Akuma was recently made available as the final DLC combatant for Street Fighter 6 Season 1. It’s still a bit too early to determine how much of an impact he’ll have on the meta going into Season 2, but he’s almost always been a contender for top tier throughout the series.
Unfortunately for Ryu fans, Akuma’s introduction into Street Fighter 6 suggests that Ryu may continue to struggle to be relevant as Akuma has a tendency to overshadow him. Regardless, the Season 2 patch provided Ryu with a long list of buffs that could hopefully help Ryu defy this usual fate.
Within this patch, Capcom acknowledged that Ryu’s hurtboxes while throwing a fireball extend much further compared to other projectiles in the game. This is rather unusual since Ryu is supposed to be the master of the fireball while Ken is the master of the dragon punch.
Due to this, the Season 2 update noted a reduction of Ryu’s forward hurtbox when he’s throwing a fireball. What’s funny about this is that this hurtbox apparently doesn’t exist for Akuma at all.
Perhaps it’s due to the fact that Akuma is the only one with less than 10,000 stamina in Street Fighter 6, but there are no hurtboxes present on Akuma’s hands when he’s throwing a fireball. On the other hand, it’s possible this was merely done as a mistake.
Regardless, it would appear that Akuma has blatantly better hurtboxes than Ryu when the two are throwing out fireballs. LinkNova recently posted a clip that showcases how this advantage can be favorable for Akuma in certain situations.
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— LinkNova (@LinkNova_) June 2, 2024