Rose

Overview

Rose first appeared in Street Fighter Alpha as a playable character. Rose is a fortune-teller from Genova, Italy. After foreseeing the Doomsday approaching, she decides to leave her home town to prevent it from happening. Her final opponent in each of Alpha games is M. Bison, who is the main cause of her premonitions of Doomsday. She also carries a mystical power called Soul Power, and her main projectile is called Soul Spark.

Though historically a mid-tier character in competitive Street Fighter, Rose was the first female character used to win at EVO Championship Series when France's Louffy, representing Meltdown Paris esports bar, used Rose to become the first European Ultra Street Fighter IV world champion at EVO 2014.

Character Design

Rose is slender, has long dark wavy hair that flows outward horizontally, violet eyes, a fair complexion, and a small mouth with full lips. Most official artwork of Rose make her appear to be puckering her lips. In battle, she wears a loose red evening gown with large gold buttons, and a large golden scarf around her shoulders and arms. By channelling her mysterious Soul Power through it, she is able to make the scarf glow, and wield it in such a way that is particularly damaging to her opponents. Rose also wears a dark coloured body stocking, and manages to fight capably while wearing high heels.

In one of Rose's win poses, she wears a large red ball gown, a choker decorated with an antique key design, and matching earrings (in her ending movie in Alpha 2, she is seen wearing this outfit). Also, a lighting-bolt design is visible on her forehead in this form. In this particular victory pose, she holds tarot cards in each hand, and one in her cleavage. This win pose is reserved for a perfect win in Street Fighter Alpha 3, but is a normal victory in Capcom Fighting Evolution. In the UDON comic book series, Rose is often pictured in this attire, particularly when she is interpreting the future or some removed location.

Rose's design is mixed with various features either based on other character, or similar to some other.

• The character's root is Lisa Lisa of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (Part 2), the master of hamon skill. This is confirmed by both official and unofficial sources, through the character's design, costume, fighting style, illustration pose and parodies in noncanonical (but official) game. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure inspired many Capcom's works. Among those the two most conspicuous characters are Rose and Donovan Baine of the Darkstalkers series. Capcom's enthusiasm on the manga eventually developed to make two major games under its title.

• Rose's soul power, which is, in fact, the opposite form to Bison's psycho power, is similar to Athena Asamiya's psycho power of SNK's The King of Fighters series, and Psylocke's psychic power who (among the countless Marvel Comics's telepathic characters) appears in the fighting games developed by Capcom its own. It's an amazing fact that the three psychic characters share the same hair color or at least the close scheme which is related to purple.

• Rose's vocational relation to divination and her destination to defeat the evil, these constitutions are interesting enough to be compared with Chizuru Kagura, the SNK character of The King of Fighters series, who is a modern day miko (an occupation always being considered as female exorcist and prophetess or fortune teller in Japanese religion and fictional works) with predestined responsibility and personal motive of eliminating the evil blood clan.

History

Rose is a fortune teller from Genoa and sensed that Doomsday was approaching, and knew a person of great evil was causing it. She found the source of the evil in Bison and defeats him, thinking she has rid the world of him for good. Unfortunately, by reading her tarot cards she discovered Bison was still alive.

In Street Fighter Alpha 3, she faces Bison once again and finds out that she and Bison share the same soul. Bison outmatches her as he takes total control of her body. There she lay unconscious where Guy (who she meets earlier on when he goes after Shadaloo) finds her. When Bison is killed by Charlie (who sacrificed his own life in the process), Bison's soul went to his new host, Rose.

Bison stayed in and controlled Rose's body until a new, albeit weaker, body was made for him during the time of Street Fighter II. Akuma killed Bison during the second World Warrior tournament, sending his soul to hell with the Shun Goku Satsu. What became of Rose after this is still in question.

In the Street Fighter comic produced by UDON in close collaboration with Capcom, it is told that Rose was a member of a tribe of Roma (a.k.a. Gypsies) that followed a white haired woman known only as Master. The woman had a glowing yellow lightning bolt on her forehead and a very similar hairstyle to Rose. When Rose was a child (roughly ten years of age), M. Bison, a former student of the Master, returned to the tribe and declared that he was going to kill Master, as her knowledge of Soul Power was a threat to him. Though Master fought bravely, Bison's Psycho Power (corrupted Soul Power) ultimately killed her and almost every other person present in the village. Only a man who was away chopping wood away from the village survived. He returned after the explosion and discovered an unconscious Rose who now bore Master's Lightning bolt on her forehead (events in Street Fighter 1).

In Street Fighter II, Cammy was tracking Ken and Ryu in San Francisco where she was intercepted by Rose. Later, Rose completely cleansed Cammy of the Psycho Power's influence and erased her brainwashing. She later deposited Cammy on the doorstep of the British Embassy in Italy where her instinctual response to a terrorist attack directly led to her being recruited to Delta Red, the organization she works for in Super Street Fighter II. Rose is distressed when Cammy, under the employ of MI5, not only returns to a life of violence but also engages in missions that will inevitably lead her back to Bison.

Rose appeared to die in Udon's Street Fighter II #6 after a battle between herself, Bison, and Cammy. In the selfsame issue, Rose explained to Cammy what she had done to free her from Bison, and also explained to Cammy that she was a clone created to serve as Bison's next body should the need ever arise. Rose's last appearance saw the character appearing to become dust blowing away in the wind. Whether or not she will appear in future issues of the series remains unknown.

Rose makes a cameo appearance in an episode of the first season of the American Street Fighter animated series titled "The Medium is the Message" as a competitor in a Street Fighter tournament in India among other Street Fighter Alpha characters. She has a more prominent role in the second season episode "The Flame and the Rose", where she teams up with Ken and Blanka to fight against Bison.

Rose also plays a major role in the 1995 manga adaptation of Street Fighter Alpha by Masahiko Nakahira, where she is a soothsayer who guides Ryu in his quest to control the Dark Hadou. She plays a similar role in the 1999 Street Fighter Alpha: The Movie OVA.

Gameplay and Techniques

Rose has attacks and techniques that take advantage of the Street Fighter Alpha game engine and playing style. She is relatively simple to play as, designed to allow players new to Street Fighter Alpha to use a new character with a control scheme similar to Ken or Ryu's.

She has short ranged attacks in Street Fighter Alpha, but by Street Fighter Alpha 3, most of her normal attacks had been modified to strike from a very long range.

Rose's projectile, the Soul Spark, causes her to extend her scarf outward as she releases the spark. While it is slow, the scarf will push away an air-blocking opponent a significant distance, suitable for the Street Fighter Alpha playing style.

Rose's Soul Throw causes her to leap, catch, and throw an airborne opponent, most suitably when they jump in while blocking, as this move has low priority. The requirement for an opponent to be air-blocking (or air-parrying in Capcom Fighting Evolution) is another nod to Rose's moves being crafted specifically to the Alpha engine.

Rose's Soul Reflect either reflects enemy projectiles, or absorbs them into her super meter, similar to Anakaris' projectile consumption/expulsion move.

Rose's Win Quotes

• " True power is not just physical. Still, that hurt, didn't it? "
• " I have inflicted no grave injuries. Go now and recover. "
• " I used to think of this power as a curse, but now I appreciate it. "
• " I believe in the power of humanity. "
• " I'm so tired... I can hardly wait to relax with a nice bubble bath. "
• " That's all for today's lesson. "
• " I sense a strength within you. We will meet again. "
• " Victory is mine, but there is always next time. Shall I foresee the outcome? "
• " You are not cut out to be a fighter. It would be wise to seek another path. "
• " Embrace your destiny. "
• " Are you hurt? "