This provides an interesting perspective, because WL...is surprisingly unchanged in tone. I mean, there's polish and improvement from a few decades of change between 05 and 06, but overall, there's not a jarring change.

Sakura, however...I don't know if you've read any of the comic books Udon put out about SFIV, but good god, the "voice" of the character seems ripped right out of there, especially the reference to her dealing with personal breakdowns and other obstacles by crashing through them at high speed and dealing with the clunky engine noises a ways down the road. She's wonderful, and I'm so glad WL!Gryphon's keeping her.

That, and this introduces yet another area in which we all can agree with M. Bison: the Dolls are a wonderful, wonderful idea. The snarky twin banter was actually pretty interesting. I'm kinda hoping we'll see more of them (not specifically Juni and Juli, but just in general)

And I still have to wonder about Laura. Bison's favored student, and she's very dedicated to him....but so far, everything seems to indicate that Bison really has no interest in her as a student. But then we haven't seen the man himself so it's hard to tell. But I get the impression that teaching her and getting that kind of dedication is purely an ego trip for him, proving that he's surpassed Rose because he can teach students even better than hers. In a way, it's a sort of twisted parental relationship: Laura seems dedicated to bringing Gryphon down because then she can say that she's *better* than her "half-brother", and hopefully get her boss's praise. All of which....is probably not forthcoming, because if she loses, or is broken or whatever, all Bison'll do is decant another Doll and start over. Hell, with Decapre, it seems that he's tiring already of simply "training" his proteges and has settled for simply building them. (That, and the scar makes me wonder if Laura's just a first generation Doll herself and thinks she's a Real Girl).

And all this without ever seeing Bison in person, or him having any lines whatsoever, and being known purely by reputation and second-person description. That said, seeing him given some real chops (his character seems more overblown and less competent in the games than here, where he's a monster in a less Caligula-esque manner) is rather nice. I'm very interested to see more.

But yeah, I really like the universe mash-up this is presenting, though a very odd part of my brain keeps wondering when Lara's going to meet a certain Mr. Fox along the way, but that would be Bad because WL really shouldn't end with Second Impact.

Still, very yummy. Please, sir, can I have some more?