Street Fighter 6 has recently drawn backlash over a storyline fans have described as incest.
Alex, a longtime Street Fighter character, was recently added to the playable fighter roster, but his arcade mode ending has many fans upset. In it, he marries his adoptive younger sister, Patricia, who is also his second cousin. They are even expecting a child together that Patricia claims will: “Grow up to be big and strong just like her daddy.”
Up until this point in the franchise, the pair had a platonic relationship. They were more like siblings, since Patricia’s dad was a father figure to orphaned Alex ever since Street Fighter 3 New Generation.
According to IGN, “That’s not all. In Street Fighter 6 World Tour mode, there’s a dialogue which states that Tom is actually a cousin of Alex’s mother, making Alex and Patricia second cousins.” He has also known her since she was a baby.
This storyline has caused a wave of fans to complain. One commenter on Reddit said: “Honestly it’s less problematic that they’re distantly related than the fact he’s known her literally since she was born. I don’t care if your wife and you share grandparents, it’s way weirder that you remember changing her diapers.”
Another said: “I don't think [the backlash is] divided opinion. I think everyone is pretty firmly in agreement that it's weird.”
The Street Fighter 6 director, Takayuki Nakayama, addressed the controversy on social media. He said, “We apologize for any confusion that recent topics regarding Alex's story may have caused. While we have not changed the characters’ backstories, after internal review by the development team, we plan to revise certain text passages that may have been misleading in the near future. Additionally, we have published a supplementary episode on ‘Buckler’s Boot Camp’ to provide further insight into the characters’ emotions and backstories.”
His post includes a link to the short story, A Toast between Fathers, which explains that the pair drifted apart after some time. However, their relationship turned romantic when he saved her from the wrong crowd.
Many fans are not satisfied with the explanation, which doesn’t address why they were upset in the first place. They don’t want the two characters in a relationship at all, regardless of how the romance developed.
