The King of Fighters '98/EX Ryo

Gameplay Overview

'94 Ryo trades '98 Ryo's versatility and mix up options for a zoning centered, shoto esque gameplay style. His main weapons and what differences him from his regular counterpart are his high-priority, low-risk DP and a long range fireball. He can still be used as a poking, pressure character like '98 Ryo, only not as effectively.

Colors

Movelist

	Frames	Advantage	Cancel	Block	Hitbox			Notes
Standing Close
	3/4/9	-1/-3	C,S,Su	HL				Can be used as combo filler instead of cr.A/B
	3/7/8	-4/-6	C,S,Su	HL				Can be used as combo filler instead of cr.A/B
	2/10/13	-3/-5	C,S,Su	HL				Very fast, extremely useful as a meaty attack. One of his best normals.
	4/9/16	-7/-9	C,S,Su	HL				Cancelable. cl.C is better
Standing Far
	3/3/8	+1/-1	C,S,Su	HL				A great, versatile normal. Very good priority (can trade favorably with Yashiro's s.B, for example), decent range, can be cancelled into a hcb + K. Good to combo from cr.B.
	5/2/12	-2/-4		HL				Really good long ranged poke. Even when it's not on the godly level of Yashiro's standing B, it's still a great normal move and you should abuse it to keep your opponent from getting too close / apply pressure safely.
	7/6/24	-11/-13		HL				Nice damage, fast and long ranged. Watch out for the recovery.
	12/4+4/16	-5/-7		HL				long poke. anti-air on 1st hit
+	9/8/18	KD/-5	S,Su	HL				One of the best standing CDs in the game. Fast, very nice range, cancellable. Can surprise opponents running at you and beats lots of stuff. Cancelling into a C fireball can be useful to Guard Crush and will always combo if you get a counter.
Crouching
	3/5/5	+2/0	R,C,S,Su	HL				Standard crouching A, cancelable.
	3/5/5	+2/0	R	L				Your main combo starter. Comes out fast and has nice range, good for footsies.
	1/2+3/23	-8/-10	C,S,Su	HL				Extremely fast for ground-to-ground situations. A great pressure tool; you will be cancelling it into qcf + P a lot. Links from cr.B/cr.A. Works very well as an anti-air too.
	7/5/18	KD/-5	C,S,Su	L				sweep attack. cancelable
Jump
	6/7/-			H
	3/7/-	-/-		H				Very fast. Great jump-in. Will beat lots of stuff in an air-to-air clash.
	6/4/-	-/-		H				Ryo's main cross-up. Good jump-in (better than j.D) .
	5/4/-	-/-		H				Good jump-in. Weird cross-up properties.
+	13/5/-	KD/-		HL				Jump-in.
Command Normals
f +	17/9/11			H				Overhead, excellent used as a meaty attack.
f + (cancel)				HL
Special Moves
qcf +	13/36			HL				Ko ou Ken (qcf + P) A good full screen projectile. Can miss small crouching characters next to you, so be careful against them.
qcf +	13/38			HL
dp +	2/3+12/21			HL				Kohou (dp + P) The A version is one of the best, if not the best, anti-airs in the game. Like Ryu's DP in SF, it has good startup invincibility, has better range than regular Ryo's DP and it's hard to punish. EX Ryo's main strength compared to his normal version.
dp +	5/3+17/28			HL
air qcf +	14/18+2+~10			HL				Kuuchuu Ko ou Ken (Air qcf + P) An Akuma-esque diagonal air fireball. It's not as safe as Akuma's, because Ryo 'hangs' up a bit while performing it, giving your opponent the chance to roll and punish. Use it mainly to punish baited anti-airs.
air qcf +	14/20+2+~10			HL
hcb +				HL				Hien Shippuu Kyaku (hcb + K) Both versions are unsafe and easily punishable when blocked, so use them mainly in combos. The B version can sometimes be useful to catch jumping enemies that are outside the range of your DP. Still, be careful when using it.
hcb +				HL
f b f +	13/43/18			HL				Zanretsu Ken (f b f + P) Ryo doesn't have much of a use for this move. As an anti-air it's an inferior option, it doesn't deal a lot of damage, and it leaves you open for a long time with a 'Please do a max damage combo and kill me' sign in your head. Avoid.
f b f +	13/87/20			HL

Desperation Moves

• Ryuuko Ranbu (qcf hcb + P) - A multi hit DM. If blocked, Ryo will keep pulling attacks as if it connected, but omitting his finishing DP. This is mostly bad, as it will leave you open for a long time after it finishes, and your opponent can just Guard Cancel Roll and punish you if he has a free stock. Still, if your opponent has no stock and very little bar left, a blocked Ryuuko Ranbu (after a blocked cl.C for example) can finish him off thanks to the chip damage it deals.

Useful mainly in combos.

A version comes out faster and covers less distance, C version is the opposite. MAX version does more hits.

• Haou Shoukou Ken (f hcf + P) - A bigger, more damaging Ko ou Ken. Goes through normal projectiles. A version is slower, and is sometimes difficult to evade if your opponent doesn't guess which version you are doing. An early roll or jump expecting a C version will fall directly into it.

C version travels faster, and is sometimes good to use it as a counter to normal projectiles. Just be aware of its startup, so fast projectiles could hit you before you pull it.

Both versions can be good to catch jumping opponents.

MAX versions are bigger and deal more damage / hits. The A version has the same speed as the C version.

Combos

• cr.A / cr.B x 2, st.A >
  • hcb + B

• cr.B, cr.A/cl.A >
  • hcb + D (Very close.)
  • hcb + B

• (cr.B (optional), cr.C) / cl.C,
  • DM qcf hcb + P
  • DM f hcf + A
  • hcb + D
  • f + A

Strategy Corner

• MAX: cl.C > + D

deals ??? than

• cl.C > + P

Keep this in mind, when you need to decide whether to trigger MAX or keep meter for a DM.