Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams (Arcade)

To do: The CPS Changer version of the game supposedly contains CPS2 decryption code that was used to decrypt (and allow for emulation of) CPS2 games. Verify this.

Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams marked the time in the series when the once seemingly impossible happened: Capcom moved on from making re-releases of Street Fighter II, finally!

It features new combat elements, Final Fight characters on the playable roster, and an intermediate story to SFI and SFII. It was also the last game to be released on the CPS Changer, Capcom's official supergun and a response to Neo Geo.

Character Test#

To activate a character test menu, set FF8001 to 0A when in the test menu. Setting it during gameplay or attract mode can cause the game to lock up, blackout, or throw ADDRESS ERROR/ILLEGAL INSTRUCTION messages, similar to the messages appearing in Mega Man: The Power Battle.

Setting the value to 06 instead (while in the test menu), or pressing both players' Start buttons, causes the game to lock up at the test menu's main mode. The other listed features are SCR2 and SCR3 BLOCK TEST, MESSAGE TEST, ATACK CHECK EX, and SCROLL TEST. They probably would have worked similarly to the ones in X-Men: Children of the Atom.

Regional Differences#

To do: There's a lot more text differences between the Japanese version and other regions, translate them and compare.

Title Screen#

Japan	Asia and Brazil
South America (Hispanic)	Europe

The game is known as Street Fighter Zero in Japan, Asia, Brazil and South America and as Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams in North America and Europe, with the announcer's voice clips also changed to reflect this (although the "Z" in the time limit indicator and transitions were left unchanged). Plus, the copyright text below was also expanded to mention Capcom U.S.A in the US version and Capcom Mexico S.A in the Hispanic version.

Also the Japanese version lacks the TM and ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

These changes were also carried over into the next two installments. The Brazil and Hispanic regions of the game and its sequel uses the Zero name, but for the third game they switched it for Alpha.

Mode Select#

To do: Do the same with the Auto mode.

Japan	International
Manual operation Guards yourself

The Japanese version has a description for the Manual mode on the character select screen, like the Auto mode also does. On the international versions, the box is conspicuously empty instead.

Charlie/Nash and Akuma/Gouki#

Japan	International

This game marks the first time that the demon-looking Ryu/Ken head swap character's name would be mentioned in-game (although it was also mentioned in other media after Super Street Fighter II Turbo). Gouki in Japan and Akuma elsewhere.

A newcomer to the series would also receive the same treatment: Nash in Japan and Charlie elsewhere. Both names would be used as his full name in the canon, with Street Fighter V using the Nash name regardless of the region.

Win Quotes#

'...But what does it mean?' This game has text or audio that needs to be translated. If you are fluent with this language, please read our translation guidelines and then submit a translation!

Sodom

In the Japanese version, Sodom's quotes are the most unique in the cast because he speaks by saying some English words together and forming seemingly nonsensical sentences that sound like Japanese words. For international versions, the uniqueness of his dialogue was taken out and turned into normal quotes.

Here, Sodom's win quotes are structured by what he says, and in parenthesis is what he thinks he's saying.

Rival Dialogue#

Sodom

• Sodom went from being confident about winning in the Japanese version to having a violent bloodlust in international versions.
• International versions make Sodom claim that Guy ruined his life, which is not mentioned in the Japanese version.
• Guy became cocky in the international versions.

Continue Screen#

To do: Add the Continue screen's tips and translate them.

Japan	International

The Japanese version gives gameplay advice at the bottom of the Continue screen. As usual of Capcom, these tips were completely taken out in international versions.

In this case, the tip is specific for Ken players, since the Inazuma Kakato Wari (Lightning Heel Crush) is one of his normal moves.

Endings#

Sodom

• The script on the international versions added mention of a new Mad Gear headquarters being made, which the Japanese version doesn't mention at all.
• Sodom's "EVERYBODY!" quote was changed to "Gentlemen!", which is somewhat unfortunate since Poison is one of the Mad Gear members shown to be present in the pictures.
• The joke of Mad Gear's new name was lost in the international versions, simply being something the characters can't read. In the Japanese version, the joke was that the kanji Sodom put together still read "Mad Gear" in Japanese; that is, he didn't exactly change the name.

Gameplay#

• Adon's Jaguar Varied Assault can't connect in the Japanese version after a punch or kick as the hit counter breaks after trying. This is not the case in the international versions.

• On the Dramatic Battle mode (Ryu/Ken vs Dictator), an instrumental version of "Itoshisa to Setsunasa to Kokoro Tsuyosa to" ("Of the Beloved, Of Sadness, Of Responsibility" according to Discotek Media) from Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie plays in the Japanese version, referencing the film's climax. On versions outside of Japan, it is simply replaced with Dictator's normal theme. The song can't be normally played from the sound test in any version and is also excluded from the console ports, including all regions of the CPS Changer version and even the Japanese ROM for the game in Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium.
• In the Japanese version, the characters can bleed red blood when hit by certain attacks. However, in the international versions, it was censored by turning the blood white.

Revisional Differences#

Just like Mega Man: The Power Battle, two programming revisions of Alpha exist: One for Capcom's CPS2 system, and one for CPS Changer (the home console version of the original CPS1). The CPS2 version saw a wider release in most regions, while the CPS Changer version was only released in Japan, Brazil and (for Publicity purposes) in the US.

Audio#

Though the gameplay is identical between versions, the audio quality is much better in the CPS2 version due to the inclusion of QSound.

References#