Street Fighter: Explaining Ryu's Story in Each Game

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The Street Fighter franchise has come a long way from being one of the arcade ancestors to modern fighting games of beat-'em-ups. Over the years, the series has built up an excellent roster of representatives for many fighting styles and nations. From the original SF2 World Warriors to the small but potent stable of boss characters, Street Fighter's cast does as much to sell the games as their thrilling competitive gameplay. Much has been said about Capcom's enormous stable of characters and how great they are for crossover games, and Street Fighter even takes advantage of this by sharing a universe with Final Fight, Rival Schools, and sometimes even competing fighting game franchises.

All great things need a baseline, and Street Fighter provides one for the entire fighting game genre. Ryu from Street Fighter is the iconic fighting game main character. All leads since have been compared to him, and his iconic headband, gloves, and white gi serve as visual shorthand for other media referencing fighting games. With his iconic Shoto gameplay style consisting of a fireball, an uppercut, and a forward-moving spinning kick, Ryu has remained mostly unchanged over the years. Even as Street Fighter 6 looks to update his design to the popular «Hot Ryu» look, it's clear that Ryu is the same world-traveling martial artist that he's ever been.

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Ryu began life as an orphan and was adopted by Gouken. As Ryu grew up, he entered training under Gouken beside Ken Masters, the young heir to the Masters family. The two of them quickly became friends and trained together in the art of Ansatsuken. Upon reaching 23, Gouken believed that Ryu had matured enough to