Street Fighter 5 Gets Brand-New V-Shift Game Mechanic Later This Month

During the Street Fighter 5 Winter Update livestream, battle director Ryuichi "Woshige" Shigeno unveiled the new V-Shift mechanic that changes the dynamics of Street Fighter 5. It launches alongside Dan Hibiki and the rest of Season 5, which drops on February 22.

V-Shift and V-Reversal are alike in more than just sharing the "V" starting letter. By consuming one bar of V-Gauge and inputting certain commands, players can perform the V-Reversal, a defensive counter-attack that gives players some distance from the opponent. The V-Shift is similar but it doesn't have the same stipulation. While the V-Reversal can only be activated when blocking against an attack, the V-Shift can be performed as long as there is V-Gauge.

The V-Shift consumes one bar of V-Gauge and requires certain commands like the V-Reversal, but players don't have to be blocking or under pressure. The V-Shift can be used whenever a player wants: in the middle of a combo, to break free from throws, to dodge projectiles, or to extend or interrupt combos. Its uses are endless so long as the resource is there, as such it's the first defensive Street Fighter 5 mechanic that can be used freely.

In addition to providing players with what amounts to a dodge mechanic, the V-Shift also slows down time and adds some invincibility frames, kind of like Bayonetta's Witch Time. Further, if players want the V-Shift to function more like the V-Reversal, they can perform an attack immediately after executing the V-Shift to turn it into a V-Shift-Break. This modification, the V-Shift-Break, can extend an attack's range or break through an enemy's combo chain.

V-Shift is free for all players and drops on February 22 with Season 5, which Capcom said is Street Fighter 5's final season of content. Season 5 will add a bunch of new stuff to the game, including fighters (like this bonus shape-shifting character), costumes, stages, and more.