Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Ryu's Fundamentals Part 1




Knowing Ryu:

Ryu's Tool:

Do you really know about Ryu even though you are a Ryu player? As a Ryu player myself at certain situations (range, life and time) i use different normals just to distance my opponent or combo with a sweep for mixups or just for the knock down so i can get out of that "bad" situation. Another example, let say i have Ryu, Ken or Akuma in the corner and most likely he'll do a crossup tatsu or an escape tatsu...then here i either punish them with an early jump fierce against escape tatsu and a low fierce against crossup tatsu for better results. (Crossup tatsu r usually hard to counter with SRK) Of course i am not here to explain every single use of his normals, but i will mention some things that u might not know about. *NOTE: This is not a baby sitting guide, i am not going to explain things step by step or list everything single thing.*
 Allow me to elaborage more about Ryu's normals. Low jab and low short..comparing these two light normals.

Low jab: cancelable to anything, pushes your opponent farther
Low short: cancelable first hit, pushes your opponent lesser farther

Ok....so what about it.....? Taking Daigo's Ryu as an example. If you ever watches his video against any Rufus you will probably see him do a low shortx4 poke string. This is a safe pokestring without holes in between for Rufus to mash on his ex messiah kick. On the other hand, if you use low jabx4, the last hit might not hit since jab pushes your opponent farther then short.

Ok, so let's talk about his low strong and low forward. I don't think i need to talk about the range difference.........anyways,  low forward OS > special move, if the low forward doesn't hit never comes out (of course you r not canceling your move late). And if you ever uses low forward's OS timing applying with low strong, the special move comes out whether your low strong hits or not. Therefore if you want to successfully pull out a low strong OS, you have to do the input extremely fast before the low strong disappears.

Now the fierce punches and roundhouse kicks. Standing fierce's hitbox is longer than it looks, and can counter a lot of things. (Eg. Balrog's jump fierce, Cammy's dive kicks, Zangief's jump fierce, and more) A counter hit fierce can combo into sweep or super, it's a very good tool which is lack of used by most of the
Ryu players.

His st.roundhouse kick is a very good anti air normal, but it's also an outstanding normal as footsies against certain characters like Gief, Akuma, T-hawk, big characters that jumps often.
Using and Building Gauges:

I've been playing in North America for almost a month...and I realise 90% of the players DO NOT know how to use gauges properly or save gauges for the next round. I am going to take a Ryu mirror as an example, perhaps the BEST EXAMPLE.

Alright, so first round, i am already beating the shit out of my opponent's Ryu. I had prob 3 gauges and he had ZERO...WTF?! YES, he threw full screen or random ex fireballs which retards can block or evade easily.........Ok fine, i have like 70%life and he has 10% life...he built ONE gauge, and YES, he used it in the end of the round right before he died. I mean people, do u think that one gauge of yours can make a 70% come back? I mean, save it for next round so you actually have at least one gauge when i can FULL SUPER already. Guys, i mean...really, use your gauges wisely. As a Ryu, at least have 2 gauges for a SRK > FADC > ULTRA please? Ok, so this leads to the next thing i wanna talk about, "Ultra gauges". A lot of players tend to use their ultra gauges whenever they have the opportunity to, even when they have only half of the meter. Ultra gauges are usually use for a COME BACK (If you have only half a meter, which means you still have around 50% life.. using half meter doesn't do a load of DMG and once you use it when you need to really make a COME BACK, you have nothing scary to threat your opponent with)

So how do i build meters? You don't have to whiff a special move to build meters...when you hit somebody..even though they are blocking you build FASTER meters. Ok, so first you gotta look at your characters...hmmm..i'll choose Zangief as an example..alright, full screen, whiff some srk to build easy meters..he can't hurt u at that distance. Now let's take a look at Akuma as an opponent. Trying to build meters with random srk can be a bit risky in this matchup...so maybe some footsies > fireball can help you build some meters. Alright, so last example...let's use Abel. Beginning of the round, you get a knock down on him, he is meterless...so basically he's free to jump in at him. Once you land any jump in attack, do some safe poke strings comboing into fireball, you get probably over 2/3 gauge + a free chip.

You never wanna leave with empty gauges, make sure you always have at least one just to open up more opportunites when you have the chance.

Holding your lead ( when to attack and when to back off):

I will use Ryu mirror as my example again ( it's just easier to understand and explain imo :D ).
You might not want to be the first one to jump in that will probably cost you some life and put yourself in a bad situation. So ok, maybe you should probably play safe in the beginning and try to land your first attack. Ok , good job, you did it! You are in a 40% comfortable lead with some meters. Hmm..so how do i hold this lead? THE ANSWER IS TURTLE! What i mean by that is DON'T jump when you aren't suppose to. Ryu can't really land damage on you if you guard yourself right (Sounds easy...meh..i'll explain how to guard yourself better in the "Defending yourself" section.) However, if you jump on Ryu, you are WIDE open and prepare to eat a SRK and slowly the momentum will slowly be on your opponent's side....
Some Ryus i played online tried to be smart when he was 40% leading...he tried to predict my fireball and did a hurricane kick which FAILED...then i countered it with a SRK, my comeback starts from there. If he didn't do that hurricane kick, i still had to work my way in, but nevertheless, he gave it to me.
There are also things you don't want to risk doing while you are turtling. Risky/predictable fireballs, mashing SRK while guarding poke strings, a sweep that you don't even know if it's gonna hit or trying to throw whoever you are playing when he has FULL ULTRA GAUGE / SUPER GAUGE.
 Apply this strategy when you are in the opposite position. Think as your enemy and make up your gameplan/ decision and good luck with your come back~

*I didn't edit this, too lazy, let me know if something doesn't make sense*

22 comments:

  1. Air, a quick question.With Ryu, when doing a cross up, why some people use jumping light kick instead of medium kick? is there any difference? and with ryu how to do ambigious cross ups( tatsu excluded?)

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  2. and i always get grabbed. am i doing crouch tech wrong? i just dont understand. im always pissed when i fight with a grabbing opponent. he grabbed me for the whole round. am i dont understand whats wrong.

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  3. It's to change up the timing, mainly. With j.LK, the opponent has to try to tech the throw right away. With j.MK, they will still be in block stun when you land. Changing up your timing is one way to beat people trying to crouch tech everything.

    The window to tech a throw with crouch tech is only after they try to throw you. If you press it too early then you might get thrown out of your c.LK. So time your input to be when you expect to be in blockstun.

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  4. thanks dude that really helped. i will ask more questions in this awesome blog.

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  5. Great post. But how st.HK help vs akuma? He is not big character. In what situation i can use it?

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  6. @Zver Terence basically answered my question, and i think when you tech you pressed it a bit fast that's why you got thrown. Try to wait a bit

    @Anton it hits against akuma, his hit box is bigger than ryu and ken's. And akumas always try to do something off the ground, it works suprisingly well. Of course don't abuse it and make yourself predictable

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  7. sup air, ok so im having problems with my ryu. I can land all hard combos, the one frame links, fadc to ultra etc. but my grounding game is terrible. I cant react with my dp when ppl jump in at me. The training room can only help me with my execution. How can improve my ground and anti air game? im having problems against turtling characters. I just seem to cant get in.

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  8. @Petey From what you are telling me, you are playing Ryu the wrong way imo. Don't forget your character throws projectiles, which means THEY should come to you, and not the other way around. Anyhow, against turtling characters r hard, so you have to throw wise fireballs and keep inching forward (eg. dhalsim, chun li)
    To practice AA with your dp, i suggest you play online, don't do anything and just wait for your opponent to jump at you and practice your dp until you are confident with it. If ground game wise, you have to space yourself where the tip of your cr.mk hits. Practice more then u will b fine, good luck

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  9. Hey Air, when is the best time to use EX fireball?

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  11. Good stuff air! your absolutely right! Ive made my opponent come to me and played smarter! i have done better and won a few matches to my friends who i usually lose to. Your method does work. If i can get my anti air on point than ill be godlike @_@ kudos to your post and keep it up! cuz u do have fans who's reading this.

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  12. @Petey thank you, keep supporting
    @Nguyen Ex fireball is basically a FREE AA because they have to do an early jump in to hit u. So usually throw an ex fireball at a mid range after a normal fireball or when you r applying pressure

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  13. One more question about ULTRA. U sad ultra need for comeback. And if i have life lead and villain almost nothing i dont need to use ultra for not big damage and it's only build super meter for my opp.
    Ok and today i saw example in your fight vs Alex.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL1HnD9CSrs&t=1m15s
    What do you think does he need use ultra in this situation? He has not big lead and u have already almost super meter. But damage not hight only 1\2 ultra and it's complete your super.
    Sorry for bad english ))

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  14. @Anton very simple, he landed the ex fireball > FREE ultra link. Why not? and he can probably finish me with that ultra. Doesn't matter if he completes my super, i will end up having super in no time the next round. Here as long as I didn't waste my meter at all i still have advantage in the next round since i was the round 1 winner.

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  15. nice article. nice head games. Keep it up.

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  16. @Zver

    quote "and with ryu how to do ambigious cross ups( tatsu excluded?)"

    Ryu has a few ambigous crossups

    1. Jumping light Kick : after a throw taking one step back and jump light kick
    2. Jumping Medium Kick: Same as above but is slightly unsafer than Jumping light kick
    3. Jumping Fierce Punch: hard to land
    4. Hk ground tatsu: after landing a throw wait for the opponent to lie flat on his back the low lick tatsu.(very unsafe against guile and vega)

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  17. Hey Air,

    Do you have any general advice for pad players? I have a TE stick, but I honestly feel most comfortable using a pad (standard ps3, a la Vangief). I find dashing to be much easier on pad, although I must admit the d-pad is nowhere near as precise as a joystick. I'll wait until you post your other sections to ask Ryu-specific questions... Thanks for posting these guides, it's super helpful!

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  18. @corey hello, i do not have any advice for pad players since i am joystick player...but do use whatever device you feel comfortable with. This is not Japan (arcade based country). You can use whatever you want (no fucking turbo bullshit tho :P)for best performance. I will be posting part 2 reallll soon..~

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  19. Hi Air,

    I tried to follow your advice, but my footsies for Ryu seriously sucks. Especially against Ken and his forward stepkick. If I'm just outside the range of my cr.MK, his stepkick always catches me when I hadaoken. If I stand outside the range of his stepkick, I am at a range open to jump in from him which is dangerous to shoryuken him. I get owned by footsies, empty jump-ins and kara-grabs...May I ask how do you play a Ken match up?

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  20. @ Jerm

    You just have to remain calm and crouch block and observe his tactics, some step kick and grab (tick grabs also) if he stepkick and kara throw, just dash back after the step kick also neutral jumps also hepls against step kicks you can also dp the step kick, besides ryu's cMP should stuff it. against ken its advisable to stay at mid range where you can react to his jumpins with ryu's anti air normals and stay away from his hop kicks. as long as you are not cornered it shouldnt be too dangerous

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  22. Hi Air
    I have trouble with this one link even in training mode, F.hp into c.hp srk, the c.hp is so difficult to time, i can get f.hp into m.k srk with more success but the f.hp into c.hp timing is soo awkward even with plinking i cant always get it right? Any ideas to make this easier

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