Zeku is all-but-confirmed as the 6th DLC character, with the leakiest of leaks being yet again confirmed as Menat joins as the 5th Season 2 DLC character for SFV. Rose mains rejoice (like 80% of the people in the GB FGC Discord seem to be Rose mains somehow...?) because there's a new Soul Power wielder on the block. Trading in the scarf for a crystal ball, Menat retains a lot of Rose's techniques only now with enhanced range and some special tricks.

Stray observations:

• Another evasive v-reversal, this season seems pretty heavy with them.
• She can cancel her overhead into orb recall, if she can do it on block then that would probably make it safe or potentially + as well.
• People are expecting her to be anime but I'm guessing her special that places the orb out is at least - and possibly unsafe ob, so she won't just be able to maintain silly pressure.
• Actually maybe just the orb recall is - ob... That would actually make her more interesting.
• Reflect being V-Skill gives me hope that I won't fuck it up as often as I did with Rose.
• Her V-Trigger orbs being keyed to button releases makes me worry about my own execution. I struggle with timing button releases and also with pressing buttons while holding others. This is like Abigail all over again. Stupid high skill-ceiling V-Triggers.
• She is adorable and also like Abigail there are so many amazing touches of personality in her animations.

Well it's taken a while, but SFV finally has a new character I want to play. Kolin, Ed, Necalli, FANG, Abigail, and Rashid weren't doing it for me. I really want to see how her V-Trigger works.

lmao holy shit she looks great.

I've been really happy with the characters we got this season and Menat looks to be the best of the bunch, though I have a feeling she'll be too difficult for most people to stick with. I'm too stubborn to switch to any character other than Bison but I'm excited to try her out tomorrow. Can't wait to see what Zeku looks like.

Looks like she'll be annoying as hell to fight in capable hands.

She's cute! There hasn't really been that one character that has supplanted my mains yet, but they sure are doing a lot better new designs this game than 4. The only new ones I'd salvage from that game were Juri, Gouken and Hakan. Most of these new guys aren't my style, but besides Abigail's disgusting face, he's actually real fun to play, I think they've all been pretty good. Despite the disastrous PR job of no returning fan favorites, I think it was brave of them to do all these new characters. As much as I bitch and moan about Blanka, I wouldn't get cute Egyptian anime wizards if they didn't take chances.

Oh I see how it is

@l1ghtn1n: Yeah, really simple. I wonder if her drills will have different angle based on the button like Sim.

@redhotchilimist Oh yeah, I forgot about Laura. I probably like her best of the newcomers, but she is so not my play style.

I'm 100% on board with her. This could maybe finally be the character I've been waiting for (Cammy, Nash, Kolin not quite there). She seems versatile and fast with hopefully some freestyle options. Pretty exciting!

After staring real hard at that YouTube video I'm pretty sure Orb recall is even on block at max range and I'm almost positive she won't have a 3f light. I feel like I'm getting a clearer picture of her gameplan. I wonder if she can cancel her slide in Ankh like she can cancel her overhead.

I cannot wait to try her! Assuming she will be available by the time I get home...

The maintenance isn't supposed to be done for a half hour, I thought. I'll definitely try anyway though. I'm already seeing gifs.

She's the first character this season that I really want to play, so there's that.

That character story was a whole lot of nothing for Menat and bad lip syncing for Ed, which was a bit of a bummer. Feels mostly like they're teasing Oro even more. I thought that season 2 Oro rumor was debunked, but who knows, I suppose.

As a character, I haven't got a clue how to play her yet. Her ball modifies all her normals when not in play, so so far I've just tried hitting long range with it and hoping for the best.

Funniest thing so far has been discovering that L1 and L2 will fire off all the v-trigger balls and put you into a taunt at the same time.

Edit: I love her reflect V-skill. At my somewhere-in-bronze level, it's enough to destroy people that fire off a lot of projectiles. It's just night and day from playing Mika or Birdie.

When I saw a thumbnail, at first I thought she was a mod for Skullgirls's Eliza. I think she's the nicest looking original character this season, but her gameplay seems too complex for my simple mind and clumsy hands. I'm glad she is being well received after the unfortunate response to Abigail, though.

I haven't gotten any of the season 2 fighters so far. I was hoping for another 360 grappler (Azam perhaps), but that doesn't seem to be in the cards. I might save my fight money for some of the returning favorites next season.

Abigail has been well received by anyone who actually has bothered to play him.

Which is probably going to be the exact opposite with everyone quickly dropping Menat because she is complex.

Zeku could be interesting. I'm guessing he's going to be pretty agile and maybe have some ninja command grabs?

@starvinggamer: She's not so much complex as convoluted/ineffectual outside of V-Trigger, she essentially doesn't even have a BnB if the orb isn't out; but putting the orb out makes every button shit. Now whenever she becomes good via tech monsters/buffs then she'll be complex. Curious to see what Fchamp does with her; but as always Majorboy seems to have the best approach.

My 30 minute impression: She's cool. Her V-Trigger takes some finesse to maximize its potential. Like, her df MK has to be held the right number of frames to combo properly. Too few and the orb hits too fast and you won't be out of your recovery frames to continue the combo. Too many and the orb won't combo at all. And I guess the extreme example being you tap the button for only a frame and the orb won't activate at all.

She does look really impressive when someone actually plays her well. The combo at 2:14 is just...

@redhotchilimist: That's GO1

People need to learn to thumbnail, so much potential: