One of Street Fighter 5's biggest criticisms has been its lack of a proper story campaign to bridge all the characters and ease in newcomers. That oversight will finally be rectified in late June with the free Street Fighter 5 Story Expansion, introducing a brand new campaign called "A Shadow Falls".
Capcom says the single-player campaign will take 3 to 4 hours to play through, and that it will depict a nigh-apocalyptic clash between Shadaloo and the World Warriors that takes place between the events of Street Fighter 4 and Street Fighter 3. Reminder: Street Fighter 3 is set years after Street Fighter 4, because Street Fighter is weird.
The really cool part is that you'll be able to play through the story mode with any of the original characters as well as all the currently announced DLC characters. That means Balrog, Urien, and Juri will all be playable for free in the story mode long before they're added to the rest of the game (Ibuki will be released alongside the story mode update). According to Capcom, you should think of these as "free previews" for the upcoming DLC characters since they won't be balanced or polished enough to use in competitive modes. Finishing the campaign the first time will earn you 30,000 Fight Money, and that will unlock a tougher Extra Mode that yields 50,000 FM upon completion.
Speaking of in-game currency, Capcom has altered its plans for real-money purchases. Instead of buying a set quantity of Zenny with real money then spending it to unlock stuff, Street Fighter 5 will just use the PlayStation Store and Steam directly for purchases once the big update goes live: new characters will cost a regular old $5.99/€5.99. You'll still be able to buy everything with Fight Money, of course.
Oh, and once the June update goes live, you'll finally be able to buy Hot Ryu and the other Battle Costumes if you didn't pre-order Street Fighter 5.
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