Who are the most powerful characters in the world of Street Fighter?

In Street Fighter there are all kinds of fighters, from oil-bathing Turkish wrestlers to ninja schoolgirls, but underneath the cotton-flavored comedic shell of characters like Dan or Blanka, there are serious characters and major dark themes which are part of the Street Fighter lore.

We will be reviewing what are the 10 most powerful beings in the Street Fighter universe.

10. Dhalsim (Street Fighter V)

Dhalsim is a Yoga master from India and has been around since the early days of Street Fighter.

Through countless years of training, he has learned to stretch his limbs far beyond what is normally humanly possible and gained the ability to breathe fire through the power of Agni, the fire god. He can also teleport himself, float in the air, and perform other superhuman feats.

Sim also has outstanding mental energy, being able to even free Cammy from M. Bison’s control. He is above all a pacifist, fighting only when it’s essential to keep the peace for his family and village, or the entire world. For this reason, the extension of Dhalsim’s power remains unknown.

9. Alex (Street Fighter III: New Generation)

A New Yorker trained by a military veteran named Tom, Alex uses pro wrestling and military moves to battle and has gone against the Secret Society just because he was upset that the organization’s leader Gill defeated his mentor.

Alex has defeated Balrog in a 1-on-1 fair match and has gone all the way through the 4th World Warrior tournament to beat Gill in the finals. Gill himself has stated that there is something special about Alex, something intriguing.

He also holds Ryu as a personal rival and the two of them have fought to an undisclosed result, which says a lot about Alex’s power.

8. G (Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition)

G is the self-proclaimed President of the Earth and he considers his fighting style to be a combination of all martial arts in the world.

He has geokinetic powers and can summon the forces of the Earth itself. His goal is to join everyone as one, and even though he lost in a fight to Gill, he later reveals that his goal is aligned with the leader of the Secret Society’s Gate of Harmony vision, making it completely plausible that G was not trying to seriously defeat Gill.

G is as mysterious as they may come, and Menat has been sent to check on him after an eery premonition. Even Oro, as powerful as he may be, is concerned about his role in the future of the world, and Rose, after the defeat of Shadaloo, can foresee the end of the World being connected to G. His full power is yet to be revealed, but we all should get answers very soon when Street Fighter 6 comes out.

7. Rose (Street Fighter IV)

Rose is an Italian psychic who was once M. Bison’s student and who holds the opposite power to Psycho Power, called Soul Power. In fact, she somehow shares her soul with Bison. Rose supports a scarf which she can manipulate in battle and she can use orbs and reflect projectiles.

As a fortune teller, Rose has the power to foresee the future, which allows her to act in order to change it if it’s dark. She has taken a few pupils under her wing, including Menat, and has interesting relationships with many faces from the cast.

The highlight in her resumé is having defeated M. Bison single-handedly during the events of Street Fighter Alpha 2. Since Bison’s Alpha’s appearance is one of his most powerful ones, this goes a long way in showing the might of Rose’s Soul Power.

6. Gouken (Street Fighter IV)

Gouken is the Ansatsuken master of Ryu and Ken, and fights mainly for self-defense under the philosophy of “waste not, want not”. His fighting style is based on reading and reacting to the opponent and he has the toolkit for it.

He is the brother of Akuma and has taken a completely opposite path from his brother, focusing on removing all the killing intent of the Satsui no Hado of the Ansatsuken, and developing the techniques of Hado no Chikara and the Power of Nothing.

Akuma killed their master Gotetsu and after that, Gouken fought his younger brother to the death so that he wouldn’t go after his pupils. Gouken lost to Akuma, but the fact that he was able to survive is a pure testament to just how powerful Gouken really is. After sealing Ryu’s Satsui no Hado, Gouken battled Akuma to an unknown outcome.

5. M. Bison (Street Fighter Alpha 3)

With dreams of world domination and fueled by the negative energy named Psycho Power, M. Bison will not measure any consequence from his actions in order to achieve his goals and often resources to human experimentation and all other kinds of atrocious crimes against humanity.

An evil consciousness capable of transferring itself from body to body grants Bison pseudo-immortality. He has been responsible for many terrible fates to the characters of Street Fighters, including having killed Chun-Li’s father, possessing Rose’s body, being responsible for the death of Charlie Nash, brainwashing teenage girls to become Dolls (including Decapre), artificially creating beings such as Cammy and Seth, causing planetary level cataclysms and much more.

During the events of Street Fighter Alpha 3, he was at the height of his power, being close to fulfilling his Psycho Drive device, and was only ultimately defeated by the combined efforts of Dhalsim, Cammy, Guile, Charlie, and Chun-Li. Bison has been the final boss of many fighting games, and with good reason.

4. Ryu (Street Fighter 6)

Ryu is the wandering vagabond constantly traveling the world to seek strength and self-improvement. He was trained in the art of Ansatsuken by his master Gouken and has had many rivals that helped him become a better fighter, such as Ken, Alex, and Sagat. 

He has succumbed to the Satsui no Hado in the past to become Evil Ryu, but this darkness was later sealed up by his master. The dormant Satsui no Hado within has sparked many conflicts due to the interest of villains in his powers, but with the help of Dhalsim, Ryu was able to reach the Power of Nothingness, overcoming the Satsui no Hado for good. He was ultimately trained by Oro to further enhance his potential, to become the well-mannered, sincere, and overwhelmingly strong fighter that he is in Street Fighter 6.

Ryu won the first World Warrior tournament by defeating the mighty Sagat, survived battling Akuma, beat a copy of Seth, defeated and killed the devourer of souls Necalli, and was able to defeat M. Bison for good following up on the joint effort of Karin, Ken, Laura, Ibuki, R. Mika, Zangief, Dhalsim, Rashid, Guile, Chun-Li, Juri, the Secret Society, and Nash to stop Shadaloo once and for all.

3. Gen (Street Fighter Alpha 2)

Known as the Devil of Hong Kong, Gen is a former legendary assassin that does not care about being haunted by the countless souls of all the warriors he murdered. Gen is sharp-tongued and always willing to spit out wise, cold, and precise remarks about those he encounters.

He seeks to die fighting formidable opponents and to his own merit, he never opposes weaker fighters or innocent people. He was once the master of Chun-Li and is only hindered by his old age and suffering from a terminal illness.

Gen fearlessly seeks the most skilled adversaries, vowing to defeat or die trying. As so, he has sought Akuma multiple times and the two of them have battled more than once. Gen has survived the Raging Demon and has survived these multiple battles against Akuma in spite of his illness. Akuma did abandon their encounter once he realized that Gen was not fighting at full power, but it is implied in SFV that he finally killed the old assassin.

2. Oro (Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike - Fight for the Future)

Oro is a playful hermit over a hundred years old who seeks a fighter worthy of inheriting his fighting style. This fighter ends up being Ryu.

He is so powerful that he chooses to fight with only one hand to make battles more even, and he only uses both hands to perform very specific techniques.

A practitioner of Senjutsu, Oro is capable of launching several types of spheric projectiles and he is also able to use telekinesis to levitate objetcs around him with his mind and use them in combat. He has fought Akuma, yet both had to stop as they realized the fight would result in their mutual deaths should they keep going.

1. Akuma/Oni (Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition)

Akuma is a man who has fully embraced the darkness of the Satsui no Hado in exchange for pretty much his entire humanity. He is known as the ultimate fighter in Street Fighter and many foes have come to search him upon learning his power, from Adon to Gen.

The second World Warrior championship ended in Akuma killing M. Bison, the host of the tournament and one of the most powerful characters in Street Fighter. He has also been shown capable of sinking an entire island.

Oni is the form Akuma takes after he has become one with the Satsui no Hado. After reaching this state, Akuma threw away all his remaining humanity and code as a warrior, ditching the goal of defeating worthy opponents and opting to kill any living thing instead.

Oni’s presence is heavy to the point of other fighters considering him a god.

Hopefully, this list gave you insight into what are the most powerful beings in the world of Street Fighter. There are other characters who are potentially more powerful than some in this list, like Goutetsu, but only playable characters were taken into consideration.

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