Sarah Bryant

Sarah Bryant (Katakana: サラ・ブライアント, Rōmaji: Sara Buraianto) is a character from Sega's versus-fighting series Virtua Fighter.

A college student and a practitioner of mixed martial arts, due to a new partnership between Tecmo Koei and Sega for Dead or Alive 5, Sarah featured as a guest playable character along with Akira Yuki and Pai Chan. She is Jacky Bryant's younger sister.

Background
Sarah had become suspicious of the circumstances surrounding her brother Jacky's horrible accident in the 1990 Indianapolis 500. While investigating this accident, a mysterious group called Judgment 6 kidnapped and brainwashed her. However, J6 could not control her completely for long and she failed to carry out her orders.

Although she was finally rescued by Jacky, all of her memories had been wiped clean. Occasional fragments of her memories began to return as she lived her daily life and she found that they returned far more often during her training. She fully regained her memories but still felt a twinge of uncertainty. Even though she has recovered, she remembered all the bad things she had done while under the Organization's control.

Role in Dead or Alive
The only time Sarah appears in story mode Zack confuses her for Tina, making the wrestler angry and leading to a fight between the two women. It is unknown who won the fight or if Sarah joined the tournament, although it can be stated that Sarah signed off the tournament because her fight with Tina dissatisfied her.

Appearance

 * See also: Sarah's Costumes

Sarah is a slim, athletic, young woman with pale skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. Her face is heart-shaped, her eyes are narrow, and she has full lips. Her hair extends to the middle of her back but it is tied up in a high ponytail so it only reaches her shoulders.

She wears her trademark costume from Virtua Fighter in Dead or Alive 5: a shiny, dark blue bodysuit with exposed arms, a high collar, and tied up with a silver zipper up the length of her torso. The outfit also includes a belt, black boots, and grappling gloves.

Personality
Sarah has changed considerably ever since her brainwashing. She is an extremely confident and optimistic individual with little to no fear at any given situation and often masks her feelings with a smile. She also enjoys fighting and will never hesitate to talk down on opponents who fail to meet her expectiations. She does show her more caring side however as she is willing to put down J6 for all the terrible things they have done to both her and Jacky.

Etymology
Sarah means "lady" or "princess" in Hebrew. The surname Bryant is of Old Breton-Irish origin, and derives from the Celtic personal name "Brian," believed to contain the element "bre," meaning hill or "brigh," strong.

Tina Armstrong
The official relationship chart for Dead or Alive 5 suggests that there will be a rivalry between Sarah and Tina Armstrong. However, the reasons behind the rivalry are currently unknown. In one encounter, they ended up fighting because Zack mistook her for Tina. However, they are capable of having mutual respect for their respective abilities as fighters, as they had their own tag throw as well as their own tag intro and outro.

Jacky Bryant
Sarah's overprotective brother. She was rescued by Jacky after Virtua Fighter 2, but most of her memories were wiped clean until she's fully recovered at the end of Virtua Fighter 3. Sarah also shows deep care for her brother like he does for her. Both also fall under a threat to J6 if the siblings didn't join the Virtua Fighter tournament, starting with Jacky, about his racing sponsors, leading Sarah to follow her brother, even though she's also one of J6's targets.

Gameplay

 * See also: Sarah's Command Lists

Sarah plays the same as from Virtua fighter; She is a fast striker, and has very quick and long damaging combos. Her kicks and punch combinations make her perfect at doing long air juggles, and due to her almost non-existent recovery frames, she has great mobility. Her unique flamingo stance expands the number of moves at her disposal, and can confuse and trip up opponents who aren't used to her kicks and fake-outs, making her very difficult to hold and counter against. A major downside is her weak throws that put her in a safe distance, rather than really damaging her opponent. Her holds also do this, and as a result, players must play her offensively, or they are otherwise helpless against combo heavy opponents. She is recommended for intermediate to expert players who focus on dishing out fast and damaging combos, rather than holding and using throws to dish out damage.

Unlocking Sarah
To unlock Sarah in Dead or Alive 5, the player must defeat her in Tina's chapter in Story Mode.

Dead or Alive Series

 * Dead or Alive 5 (Unlockable, 2012)
 * Dead or Alive 5+ (Playable, 2013)
 * Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate (Playable, 2013)
 * Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate Arcade (Playable, 2013)
 * Dead or Alive 5 Last Round (Playable, 2015)

Virtua Fighter
Sarah first appeared in the 1993 arcade title Virtua Fighter and was part of the series' original fighter line-up, which, at the time, only included eight characters. Since then, Sarah has appeared in every installment of Virtua Fighter and has become one of the most popular characters in the series.

She also appeared in the Virtua Fighter anime series. Sarah is kind and gentle, from a wealthy American family. She has a flying squirrel named Alexander for a pet and travels with Jacky in their RV. Whenever Jacky participates in any Formula One contest, Sarah helps out by doing racing queen duties. She is later kidnapped and brainwashed by Eva Durix to be used as a basis for creating a "Perfect Soldier," Dural. In the series, she first has a crush on Akira Yuki but later has feelings for Kage-Maru.

Fighters Megamix
Sarah also appeared in the Sega Saturn title Fighters Megamix, with the entire Virtua Fighter 2 cast. A younger version of her, from Virtua Fighter Kids, is also an unlockable playable character.

Fighter Quotes

 * Dead or Alive 5/Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate/Dead or Alive 5 Last Round

Trivia

 * Zack mistook Sarah for Tina Armstrong, as he only saw the woman from behind. This could be an easy mistake to make, as both Sarah and Tina are both athletic women with blonde hair and blue eyes. The only major difference between them is hair length and clothing.
 * Her trademark "VF Suit" also appears in as a Module for Vocaloid Megurine Luka.
 * Interestingly, her blue catsuit is modified in Dead or Alive 5; The top and bottom are treated as separate garments, with a little of her midriff exposed because of this. Also, her boots are more sleeker, having a high heel rather than the low heeled boots she originally wore.
 * All of Akira, Sarah, and Pai's quotes are recycled from Virtua Fighter 5 for Dead or Alive 5.