I stopped playing 3rd strike for a few months but nevetheless am now back and came across this match up quite frequently.
To me this seems quite an even matchup. Just quite plainly:
[LIST]
[]Ryu’s raw damage/stun vs Akuma’s low stamina/stun
[]Akuma’s mobility vs Ryu’s seemingly lack thereof
[]Akuma’s great air game , namely the demon flip vs Ryu’s quite decent anti-air options
[]Mistakes made by an Akuma player are a HUGE payoff for the Ryu player, where the converse I don’t think is AS rewarding: That being said, I believe the Akuma player has to play far more precise and carefully
[]Akuma’s ability to lock down Ryu quite well in the corner
[]Both have great kara-throws
[*]The enormity of Akuma’s mix up potential vs Ryu’s quite ordinary one
[/LIST]
I’m sure there are others (I did not mention Akuma’s inability to perfom EX moves, I don’t think thats viable to mention… although it would be sweet if we had them =D)
What do you guys think of this matchup; who has the edge? And, specifically, how do you think we should go about playing this matchup?
If played perfectly, the edge goes to Gouki. He has more angles at which to attack and more ways to escape should Ryu actually gain the offensive on him. However, like you said, one mistake and Gouki eats a ton of damage. Also, Gouki’s lack of EX moves, IMO, is a non-factor, since his moves already do stupid amounts of damage already.
It’s just a very even footsie battle. Not much else you can say. All you basic shoto moves are in play. None of them really nullify any of the others. Thankfully in this matchup as opposed to Ken you don’t get any moves shut out by the potential of reversal SA3 (far stand mk, far stand fp)
Assuming you aren’t facing Denjin you don’t really need to be watching out for something unique from basic shoto v shoto stuff. Don’t be a dummy and crouch block all of a blocked tatsu having Ryu cruise over your head and possibly blowing a big punish situation. It amazes me how many experienced players still do this.
Against Denjin, obviously if you can’t reversal teleport on your wakeup, fucking learn it!! In my case I could do it well enough that I didn’t get much practice parrying my way out. Maybe spend a little extra time in training mode practicing parrying your way out in case it comes up.
I’d also keep in mind that Ryu can cancel normals into ex hadou or ex tatsu without confirming and still be pretty safe. I get the impression some of the people I play with expect those moves to be hit confirmed but when I play Ryu I just throw them out and get a lot of random damage from people blocking c.mk but then eating an ex hadou for whatever reason.
Lots of Ryu players tend to play a bit more jungle than typical shoto players, even people who don’t pick Denjin. Not sure why (I suspect just cause Ryu is weak) but keep an eye out for it.
To be honest I think Akuma wins the footsie battle, namely because of far fierce (which I have been terribly underusing in matchups I can use it in, makes for the end of a great frame trap, and will catch people jumping back sometimes) and his mobility on the ground.
Parrying the Denjin still leaves you in the corner most of the time, I find teleporting is a good option (I’ve even tried teleporting after 2 parries or so and that seems to work really well too) As for EX Hadou and EX Tatsu, I cannot remember the amount of times I just eat these and for the life of me I don’t know why I let it happen =( I think being able to red parry the ends of these 2 would really give Akuma the edge.