Ahead of the plethora of Street Fighter V events being held at E3, Sony and Capcom have released a brand new trailer for Street Fighter V, detailing the new Variable System which underpins the combat of this installment. The V-System builds like your Ultra Gauge did in Street Fighter 4, increasing as you take damage but unlike Street Fighter 4, you can use the V-System in multiple ways. You can break it down into three sections, V-Skills, V-Triggers and V-Reversals.

V-Skills are unique character skills which can be activated by pressing medium punch and kick together, like a Focus Attack in SF4. These skills do not use any of your V-Gauge and differ based on your character. For example, Ryu’s V-Skill gives him the parry from Street Fighter 3, allowing players to parry any attack as long as you get the timing right. V-Skills help cover some gaps in a character’s standard kit of normals and specials, so mastering each V-Skill will be crucial to fulfilling your fighter’s full potential.

Next up are V-Triggers, which are activated by pressing heavy punch and kick together. You can liken V-Triggers to Marvel vs Capcom 3’s X-Factor, as correct usage of these temporary buffs can turn the tide of battle. Like the V-Skills, each V-Trigger is unique so again, learning when to activate your V-Trigger will be paramount if you want to master your character. M. Bison’s V-Trigger has him tap into his full reserve of Psycho Power, making his normal dash a teleport, allowing him to pass through certain attacks and projectiles and even has him appearing and disappearing mid-attack when some specials are used in this mode.

Finally, there are V-Reversals, which are very similar to Alpha Counters from the Street Fighter Alpha series. These take up one block of your V-Gauge and can be done by pressing three punches or three kicks whilst in blockstun. Like all of the V-System moves, each character’s V-Reversal is different. Some could push an opponent back, others knock them down while certain V-Reversals actually allow you to swap sides with your opponent. It seems like Street Fighter V will heavily reward individual character knowledge, as you must learn what each character’s V-System does in order to get the most out of them, as well as to know what to expect from your opponent.

The EX Gauge does return, working like it has in previous Street Fighter games. It increases as you attack and allows you to enhance certain specials into EX moves, which may do more damage, inflict more stun, add an overhead to a move and so on. Moreover, it seems Ultras and Supers have gone, being replaced by the Critical Art. The Critical Art can be performed when your EX meter is full, meaning that you only have access to one super move in Street Fighter V.

Other things to note, according to this Shoryuken article, is that you can only be KO’ed by chip damage from Critical Arts, one frame links have greater input leniency, there are no moves that require you to input a 360 degree motion on the stick and Capcom are creating their own GGPO-style netcode for Street Fighter V which is coded named ‘Kagemusha’. It also allows cross platform play between PC and PS4 players.

If you want to know each character’s V-Skill and Trigger, check out the official page here and make sure to check out the trailer below.