Victor Ryuga (4U)
Weight 84.7 grams (the shop said this racket got high tolerance the weight is 84 +/- 3 grams)
BP: 299 mm
Swing weight: 85.5 Kg
Strung with Victor VBS 66 Nano 27lbs (strung the same tension for all of my racket for testing purposes)
First Impression
The racket design and paint finish are top-tier. I really like that they removed victor logo on the racket head and add the dragon tattoo design instead, super cool. The black,purple and white color blended perfectly. Nothing to complain about racket design and paints. The frame is mostly box and aerodynamic at 12 o'clock region of the frame to help generate racket swing speed. The shaft is medium stiff in the chart. I strung with black string and it looks *chef kiss* cool AF. Holding felt good and weight distribution felt great holding in hand. Swinging felt light and nimble. The shaft felt more on medium rather than medium-stiff. It felt "springy" maybe because of free-core that makes the shaft felt softer than it actually stated. I would say that it felt significantly lighter than Ryuga 1.
Smash
Normally I will write smash category last but this category is super important to player who used to use or play with Ryuga 1 like myself. Ofcourse, Ryuga 2 will never gives the same power smash Ryuga 1 offers since Ryuga 2 is lighter. But smashing with Ryuga 2, the smashing power really really disappoints me initially. After I tried smashing with HS and TK-F. The smashing power is similar to TK-F but the shuttle speed TK-F is better than Ryuga 2. If you're expecting BIG BIG smash, you wont get from Ryuga 2. But smashing with Ryuga 2 felt easy and I don't really need to push myself much to get a decent smash out of it. Ryuga 2 felt more solid than TK-F but the swing speed is a tad bit slower than TK-F because of frame differences.Overall, good smash but not at Ryuga 1 level.
Ease of play (clears)
This racket is super easy to play with. Clears are "effortless" (forehand and backhand) you name it. You only need minimum power to generate enough power to hit from rear-court to rear-court. The shaft felt super smooth and the shuttle felt like any other free-core racket, semi hollow and little to no unwanted vibration when hitting sweet spot. The racket also does not punish harshly when missing sweet spot. The shuttle will still fly with decent height. This racket is beginner friendly. Anyone will be able to play with this racket with no difficulty at all.
Control (directional and trajectory)
This racket can generate good repulsion so on the first few hits you need to adjust to the timing and trajectory a bit. After 5 min of warming up. The control is great, the shuttle goes where I wanted it to go. I struggle with drop shots with this racket but that can't be fixed with a session of training. It's my mechanics problem rather than the racket. I got nothing to complain about the control, rather than the repulsion you can get with this racket is a lot more than I expected so adjusting with the power is kinda necessary if you're going to use it in a high-skill fast-paced match.
Drives
This racket drive capabilities are great. The repulsion is on par or atad bit better than my trusty HS. Compared to HS. Ryuga 2 is atad bit slower since it's head heavier but not by much. Front court drives are still good. But this racket excels at mid-back court drives where you get more time to wind up the racket for maximum power. This racket can catch up to double fast paced drives and rallies no problem. Ryuga 2 4U are geared towards doubles more than singles unlike Ryuga 1 where fast pace rallies are a struggle and tiring for me to even lift the racket up lol.
Defence
Defence is super good with this racket. After 2-3 days of trying Ryuga 2. I have to participate in a small badminton tournament. Both of my HS strings broke and left me with Ryuga 2. Against high level opponents with big smash. Ryuga 2 can be able to return back most of the smash with no problem. What surprise me is the repulsion I get from the shaft and racket head. Even with bad timing defence, I can lift it to the back of the court and sometime I can drive the shuttle back with ease. Unlike Ryuga 1, Ryuga 2 is swift through the air so defence is significantly easier.
Coming from "speed" racket, I would say I don't really have to adjust timing and playstyle since Ryuga is good in every categories. DAMN the racket looks good.
