Introduction
Ryu, the long time rival and friend of Ken Masters and the icon of the whole franchise.
He's still your all around, versatile character, with very effective pokes, anti airs, and pressure normals. The things that makes him worse than ken are rather few, but significant - ryu doesn't have any super with the same amalgamation of utility, range and source abundancy as ken's sa3, with his best super for confirms not being as fast and having character-dependent inconsistency in combos. Ryu also doesn't have as good of a meterless damage as ken, due to his absence of double dp links. Ryu also has worse mobility, with slower walk speeds, a shorter backdash and lack of a good air ex tatsu. Ryu, however, has his own ways to compensate for his weaknesses, with very high damage utilizing EX move, somewhat higher stun damage, additionally useful and powerful super in sa3 (which sacrifices access for ex moves) and a much better tatsu for confirms.
Super Arts
SAI (Shinkuu Hadouken)
An upgraded version of the Hadouken that can hit up to 5 times. It easily slots into many combos for added damage and a Hard Knock Down. Two long bars mean you'll have lots of meter for EX Donkey Kick and EX Hadoken, both of which hugely benefit Ryu. This super lets you play the stereotypical versatile and well rounded Ryu.
SAII (Shin Shoryuken)
An upgraded version of the Shoryuken. If the first hit connects, the move does a huge amount of damage and sends your opponent flying into the air. If it does not, the move turns into a low-damage, multi-hit Shoryuken. The one long bar limiting EX move use, but holy cow does it feel good to send your opponent to the moon (with a followup juggle). It's hard to comeback in a round where Ryu hits you with this. This Ryu looks to strike fear into opponents and turn openings small and large into gamewinning blows.
SAIII (Denjin Hadouken)
An unblockable attack (must be parried), Ryu will charge up an electric fireball for max 3 seconds if the punch button was held. The fastest Denjin Hadouken fireball may come out in 75 frames assuming perfect motion inputs. The most unorthodox but generally agreed to be strongest super out of the three. Ryu turns into a setplay character with the ability to steal games like candy. An extremely deep super with complex mind games attached. Do note that it holds ONE EX Move giving his great EX moves more opportunity cost.
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