Yo peeps!
I don't know what's with all the Ryo hate. its just the old problem with some SF fans who look at other games and say that this guy is ripping off that, blah blah blah. i've actually heard people say stuff like Jin Kazama is a ryu ripoff. Come on! bull. apparently to these people anyone in a karate gi is ripping of Ryu. absolute rubbish. not to mention how Capcom rehashes their own karate design more than anyone else, even the moves. i'm not even saying they are "ripping off" their design in the literal sense of the word. I basically mean rehashing it. MK does that in making the same design with different color schemes and it was considered a sin by so many video gamers. however, SF seems to get off that with out its fans complaining. Unfair.
but keeping that aside.
First of all Ryo's personality is totally different. just cuz he's wearing a karate gi like a certain smoeone doesn't make him a ripoff in my eyes. Capcom didn't invent the idea of martial arts practioners wearing karate gis. Ryo has a social life, he has a bike, does carpentry and even has a horse....not to mention a French "sort of girlfriend" in King. he even goes to bars to drink and hangs around his friends. not to mention, he actually has real clothes to wear too. he isn't too smart, is a little cocky, is stubborn, pretty much of a traditionalist and quick to temper. Ryu isn't any of these...except maybe traditionalist. my god, what a ripoff!
now for the moves:
Yes ko-ho is a shoryuken but with the leading arm not the trailing onelike Ryu does (ryu does it with the leading arm only in shin shoryuken so i wonder if that means he's ripping off from Ryo). also Sagat, Sakura and Sean do something similar too but of course we know that is totally different.
if one thinks hienshipuukyaku is a ripoff of tatsumakisenpuukyaku then he needs to get his brains checked. TOTALLY different. not only does he alternate the leg he also does a straight jump kick and then a backspin. Totally different as opposed to Ryu's single leg, helicopter motion. And in KoF ryo does a jump roundhouse and then a back spin. Again totally differnet. if we go by SF fanboy logic one may claim SF to be ripping off AoF in making Ryu do the tatsumakisenpuukyaku like Ryo in the SF EX series. but we all know THAT can't be possible now can it?
Ryo's zanretsuzan is also something we've never seen Ryu do. if anything its probably homage to Kenshiro Kasumi of Fist of the Northstar, which SNK has been famous for doing. htey have paid homages to many famous anime characters for eg. K9999 is homage to tetsuo from "Akira" etc.
his powers are also totally different....in fact AoF is the series that invented the idea of "big specials". check the timelines of the games if you don't believe me. the first of its kind was "haoh-shiko-ken". again if anything shinkuu hadouken is capcom's imitation of haohshikoken.
then his other super, the "ryukorenbuu". the whole multiple attack super finished with a special move was also SNK's idea.
ko-ken was invented in the days when all SF fanboys felt taht every game is ripping off SF. So what, Andy's hishou-ken is also a hadouken wannabe too then, right? in fact any attack done with the palm of one's hands is hadouken wannabe-ish isn't it? Capcom themselves invent so many characters to do "projectiles" in motion either literally the same. but apparently that is nothing to complain about.
overtime Ryo has gotten more moves as well that make him pretty different altogether. there is that jumping chop thing, the 4 hit combo thing, the uppercut. not to mention Buriki One Ryo.
just cuz someone wears a karate gi doesn't make him a Ryu virtual clone people.
~Sado