SF? Ryu Exhibition (Evo2k9+OHN8 Edition)

Public Premiere: July 19th, 2009 at Evo2k9 and OHN8 concurrently
Soundtrack: Calcius Repton - Ryu Is Strong
Soundtrack: Street Fighter II V OST - Ryu & Ken Theme

This is a tool-assisted combo video utilizing two ASCII PAD V Pro programmable controllers and various emulator features to bypass the limitations of manual execution. Absolutely no cheats, hacks, or game-altering devices were used in the making of these combos.

The whole theme hinges on one line inscribed in the intro: "Ryu never stops fighting." It started with an idea which came from working on parallelized screenshots. The project's core concept is portraying Ryu's entire existence as one long continuous quest. Everything from traveling to eating to sleeping is done only to take him to the next fight. Even talking to people is primarily about acquiring information toward his ultimate goal, whether he's inquiring about a new technique or determining the location of his next opponent. Although he still respects the bare minimum rules of etiquette, which sets him apart from a degenerate hooligan like Akuma.

For Akuma, fighting is an inescapable, consuming obsession. For Guile and Chun Li, fighting is about repaying a debt and righting a wrong. For Dhalsim, fighting is a short-term experiment. For Bison, fighting is a means of amassing control. For Honda and Vega, fighting is a function of vanity. For Cammy, fighting is necessary to defend herself from a completely foreign world. For Ken, fighting stems from competition and rivalry. But for Ryu, fighting is all there is. So for Ryu, fighting is pure.

The video attempts to convey this concept by showing a sequence of battles from Ryu's perspective, all flowing together uninterrupted. Bland as he can be, Ryu is an awesome, awesome character. He's fascinating because he follows a singular path from which he never wavers. He represents the notion that willpower and absolute dedication can create a personal purpose. Though it's a little easier for him because he's a video game character.

(Some years ago, a group of us got together to play Super Turbo in honor of NKI visiting SoCal, and afterwards i remember it was dog-face, NKI, and me walking into the parking garage. Vic mentioned his Ryu always having trouble with one specific matchup, so i told him to try Balrog since it would be fun learning a charge character plus Rog would fit his play style. He thought about it for a second then decided he'd stick to Ryu because he felt "that's what Ryu would do." How awesome is that?!)

For the record, the main editing trick recurring throughout this video was not originally my idea. It's not even the first time i've used it. To my knowledge, jchensor's SFA3 Doll Combo Madness was the very first combo video to contain this overlayed blending technique. A few years later, i took a shot at it with my CvS Ryu Expert Links video, albeit to more subtle effect. Around that time, SlimX released his 3S Video #4, which featured a similar crossfade from SF3:3S to SF3:2I. Each of these applied only singular isolated instances of this transition, but the spark is clearly there. Over the years i've seen numerous previews and prototypes of abandoned combo videos experimenting with similar devices to varying degrees, most of which never saw the light of day for assorted reasons. Anyway the point is, i'm not taking credit for coming up with the basic premise of the thing. Its nucleus already existed in a handful of earlier combo videos, not to mention countless mainstream films. If there's any conceptual breakthrough to be found here, it lies within the arena of scope.

With respect to content quality, my aim was to innovate whenever possible. While i admit a few minor compromises were necessary, the vast majority of the combos are principally new. Otherwise the entire endeavor would've been a waste of time in my eyes. To that end, some clips have a lot going on inside so the transcript has been divided into three parts: one / two / three.