Capcom Unveils Elena’s Street Fighter 6 Gameplay Trailer, Retains Healing Ability

Capcom has finally revealed Elena’s Street Fighter 6 gameplay, showing that she’s retained the healing ability she’s known for. Additionally, the developers mentioned that her release will coincide with a major balance patch that aims to change all the other characters and make some system changes.

Elena has only been in two other Street Fighter games: Street Fighter 3: Third Strike and Ultra Street Fighter 4. She doesn’t have the best reputation with players of the latter game, as she’s seen as one of the most obnoxious characters to fight against in it.

One of the main reasons is because of her healing ability. A character with a healing ability in a fighting game often gets mixed reactions. Each interaction in a fighting game that leads to a player losing life is a reward for the attacker and a penalty for the defender. A healing ability nullifies this by taking away that reward. This gives the healing player a chance to fight back and force interactions that might go their way and win a game they would’ve lost if they didn’t have the ability to heal.

Aside from that, players also hated playing against her because she had a janky hurtbox. This means that certain moves will not hit her, which was unfair. For example, in Ultra Street Fighter 4, Stephen “Sajam” Lyon, one of the most popular commentators of Street Fighter, mentioned that one of Dan Hibiki’s kicks didn’t hit her at all before Capcom fixed it with a patch.

Elena will join the Street Fighter 6 roster on June 5, 2025, which is also the release date of the Nintendo Switch 2. This date is intentional as Street Fighter 6 is one of the launch games for the console. Players who have the Year 2 Season Pass will receive her for free, but those who don’t can buy her using Fighting Coins, the game’s premium currency.