How To KILL A Promising New Street Fighter

Necalli had just about everything going for him but, a few months after the game dropped, so did almost all favor for the newcomer. The number of players using him suddenly started to dwindle and by about the end of Season 2, Necalli was all but a joke in Street Fighter 5. So how did such an initially well designed Street Fighter villain fall flat on his face?
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[@EdmacZ]

Necalli's gimmick was that he fights to devour souls in a universe where NOBODY is allowed to die or even drop blood. He had no chance.

[@kupidzheart]

i didnt even think of it like that, youre right

[@realQuestion]

No. One of the Dolls died in the game. She was killed by F.A.N.G. Necalli didn't want to "kill" them so much as absorb their essence and take their power...which is the same goal Bison had in Alpha using that machine, and S.I.N. had to add to Seth's power in SFIV, and so on. Nothing new; not inherently a problem.

[@higeki3232]

Bruhhhh you right….

[@tracyndiyob162]

people die in street fighter it's just not overused to where it has no meaning at all cause it'll lazily reboot itself like mk or find a work around like tekken/blazblue as the problem with necalli is he should've been specified to absorb their power instead of their souls(even if it was after 3 it wasn't believable a newcomer was going to kill them.) and how tbh for ryu's story he could've been replaced with akuma.

[@ryanm.8720]

Necalli *could've* been the one to kill Gen instead of Akuma - but even then, Gen was already fated to die thanks to leukaemia.

[@justsignmeup911]

Step 1. Design a character to show off your new hair physics. Step 2. Don't implement any hair physics.

[@BKsunstar]

they shoulda animatated the hair than use physics xD like with the cape of Dr. Strange

[@franciscor390]

🤣

[@fdnfdnasd7714]

BKsunstar, then you saw 3 fps on your PC, and you PS5 just exploded with mini-nuclear explosion))

[@BKsunstar]

@@fdnfdnasd7714 you underestimate animation

[@theblobconsumes4859]

​@@fdnfdnasd7714 You sound really dumb. Animations would save performance, not kill it.

[@SlaineReigns]

I actually love Necalli's design and fight style and his vtrigger as well, but holy crap they did him dirty. He is literally Tekken's Ancient Ogre but a jobber. He lost to everyone in the story and wasn't all that intimidating by the end of it... What a disappointment.

[@robbiejenneson]

ok but what on earth is a jobber? They mention this term a few times in the video as well

[@oEXTRA]

​@@robbiejennesonI googled it and found out it's a slang term from wrestling (WWE) for a person who's only purpose is to lose to the main talents.

[@emperormegaman3856]

@@robbiejenneson It comes from sports, and more specifically staged sports like wrestling. The Jobber comes in and is unceremoniously defeated by a more important character. In this context it means that Necalli suffered a unimpresive defeat and exited the story from there.

[@heroe1486]

Most people don't care about the story, the dude just has 0 charisma and personality, the fact that he doesn't talk (if I recall) doesn't help although you can definitely make a good mute character

[@heroe1486]

​@@emperormegaman3856or like boxing

[@johnolmos8670]

Should have made him like Majin Buu and absorb some old street fighters. It would have explained why some didn’t return in SF3

[@EventHubs]

Gah that's a really good point

[@metsu-satsu4280]

I mean, that would be just Ogre from Tekken 3 at this point

[@Meldrick-jv7sy]

​@@metsu-satsu4280True. But hey, at least it would give some degree of relevance to Necalli story wise.

[@giosbizarreart9048]

@@metsu-satsu4280does it matter? Fighting games always have similar characters to each other

[@monkeyandtangerines3621]

Majin Buu though kid one was a menace to society 😂

[@johnsonknight1120]

Necalli in trailer: Epic Aztec Warrior who eats Warrior souls for breakfast. Necalli on actual story: *Gets bodied by literally every other character, including Balrog (the boxer) of all people.

[@BrocktaviusKingofNFC]

Its capcom half ass af

[@TechnoRap64]

Balrog is a god mod le boxer stronger than mike Tyson punching power hes no jobber at all

[@JagoShogun]

he's a henchman and storywise just an average street fighter. Has no magical abilities like necalli or ryu.@@TechnoRap64

[@Bushey4545]

​@@JagoShogunor m bison psychic abilities

[@tomsmithok]

@@TechnoRap64 Balrog gets his ass kicked by Dudley, he is a jobber

[@BAMFshee]

Necalli's biggest issue (beyond being in a story mode that Capcom completely flopped on) is that he's a character whose entire in-universe goal doesn't mesh with how Street Fighter operates as a franchise. Like, at all. He wants to consume worthy warriors. Cool idea in theory. The problem is, Street Fighter isn't a universe where characters usually die, and most of the warriors he'd want to consume are characters who Capcom isn't going to let die to him and/or are known to still be alive later in the series chronologically. He was never going to consume the likes of Ryu or Akuma. Bison was never going to be killed by some newcomer. Necalli was pre-destined to not only fail, but never even get any meaningful victories towards his goal, and that takes all of the tension out of it. He's just a "jobber". And because he has no affiliation with any of the characters in the game (he's not Shadaloo, he's not with the Illuminati or Mad Gear, and he's definitely not one of the good guys; he's operating entirely on his own) he doesn't even have an interesting faction or interactions with other characters to fall back on. And to top it all off, the only personality he has is his aforementioned pre-destined failed ambition. So what do you get when you have a character whose entire story purpose is absolutely meaningless, who doesn't mesh with the setting he lives in, and who has no opportunity for character development? You get a walking punchline and a waste of an admittedly cool design.

[@user-tzzglsstle585e38]

Honestly they can go to a radical direction with the story and have Necalli kill Bison since Bison is going to die anyway and then settle Necalli as a new villain that multiple characters actually try their best to defend against and hunt down together. Make him incapacitate several of the characters only being saved by others in the last minute, like Ryu before he learns the power of nothingness and instead of Necalli the one doing the retreat, the other characters should be the one running away from him instead with Necalli being a constant chasing threat. The story you can make with this character could have been interesting for this game.

[@MerlinTheCommenter]

This was very poignant. He is written like a fanfic OC: not very much care or consideration to how the character blends with the world.

[@MerlinTheCommenter]

​@@user-tzzglsstle585e38Bison is already dead. Sorry :/

[@GardenGD]

I admittedly don't know a single thing about the story of Street Fighter; but even I thought about this from the exact moment his goals were mentioned in this video. It really makes one wonder how much developers/writers really thought about the way they would have to go about his characterization

[@GaidenDS10]

And sadly that’s the problem with any fighting games, killing off characters would equate to pissing off your fanbase for real. Unlike Anime that has an established set-up where canon deaths can still be loved by fans of any franchise (take a look at persay Gundam, Code Geass, Kill La Kill). To kill a character requires a proper send off or set up to begin with on which if only SF knows how to handle stories very well it could work but SFV failed to deliver which nearly ruins its world building to a point it made connecting stories between SF III to SF VI severed.

[@natl9953]

The fact everyone in the comments has come up with a better story/lore for him than Capcom says a lot.

[@TechnoRap64]

😂😂😂

[@GeekExtremist]

Funny how often that happens with fandoms. Fans tend to write better stories than the "professionals."

[@bulb9970]

@@GeekExtremistThis reminds me of Aaron Webber’s situation at SEGA. They hired an actual Sonic fan to be their social media coordinator. Sonic Forces had infamously bad story because of out of touch writers. Later there were leaks of Aaron’s comments about the early story drafts of Forces and they were basically saying “What the hell are you doing? The fanbase will hate this”. Of course the writers didn’t listen to him.

[@GeekExtremist]

@bulb9970 It just seems like a no brainer, if the original creators are no longer writing the stories, to hire fans to help with the stories/lore over "professional writers" who are completely new to the franchise. 🙄 I don't get why SEGA went through the process to hire a guy and then ignore him completely, unless it was only for promotion like, "This game is going to be great! We even hired some of you guys to help with the story! You got to buy this!" 🙄🤣

[@thepanelbiter9915]

I think the SF writers have a real fear of upsetting the status quo, which is why SF6 actually feels like a step forward narratively. For the longest time, Bison and Akuma were the big 2 villains of SF, and Necalli could have been that too. Or at least Gill level. But he had to share the story with Bison, which is disappointing. I would have rather Necalli just be the main bad guy of SF5.

[@thepanelbiter9915]

Can you imagine a scenario where Necalli has followers? Like former villains who accept him as a God and help him find fighters to eat? Then Necalli has a posse, new and old characters. And if he took out the heavy hitters early and we got an underdog story where Nash and some B-tier fighters have to find a way to beat him. That’s at least something new.

[@BrocktaviusKingofNFC]

The "writers" are bad and never think, thats why the sf story always will be a mess more worried about costumes $ than anything else. Mk crushes sf w the storyline its actually embarrassing

[@maximumdeejay]

​@@BrocktaviusKingofNFC MK's story is dookie, I mean if you put garbage next to dookie, yeah the garbage is gonna be better.

[@notshane3827]

​@@maximumdeejayMK's story in Midway's era(MK1-MK Armageddon) was pretty decent, NetherrealmStudios' story is trash tho, also they rebooted the story twice after just 3 games(reboot in MK9, reboot in MK11's ending) and added "multiverse" bullshit into it.

[@blazaybla22]

@@maximumdeejayMK story mode has been fire since at least MK9. The overarching story doesn’t necessarily make much sense but it’s a fighting game, the story is basically always just a function to bring all these cool disparate characters onto these cool disparate stages and have them fight. But MK11 and MK1 story modes had insanely high quality entertainment value. (I ding MKX a little for all the QTEs lol.) Maybe the fans weren’t happy with the story as written but as long as you don’t pretend like it needs to be high art, MK is still one of the few fighting games with a genuinely cinematic and memorable story mode befitting a triple A game.

[@WiqidBritt]

The first scene sets him like he's going to be pursuing Nash throughout the story since Nash is supposed to be dead and Necalli is supposedly some sort of warrior grim reaper, but then it's like he gets distracted or something.

[@CalciumChief]

1:45 "Defining traits", shows Juri's foot. Yup, sounds about right.

[@EventHubs]

0:)

[@natman2939]

Ha! I thought the exact same thing

[@moroseloki1912]

Did that happen 😮😅 I looked uh 🤔

[@ETWIST51294]

Beginning “Sheep: Devour” End “Melts into a pile of shit”

[@cashordeals3672]

Capcom was really like let's make a cool new villain and fumble him super hard

[@EventHubs]

Yeah, it sucks, I even played him!

[@cashordeals3672]

@@EventHubs 💀 well at least his animations and costumes are boy if they bring him in 6 dude is gonna get a massive overhaul

[@GreenBro11]

Necalli’s very important actually. He taught Capcom devs a valuable lesson in creating appealing characters they clearly took to heart for SF6. Every newbie in SF6 has been a knockout.

[@donkeydarko77]

F'n Ono, man.

[@AyaGumede]

@GreenBro11 Not really, have you seen how atrocious Alex's new design for SFV was? Or how painfully boring Falke, Ed, and Lucia were?

[@shieldlesscap6124]

The sad part is they very easily could’ve pulled off all of this by just adding extra lore, like if Necalli was receptive to some ancient version of either the Satsui No Hado (which is why he dipped after seeing Ryu successfully contain it on two separate occasions and tried to eat Akuma) or Psycho Power (which is why he was in the opening scene with Nash, a corpse who has residual psycho power), OR whatever the Illuminati uses (which is why he went after Urien). Literally any of these options (or hell, all of them) would’ve worked just fine, but then they made him lose every fight in increasingly embarrassing ways to the point where even if he comes back in SF6 and they tie Akuma, JP and/or Gill together through him, it’s gonna be hard for Capcom to give us a reason to feel intimidated.

[@WiqidBritt]

Necalli being the source of or someone who utilized some ancient prototypical fighting power that Satsui No Hado and Psycho Power etc evolved from could be interesting.

[@TulpaVision]

I THOUGHT with his CHARACTER TEASER he was the FIRST SATSUI NO HADO PRACTITIONER. That he would have bigger roles with Akuma and Ryu based on their Dark Hado powers. I wanted to believe he was the Raw Incarnate form of SATSUI NO HADO and that Akuma along with Ryu would learn something new to defeat him I.e. Power of Nothingness, Satsui No Hado next tier 🤷🏿‍♂️

[@ironhell813]

He was the first, but you let a story sway your caring for a character.

[@AYAKXSHI]

@@ironhell813that’s literally the stories job tho to some extent

[@fehmeh6292]

That well is dry. We don't need an akumaer Akuma.

[@TechnoRap64]

He was the first one that's why he only appears every 200 years or sumthin

[@hafirenggayuda]

​@@fehmeh6292we already get Oni, and look what happen to him

[@wdcain1]

What I dislike most about Necalli being an Emissary of the Gods is how complicated it is. Detailing the pantheon of SF is a massive amount of work. Mortal Kombat's is a mess with demi-gods, elder gods, and titans. Necalli being just a satsui no hadou user who goes so hard he's now just a savage is easier to understand.

[@leeb8186]

When a scrapped Akuma skin looks so cool you have to use it as a separate character, but you forget to give him a worthwhile story

[@Camus1025]

The sad part is it's not like he's even hard to do right! Have him be drawn to Bison's Psycho Power (PP), and since Nash died right after fighting Bison, his body still had trace amounts of PP, which allows Necali to follow him into the physical world. He hides in Nash's shadow until the raid on Shadowloo, where Dhalsim senses and expels him, but Necali is now in the open tearing a path to Bison, whom he eventually finds having just beaten Guile. They fight, and Necali devours Bison (which also prevents his resurrection), then faces Ryu to consume the Satsui-no-Hado. Ryu, backed into a corner, unlocks the Power of Nothingess and destroys Necali (again taking Bison with him). Throw in some exposition about Necali being a Devourer of Gods/Heroes/whatever, and BOOM: Necali is used just enough to have an impact without having to job to the rest of the cast, gets Bison out of the way going forward, helps Ryu reach his new plateau, and earns his role as the face of the game.

[@KittSpiken]

You can boil it down further: don't have him job to everyone. Allow him to devour one established strong guy you have no intention of bringing back (optional), when facing characters you plan to keep around, they lose and narrowly escape (mandatory).

[@user-tzzglsstle585e38]

@@KittSpiken Or even have him only lose if there's multiple characters taking him down.

[@nmr7203]

@user-tzzglsstle585e38 Don't really want to do that in Street Fighter

[@Nick-up5wv]

Absolutely....FANTASTIC!!! I love it! I want it! Capcom HIRE this man!!!

[@ouranos0101]

So to save this trash C-tier character from oblivion you want it to come at the expense of Capcom's A-tier villain's reputation. Well done. You're a genius.

[@Kenyonchowmein]

“He pulls off his special move - ex melt in to the floor and dies” 🤣👌 Well done on making a video on one of the most boring characters and making it interesting to watch 🙌

[@EventHubs]

Thank you!

[@Alexcobra861]

I think the flaw of the story of Street Fighter 5 was that it wanted to put too much stuff at the same time Necali the end of Dictator and Shadaloo. the advance and end of the mystery of Abel and the child retrieved by boxer at the end of Street Fighter 4. the introduction of the main character of Street Fighter 3 in the person of Alex. the beginning of Gill, Urien , the Illuminati, and all of the lore of Street Fighter 3 the introduction of the first Strider with Zeku. The novelty that Ed, Falke and Neo Shadaloo represents for the future of Street Fighter 6. The mysterious character of G. and finally the new political face of the metro city with Cody as Mayor.

[@ACarpenter89]

Maybe they can make him DLC in 6 and revamp him

[@hands-ongaming7180]

The story presentation was so bad.

[@emperormegaman3856]

@Alexcobra861 They could have made all theses things works in one game, but it would have required the story mode of FF5 to be done much better than it was. @ACarpenter89 I would love for Capcom to give another shot at the character, since really the execution was the issue, not the concept. Maybe not in SF6, since i'm not sure this game's format would be the best way to handle it, but in a future game. Sadly, i don't think they'll bother with this considering how unpopular he is.

[@KittSpiken]

That's really not that many plot elements if you are willing to write more than one draft

[@Alexcobra861]

@@KittSpiken & @emperormegaman3856 In my opinion , I think Capcom should have made a second story mode with cutscene, when they introduced everything related to Neo Shadaloo and the mysterious character G. It would have been easier to introduce the news characters to the lore.

[@OutlawClient]

I never touched the story mode, so i didn't get a taste of "The jobber experience" but Necalli's design was by far my favourite out of the newcomers, which was more than enough to get me to pick up SFV. I hope he makes a future appearance though, with a few moveset/ mechanic adjustments to fit with SF6 or future SF installments (maybe his eruption of power ssj v-trigger would activate when reaching 25% health or as a lvl 2 install super etc). Even with his stubby normals, i honestly enjoyed his basic all arounder playstyle. Either way, no other character has yet filled the Super Saiyan Tarzan void left in my heart! Long live Necalli, aka wasted potential the character!

[@TokenOfChoice]

they turned a all consuming warrior, that lived for thousands of years (literately 1000 of years of battle experience). Into cannon fodder, insane.

[@MILDMONSTER1234]

They must have gotten the MK nether realm studios writers for him😂

[@ChZenOnE]

Necalli was my main in Sf5. I would like for him to be rebooted in Sf6 but that is unlikely

[@asier1059]

Probably woulda been a bette choice than jamie.

[@Rik_FX]

I liked Necalli because he reminded me of Wolverine from the MvC games and I always wanted a character like that in the sf series. I would like it if Capcom gave another chance is sf6. He had the potential to be so badass.

[@goranisacson2502]

Necalli was certainly a disappointment. As for what I'd have done, well: you asked for fan-fic, fan-fic you'll get. I would've liked to see Necalli be the main villain of a separate plot thread- one for the Shotos and their closest people, while the other thread is basically OG storyline of A Shadow Falls where Chun, Guile, Nash, etc are the main good guys. I'd have Necalli actually succeed in devouring Dhalsim first- but because I know we can't have character death here Dhalsim would use his mystic powers to like, protect himself and his soul, enter a kind of hibernation mode which make it so Necalli can't digest him so he's barfed up when Necalli later on. But after Dhalsim is "eaten" Gouken steps in to protect Ryu and they manage to make Necalli puddle away, but Ryu is beat up and Gouken is badly wounded- meaning Necalli has "killed" one of Ryu's mentors and grievously wounded the other, instead of just running away like a punk. Ryu's story then becomes him being hunted by Necalli, stalked and pursued everywhere as Ken expends all his family's available resources to keep him safe and Gouken in the best care money can buy: and in between feeling the pangs of Satsui no Hadou and frustrations that he's costing Ken a lot of money, putting the Masters in danger, being unable to protect Gouken whom he now fears he'll lose again and basically being kept from doing anything productive against Bison (maybe Bison even timed his plan, knowing Necalli would rise so that Ken and Ryu would be kept busy and he'd be able to concentrate on Chun Li, Cammy and Guile?), Ryu can have a real low moment as he is ferried around various safehouses around the world... buuut in his journeys we could have him meet Sakura, Sagat, the Matsudas, Zangief etc, and basically see how he's affected other people's lives, helped inspire others to walk down their own paths or just generally get a dose of optimism, weigh that against the power of Satsui and compare it to how Akuma rejects all such bonds, find his center and achieve Mu. Corny, but classics work for a reason... and hey- maybe we can have Kage be connected to Necalli? We could have Necalli attempt to devour Ryu as he devoured Akuma, only it's Ryu who pops out of him (maybe with Dhalsim?), but as Necalli flees from the fight the remnants of Satsui jumps from Ryu to Necalli only to be "born" from Necalli chestburster-style or something: the two of them forming a fucked up kind of "father and son" villain duo for future games? I feel like that could have formed a storyline that has a little more heart, and leaves the Bison storyline to those who're more affected by Bison and his machinations. Some might say it'd be weak to have Bison be ended with no input from Ryu, but eh... I guess I'm okay with that because I've never really seen Ryu and Bison to be THAT tightly connected? The Alpha-series did work in that regard but ever since Ryu's just felt like someone Bison has as a... plan B, at best? A side objective it'd be cool to control, but never really a main focus, so I don't see it as a bad thing if Bison and Ryu don't really interact here. Fully get if people disagree, it's just how I feel. Granted, none of this would have fulfilled the things you pointed out here- that Necalli's age could have played into stuff about Satsui, Psycho and Soul-power. I honestly never even considered that, I just concentrated on making Necalli a proper threat with an actual role to play in the plot. Necalli's character, I admit, I didn't even touch. He's just a big scary monster-dude, a force of nature more than a personality, and maybe there'd be a way to give him more of that than what I have written here... but that is the idea I had.

[@EventHubs]

Hey at least he wins some fights and has an impact on other characters. I like it!

[@Shiirow]

kinda hard to devour the souls of warriors when you get jobbered out 99% of the time and slink back into the shadows once everyones favorite dictator steps onto the screen.

[@Vespyr_]

Capcom was afraid to commit to this character.

[@superstarultra]

"A pregnant-looking Necalli" is not a phrase I thought I'd hear today.

[@Nocturnehell]

Before launch I wanted to main Necali. He looked cool, seemed likely to be the main antagonist (His Theme screams it). Then week 1 I realized how cut and dry he was. Then the story mode came and it presented him like ABSOLUTE TRASH. That pretty much buried him for me. Would love for them to give a SF6 makeover, especially story wise.

[@ironhell813]

If capcoms story mode sways your caring of a fighter then you have no opinion of your own.

[@calemr]

​@@ironhell813Spoken like someone who sees a character as a collection of functions.

[@ironhell813]

@@calemr ironically I see it as opposite.

[@vandagylon2885]

​@@ironhell813ok combofeind

[@elrodrigo6188]

There is one simple fix to his story that can make him a far bigger threat than he was. The missing characters from the roster? Have Necalli -be- the reason why they're missing.

[@shaynethechangingman322]

To me, the way Necalli was handled feels like a guest character from a different franchise who accidentally stumbled into the SF world when a crossover wasn't scheduled so there was nothing for him to do.

[@The_Texorcist]

It feels that perhaps Necalli was initially introduced as either the main villain of SFV or perhaps SF6. Because of SF3 taking place after V (SF and their chronologically confused games) and its themes of prophecies and the end of the world perhaps Necalli was that proverbial end. His whole thing was devouring all of the greatest warriors of SF so that would make sense. I think though perhaps somewhere in between the release of the game and the story mode they decided to change course so basically had to take this mega villain and job him out.

[@KrissyBlues]

I get the sentiment that "obviously they wouldn't actually kill Ryu so there's no stakes" but I don't think the possibility of actually dying alone sets stakes. Puss In Boots 2 was a kid's film starring an iconic character for Dreamworks but Death still felt like a compelling antagonist even though we knew he wouldn't succeed. I think the problem with Necalli is the framing. First off, I think he should have been a personal antagonist for Nash in some capacity. Like, instead of him waking up once every 100 years and it's been 100 years now, make it so he woke up EARLY because of that dream sequence, following Nash into reality. It adds a bit of tension and mystery to him. I'd keep the first fight with Ryu but have it so that he gets thoroughly thrashed, starts to get tempted into summoning the satsui no hado, gets knocked down regardless, and then Dhalsim appears and teleports them both out of there. In general, everyone BUT Necalli should be the ones running away when he appears. At some point have a fight with Nash (preferably somewhere in that dead zone where he didn't appear before) and show that he's here to devour nash because he came back to life, and have Nash only barely escape by retreating. I think this and the previous fight could also have it essentially be a scripted loss by cranking the AI way up. Then a final confrontation with Nash at the shadaloo base near the climax, at some point where him and Ryu are together. Nash manages to defeat him in-gameplay if we're going with the cheating AI deal, but in-cutscene Necalli gets back up and threatens to overwhelm him. At that point, Ryu can tap into the power of nothingness and defeat him for good. Maybe have Nash say something cool about how he knows he doesn't belong here anymore but he's not gonna be dragged back to death by Necalli as he fades away, presumably back into slumber. Maybe you could do the reverse of this fight for the fight against Bison too, Ryu's new Power Of Nothing form can be the gameplay half but then in cutscene Nash lands the final blow and sacrifices himself, fulfilling his words to Necalli. With these sorts of changes it makes him more imposing because the other characters are barely managing to escape and gives him a narrative focus he was sorely lacking by making him primarily focused on Nash instead of just a general harasser.

[@marcosdheleno]

necalli should've been a shadow in the story, never interacting directly with any of them, but instead, as a dark presence, maybe as bison loses, he is faced with necalli, who devours him, before going back into the shadows.

[@NighttimeNubbs]

As someone who doesn't Street Fighter, he just makes me think Akuma x Pillar Men minus the threat Pillar Men actually pose.

[@EventHubs]

Thanks for watching even though you don’t play

[@stuckwchuck]

I think he could work if they'd written in that the reason he lost all those matches were to guide the fighters, as a conduit of fate. If they wanted to keep the devourer schtick they could say his SF5 version was a drastically weaker version to the newer one and give him some real busted crap. Necalli with Drive Meter would be sick lol

[@FoolsGil]

I think that Necalli should have devoured F.A.N.G. hindsight being 20/20 with him being replaced in SF6 anyways.

[@EventHubs]

At LEAST let him style on fang, right?

[@Jadty]

Instead they went with the wiser route: What if F.A.N.G. were a waifu?

[@AlphaProto]

The wild hair of the V- trigger reminded me of Gill's hair. I was hoping there would be some connection. It was disappointing to learn there was none.

[@hawaiidkw1]

The problem with Necali was that Capcom tried to make him a main villain without being willing to fundamentally change the whole tone and direction of the franchise, which simply does not work. A minor or secondary antagonist a la Adon, Gen, or Juri would've been workable, but not a main one. Remember The King of Fighters '94? It was a big Super Smash Brothers-style SNK extravaganza featuring all kinds of games from the past, with the big marquee matchup being the Fatal Fury team vs. the Art of Fighting Team and Kyo Kusanagi as the fiery young phenom. The organizer of the tournament and big bad was Rugal Bernstein, a smug crimelord whose motivation was facing strong fighters so he could... what was it again... where are my notes... ah, here... _turn them into statues._ There you have it, a perfectly goofy premise for a thoroughly zany all-star tournament. And then for some reason SNK felt the need to fit in some super-dark story about a god of destruction and an ancient clan rivalry and prohecies and sacrificial maidens, just this complete massive shift... meaning _all that old stuff had to go._ No more Rugal, nor more Sports team, no more Eiji Kisaragi or Billy Kane, no more Southtown rivalry in the spotlight. And when SNK pivoted again and made a secret megalomaniacal biotech firm the top dog, all of that NEW old stuff had to go. _Immediately._ There was just no other option if they wanted anything remotely resembling a coherent plot. What we had with Necali whose whole deal is that he's extraordinarily lethal... in a story where he's totally prohibited from being extraordinarily lethal, with the result being that there's _no point to him whatsoever._ Heck, he can't even do the "C-list fodder" bit that's always been the safety valve for the likes of The Punisher and The Joker. It honestly seems like someone at Capcom was really amped about putting in a *daaark and eeeedgy* character without giving any real thought as to what the heck he'd be doing. I'd actually prefer another Rufus, El Fuerte, Hakan, or even fatso Birdie. At least there's never any pretense about them just being goofy one-offs Capcom felt like throwing in and nobody's going to get upset if they fail to catch on.

[@sirfailalotful]

His progress in the cinematic story mode could have been so much better, and easily too. He defeats some well known fighters through the progression of the story, eventually gets defeated by ryu as the surprise final boss, and the souls recently consumed by him return to their bodies. Would have been so much cooler.

[@SORROWCODE]

I still think that Necalli has the potential to be a great character in the series, but like you said, he needs the time and work on him to do so.

[@theedwardian]

Emerges after centuries of slumber to devour the souls of the greatest warriors... Gets humiliated by literally everyone.

[@Fyrmer]

Necalli always reminded me of Santana From _Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Battle Tendency_ in appearance, demeanor, and overall importance to the plot.

[@cassandrajenkins9095]

I loved the design and fighting style of Necalli so I hope they bring him back more fleshed out.

[@cupocoffee9369]

Holy shit I forgot this character existed entirely

[@torestrictivefan8336]

Capcom always playing us when it comes to interesting characters in Street Fighter only for them to trick us Necalli was so hyped up making us believe he will be the big bad villain of Street Fighter V and that wasn't the case at all it's the same situation with G.

[@popplio7891]

It’s a shame the character flopped cause he is both really creepy and really cool. I can also tell this was guy was absolutely inspired by the Pillar Men from Jojo Battle Tendency (as Rose was also based on another character from that arc, Lisa Lisa).

[@Tommytheslav]

I think guile was inspired by Stoheim or polnareff.

[@XmortoxX1990]

Capcom did Neccalli so dirty

[@reverendx4ever]

He looks More like part of the henchmen of some superior villain

[@VxnnxeThaRapper]

I honestly would love to see a SF6 version of him if not at all in story but as just DLC as well

[@SaltyKeldion]

I have to wonder if G would've seen the light of day had Necalli, and SF5 in its early seasons, been handled with proper care and attention. The President had all the charisma this ersatz Pillar Man was lacking.

[@lazzygnome4060]

I don't think he was supposed to be a villain. More like an inconvenient force of nature.

[@kristianjensen5877]

Being an "inconvenient force of nature" would also a problem in terms of character development. If he's only "inconvenient", he might as well not be there in the larger scope of things, especially when there are antagonists with much better developed "threat" profiles. That being said, all of SF lore beyond 2 is kind of lame so I guess an "inconvenient" antagonist would just be par for the course.

[@mr.checkyourself4672]

We'll never seeing Necalli again Capcom really played us with this character.

[@chrishipop5]

The way Necali is being described, lore-wise sounds like a flopped Ancient Ogre

[@williamsduran3232]

Reminds me of kotal Kahn. Funny enough they’re both Latin American inspired characters and done dirty. Dude got done dirty by literally everyone while being a general. Even crippled by shao

[@sunnymammajamma6455]

They really had a second take, after the game released and how many players were using him. It’s a shame he was designed well and had the hallmarks to be the main bad of the game. But due to unpopularity after launch, they reverted to Bison.

[@verbalengine95]

Ok but when SF10 comes out we're gonna be so hype for him to return alongside V Russo

[@JJ-bk9qb]

He still has great potential. Would make an excellent addition to sf6 .

[@Mechaneer]

Necali, the jobber who didn't work.

[@mamftt]

GETEPE!

[@rexpro02]

lmao XD

[@pip25hu]

Did we ever find out what that means...?

[@pip25hu]

Did we ever find out what that means...?

[@EventHubs]

If you have to ask, you can't afford it @@rexpro02

[@badger297]

I don't even play fighting games but you're videos are awesome dude +1sub

[@Nick-up5wv]

Capcom has had many, MANY characters that had weak starts and went on to be decent characters. With enough time and care they could reintroduce him and make him decent. Make him Street Fighter's answer to Tekken's Oger.

[@Kasaaz]

I think the structure of World Tour in SF6 could make him interesting if they do more with the DLC characters in future seasons. It's hard to say. He needs a lot of image rehab, for sure. They've proved they can make even Ed interesting to play in SF6, so I don't doubt they could do that with Necalli.

[@GuyrillaBraun]

Design, look, lore, move set is all there, but integrating him into the current SF6 story would have to be done very precisely and I don't think the potential risk of flopping with him again is worth it.

[@AarturoSc]

Eventually Necalli stopped thinking.

[@GaidenDS10]

Necalli would have been a great character all in all if not for its established fanbase that Street Fighter has for the past games. Personally I don’t mind killing off characters in fiction for the sake of storyline and moving on plots as long as they’re written for a reason that makes sense but Because of the nature of the fighting game community, it wouldn’t resonate well if Capcom simply killed off character’s out of nowhere to connect things to SFVI (take a look at Soul Calibur V - most of the newbie casts are not well respected by fans) and changes can piss off a fanbase. And that’s the biggest problem with Necalli, if his mission was to consume souls might as well make side characters for him to kill as such , such as maybe perhap’s E. Honda’s predecessor or Dhalsim’s master, Ibuki’s mother or one of Guile’s subordinates and fellow soldiers. and the only thing the best he can do was to write off injured characters big time as to explain why some characters were not in the Street Fighter III storyline. (He can injured Guile, Cammy, Juri and so many more to be honest) And Capcom all failed to deliver to make him a good character.

[@matheussilva579]

The hair gimmick was cool, the stomp move was amazing, and the special was ultra interesting. The thing that killed the character was his charge move, it shouldve been a simple motion move.

[@kupidzheart]

if he was motion and still had all the armor and invincibility he would surely be OP. I really liked the character and design

[@impulse_xs]

Ahh I forgot about “slightly more human Blanka”. Now I can go back to forgetting about him.

[@null-wq5cp]

SFV invested all stocks in G and even admitted he was planned to be the main villain for the series. Also didn’t help Necalli was too associated with S1 SFV.

[@apparition7464]

"1:44 defining traits" - Juri feet

[@Zetact_]

A major problem with Necalli, conceptually, is that when you write the lore/character as saying he's going to kill anyone he beats, you give a VERY hefty incentive to have him... Never win. It's the same reason why Mortal Kombat has to reboot their entire timeline like every second game. With other threatening characters like Akuma, Juri, or Vega they can beat another character in the story mode but they are never under a narrative obligation to kill the person they beat, unlike Necalli. Also that they leaned so heavily onto the berserker aspect that they made him one-note and brainless. To contrast, Necalli is directly inspired, design and a little bit lore wise, by Jojo's Pillar Men but one thing that was a defining trait of the Pillar Men that helped drive their characters and the sense of gravitas they inspired was that they were ALL super intelligent. If they were written like mindless zombies they wouldn't have been nearly as imposing. Throwing away that specific trait did him no favors.

[@hypewrecker8767]

Necalli seem to inspired by Ogre from the Tekken series and he's somewhat similar to Kotal Kahn from the Mortal Kombat series to Necalli had so much potential he's actually an important character but Capcom dropped the ball with him and now he's dead.

[@TeemoQuinton]

I'm still waiting for C Viper to come back

[@064razor]

I just want Dudley back.

[@TeemoQuinton]

@@064razor they both deserve the comeback in 6

[@krodmandoon3479]

He should have been a force of nature, the fist of the ancient gods, an overwhelming presence that eclipsed everyone he came across. Instead, what we got was a glorified Putty from Power Rangers with a stutter.

[@deadpilled2942]

Kotal Khan got the same treatment in Mortal Kombat. Devs have trouble with mythology outside the West, certain Asian countries. Also I'd like to see a Mexican character that is actually formidable, and not a joke.

[@Dieci-9]

I think they should bring him back at some point. The design is just too good, IMHO. They could easily say that what they fought was just a shade as the entity, the true Necalli, was just testing them if they were even worthy of him actually bearing his full strength. Then, they could find a reason to have him awaken years after he the events of V so that he can be in SF 7 or 8. Once that is done, they can bring him back as a powerful and terrifying villain full stop. Have him actually beat fighters an inch from their lives in the story and have him be an actual threat. Also, make him more of a force of nature, like instead of teleporting to locations, have the fighters actually keep an eye on where he is at all times a la Yujiro Hanma (which to me seems a clear inspiration for Necalli).

[@bonaconlodoset9264]

They needed to actually animate necails hair it's an eyesore

[@MICHAELTUMANGDAY]

To be honest they could've used Necalli as part of Sagat's story..like activating Sagat's satsui no Hado..

[@RushianRichard]

That would be very cool. I will not pay a single penny for sf6 as long as Sagat is not in the roster. 😑

[@hardfocus7332]

I felt like Kage was created cause Necalli was such a failure and that wasn't the case at all.

[@EventHubs]

And G later came in to take the title of "boss" even though he didn't feel like one at all either.

[@shieldlesscap6124]

See but Kage has the exact same problem of “they set him up to be really intimidating and then his entire plot is he loses every fight he’s in and then dies” too lmao

[@tlh6187]

"Cheap money in the bank approach" LMAOOOOOOOOO

[@Matezoide]

Necali ended up being so irrelevant that Ryu’s SF6 Arcade mode illustration doesnt even have him. Retsu (lmao), Sagat, M Bison, Akuma and Kage are all there showcasing Ryu’s greatest fights (both internal and external), but Necali is nowhere to be seen.

[@dmen0563]

He was cool when we thought he was a cool new boss character...I still don't know wtf he was or is or the point of him

[@chillanfly3893]

Still sort of surprises me the amount of people that dropped Necalli just because of his lore. If his movesets are appealing to some of those people, then is it worth dropping a character just because of lore? I don't get it

[@LongHairedBandit]

Why Capcom didn't make him the main antagonist of the game is beyond me. The fact that he has a satsui no hardo-like transformation and there's NO CONNECTION to Akuma and Ryu's is a massive fuck you to the face Great character and fun gameplay, but piss poor writing

[@Sin606]

Nacali deserved better, if he comes back...they can have him come out of Nayshal and rework the story a bit and have it so that someone manifested him after story events, and have him be a mix of 2 people maybe?

[@skipbreezy5210]

Dude was really supposed to be the broly of street fighter. He should’ve handed bisons ass to him then absorbed him to become psycho necalli(also kicking the shit out of balrog, vega and fang prior to fighting bison). Then have the climactic battle in the ruined city vs ryu,ken,nash,guile,zangief. Bodies everyone then ryu taps into power of nothingness and they have a fire ass battle. Then the sfv main menu music kicks in for the final battle sequence and ryu ends necalli with the body shot. Peace and balanced is restored to the world Ryu gets wit chun li end of story. Capcom should’ve got me to do the story smdh. The writers/directors should be fired for wasting a good ass character ,piss poor story and a fully priced incomplete game.

[@LimakPan]

Sacrificial lamb. The sheep is fine. I think he will return as a good guy, one meant to get rid of some great evil from the apocalypse prophesized by G. Because he failed to eat in V, he will likely fail in the future again, not being strong enough. Unless he gets fed on purpose. They could make him into a Vegeta, but that would require giving him a risky amount of screen time.

[@francoikari5085]

I wouldn't even call Necalli because he has some kind of greedy, selfish goal, but he only acts on instinct and he literally only exists to devour the souls of strong warriors, unrelated to anything profound and wouldn't even be used to explain Satsui no Hadou because it is something very specific to Ansatsuken karate that has a similar relationship with the Star Wars Force. The real villain of SFV is Bison and only him

[@Masutora]

He like... Well... He didn't *do* anything.

[@natman2939]

wait....ancient aztec.....devours with his own flesh as if he absorbs you into himself......has giant hair that sometimes defies gravity? Is this Kars?!? From Jojo part 2?

[@RobBoss1]

So obviously Necalli's big problem is he's a soul-devouring warrior in a setting where characters are NOT allowed to die (seriously, Capcom wouldn't even let him kill a nobody to the story like Birdie). But if you can't have him kill, you could at least have him be the "incarnation of battle" where he tests the mettle of warriors by pushing them to their absolute limit and encouraging growth in skill that would be necessary to surviving an encounter with him. Necalli pushing Ryu could be the reason Ryu ultimately realizes the Satsui No Hado is not something to pursue, and he could even lead to Bison burning out his soul due to Psycho Power being a dangerous and unreliable shortcut to power. Street Fighter really does love that incredibly basic "I need to get stronger" goal for a lot of its characters, if Necalli can't kill he could've at least been used as a means to push both the heroes and villains to their limits and make both sides all the stronger for it.

[@natman2939]

1:43 "and defining traits" *shows Juri's toes* Kudos. Well done. Clever bastard.

[@Nocandefend]

Look I love a good pillar men reference as much as the next guy but one JoJo reference does not a character make.

[@CKZaibatsu]

They designed him with no story. They pooped him out, and he melts back into his poop form after getting punched. The end!

[@sage0187]

Capcom dropped the ball on this one for sure. Nacalli is one of the best looking characters in that game. It feels like they were going for something new and at the last minute they changed their mind and chose to go with more of the same. We got instead alot of bs new characters who feel like they are part of a create a fighter.

[@drattyg8099]

On the gameplay/competitive side, he was far too linear and honest. The mixup potential of his command grab ended up not being all that threatening once people got used to it. Just like everyone except Cammy, his dive kick wasn't great and he lost massive tide-turning damage potential when they nerfed v-trigger activation combos thanks to Abigail. Really sucks, I played him more than any other character until he just got boring and I picked up juri. Edit: also really really stubby normals

[@mvargasmoran]

they did my boi dirty, I can tell that whoever designed Necalli put great care, only to then become a pool of snot.

[@AllFlashNoDash]

This super scary villain was defeated with a single crouching strong/MP. Terrible.

[@Charion-50]

I probably said this already, but imagine being made to be the big bad only to not only job at the story but also be replaced by another boss-like character (G) and be left in shambles. Necalli is literally Ancient Ogre with no impact, and it sucks because I genuinely liked him. If anything, he should've won some fights, sought after M.Bison, absorbed him to become a genuine monstrosity so that everyone can put a stop to him so that Bison can emerge back once Necalli gets defeated so that not only Nash can finish the story, Guile, Cammy, and Chun-Li can have their closure with all the effort of the other characters be brought in. I don't know if it would've been enough, but it would've benefited Necalli as a credible threat while still giving Bison his flowers that fought on even after Necalli took advantage of the situation at hand.

[@achimsinn6189]

So he failed to devour Nash, then failed to devour Ryu and Dhalsim, then failed to defour Bison, then failed to devour Ryu again, then failed to devour Balrog and when he devoured Akuma, that lead to him go explode. Guess there's you reason why Necalli isn't really looked at as a serious threat in street fighter. Still cool concept, though (although tbh not very orignial), so if they allow him to win some fights there is hope for him to return in a better way.

[@panzfaust9812]

I miss when games are actually finished on release date