Street Fighter 6’s Latest Character Seems Almost Too Familiar For Fighting Game Fans
The Year 4 DLC of Street Fighter 6 is continuing after the drop of Yasmine earlier this year, with the latest character Arjun next in line to join the roster. However, this unorthodox Yoga master has been shown ahead of his October 2026 release through a gamplay trailer showing off his attacks, outfits, and cinematic super moves. While the character looks quite impressive, the nature of his fighting style seems to be inspired by a variety of different sources.
Arjun is a brand-new fighter in Street Fighter 6, much like Yasmine, having never been in any other game in the series. This means that players couldn’t possibly predict the character’s moves, until the gameplay trailer showed off a massive fighter who controls the air through powerful breathing techniques. A far cry from Dhalsim’s stretchy limbs and patient Yoga, Arjun wields powerful bursts of condensed air, ballooning his body for extra strength while setting up traps to wear down opponents.
Street Fighter 6’s Arjun Gameplay Shows A Big Body Fighter With Plenty Of Hard-Hitting Techniques
Everything about Arjun fulfills the “big body” archetype in fighting games, or a character with high damage through heavy strikes, but poor mobility in exchange for that power. Arjun certainly fits the bill in that regard, with the character being one of the biggest in the game based on his in-game model. Arjun’s main gameplay mechanic is tied to recoverable gray health, or the vitality your character must recover after blocking certain moves for too long. Characters build up gray health by defending, rather than using a parry or other Drive techniques to fight back.
In most fighting games, gray health is something naturally built by relying too much on blocking, with opponents able to convert gray life into real damage if they land a hit. Arjun works in this manner, introducing gray health to Street Fighter 6 from other fighting games that use it heavily. Many of Arjun’s moves are designed to inflict gray health damage, meaning that even if you block against the character, you’re still at risk of losing life should he land a stray hit.
Arjun’s strategy revolves around depleting as much gray health as possible, then using a long-reaching normal attack or devastating command grab to deliver actual damage. This encourages Arjun players to play aggressively, to prevent opposing players from recovering any gray health inflicted upon them. From the trailer, Arjun seems to deliver gray health through a combination of huge striking fist attacks, which have slow start-up but are hard to punish after someone blocks them.
Arjun Uses Special Moves & Attacks With Very Similar Animations To Other Fighting Game Characters
Arjun’s gameplay style is full of unique animations for super moves and some special attacks, but everything about the character isn’t completely original. For example, Arjun can breathe into the ground as a special move, holding the input to create a stone pillar somewhere on the screen. While it is active, Arjun can pull the spire of stone from the ground, wielding like a billy club in a follow-up attack from another special move. This closely resembles another fighting game character, as the move and strategy closely reflect Aganos from Killer Instinct (2013).
Aganos was also a “big body” character, and capable of creating stone pillars he could fashion into a club. The comparisons with Arjun don’t stop there, as the character’s Cruel Shoulder attack also reflects a special move used by the Street Fighter fan-favorite Urien, a fighter from Street Fighter 3: Third Strike and Street Fighter 5. In addition to this, Arjun seems to have a move where he walks forward with super armor, absorbing attacks and unleashing a burst of power through another player input.
This is almost 1:1 with moves Zangief had in Street Fighter 5, from the armor to its follow-up. Players have noticed that Arjun may recycle specific animations and moves from other Street Fighter characters, particularly others that fit the “big body” archetype. Comparisons to Marisa, Zangief, E. Honda, and even characters not from Street Fighter 6 have been made since the gameplay trailer dropped. While these could be homages to all large fighters from the genre’s past, Arjun’s other original ideas somewhat clash with that theory.
Other Media References Make Arjun An Interesting New Addition To The Street Fighter Cast
Arjun also has a number of animations and cinematics that seem to reference the “Bollywood” film industry, or the types of Hindi-language movies typically from India and other regional areas. The over-the-top nature of Arjun’s moves and attacks reflect the bombastic nature of Bollywood movies, with some players pointing out direct inspirations from films like RRR. Some players even speculate that part of Arjun’s backstory would fit a Bollywood movie, adding to the list of comparisons Arjun has surrounding him.
Whether Arjun is a collection of big body fighting game or Bollywood references or not, the character still brings an interesting dynamic to Capcom’s most popular fighting game to date. The gray health gimmick of the character sets them apart from other fighters, despite his similarities in other areas to those who match his gameplay style. Arjun in Street Fighter 6 may not feel exactly like a “new” character due to his similarities to others, but the overall nature of the fighter still promises a striking addition to the game’s roster.