Today's LUNCH BREAK HOT-TAKE will be about one of the classiest people in all of SF, and one of my favorites in the Alpha series, The Shamwow Queen...Rose. Let's call this one: SOKO MADE YO! MAYBE SHE’S BORN WITH IT, MAYBE ITS SOUL SPARK! #rose #StreetFighterAlpha #SFV #Capcom

While I'm a huge Final Fight fanatic, and most of my love for Street Fighter Zero/Alpha series comes from the fact a lot of FF characters are in it, Rose represents a particular moment in my time with Street Fighter.

Many, MANY moons videogame magazines were hinting at a new Street Fighter game that was heavily inspired by the Street Fighter anime movie, that would feature all new sprites, combo systems etc. Suffice to say: I lost my fucking mind with excitement.

It was all I talked about until I got my hands on it at a random arcade in mall while visiting family. Thankfully, the visiting chores were done because me and that arcade cabinet were about to get to know each other real well.

Weirdly enough, not many people were playing it--so my first time playing the game I had a lot of time to try things out (mostly with Guy admittedly) but, at the time I honestly was floored by how beautiful the game looked, considering that SSF2 was the recent iteration of SF.

A few quarters and hours later, I simply could not (at the time) got back to SSF2 Turbo. This was a dream come true...a fighting game that truly embodied an anime aesthetic on a more global commercial level.

Anyways, any chance I got to an arcade, I HUNTED for that game. I needed my eats to feed again. I couldn't get enough of it.

In the 90's, fighting games were a big hit in the arcades but usually took a good while to be ported and this case was no different. Roughly 8,760 hours later...the wait was over. On June 6, 1996 I acquired, "The Precious".

Awful cover art be damned, I was excited to own this game--especially considering the controversy over the game reviews of the Saturn Vs Sony Playstation version at the time (but THAT is another story for another time).

Oh yeah, this is what the American box art was "workin' wit". Yeah....THAT.

So suffice to say, I played this game a lot, while still managing to keep my grades up. When you've got anime on your side, you can do anything.

So one day after playing 600,000 hours with Guy, while attempting to do the Akuma code and failing, I picked Rose. It was a Summer day so I said, " Fuck it--she looks cool."

Keep in mind that i was so obsessed with Guy, so when it came to Rose, I literally only knew her from the first sentence in her bio which was like, " Bison's cohort" and I was like..." The fuck you mean?!" And that was the extent of what I knew and explored, prior.

I remember getting to the Character Versus Screen and wanting to stop and take in her design--it was this moment that I began not to have regrets of this Arcade run with her.

Rose's character design was a lot different from the typical archetype (or stereotypes) often being the central focus of designs in previous Street Fighter games. It was a vital component to what made those designs icon--but it was definitely stereotype fighter, in a way.

Weirdly enough, this actually made her stand out more, not just in terms of her initial design, but even her presence. She has one of the coolest idle designs in the game and she's DOING NOTHING. You see this? Nothing but its so cool!

Keep in mind I haven't hit buttons yet I'm already like...

No one has the drip like Rose, so it was even more of a new experience for me than playing Guy in a fighting game for the first time. Her design was fresh--unlike anything in a fighting game at the time yet still felt like a classic design--there's a reason for that.

While I wasn't familiar with Jojo's Bizarre Adventure at the time--I was quietly becoming more interested in Fashion, so I'd watch E! Entertainment's Fashion Television religiously on the weekends. It had cool music, and it inspired my sense of design.

This is PROBABLY the beginnings of why I love Vaporwave too but...I don't want to get too sidetracked here XD

Rose reminded me a lot of what I'd seen on random episodes that I thought was cool, but I'd never thought about how awesome it would be to see someone moving around doing martial arts (ish) moves in them and what cool shapes it would make.

I couldn't help but wonder--"Why does she feel so cemented as a design-like they KNEW this would work?" HOWWWW????

A few years or so later, I was introduced to one of my favorite manga/anime/games/art movements ever...Jojo's Motherfuckin' Bizarre Adventure.

Although I was introduced to Jojo via Capcom's 2-D fighting game, I'd also seen the Stardust Crusader's OVA and found all of it amazing as fuck--and then I discovered the manga.

And it was THEN that I discovered Lisa Lisa...and that's when things clicked suddenly! But let's take a minute to absorb just how much of a badass she is. Good Lord.

A Joestar MILF, Ripple master, mentor to Caesar Zeppeli and Joseph Joestar. Living her best life in Venice, rocking a mysterious past like a Balenciaga scarf, givin' the business to the Pillar Men. There's no other way to spell "Queen", than Lisa Lisa.

This also spelled a huge influence on Capcom's part regarding Rose's design in just about every way. Only Araki and Capcom could make someone look cool fighting in heels and you really not bat an eye about it.

Every animation Rose had throughout the series, carried a certain presence to it that in my opinion ushered in an iconic character design that to this day,ages like fine wine. The classiest of classy in terms of design. Its like they knew Araki might be watching...

Both characters even have mirror similar close encounters with death, but somehow surviving. Class never dies, I guess.

It feels like Capcom poured a lot of love into her moveset. Very rarely does any of her animation frames look clunky or disrupt her design. Rose has no good side because every angle is good for her, lol.

Rose is a cool design, but what else is there to her you might ask? Well, to me there's a lot more. Hitting buttons with her historically, has been awesome but definitely comes with some...interesting results.

Rose has...always been beautifully broken...and in recent years she's been proven to be even nastier in Alpha 2, specifically. All with things that I love to do to my opponents XD.

In Alpha 1 she had the ability to cause stun with one Combo into Soul Illusion, and because stun numbers didn't increase enough with each dizzy if she had enough meter she could do this combo again, more likely killing you.

Soul Illusion, allows you to string together normal attacks with attacks you do with Rose, as well as the shadow trail that happens when you activate Soul Illusion. A brief example of a simple TOD (Touch Of Death) combo that I've done.

In Alpha 2, Rose can still do insane damage with Soul Illusion via chip damage from Soul Spiral, or actual combos with Soul Spiral, as well as combos into Level 2 Aura Soul Spark, OR go from Soul Illusion into a Custom Combo. Here's Justin Wong putting her tools to use.

And here's an example of a unnecessary conversion done, by me XD.

Can we take a minute and look at some of the key frames in her Level 2 Aura Soul Spark? Ordinarily, this is a Super Combo that in its Level 1 or Level 3 version serves as a projectile that can punish jump-ins etc, but in its Level 2 form its a sexy, auto combo scroll of madness.

She also has a glitch where when she absorbs projectiles, the damage on her Soul Spark increases significantly, so in Custom Combos, she becomes even deadlier. https://twitter.com/Beefy_Kunoichi/status/1289746287676407808?s=20

Then there's Rose's Crouching Strong having a blessed hit box that was a catalyst for David Sirlin terrorizing people with literally whiffing crouching Strong to build meter to Kick Alpha Counter on reaction to everything, making a seemingly inpenetrable force.

While there are better characters in V-ism than Rose in Alpha 3, she has a particular swagger that is unrivaled with her V-ism combos.

@RossLipps (formerly known as Xenozip) was/is a go-to for all things Alpha 3 and showed a strong understanding of how VCs worked, how to setup unblockable VC setups, as well as Crouching Cancel Combo setups post-VC. Really, really good stuff.

Rose hasn't been bad in any game outside of Capcom Fighting Jam...but does anyone even care? Exactly. She's been beastly in every game she's been in--even the SF4 series but its mostly the same shit merely echoed on a diet Crystal Pepsi level, so its's already covered.

I guess, the only question now is where does that leave her when it comes to her upcoming release in Street Fighter V? I think within the confines of the game and its design philosophy...she'll be alright.

Blanket statement aside, while she more likely will be nerfed in comparison to her previous iterations, I think that there's a possibility that she'll still have fun things to do within her V-Skill and V-Trigger, but probably will be the MOST fun on launch.

Get cho' time in quick because the nerfs will DEFINITELY be coming after people figure out shenanigans with her. I will damn sure be on my MUHAHAHA shit when she drops.

Rose is a classy character design, and made for some awesomely busted discoveries within history of SF and I can only hope she'll come with more fun things to discover in her newest iteration--will she make a RIPPLE in the tier list...who knows XD (see what I did there?)

So, my parting notes here are that--while videogame movies tend to be atrocious I've always hoped for an Alpha movie, JUST so I could see Monica Belucci as Rose. I think she's a great fit, even with her being older.

Before I go though, there's one thing that I didn't mention about Rose yet--and its one of THE coolest things about her. She has without a doubt the coolest Alpha Counter in all of Street Fighter, infamously known as the "Soko Made Yo!"

Outside of Rolento, Rose is the only character to have an evasive Alpha Counter--but what makes it even more interesting is that is EASILY sets up a combo punish, which leads to insane damage.

The only character who's math doesn't add up for this to work correctly is Rolento.

Rose's Punch Alpha Counter can be converted into Soul Illusion and basically the end of the round. There are quite a few instances of this happening in tournaments at Mikado. Rose is no joke.

And then there's the (relatively newish) glitch with Rose that...is a testament to how specifically overpowered by design Rose was. The Soul Illusion glitch.

As a preemptive measure, Capcom made adjustments to later arcade builds of Alpha 2 that would restrict certain normal attacks (Standing, Crouching, Jumping Light and Heavy Attacks) to prevent Rose from doing normal attacks at specific angles to create unblockable setups.

When you think about it, certain angles with overlapping repeated animation of the same attack at specific angles would've turned her into a Goddess...but eventually someone figured out how to circumvent this.

RafTube, along with the help of a few others managed to figure out how to do this, showing how layered the glitch actually is--as it gives access to animations that you normally don't have outside of their cemented protocols. Here's the vid!

Air Soul Spiral, anyone? Also, complete invulnerability on, Soko Made Yo--which isn't an actual move outside of Alpha Counter?! (clipped from the mentioned vid).

Rose has been a lot of fun over the past 25+ years...with Spring 2021 around the corner--here's to a few more! I think I've said all I can honestly say about Rose today.Until the next Lunch Break, Hot-Take--let's get back to work! Take Care!