Capcom's Street Fighter series has been around since the late eighties, although the series wouldn't become a massive hit until Street Fighter II: The World Warrior was released for arcade systems in March of 1991. Ever since, Capcom's fighting game has been setting the standard for other video game fighting series.
Since the series' early beginnings, players have been debating who of the series' main protagonists is the strongest fighter, Ryu or Ken? The truth is that both characters started out as equals, with the only difference being the colour of their outfits and hair.
Both Ryu and Ken featured the exact same set of movements, so it really depended on who was controlling which character. Over the years, however, Ryu and Ken have been tweaked to the point they are no longer as similar as they initially were.
Ryu is technically stronger and a little bit slower in comparison to Ken, who is definitely faster than Ryu, but also deals less damage. Both are equally balanced, in that particular regard, but it is still up for debate who would actually win if the characters were real and were pitched against each other.
In a recent video shared by Street Fighter II: The World Warrior Producer Yoshiki Okamoto, he finally puts an end to the endless debate, revealing that Ken is actually stronger than Ryu; the reason behind this, though, does require some context.
According to Okamoto, "this one publisher put 1P & 2P into auto-mode, and made Ryu and Ken fight, and Ken came out proportionatelly on top." Okamoto also jokes about lying to interviewers when being asked whether Ryu or Ken was the strongest fighter, revealing that he would always answer with a "they're the same."
Okamoto doesn't even stop there, as he flat out says that Ken is stronger, and that "to be more precise, Ryu is weaker," but there is actually a technical reason for this.
"During development, when you performed a Special Attack, the plan was for you to be vulnerable for a moment. In other words, while you're vulnerable and take an attack, the plan was you'd receive a large amount of damage. We called it 'Core'," Okamoto reveals.
"This plan kept getting put in and shelved and put back in again," Okamoto continues. "Because when we implemented it, it screwed up the game balance. Still, there was a lot of back-and-forth concerning the 'Core' system. In the end we took it out...but we forgot this. So, when Ryu performs a Shoryuken, he can sometimes take a lot of damage. We took that feature out from Ken, but not from Ryu; making Ryu somewhat weaker."
Interestingly enough, Okamoto has still more to say about the whole debate, revealing that "it is not that Ken is stronger than Ryu, but when I get asked 'Who is stronger?' I say 'Neither is stronger.' Just that Ryu is the weaker one!"
So, there you have it. Ryu is the weaker one out of the two, and Ken was always the stronger. Well, at least that's in regards to the original Street Fighter II: The World Warrior.
Okamoto doesn't even reveal when this "Core" feature was removed from Ryu, so it is possible that it isn't even present in the many iterations of Street Fighter II. As a Ken player myself, however, Okamoto's answer does bring a smile to my face.
Give it a watch: