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| - A common trope seen in Fighting Games, where two characters are given equal or similar abilities/appearances, and often wind up as being the main characters for the series. In some cases, the two characters may have an implicit rivalry, if not outright hatred for one another. They usually are colour coded to represent Red Oni, Blue Oni scheme. If both characters are playable, both may be Jack of All Stats. Even if they have the same movesets, they can't be considered Ditto Fighters, since they only emulate one other character. In many cases, a game's Ryu And Ken are Shotoclones; however, this is not always the case, and not every Shotoclone is a Ryu And Ken. The Ken might later be subject to Divergent Character Evolution to differentiate him from the Ryu.
* The Sakura is also similar to Ryu and Ken, but is overall smaller, weaker, and usually has less effective attacks. They may add new twists to the attacks to compensate, however, such as being faster. They will often be female (typically presented as the smaller but faster female counterpart to the male Ryu and Ken), though this is not a universal rule.
* The Akuma is basically the same character type upgraded to a Game Breaker. He has the same moves, but he will move faster, hit harder, and more often than not has much higher priority for his moves plus nasty little tricks and variations added to them. They will usually be the Final Boss or Bonus Boss of the game before they are playable, and will be hard as hell to beat.
* The Dan Hibiki is the Joke Character or Lethal Joke Character version. Expect weak yet hilarious attacks. Examples of Ryu and Ken include:
* The ur-examples are the identical fighters from Karate Champ. Completely identical fighting styles, and they even wore a white and red gi.
* The trope codifiers and trope namers, obviously, are Ryu and Ken from Capcom's Street Fighter franchise, having appeared in every game in the series to date. At first, they started off as clones of one another, having the exact same movesets and being merely head-swaps of one another (because the original Street Fighter had no scope for mirror matches, so they needed two identical characters for two-player competition play). During the Street Fighter II games, their stats, moves, and strategies began to differentiate, albeit little by little each new iteration, but by the time the Street Fighter Alpha series started they had distinct backstories and extremely similar, but not identical, abilities. Naturally, the series also includes the Sakura, Akuma, and Dan-types as well (Unsurprisingly, the characters with those names).
* Though Sakura and Karin look like they would be Ryu and Ken reincarnated as teenage girls, Karin has an entirely different fighting style from her rival.
* Yun and Yang originally had the same move set and even shared the same character select slot in New Generation, but Yang eventually learned his own techniques from 2nd Impact and onward. Urien and Gill are similar, but Urien is a charge-type character and not as brokenly overpowered.
* Akuma and Gouken in Street Fighter IV. They're actually brothers.
* Zangief got Darun from Street Fighter EX. Haggar could count as well, but they have never been fighters in the same game so far (although Haggar did get his own unique Special Moves in Ring of Destruction to set him apart from Zangief). Ryu and Ken also have Allen and Kairi from EX
* Cammy has Juni and Juli, Bison's bodyguards, in Street Fighter Alpha 3.
* Charlie was originally brought in as a stand-in for Guile during the Street Fighter Alpha series, but plays this trope straight when Guile was put back in the roster for the console versions of Street Fighter Alpha 3, (and Marvel vs. Capcom 2) where they both have identical special moves but different Super Combos. Chronologically speaking, the Alpha series is set before Street Fighter II and Charlie was the one who taught Guile all of his special moves according to his back-story.
* SNK's Alternate Company Equivalent, The King of Fighters, has Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami. Their movesets were originally somewhat similar (justified in that their ancestors created their respective fightig styles together), with several shared moves; Currently, however, they only have one move in common. Kyo's flames are red, and Iori's are purple due to the Curse of the Blood Riot. Iori is much more sadistic, although not an outright villain (even though he likes to break into evil laughter from time to time). Kyo is also the Ryu to Benimaru Nikado's Ken, and the Ken to his father Saisyu's Ryu.
* Non-protagonist examples from the same series are Ralf and Clark, and Mature and Vice. Ralf and Clark, the Palette Swap heroes of Ikari Warriors, started out as head swaps with differing intros, winposes, throws, knockdown moves, effects on one of their shared attacks, and desperation moves. Nowadays, it's hard to imagine these two were ever that similar. Mature and Vice, on the other hand, shared outfits, normal moves, throws, and one special move (a command throw) in their 96 debut. Like the Ikari Warriors, their 98 return had them undergo Divergent Character Evolution such that all that remained the same were their weak punches and throws.
* They are all predated, of course, by Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia in the Art of Fighting series.
* Kim's sons, Kim Jae Hoon and Kim Dong Hwan, however, play very similarly to each other and to their father in Garou Mark of the Wolves.
* Shingo may not have flames, but his fighting style is similar enough to be the Sakura/Dan to Kyo and Iori, though his new twists to the moves make him more than just a carbon copy of Kyo. The fact that his moves are fairly weak in comparison to other characters means he skews more towards Dan, though he tends to be much more viable.
* Predating even Art of Fighting's Ryo and Robert are the three-man Ryu and Ken And Ren? Kyu? team of Terry, Andy and Joe in the original Fatal Fury only. They each had a fireball, a dashing attack, and a flying attack with the potential to hit multiple times, with only their fourth special and the ranges on their normal attacks being functionally different (and even that fourth move was incredibly similar for Terry and Andy). Fatal Fury 2 added more and more varied normal attacks, tweaked the properties of their specials to help differentiate them, and gave them each a completely unique Desperation Move. Nowadays, their gameplay styles are nothing alike.
* The King of Fighters XIII brings back an older, almost-forgotten example: friendly rivals Joe Higashi and Hwa Jai (from the first Fatal Fury). They share many a move, but there is a difference functionality-wise.
* Hanzo and Fuuma from World Heroes, a Fighting Game with characters loosely based on historical figures. Japanese legend depicts Fuuma Kotaro and Hattori Hanzo as lifelong enemies, until the former ultimately killed the latter (though history actually records Hanzo dying of natural causes).
* Urs and Marco Van De Land from Battle Fantasia, who also happen to be brothers. It's a weird case as 9-year-old Marco is the Ryu to 17-year-old Urs' Ken. And they manage to do this and come off as amazingly different at the same time, partly because of Urs' Impossibly Cool Weapon.
* Another example from the same game is Olivia and Odile, who look similar, have similar weapons, and it turns out that Dokurod cloned Olivia to create Odile.
* The Mishima family (Heihachi, Kazuya, Jin) in the Tekken series.
* Nina and Anna Williams.
* Yoshimitsu and Kunimitsu.
* Roger and Alex.
* Eddy Gordo and both Tiger Jackson (in 3) and Christie (4 and onwards)
* Kuma and Panda.
* Baek and Hwoarang, atleast since 5.
* Armor King and King,
* Jack and P.Jack.
* Marshall Law/Forest Law and Mokujin/Combot would count too, albeit they were never together in one game.
* Eiji Shinjo and Kayin Amoh from Battle Arena Toshinden. Eiji's lost brother Sho qualifies as an Akuma -- he has all of both Kayin and Eiji's moves, but he hits harder, and he shoots two fireballs when using Rekku Zan.
* Sub-Zero and Scorpion from Mortal Kombat are about the closest thing the franchise has to a Ryu and Ken. They share the same Palette Swap in the original game, and they are quite bitter rivals in canon (Scorpion being the Red Oni and Sub-Zero being literally Blue), but their movesets are quite different, with Sub-Zero favoring ice attacks and Scorpion favoring spears, teleporting and fire.
* Frost is closer to a Sakura for Sub-Zero, due to her being much more of a Fragile Speedster with much quicker but weaker attacks and special moves.
* Kano and Jarek, although this is another case of a Suspiciously Similar Substitute meant to replace the former; they weren't playable in the same game until Armageddon.
* Superman and Captain Marvel in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe play this. A stranger version is Lex Luthor and Sektor, who don't appear in the same game, but Luthor plays similarly to Sektor, even blatantly using similar special moves.
* In Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Ryu and Ken, except this time Ken is Ken the Eagle from Science Ninja Team Gatchaman.
* With the addition of Joe the Condor in the Ultimate All Stars, along with Jun acting as the Sakura, the three Gatchamen play this trope straight among themselves.
* Likewise with Tekkaman and Tekkaman Blade in Ultimate All Stars: The Tekkamen have many shared/similar techniques, but their executions are noticeably distinct. Tekkaman (the Ryu) is a Mighty Glacier (and might have the highest damage output in the game outside of the Giant characters), while Blade (the Ken) trades in some power for a good deal of speed, possibly making him just shy of being a Lightning Bruiser.
* In Super Smash Bros. Melee, in addition to standard secret characters, Dr. Mario, Ganondorf, Falco Lombardi, Young Link, Pichu and Roy are Kens to the Ryus of the character they are adjacent to (respectively, Mario, Captain Falcon, Fox McCloud, Link, Pikachu, and Marth).
* Luigi is also largely a Ken of Mario's Ryu (or a Sakura to his brother if you toss in Dr. Mario), though there are some differences in their move sets (see below).
* In the sequel, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, more differences were introduced between Fox and Falco (Falco, for instance, can kick his Reflector shield at enemies as an attack), and a third Ken, Wolf O'Donnell was introduced, though he has even more move differences (in fact, none of his A moves are similiar to the other two space animals), is harder to control, and is more of a Mighty Glacier. The rest of the Kens were also changed to be different or removed.
* Link and Toon Link. Ganondorf and Captain Falcon, everyone else is more notably different but no one is similar as the characters were in Melee.
* God Hand, a throwback to old-school Fighting Games, nods to it with Gene and Azel. There's also several nods to the actual Ryu, including a karate outfit as an alternate costume and a Shoryuken as one of Gene's juggle moves. Capcom owned Clover, who made God Hand.
* Soul Calibur III and IV seem to be taking this route with Siegfried and Nightmare. Only fair since they literally started out the same character.
* The Alexandra sisters (Sophitia and Cassandra) have developed along these lines as well since the latter showed up in SCII (Though the latter was originally intended as a Suspiciously Similar Substitute until popular demand brought back the former for the console version of SCII and subsequent sequels).
* Hwang and Mitsurugi started out like this.
* Rock and Astaroth.
* Raphael and Amy.
* Kilik and Seong-Mina also shared a lot of moves in Soul Calibur in spite of their different weapons, but have differentiated more and more with each subsequent sequel. Seong-Mina's moves are straightforward and have changed the least, while Kilik now focuses on range and punishing opponents' mistakes.
* Galford and Hanzo of Samurai Shodown. Originally being little more than palette/head swaps of one another, they eventually became more and more different with the addition of Hanzo's fire-based specials and Galford's ability to set his dog Poppy against opponents.
* We also have Nakoruru and Rimururu. In the third and fourth game, the latter was a headswap of the former. They were quickly given different outfits in the later games. Nakoruru fights with a bird, Rimururu fights with a floating Nature Spirit crystal of ice.
* Some of the Shura (Slash) and Rasetsu (Bust) mode pairs are like this in III and IV, while others are way different.
* In the Naruto Clash of Ninja series, Iruka and Mizuki are this (in Mizuki's first appearance, the two shared character slots). Also, Kisame and Zabuza, both Swordsmen of the Mist, have similar movesets (more obvious in the Japanese games where they're both playable; Zabuza does not appear in the internationally-released Clash of Ninja Revolution games, while Kisame does).
* Hinata and Neji have similar movelists, but many of Hinata's moves are original to the games (for example, instead of using Eight Trigrams 64 Palms, she repeatedly attacks an opponent with Gentle Fist palm strikes, then finishes with a burst of chakra), due to limited information on her fighting style. In the Ultimate Ninja series, Hanabi (Hinata's younger sister) follows a similar principle.
* The game-exclusive characters in Revolution 2 count. Komachi is similar to Haku and Kagura is like Kimimaro. Towa and Bando, this troper is unsure of.
* Biff Slamkovich and Gunloc in the Saturday Night Slam Masters series. Like Ryu and Ken, they have similar but not identical moves; The real differences come out in their grapples.
* Arcana Heart features Heart and Saki, two friends with slightly different outfits who share a few normal attacks and both feature a dash attack, an anti-air attack, and a mid-air stomp attack. However, Heart's attacks are punch-based and use quarter-circle type inputs, while Saki's are kick-based and use charge motions.
* In Ehrgeiz, the Final Fantasy VII characters are generally clones of other characters and have very similar movesets. Yuffie matches up with Sasuke, Vincent with Godhand, and (to some extent) Sephiroth with Cloud.
* Secret Character Zack is very much a Ken to Cloud's Ryu, sharing a similiar move set.
* Billy and Jimmy Lee naturally filled this role in the Neo Geo Double Dragon Fighting Game, as well as in Double Dragon V for the SNES and Genesis.
* Darkstalkers has Morrigan the succubus and Demitri the vampire. They both have the standard "fireball" and "dragon punch"-style moves. Dmitri's moves are slower, and his uppercut flies straight up.
* Lilith is the Sakura, having weaker specials than Morrigan, but a more diverse moveset.
* Another set would be Bishamon and Oboro Bishamon in 'Vampire Savior.
* Sol Badguy and Ky Kiske from Guilty Gear. Unusual in that Sol (the main character) plays closer to Ken, while Ky (who is The Rival) plays like Ryu.
* Castlevania Judgment has an interesting case with Simon and Trever. Both Belmonts use the Vampire Killer whip and have several similar moves (including at least one identical special), but Simon specilizes in quick, wide sweeps, while Trevor mixes it up with several jabs and slower, more powerful attacks.
* Melty Blood has a handful of characters with a Doppelganger equivalent that serve as a Mirror Match, and so have some very similar movesets, natch.
* Variable Geo has Yuka Takeuchi and Chiho Masuda as its primary set; later games would introduce Tamao Mitsurugi, who was a hybrid Ken/Sakura-type in her initial appearance, due to being the main character of that game; but returned for the next as more of a hybrid Sakura/Dan-type due to Divergent Character Evolution.
* In the SNES version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters, Leonardo is the Ryu-type while Michelangelo is the Ken-type with faster, multi-hitting attacks (as well as being a Charge Character).
* Battle K-Road,an arcade-only fighting game released by Psikyo in 1994, features an entire character roster consisting of head/palette swaps. There are two karatekas, two boxers, two Thai kickboxers, two Jujitsu girls, two sumo wrestlers, two commandos and even two Terminator-like cyborgs. The only character without a head-swap is naturally the final boss himself.
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