Street Fighter X Tekken’s Gem System Is Meant To Level The Playing Field

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Street Fighter X Tekken’s gem system won’t make the game unbalanced, says Capcom’s Seth Killian. It’s meant to give weaker players a chance to hold their own against stronger players, and has been in planning for about two or three years now.

 

Speaking with Gamasutra, Killian says that the gems — broken down into Assist and Boost gems — serve different purposes. For instance, Assist Gems are “a way of keying in on your weaknesses or your strengths,” he suggests. Gems are meant to create different possibilities.

 

“I don’t think there’s any combination of gems which will help a weak player beat someone who’s much stronger than them,” Killian says. He cites the example of an Auto-block Assist gem, which automatically blocks incoming hits, but it also uses up a gauge, which is only re-filled by fighting.

 

Similarly, other gems will be balanced according to their effects. “If one gem has a bigger damage bonus, it has harder activation conditions,” Killian shares. He admits that Capcom’s original presentation on the gems left a lot of questions unanswered, but that these will be put to rest over time.

 

Additionally, Street Fighter X Tekken is built around the gem system, and will not have a separate “no gem” mode, which is something that Killian says will need to be worked out with fighting game tournament organizers, who he is keen to keep happy.


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Image of Ishaan Sahdev
Ishaan Sahdev
Ishaan specializes in game design/sales analysis. He's the former managing editor of Siliconera and wrote the book "The Legend of Zelda - A Complete Development History". He also used to moonlight as a professional manga editor. These days, his day job has nothing to do with games, but the two inform each other nonetheless.