who prefers to be alone.
This again brings us to the question of why Cypher is named Cypher instead of Goliath, which would also be a fitting name for him as he is a rather tall person. The answer? They changed his story.
Based on Nakayama’s original tweet, his name WAS supposed to be Goliath, and with it would have come yet another biblical reference that would have tied him to G. If you’ve been reading this blog for the past few years, you would know that the Ring of Galaxy in Street Fighter V references Noah’s Ark, and that G considers himself a presidential, godlike figure who looks to save humanity from itself by causing natural disasters and sending his army of Qs to kill those who get in his way. Goliath was the giant who David killed that allowed him to take his destined place as the ruler of Israel. Since both are stories found in the Bible, it’s safe to say that the developers of Street Fighter 6 were inspired by the stories within to expand on their own lore.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to say whether the name of the baby was supposed to be Cypher since no evidence exists one way or another, and while the baby does have the ability to make things levitate and must be an incredibly intelligent toddler to use his powers the way he does, there’s nothing that suggests that he can do something fitting with the Cypher moniker, such as creating difficult interactive puzzles out of thin air or even hacking computer systems.
Now is the time to mention I had originally thought Goliath and Baby Head/Hoover from Captain Commando would have some sort of connection, or even be the exact same person, but even if they do end up being related in some way, it’s way too soon to tell. Nonetheless, I do welcome any ideas that you may have in regards to any possible links between the two. Feel free to peruse Baby Head’s Fandom page and get back to me on it. https://capcom.fandom.com/wiki/Baby_Head
All of that being said, there wasn’t really a whole lot here to talk about outside of the potential that Cypher and Goliath had or could have. Nothing there to really speculate on. Nothing there to create a shocking revelation that could upturn the Street Fighter universe.
That was until I looked a little deeper.
Cypher’s silence reminds me intensely of Q, who is also known as a silent character. His original G connections before being changed has made me believe he’s going to play a role, but the question is what? Is he going to be yet another Q, transformed by G?
Neo Shadaloo’s kind of screwed, to be honest. Bison’s been resurrected and will be coming back, and I’ve already stated in the past that Ed and Falke will eventually fall under G’s control. They want to be free to do whatever they want, but in the end, they’re unwitting pawns to EVERYONE’S plans. To add to this, it looks like Bison’s taking the role of a Christ-like character, even going so far as to reviving a dying horse with Psycho Power.
Bison is far from a hero, but his sudden appearance in Mexico and his canonical interest in the lands there make me believe that he’s looking for something there. Something must be there in Mexico, because both Lily’s and Necalli’s stories originate there. Lily even talks about “power spots” in World Tour, saying, “[T]hey’re places where energy gathers, unseen to the naked eye” which include “tall mountains, colossal trees, [and] funky-looking rocks.” She mentions traveling to a temple, most likely Genbu Temple as she alludes to Ryu, and states it was “positively swimming with spirits.” If the developers have been cluing us in as to what’s in Mexico through Lily, it’s clear that everything will come to a head there, because Mexico is the ultimate power spot.
I’ve mentioned before how important Mexico is in Street Fighter before. Thunder Hawk was probably transformed into a Q there. G himself would have an interest in the lands. So what’s so important about Mexico that the entire series is going to end up there for a final battle? What is in Mexico that is making everyone and everything in the galaxy focus their attention there? Why is it Lily who is going to be the dark, destructive force of the future?
Quite simply, there’s an object there that everyone is seeking. The allusions to power spots, Goliath and Noah’s Ark go beyond simple character descriptions and move into becoming the very core of the story. Even Gill, who is already known as the first messianic Christ-like figure of Street Fighter, is likely to have an interest in said object, as it would be at the core of his own relationship with God.
“You must be talking about the Holy Grail!” you say. Indeed, the Holy Grail would be something that everyone could be seeking, but if this was the case, they wouldn’t need to look in Mexico, because she’s in Metro City.
In “The Street Fighter Code”, I wrote that the Holy Grail of Street Fighter was Chun-Li, and in “The Goddess of Street Fighter”, I wrote that her existence keeps the world in balance. In other words, Chun-Li is the most important person in the Street Fighter universe because her death, destruction, or transformation would mean bad times ahead.
The Goddess of Street Fighter
The Street Fighter Code
If everyone is looking for the Holy Grail, even with all of the energy they sense there, Mexico is the wrong place to be. However, because of the energy they sense there, it tells me there’s another biblical artifact that they will eventually find: the Ark of the Covenant.
In Judeo-Christian tradition, the Ark of the Covenant is said to contain three items: the Tablets of Stone, in which were etched the Ten Commandments; the Rod of Aaron, Moses’ brother, in which was imbued miraculous power during the Plagues of Egypt; and a pot of manna, which fed the Israelites on their 40-year trek to Canaan through the desert. The destructive power of the Ark is shown in the Indiana Jones film “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, and based on the energy that is being produced in Mexico, it’s safe to say it’s this version of the Ark that the developers are being influenced by and is the core of the power spots Lily mentions in World Tour. In other words, the Ark of the Covenant is the force attracting all of these different entities into one place.
So what evidence is there that the Ark of the Covenant is somewhere in Mexico in the Street Fighter universe? Try as I might, I couldn’t find a real-life analogue that would have inspired this. The closest I found was the Temple of Solomon in Sao Paulo, Brazil lending out their replica of the Ark to a religious ceremony in Mexico City back in 2018 which 34,000 people attended. If this was an influence on the developers, they haven’t alluded to it in any meaningful way. So this leaves me with the one piece of evidence I do have: the Books of Samuel. The Books of Samuel are the origins of both the David and Goliath story as well as the Ark of the Covenant, and it’s looking more and more that the developers of Street Fighter 6 are borrowing from the Bible to tell their tale.
“That’s a really weak argument,” you say. For this particular detail, yes, but you’re not looking at the big picture. References to the Bible are all over Street Fighter V and VI. Noah’s Ark and the Antichrist are G’s motifs. The use of the name Goliath in VI is yet another reference. However, the biggest proof that the developers are borrowing from the Bible? Making Gill and Bison horsemen.
If we’re going to see the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in Street Fighter 6, it stands to reason the Ark of the Covenant would be involved to tie it all together.
What a revelation that would be.
Street Fighter Game Lore Theories 