Ryu
Ryu has a long history of fighting game appearances to draw inspiration from and is one of the worst characters in the game. And, not to be biased, he's also one of my favorite to play as, so I would like to bestow him with many buffs that add to his uniqueness and depth without stepping on other characters' toes, becoming overpowered, or violating any seemingly important principles of his or the game's overall design.
Normals/Throws/Etc.
- Ryu's f+H's vertical hitbox size increased very slightly. This allows it to function as a better anti-air and, primarily, hit crouching characters better. *
- Snapback animation and hitbox swapped with Jodan Sokuto Geri L (rdp+L), which improves its horizontal range; still 0 on block. *
- j.S is special-cancellable outside of a launcher combo.*
- Ground throw knockdown time increased by 3f. Air throw knockdown time increased by 1f.*but a little different
Special Moves
- Light Hadouken travel speed decreased. * But ideally not as severely as EX Mod's decrease, if possible (I do not know the exact numbers at play here so I don't know how much wiggle room there is). EX Mod also increases Heavy Hadouken's travel speed; I do not suggest this change.
- What is currently Heavy Hadouken will now be performed with qcf+M instead of qcf+H. qcf+H now results in Ryu firing a Hadouken at a straight-upwards angle at the same speed as current Heavy Hadouken (qcf+M and qcf+H now both have the same frame data; identical to current qcf+H). Aerial version still fires straight-upwards, not downwards.
- Press S during a non-S-using aerial Hadouken to fall. Ryu falls straight down, though he is still subject to the full recovery of Hadouken during the fall and upon landing, however, this does allow you to cancel that recovery into grounded supers (such as his install) upon landing to shorten recovery or cover new angles. Spacing and positioning are important for Ryu in Street Fighter; this lets him control positioning amped up to Marvel levels, and the fact that he still needs to recover means he won't become some tiger-knee-ing plasma-chucking mini-Morrigan monster.
- qcf+[S] input removed, Baku Hadouken removed. Now has the input hcb+S which causes Shakunetsu Hadouken, a reddish-orange fireball with 8 low-priority projectile points. 28f startup, 40f recovery. -1 on block. Deals 115k damage and causes a flame effect on the character (purely visual). Travels at the same speed as Heavy Hadouken. Against an airborne opponent, slightly longer float hitstun than regular Hadoukens; stagger akin to Arthur landing the actual bottle of Fire Bottle Toss on a grounded opponent. Can only perform one Shakunetsu per airborne period and can only have one on-screen at a time. Falling state works similar to Baku Hadouken's where if you get a perfect tiger knee input, the recovery becomes nearly-nothing and it's easy to follow up with a fast ground Hadouken that will hit shortly after the air one.
- Stream Hadouken input changed so holding S fires more Hadoukens (instead of tapping S).
- Final projectile in Stream Hadouken series travels one full screen-length before disappearing (still won't reach someone if you back up and move the screen away from where you started). Nonfinal projectiles reach very slightly further than they did before.
- Grounded M Tatsu destroys low-priority projectiles during all of its active frames. Its first hit causes a hard knockdown (in practice, this doesn't affect the move in a vaccuum because ordinarily the first hit always allows the second to connect; what this basically allows is X-Factor and then calling an OTG assist for a full combo if you go through a projectile, or increasing reward for some kind of bizarre trade).
- Grounded H Tatsu destroys low-priority projectiles only during its first hit's active frames. Similar to grounded M Tatsu, its first 2 hits cause a hard knockdown (assist version does not gain these properties). (Explanation: basically this gives a niche to both M and H ground Tatsu. The M one is weaker and travels a shorter distance but it has a larger window to go through projectiles. The H one is stronger and travels farther but it has a shorter window to go through projectiles.)
- Grounded M and H Tatsu juggle a grounded opponent high enough to allow a link to snapback even when not X-Factored or under the effects of Hadou-Kakusei.
- Air M Tatsu reworked. Deals 3 hits; 40k damage * 2, then 50k damage (116,500 with all hits raw, slightly less than its current iteration). The final hit has less hitstun and blockstun than an air L Tatsu (enough to comfortably link a Light or barely link a Medium but no more). It falls in a long arc like an extended air L Tatsu; horizontal distance traveled when performed at nearly the peak of normal jump height would be about ~1.25-1.5 Ryu-widths shorter than the current air M Tatsu travels. This allows him to have an approach option against grounded opponents from farther away (with worse pressure, damage, and combo follow-ups than air L Tatsu in exchange for the range).
- Air H Tatsu destroys low-priority projectiles during only its first hit's active frames (with every other air Tatsu having neutral applications, I figured Ryu could afford to have a weak, niche application for air H Tatsu in neutral). No other properties changed; it still recovers in a state where you can't act until grounded except for by cancelling into a Hyper.
- Hadou-Shoryuken OTGs. This gives Ryu a nice, slow, hard-to-use meterless OTG that can't really be easily followed-up on either, to slightly expand his options without completely changing his combo possibilities.
- L/M/H Shoryuken allows cancelling into a Hadouken during its later active frames and recovery frames. This Hadouken can only be the L, M, or H versions, you cannot use the new S feature to fast-fall after firing them, and you fall in a vulnerable, unable-to-act state akin to air H Tatsu upon recovery until grounded. Seeing as on-hit, Shoryuken launches an opponent quite high up, and on block, an opponent will be far below you, this does not increase the reward or safety of the move on hit or block. This does, however, allow a whiffed one to lead into a little more increased screen presence, giving Ryu more incentive to throw them out to anti-air without either dying or being forced to spend meter if his opponent moved differently than expected. An opponent who stayed completely grounded, as well, can approach along the ground and avoid these aerial Hadoukens.
- Hadou-Shoryuken projectile changed from 1 low-priority durability point to 1 medium-priority durability point.
- All normal Shoryukens get more hitstun but not blockstun (all numbers are presented with normal state first, then install state); L version goes from (-7/-2) to (+1/+6), M version goes from (-9/-4) to (-3/+2), H version goes from (-19/-12) to (-7/0).
- New move: rdp+P in the air only. A new Tatsu that retains Ryu's aerial momentum (like Akuma's currently does; in MvCi, Ryu has 2 separate air Tatsu inputs for exactly this purpose). All versions have 1f slower start-up than normal air Tatsu, are in recovery until grounded. L version is one hit for 85k damage, M version is 2 hits for 60k each (114k raw), H version is 3 hits for 45k * 2 then 50k (126k raw). The final hit of M and H cause a hard knockdown (with H's lasting for slightly longer than M's). All other hits and the L version cause a soft knockdown (though L's pushes them a little further out than normal L air Tatsu). Essentially the point of these moves is to give Ryu a chance at some air abare with the hard knockdowns; could let him continue into pressure, or even combo if he takes an OTG assist (dedicated OTG assists are not very popular anymore). It also lets him retreat while having some big hitboxes around him to protect him a little.
Hyper Combos
- Hadou Kakusei (aka "Denjin", his dd+PP install) extended to 420f duration (from 339f) and Ryu actually recovers red health during it instead of having some of his yellow health converted to red health.
- Shin Hadouken (qcf+PP during install) can now be steered, pointed downwards (OTGs).
- Shinkuu Tatsumaki Senpukyaku (qcb+PP) now defaults to always sending the opponent away in the same direction they came from (i.e. if they started on Ryu's left, they are blown away to the left). Hold H during superflash to make it so they will pop out the opposite way. Invincibility frames increased from 17 to 18 (reaches the first active frame), extend hard knockdown time by 1f. (This will make it more dependable as a combo tool; it's already at a disadvantage since most Ryu combos end in a state where you can't really use it. Let's reward a Ryu player who actually ends up in such a position.)
Assists
- Assist Hadouken has 6 low-priority durability points. *but lesser
- Crossover Counter Hadouken has 8 low-priority durability points.
- Crossover Counter Tatsu assist destroys low-priority projectiles during the active frames of its first two hits (better than the on-point version, still not as good as Akuma's).
- Crossover Counter Shoryuken causes a true soft knockdown.
