Sweet home....wait, what?
Street Fighter 6 has come under scrutiny just days after adding Alex to its roster, with his long-awaited return overshadowed by controversy
Alex arrived in the game last week, but attention quickly shifted to his arcade mode ending. In the scene, Alex marries Patricia, who has been portrayed as his adoptive younger sister, and the pair are expecting a child together. The reveal, including dialogue where a pregnant Patricia welcomes Alex home, prompted a wave of criticism from players familiar with their previously sibling-like relationship.
On 27 March, Street Fighter 6 director Takayuki Nakayama responded to the backlash in a post on X (formerly Twitter), apologising for what he described as “confusion.”
“While we have not changed the characters’ backstories, after internal review by the development team, we plan to revise certain text passages that may have been misleading in the near future,” he said.
Street Fighter 6
Release Date: 2 June 2023
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, PC (via Steam), and the Nintendo Switch 2
Developer: Capcom
Why Alex and Patricia’s relationship drew criticism
The reaction largely stems from how the two characters have been established across the series. Since Alex’s debut in Street Fighter III: New Generation, Patricia’s father Tom has been presented as a father figure to Alex, shaping expectations of a familial bond rather than a romantic one.
Then in Street Fighter 6’s World Tour mode, additional dialogue states that Tom is a cousin of Alex’s mother, which would make Alex and Patricia second cousins. The game also references Alex knowing Patricia since she was a baby, reinforcing the dynamic that players had previously understood as sibling-like.
Fans took to social media to express their disappoitnment, with some saying on X that Capcom “butchered” Alex's story. Many fans also felt that this was a huge change with no context and transition from Street Fighter III, while others felt that this was a huge “retcon” to Alex's lore from Street Fighter 3:
Changes Capcom may make to Alex's story text
Capcom has not outlined the exact revisions planned for the upcoming patch, but Nakayama’s statement suggests the focus will be on wording rather than rewriting the storyline.
In the English version of World Tour mode, Alex explicitly refers to Tom as his adoptive father, stating: “He’s my trainer, my manager, my adoptive dad… No, he is my dad.” The Japanese script uses the term “sodate no oya,” which carries a broader meaning and can refer to someone who helped raise or mentor a person, without strictly defining a parental relationship.
Based on this, the planned revisions may involve adjusting how relationships are described in localisation, potentially clarifying or softening terms that imply a direct adoptive sibling dynamic. However, both versions currently state that Tom and Alex’s mother are cousins, meaning the second-cousin connection is still part of the canon.
Nakayama’s comment that the backstories will not change indicates that any updates will remain limited to text adjustments rather than narrative alterations.
At the time of writing, Capcom has not confirmed when the patch will be released or which specific lines will be revised. The developer has stated only that changes are planned “in the near future,” leaving the scope of the update unclear.
For now, Alex remains fully playable in Street Fighter 6, with his arcade ending and World Tour dialogue unchanged. The situation continues to develop, as players await further details on how Capcom will address the controversy through its upcoming update.
