Ryu becoming the master in Street Fighter 6, a look at his new path

Today we are going to look at the evolution of Ryu in Street Fighter 6. In case you didn’t see him recently, he was presented a little older than any other appearance, plus he had a beard now. The biggest change for the character came with the look of his uniform. For the longest time Ryu wore a traditional, albeit torn, karate gi. Now he was without his top. In SF6 Designer Yusuke Hashimoto now had him wearing a kasaya or Buddhist robe over his shoulder. The design was very interesting. I’m not quite sure it worked in its current form, but let’s take a look at where the tradition came from.

The custom of having marital arts masters wearing classical costumes went back to the birth of the genre. Karate Champ by Data East in 1984 gave us the white, versus red uniform karate guys. A year later Yie Ar Kung Fu by Taito gave audiences multiple opponents, representing different styles. Aside from the way they fought, these characters had costumes that players would have seen in kung-fu cinema. You didn’t have to be an expert on the various styles, and their histories, as long as you had seen at least a few movies. The seeds for Street Fighter were planted then.

The martial arts spread thanks to Buddhist monks. I had documented it previously in the blogs. The monks traveled all throughout Asia, bringing with them the fighting arts. They didn’t learn to fight as a way to seek out opponents, but rather as a way to defend themselves from bandits. The Shaolin developed in China was a form of Buddhism known as Chan, or meditative Buddhism. The school fostered a Northern, and Southern version of their martial arts studies. These various forms would be influential in shaping kung-fu, and karate as well. The interesting thing was while there were many classically styled Chinese fighters throughout game history there were actually few Shaolin characters in the genre. The look was rare, but had been seen in Street Fighter.

Ryu’s main rival in the original Street Fighter was actually the first in the series to be presented with a kasaya. Sagat was satisfied that he had indeed beaten the best in the world. He had achieved a level of peace with the victory that seemed transformative. He appeared in the ending of Street Fighter II with the robe while meditating on Ryu. That look made sense for Sagat. Years later the alternate costumes of Sagat in Street Fighter IV worked incredibly well. Especially the ones where he wore a tattered wrap. Part of the reason for this was because in pop culture we had seen people from Asia, and South Asia wearing the robes. In my home town of Long Beach we had a large Cambodian, and Vietnamese community, and I had grown up seeing lots of people wearing the robes. Japanese martial artists were rarely, if ever shown in the same way. Instead of the familiar orange robes we would see the elder Japanese master wearing a uniform with one bare arm.

Gouken in the earliest concept art actually wore a gi like Ken, and Ryu. The only difference was that he had a rope belt, instead of a black belt. It was only in later revisions, and his playable debut in Street Fighter IV, when he was given a robe. A similar character appeared in the Guilty Gear series. Kum Jonryoku was a robot made to look like an elder master. He was created, and piloted by Kum Haehyun,a young, and talented scientist. Both fighters represented the peak of the martial arts. They had been studying a specific technique all their lives, if they didn’t invent their own style. These types of people were physically, and mentally stronger than any other person on the planet. Very rarely were they ever seen in mid-life. Gouken was seen in middle-age in Street Fighter manga, and comics books when he took on a young Ken, and Ryu as students. At that time he was not at the peak of his abilities. He was still studying under his master, the elderly Goutetsu. Prior to Ryu’s makeover in Street Fighter 6 there had been at least one young master with a similar look.

Xuan Dou Zhi Wang aka King of Combat was a Chinese-developed game first published in 2011. It had updates over the following years that patched the control, added levels, and characters. It had characters whose looks, and styles were sampled from various other fighting games. The title already had a Ken / Ryu clone named King. What they lacked was a Gouki / Akuma. That was until they updated the roster, and added a guy called Legend. This person was not much older than King, but more advanced in power, and ability. This person had white hair, no beard, but didn’t look elderly at all. The white hair might have been an aesthetic choice, or to signify that he had some sort of divine revelation. In any case there had been precedent for a young master in fighting games. Not only that, but many artists had been creating their own concept art for Ryu if the series ever did a time jump.

A few designers had a variation of the robe over one shoulder as a nod to Oro becoming his new master. A couple of artists pushed the idea of having the robe be made of Ken’s old gi. This idea had been circulating in the SF community for a long time. One of the older one-armed Ryu illustrations was by the artist BloodySamoan in 2010. In it he also gave Ryu one eye, his red headband now held up a ponytail, and he wore the beads of his master around his wrist. It was a unique take on the fighter for certain. In 2020 the Brazilian illustrator Diego Sanches did a series on older SF characters. He put Ryu in the colors, and costume of Gouken. He also gave him a beard, and gray hair. It also worked well.  

It is highly possible that the creative team working on SF6 was aware of all of the fan art that had come out pre, and post SFIV. They must have been especially aware of the tastes of Western artists as the game had historically sold very will in North, and South America. I’m almost certain that Designer Yusuke Hashimoto, and Director Takayuki Nakayama were aware of these illustrations, and it had a hand in influencing the new look of Ryu. The reason I can say this was because the official concept art for Street Fighter IV, and V coming out of Capcom did not have Ryu wearing a Buddhist robe. Instead they had him with long hair, or with a tattered gi, or in MMA gear. They even had several versions of Evil Ryu, and the stronger Kage variation. But none of Ryu as a Buddhist. Sure it could have been because SF IV, and V were set before he studied under Oro, but even then Oro was added as a DLC character as well.

Mr. Nakayama said the new look was to honor his mentor Gouken, but I’m not sold on that idea. From SFII to today it had been established in the game endings that Ryu was not interested in trophies, or accolades. He was the opposite of Ken in this regard. The only thing that pushed Ryu forward was finding the next challenge. To continue developing as fighters both Ken, and Ryu had to prove that their form of Ansatsuken was the best. Why Ryu would suddenly decide to dress up like his mentor didn’t make much sense. He was walking his own path, and not his master’s path. Visually I don’t think the look works. Wearing a brown kasaya across his torso contrasted with the solid white of his original costume. Perhaps if Ryu wore all brown it might work better, but then his colors would be too close to Ken’s.

I’m interested in seeing Ryu continue his path. I want to see what the studio has planned for him. But I’m also interested in seeing a classic uniform DLC because right now I don’t think his new look works. The costume changes for several of the returning characters aren’t as strong as their original look. That’s what I think anyhow. I’m sure Capcom will continue tweaking the look right until the games release date. They did many visual changes to previous games when they were first previewed versus when they were published. Street Fighter 6 should be no different. Maybe Ryu’s outfit would still get updated. I’d like to read your takes in the comments section. Do you like Ryu's updated look? Would you have done anything different? Tell me about it! As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!