Alex the Angry Ryu Player

Ryu can be played in a myriad of different ways. The included flowchart is just one example. T his is merely a high-level overview of basic Ryu play and is  not intended to address all scenarios.  Note however, that this play style can remain  very effective given how well you read your opponent. Figure 1: The Reactive Ryu Ryu has two primary specials (we are going to ignore the tatsumaki for the moment). Hadouken, which controls horizontal space, and Shoryuken, which controls vertical space. Due to the nature of these specials and the space they control, Ryu can theoretically win using only these two moves. Given this, Ryu's gameplan can be distilled down even further: Figure 2 : Ryu Gameplay (Simplified) The above assumes you are at your opponent's jump-in range. It could be argued that this degenerates Ryu's gameplan into a game of rock-paper-scissors, thereby leaving too much to chance. This is a fair assessment, however one must acknowledge tha...

Using Ryu represents a purist (and arguably sadomasochist) approach to Street Fighter 4. Whilst he was acceptable in Vanilla, his competitiveness as a character peaked in Super then rapidly diminished with the release of Arcade Edition (AE). This is not to say he is not a viable character option; rather, he represents a style of play that is heavily reliant on a competent understanding of core gameplay fundamentals in order to evade some of the more tricky situations players might find themselves in (Dan is somewhat of a more extreme example of this). Fists of Fundamentals Capcom seem determined to paint Ryu in AE as a "bridge" character for new players to use solely as a platform to become confident in the use of core gameplay mechanics and execution. By giving the player only a basic set of tools that don't excel in any particular area, the player is forced to fall back on their understanding of gameplay mechanics in order to remain competitive against much of the c...

Alex is a long-time Ryu SF4 player dating back to Vanilla, with well over 15,000 matches played in arcades, online and local tournaments including most recently Shadowloo Showdown 2013. He can often be found in the bowels of an arcade yelling expletives at Akuma, Cammy and Seth players. Main : Ryu Alt(s) : E.Ryu, Ken GFWL : Gigadeath22 PSN:  Gigadeath22