Ryu Hayabusa

Ryu Hayabusa (リュウ・ハヤブサ/隼 龍) is the protagonist of the Ninja Gaiden video game series as well as a player character in the Dead or Alive series by Team Ninja and Tecmo. According to the game canon, Ryu (lit. "dragon") Hayabusa ("falcon") is a ninja and the leader of the Hayabusa Clan (隼一族) that has spiritual, physical and magical ties to ancient dragons. He is often regarded as the most popular ninja character to be ever featured in video games.

In video games
As a son of Joe Hayabusa (Ken Hayabusa in the NES Ninja Gaiden ), "the ultimate ninja" Ryu is an heir to the Dragon lineage and is the holder of the legendary Dragon Sword. Although his father should carry the sword, he passed the sword to Ryu early, due to his bravery and valor. His mother was neither mentioned nor seen in any NG games, although was mentioned in the Worlds of Power novel (where she gives Ryu the letter from his father). Ryu is 21 years old in Ninja Gaiden and two years older in the Dead or Alive series. Although he appears as a normal man, he is not completely human; this was discovered during the Dark Dragon Blade incident. Because his ancestors draw their blood from the same Deities as the Fiends and Vigoor, he is susceptible to the Blood Curse and therefore is able to be turned into a Fiend.

In Ninja Gaiden, Ryu is known by some as the Dragon Ninja. The CIA knows about his clan, abilities, and history. Ryu has been betrayed by some of his alleged allies such as A. Foster (Ninja Gaiden NES), and his uncle Murai (Ninja Gaiden Black). He is the ninja Hayate's best friend and an ally of Kasumi and Ayane. Ryu has also befriended several people from the DOA tournaments, notably Jann Lee, with whom he shares a mutual respect.

Ninja Gaiden


Ryu first appeared in Ninja Gaiden arcade game in 1988. Two Nintendo Entertainment System sequels, Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos and Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom, followed in 1990 and 1991 respectively to complete the trilogy. 1991 also saw the release of Ninja Gaiden Shadow for the Game Boy. There is no story to the original arcade version of Ninja Gaiden, except that Ryu is beating up his foes throughout the United States. Ryu's story commences in Ninja Gaiden for the Nintendo Entertainment System, when he receives a letter from his father, who has departed to fight a life or death duel. This was followed by the next two games of the trilogy, which have mysterious introductions that unfolded in a similar manner. In Ninja Gaiden II, players are introduced to a new villain who wields the Dark Sword of Chaos. In Ninja Gaiden III, Ryu Hayabusa is framed for killing his girlfriend. Another Ninja Gaiden game was released in 1992 for the Sega Master System.

The series and Ryu returned with Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox in 2004 (later remade as Ninja Gaiden Sigma for the PS3). The prologue explains the mythos of the Dragon Lineage who sided with the dragons against the Evil Deities, and how they slew the Dark Dragon a God of Death and Destruction. The Dragons are described as god-like, benevolent creatures with metallic bones, teeth and claws, created by Gurdu the Deity of Creation to counter the Evil Deities. The prologue includes a brief history of the two Dragon Swords. The first is the Dark Dragon Blade, carved out of the bone of the legendary Dark Dragon that betrayed his brethren out of jealousy and thirst for power, joining the Evil Deities. This blade consumes evil, charging as more evil is committed in its vicinity. As a result, the weapon turns its wielder into the devil incarnate. The second sword is the Dragon Sword, carved from the fang of a dragon, and bequeathed the Dragon Lineage from generation to generation, and finally to Ryu Hayabusa; it is the same sword used by Ryu in the NES Ninja Gaiden trilogy.

The story of the Xbox game deviated from the original NES Ninja Gaiden trilogy by a few small retroactive continuities. This game and its sequels Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword (Nintendo DS) and Ninja Gaiden II / Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (Xbox 360/PS3) serve as prequels to the original Ninja Gaiden series, both series are connected to the Dead or Alive series. Timeline wise the events the current Ninja Gaiden series happen first, then the NES Ninja Gaiden series, and finally the Dead or Alive series. Ryu was confirmed to return in Ninja Gaiden 3, a next game in the second series and the first one since Tomonobu Itagaki left the Team Ninja. The game is supposed to showcase Ryu's "more human side".

In Ninja Gaiden (1988), his father disappears. Ryu finds a letter from his father, informing that he was on his way to a life or death duel, and instructing that, should he not return, Ryu is to go to the United States and find his friend Walter Smith. During his time in America searching for Smith, Ryu crosses paths with the CIA, in particular with Irene Lew, and is immediately spun into a globe-trotting adventure. He eventually crosses paths with Bloody Malth, the man who defeated Ryu's father. Ryu eventually finds his father then who tries to attack him, being under a spell that Ryu managed to break. However, Ken is killed by Bloody Malth's master, the Jaquio (whom Ryu encountered midway through his adventure). Ryu avenges his father's death by killing Jaquio and also the mighty Demon, one of the original Evil Deities alongside fellow Archfiends. After Ryu vanquished the evil beings, he is to be terminated by Irene Lew on Foster's orders, but she does not comply and Ryu vows to "get Foster" while Ryu and Irene begin a relationship.

In Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, it is revealed that Ashtar, Jaquio's master and the Emperor of Darkness, planned to rule the world with the power of the Demon. His plans foiled, Ashtar kidnaps Irene to lure Ryu to his home dimension. Ashtar wields the Dark Sword of Chaos, made from the bone of the Demon at the same time that the Dragon Sword. Ryu eventually confronts and defeats Ashtar, but before he can get Irene to safety, she is captured by Jaquio, who now bears the Dark Sword. Ryu confronts and defeats the Jaquio a second time at an altar made from the Demon's bones. However, the Jaquio's blood flows into the Dark Sword, awakening it. The Jaquio is revived by its power and stabs Irene with the sword. Ryu slays the Jaquio again, but Irene's blood empowers the sword further, and revives the Demon. After Ryu kills the Demon again, the Dark Sword of Chaos shatters, and he carries Irene back to Earth, where she succumbs to her wounds and dies. Crying over her body, Ryu calls on the spirits of his ancestors, saying his victories are meaningless without her. The Dragon Sword then begins to hum and glow, emitting a blue light which flows into Irene, reviving her. The couple then watches the evening sunset (unlike the sunrise in the other two NES Ninja Gaiden games).

In Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom, Ryu's doppelgänger supposedly assassinates Irene and frames the original for murder. During his quest to clear his name, Ryu discovers that Irene is really still alive and that his doppelgänger was a BIO-NOID sent by Irene's own boss and former acquaintance of his, Foster. This is followed by an engagement with Ryu's doppelgänger which ended in Ryu's defeat. In their second encounter, Ryu turns the tables, defeating his doppelgänger instead. Foster is then double-crossed by his accomplice, H.P. Clancy, who murders him and reveals the true nature of their location, the Castle Rock Fortress, as an inter-dimensional warship, which he intends to use for global dominance. With both Irene and himself caught up in Clancy's machinations, Ryu is forced to take action. Subsequently, he foils Clancy's plans and flees the crumbling Castle Rock Fortress with Irene.

In Ninja Gaiden (1992), Ryu receives a message that the Dragon Ninja clan's village has been brutally massacred. The last survivor of the village tells Ryu with his dying breath that the Sacred Scroll of Bushido, of power so strong that its owner can control the world, has been stolen. As the last ninja of the Dragon Clan, the fate of the world is in its hands, and he must embark on a trip to regain the scroll from the hands of the evil Shogun of Darkness and his minions.

In Ninja Gaiden (2004), the Hayabusa Ninja clan was annihilated including Ryu's childhood friend Kureha, and the Dark Dragon Blade was stolen by the evil Lord of the Greater Fiends Doku and his minions. Though killed by Doku, Ryu is revived by the clan's animal spirit, the falcon, and embarks on a journey in search of the stolen Dark Dragon Blade and avenge his clan's death. As he proceeds, he met the Fiend hunter Rachel, who is in search of her sister Alma. Ryu also came across Alma, who was morphed into a Greater Fiend but eventually saves Rachel from Doku. Eventually, Ryu defeats Doku and his overlord, the supreme evil god Holy Emperor Vigoor, and retrieves the Dark Dragon Blade. In the end, Ryu and Rachel come across the mysterious Dark Disciple, revealed to be Ryu's uncle Murai, who then betrays and challenges him. Despite wielding the evil Dark Dragon Blade, Murai is defeated and Ryu destroys the sword. He then lefts Rachel with no further comment and brings back the Dragon Eye he got from Kureha's grave.

The story of Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword takes place six months later, beginning as a female ninja Momiji is kidnapped by the rival Black Spider ninja clan led by Obaba. Ryu sets out to find seven Dark Dragonstones, defeating several bosses along the way. At the climax of the adventure, the former Doku's servant Ishtaros (an Ancient Greater Fiend of Creation, once worshipped as Ishtar) steals the Dragonstones from Ryu, who is left almost powerless and quickly defeated by Ishtaros. However, when Kureha, Momiji's sister, appears and fuses with Momiji's Dragon Eye, the sword becomes the Dragon Sword once again. After defeating Ishtaros and her sister Nicchae (an Ancient Greater Fiend of Creation, once worshipped as Nike) in the form of the Dark Dragon, Ryu brings Momiji back home. All of the Hayabusa village mourn at Kureha's grave and Momiji once again starts training with Ryu, hoping to fulfill her promise to her sister to become stronger.

The story of Ninja Gaiden II begins with a CIA agent Sonia asking Muramasa if he knows the whereabouts of Ryu Hayabusa, telling him that she has information concerning the Archfiend Vazdah, the third evil god. Ryu arrives in the nick of time, but is unable to save her and she is kidnapped by the Black Spider clan. He eventually finds her after travelling through the skylines of Tokyo, whereby she warns him of the plot of the Greater Fiends to steal the Demon Statue, which is being protected by the Hayabusa ninja village, in order to resurrect the Archfiend. Informed by Sonia, Ryu heads back to the village to see it burning once again. Fighting his way to the Castle of the Dragon where the statue is held, he finds his father, Joe, fighting Genshin, leader of the Black Spider clan. They are unable to stop the statue being stolen by the Queen of the Greater Fiends Elizébet. Ryu follows her trail, defeating the Four Greater Fiends along the way, as well as Genshin who just became a Greater Fiend himself. Ryu is unable to stop the resurrection of the Archfiend Vazdah, created by his High Infernal Priest Dagra Dai, but ultimately destroys Vazdah at Mount Fuji. In the aftermath, Ryu reunites with Sonia, and is last seen placing Genshin's sword among many others in a field as a symbol of his grave.

Ryu returns in Ninja Gaiden 3.

Dead or Alive
Taking place chronologically years after his exploits in the Ninja Gaiden series, he adopts a new, sleeker look. After the events of Ninja Gaiden for NES, as chronicled in the Ninja Gaiden anime, he moved to America where he married Irene and bought an antique shop he ran with her. His story is fleshed out more, as a new ninja clan is introduced, several other supporting characters, and a new, serpentine plot that he finds himself intertwined in. He has been a participant in every DOA tournament, canonically winning the second championship by killing Tengu. His friends have also won most of the other DOA tournaments, except in Dead or Alive 4.

In Dead or Alive, Ryu joins the first DOA Tournament looking for the disappeared Kasumi. In Dead or Alive 2, Ryu joined the second tournament because he was informed by his own clan that a creature from another dimension named Tengu joined it to create chaos in the world. Eventually, Ryu came across his lost friend Hayate (as Ein and was still suffering from a memory loss) and defeated him, restoring his memory. Ryu then defeated Tengu to save the world from his evil plot and effectively won the second tournament, although it was Kasumi who defeated her clone.

In Dead or Alive 3, Hayabusa faces off against Hayate, who has become the 18th leader of the Mugen Tenshin ninja clan after recovering from a memory loss. In his ending cutscene, Ryu receives a mysterious letter from an unknown ninja while he's fishing near the river. In the next game, Ryu joins Hayate, Kasumi and Ayane to stop DOATEC. He and Ayane come across with Christie who is trying to stop the ninja from destroying the DOATEC Tritower. In his Dead or Alive 4 ending, Ryu destroys three DOATEC special helicopters before disappearing into the night. In Helena's ending he destroys a single helicopter, showing a man trapped inside the aircraft who could have been Donovan.

Ryu returns in Dead or Alive 5.

Warriors
Ryu, along with Ayane and Momiji, makes an unplayable guest appearance in Koei's video game Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce, in commemoration of the 2009 merger between Koei and Tecmo that created Tecmo Koei. GamesRadar includded their guest appearance in DW: Strikeforce in their 2010 list of 55 "awesome character cameos" in gaming.

In Warriors Orochi 3, Ryu and Ayane appear in another dimension and assists the other warriors there. His arrival is set before the events of Ninja Gaiden 3.

He is set to appear together with Ayane in the upcoming Dynasty Warriors Vs. (previously known as Dynasty Warriors 3DS).

Guest appearances


"Hayabusa Ninja" is an alternative costume for the character Max in Super Swing Golf: Season 2. An armor similar to Ryu Hayabusa's outfit also makes a cameo in the Xbox 360 game Halo 3, as an unlockable armor set called Hayabusa (for the player to obtain the chest, shoulder, and helmet pieces of the armor they must collect all hidden skulls in campaign mode). Additionally, a Halo 3 player is awarded an in-game (unusable) replica of Ryu's Dragon Sword if they get the gamerscore of 1000.

In other media
Ryu, voiced by Keiichi Nanba, is the main character in the 1991 OVA film Ninja Ryūkenden, released in Japan only. Ryu Hayabusa has a unique look in the animation.

In DOA: Dead or Alive, the 2006 live-action adaptation of Dead or Alive, Ryu was portrayed by Kane Kosugi.

Gameplay
According to Prima Games' official guide for Dead or Alive Ultimate, Ryu is "fairly fast and has decent power, though he doesn't necessarily excel at either, making him a fairly well-balanced character," adding that he is "fun to mess around with" and can be useful to a moderate-level player in certain situations. According to Prima's official guide for Dead or Alive 4, the revamped Ryu "continues to be one of the top characters in the Dead or Alive series" and can still be played at top levels; he was rated overall 7/10.

According to GameSpot, Ryu, "as the world's most super ninja, is indeed a master of the devious arts" in DOA4, and "while some of his moves are difficult, the bulk of them are actually fairly easy to pull off, and he's quite fast to boot, making him an excellent choice of character for new players." Team Ninja wrote that in DOA5 "his signature move is the Izuna Drop—a powerful throw that he can perform even from strikes or holds."

Promotion and merchandise
In 2011, Ryu's Ninja Gaiden costume parts were available as exclusive downloadable content during the first anniversary promotion campaign for Dynasty Warriors Online. A demo version of DOA5 featuring Ryu and Hitomi as playable characters was added as a downloadable bonus to the pre-order version of Ninja Gaiden 3 for the PS3, as well as the collector's edition release for both the PS3 and Xbox360.

A Ninja Gaiden II statue of Ryu was released by First 4 Figures in 2008. A NGII action figure from NECA was also released the same year. Several other action figures and statuettes  were released in Japan.

Reception
Ryu Hayabusa has been an extremely popular character, especially among similar ninja-type characters. In 2010, readers of the Japanese magazine Famitsu voted Ryu into 43rd place in a poll for the best video game character of all time. Empire also included him on their list of the 50 greatest video game characters, adding: "This is a man not to be messed with, and his honour, grace, and iconic image as the superlative gaming ninja, he'll never be forgotten."

Ryu was often ranked as the number one video game ninja character ever by various publications, including on the lists compiled by CrunchGear (in 2008), Unreality (in 2009), GamePro and ScrewAttack (both in 2010), and machinima.com (in 2011). In 2011, Cheat Code Central wrote "he's been ranked number one on more top ninja lists than one can count, and he tops this list, too." In addition, he was featured by Virgin Media on the list of top ten video game ninja heroes in all media, as well as quite unusually ranked as second on list of top ten gaming ninja characters by 1UP.com in 2004. In 2008, when readers of IGN voted on which of the two ninja would win in a "Hero Showdown" between him and Joe Musashi of Sega's Shinobi series, Ryu won with 82% of the votes. That same year, the staff of GamesRadar included him among the top video game assassins in the category "ninja" even as they have "never known Ryu to specifically take on assassination jobs". In 2010, Nintendo Power listed Ryu as one of the best ninja characters on Nintendo consoles. He was also featured among the top ten ninjas for PlayStation consoles by PLAY in 2011, and ranked as the second swiftest ninja by Complex in 2012.

He was nominated for the Nintendo Power Awards '89 and '91 in the category Best Character (Best Hero). In 2008, The Age ranked him as tenth best Xbox character of all time, while IGN included him on the list of characters that should be included in a hypothetical ultimate fighting game as "few videogame heroes make killing look easier or more stylish than Ryu Hayabusa" and "all other ninja seem lame by comparison". In 2009, GameSpot featured Ryu in their poll for the Greatest Game Hero, in which he has won against The Nameless One (Planescape:Torment) and Sackboy (LittleBigPlanet), but ultimately lost to Duke Nukem. That same year, GameDaily listed the "badass ninja" in their top 25 video game archetypes, using Ryu as an example, and featured him among the "gaming's greatest patriots" of Japan. In 2011, UGO.com included him in their list of 11 video game characters who need their own live-action movies. GamePro also stated he "has the most fearsome arsenal of weapons we’ve ever seen in a video game". In 2012, Complex listed him among the characters they would like to see in the next Soulcalibur game, adding, "we've had our fun going ninjitsu crazy with Taki and Natsu, but now it's time for Tecmo's ninja to enter the fray."