When Street Fighter 6 was first released on June 2, 2023, Ryu was believed to be around mid tier or low tier compared to the rest of the cast. Ultimately, he was perceived as being a weaker version of Ken and Luke, as well as Akuma when he got added near the end of Season 1.
Unfortunately, this was continuing a trend started by Season 2 of Street Fighter 5 where Ryu was just too honest of a character to be competitive in any practical way. Other characters were just able to do things better than Ryu.
However, it seems that Capcom has been trying to break this trend for a few years now. Over the course of multiple patches, Ryu received some very notable buffs to his kit in hopes of making him a viable combatant after years of going unused within high stakes matches.
As these buffs continued to escalate Ryu’s power level, resulting in Ryu placing second at Capcom Cup 11 earlier this year. Despite this, Ryu still received significant buffs in the Season 3 patch.
At long last, Ryu once again feels like a top tier threat in a mainline Street Fighter game. It’s been quite the journey for Ryu fans.
In a recent video, Broski outlined the way in which Ryu was finally able to become a top tier threat once again. He discussed all the buffs that Ryu has received over the years.
Check it all out below: