[STEAM] Capcom Apologizes for Street Fighter 6 Alex and Patricia 'Incest' Controversy, Announces Patch on the Way

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Last week, Capcom added Alex to Street Fighter 6’s playable fighter roster. However, Alex’s arrival was overshadowed by his arcade mode ending (spoilers ahead!) in which he marries his adoptive younger sister/second cousin Patricia. Not only that, they are expecting a baby! These revelations prompted a flood of critical comments from grossed-out fans.

Today, Street Fighter 6 director Takayuki Nakayama

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, apologizing for what he called the "confusion."

"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," he said. However, this has only prompted more criticism from fans, as Capcom shows no signs of removing Alex and Patricia’s controversial marriage.

Alex and Patricia’s marriage revelation in Street Fighter 6’s arcade ending sees a pregnant Patricia greeting Alex at the door with, “Welcome home, hon,” and commenting that their daughter will “grow up to be big and strong just like her daddy.” However, this came as a shock to fans, who are used to the pair having a purely platonic, sibling-like relationship. This is because Tom, Patricia’s dad, has been a father figure to orphan Alex since Alex’s debut in Street Fighter 3 New Generation (1997).

But 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. Also, Alex has known Patricia since she was a baby, further adding to the “ick” factor for some fans.

In his post, Nakamura also linked to a new short story, ‘A Toast between Fathers.’ Written by Street Fighter 6’s scenario team, it takes place in a bar just after Alex and Patricia’s wedding. The story explains that Alex and Patricia drifted apart for some time, but then Alex was the one who turned up and saved Patricia when she got involved with the wrong crowd. In this way, the short story tries to explain how Alex and Patricia’s once sibling-like relationship took a romantic turn.

Patricia and Alex. Patricia is pregnant with a girl. Special artwork (right) was drawn by Keisuke Mizuno

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— Women of Street Fighter (@WomenofSFseries)

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However, many fans did not appreciate this justification of Alex and Patricia’s marriage, with Nakamura’s post and the short story sparking intense backlash for failing to address what fans were unhappy about in the first place.

“So according to the supplementary episode he's still marrying his (adoptive) sister that the writers make multiple references to him holding as a baby and seeing as a sibling? I don't think 'revising text passages' is going to fix any of the character assassination that has happened,” said one

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As spotted by

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illustrator Shuckle even made fan art covering the situation, adding: “"We do not want Alex and Patricia to be in a romantic relationship, that is the entire problem. Alex can marry anyone else, it's fine, but having his step-sister as his wife is the problem. How was this missed in the writing process? Did nobody speak up about it?"

sigh

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— shuckle (@ssshuckle)

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Although it’s not clear at the time of writing what adjustments will be made to the text, it may be that the description of Alex and Tom’s relationship will be rewritten. In the English version of Street Fighter 6’s World Tour story, Alex explicitly states that Tom is his adoptive father (“He’s my trainer, my manager, my adoptive dad… No, he is my dad”). However, the Japanese version uses the term ‘sodate no oya,’ which is more vague and could just mean that Tom played a part in raising Alex, and/or training him up as a fighter.

However, at the moment, both the Japanese and English versions of the text explicitly state that Tom and Alex’s mother are cousins (making Alex and Patricia second cousins). It is not known whether this will be rewritten in some way, although Nakamura’s comment about no changes to the characters’ backstories suggests it won’t.

Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.

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