Alisa Bosconovitch

In video games

Alisa Bosconovich has pink hair and green eyes (except when her safe mode is disabled, at which point her eyes turn red), and speaks in a very polite manner. She was created to protect Jin Kazama and serves him through her travels. Tekken series developer and executive producer of Tekken 6, Katsuhiro Harada, described her as "a robot created in the image of Dr. Bosconovitch's daughter." However, Scenario Campaign implies that some part of her may be human.

Alisa is placed in a starring role in the console-only Scenario Campaign mode in Tekken 6. After being activated following a botched raid on a Mishima Zaibatsu lab, she joins Lars Alexandersson in his pursuit of his lost memories (which occur as a result of the events at the lab). She is controlled by the CPU in this mode (unless the player chooses to play as Alisa herself, at which point CPU control is given to Lars). Alisa helps Lars (or whoever the player has chosen to use in Scenario Campaign) battle the waves of enemies and has an AI system that grows as she participates in battle. She also keeps a journal which she constantly updates with entries regarding the events of her journey with Lars, as well as her own personal opinion about them.

Eventually, it is revealed that she is actually an android in the employ of Jin Kazama, to which she has been serving as a way for Jin to observe what has been happening in the world at large. She is commanded by Jin to disable safe mode (including her personality and behavior inhibition programming) and attack Lars. After a stalemate battle with Lars, she leaves for the desert to join Jin. When Lars arrives, she attacks him again where this time she is ultimately defeated and shuts down. Lars rescues her body and takes her to a robotics corporation (run by Lee Chaolan) where she can be revived. In her final journal entry, Alisa has been restored with her memory intact.

Other than the main games of the series, Alisa also appears in the portable game Tekken 3D: Prime Edition as well as the non-canon Tekken Tag Tournament 2, in which her ending (as well as other character's) reinforces her friendship with Ling Xiaoyu first shown in the animated CGI film Tekken: Blood Vengeance. Outside of the Tekken series, she is a playable character in Street Fighter X Tekken as downloadable content, alongside her official tag partner, Lars. She also appears as an assist unit in Project X Zone, which also stars fellow Tekken characters Jin, Xiaoyu, and a younger Heihachi Mishima. She appears as an unlockable character in the free-to-play game, Tekken Revolution.

Character design

In an interview, Tekken project director and chief producer Katsuhiro Harada said, "Alisa's quite popular overseas as well. Personally, I didn't think we would get much of a following. We usually do research for new characters, but Alisa was something we created based on internal staff feedback. We really wanted a character with chainsaws on her arms." Scriptwriter Dai Satō then asked, "Influenced by Ash by any chance?" Harada replied, "Exactly. (laugh) I'm a huge fan of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead. I just didn't think Alisa would catch on, considering her vast differences from the other characters."

Gameplay

Alisa is entirely bionic and amplifies many of her attacks with collapsible jet pack like wings from her back and rockets from her feet. She can also extend chainsaws from her lower arms and her body parts are detachable, they instantly grow back in what appears to be nanoparticle-assisted regeneration. All of her body parts appear to be non-critical, some of her attacking moves involves removing her own head to use as a weapon or even a makeshift explosive device with no ill effects, and arms can be torn off by the opponent or even used as improvised missiles. Alisa uses attacks such as rockets, an explosive head and attacks from her chainsaw appendages. Her fighting style has been listed as simply "Unique".

In the Korean version, Alisa's chainsaws are changed into energy beams reminiscent of lightsabers, and body parts can not be removed. However, all of her moves remain intact such as Alisa's head explosion replace with a small ball.

Other appearances

Alisa appears as one of the main characters in the 2011 CGI film Tekken: Blood Vengeance. She is a student in the Kyoto International School and befriends Ling Xiaoyu but hides the fact that she is a robot. She acts upon the orders of Jin to find Shin Kamiya along with Xiaoyu under the forced orders of Anna Williams. After Xiaoyu saves her from an ambush attack from Anna, she joins Xiaoyu in finding the truth about the M-cell experiments done on Shin. Throughout the film, she starts to develop a sense of humanity in which she would often hesitate even under her normal protocol commands and her fondness with her friendship with Xiaoyu. During the final battle between Heihachi Mishima and Devil Jin, a severely damaged Alisa sacrifices herself by distracting Heihachi with a blast allowing Jin to defeat him. In the end Jin reverses her standby mode and end credits show her fully restored and discussing how she and Xiaoyu should enter the Tekken tournament. Alisa appears in the Tekken Tag Tournament 2 live-action short film portrayed by Amandine Desprez.

Alisa appears in Tekken Comic, a manga based on Tekken 6. A live-action Alisa, portrayed by Michelle Ballee, also appears in the Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Girl Power Trailer, shown at Comic-Con in 2012. In 2012, Kotobukiya released an Alisa Bosconovitch action figure as part of their Tekken Tag Tournament 2 toyline.

Reception

Randolph Ramsay of GameSpot praised Alisa for her move list the fact that she uses her head as an explosive and attacks from her chainsaw appendages, after stating "Alisa is just sheer fun to play as given her frankly bizarre move list". GameSpot also said that Alisa is the most fun to play as out of all the new characters in Tekken 6, stating "She has a charge-up attack that results in her firing her forearms in a devastating rocket attack. As with all such moves in Tekken, it's generally easy enough to dodge but can be pulled off with some aplomb when you really want to ram home your superiority against a showboating or incompetent opponent--or just someone who elects to play as Eddy or Christie." Ryan Clements of IGN also commented on her move list, calling it "ridiculous", but in a good way, since he enjoyed using her. GameSpy commented that "Alisa's style is wild," but called her getup "completely absurd." 1UP.com commented that Alisa is sexy, cute and has a bubbly personality and stated that she's "the coolest new Tekken character to emerge in years," praising her chainsaws and head bomb. GameZone said she is a good character and commented that her attacks are devastating, stating that "You’ll catch on to her secret whenever her robotic parts creep out and pummel an opponent." Team Xbox declared the move where Alisa removes her head as "one of the most hilarious moves in the franchise's history."

Alisa has also been given comments on her looks. VideoGamer.com called her a "sexed-up cyborg" and thought her rocket projectile attack was coming out of her breasts. She was also criticized by VideoGamer.com, where they comment that she seems overpowered at first "but upon closer inspection lacks the essential Tekken tools to ensure long-term usefulness". NZGamer said that she is "as cute as a button" and comments that she has a mismatched wardrobe. Jeff Gerstmann of Giant Bomb commented that for a robot, Alisa is pretty. In a list of "12 match-ups we want to see in Street Fighter X Tekken" article by GamesRadar, they listed a match-up between Alisa and Juri, stating "What do nerds love even more than robots? Hot girls that are robots. Alisa and Juri both fit the bill perfectly". In GamesRadar article for Street Fighter X Tekken, they stated "Though new, the mechanically winged android has become one of the lead stars of the franchise." In 2012, she was listed as one of the most "ridiculous" Tekken characters by Game Informer, who said "Why is a stupid robot fairy in a fighting game? I don't think even Namco Bandai knows the answer to that". In 2013, Complex listed Alisa as the tenth "most badass Russian character in video games", where they observe "Alisa is known to be a real sweetheart once you get to know her." In the official poll by Namco Bandai Games, Alisa is currently ranked as the seventh most requested Tekken character to be playable in Tekken X Street Fighter, at 12.09% of votes.