V-Shift revealed as Street Fighter 5’s new combat mechanic

New Defensive Mechanic who uses V-Gauge

The Street Fighter 5 community has known for about six months that its game will undergo a relatively big change, with the developers promising a new combat mechanic in August 2020, and saying the mechanic was revealed during the winter update of today as being V-Shift. .

This new mechanic allows players to escape difficult situations. Similar to V-Skill, this maneuver is used to counter attacks, but where it is unique is that it can be used freely and does not require being in block stun to activate.

This new mechanic drains one bar of V-Gauge per use. While animated, V-Shift makes the player invincible to throws, attacks, and projectiles.

When this maneuver is used just as an incoming attack is about to land, fighters will go into a state of idle, and the character who used V-Shift will temporarily become invincible. This makes it sort of a parry technique, although a bit more complicated than what we saw in Street Fighter 3.

The V-Shift player in the idle state can also perform a “V-Shift-Break” which sees them launch forward with an invincible attack. The idea here seems to be that if the V-Shift is used to thwart an incoming attack with a lot of recovery, the defending player can ensure punishment if they don’t have an attack in their standard arsenal that goes far enough.

It seems to add a lot of depth to a lot of interactions as it offers a new way to defend yourself in this heavy attacking game. Players will need to be more careful with how they wish to use their V gauge, and V-Shift interactions have several possible routes and outcomes, as players have choices to make immediately after engaging this new mechanic.

Below are a handful of screenshots showing V-Shift and its different uses:

Click on the images for larger versions