Diva is the boss of Stage 1 from Streets of Rage 4. She's a punk who specializes in art theft, and is also a snake charmer. She is a member of the new Y Syndicate.
Overview[]
Diva is a female punk wearing a white coat & grey bra who is seen carrying a snake around with her. She can use the snake to attack, whipping it at the player. She can also do a double kick and charge the snake with electricity, electrifying the ground around her which shocks and damages all nearby characters.
Beyo and Riha, two variants of Diva, appear as dual bosses for Stage 8. Instead of using electricity they use acid and fire, respectively. Their names are based on the two popular Divas, Beyoncé and Rihanna.
A third variation, Weetnee, appears on Survival Mode and during the Diva boss fight portion of Mania+. She fights exactly like Diva, using lightning attacks, but also has a powerful attack where she kicks repeatedly while moving towards the player. She has much less health than Diva, and doesn't use the Grand Shockwave move. Her name is based on a deceased celebrity, who was named Whitney Houston.
Boss Fight (Diva)[]
Diva's boss fight takes place in Stage 1. As with all bosses, she'll always have invincibility frames when getting up from a knockdown.
In her first phase, she has 4 attacks.
- Double Kick: Diva quickly kicks two times, the first kick lower than the second. In her first phase, Diva will run quickly towards the player and throw this move out.
- Snake Bite: Diva winds up for a moment, and then sends her snake far forward to bite the player, shocking and stunning them. This attack has a fairly long reach to it, but its long charge time makes it fairly easy to dodge. In her second phase, Diva will combo the Dual Kick attack into a guaranteed hit with the Snake Lunge. Diva has super armor while charging the attack.
- Snake Shockwave: Diva raises her snake into the air and charges up, then has her snake bite the ground, emitting a quaquaversal shockwave on the ground around her that stays active for a while and shocks and stuns anyone it hits. Diva has super armor while charging the attack and during it.
Once she loses around 50% of her health, second phase starts, and normal enemies will appear. Diva only uses one new attack, but gains access to the Dual Kick - Snake Lunge combo, and the Snake Lunge gains armor while it's charging.
- Grand Shockwave: Diva uses this attack only once right when she enters her second phase. She jumps to the center of the screen and charges up a Snake Shockwave, only this time it has a much larger radius. Diva has super armor while charging the attack and during it.
Strategy[]
During the first phase, the player can bait Diva's Dual Kick attack, dodge retaliate, while paying attention to her attack patterns to avoid Snake Lunge. In the second phase, dispatching the punks is recommended to make the fight easier. Those enemies can also get hit by Diva's Grand Shockwave.
Boss Fight (Beyo & Riha)[]
Beyo and Riha fight takes place in Stage 8. They fight as a team and look very similar to Diva, but Beyo has blue hair, moves and attacks faster and uses poison moves, while Riha has yellow hair, moves and attacks slower and uses fire moves.
- Snake Bite: Beyo's version of this move is very quick. It deals very low damage but pulls the player towards her and stuns them for a long time. Riha's version is a long range flamethrower, with a longer startup.
- Snake Shockwave: Similar to Diva's Snake Shock attack, but Beyo's leaves a puddle of poison on the ground, while Riha's leaves a fire on the ground. The poison stays out for a long time and is the same as the poison found in stage 5 or the poison thrown by Elizabeth. Riha's fire stays out for less time, covers larger radius and deals more damage.
Strategy[]
Focusing on Beyo first is ideal as she is less dangerous, but attention is important as Riha may try to flank the player or attack with Snake Lunge from a safe distance. While trying to separate them might seem like a good idea, being able to attack both at simultaneously is better, as the player can dish a high amount of damage at the same time, especially when using wall bounce and off the ground combos.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Her variants, Beyo and Riha, are named after Beyoncé and Rihanna, respectively.
- Her third variant, Weetnee, is possibly named after Whitney Houston.
- The design of Diva's boss suggests that she is an art collector, most likely a thief.
- This is further reinforced by her variants that appear in the art gallery stage.
- Diva and Nora are the only bosses featured in the opening animation of Streets of Rage 4.
- When fighting Diva, Beyo and Riha on Story / Arcade mode with the classic soundtrack, the music that plays is Mr. X's boss theme song from Streets of Rage 2, "Revenge of Mr. X".
- Early concept art of Diva's moveset has unused attacks that never made into the final game:
- Flamenco Burst, where she would spin around with her snake and finish with a stomp that would release electricity.
- An alternate version of Grand Shockwave where, in addition to a carpet of lightning, various snakes would erupt from the ground.
- Snake Grab, where she would throw her snake on the ground to constrict the player.
- Very rough sketches also suggests Diva would be able to attack with her snake like a whip.