When you buy the base version of SFV, you also get Champion Edition included in your purchase. This is a buttload of content which includes characters, stages, colors, etc through Season 4 at no additional cost to you.

HOWEVER, Street Fighter V came out with Season 5 AFTER the release of Champion Edition. This means that you will not have access to these characters:
- Dan
- Rose
- Oro
- Akira
- Luke (yes, this is where he was introduced)

Do you have to buy them? No! You can actually purchase them with Fight Money by playing the game. This includes doing monthly/daily missions, fighting players online, and leveling up your fighters. Your initial profits of Fight Money will be high, but as you complete first-time missions, it will begin to stagnate. It will probably take awhile for you to purchase more than 1 character.

If you wish to purchase these characters (in addition to their alternative costumes and more stages), you can purchase the Season 5 Premium Pass Bundle. Champion Edition and Season 5 can be purchased together when you first buy the game, which will end up being cheaper in the long run. I recommend this bundle as it can go for as low as $20.


RECAP:
- Purchasing SFV comes with all content up to Season 4 via Champion Edition.
- Season 5 characters may be unlocked (Fight Money) or purchased instantly if you want to save tons of time.
- Champion Edition and Season 5 Pass may be purchased together and save you some money. Watch for a sale!




Street Fighter V had a very rough start, but after years of additional content and balance changes, the game has been upgraded into a certified Mainline Classic™. Weird and terrible tutorial opening aside, there are tons of characters to choose from with new and old characters clashing it out together in a big ridiculous hodgepodge. Even the new ones they added in are super memorable, like Zeku, a Strider-esque ninja dude, or G, the PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD. This game is also incredibly flashy with tons of ridiculous stuff going on. A game like this always seems to clash with NeatherRrealm games like MKX or Injustice by not really going in the direction of blood and gore but instead just trying to see what feels exciting or hype. There's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ character taller than the health bar for god's sake.

Your new way of attack is V-Skill. Every character has two to choose from at the start of a round, and can be used by using both mediums. This allows your character to use an ability that they wouldn't normally do. For instance, Ryu can use Mind's Eye to parry attacks, and M. Bison can use Psycho Reflect to absorb projectiles and throw them back at the opponent.

Using a V-Skill can charge up a new move called a V-Trigger. These can be activated by hitting both heavies, and can also be chosen at the start of a round. These give characters a new ability, or power them up for a short period to do some serious damage. These can be used in addition to your specials or super moves that you're normally used to, though the properties of a V-Trigger can obviously vary from character to character. For instance, Ryu's Denjin V-Trigger allows his hadokens to come out quick and be charged to break the enemy's guard. It's similar to activating your Instinct meter in Killer Instinct.

V-Skills and V-Triggers are usually things that you don't see from your character but give them a fun new spin and a different way to approach your enemy. It's a really cool way to introduce new moves while still keeping the game as fun and memorable as it always was. This is in addition to Crush Counters, which allows you to use a risky counter hit to do a longer combo for extra damage. And don't worry, there's a tutorial to teach you all of this stuff. It's not as detailed and intuitive as SF6, but it's there and you can learn what you need.

Outside of the online play, there's a lot of single player content as well. You can of course play Arcade Mode as well as a new Survival Mode, where you try to last as long as possible while purchasing health and power-ups for your character. You can also play the infamous Shadow Falls, a brand new story mode for Street Fighter with cinematic cutscenes. Your mileage may vary on the story as I have heard that some people hate it while others like it. I personally like it a lot, but I wish certain characters did or STOPPED DOING certain things. There are also story based missions for each character, which are bite-sized prologues before the story mode kicks in. They take around 5-10 minutes to complete for each character and give you some extra fight money too.

There's other stuff like extra battles, combo challenges... the basic things you'd expect in single player. While the additions to single player are awesome and well-needed, the longevity of this game is for multiplayer. If you want a fighting game with more exciting single player content, I would highly recommend Street Fighter 6, Killer Instinct, or MKX/Injustice. Hell, I'll throw Mortal Kombat 9 in there as a bonus because I love that game so much. Highly underrated and fun content/story.

Overall, Street Fighter V has a lot of balance and interesting mechanics under the hood that should keep you entertained for hours if you want a fun multiplayer experience. And yes, tons of people still play it. Even Ultra Street Fighter 4 has players still at it. You'll hardly find a lack of players for mainline Street Fighter games (except for 30th anniversary: most people will play Fightcade in that respect). SFV most definitely evolved from the sinful Vanilla version that came out years ago and stands out from any other Street Fighter game, as a good Street Fight should.