The latest patch for Street Fighter 6 made some significant adjustments to the balance of the game. While it’s still not clear exactly where Ryu will end up in this new meta, he does appear to be one of the big winners right now due to all the impactful buffs he received.
In a recent video upload, BST|Daigo Umehara took the time to go over and analyze the changes made to Ryu. By the end of the session, he ends up “howling” in excitement with some of the changes that he goes over.
“I’ve got to say, Ryu seems totally viable,” says Daigo at one point. “I suspect he’s quite strong.”
After experimenting with some corner combos, Daigo takes notice of how much Drive Gauge Ryu’s High Blade Kick depleted from the opponent when they block the technique. This seems quite strong considering how it basically takes away an entire bar while remaining safe (even more so than before).
“He’s good enough that I’d like to try playing with him when I have time,” continued Daigo later in the video. “Still, as long as this game has corner throw loops, I feel like he’s still going to fall short.”
Every time Ryu gets buffed since Street Fighter 5, there tends to be a lot of hype that he may finally end up being viable. One also has to imagine that there’s always a lot of pressure on Daigo to play Ryu, but it sounds like he’ll probably still be sticking with Akuma while using Ryu for more casual sessions.
Still, it’s worth noting that Kusangi was able to qualify for Capcom Cup 11 with Ryu not too long ago. We’ll probably get a better feel for what these buffs will do for Ryu around that time.
Check out all of Daigo’s reactions to Ryu’s changes in the video below: