With the release of Terry Bogard in Street Fighter 6, there are a lot of questions about the future of the series. Some of those questions involve future crossover characters (the developers have stated an interest in Sub-Zero from the Mortal Kombat series, for example), the balancing of said characters within gameplay, and the future of World Tour mode and the ongoing story of Street Fighter. One of the most important questions that is normally asked when crossovers like this happen is, “What’s canon?”
Indeed, it can be hard to determine what impact an outside character will have on both the gameplay and the lore of a video game. Generally, the easy answer is that a crossover character would have no real effect on the game, as the crossover would normally be considered non-canon. With Akuma’s appearance in Tekken 7, however, the line between canon and non-canon became blurred. Akuma ended up being a major player in the primary Mishima family storyline.
As fighting games become more and more open to allowing characters from other companies’ video games, an open and thorough examination of the lore of these games is necessary to understand not only the direction that the developers are taking, but to be able to predict which characters will appear in which games and why those characters were chosen.
In Terry Bogard’s case, when he was put into Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, he was the sole representation of SNK as he was the most famous fighting game character they had. His presence in Street Fighter 6 is likely to be for the same reason, but in a short time after, Mai Shiranui will be included as well, meaning Terry does not have to carry the burden of being the lone SNK character in Street Fighter 6.
However, it’s interesting that Capcom chose to fill half of their Year 2 DLC slots with outside characters, the other two being classic Street Fighter characters M. Bison and Elena. As Capcom does appear to be interested in expanding on their World Tour story, this seems to be an odd choice as it may at first glance appear to be slowing down any sort of character development for the main protagonist of World Tour – you, the player, as the avatar. Keep in mind, though, that Terry has a reason to be in the game besides looking cool: he’s also there to teach your avatar his moves. If this was the only reason, however, it wouldn’t really justify him being in the game, so it’s necessary to explore the idea that he plays a bigger role in the story than what is first presented.
While Terry is revealed to have connections with Ryu and Ken, and you get to team up with either Ryu or Terry to face the other in Terry’s last World Tour mission, there isn’t any reason to believe Terry will play much of a factor in the main story. In fact, it seems his primary purpose at the moment is to introduce his brother, Andy, for Mai’s eventual debut. While Terry did bring along Joe Higashi and Blue Mary, much like Terry, they also serve as mere cameos in Street Fighter 6.
So is there anything Terry brings to the table in Street Fighter 6 besides just being a guest character? There’s one more thing to consider: the event that brings Terry to Metro City, the main setting of Street Fighter 6.
Terry’s presence introduces the new mode One Fateful Day, where major side events outside of the story of World Tour will take place. Terry’s “Fateful Day” takes place during the Knock Out Festival. Sharp-eyed fighting game players will notice that the initials of Knock Out Festival, KOF, are the same initials used for another of SNK’s fighting game franchises, King of Fighters, and this is alluded to by several NPCs walking around the festival, saying “another city” holds that tournament. One NPC, a cosplayer of Terry’s martial arts teacher Tung Fu Rue, mentions Terry’s fighting style, Hakkyokuseiken, and suggests that if the avatar wants to know more about it, they can play Fatal Fury 3.
The suggestion of the NPC is an example of a fourth-wall break that Capcom loves to put in their games. In fact, Li-Fen, Chun-Li’s pupil and a major character within World Tour, has several stickers on her computer that allude to Street Fighter, including the name of the series itself, Chun-Li’s directional charge input for her iconic Spinning Bird Kick, and even Lilith from Darkstalkers. What sets the NPCs apart from Li-Fen, however, is that the NPCs’ statements have broader story implications that affect not only Street Fighter 6, but the upcoming Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves as well.
While both Ken and Chun-Li have already been stated to be guest characters for that game, implying a crossover story that could potentially be canon to both games, this isn’t the major implication that is being seen at the Knock Out Festival. It’s that King of Fighters is the “real” tournament and Fatal Fury is the video game series that the fighters you face in the Knock Out Festival are cosplaying as.
Fatal Fury and King of Fighters have already been stated by SNK to be two separate franchises on two distinct timelines that revolve around characters who are dead in the Fatal Fury timeline and alive in the King of Fighters one, the most infamous being Fatal Fury primary antagonist Geese Howard. Because the NPCs mention the King of Fighters tournament, which technically can’t exist in the Fatal Fury canon, it becomes clear the Terry Bogard we see in Metro City is the one from the King of Fighters timeline instead.
What’s even more fascinating about this is that it fits Street Fighter 6’s “everyone and
everything” aesthetic. In one of 6’s major side quests, The Fighty Mighty, you face characters from other stand-alone Capcom franchises, including Captain Commando and Breath of Fire. This side quest acts as a miniature version of the King of Fighters, which itself brings together characters from several games in SNK’s library, including Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, Ikari Warriors, Samurai Shodown, and Athena.
As for Ken and Chun-Li being potentially canon in City of the Wolves, events that happen in the Fatal Fury timeline can and do affect what happens in the KOF one, but not the other way around. This means that whatever happens in City of the Wolves can be canon to Street Fighter 6 because KOF acts as both a buffer and a filter for the franchise.
The only thing left to address is that the developers of Street Fighter 6 have stated that the events in World Tour take place before the events of City of the Wolves. Quite simply, City of the Wolves hasn’t happened yet. This doesn’t mean that the events of CotW won’t affect 6 in some way. Terry already has his CotW costume in the game, so it’s possible that there will be references to the game in the future. In the meantime, Mai will make her presence next, and it is to be seen if she brings more than her love of Andy to the game.
If not, there’s always Elena.
Street Fighter Game Lore Theories 