Fresh from announcing the return of series veteran Zangief, aka the Red Cyclone, Capcom has just revealed another new character joining the fray in "Street Fighter V," complete with high-res gameplay footage trailer and new screenshots.
Laura, according to industry observer GameSpot, is a master of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and the heir to the famous Matsuda branch of the close-combat grappling style. Like another series main character, Ryu, Laura also prowls the world in search of strong fighters to prove that the Matsuda jiu-jitsu can defeat any fighting style.
However, unlike other pure close-combat and grappling fighters, she also has an arsenal of mid-range moves and is known as the first "Street Fighter" grappler to have a projectile-based attack. Her special move for "Street Fighter V" V-skill is called Linear Movement, where she moves in a direction and goes in and out of an opponent's range. Players can activate the skill by holding the back or forward button while pressing medium punch and medium kick together. If no direction button has been pressed, Laura will instead perform an overhead kick.
Meanwhile, another special move for Laura, her V-Trigger, is Spark Show. In the course of performing this move, Laura enters an electrified state, boosting her Thunder Clap projectiles to travel further and the stuns to last longer.
Capcom also revealed (translated by Shoryuken) a little bit about Laura's background. It seems that there is a reason for the female combatant's preference of her fighting style – Laura is the elder sister of Sean Matsuda, hence she is the heir to the Matsuda family and jiu-jitsu fighting style.
With the confirmation of Laura as a new "Street Fighter V" fighter, there are now three confirmed new characters for the title, with Necalli and Rashid being the other two. Capcom previously teased that the upcoming title will have four new characters, and that means that there will be another one joining the mix.
Capcom is still mum about a specific release window for "Street Fighter V," but rumors place the rollout of the fighting game to be sometime in early 2016.
