Introduction
Story
Ryu is the main character of the Street Fighter series, as well as THE fighting game character. He is a traveling martial artist who strives to test himself against strong opponents. Ryu is a practitioner of the Ansatsuken fighting style, alongside his best friend and rival Ken Masters. Strong and silent, Ryu's greatest pleasure in life is combat. He takes his training very seriously, even the basics. Occasionally, an evil power known as the Satsui no Hado threatens to overcome him, manipulating his desire for improvement into a desire for victory at any cost. Regardless, Ryu continues to train himself and travel the world, so that he may become the greatest version of himself that he can be.
Gameplay
Often you'll hear certain types of characters referred to as "shotos". These tend to be the simple, fundamental, and easy characters that can excel at any level. Ryu is the original shoto, and likely the purest one you can ever play. His control of neutral is stellar, with multiple great pokes, two fireballs, and a powerful anti-air. His main super, Shinkuu Hadouken, is a powerful utility super that allows him to punish fireballs or end combos with great damage. He can alter his air momentum with his Air Tatsu specials to keep his approach a bit ambiguous. His defense with his invincible Shoryuken is powerful, since he can deny pressure that isn't gapless. Even his rushdown is solid, though it is likely his weakest point. He has an overhead, a crossup, good hop normals, a solid low confirm, and of course two grabs.
While Ryu doesn't truly have many weaknesses, his main weakness is that his strengths aren't excelling in their categories. He does everything well, but nothing perfectly, and requires you to make intelligent decisions and make solid gameplans. Ryu rewards consistency, and without it his strengths will falter. He does still have weaknesses, mainly that his preferred ender for knockdowns and damage requires a standing opponent meaning his knockdowns are a bit harder to find. Otherwise, Ryu is a simple and solid character that rewards you for being a good player.
Groove Selection
Best - C/N: While Ryu can be played in any Groove to some extent, he definitely has some he prefers over others. Likely his best is C-Groove, predictably. C-Groove is often seen as a fundamental Groove with simple Street Fighter style gameplay, and Ryu fits that perfectly. Simple level 2 combos, access to lots of meter for his supers, and a decent amount of defensive options make C-Ryu a standard and useful character. N-Ryu is a different take on the same Ryu formula. N-Groove is a versatile and simple Groove, and Ryu fits into it fairly well. While he does play a lot more mobile, he still ends a lot of combos in supers and has a nice mix of offensive and defensive options.
Useful - K/A: K-Ryu gets access to the useful mechanics of JD and Rage. While he struggles a bit without Rage, JD helps him build it very fast, and his level 3 Shinkuu is no joke. Having access to Shin Shoryuken more often is also a benefit, as his close range punishes become very high damage. A-Ryu isn't bad, as while he doesn't have the greatest Custom Combo ever CC is still a powerful mechanic regardless. A-Ryu is more useful on point, where his great meter build and sustainable gameplan lets him ensure that the second character already has a CC ready when they come out.
Worst - S/P: S-Ryu is a bit more of a gimmick. While Ryu can charge meter without sacrificing much to his patient gameplan, he still would rather use his great meterbuild tools or a few combos and cancels. Infinite level 1 supers is useful though, as Ryu can end every combo in Shinkuu, making all of his punishes and pokes much higher damage. P-Ryu is inconsistent at best. Parries are a useful tool, but Ryu can't always benefit from them unless he has a super, and P-Ryu won't have supers very often. However, when he does have a super, a parry from P-Ryu will do great damage with either a cancel into level 3 Shinkuu or a close parry into Shin Shoryuken.
Ryu is the original shoto, and a great all-rounder who struggles to excel in any specific area. Ryu's best Grooves are C-Groove and N-Groove. |
|
Pros | Cons |
|
|
Players to Watch
Name | Country | Groove | Accounts | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
GAO | Japan | C-Groove | N/A | A beast of a player. Uses C-Ryu to absolute perfection. Sample Match |
Towel | Japan | C-Groove | Twitter: @TowelManX | One of the OG Japanese players, and has a very scary Ryu. Still plays after almost two decades. Sample Match |
Dan | Japan | C-Groove | N/A | Though his name was largely lost to history, he was an incredible player for many years but seems to be inactive as of now. Sample Match |