I can’t seem to get the hang of Ryu in this game. Zoning feels very weak and his footsies don’t seem very good. I’m having trouble finding a good combo for him and how to keep pressure on enemies consistently. Whenever I lose it doesn’t feel like I’m being outspaced or losing to footsies. It just feels like they know how to or their character can consistently apply pressure.
Parry works wierd. You can cancel parry on the next frame into a second parry, but if you don’t cancel it into anything it has recovery.
If the moonsault arrives during your recovery or the start up of your next parry, you eat a combo.
I don’t have my guide near me, but for the guy who asked it’s 3f start up, 7 active
I think his zoning is very good. The keys are lp fireball and hp fireball as a mid range poke, and how well you manage those from a touch closer than half screen.
Lp is a lot harder to jump on reaction, and hp hits them kinda like ultra ryu hp fireball.
From half screen and out you have to bait a lot more because of all the anti fireball moves.
I think his footsie game is a lot different from Sf4, but not necessarily worse. You want to counter poke more with empty normal buffers, and use that close range fireball more without focus. Where as in Sf4 you commanded that space with low forward, you do it now with fireball and mk.
The one aspect that’s definitively worse imo is having that space control without risk. Low forward was basically a free button. You don’t have that free button anymore so if i want a similar show of action I’ve been using low jab to fake sweep, or just dashing in
You have to actually throw out the sweep occasionally so they know you will, but i rarely press that button if im not trying to whiff punish. Oh and stand hp is good for whiff punishing a lot of buttons as well.
If you can get them to hesitate from pushing buttons or dashing from fear of running into fireballs, you take that empty space and dash into your close range game. Ryu rushdown is way stronger here.
I thought roo was dead last but kinda changing my opinion now after watching WNF. ive been playing him too much like classic roo, gotta play him different now
With Ryus walk speed and dash, he’s got a big advantage over a lot of characters. You can position yourself much easier than a character like M Bison or Nash because they have to almost exclusively use dashing which opens them up to whiff buttons.
This opens up much more faints into throw/trap. Throw in parry in reaction to predictable moves plus a solid AA and you’ve got so much diversity. I personally thought he was top 5 in the beta 4.
Big call, but this is probably the strongest version of Ryu I can remember.
Literally every button press he uses is confirmed into a combo. Again not a lot of characters have easy confirms.
At the end of the last Beta I started playing Necalli and vowed not to touch Ryu again. Then the game came out and I’ve done nothing except play Ryu.
Overall, I really like him actually. I just wish he had more tools.
His sweep is garbage. I can’t find a decent use for it unless its an extremely hard read on a back-dash or something. Super un-safe, doesn’t even have much range. This means its hard to score knockdowns with Ryu but I guess that’s ok because it’s not like he has great mixup potential.
I think st.mk is god-like. It’s annoying that a lot of his pokes seemingly have massive push-back on block, but all that means is that it creates spaces for you to go for the st.mk. I find it really useful against characters who have to dash in to rush down. As soon as I get that space against a nash or a cammy, I throw out st.mk. They either dash into it and get counter-hit or they block it and it’s safe.
Parry is just ass tho. The risk/reward for it is not good. Most of the time, the only thing it guarantees is that you don’t take damage. It feels slow to start up, has huge recovery which gets Crush Countered.
Ryu’s biggest downfall however is that most of his pokes lack range. Chun can sweep for free and Ryu can’t punish. Nash’s Forward HP can’t be punished on block.
You’re looking at individual stuff instead of how it operates in the game. Short pokes, push back etc , it’s universal.
Parry is good, honestly I’d argue it’s almost best skill in the game. I’ll put money on it that in around 6 months to a year, you’ll see the pros parry multiple hitting moves on reaction for punishes.
Remember high level stuff is meant to evolve and be difficult.
I always save it for MK buffered into VT.
It just feels so good confirming into LK Tatsu, Super. Or even the sweep, if I don’t have super.
Everytime I try to do a cr.HP xx DP or a wakeup DP while having 3 bars, the Super comes out instead of the shoryuken.
Is this just me? Because I see guys pulling it off all the time.
For anyone who is interested, 7F and 8F normals will properly meaty an opponent’s quick rise after HK Tatsumaki.
Your inputs are probably not very clean. I would recommend looking at your input log in training mode. Going to neutral after the c.HP will likely help.
one tip is super will not come out if you end your motion with a DF. just stay clean with your inputs and you should be fine.
i had been hating on ryu ever since beta because of his normal ranges, but i’m getting a better feel for him now. save his c.rh as a footsie punish only.
only thing i need help is i have almost no uses for his meter (ex hado/srk just not worth it), which means i always save it for the super. only other time i use meter is for corner only combos into ex tatsu -> ex dp.
good news - he has a lot of opportunities to land.
bad news - if you don’t land a clean hit, you just ‘waste’ all the meter by not using your resources
been trying to do more throw mixups with ex hurricane for better meter usage but it doesn’t seem very good. 
That’s strange, I never use Super because I think Ryu is too meter dependent to finish combos and using EX fireball in his zoning game. Too often I’ll catch my opponents with a st. MP while they’re crouching. The only way to get better damage, a knockdown, or to simply send them flying away for more breathing room is to burn meter on EX hado or tatsu. And honestly I’m finding EX hado to be very useful in a lot of situations because it’s safe on block whether it be during a shimmy, a dash up low forward > fireball, or even to bait out moves like Laura’s EX shoulder or Rashid’s lunge attack that both have 1 hit of armor.
yeah i am very disappointed with his ex fireballs. doesn’t seem to be recovering much faster for punishing jumpins and damage boost is negligible as combo ender. ex tatsu is much better in that sense but the potential from super is really worth saving the meter at least in my experiences
- off of random hit c.forward xx v-trigger xx super
- off of j.strong
- off of any combo crouching or standing
- off of hit short hurricane
- fireball punishes
might have more uses when we discover it can punish some ‘safe’ specials people are throwing out like nash medium kick thingy. (anyone have a list???)
i do like your ideas of armor breaks so gotta play around with it more. i just haven’t found a good use yet.
ok after almost 1k games played by now I will post a Ryu MU list, feel free to leave your opinion - notice I might be completely wrong and this is just from my experience
Ryu VS
Sim 3/7
Cammy 3.5/6.5
Bison 4/6
Karin 4/6
Fang 4/6
Necalli 4.5/5.5
Birdie 5/5
Nash 5/5
Ken 5/5
Laura 5/5
Chun 5/5
vega 5.5/4.5
Mika 6/4
Gief 6/4Just curious why do you think the cammy MU is that bad?
What is ryu’s general gameplan?
Characters like chun and rashid get to just wail on ryu without really having an answer to their pressure
I feel like Ryu has to reaction-dp all of their approach options to stand a chance… and ryu doesn’t really have an offense to mount when he gets a knock down.
What are Ryu’s dp strengths for in this game? I’ve heard MP is the best anti air is this true? If so what good is LP dp?
LP dp is 3 frames so it can punish moves -3 on block. As for Ryu gameplan IMO he is more effective when he has his opponent in the corner so you just do what it takes to get them there. Vs characters with better normals than mine I either stay out of their range and use fireballs to poke them or use St.MP / LK as a counter poke when inside their attack range.