Of course, these characters would all be later unlocked in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, with a whole new cast of unlockable characters to repeat this experience with. Some players still hadn't even unlocked Balrog, Guile, Juri, Alex, Urien, or Ibuki, and Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition came out so soon that some of us hadn't even unlocked Zeku, Abigail, Akuma, Ed, Kolin, or Menat, either! Many players (myself and Headquarters included) had unlocked some - but not all - of the characters Capcom had added to the game. This was a shame, considering how much better the added characters were in comparison to much of the base roster. Capcom already made SFV the first canon Capcom fighting game to pit characters like Guile/Charlie and Alex against each other in dream matches nobody thought would ever happen. Even better, they further exceeded expectations by acknowledging fan requests from over the years. One of SFV's strengths lies in the way Capcom looked back into its rich history when they added new characters. They added characters who played minor roles in previous games, which was a definite nod to the most loyal of Capcom fans (such as myself). Thankfully, Capcom didn't stop at the Dolls. Of the 12 unlockable characters from Street Fighter V's 28-character roster, 2 of them were Final Fight characters who also appeared in Street Fighter Alpha 2. Though neither was playable in SFA2, Zeku and Abigail were both in the background (both figuratively and literally). I'll never forget beating SFA2 and seeing Guy facing-off against his master Zeku, or spying Abigail in Guy's Metro City stage.

To the average tournament player who cares little of Capcom lore, seeing characters like Zeku, Abigail, and Kolin probably wasn't special. To those of us who remember very clearly seeing Guy face-off against Zeku in his Street Fighter Alpha 2, Zeku's Street Fighter V reveal was epic. Likewise, to those of us who have spent years fighting Abigail in Capcom masterpiece Final Fight, his appearance in Street Fighter V was mind-blowing. Capcom's localization team wasn't doing their job with Kolin's name, but it was still really cool to see them go back, get a minor character from Street Fighter III: New Generation (end-boss Gill's assistant), give her a name, and give her a meaningful story. She was an unnamed bombshell in CPSIII graphics, and her transition into the Unreal Engine 4 graphics went very, very well. She still walks with the same amount of strength and dignity of any storng woman. Her pivotal role alone shows how nicely SFV was tied into the previous games.

Whether it be Zeku, Abigail, or Kolin, players always wondered how they would play, or what types of moves they'd have. Players wondered how these characters would move, how they would animate, and what stats they would have. Moreover, how would some of these characters fit into the overall development of the Street Fighter story? Capcom took their time and gave backrounds to what were essentially backround characters. These mysterious backround characters were suddenly reborn with story details that not even the most die-hard Capcom fan could find in any official Capcom literature. Abigail apparently loved cars so much that he acted like one (sounds and all), Kolin wasn't entirely faithful to Gill, and we learned that Zeku could actually shapeshift ("ageshift"). Seeing Zeku turn back and forth from young to old is exactly the type of mystique the series had been missing for a long time. Thankfully, cool decisions like this would continue.