Street Fighter IV Character Guide: Ryu

Ryu lives to challenge and defeat the best and brightest martial artists in the world in order to become the best fighter he can. He trained along side Ken Masters under the shadow of sensei Gouken and still retains the healthy rivalry the three warriors began years ago.

Ryu’s skills give him a strong offensive and defensive foundation. His Hadoken is a long-range projectile that results in his opponent either jumping over the projectile or blocking it, and if an opponent jumps forward over his Hadoken, Ryu can punish them with a Shoryuken. It takes Ryu less time to regenerate his energy from unleashing his Hadoken, which means he can prepare a counter attack after unleashing one. His EX Hadoken will land twice and is fast and powerful enough to win the majority of long distance duels with projectiles. Use Ryu’s Shoryuken against enemies that jump in to surprise you and deal out nice damage. Ryu’s EX Tatsumaki Senpukyaku will create a vacuum effect that will pull opponents in and do a lot of damage to them, so use this attack in combination with a jump to really surprise your opponent and deliver significant damage.

Street Fighter IV implements six attack buttons in the game; Light Punch, Medium Punch, and Heavy Punch (LP, MP, HP) and Light Kick, Medium Kick, and Heavy Kick (LK, MK, HK). The lighter attacks are executed faster but require the attacker to be closer to the opponent to execute properly. Heavy attacks have a greater range of attack and do more damage than light attacks.

Special Attacks are the fighters’ main abilities, the individual moves that are his signature and indicate his fighting style. This guide will use P for punch or K for kick when talking about special attacks, and PP and KK when an attack calls for you to press the button twice.

You can execute throws by tapping LP + LK while close to an opponent, pressing the left or right directions on the control pad controls the direction of your throw. You can also counter throws by tapping LP + LK as an attacker tries to throw you, which will result in both attacks being cancelled.

Focus Attacks are a new element to Street Fighter IV that are executed by pressing MP + MK during combat. Focus Attacks are both offensive and defensive techniques depending on the situation. Hold MP + MK to charge up an attack, you can absorb one attack while in this stance and releasing the button will unleash a counter attack on your opponent. Otherwise, your fighter will unleash an unblockable attack after a few seconds. Focus Attacks with the Armor Breaking ability, as well as throws, will bypass the Focus stance.

The Focus Attack is also useful to perform the advanced fighting technique Focus dash cancelling. This requires good timing to execute, but with practice you can cancel out your attack animation and into a forward dash that will allow you to immediately execute a Super or Ultra Combo. To execute a Focus dash cancel after beginning a special attack, tap MP + MK and then right, right on the directional pad.

EX Attacks are special attacks that are executed by pressing two punch or kick buttons instead of one. EX attacks do more damage than their normal counterparts and are usually faster in execution, and will deplete one bar on your Super Combo Gauge.

Super Combo Gauge/Super Combos is the four bar gauge that fills up as you fight and are successful with your attacks, it will be emptied when you perform a Super Combo.

Revenge Meter/ Ultra Combos is the opposite of the Super Combo Gauge, this meter fills as you take damage, and does not carry over to the next round of fighting. Once your fighter has received a certain amount of damage the Revenge Meter will be released.

Note: The input directions (arrows) used for attacks and special moves in this guide assumes your character is facing to the right. If you're facing to the left, reverse the left/right directional commands listed in this attacks guide. Also, when you see a directional command preceded by the word "hold", this means you should hold the specified direction for around two seconds before continuing the rest of the commands.

Shoulder Throw – Normal throw – right + LP + LK

Somersault Throw – Normal throw – left + LP + LK

Collarbone Breaker – Unique attack – right + MK

Solar Plexus Strike – Unique attack – right + HP

Hadoken – Special move – down, down/right, right + P

EX Hadoken – down, down/right, right + PP

Shoryuken – Special move – right, down, down/right, right + P

EX Shoryuken – right, down, down/right, right + PP

Tatsumaki Senpukyaku – Special move – down, down/left, left + K

EX Tatsumaki Senpukyaku -- down, down/left, left + KK (Armor Break)

Airborne Tatsumaki Senpukyaku – Special move -- down, down/left, left + K (in the air)

EX Air borne Tatsumaki Senpukyaku down, down/left, left + KK (in the air)

Shinku Hadoken – Super Move – down, down/right, right, down, down/right, right + P

Metsu Hadoken – Super Combo – down, down/right, right, down, down/right, right + PPP