Like its SFA2 version, there are calm and crowded versions of the SFV version, too. When it's crowded, we see loitering punks, dancing royal guards rowdily playing the trombone, and a senior citizen discreetly showing-off some fancy footwork. The waterfall background from SFA2 also takes place in a different area of the locale (at the base of the waterfall, possibly where Charlie Nash was eliminated by Shadaloo forces). There is a night variation of this stage, and it's absolutely gorgeous. Unreal Engine 4 is known for highly-detailed visuals, and we see this in full effect as the waterfall glistens under a canopy of innumerable stars and moonlit night sky. In other backgrounds, you can see the rich and famous, along with characters that look coincidentally similar to characters from other fighting games (i.e. Nina from Tekken). The stages go on for what seems like forever into the background, with people and animals in the distant background carrying about their business. Some of the most impressive in this aspect are the China and Waterfall stages, where the background seems to never end. The China stage ventures deeper into a city bustling with pedestrians and vehicles, while the waterfall stage is home to a distant fossil of some monstrous beast from an unknown past. These are all examples of how Capcom's craft in creating lush, beautiful fighting locales hasn't diminished. In fact, stages in SFV are actually interactive (which many outlets failed to mention), and some there were Missions actually designed around occurrences in each background.

People, animals, and even inanimate objects (such as bottles) in each background react to the fight. Bystanders jump, appear startled, brace themselves, and/or fall back, depending on the amount of force exerted near them. Locals in the China and India stages hang from buses and trains cheering the fight on, frantically losing balance as heavy moves create shockwaves beneath them. There were Missions that rewarded points for these occurences. Yes, you could actually get Fight Money for making things in the background happen. The most notable ones were to make a standing bear fall down, flip a car over, and to win as Dhalsim for his family in the background. The City in Chaos stage even has a fire hydrant that can be smashed, soaking a poor bystander just enjoying his coffee! I thought these were all really cool details that bring the game's world alive in the same way that made SFII's backgrounds so alluring to players around the world. Taking a page from their own Marvel VS Capcom, the battle locales in SFV have wall breaks. They're more humorous than serious, with lots of splashy effects and unique occurences. Some of them even have items that stay on your character when the next match starts!

How? Because since Street Fighter IV, it's been a trend for wanna-be pros and elitists to choose The Grid (Training Stage) to prove themselves, and it unfortuantely has carried over to Street Fighter V. Again, I don't care about these drones or their lack of independent thinking, but I start to care when their "movement" forces everyone who plays them online to fight in that one, boring background. Like them, The Grid (Training Stage) has the personality of a dead moth. This stage is also spammed in YouTube videos, which makes it even more annoying. Street Fighter V's intricately-detailed, beautiful, lush backgrounds are bursting with life that seems to have gone largely unnoticed by the game's own player base, which is sad. It's sad that fitting-in and being accepted for a day of social media fame has become more important to SFV's fan base than recognition of the artistic mastery its development staff has demonstrated.