Ryu isn't the main character of Street Fighter, he is Street Fighter.

Ryu and Ken is like Sub-Zero and Scorpion for MK. Can’t have a game without them

Ryu is and always will be the main protagonist of Street Fighter.

It’s like a lot of 80s cartoons where the main character(s) travel and come across random temporary characters whose stories are the center of that episode

i had no idea rashid was the main character of sfv till now

Remember, Street Fighter 3 was not going to have Ryu. Fans were not happy about that. Same thing goes to Chun-Li. Those two characters are way too iconic to be left out, including crossover games.

I don't think SFV had a central character. The story is all over the place.

It feels more like in each new installment the “main character” is just the eyes through which you watch the Ryu story progress.

Definitely did not know Rashid was SF5 main character🤣

Roughly 90% of the “next generation” characters never stick. They almost always resort back to the original characters. Jin Kazama is one of those few rare exceptions.

Its just like when Hasbro tried replacing Optimus Prime by killing him off in the animated movie and replacing him with Rodimus Prime. Fans didn't want it or liked it. Ryu is StreetFighter...period!!!

He's irreplaceable.

Capcom has been trying to replace Ryu but it directly impacts their sales. I'm Ryu for life person and there is no Street Fighter without Ryu.

I always figured Sakura would eventually take Ryu's place as the protagonist, with Karen being her Ken.

Capcom's fixation with coming up with a new protagonist instead of Ryu with every single game is exhausting especially when every single character they create turns out to be extremely mid. No need to fix what's not broken. Ryu is the face of the franchise. There's a reason Scorpion/Liu Kang and Kazuya/Jin are still faces of their franchises because people resonate with them the most.

Ryu IS the main to Street Fighter and THAT'S THAT. It shouldn't change because clearly it doesn't work. Besides; a different main character for fighting games is strange and there's no REAL need to change the status quo for something like that. I think it's only worked for Fatal Fury and they still have Terry heavily involved with Rock Howard. Maybe Tekken as we'll but that's because Jin was introduced in the 2nd or 3rd game. The main character was switched over relatively early so it can be done. But as for Street Fighter? We're waaaay too far into the weeds to drop Ryu. We literally grew up with him.

I dont know how Capcom came back with a FIRE intro for Street Fighter 4 showcasing Ken and mutha freaking Ryu in all his glory fighting his best friend and firing a Hadoken of a lifetime.....and thinking Abel was enough to replace him.

Capcom: "Rashid is the main character or SF5." Literally everyone: "Sure he is, buddy."

I can understand Capcom wanting to highlight new characters, but they don't need to be THE main character. Seems like Capcom thinks those two things are linked and can't be separated.

This entire video got a "wait, what" reaction from half the planet lol

It’s just like with SNK: no matter how many protagonists KOF puts out, Terry is still the company’s posterboy. That said, SNK actually give their new protags a billion times more importance than Street Fighter’s new ones storywise.

Instead of trying to replace Ryu... Why not just give him some better story? How long is this "Need to get stronger" thing gonna go on?

I thought SFV main protagonist was Charlie Nash, his role seemed more prominent while Rashid was just a newcomer.

It capcom stopped insisting on blonde, basic, boring characters, it would help them a lot in replacing ryu

At this point, Ryu is more like the mascot than the protagonist. Ryu is my favorite character, but sadly Capcom doesn't care enough to make him interesting. His only drive is getting strong, he is barely a character.

Ryu has & will always be the poster boy of the series.

Can't get rid of THE Shoto.

Capcom desperately needs a good author to give more depth to the SF stories because it sucks! Even Mortal Kombat has a much more dynamic and immersive lore.

Capcom should admit that Ryu is Street Fighter 's only protagonist.

Love that you used the Assassins Fist clips. That project deserves more attention.

If you made a Mount Rushmore of video game characters Ryu has an argument to be there. He is is important and irreplaceable.

Just like the SF franchise, KoF introduce more main character but Kyo Kusanagi is still the most recognizable main character in the game.

And I didn't know Abel was the main character in Street Fighter IV at all Capcom did a poor job showing it and The Ties That Bind focused on Ryu and in Super Street Fighter IV literally Juri was arguably the antagonist she has her own OVA that focus on her.

Capcom wants a blonde, white American man to be SF’s protagonist so badly.

You can't replace Ryu when you haven't fully fleshed out his arc.

Instead of trying to appeal to new audience they should do the current fans justice and make a main character that makes sense to the story like Sakura or Sean

I feel like they can move on from Ryu as poster boy if they make him a final boss or hidden boss. He doesn't have to be evil but we need to be able to the 30 year progress he has made. So if Ryu and Ken get turned into mini bosses in a mainline game, I think the fans would be fine with it.

Because Capcom doesn't learn from their mistakes.

They say " karate man" We think " Ryu" He lives rent free in all our head.

Ryu is a very big character, he is the face of the SF saga. I think who could have taken Ryu's torch would have been Batsu, from Rival Schools, this last saga, in my opinion, should have been the new generation of SF. Well that's what I believe.

If Ryu isn't strong or the poster boy it's not a good SF

None of the supposed SF protagonists ever does s**t worth mentioning is the issue. Take away Jin from Tekken 3 or Rock from Garou and the story of those games no longer makes any sense. Take away Alex, Abel or Rashid and very little changes in SF3, 4, and 5. Nash would have been perfectly fine as SF5 protagonist for instance, if his sacrifice had came after an epic fight and actually killed Bison. Heck, I would be ok with Ed being the protagonist of SF6 and his eventual, inevitable meeting with Bison being the climax of an actual story mode, if Capcom ever decides to do one. I'd much rather have that than Ryu literally coming out from nowhere to beat/kill Bison a second time.

I can't imagine an Street Fighter game without Ryu, the same way I can't Imagine Mortal Kombat without scorpion.

Guile being the protagonist in the US cartoon and live action movie deserves a honorable mention.

SF2 could be centered more in Guile or Chun-li as they have their revenge plot very centered in that game

Ryu is well known childhood character along with other character from other game. He's more of the Father of fighting games.

This makes perfect sense. Ryu is the over arching main character of the SF universe in which multiple stories are told. Individual characters are the main protagonist of their own chapters, but the universal main character had always been Ryu.

"Evo 2024 has reportedly become the largest Street Fighter 3: Third Strike event of all time" MVC2 & X-Men vs Street Fighter: Are you shure about that? 😄

Veloc1raptor's work ethic is unmatched 💪

They are not following the lore and just making up stuff

Ken has more of a connection to JP than Luke does. they’re pushing him as the main character with no backing for it

I grew up thinking Guile was the main character all because of a SF2 cover art of him fighting Bison. Didnt know Ryu was the main character until SF4 came out.

In more ways than one Ryu is now an icon of Street Fighter as before was the protagonist. He had years of story build up with his seemingly masters death and struggle with the Satsui no Hadou, whereas characters like Alex, Abel & Rashid (I'll get to Luke in a bit) has only 1 off story to each game they're in. Alex wanted to get revenge on Gill for attacking his father figure, Abel seeking out Seth to find out who he was and Rashid in search for his friend. Most of which comminated with Ryu in some way or another. However now with the recent success of SF6 it's more likely to be different with Luke taking the helm this time for there is much could be done for him for it's already been established with the ground work of who he is and his past, no antagonistic overall villian/evil rival that he needs to overcome yet and that Ryu's arch is much over with now. Plus Luke's voiced by freaking Aleks Le and his JP VA Tomoaki Maeno, the same voice actor for Kyo Kusanagi. Also you neglected to add Guile & Nash for they were protagonist as well. Hell Guile was the staring role for the live-action SF movie and cartoon series(but we talk about that much lol).

3:35 Capcom had a curious interest in that guy, at the time. They even had an Onimusha character based on him...and they got him to do his voice in the French version (but not the English version, for some reasons). I would've expected Capcom to be a little more...professional...about it.

Lore-wise, it appears that the following are the seemingly Main Protagonists of Street Fighter: Ryu for the Shadaloo Saga (covers SF1, SF2, SF0 or Alpha, SF4, and SF5) Alex for the Illuminati Saga (covers SF3) Luke Sullivan for the Nayshall Saga (covers SF6)

Optimus Prime and Megatron. Ryu and Bison. They might as well embrace it.

The winner of SF2 are Guile 😊

Ryu: *looks at all the other "protagonists"* "It's a 7-3 matchup I'M THE FUCKING BEST!" 😤😑

I've always thought it would be cool to see Sakura as the MC since she is an already stablished and beloved character, plus she was Ryu's pupil since the beginning, but i guess they prefer forcing these boring characters that everyone will forget when the next game comes out.

Gread vid guys, thank you. Well Ryu is so cool that he will always be the main character. Probably well damn I know for sure I'd be mad if any of the newcomers beat Ryu....so maybe they try to please everyone!

Great video! I had absolutely no idea about Abel and Rashid but, then again, I skip all the cutscenes.

Ryu is the Luke Skywalker of Street Fighter. Appears as the obvious MC in the first 3 iterations of the franchise and while later iterations change the main character or focus, the over-arcing story is still his, whether he is directly involved in the plot or not. Not making a specific judgement on whether that is a good/bad thing because I haven't played any SF since ~3/Alpha

Why does capcom keep doing this? Why do they keep releasing the same title over and over again?

I’m Ryu for life. He doesn’t need to be the main character in every SF game, but he damn well better be IN every SF game. Same for Ken and Chun Li. The big 3 or the trinity of SF is just a staple in the series and any SF game that omits them for too long, would feel like it is missing something.

Ryu the goat 🐐

My thing is why wont they let Ryu grow? In every game you arent really given a reason to pick him outside of liking/maining him like me. But they keep pushing ken, sakura, akuma and now luke to further heights but he needs to grow in move kits like them he SHOULD be more aggressive since they removed his counters they gave him in 5. Ive always felt that ryu and ken should always be in tandem. And neither should drastically outclass the other as dramatically as they set Ken to be ahead of ryu in 6 when ryu is the one constantly training. I personally just thinking Ryu should just be the main character and let him be the legend that the game has set him up to be both in plot and play

Luke actually makes sense since not only is he the cover guy, he’s the first/main master training you the most throughout the story, he doesn’t play 2nd fiddle to any other SF character/master. Though he probably should’ve played more of a guiding role as the story got serious instead of being MIA. His moveset is also very approachable and he’s like a modern-Ryu so to speak, I can see him being to new fans what Ryu is to old fans. He has that cool likeable Dante-style appearance/swagger to him, he’s easily the most successful new protagonist despite his initially rough entrance in V.

Capcom stories are awful so it makes sense they forget who the main protagonists is .

Alex is the 🐐

The plot in Street Fighter was that Bison was looking for fighters to serve in his private army. Therefore he was seeking out strong warriors like Ryu to make an example out of him. He's taken care of that issue since then.

The same thing is also happening to scorpion, he's pretty much on all covers,yet never the main character

They want to create a another popular character. Thats why.

I love Street Fighter the most out of all the fighting games, but it has the worst story out of all of them. Not having a linear plot between games is annoying. Not focusing on Ryu as the main character is a mistake in my opinion. Now in SF 6, he is all but obsolete in the games story.

I CAN FEEL IT COMIN OVER ME, I FEEL IT ALL AROUND MEEEEEE I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT ALL MY LIFE, IT’S MY DESTINYYYYYYYYY

If they wanted they probably could pull a “Everyone is stalling for Ryu so he can unleash his new ultimate technique”

While Ryu is the main character, his role in the stories of most of the games tends to be minimal; at the most, he is a Living MacGuffin. Guile was the focus of Street Fighter II due to his motives against Bison, while Abel's mysterious origins serve are the focal point of Street Fighter IV. Street Fighter III has Alex replacing Ryu as the protagonist. Within the series as a whole, most of the major heroic acts are done by Chun-Li while Ryu is focused on finding strong opponents. The Street Fighter Alpha trilogy as well as Street Fighter are the only installments in which Ryu has any importance to the story, even having the most developed endings.

I think that to understand this, you need to realize that Street Fighter in Japan is a multi-media franchise. Japan has had a fascination with the idea of franchises that to really be understood, you need to follow multiple types of media simultaneously. Some fairly obscure things in games for example might only make sense if you read comic books or watched TV shows, such as why to retreat from a specific boss in the old game "Saga Frontier" to get the good ending from one character, or to really understand all the angles on .Hack or something like Boogiepop. The thing is that especially when it comes to long running franchises there was also a bit of racism involved, and alternate development teams who simply did things differently in the US or Japan, and trying to localize entirely for an existing market. To get to the point, going back to the 1990s when I was in with the fan subbing community and traded with them for not only anime, but translated comics and periodicals and things, I found out that there were entire comic series that had the official "Capcom" label that tied their universe together. In the US for example people are vaguely aware of how Capcom universes inter relate and go entirely based on what they see in games or learn from Capcom USA releases. They tend to think that the storylines are entirely contained in the game, and come up with explanations, oftentimes with Corpo guidance to explain things, when it might be clearer how things were supposed to work if you were to say read the official comics tie ins and crossovers, that more clearly spell out how characters like Sakura and Ryu inter relate, and the universe ties between characters from Final Fight, Rival Schools, and Street Fighter. Likewise the rise and fall of some games make more sense when you look at the overall performance of their media tie ins, and what Japanese fan reception was to certain things. I've read a fair number of comics back in the day that had the official label (translated from Japanese) that would both clarify certain things, and make other things a lot more confusing. I wouldn't be shocked to learn that characters like Abel, Rashid, or Alex had their status more obvious in tie in media. My impression also is that when they say "main character", the idea is that in the full, official, comic runs, the "main character" designation is more along the lines of the point of view character, more than the most powerful, or who beats the certain villain of the storyline. Some Animes and Mangas are like that as well, as are American TV shows where the protagonist is not really the hero, but might be an observer who simply plays a key role in some events. It might be most fair to say that Ryu and Ken are the main characters of the series, but might not be the main point of view characters of a given storyline. As far as what you hear about their intention in choosing specific characters, one thing you have to remember is that even at their most racist, they have this weird love/hate thing with America, especially when it comes to their pop culture, which they based heavily on ours to begin with. Remember they are sometimes setting entire games in the US at times, with no intention for them even being seen here. Likewise they copied stuff like pro-wrestling from the US, and even had guys like Brock Lesner headlining over there when he was on the outs with the WWE leading to legal battles over it, and even questions about whether they could prevent him from using specific moves/performances they helped him develop in another promotion. While you can point to the popularity of "Hulk Hogan" and similarities to "Alex", realize there were a lot of guys similar to that in Pro-Wrestling and I always though it was kind of a pastiche of stuff they were in love with, and remember the same thing happened in Final Fight where Haggar is sort of that, as are some of the background characters who look like combinations of Andre The Giant and Lou Ferrigno. To understand Japan's stuff, sometimes you need to understand how incestuous it can be with the US, and how at the end of the day most of their ideas originated with us, regardless of what they claim, and done to certain degrees of racism, resentment exists over this. I think the best way to view "Street Fighter" for an American might be to look back on it as say sort of like our version being kind of like what "Robotech" was in the 1990s. It was a different universe with a lot of similarities to popular Japanese series like Macross, because it was it's own thing literally created by slamming three different animes together and creating it's own universe. We have our own version that is internally consistent, but even if you look at just Macross, you'll see Japan has it's own version with some overlap, that then lead to spin off series that went in entirely different directions, yet feature a lot of the same characters doing the same things, as they are the same characters. To try and make sense of it when your missing like 90% of it usually is just going to drive you insane, and corporate doublespeak doesn't make it any easier. For those that read this far I think Capcom is best summarized through the character "Poison" and their gender identity, which due to changing American politics and Japan having no idea how to deal with that can be defined differently from interview to interview and depending on who and when you ask someone. The original problem being the American taboo against beating up girls defining them as a cross dresser, to that becoming politically offensive due to things like the current trans movement along with the idea of it being empowering for there to be a trans fighting game character.... when it's pretty obvious that the original intent was for her to just be a sexy female thug, in the same vein as those from other brawlers around the same time. Japan of course lacking the savvy to just say "Poison is and always has been female, but being in the US has spent a lot of time lying about their gender to exploit changing politics... eventually brokering it into a good deal of fame and notoriety". That would define the character and everything around it perfectly, as well as comment about both societies. Instead though Capcom feels the need to do all this reality bending around release region. Personally, I'd think it would be hilarious if Poison came out as an internet personality in the background of one of the games talking about how they lied about gender identity for years to make money and just giving the literal real world reasons and somehow claiming it was getting feedback and promotions to the point where she didn't need to be a gang member anymore. :)

Fighting game lore is weird…not as weird as comic books, but just as obtuse

When it came to Luke the English voice actor of Luke, Aleks Le was saying that he was just a new character to join the roster and that was it.

He wasn't the main character of Street Fighter II. If memory serves me right it was Guile. And not talking about that film or Animated series. In the actual game, Guile was the protagonist of Street Fighter II. The original Canon story was his revenge against Bison for Charlie's death.

Luke seems more fitting by his look (no pun intended) to be the next Street Fighter protagonist, i mean, his style and clothes look more from the streets than just using a martial arts gi lol. I'd be totally okay with him definitively replacing Ryu from now on.

Out of all of the main characters Capcom tried to force on us, Luke has to be the worst bar none.

My guess as to why they keep doing this is that they first start out with the INTENTION to make the newcomer the main character, but the last time they had a "main character" do everything, everyone called them boring. Thus, to keep from having a "perfect" character who gets lambasted by everyone, the MC will lose non-important battles to showcase that they aren't perfect. And then their golden boy Ryu can just come in and finish the story without getting called a Gary Stu, because everyone knows how powerful and capable he is.

What I think (and proof behind it) Main Characters SF1 Ryu SF2 Guile SFAlpha Zero Nash SF3 Alex SF4 Abel SF5 Rashid SF6 Luke My proof is one Luke's ending artwork pieces in SF5 that has all the main characters along with Dan Main Bosses SF1 SAGAT SF2 BISON SFAlpha Zero Akuma SF3 Gill SF4 Seth SF5 G SF6 JP Main Female Leads SF2 Chun li/Cammy SFAlpha Zero Sakura/Karin (or Sakura/Rose) SF3 Ibuki/Makoto (or Elena /Ibuki) SF4 Juri/C.Viper SF5 Laura/Falke???? SF6 Marisa/Manon

Capcom is trying too hard with Luke from the very beginning. People do not like things forced onto them. Having Luke as the face of world tour/custom character? absolutely fine. He's there as your first trainer before you go off to tour the world, he is NOT the face of the franchise or it's main character. Honestly none of the young trio are. Jamie I would say is the best of them as he doesn't come off annoying but I'm sure people would prefer Yun and Yang (outside of the SF4 debut ...)? I don't like Kimberly, I would like Guy and/or Maki. Ryu however is not just the main character, he IS fighting games. He is a cultural icon and he's Capcom's first main mascot - coming out just before Megaman. The guy even got a spot on the Capcom logo for a time. EVERYONE knows the hadoken and shoryuken and how to perform them in real life (poses etc). and everyone knows what Ryu looks like from memory alone. In fact someone simply used two coloured blocks (white with red on top) alongside the other 15 world warriors in a similar way and people knew what they were. Ryu and Chun li are some of the most popular male and female game characters ever created. Luke will never attain this and should be left to naturally gain a fanbase if people like him.

This is what I always hated like when a DLC character becomes the next protagonist replacing the previous protagonist. Unnecessary

It's because Ryu's personality is boring to non-existent. He's thematically perfect for the games, but narratively very one note. His whole story is to become the best fighter by overcoming his greatest challengers, whether their internal or external. That works great at getting the main appeal to fighting games across in the marketing. But when it comes to trying to flesh out a greater setting and plot it doesn't leave a lot of creative room to play with. So, they introduce new characters with other goals to help drive the story in different directions and flesh out a roster of diverse characters for players to choose from. Because, make no mistakes, fighting games live and die by the diversity of their characters' appearance and play-style.

Ryu is more like the poster boy not the protagonist. Guile and Chun-Li are the main protagonists.

To me, Ryu is Street Fighter and Street Fighter is Ryu. If Capcom would release a Street Fighter game without Ryu, I wouldn't buy it, it's that simple.

I think Alex is the most effectively implemented “main character” who’s not Ryu.

8:15 that's an opinion... SF6 looks amazing with Luke on the cover.

Megaman is the face of Megaman Dante is the Face of Devil May Cry Morgan is the face of Darkstalkers Ryu is the damn face of Street Fighter

Ryu's storyline has always been pretty one-note. I'm glad Capcom seems to have moved past the dark Hadou. Evil Ryu is a cool character, but the idea of Ryu being tempted never made sense to me. He's such a kind soul with pure motivation. Ryu having so little "depth" is part of his charm. He is who he is. I think it's great to try and introduce new fighters as the focal part for story mode. Yes, Capcom often bungles the execution, but which SF games had a story that wasn't dogwater? I think Evil Ryu should still be an occassional DLC character. Capcom could make it a "what-if" kind of scenario, but there's no need to regress Ryu's growth.

Ryu is permanent due to his historical impact

I genuenly doubt jamie is the ken to luke. They dont contrast in the slightest. I think Ed is a much better fit.

I think we should also replace Mario from every Mario games

Ryu is a posterboy for gameplay and I main him. But even as a kid I realized he wasn't much of a protagonist and that Capcom didn't care about such things. It's almost like asking them to feature those SFII intro brawlers, because there's supposed to be a narrative in everything

Small Nitpick: Guile is the canonical winner of Street Fighter II.

I think Luke is tight. His big forearms are a nice allusion to Popeye and mma is a cool choice. They need to redesign Sean as a rival for Luke and do him as a clone character too.

I don’t have a problem with Capcom trying to replace him, but the way they go about it is wrong. They keep trying to do it with a brand new character who no one’s heard of and has no development, and then try to make them the face of the series or game, it doesn’t work. They already have a replacement(s) for Ryu, one being Sakura. She makes sense she’s been a developed and established character in the series over the years and is very popular among fans. Idk why Capcom seems to over think it. It’s like with Chun Li, “oh we’re gonna make Kimberly the next Chun Li,” it’s like why?! You already have that with Li Fen! Do I think Ryu can ever be replaced, maybe not but I’d say there’s definitely a better chance if it’s done right, with a character that’s already been established.