"Doesn't even come close to Ryu's levels" Are you kidding me? Dude powderizes armored mechs at LIGHTSPEED and judo throws SKYSCRAPER SIZED MECHS before wielding their arm as tall as a tower as a CLAYMORE. Ryu is just a regular dude by comparison lol. Ken Ogawa is from Ninja Blade, a From Software NG clone. Only it's like NG on steroids in terms of feats the hero does. Both of them just leave Ryu in the dust.
Gatchaman characters - particularly Ken Washio, Joe, and Jun - would've better fit the environment of DOA. But we all know what happened there. Tatsunoko wouldn't allow it.
Have you ever played Ninja Gaiden? Yeah, Ryu isn't as show off with brute strenght, sure, but power, he surpass raiden by far, the dude has 3 deities in his kill count, and they have done more harm and destruction than any metal gear excelsus or armstrong could do.
^The last time that happened, they let Strider Hiryu win against Hayabusa by giving the latter a handicap. And recently they made a half-assed fight between Sub-Zero vs. Glacius, allowing Sub to win when the match was clearly a stomp for Glacius.
Sotherius yes I've played NG. Having a deity death count doesn't mean anything, Ryu has a magic demon sword that killed them for him. Ryu doesn't have any crazy feats like judo throwing skyscrapers, moving at lightspeed, or physically PULLING A CRASHING JUMBO JET WITH HIS BARE HANDS TO A DEAD STOP. Ryu himself isn't especially strong or fast. His advantage is all the magic he wields.
The magic that he wields, the training that he has, and the fact that he is not even human. And he still does more of his feats without using the TDS. Like i said, Ryu might not have the brute force of raiden (don't know where you take the light speed though), but he certainly is more skilled and his powers are varied from Ancient deity possesed sword to incredible knowledge in ninja magic.
And remember, that same Raiden, that could judo throw a giant metal gear, Lost to a dude that was almost entirely human, and lost badly. Now Ryu, he killed dudes that could destroy excelsus or armstrong without breaking a sweat.. And Ryu isn't 100% human, he is from the dragon clan, that is a group of fiend descendant humans that sided with the dragon gods.
oh yeah fuck that part of NG2 lol. made no damn sense and kept dying over and over again until I had to look it up. Who the hell would ever THINK of blocking an explosion with the SWORD?! XD. I spent do long trying to outrun it over and over and over.
Even speeding things up, we aren't even hitting realtime yet and Raiden is literally blitzing around as a total blur doing like a hundred slashes in a milisecond, or something like that. He's just WAY beyond Ryu.