Marisa

Marisa
Profile
Birthplace	Italy
Height	6'8” (203 cm)
Weight	269 lbs (122 kg)
Likes	Worthy opponents, ossobuco, fine arts
Dislikes	Heights
Fighting Style	MMA/Greco-Roman Wrestling/Pankration

Marisa (マリーザ, Mariiza) is a fighting game character from the Street Fighter games, appearing as one of the new characters in Street Fighter 6.

Biography

Appearance

Marisa has bob-length red hair styled to look like a Corinthian helmet - one of which she carries around with her for her intro - and has a gold necklace with a pendant styled in the shape of a spear tip. She's very statuesque with a stocky build, and wears a gold-trimmed black attire, which consists of a sports top, shorts styled like a cingulum militare, and foot guards. She also has red wraps on her wrists & calves, red lipstick & nail polish, and has a beauty mark just under her left eye.

Her third outfit which was seen in her World Tour is a white sleeveless wedding gown that reveals her cleavage adorned with a white belt and a gold buckle and her dress skirt has a kilt at the center. She also wears a silver baggy slacks with white embroidery designs in each pant leg and white sandals. She also wears white ribbons in each side and a matching armguards resembling gauntlets. Her bob-length hair was tied in a short high bun adorned with a white silver chain and a white silver accessories on her forehead.

As a jewelry maker, Marisa wears a casual outfit which is a black long sleeve shirt with a green long apron, jeans and shoes. Her bob-style is revealed to be shoulder-length and was pulled down in a low ponytail, revealing her two long single fringe in each side and wears red eyeglasses.

Personality

Marisa is a passionate, upbeat warrior that lives for battle. Yet, despite her intimidating stature and aggressive techniques, Marisa follows a code of sportsmanship and praises her opponents after the match. She also has an eye for fine art and jewelry, even painting her nails for matches and visiting museums to view metalwork from across history.

Marisa is immensely proud of her Greek heritage and knowledgeable about ancient history, particularly in pankration and Roman gladiators. To reflect on this, many of her attacks are named after ancient weapons and formations, such as Gladius and Phalanx. Marisa also owns a lion, Lucius, with whom she has maintained a close bond since their youth.

An incredibly loving woman, Marisa seeks to get married through trial by combat. She is eager to test potential suitors' strength through battle and is only interested in worthy opponents, including Zangief and Manon. Additionally, Marisa is the first openly confirmed bisexual and polyamorous character in Street Fighter lore. Based on her World Tour interaction, she doesn't discriminate against who she falls in love with and states she has enough affection for everyone, caring not about their gender but only that they can "savor life's sweet beauty together". Choosing both a husband and a wife at the end of her World Tour campaign confirms these traits openly, even offering a slot for the player character in her relationship as well, stating confidently that her love knows no bounds.

Concept

During Street Fighter V's development, the idea of a character with a muscular body juxtaposed with an attractive face was proposed, most prominently with concepts for Gen's apprentice and Seth's female body. Marisa was designed as the 'advanced form' of the idea. Interestingly, Seth's Brutal Impact, obtained by using a Tanden Engine Install Art on another Seth, bears a heavy resemblance to Marisa's own Gladius.

Marisa’s initial design concept was simply “strong woman", before her design was further expanded. Kaname Fujioka described Marisa as “Strong-minded, showing her affection for both men and women in her own special way”. This implied that Marisa was possibly bisexual, or that she simply loves to battle everyone no matter who they are. Her sexuality is later confirmed in-game, where in the World Tour mode, her grandmother sets her up with two suitors, one a woman, and one a man, wherein she chooses to marry both. Additionally, in Zangief's Arcade Mode story, she puts up flyers looking for someone to marry, while also stating that 'everyone is welcome'.

Story

Background

An up-and-coming jewelry designer from Italy who claims ancestry to ancient Greek warriors. As a child, she was inspired by a vision of the Colosseum in its prime. Today, she seeks glory with a smile—and an eye for beauty.

Street Fighter 6

Arcade Mode

Marisa's story mode recounts her love for her history and for Pankratiast pride, vowing to always fight with "All her might". Her journey leads to her first meeting with Manon, whom despite being in a crowd of people visiting the colosseum was the only one that truly catches her eye. She challenges her immediately, getting a reaction of amusement from Manon. In Manon's ending she defeats Marisa whom challenges her to a rematch. In Marisa's ending, she wins the rematch. They sit back to back to one another and share a bonding moment. Marisa describes her perspective on winning, losing and fighting those that are strong, confirming to Manon that Marisa did have a simple minded approach to things. Yet when questioned, Manon tells Marisa that she has no problems with that at all, getting a smile from Manon and laughter from Marisa as their bond strengthens through combat.

Manon reflects on being told she is strong for her entire life. She admits that it has grown to be something she does not adore hearing and does not like to compliment herself with. That all changed one day at the colosseum where Marisa noticed her in a crowd and challenged her to a fight. One of the most direct challenges that had ever been sent her way, but she felt a sense of similarity between them as Marisa declared that Manon was "into exactly the same things" that she was. Manon emerged victorious from their battle, but before she could fall into her indifference in the result, Marisa's personality and love for their bout caught her off guard. Marisa finding enjoyment in facing someone as strong as she is effected Manon in ways she did not anticipate. Usually when she had been called strong it cut her like a dagger, but when Marisa says it, it made her happy. Marisa challenged her to a rematch which Manon accepted, embracing the fact that she is strong, not in the ways others had seen it, but in the ways she and Marisa do.

Marisa appears at the end of Zangief's story mode as the competitive wrestler answers an ad for what he thinks is a Tag-Team Partnership. Marisa later explains to him that it was a duel for Marriage Partnership not for a Tag-Team, causing Zangief to figure his way out of the situation, turning her down for marriage and returning to a wrestling contest that he was "sure" he had to participate in. Marisa despite admitting she half-jokingly sent out the flyers in hopes she'd get to fight strong people considered Zangief quite a catch all things considered and hopes their paths will one day cross again.

World Tour

Marisa is first introduced at the colosseum, playing with her lion, Lucius. As the Avatar builds up a bond with her, she will reveal more about her life. She talks about her love for engraving, which eventually evolved into additional skills for crafting jewelry. She also admits that if it were up to her she would do battle naked like her ancestors before her, but that unfortunately that wouldn't fly these days. Further along, the Avatar talks with her most exclusively about her love life. She reveals that her grandmother is very skilled with her hands, having crafted the most beautiful dress she had ever seen. She goes on to reveal that her grandmother had made this with the intent of it being her wedding dress. While she admits that marriage was not something that was previously on her mind; her grandmother's wish to see her to be married whilst living is what caused her to consider it.

Marisa later commits to the idea of marriage after asking the player to test two suitors in combat. One a female named Marta, the other a male named Diego. After asking for an opinion on them she ultimately decides to marry both, offering the player a spot in their relationship as well if they wish.

Gameplay

Fighting style

Marisa primarily uses Pankration, a submission-based fighting style that combines wrestling with boxing dating back to 7th Century Greece.

Moveset

Marisa is a powerful close- to mid-range fighter with extremely high damage. Many of her special moves have super armor, making it incredibly risky for her opponents to try and interrupt her lest their attacks get absorbed and get hit with a Punish Counter. Most prominent of these is Scutum, a stance that counters mid and high attacks with a shove and leaves Marisa at an advantage. From the stance, she can hit with her overhead Tonitrus and the advancing low Procella, and most threateningly, the command grab Enfold. Her other special moves are all based around heavy-hitting strikes, like Phalanx, a slow jumping punch that leaves Marisa at an advantage on block, and Gladius, a straight punch that can be charged for a followup.

Marisa's Level 1 Super Art is Javelin of Marisa, an armored discus punch that can be further charged, dealing even more damage if it tanks a hit. Her Level 2 is Meteorite, an upward strike into a downward slam that hits twice, letting her jump from across the screen. Finally, Marisa's Level 3 Goddess of the Hunt has her tackle the opponent before following up with a devastating punch that send them to the corner, tacking on one more for the Critical Art.

Trivia

• To date, Marisa is the tallest female character in the series at 6'8", topping Elena at 6'0" (183cm).
  • She is also the heaviest female character in the series at 269 lbs, topping Laura at 159 lbs; a 110 lb difference.
• She was revealed earlier during the Street Fighter 6 presentation in Sony's State of Play 2022 trailer in June, prior to being properly announced as a playable character in initial roster.