Why is Ken considered better than Ryu?

cuz Ryu is a slightly improved version of Sean, thats why Ken is like 10000 times better than Ryu…:rofl: :rofl: :sleep:

Aw now that’s just harsh. :frowning:

Ken is a shoto built like a tank in that he can do huge damage through mixups, but also through his super and back throw he has huge mobility. His super pushes him and his opponent into the corner, his back throw is a roll which pushes him and his opponent across half a screen. It’s very easy to get people in the corner, and then his standing medium punch mixups come into play and also his double light punch shoryuken juggle. If you know the setups the opponent is basically guessing, and if they guess wrong youeat 30% of their life bar (even without super in stock). That alone puts him ahead of Ryu, but then there’s other stuff such as better hit confirms, better normals, DED, better jumping medium kick crossover, back medium kick overhead link into super and quite a few other things as well.

To make it short and simple: Ryu has plenty of good options that make him a strong and viable character. It’s just Ken’s options are way better.

not even way better.

ryu has superior AA potential. Ryu has far superior stun potential. Ryu has 3 very viable supers. Ryu has a very useful hadou for pressure, footsie punish, hit confirming, whatever (ex or regular depending on what you’re doing with it). ryu has one of the better kara-throws in the game.

the difference is not that enormous. there is probably a point in overall player progression where ken suddenly seems overwhelmingly dominant. but I don’t believe it stays that way. all indications from players who are much better than I am is that the difference is there, but is not as big a deal as people make it out to be.

also i dont get the tank analogy at all. if either is a tank its ryu. he moves slower and he hits a whole lot harder.
ken is like a helicopter hovering just outside where you’d like to be, punishing whiffs and nimbly dashing around before hovering some more.

Which like I said, Ryu has plenty of good options. Some of them are about as good as, or in some regards better than, Ken’s. In terms of maneuverability and consistency though, Ken has a big advantage. Ken doesn’t do huge damage or stun as easily as Ryu does, but he trades it off with better use of his pokes and better methods of dealing with corners and air-to-air situations.

If you’re talking about the Ken vs Ryu matchup, then it’s fairly even, 6-4 Ken’s favor at most(which is far from terrible in 3S). When it’s Ken or Ryu vs everyone else, the difference is quite obvious and you start feeling Ken’s options being more dominant than Ryu’s.

This is just based off my own experiences from playing as Ryu and Ken, as well as playing against Ryu and Ken(as well as Ryu vs Ken, and vice versa). I’m sure Ryu specialists like Flare will say otherwise, but imo Ken >>> Ryu. That’s not to say Ryu is bad, obviously. Ken is just way better.

yeah i mean i think overall ken has better matchups vs more of the cast than ryu.

I’d say Ken > Ryu. not Ken >>> Ryu :slight_smile:

But honestly it’s just a difference in mentality and gameplay. ken has consistency but in 3s consistency is sort of a weird concept since every match basically hangs on a thread and can go either way in an instant for ANY character. how do you even describe oro to someone. “oh he does nothing for 30 seconds and then wins the round when he touches you with cl.mp.”

if someone asked me why ken is considered better than ryu in 3s I would tell them mostly what everyone says though. specifically focusing on sa3 and target combo being awesome. everything is shit compared to ex joudan though.

SEYAAAAAAA!

I think super arts in general kinda set the tiers up… Chun’s SA2, Yun’s SA3, Ken’s SA3, and Dudley’s SA3 all set themselves apart. They are quick starting, damaging, and for 3/4 have tiny stocks.
Not to mention Ken’s EX Air Tatsu is like buttah

Still, but characters like Makoto, don’t even really need their supers to be effective. Ex alone is good enough to scare the crap out of people.

because almost everything goes > super

double shoryu’s all the way. damage, meter, combos off everything.

Seemingly able to hitconfirm everything.

mp, hp chain.

sa3= top tier, meter builds easily. sets up position so that you can go back into sa3. or do you high low/throw/ ioh into whatever. this is the main reason, really. meter builds insanely quick due to how short the well, meter is, and every ex costs A CRAPTON LESS than Ryu’s ex moves. Also, with meter Every poke that hits could be a super. every knockdown can set up a super setup. The short meter also aids in mind games in addition to everything else. Say I do two crouch shorts. If they block, I can just throw, or do uoh, or do the overhead kick, which has different timing and goes into super. Alternately I can back off and do some other poke into super once they try to press a button.

The ex tatsumaki in the air is fantastic. You can do some crazy combos off of it and use it to escape.

I don’t think the srk knocks the op as far away. this allows setups.

He has froward moving standing pokes that have range, like stand hk. He’s a more physical fighter overall than Ryu, whose normals are still admittedly based around fireball tactics. Which is really weird.

His mixup is straight up deadlier due to things like sa3 and his overhead kick.

Overhead kick seems less punishable than Ryu overhead. Also a grounded overhead unlike uoh.

Ex shoryu hits 3 times and Hugo has to alternate parry directions.

He can combo ex shoryu off of of a regular one or an ex tatsu (waste of meter imo).

Ex tatsu is also a good air>air.

Ken can sggk with both cmk and chk.

Ryu has some things that are better than ken’s tools. He’s still not as good overall though.
Ryu has a much more usable kara throw imo. Ken’s is just bad to me, even with the sggk, the throw doesn’t really have any of the added range.
Every spin of a tatsu builds meter.
Ryu seems to do a lot more damage in one go than ken, but the tradeoff is that he can’t always do this damage consistently. Ken can do a lot of bursts of damage quickly and it costs less meter.
Unlike shippu, denjin cannot be blocked. Shiipu still = higher tier though. It isn’t 2i denjin. Dang 2i denjin is good.

I feel like ryu is the middleground between ken and gouki…if that makes sense

Oro only fights with one arm.