One of the things I enjoyed about the Akuma Origins story was Udon’s attempt at establishing where Ryu came from and how Gouken came across him.
[details=Spoiler]Gouken and Akuma’s father was killed by a man who was the son of one of Goutetsu’s practitioners of the Ansatsuken and a student of Goutetsu himself. Their father and the other guys father were fellow students who became obsessed with the power of the Satsui no Hado. Once Goutetsu began to see this, he dismissed all of them from his dojo. Many of them went on to become assassins with this newfound power, but Gouken’s father began to realize that this wasn’t the right path. Looking to make things right, he killed all of the other ansatsuken users, including the father of the guy who killed him later for revenge.
Towards the end of their training, Goutetsu sent Retsu to make contact with Gouken in the harsh wintry mountain he was secluded in. To find out if his intentions were truly pure, Retsu showed him the village of the man who killed his father many yrs ago. He points out that the men would be easy to kill because of their old age and lack of power in comparison to Gouken. Once Gouken makes it clear that he no longer cares about revenge, his training is considered complete. Akuma, however, did not decline this opportunity. He easily slaughtered the man and those in the village, with Gouken arriving to see the aftermath of Akuma’s attack.
As Gouken enters the dojo, he see’s a little baby and rescues him before he could be consumed by the fire. This baby ended up being Ryu[/details]
If there’s ever a canon explanation of Ryu’s origin, I feel as though that’s the best one.
Seriously though, the last time (and possibly the only time) Ryu ever acknowledged his parentage or lack thereof was in The Ties That Bind. In it he basically says he has no clue who his parents are and that his earliest memories involve Gouken, Akuma, and Goutetsu. However, it’s important to note that if Ryu remembers Gouken and Akuma training with one another under Goutetsu, then it makes it less likely that he is the out-of-wedlock child of Akuma and Sayaka. The Father-Akuma theory kinda requires for Ryu to be born AFTER Akuma forsake his Master and his teachings. Unless of course Akuma was already a father in a happy relationship with Sayaka, with the blessing of Goutetsu before he went to the darkside. This makes too many assumptions (for example, Sayaka is not a canonical character and Goutetsu has no daughter or niece thus far) that I am not comfortable with personally.
I will say this though, that the way Ryu talked about his childhood (immediately having what is most closely a mental flashback of his conversation with Akuma from his SFA2 ending), made it sound like there was more to it and that Capcom may just explore that part of his character eventually. You can hear what I am talking about at 13:10.
I like the basic gist of it that Ryu was still a victim orphaned by Akuma’s selfishness. This idea is a great carry over from the story that Akuma fathered Ryu with Goutetsu’s daughter/niece but forsake the happiness that was within his reach to pursue his own demonic ambitions.
Don’t worry, my friend. Chun-Li was shown to be involved with a lot of the plot (one shot she was in the City and ran into Rashid, while in another, she was in the company of Ken and Laura in Brazil). Urien says she helped take down Shadoloo, and she is the main heroine of the series in general. She’ll be a major character in the story.
What if Ryu’s parentage is actually painfully average and has no impact on his abilities? I mean, if there was a cool story to tell, why not do it in SF1, Alpha, or even SF2? Realistically, Ryu was probably orphaned/given up at a young age. However, the general reclusiveness of Gouken’s dojo leads me to believe that either Gouken sought Ryu out (“I SENSE A DISTURBANCE IN THE FORCE”) or Ryu was brought to him.
The general consensus in the expanded universe is that Akuma is the father. The established pattern with Capcom is when something exists in the EU long enough or it gained enough traction, they will absorb it in some capacity into the main canon. This leads me to believe that at some point Capcom will finally acknowledge who Ryu’s parents really are and there is a good chance Akuma is involved in some way.
When Capcom will do this? Most likely when Ryu and Akuma’s final battle is imminent, they will revisit this piece of story. Until then, they can just keep us guessing.
Maybe it’s for the best if Chun Li isn’t a major focus for the story. Lately Capcom seems intent on making her look weak as hell. In SFIV it looks like she’s having trouble against Viper( although I still can’t tell if the two actually met and fought) In Super she apparently get’s her ass kicked by Juri and then has to be saved by Guile and Abel. It looks like she faces Rashid in the cinematic trailer. At this rate, they might have her get wrecked by him too. Looks like she also faces Vega in the story prologue. I doubt she’s winning that fight either.
The intent of Chun-Li’s fight with Juri was not to make Chun look weak, rather it was meant to make Juri (the new character) strong. Chun took the full force of Juri’s power and survived. She was back on her feet fighting within months of the Juri incident, even though everyone in that building died.
Capcom have shown more respect for Chun-Li this era than any era before. Chun-Li actually REPLACED Ken unofficially and she is now second ONLY to Ryu in the franchise. If anything, Capcom are intent on making her more badass than ever. Did you not see her Kikosho in the Viper Aftermath trailer btw? That’s no where near weak on the map.
You gotta keep in mind that Chun doesn’t generally fight to beat the living hell out of people either. Viper was going at Chun pretty damned hard…and Juri is a psychopath AND was a new opponent AND has the hax eyeball.
Chun is always going to look and perform worse against people she doesn’t have a reason to beat up badly. Compare to her performance against Bison where she is SUPER impressive. Fighting Juri again I’m sure she’d go at the TKD-whackjob far more aggressively and work to dismantle her.
Capcom has actually been consistently making Chun-Li look pretty good.
Also, Chun-Li lost to Juri because she was more concerned about the safety of the young boy, which may have left her open for Juri, but if anything, it speaks more about Chun-Li’s character than her strength. She put the safety and well being of others before her own. That doesn’t show weakness. That’s strength. As corny, and cheesy as it sounds, it shows how strong of a character she not only is, but how she’s evolved as well. In alpha and SFII, she goes from being hell bent on revenge against shadaloo to dedicating her life to protecting others.
Eh, I dunno if I’d go that far. I think she has better accomplishments and story significance in the Alpha games. I’d say that was her best era so far.
I’m actually very interested in how Capcom seems determined to make a decent story mode. I’ve always been kinda(not a lot) interested in the SF story but all the retcons, hazy canon, and arguing over what’s official and not just made it not worth it to care all that much. Capcom didn’t seem to care either. It’s nice to see them giving a shit now.
Like Daemos and the others have mentioned, Juri and her eye are meant to be OP. She even took down Guile and Cammy as well (I’m sure you’ve seen this). When she was facing Bison with the others at the end of SF2, she created a huge crater and blew apart a large chunk of the forest from one attack. She’s definitely one of the stronger SF characters.
I’m actually under the impression that Rashid will get his ass kicked by her when they stumble across each other in the Story mode. Don’t quote me on that, though lol.
Lets not forget how the fight between the two is portrayed in the SSF4 intro.
Juri fights dirty; she uses the environment for unfair leverage, all the while using hit and run tactics to wear Chun down. Although once Chun manages to land a solid Kikoken on Juri, she hurts her. She knock her against the railing so hard as to leave a dent, and by the look on Juri’s face it seems like she seen a ghost.
Unlike Guile in the anime, Chun doesn’t let up on her assault on Juri and forces her into a full retreat. Juri continues her hit and run maneuvers, but the only way Juri manages to overcome Chun is by the exact way she did in the anime; a distraction. Although without Cammy’s distraction, Chun was again able to hold her ground against Juri, and even overpower her in some instances.
Story is dumb and mean because 25 years later and we still don’t even know who officially won street fighter 2. If ya can’t even be told that basic building block why bother with the rest.
As @michaelahuey mentioned, I’m pretty sure it’s unconfirmed. Hopefully, with the individual character stories that come with the game explaining everyone’s story up until current events, we can find it who won the tournament. I’m cautiously optimistic.
Even noted barely any story game VF, I can tell you who won the first 3 tournaments at least (lau, akira, kage in that order). Tekken in order is Kazuya/Heihachi/Heihachi(technically jin, more technically paul)/Heihachi/Jin/Kazuya.
Ryu wins sf1, everything after that is a mystery~~~
