Ryu General Thread: Eternal Wanderer

Street Fighter V Ryu
801

Forgot to mention it but I always use cr. HP > EX fireball because it leaves Ryu close enough for a throw without walking forward and you do a little white life before the mix up. I prefer not to add a jab or anything else because it will push Ryu out of throw range. A blocked cr. HP > EX fireball > landed throw does a total of 155 damage when you add in chip, white life, and real damage together. Plus if it does hit and you have another bar then juggle with EX DP for a total of 308 damage.

Of all the buffs this is the only one that I find useful. I find the special cancelable axe kick to be pretty mediocre. If they only gave us special cancelable st. HP at all times I think I would like Ryu a lot more this season. I’m not even sure it would make him much better, but it would make him more fun. Having a true block string into fireball with a decent range heavy button and fishing for counter hits into tatsu or SRK (depending on the range) would have been pretty cool to have.

802

The thing with using the jab first is it works good against return jabs or people using slight delays.

803

Question: Why do you guys play Ryu? It’s obviously not for tier reasons (or maybe you like not playing a top-tier). But I imagine it’s something deeper. Is it because of his play style, or because of what he embodies as a fighter, or something else?

804

I just always liked his play style for the most part.

805

I’m one of those guys that started with Ryu and will probably always stick with him no matter what. I was 9 in 1992 when my older brother borrowed his friends SNES with a copy of SF2:WW. He was playing this guy in a karate gi who could throw fireballs from his hands and I’ve been in love ever since lol. So I’ve always played him since then from the SF3 series, EX series, Alpha series, and even in other guys like CVS, Gem Fighter, Marvel. The only time I abandoned Ryu was when AE came out. I went straight to Evil Ryu(if that even counts) and stuck to him till the very end. Even though he kind of sucked in AE, he had more options and I was getting sick of trying to play so honest while everybody else had so much BS to work with. Evil Ryu had damage and more BS to work with.

I like SF4 more, but I enjoy playing Ryu more in SFV. Even with the game being pressure heavy, his regular DP not being invincible anymore, and his own pressure game being pretty weak I at least feel like I can play a standard shoto zoning game kind of stress free. If they dash in on me or jump my fireball, my fault right? There are other ways around fireballs, but it’s not as bad as SF4 IMO where I hated playing that way because of what so many other characters could do.

806

BTW I had a long hiatus from September last year to just two weeks ago. Since playing again I’ve noticed that Gold to Super Gold Ryu’s still can’t reliably or prefer not to DP on reaction. They anti air with st. Jab or cr. HP. Both are decent options, it’s just that they can be exploited. I started doing air light tatsu against this Ryu player who was pretty good at landing the st. Jab as an anti air(I’m awful at doing this now). For guys that stick with cr. HP, I try to empty jump out of the cr. HP range into a low forward fireball or sometimes even committing to a tatsu.

Even some guys that have demolished me don’t show any sign that they can DP on reaction. I guess I just find it disappointing. Gold is nothing special, but it at least means you’re somewhat competent at the game now and being able to DP on reaction is an important trait to have and I’m not seeing it a lot even when I’m jumping in at a very obvious time at a very comfortable DP range

807

Lets me play the way i want to more than anyone else

808

Theres guys all the way in diamond that dont DP anti air. You can empty jump the jab against most people as well.

809

For me it’s more a learning thing. It takes you an insane amount of time ,if you want to be good, at learning the various spaces in match ups where you can judge options and choices and they become natural over time.

So for me it’s quite simple, I’m not prepared to re-learn 6-12 months worth of nuance and muscle memory for a game that Capcom are prepared to drastically change yearly and really don’t seem to care about that much. That plus I’m not a Pro so I have no investment in changing.

My best Ryu is still going to be better than my 6 month Karin/Necalli ( insert top tier) purely because I’m well into the comfort zone with Ryu.

810

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO8qR1DG_f0

811

Love how they are all over Smugs nuts til the last round lol. I’ve always said Ryu can handle difficult matches if the opponent attacks and plays wreckless because you just pick them off.

It’s matches like Guile where he’s not coming to you that are super hard.

Smug kept jumping here for some reason which cost him grounded momentum. By the time he’d realised the Ryu player was legit it was too late. He mis calculated on the critical arts as well.

Combination of not respecting the player and bad choices plus Abao playing clean with minimal mistakes. Good show.

812

Balrog bill gonna pop up in here like oscar the grouch with them I told you so’s.

Smug did get outplayed though, but the match proves that an on point ryu can take the match if they know footsies and not just fireballs.

Still rog advantage though.

813

It just seemed like Abao outplayed him. His stuff landed and Smug’s didn’t. Is Abao still in it? I didn’t seem him on the winner’s or loser’s brackets.

814

Just out of curiosity, how much is low forward > fireball in neutral apart of your game in SFV? Just wondering because I almost never try to do this in neutral. I mainly spend my time walking in range for a st. MK instead and then throw a fireball afterward. Of course st. MK isn’t cancelable, but that’s the only range I feel comfortable walking forward to do a normal > fireball. I’ve had decent results with it, if it’s blocked it will keep me out of range of my opponents faster buttons. If the character I’m playing has a long range medium or heavy and tries to return fire with it then I’ll start using st. LK buffered into EX tatsu/fireball or even cr. HP if it’s a 8f or slower normal.

I actually use cr. MP more often to cancel into fireball and have been doing it primarily since maybe month two of SFV. I just find it more reliable since it’s faster, does a bit more damage, and is more likely to combo into fireball from further ranges. The fact that it has slightly less range and doesn’t hit low isn’t enough for me to choose cr. MK over it. If they really didn’t want Ryu players to rely on low forward > fireball then they did a good job as far as I’m concerned. Even when watching match videos of high level Ryu players I rarely see that block string.

815

I think I dropped cr.MKxxFP within the first month of playing SFV. Since it’s not a block string, it’s not very reliable. In addition, you get so many more options off cr.MP (+2 frames on block so your opponent has to respect options up close, xxFP is a block string so you can safely space out, etc.) Plus, footsies aren’t really a thing in SFV with Ryu. He doesn’t have a a good long fast poke to really footsie so I wouldn’t worry too much about ranges. You basically have to be a bully and just get in or force your opponent to the corner.

816

I use it a lot. Not like sf4 a lot, but it sees decent use.

Most of my poking is from fireballs, with occasional back roundhouse or stand mk. Crouch mp/mk, stand lk and stand hp are counter pokes/dash stoppers or close range stuff.

817

The second hit of axe kick spaced at max spacing is not a terrible poke. The first hit can sometimes catch and counter poke your opponent since the active frames are 3(3)4 so it’s very active compared to most buttons in SFV. However, the relevant hitbox of the second part of the attack you will use for poking really only comes out on the 15th frame or so, so it’s not really an 8f startup poke. It’s rather slow. But it’s also cancellable with good range and a heavy attack, which is not very common in SFV at all.

Low forward’s short range (shortest range low forward in the game; Rashid’s crouch short has more range) makes it more situational. Does your opponent back pedal a lot? Go for the toes with low forward or sweep out of the neutral if they try to retreat from your advance. Are they more aggressive in walking into your range? Then stand forward or solar plexus might be the better option.

I find stand short buffered into fierce hadoken to be the safest poke you can use. It’s fast and has good range, so it can catch & stuff a lot of buttons during their startup, but also grab whiffed buttons as well, all while remaining relatively safe since it’s pretty quick to recover. It has 3 active frames too.

Praying to Jesus and whiffing crouch strong is what I use against characters like Zangief or Birdie.

Stand roundhouse is situational like low forward but again works well if you adapt to your opponent not crouching much. It has good range and decent startup for that range, has the benefit of crush counter, and is also only -1 on block, so you can usually maintain pressure afterwards.

818

I’m getting so close to diamond but I find Ryu frustrating a lot of the time.

I wish his fireball was just better. I actually like all the anti-fireball tools that the characters have, I think it makes the fireball game more fun because you have to keep so much more in mind and place your fireballs better, but it kind of sucks that my fireball isn’t really strong enough to warrant such aggressive counters. Guile is a great example of what a solid fireball game in SFV can actually be, so it’s not like it can’t be done. They really need to give Ryu’s hadoken any combination of: more damage, better frame advantage on block/hit, a little faster startup, a little less recovery, make jab travel slower/fierce travel faster, and it desperately needs more pushback on hit/block. The entire fireball just needs marginal buffs all around.

I’d really like if EX hadoken did a ton of pushback on block and could be used as a pseudo-escape tool via creating space.

I hope they make stand forward a little better. Needs more range or a frame less startup.

Low forward needs just a smidge more range. I can’t count the number of combos I’ve dropped because low forward barely whiffed.

Axe kick needs to get it’s frame data on block back. It sucks being -2. It would be nice to hit it meaty on the second hit in the neutral and have it be +1, or on their wakeup and have it be +2/+3.

The additional pushback on counter-hit versus some character’s wakeup buttons is a HUGE problem because it forces your crouch fierce to whiff. That needs to be fixed and Ryu would benefit tremendously.

I’d like it if axe kick got a little buff to the horizontal range of the first hit so you could reliably link axe kick off close range counter-hit stand strong. At the moment you can only hit it versus crouching and it’s inconsistent. Not sure if it’s character specific or requires corner or any combination. Would be a cool combo to have as a reliable go-to.

The sweep range nerf feels so unnecessary and dumb. Ryu’s sweep is ass.

Stand roundhouse should be 9f startup and have 3f active instead of 2f active. Throw my man a bone here. Make it easier to meaty on wakeup (because it already whiffs vs wakeup crouch button) and makes it a more effective AA.

Stand fierce feels rock solid after season 2.

Would like his mid screen throw to be able to have an auto meaty with axe kick afterwards. Very small buff that would make a big difference. Feels pretty easy for the opponent to just escape.

The stand fierce in his target combo should be special cancellable while in v-trigger.

V-Trigger’s duration shouldn’t actively drain while active, only when Ryu uses special attacks.

V-Trigger should buff Ryu’s tatsu with a lightning effect that also makes his tatsu do 200 stun like in season 1.

V-Trigger fireballs should charge and recover just a little faster so the chicken game is more effective, and the frame advantage should be neutral on block for a level 2 charged fireball so pressure is better.

I know season 3 is likely to be a fraction of this…but one can dream, right?

819

You know I will say 1 positive about Ryu. His VT1 definitely feels buffed. I can spit out fireballs like a machine gun for a couple of seconds.

820

I feel V trigger 2 adds nothing viable to Ryu