Ryu (Street Fighter) is a well developed character, thank you very much.

[BrawlMan]

Spoiler: Ryu's Themes

Over the years, I've heard many a critic or gamer go on about how Ryu (Capcom's poster boy of fighting games) has either "no personality", "no character arc", or lacks development of any kind. Or was "done dirty" (really Axel, Abel, and Luke fits the bill more than Ryu ever could with the last label). Whether it be character arcs or his gameplay some of the time. People or those not deep into the history of Street Fighter or fighting games in general, tend to forget Street Fighter didn't have much of a story to begin with. Even when you take SFII into account. It really wasn't until the Animated Movie, where personalities of these characters were more defined, outside of win quotes or victory poses.

Yes, Ryu was generic and a blank slate at the start, but even around II (mainly his ending and revisions of it in HD Remix/USFII) and especially the Alpha games, he got some proper development. In the Alpha games, he's clearly not a people person, outside of Ken and/or his master, Gouken. He can get along with most people fine, but it is all about the fight and communicating with your fists. Ryu is stoic and reserved martial artist and archetype, but the guy can laugh and smile. In the Alpha games, he is still growing as a character and fighter. In Alpha 2, he refused to train Sakura in the beginning, because he was still learning himself, and he felt Sakura didn't take street fighting seriously. He saw the potential, but it wasn't his main focus. Then Alpha 3 comes along where Sakura tries to protect him, and help overcome his brain washing. She succeeds, and Ryu was able to finish Bison off. That earned Ryu's respect, and later as SFIV implied, he did begin training her and did so off-screen.

Then you have Ryu still trying to conquer his dark side, which he was able to accomplish in Street Fighter V. It could have been handled a little better, but it works enough. Also, it was when Akuma finally learned to let Ryu be, as the latter would never embrace it, and found enlightenment of some kind. Thus Akuma loses his animosity, and is on somewhat begrudgingly good terms with Ryu. Akuma just doesn't want to admit it, but it is clear he cooled off as well. Not to mention, Ryu was and is an influence to many of the other fighters from around the world. This was always the implied and outright stated case by the time Street Fighter III came out. Him winning the World Warrior tournament in II cements this.

By the time of VI, Ryu is living his best life, got a change of wardrobe, goes back to having footwear of some kind, and studied under Oro. Meaning Oro's ending in Third Strike actually happened. He wanted Ryu to be his next successor and student. Ryu is not the most charismatic compared to some of the other cast or fighting game leads from other franchises, and not the most developed character in Street Fighter, but he gets great development and a good amount of it.

 

[Zeo]

Not to mention how hard as hell it was to track down the guy!. Ken even had to force his best friend to get a smartphone since he started to get very tired to travel the world just to talk to him

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

Eh, I don't really look for depth on my brawlers — you don't need to be phonological about a beat down to deliver it xD

But Ryu is far from underdeveloped.