ireviewfightinggamecharacters
I Review Fighting Game Characters
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#2 - Retsu (Street Fighter)
Retsu is one of the two Japanese representatives in the original Fighting Street World Warrior Tournament. Like most of the characters in the very first game, he didn’t have much personality, or functional gameplay design because Fighting Street is a real clunker of a game that didn’t age well and even back then was completely unremarkable.
Retsu, however, manages to be somewhat of a unique design among the extremely unremarkable cast of an unremarkable game. Ok, well maybe not so unique, he is a bald monk who uses vaguely karate-like moves. I think it speaks a lot to Fighting Street that someone like this was among the more unique designs at the time. Unfortunately for Retsu, he is one of the 5 designs from that game that have been yet to be revisited in a later installment in the Street Fighter series. He was slated to be included in Capcom Fighting Evolution alongside Sagat and Eagle, but all three were cut from the game. Looking at the single sprite they did, I believe he had some potential. However, as it stands now he’s still just a nondescript bald monk. I can’t even speak on his moves or anything, because Fighting Street’s characters (besides Ryu and his palette swap) are NPCs.
Retsu holds a distinction of being developed retroactively by Capcom to be somewhat important to the Street Fighter lore, aka the least important thing about Street Fighter. This means he’s been redrawn by Capcom’s artists for tribute projects, included in UDON’s Street Fighter comic book series, and is often listed among the various one-shot characters in the series that fans would like to return. I personally think they could do something fun with his design, but Street Fighter is not lacking in the old people department so I don’t list him as high priority.
I am going to give Retsu a 4/10.
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#1 - Ryu (Street Fighter)
Well, who better to start with then the most recognizable fighting game character of all, right? Ryu came from humble beginnings in Fighting Street. However it was Street Fighter 2 that he would stake out his name in gaming history, and establish himself as the flagship character of Capcom’s flagship series. He had the same 3 special moves that would come to define him and arguably the entire genre of fighting games, period. His Hadoken fireball, Shoryuken dragon punch and Tatsumaki tornado kick and the motions associated with them are pretty much the bread and butter of any fighting game. As such, Ryu is the fundamentals of fighting games boiled down to a science. It might be extremely boring cause its been literal decades, but its what works.
Throughout the various main line Street Fighter titles his moveset has changed very little, he has always had the three central specials and then is just adjusted to fit the specific game’s systems. His fighting style is just standard karate stuff. It supposed to be an “assassination” art and I suppose he could kill someone with his fists that are the size of his head, but it doesn’t particularly scream “assassination” to me. He has that one move in Street Fighter 3 where he does a donkey kick that sends you flying across the screen, and I think that’s probably one of the more interesting things he has been given. His super moves are just big fancy versions of those three specials. They’re nothing really to write home about. Ryu can be played in a variety of different ways but he is most optimal when you just stick to your fundamentals, and play conservative and safe. A good litmus test for a fighting game player is if they can beat a Ryu who sticks to his fundamentals. It may seem simple but actually there is little in the world more frustrating than dealing with someone who knows their shit with Ryu. To underscore this fact, Ryu generally places high on tier lists for every main Street Fighter game.
The thing with his moveset is that despite it being as solid as you can get it doesn’t necessarily translate to interesting. He is a mascot character so he shows up in almost any crossover fighting game Capcom puts out and he has even shown up in Smash Bros.However in those games he is still just plain old Ryu and theres really nothing to make him stand out. Like sorry grandpa, but your moveset stopped being fun in the late 90s. I guess in Smash Bros it kinda owns, but in the Marvel games, or in games like the extremely obscure Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, he is just stale bread. He can’t help it, he’s the mascot, but I don’t think its particularly exciting to play him in crossover games. IMO there are more unique representatives from Street Fighter that translate far better to those formats.
Ryu’s design is something that really never changed. His trademark gi and red headband are also genre-defining and have inspired countless copycats. He was also given gloves after Street Fighter 3 which complete his iconic look. I think his design on its own is pretty solid. You can take one look at Ryu and have a definitive idea about what he’s about and what he represents. There’s nothing confusing about it. I like that. I also like that they decided to stick with the black spiky hairstyle. His original hairstyle was this musty, almost orange looking brown, and he looked like the fifth Beatle. In Street Fighter 2, it looked marginally better, but it was less “extremely battle hardened karate fighter” and more “guy with a bad case of bed head.” He looked like a total dork. It’s actually stunning how ugly it looks when they recreate his original look in later titles. In Street Fighter V, Ryu can now sport a beard and go totally shirtless, to show he has aged and become more wise. He looks like sort of like a Japanese lumberjack, or a really hot dad. Hot dads are always a plus. I however don’t think Ryu would make a good father. He is always disappearing to far flung regions of the universe to fight strong people. That sounds like a deadbeat dad to me. Just like Goku, who is iconic, but also extremely boring and a deadbeat dad.
As far as Ryu goes, he is what we could consider the standard. That means he’s not average, but he is like the bar for a decent fighting game character. I think he’s boring personally, he has all the personality of a wooden plank. However there’s nothing changing the fact he’s the most iconic fighting game character ever both aesthetically and gameplay wise. And you are never going to see him substantially change because the fans wouldn’t like that. 50 years from now, assuming we all aren’t dead from heat stroke or natural disasters, I imagine Ryu would still be the same.
I will give Ryu a 8/10 which is a decent score to give an iconic piece of media that you personally find boring.
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