Street Fighter The Novel: Where Strength Lies

by Takashi Yano, Yusuke Murata (Artist)

The World Warrriors take center stage in the first ever Street Fighter novel! Featuring Ryu VS Akuma, Chun-li VS Elena, Guile VS E.Honda, Sagat VS M.Bison, and many more classic fighters colliding in their most epic encounters yet. It's all described in Shoryuken-smashing, Sonic Boom-throwing, Psycho Power-pulsing detail! The action is only enhanced with bonus manga pages and artwork in every chapter by manga legend Yusuke Murata!

256 pages, Hardcover

First published March 25, 2016

Reviews

[Khurram · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very cool and good comic style novel. I am a huge Street Fighter fan and Ryu has always been my favorite character. To me the game has been (and should be) about his journey. I loved the cover and some parts of the book are excellent but for me there was just something missing. I fully accept that it might have been my expectations were too high going into this book, but what can I say for a long time this game was my life, I was exactly like the author says he was in the afterword.

The book is a great progressive story for the most part. I think more could have been made of Guile’s part in the book. The story is told from a different first person perspective in every story. Really making me appreciate the characters and the own fighting philosophies. This is the thing that is done superbly in the book, the mental aspect of fighting and martial arts, but the physical fight are not so good. In fairness they did get better at the book went along. What I mean about the fights is any martial artist knows whatever you favorite technique is, in the case of the game characters their signature/special moves, you need a bridge or a setup to hit them right. In the first few fight the characters just seemed to go from signature move to move. As much as love fireballs, dragon punches, and raging demons nobody is just going to throw this and hope it hits, even in the game itself this is not possible.

I love what Udon did with the street fighter franchise in the comics, but that was the comics, novels have a slightly different flavor and the two don’t always mix. I like that way the stories connect to both the main story and the games (Street Fighter IV and an intro to V). The characters motivations and fighting spirits really shine through in this book. If you are or have been a Street Fighter II fan this is a must have. Slight spoiler the book starts with a fight between Ryu and Akuma if that does not get you read it you were never a fan!!!

[Justin Bedard · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of the Street Fighter games, so I got really excited when I saw this and couldn't wait to read it. Unfortunately, it's a huge disappointment as far as I'm concerned. Putting aside the fact that it's very poorly edited, there's pretty much no plot at all. Each chapter is just an individual fight without there being a granter tale weaving them all together and without anything linking it to the others except an occasional mention of Ryu, who the book clearly should have been about. The last three chapters did at least go some way toward engaging me, but if I wanted to see two characters fight without context, I'd just go play one of the games.

Recommended only for hardcore Street Fighter fans.

[Lav · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oorspronkelijk als kado voor Jan gekocht maar uit nieuwsgierigheid zelf ook gelezen, of toch poging tot want het is niet uit.
Op zich is het wat je er wel van kunt verwachten, het zijn gewoon one on one battles, die op zich eigenlijk wel zeer goed geschreven zijn, maar het is niet meer dan dat. Ookal las ik het vooral om mijn ogen moe genoeg te maken om in slaap te vallen is het leven te kort om iets verder te lezen dat niet genoeg boeit. Zoals ik zei zijn de actiescenes op zich wel goed geschreven maar als ik Moby Dick al slechts 1 ster heb gegeven omdat ik er niet door geraakte kan ik niet met een goed geweten dit niet wegleggen en het een hogere rating dan dat geven :p

[Julián Ramírez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Este es un libro interesante, pero finalmente decepcionante.

Siempre he sido un gran fan de la saga Street Fighter y me encanta tener oportunidades de conocer más sobre su lore, así que una novela era algo a lo que no podía decirle no. Se supone que este se desarrolla alrededor de los eventos de SF4 y la transformación de Ryu en Evil Ryu... pero la narrativa gira completamente en torno a peleas entre diferentes personajes, lo cual limita enormemente lo que podía hacer a nivel de trama.

En realidad solo tres (bueno cuatro) de las peleas giran en torno a Evil Ryu y el escritor se enfoca tanto en describir los movimientos de combate que todo lo demás queda a media. Hay ocasiones en que mediante esta forma de contar los acontecimientos sale a relucir aspectos interesantes de las personalidades de los personajes (aprendí mucho sobre Sagar que realmente no esperaba), pero es algo que se podía aprovechar más.

Las peleas de Chun-Li contra Elenta, Honda contra Guile, Hakan contra Dhalsim y Dudley contra Balrog son mero relleno. En algunos casos se aprenden cosas interesantes sobre los estilos de combate de estos luchadores, pero de nuevo se queda a medias.

Aunque no puedo negar que disfruté aprendiendo por fin cómo Ryu se transformó en su versión villana, por qué Sagat abandonó Shadaloo y qué había pasado con Gouken, el libro en general fue tristemente aburrido. Enfocarse en describir los combate es interesante y algo que un mejor escritor puede aprovechar mucho (o un mejor traductor), pero mientras descubro ese libro que lo logre será algo que disfrute más en medios más visuales... como un videojuego, por ejemplo.

[Mirko Liang · Rating 2 out of 5]

Episodical novel where each chapter focuses on a duel matching perfectly the vibe of Street Fighter. The fights are very detailed, however that’s all it is. No connections between fights, no background, just a few lines to contextualize each fight. I appreciate the effort in recreating the fights literary but everything ends there. Oddly enough, I enjoyed more the coda of ‘Continue?’ with additional paragraphs where the characters are a bit more outlined, with glimpses of a real story.

[Hadji VanderVeer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Growing up playing these characters in games, it was nice to see a good story arc.

[Vlod · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun dummy read, the stories might be fun at first but it gets a little tiring to be honest. Wish there was more of a narrative, but can't say it doesn't capture the magic of the games.

[Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

love the artwork, but overall a dull read. fun fights though.