Street Fighter 6/Marisa/Introduction

Introduction

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. One of her shining normals in this regard is 5HP, a long range punch that leads to good damage especially when used as a punish counter. Some of her other good normals are 5MP, 2MP, and 5HK, as these are all pokes that are either fast or have great range. If blocked, Marisa's charged moves deal significant chip to the opponent's drive bar and are plus on block, allowing Marisa to continue pressure. In this way, Marisa excels once she gets her opponent into the corner where there's nowhere to go to escape the onslaught of plus frames. She also has several moves with armor and can bully through an opponent's attacks, as well has having slightly more health than most characters, allowing her to make a few extra mistakes in a match.

Her special moves are almost all used for getting in and staying in. Gladius is a chargeable straight punch with great damage and upper body armor, which allows her to punch (pun definitely intended) right through her opponent's attacks. Phalanx is an armored superman punch that's great for going over fireballs or sneaking in after blockstrings to reset pressure, as all versions are plus on block. Quadriga is an extremely long range horizontal step kick with surprising safety, especially when spaced. The EX versions of Phalanx and Quadriga break right through armor, making it a bit difficult to drive impact these moves. She also has Dimachaerus, an uppercut and slam move which grants her a good knockdown to continue her pressure - and a combo extender with the HP version. Obviously, just striking isn't going to open a turtling opponent, which is why she has Scutum, an armored stance with access to an overhead, a low, and - most importantly - a command grab.

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. Her anti-airs are also a bit lacking, as 2HP is somewhat slow and thin, and her LP and EX Dimachaerus, while having anti-air invincibility, move her forward slightly which makes them hard to anti-air with. In addition, her reversal options are extremely weak to throws; even though they are armored, none of them besides Level 2 and Level 3 have throw invulnerability. Her drive rush combos from lights are incredibly lackluster, that is to say she doesn't have anything other than repeated lights. Because of this, Marisa has a hard time abusing the system mechanics to aid in her offense.

In short, much of Marisa's offense gives the opponent multiple ways to defend, escape, or punish you. However, what she lacks in offensive consistency she makes up for in damage, as she has some of the highest damage combos in the game 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. If you like a big strong lady with big strong normals, or you just like hitting things really hard, put on your Spartan helmet and charge into battle with Marisa.

Strengths

Weaknesses

Huge Damage: Marisa has extremely high damage across the board, easily able to end rounds in only a few interactions. Without any resources, her Punish Counters are still absolutely devastating; with resources, her Level 3 Super is incredibly damaging in combos with how her damage scaling works and also instantly puts the opponent in corner.

Big Buttons: Marisa has several normal moves and specials that, although slow, give her long reach and approach in neutral. Opponents have to play around moves such as Gladius, Phalanx, 5MK, and 5HP at ranges they may normally feel safe at.

Armor Queen: Marisa has several moves with armor that absorb mid or high-hitting attacks, as well as several ways to break through an opponent's armor. Although vulnerable to low-hitting attacks, these armor moves allow Marisa to power through fireballs, mid pokes, and Drive Impact with huge potential for damage reward. Many of her OD moves inherently have Armor Break properties, and her Charged Gladius lets her break armor without the use of any Drive. This also lets Marisa uniquely deal with Drive Impact even in Burnout, whether she uses her own armor or breaks theirs to do it.

Meterless Plus Frames: Phalanx and other charged special moves are plus on block and can be used without meter. Opponents who are scared to do anything will find themselves stuck in perpetual disadvantage until they inevitably run out of Drive and lose their chances to escape.

Slow Midrange: While Marisa's buttons aren't lacking in range, they certainly can be beaten out in terms of speed by most of the cast. As rewarding as her hits may be, they may have to come from patient play or strong callouts that impede her from playing proactively.

Poor Light Conversions: Marisa cannot chain her lights into a Drive Rush confirm on normal hit, having to rely only on LP Dimachaerus and Supers to confirm off of them. This can limit her strike/throw reward and force her to rely on weaker oki options.

Weak to Throws: Marisa has no reversal that beats throws besides Level 2 and 3 Super. Throws will also give a free Punish Counter on her main reversal, OD Scutum, making her lose a ton of Drive if she guesses wrong. This alone is a very big downside to Marisa's defense, especially because the majority of the cast can loop their throw on Punish Counter or in corner and force her to guess again.