Near the launch of Street Fighter V, the English translation of Daigo Umehara’s first book was released. This is a review of that version.
Who is Daigo?
If you don’t know who Daigo is, then you probably aren’t familiar with fighting game competitions (outside of Super Smash Bros.). Daigo has been a dominant force in the 2D fighting game genre for nearly 3 decades now, and is a big part of many of the most famous moments of that scene.
His book called “The Will to Keep Winning” tells the story of his life up to before the early 2010s. It is not really outdated at all though as of 2023. Some very minor things like a mention that he doesn’t need to relearn using a joystick because there won’t be any innovations in that area obviously turned out to not be true (he is now sponsored by Hit Box, which replaced the joystick with more buttons). It also doesn’t cover how he has been working on growing eSports and the local offline play in Japan despite the decline of arcades in the last decade. There is a mention of his plans to do so, though.
What the book does contain is his entire career as a fighting game player (and with other occupations) up until now. It probably isn’t something the reader would be wise to replicate, but it is an interesting story nonetheless. There are definitely some lessons to be learned from what he set out to do and what happened to him for doing it. It is also interesting to see what he experienced from choosing such an unorthodox path in life.
Since Daigo only speaks Japanese, a big appeal of this English translation is getting rid of a lot of the mystery about him for people who speak English but not Japanese. Especially for followers of the competitive fighting game scene, it is interesting to hear from the guy who you often see play but never really get to hear from. For everyone else it is interesting to get to know a pioneer of what has become an entire industry in Japan.
Is it a good book?
As far as the writing and structure go this is definitely an entertaining book to read the whole way through, and you can tell that was a focus of the book throughout. It sometimes feels a little bit unorganized with how the message is distributed throughout the book, but that also makes it feel more like a story than a textbook or guide.
It is definitely not the type of book that is a reading challenge, which is expected since Daigo chose to pursue competitive gaming instead of going to school to learn how to write something like that. Apart from some slight awkwardness from the translation, people who know English native speakers have much trouble reading it.
There are a few faults to the book, though. In a few places it is rather clear that this was translated from Japanese without enough consideration for how people who speak English would interpret it. The main thing is that Daigo talks about levels of skill in play and effort in terms of numbers. Many times he references how to go beyond level 10, which makes as much sense reading it in this review as it does in this book. Perhaps this didn’t make sense in Japanese either, but it probably should have been cleared up either way.
Overall the book is far from boring and isn’t difficult to get through (or very long), even if the message doesn’t resonate with you.
What it is and isn’t
There are some things it omits that might disappoint some people. One thing is he doesn’t go into specifics about the games at all. There is no advice regarding Street Fighter IV in particular or anything like that in this book. It doesn’t even really cover any game specific topics that would be applicable to any Street Fighter or similar games, either. Instead, it is general to the point that somebody who hasn’t played Street Fighter or any other fighting game would be able to get something out of it.
That doesn’t mean there is nothing here for fighting game players, though. If you have played fighting games with other people at all, you have probably run into many of the attitudes or types of strategies that he warns against as holding the person who has or uses them back. He also explains the more productive attitudes and strategies that he uses instead, which you might benefit from as well if you adopt them.
Something that is mentioned in the book is that Daigo gets invited to speak in front of a Japanese business people frequently, who obviously don’t necessarily care about competitive fighting games. The book feels more like what he would say to them than what he would say to other gamers. Perhaps it is slightly more catered to gamers than those speeches, but not by much.
Should you read it?
It is not very long and tells a very unique story, so it is definitely worth giving a chance. Even if you read the whole book it won’t take more than part of a day to get through. If you are interested in competition in video games or the eSports industry it is a no brainer to read. People who are interested in the concept of going against the expectations of society should also find this book interesting
Overall, the main takeaway of the book no matter who is reading it is the experience of being a pioneer. If that is something that interests you, whether or not you care about fighting games or Daigo, this is definitely a book to read.
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