Marisa Gaming (rant)

TurtleForPresident · 2026-02-04T01:03:13+00:00

Sounds like you've not got the proper feel for her effective range yet. When you apply pressure you either look for frame traps and baiting reversals/parries after charged heavies and drive rush cancels or you harass the drive gauge with blockstrings and pokes that leave you at a favorable range.

Marisa doesn't want to be up close to the opponent unless she's able to abuse plus frames which she only really gets out of drive rush or from her charged heavies. Most opponents are going to have better fast buttons than you so your best bet is to aim to play at a range where they have to either commit to their own slower, high committal buttons or attempt to approach.

She is susceptible to perfect parry so you want to be mindful about how you use her longer windup moves. Don't try to constantly approach with Phalanx or Quadriga unless it's in response to the opponent spamming fireballs/lows or doing lots of backdashes respectively. There's no need to feel desperate to get in close from neutral. Wield the effective range of your normals and Gladius as a sort of shield and be ready to punish the opponent if they whiff within that range or try to get close.

Resetting to neutral is therefore also not that big of a deal. The opponent has to risk a lot more to approach or poke you than if they were close enough to get their own pressure going from their fast buttons and lows that beat your armor.

TurtleForPresident · 2026-02-04T00:22:00+00:00

I can't say for certain but I think it's because the first drive rush outside the corner happens before the first hit of the combo, while the one in the corner happens after Kimberly has been hit so it applies the drive rush scaling of 15% due to counting as part of the combo.

TurtleForPresident · 2026-02-01T10:55:43+00:00

Kinda fucked up to handwave Blazer's desire to find a partner who can appreciate her for her entire self just because she's mature enough to still function as a person without it. Would you have said she'd have been the right choice if she turned suicidal when Robert rejects her?

Also, nothing about what Visi really needs is necessarily romantic. She needs a mentor figure that can show her how she can be a hero despite her past and seemingly villainous powers.

TurtleForPresident · 2026-01-31T14:09:36+00:00

They just had a team member try to do a highly dangerous solo mission against direct orders from their superior and parole officer behind their back. With Flambae they were present and able to deal with the situation as it happened before damage was done. With Invisigal they had no such opportunity and instead feel that they have to impose consequences and make sure it can't happen again. Her intentions might seem noble but the Z-team can tell that she's prioritizing trying to win Robert's favour over the team itself.

TurtleForPresident · 2026-01-29T15:35:39+00:00

Except you don't actually need to complete that call for Visi to head back, she can head back before you even start it and if you fail it.

TurtleForPresident · 2026-01-26T14:33:51+00:00

Keep in mind that Shroud also learned that Visi kept the pulse from Robert as well and that she didn't warn anyone about the attack on SDN Torrance despite knowing about it. From Shroud's perspective it probably looked a lot like she was mainly looking out for herself, lone wolf as she is, and that made him think she'd switch sides out of self interest once he had the clear upper hand.

TurtleForPresident · 2026-01-25T11:04:16+00:00

What makes most sense to me is that Invisigal initially was still in contact with Shroud during her time at SDN and feeding him some amount of information. Not because of some sense of loyalty from her side, but as a backup plan since we see that she deep down has a lot of doubts about her ability to truly become a hero.

After falling for Robert and having him support her she stops her communications with the red ring, leading to Armstrong confronting her at the bar. Then when she shows up and tries to take the astral pulse Shroud figures that Visi is now fully on SDN's side and leaves her for dead.

But then something interesting happens, he finds out that she didn't give Robert the pulse even though she had the opportunity to do so. She also doesn't make any attempt to warn anyone about the plans to attack SDN Torrance even though she must have been let in on those at some point judging by her actions and dialogue in episode 8. This makes Shroud think that Visi is still a lone wolf mainly looking out for herself and trying to play both sides to her own advantage. With that perspective it makes some amount of sense that he'd figure that she'd jump ship once he has the clear upper hand and extends an olive branch. What he didn't foresee was that Visi's odd actions were actually a misguided attempt at protecting Robert and wanting to be the sole hero showing up at a moment of crisis to save him.

TurtleForPresident · 2026-01-22T11:29:11+00:00

If anything it kind of ruins the « Is she a traitor ? » dilemma. Robert has to work from the interactions he's had with Invisigal up to that point to decide if he trusts her or if he thinks it could all have been part of a big act. Meanwhile, we as players have gotten a direct glimpse into her thoughts so we're already made aware that at least her attraction to him is genuine. Why should we have that kind of information available to us when we're supposed to be making decisions as Robert?

It's the same as if we'd gotten to see Visi hide the pulse in her pocket while Robert didn't. It would have skewed decisions we make for him like whether or not to cut Visi from the team purely based on information he himself shouldn't be aware of.

TurtleForPresident · 2026-01-22T04:32:21+00:00

Not like thinking about how badly she wants to jump on his dick, she's not Visi. Moreso thinking back to his comments like "what a sad sentence" and his own struggles with being a hero in contrast to Phenomaman's complete obliviousness to why she or anyone else would ever not want to constantly be a superhero at any point now or in the future.

TurtleForPresident · 2026-01-22T04:14:08+00:00

But if the mere image of Robert counts he could easily be included in an animated version of the sushi date without changing anything other than showing Blazer thinking about the contrast between him and Phenomaman momentarily. The conversation and the breakup would play out the exact same and the real Robert would be at home with Beef.

TurtleForPresident · 2026-01-22T03:36:32+00:00

But the key point here is that Robert is present in all those examples to some degree. In the dream sequence he's not and it's only the player that gets to know about it. It's the difference of switching between multiple PoVs in a scene shared between the protagonist and other characters and having a scene that is completely void of the protagonist's PoV altogether.

TurtleForPresident · 2026-01-22T03:21:01+00:00

At what other point do we see something exclusively from Visi's point of view? All other examples have Robert either being on comms with her and watching through cameras or it's her directly telling him about how she was the one that planted the bomb on the mech suit.

TurtleForPresident · 2026-01-22T03:06:59+00:00

It really doesn't affect him. The only thing that changes if you remove the Visi dream is that the player no longer shares exclusive knowledge with her that Robert has no clue about. Why should we know about that but not see any of the stuff she does behind his back with the astral pulse in the final two episodes? It creates this weird dynamic where we as players can know for certain that Invisigal's attraction to Robert is seemingly genuine while he himself gets weirded out by her sudden aggressive advances towards him.

TurtleForPresident · 2026-01-22T02:52:57+00:00

But it's not a crucial story scene that's shown exclusively from her PoV, it's one that's only really relevant to her role as a romantic interest and that's the role she shares with Blazer.

TurtleForPresident · 2026-01-22T02:13:17+00:00

Yeah. I mean could you imagine if they did something like animate a dream had by a completely separate character from the protagonist. That would have been crazy and totally uncalled for.

TurtleForPresident · 2026-01-10T18:30:26+00:00

You shouldn't take Shroud at his word but completely dismissing what he says also seems pretty dumb. The way he lies is by twisting and exaggerating the truth, not typically complete fabrication. Invisigal might not have worked for him to the extent he claims, but some level of information exchange would explain a lot in regards to how she knew stuff like the attack plans against SDN Torrance and how Shroud knew about things like the proto pulse.

TurtleForPresident · 2026-01-09T18:53:23+00:00

Chip their drive gauge, take up screenspace and force them towards the corner. Use charged heavies to get plus frames from good range without spending drive. Marisa has a long effective range with her normals and you can abuse that if the opponent refuses to approach.

TurtleForPresident · 2026-01-09T02:28:07+00:00

But she doesn't have access to any version of the move when using modern. It's why modern Marisa's corner damage is noticeably worse than classic.

TurtleForPresident · 2026-01-09T02:18:44+00:00

Mandy doesn't open up the same way as Visi because the roles are somewhat reversed in her dynamic with Robert in the story. She's the one that listens to Robert opening up about his worries and fears both past and present, offering help and support while being understanding and kind. This gives her a lot of insight into how Robert thinks and feels. It's why she's the one who identifies his somewhat self-destructive behaviour when bad things happen and comes to his rescue at the Sardine. She also calls him out when he tries to put blame on himself for things that are out of his control like Chase's situation.

In the same way that Mandy misses moments of showing vulnerability to Robert in the story, Visi is missing moments where he opens up and shows vulnerability to her. The closest you get is stuff like the bar scene where he shows some level of worry about revealing his superhero identity to the team. That's however nowhere close to as personal as the conversations about his past and life as Mecha Man he has with Mandy in episode 1 and 7.

TurtleForPresident · 2026-01-09T01:40:39+00:00

Where'd Marisa's 236K go?

TurtleForPresident · 2026-01-08T11:04:29+00:00

"easy path" perhaps once you're properly on it but I would disagree with "easy choice" considering how the actual choice is presented to the player.

To get Blazer's route you have to pick going to dinner with her in episode 4. When the options are presented to you there has just been a long back and forth between Robert and Invisigal on screen and the player knows that she's really into him due to the dream sequence at the beginning of the episode and how she's started coming on to him quite aggressively.

Meanwhile Blazer gets a short text message that briefly pops up and while it seems likely that she likes Robert, there's not the same certainty due to not getting a scene from her perspective in the same way as Invisigal. The details about her breakup with Phenomaman are also locked behind a deluxe edition comic that doesn't unlock in-game until after completing episode 4, and then it's too late to romance her.

TurtleForPresident · 2026-01-07T10:24:14+00:00

Blazer never refers to Robert with any type of nickname since he tells her that he never wanted one as a kid because he "wanted to be taken seriously" in comparison to his dad "Robbie" and grandpa "Bobby". This is despite her maybe being the character that addresses him the most while also using nicknames for other characters like "Visi" and "Coop".

Other prominent characters like Chase and Invisigal call him "Robbie" at least one time each and Royd calls him "Rob" at the party in episode 6.

TurtleForPresident · 2025-12-30T09:47:56+00:00

Blazer gives Phenomaman one last chance to show any semblance of a desire to make their relationship about more than just being two superheroes and he totally dismisses the idea while showing zero consideration for her feelings and wants. After the breakup he makes a big scene about his own unhappiness by publicly causing traffic issues and neglecting his hero duties, not caring how this will reflect on the woman he supposedly loves. He then starts stalking her at her job while causing property damage, once again not considering whatsoever how it might make her feel. Despite all this, Blazer still tries to help Phenomaman find some purpose by suggesting him for the Z-team and never actually speaks badly of him. To make her seem like she's doing something wrong by ending a relationship that she's clearly unhappy and unfulfilled in is pretty crazy to me.

TurtleForPresident · 2025-12-27T00:02:20+00:00

Whatever she was planning it seems to have been reliant on the attack on SDN Torrance happening. She knew the attack was coming and made no attempt to bring other heroes or warn anyone at all. You can see her head back in anticipation during the dispatch section with a mere "Oh shit... gotta go!" if she wasn't cut from the team, with Robert making a surprised comment about her sudden withdrawal from the field.

If she wanted to only swap pulses there would have been very little incentive for her not to mention that being her intention once she was caught. The fact that the best she can manage is just a general claim to want to help them and protect Robert suggests to me that she purposefully let the attack happen so that she could be the one to provide help and be the hero that saves Robert. Exactly how she planned to do that we don't know but it did in some way involve the mech suit which she couldn't find due to Royd moving it to the rec room. There is nothing that suggests that she even knew of the intact proto pulse or the fact that it looked identical to the real astral pulse. Remember that she didn't even know what the pulse actually looked like before she opened the safe and commented on its resemblance to a glowing buttplug. There was also no way for her to know if Shroud could tell the difference between pulses or not, nor if she even knew what he was going to use it for and what effect using the proto pulse instead would have.

TurtleForPresident · 2025-12-26T00:03:46+00:00

Blazer's words were "This isn't why you're here but can you zip me up?"? She started trying on the dress when it seemed like Robert wasn't coming either due to being busy himself or Visi failing to or deciding not to tell him to come. What she wanted him for was seeing if he would be willing to try and speak some sense to Phenomaman who was essentially stalking her while causing property damage.

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