Ryu Hayabusa

Ryu Hayabusa is the main protagonist from the Ninja Gaiden series and is part of the Dead or Alive franchise.

Ryu is a member of the Hayabusa clan’s head family, Hayabusa often takes on the leadership responsibilities of the clan and the protection of the Dragon Sword while his father Jô Hayabusatrains in the mountains. He was the winner of the second Dead or Alive Tournament.

Appearance
Ryu is the epitome of a present day ninja, his Legendary Black Falcon outfit's sleek design is similar to that of the modern special ops agent, while the tabi boots, ninja head piece, mask, scarf and shin/forearm guards are reminiscent of the ancient ninja warrior.

Physically, Ryu Hayabusa is a young man in his early 20s, standing at 5'10" and weighing in at 172 lbs. He is in peak physical condition with a muscular build. As a ninja, most of his costumes and attire conceal his face, revealing only his eyes, one of his most distinctive features. Ryu's eyes feature vibrant green coloration with a slight golden hue. This golden hue feature is more prominent accompanied with his wardrobe composed of mostly dark colors, something that points out even more of his peculiar eyes and gives him an intimidating appearance.

Underneath the ninja mask and hood reveals a youthful face, and brown hair almost always held in a ponytail, a completely opposite appearance to what many would expect, given his deadly skills and calculative, savage brutality in battle. (However, the ponytail was altered to a flat top in the OVA).

Personality
As a ninja, Ryu ruthlessly kills his enemies without mercy, executing them in a very cold, technical and calculative fashion. His rigorous upbringing in tandem with the many hardships and tragedies he has suffered, has forced Ryu to harden his emotions and disciplined his skills to perfection. He is undaunted by the lives he must take in order to protect the balance within the world, knowing that the balance of the world is more important.

Ryu knows life following the ninja path can be both cruel and short, especially for one of the Dragon Lineage. He has already felt first hand the brutality of this life; watching Kureha, his best friend murdered right in front of his own eyes, his clan massacred and he himself killed as he tries to save his village. Ryu endures these hardships with his unstoppable will, an indomitable spirit shown in his exploits as he overcomes every challenge and obstacle, surviving even the trauma of death to return and exact his vengeance.

Though Ryu cares little for his enemies' well being, he still respects them on a warrior basis, even having mutual respect with some adversaries such as Genshin. Outside of battle, Ryu is modest and refined, he is popular among the local residents in his village. Not only as a strong role model for ninja in training, but he is heralded for being kind and gentle, as he cares for the safety of every resident in his home. This is due to the fact that each Hayabusa clansman from Jonin to cadet is cherished as family.

Ryu has the demeanor and wisdom of a man far older than himself, an understanding of the world around him and the balance of power within it. He ignores the pursuit of power to the dismay of his uncle Murai, showing no signs of curiosity for the dark powers that dwelled within the Dark Dragon Blade. When given a choice, he chooses to destroy it rather than consume its immense dark powers. Ryu also refused to keep its divine counterpart the True Dragon Sword, knowing this weapon's existence upsets the delicate balance of the peaceful world.

Overall, Ryu's exploits have given him an attitude far removed from most others as he understands things in more abstract and philosophical terms. He adopts a tranquil nature, free flowing most of the time, but unforgiving and crushing when roused. Ryu is also very stoic, he is usually seen not speaking very often. He usually speaks in profound bursts of wisdom, even sometimes looking down on his enemies.

Abilities
Hayabusa is arguably a top-tier character, both due to canon and gameplay. He was nerfed in Dead or Alive 5 Last Round, but his holds and throws are all still above-average. Additionally, Hayabusa's unbreakable Izuna-Otoshi (lit. "Lightning Drop") combo throw is one of the most powerful in the game and variations of it can be performed: from a crouching throw (Yoko-Izuna), from a strike (Shoho-Izuna), and from his expert holds (Senko-Izuna, Rekko-Izuna, Yoko-Izuna), although sometimes a combo from his Izuna throws and holds may be more effective in certain situations. His mix-ups and surprise attacks (like his Asuka-Gaeshi) keep many players guessing which angle or height he will strike from next.

However, he is one of the more difficult characters to learn as he requires strong and good execution, has a bad neutral game, and is also a high risk, high reward character. Whilst he also has an effective force tech (Rekku-Utsusemi) that allows him to teleport to the back of the opponent, leaving the opponent vulnerable while giving him an advantage, it is also risky as it will leave him with his back turned against the opponent should the move unsuccessfully connect with a grounded opponent.

He is also apparently the slowest ninja just after Raidou, lacks decent mix-ups and he also lacks a lot of low strikes to open up the opponent. His strings also lack a lot of tracking (One notable example is the Shoryu (lit. "Rising Dragon") kick, which is extremely linear to the point where you can avoid it and have yourself facing Hayabusa's back by just free stepping in close range) and they are also rather unsafe. His only parry from the Ongyoin stance, while it puts him on the other side of the opponent, is rather unreliable compared to the parries of other characters, as the frame advantage he gets from a successful parry is dependent on the recovery of the parried opponent's move, so it is possible for him to not gain any frame advantage at all. He only makes up for his weaknesses with good wall and environmental game, deep stuns, and his high damage output, but only if he is able to open up the opponent.

He possesses a few offensive holds which other ninjas are lacking (except Raidou) and his throws have the speed of a grappler. His Ongyoin (lit. "Hidden Form Seal") stance, which is significantly more useful in Dead or Alive 5 and its iterations gives him more moves to choose from, such as an unbreakable combo throw, a teleport parry, an offensive hold and teleport strikes. However, the weakness of the Ongyoin stance is that most of its long distance attacks are linear, which means they could be evaded effortlessly by free stepping or side stepping.

Some of his throws and moves that can help maximize his damage output include the first kick of Shoryu-Tenda (lit."Rising Dragon Heavenly Blast")/Shoryu-Tenho (lit."Rising Dragon Heavenly Cannon")/Shoryu-Kyaku, Urakaze (lit. "Rising Dragon Leg, Sea Breeze), ; his air throw Koryuho (lit. "Steel Dragon Cannon) and the Shoho-Izuna (lit. "Rising Lightning Cannon"), which is even more effective in stages with ceilings (Zuisho-Izuna).

In Dead or Alive 6, Ryu now possess two different air throws, and gains access to 2 during his Ongyoin stance. In some of his attacks (including his Fatal Rush, Fatal Blow, and the half-circle input variants of his air throws) he incorporates ninpo into his moves, imbuing his fists with fire and/or lightning.

Trivia

 * In Ninja Gaiden and its remakes, Ryu is 21 years old. In Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword and Ninja Gaiden II/Sigma 2, he's 22 years old.
 * The coloration of Ryu's eyes on the Xbox games have a darker green coloration, compared to the PlayStation 3 games, where they have a more brighter golden hue to them. When asked about Ryu's eyes, Tomonobu Itagaki revealed that Ryu's eyes are green because "green seemed to be a cool color".
 * In Dead or Alive, Ryu was supposed to be a new character named Kamui who was unrelated to the classic Ninja Gaiden, but one of the staffs suggested featuring Ryu Hayabusa from the classic series and Ryu was added to the roster.
 * Ryu Hayabusa has been featured in many top videogame character lists, especially ones specializing in the Ninja archetype. These lists are a GameDaily list with Ryu as one of Japan's greatest patriots, GamesRadar and GameDaily which feature Ryu representing the Ninja Archetype, and numerous lists with Ryu ranking #1 including Virgin Media, CrunchGear, Unreality, PC World, Screw Attack and Top Ten FTW.
 * In Yaiba's Weekly Backhand, a weekly column written by Yaiba about zombie and ninja movies, Yaiba makes an off-hand comment about Ryu Hayabusa going around the world to save his father, implying that the classic series happened sometime before Yaiba. However this is ignored by most fans due to continuity issues
 * It's commonly thought that the main character from the Arcade Game is Ryu Hayabusa, due to his blue colour. This was later confirmed in Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z.
 * Ryu is the main protagonist and a playable character in all Ninja Gaiden games except Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z.