Lead designer of Street Fighter 2, Akira Nishitani, stated in a interview with Polygon that the concept of Dhalsim's ability to stretch his limbs comes from the Ripple Zoom Punch technique.[4] This is reconfirmed in the comment section of Dhalism's bio in the Street Fighter X Tekken Artworks artbook.
In an interview with producer Noritaka Funamizu, he reveals that Guile's overall appearance was modeled after Jean Pierre Polnareff.[5] Guile's page in Street Fighter X Tekken Artworks goes into detail, explaining that early designs included Polnareff's vertical, yet modest hairstyle, but at the time the sprites were being made for Street Fighter II, the pixel artist jokingly stretched Guile's hair out to the sides. The team found it amusing and decided to give him "the always distinctive Stroheim look" instead. Noritaka also explains that Guile's name was derived from Polnareff's archenemy, J.Geil, though this was apparently the result of a mix up from the development staff at the time.[6]
Rose was inspired by Lisa Lisa,[7] her outfit is almost identical to Lisa Lisa's and both share a similar fighting style that consists of channeling energy into their scarfs (Soul Power in the case of Rose and Ripple in the case of Lisa Lisa).Additionally, both characters like to take baths and Rose's stage in Street Fighter Alpha 2 is Venice, which is the same city where Joseph Joestar meets Lisa Lisa in the story.
Omega Red's ending in the crossover game Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter shows him having defeated/killed Ryu, with Ken deeply distressed and exalted questioning him shouting "how many lives have you ended?", to which only responds grinning "do you count the number of breaths you've taken?".[8] This could be a reference to when Will Anthonio Zeppeli made a similar question toward vampire Dio Brando ("how many lives have you sucken away to heal those wounds?"), only to be answered cynically with "how many breads have you eaten in your life?".[9]
Juri Han from Super Street Fighter IV has hair and clothes similar to Jolyne's. In addition, Juri has a spider motif and cleaves a butterfly in her official artwork; Jolyne has a butterfly motif and her Stand turns her body into threads and webs + she has spiderweb-patterned clothes. Juri even has the same "ora ora ora" battle cry as Jolyne.