Neutral
Ryu is an all-rounder type but mostly wants to play a mid range neutral where he can control the game with his projectiles and normals that are safe through special canceling. He does not quite have the speed Ken has but he is given two projectiles that both do 15+ damage and can be mixed up for many different speeds and distances. The projectiles should be used to cover space and lock the opponent’s movement. Hadoken on the ground to get the opponent to jump or Hadoken in the air to act as a long range anti air. Hadoken can go the fastest and farthest, or the slowest and shortest. It is a single hit projectile that is meant to beat out attacks. It will beat attacks that do less damage than it does. Shaku is a multi hit projectile that has more uniform speeds but are still different across the three versions of shaku. Because it is multi-hit, it loses to almost every attack. But, it does more damage than hado, and it can lead to big shield damage, or combos. He has a fast startup, long lasting NAir that can be used as a preemptive air-to-air but then fast fallen to apply pressure against a grounded opponent. His FAir, BAir, and UAir are also great for air-to-airing. BAir is really strong and UAir is intangible on the arm and can be special canceled on the first hit to shoryuken for a kill. On the ground, Ryu has LFTilt for stopping approaches due to its intangibility. Its launch angle allows Ryu to combo into aerials for high damage combos. He also has LDTilt, HDTilt, LUTilt, and DSmash for pokes. He has HUTilt for an anti-air against an opponent who lands on top of him and HJab for an anti-air against short hops. With these tools he applies a safe pressure to then condition the opponent into doing an action that Ryu wants them to do. This is where Ryu gets his big openings into lots of damage. Ryu doesn’t play on platforms but he is good at locking platforms from being used by the opponent in neutral due to his slow fireballs and air-to-airs. He does this by throwing a slow fireball at the platforms so that if the opponent were to land on them, their feet would get clipped, and when he is under the platform the opponent is on, he sharks with UAir which can lead to ladder combos. At long range Ryu can use his projectiles to zone, but against actual zoner characters, their projectiles are likely to beat Ryu’s. He is much better playing at mid-range where he can get the full use of all of his normals and projectiles. He can approach behind a slow fireball to close the distance safely.
On Shield
If Ryu hits a shield he is able to apply shield pressure with the use of his fast tilts and special cancels into his block strings or frame traps. Ryu doesn’t really try to go for shield breaks like Ken does. He almost always just conditions the opponent to escape shield a certain way so that he can get his own combo off into high damage or a potential KO. But if the opponent decides to hold shield he can get a shield break with one light tilt into HFTilt. Other ways Ryu can get a shield break is with shaku > HFTilt, sour FAir xx h.shoryu, or DDFADC1/2 > h.shoryu. These aren’t commonly seen because of their slow startup giving the opponent lots of time to react and move out of the way. Ryu can also go for tick throws to gain stage control. This is done by hitting the opponent’s shield then grabbing them.
Out of Shield
Out of Shield Ryu has a frame 6 Up B for an easy, strong punish, frame 6 NAir for a weak but safer punish, frame 9 USmash that can be auto-turned by delaying it at least one frame for a slower but safer punish, frame 9 UAir for jumps after pressure, frame 13 shield release auto-turn light DTilt which is good against close range, unsafe attacks, frame 14 auto-turn light UTilt which is good against opponents who tend to jump after hitting an attack on shield, and frame 16 auto-turn DSmash which is good against opponents who try to space tilts on shield. Ryu can also jump to try and land aerials to call out defense after the opponent’s pressure.
Out of Parry
Out of parry Ryu can do whatever he wants. Ryu can use light tilts against safe moves on parry, light FTilt or DSmash against spaced attacks on parry. If Ryu gets a proper parry punish, he can get pretty good damage.
Disadvantage
On hit Ryu has frame 1 heavy armor with Focus Attack, but it gets beat by multihits. Ryu has a frame 3 air dodge. When being juggled Ryu can use B-reverse Focus Attack to change momentum then dash cancel to change momentum again. When launched off stage Ryu has Focus and hado to stall his recovery and Focus can be used to help get Ryu out of being edge guarded or to get him closer to the ledge. If Ryu is launched far off stage, tatsu can be used to help Ryu model shift away from the blastzone, but it should not be used to go to the ledge because of its slow speed and very high end lag. Ryu’s shoryuken does not snap to ledge but He has 3 different versions that go different heights to help with that. Shoryuken can be used to shark the ledge but it can be two-framed and it will trigger counters. Using input shoryuken can prevent being 2-framed because of the arm intangibility. And if the opponent ever goes off stage to try and counter Ryu’s up B, Ryu can use UAir to trigger the counter then special cancel into shoryuken to then use its intangibility to go through the actual attack. Below is a list of counters that Ken and Ryu’s shoryuken go through. Although it is inferring to when done on the ground, it also applies to when done in the air. Made by Lernonad:
Stages
Ordered from best at the top to worst at the bottom.
Fighting Ryu
Ryu has good ground mobility. His air mobility, although fast, is lacking in acceleration. This means that he cannot use air drift like many other characters can. His aerials are not disjointed. So against a jump-happy Ryu, it is very easy to anti-air him. His tools on shield look safe but can be escaped before he starts his block strings by rolling out of them. Tilt mash on shield is not safe against anything frame 4 or faster. And after a few tilts, once it is staled, frame 5 or faster will beat it as well. Try not to spotdodge them though because tilt mash will catch the end lag of the spotdodge. Auto turn around can be a pain but that’s not the real problem people have. The problem they have is the tilt mash in neutral. Ryu does a landing aerial into mashing tilts and the opponent rolls through Ryu’s first move and gets caught by the tilt spam. Or he is mashing on shield and they roll behind Ryu and he catches them with tilts. The most simple counterplay is to not roll behind Ryu. The more effective counterplay is to actually counter the tilts he is mashing. Ryu is still in lag and if he is mashing light DTilts then the best option would be to hit him from above, with an aerial. If he is mashing light UTilts then the best option would be to hit him from below with a DTilt. Light UTilt has less range than DTilt so the opponent can roll behind Ryu to get out. But they are also less safe on shield so after a few tilts they become stale. Just be sure to get out after 2-3 light UTilts. Furthermore, when doing an aerial on Ryu’s shield with the intent to crossup, make sure the aerial is safe on shield, so that Ryu can’t punish you with an auto turn attack OOS or a b-reverse up B. Focus attack is slow and has heavy armor that goes away after Ryu is hit. That means that the opponent can hit him again to break the armor and to launch Ryu. And, if he tries it on the ground, it does lose to grabs. On shield it is safe and if fully charged it is unblockable, so it is best to roll away from Focus Attack, but do not roll in as Ryu can change the direction of the attack. When Ryu is offstage be ready to edge guard his tatsu back to stage. Otherwise, be ready to two-frame shoryuken with a disjoint.
