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Ryu was an orphaned child, with no knowledge of who his parents were or if they are still alive. When Ryu was a young child, he was adopted by a man named Gouken and began living with him as well as learning a mysterious martial art. Gouken would later train his best friend's bratty son, Ken Masters, who served not only as a sparring partner for Ryu, but also to give Ryu some company since Gouken was the only person Ryu had seen in a long time due to the seclusion of Gouken's dojo. Ryu looked up to Gouken as a father figure during his early years and Ken as a best friend and surrogate brother, which is how their relationship remains to this day.
When Ryu was about 23 years old, Gouken thought that Ryu was ready to travel the world in order to test his skills against the best fighters in the world. With this, Ryu leaves Gouken and Ken, and heads to fight in the first World Warrior tournament. In that tournament he meets Chun Li, they grow a strong relationship in the tournament. After defeating all challengers, his skills earn him the right to fight its host, Sagat. Ryu loses to Sagat, but when Sagat tries to help Ryu get up , a surge entered Ryu and he delivered a massive Shoryuken to Sagat, leaving a large scar over his chest. Years later, after the events depicted in the Street Fighter Alpha, Ryu entered the 2nd World Warrior tournament, in which he fought Ken after a long time, Ryu won , which left Ken wanting a rematch, he also crossed paths with Sagat, who wanted revenge for taking his title. Ryu won, fair this time. After that Sagat gave Ryu his respect and decided not to seek revenge on Ryu. When Ryu reached the finals he fought M.Bison. He lost to Bison but was saved by Akuma. After that Ryu decided to wander the globe looking for opponents.
Both Ryu and Ken are practitioners of Shotokan Karate, which incorporated the most violent techniques from a blend of four styles of martial arts. Both Ryu and Ken learned their art from Gouken, who vowed to teach a less violent variation of the art created by his master Goutetsu which does not include the discipline's life-threatening techniques such as the Shun Goku Satsu.
While Ryu and Ken follow the same martial arts discipline, as the Street Fighter series evolved, the differences between the two characters was portrayed by their attacks: Ryu focused on technique while Ken opted for stylish unpredictability.
Ryu's normal attacks are slightly slower than Ken's, albeit straightforward. His special moves are more focused; Ryu inflicts damage with individual strikes rather than combinations. His Shoryuken does only one hit, so Ryu can effectively use this move at full power against airborne opponents, although Ken's is still much faster since he follows the Shoryuu principle. Ryu can dodge projectiles at the start of his Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku maneuver and knocks an opponent down with one hit.
Ryu focuses more on the Hadou principle of his fighting styles, which translates to him being very skilled with his usage of ki - Ryu has the most concentrated Hadouken amongst all fighters of the same style, and only Akuma can surpass Ryu's Hadouken easily. Ryu is capable of using the Shakunetsu Hadouken which burns bright with flames, but won't result in immolation.
