Ryu’s already off to a pretty bad start in the Street Fighter 6 meta. Despite being the all-rounder Shoto combatant, he’s pretty much outshined in just about every important aspect by Ken and Luke. This is even before the arrival of Akuma as a DLC fighter.
Ultimately, Ryu’s problems have essentially painted him as being around mid tier or low tier in Street Fighter 6. Needless to say, it feels like he’d be a good candidate for buffs when Capcom drops the first major balance patch for the game.
VesperArcade and Mir recently released a video where they discussed Ryu’s current standing in the meta and what buffs they think he needs to become relevant.
One of the biggest problems with Ryu right now is his reliance on both his fireball and his Denjin Charge specials. In particular, much of Ryu’s damage is locked behind saving his Denjin Charge stock to use for his Hadogeki special while up close.
As things stand right now, there isn’t really a viable way for Ryu to use his Denjin Charge without pushing the opponent to full screen. Due to this, the natural reaction for Ryu is to then throw a fireball, which would spend the Denjin Charge stock.
Of course, Ryu could simply approach instead of throwing fireballs, but the character just isn’t built to be a rush down archetype like how Ken and Luke are designed. Ryu just doesn’t have any options in this situation aside from inching forward and blocking.
VesperArcade and Mir came up with the idea of making it so that Ryu’s Denjin Charge stock only gets spent when he uses his heavy or Overdrive fireball. This way, he can still throw light and medium fireballs without spending his stock.
Check out the video below to hear the rest of what VesperArcade and Mir had to say about Ryu: