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.
Marisa is a high-damage juggernaut with a variety of far-reaching normals. She is able to charge all of her heavy attacks and some of her specials by holding the button down. If blocked, Marisa's charged moves deal significant chip to the opponent's drive bar and are extremely plus on block, allowing Marisa to continue pressure. She also has several moves with armor moves and can bully through an opponent's attacks.
Although she has some of the most damaging combos in the game, Marisa's offense can be volatile. For instance, charging a heavy attack can leave a large gap where an opponent can press a button or jump out. Some of her moves have armor, but the armor does not protect against low-hitting attacks. Many of her attacks cannot be special canceled and so can lose to drive impact. Marisa also lacks some tools that other characters use to keep defenders in check; for example, Marisa has no low attack that can be special canceled or drive rushed.
In short, much of Marisa's offense gives the opponent multiple ways to defend, escape, or punish you. What she lacks in offensive consistency she makes up for in damage, as she has high-damage combos and a variety of other attacks that can quickly drain an opponent's health bar.
Playing Marisa at a high level requires a tolerance for risky and volatile situations, strong hit confirms, and a knowledge of high-damage combo routes in different situations.
| Strengths |
Weaknesses
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- Armor Everywhere: With armor on most of her heavy attacks and specials, Marisa can power through most any attack and win neutral through brute force. Opponents may find themselves losing a giant chunk of health if they try and challenge at the wrong time.
- Armor Breaker: Gladius, Phalanx and Scutum/Enfold are all reliable counters to Drive Impact and other armored moves, punishing poor guesses on defense/approach heavily and giving her viable counter-play to those options even when she's in burnout.
- Range and Power: Marisa has great range and can charge certain moves for added damage and combo routes. If she does land a hit, the damage is devastating, even from simple buffers. OD specials and drive rush open up even more disastrously damaging combos and can easily drain the opponent of more than half their health bar.
- Frame Advantage: Phalanx and charged heavies can keep Marisa close and at the advantage, further supplementing her ability to punish reckless mashing when combined with good use of her armored moves.
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- All-Around Slow: Almost all of Marisa's moves are considerably slow to start up and recover. Marisa may find herself struggling in a fight of fast buttons. Opponents with careful spacing will have an easy time whiff punishing a charged heavy attack or a charged Gladius.
- Drive Gauge Dependent: Most of Marisa's big damage combos come from OD moves and drive rushes, resulting in her typically being left with very little meter in advantageous situations.
- Middling Low/Light Conversions: Marisa has no special cancellable lows and her routing from them and any of her light attacks even with drive rush are extremely limited w/o a counterhit.
- Weak to Parry: Her plus frame moves are fairly slow and she cannot special cancel into her stance for command grab pressure, making her one of the easier characters to parry.
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