Here's how Capcom expects Rose to play in Street Fighter 5, along with our own impressions
Capcom has put official word out there about how Rose will play in Street Fighter 5, and it's good news for fans who enjoy spacing and more calculated neutral play. Noting Rose's long reach because of her scarf, along with her Soul Spark and Soul Punish projectiles/traps, the developers say that "Rose is queen when it comes to zoning."
The team behind her creation said outright that she's geared for defensive play, but can also get on the offensive with her two V-Triggers, Soul Dimension (VT1) and Soul Illusion (VT2), which both happen to be two bar V-Gauge moves. Due to Rose's overall functionality, there are quite a few clues in advance of her official release, on April 19, 2021, that give us quite a few details on how she will play in this game.
It will become readily apparent from the get go that Rose's standing heavy punch is one of her best attacks in the game. It reminds of Menat's same attack, although with less range, but one very important advantage — that Rose's is special cancellable. While Menat's is only V-Trigger cancellable, a feature that Rose has as well, the ability to his this very long range normal to cancel into her specials is going to give Rose a lot of advantages in the neutral.
Couple this with her crouching medium kick, which has considerably more range than it had in past titles, and Rose will have a distance game from these ranges that will be the envy of most zoners in the game. Being able to initiate frame traps with her EX Soul Punish from her two big normals, or just cancel into her fireball for more standard zoning is going to be a large boon for the character.
Power at a price, Rose's weaknesses
Unfortunately, Rose already looks to be one of the most technical characters in Street Fighter 5. Already, this game doesn't favor zoners, and characters who have this trait are very often mid to low tier, which may be a fate that Rose shares with other characters as well.
Also, her V-Triggers don't look to be anything to write home about, with her Soul Illusion only lasting for 6 seconds in the footage we've seen so far. While it's just two bars, only having a few brief moments to setup your offense and get some real mix ups in there hasn't been a recipe for successful V-Triggers in the past.
It's definitely possible Rose will buck this trend, but getting G or Balrog level big explosive damage doesn't seem like something Rose is equipped to do as consistently. Her Soul Dimension (teleport) also looks to be the most consistent as a combo extender, as the mix ups so far don't appear to be particular strong when used against high level players.
Lastly, her V-Skill 1, Soul Fortune, seems like it's going to be very difficult to get consistent results from at high levels of play, due to its random nature. The history of moves that work in this fashion having success at tournament levels of play is dubious at best, but maybe we'll see some unique strategies emerge for the Italian fighter.
More of Rose's strengths
Capcom reworked Rose's crouching heavy punch to have additional coverage, as the move no longer animates the same way it has in prior Street Fighter games, and seems to cover a lot of ground in front and even behind her. Couple this with her new Soul Bind anti air attack, causing a wall bounce with the EX version and her air to air jumping punch being able to juggle into an Air Soul Spark, this character might end up having the most complete anti air game in all of Street Fighter 5. Although Poison might beg to differ, the amount of options Rose has to deal with jumps looks to be outstanding.
Also showcased in Rose's footage was her EX Soul Spiral likely having some form of invincibility, meaning if the opponent closes ground, Rose has a get the heck off of me move, at least in some fashion. It's possible from the footage we've seen that the other player mistimed their attack, or Capcom changed her EX Soul Spiral to no longer have invincibility, but if this holds up, giving a powerful zoner an EX reversal or some sort could be a big deal.
Like her past incarnations, Rose often has normals to deal with most every situation you can throw at her. You couple these with her very interesting V-Skill 2 Soul Satellite orbs, and you might have a very deadly character to deal with in neutral. A viable strategy already appears to be to use her Soul Punish to create something of a shield for Rose, and then to attempt to get her V-Skill 2 going.
Her V-Skill 2 looks to have a reasonably fast startup, but the orb(s) will disappear over a period of time, or if Rose is hit. The V-Skill 2 orbs also do not seem to generate much V-Gauge on hit, meaning they're mainly there for other purposes, instead of gaining meter.
Closing thoughts
Capcom at one point cited that Rose is a highly technical character, with tools for a variety of situations. Some players may see this as a bit of a drawback though, as if a character is highly difficult to play, some players may not even give them the time of day. While it doesn't appear that Rose is as difficult to use as her apprentice, Menat, she's definitely not an easy character to use in Street Fighter 5.
However, the ability to deploy a variety of tools in different ways means Rose could rarely be in a situation where she does not have a very viable tool to apply. Technical characters can often hit the lab harder than less complicated combatants to find outside the box solutions, and pioneer new technology that their opponents do not know how to counter.
A strong zoning character is definitely more rare to find in Street Fighter 5, compared to the powerful rushdown roster members, but based on what we're seeing so far, Rose has a really good chance at occupying this former role. Time will tell though if Rose is truly the queen of zoning, as Capcom labeled her recently.
