Anyone who's played Street Fighter IV (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) often enough might've noticed that Sagat and Seth seem to come with a slight edge by default. Are they imba? Or are there just too many skilled Sagat and Seth users out there? Riyota Nitsuma, assistant producer for the game's arcade version, admits: "Yes, Seth and perhaps Sagat might have turned out a little bit stronger than we expected."

Hearing that Seth is overpowered doesn't really come as a surprise - he's the final boss, he's named after Capcom's Seth Killian, and he's got a Yin-Yang-looking dimensional vacuum thing for abs. Sagat, on the other hand, despite having ranged and anti-air attacks similar to stalwarts Ryu and Ken, may have gotten more muscle than his SF4 look already shows.

It's interesting to point out that the recently-concluded Street Fighter IV European Championship in London saw two Sagats in the final. The best Street Fighter IV players in the world, however, use neither character. Korean champ Poongko and the SF-overlord, Daigo Umehara both use Ryu, while Japanese champ Iyo sticks to his remarkable Dhalsim moves.

The advantage, however, isn't too obvious. “A good player of another character can always beat a good Sagat player or a good Seth player,” Nitsuma explained. “I don’t think it’s too out of proportion, but we do acknowledge that they turned out a bit more powerful than we expected.”

Nitsuma didn't say whether a balance-fixing patch will come. But as he said, there isn't too big of a problem, so such a patch may not be necessary.

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