The Missing Link (Sol Badguy, Ky Kiske) | X | XX | Overture | Xrd | -STRIVE- | NPCs | Other
Characters introduced in Guilty Gear 2: Overture.
The Captain Ersatz, Expy, "No Celebrities Were Harmed", Mythology Gags, Continuity Nods and Shout-Out references go here.
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Sin Kiske
Sin Kiske
What will be will be. The hourglass does not turn upside down on its own, that much I do know.
Original design
"Of course! My heart always has, and always will be, open to all!"
Playable in: Overture, Xrd -SIGN- (DLC), Xrd -REVELATOR-/REV 2, -STRIVE- (DLC)
Profile:
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 161lbs
Gender: Male
Blood type: Unidentifiable
Birthplace: Illyria
Date of Birth: May 31st
Hobbies: Searching for novel adjectives, overcoming his dislikes
Likes: Dizzy, his appetite, he can't say the last one
Dislikes: People who can't overcome their dislikes, being treated like a kid
Shared character theme:
Communication
(With Ky)
Communication
(With Ky)Sol's student and the illegitimate son of Ky Kiske and Dizzy. He travels with Sol due to his Gear nature, which makes him an easy outcast. Sol is more of a father figure to him than anyone else, even his biological father, Ky. Sin deeply resents and hates his father for not being there for him after he was crowned King of Illyria. Ky gave him very little, if any, attention, making their relationship very distant. All of the attention was given to him by his mother, Dizzy. Because of his very fast growth rate, he was placed in Sol's care for the discovery of his existence will endanger his life.
Since he was raised under Sol (and no thanks to his surprisingly young age), Sin is very hotheaded and charges into things without a second thought. This trait ends up getting him kidnapped and brainwashed by Valentine to serve her. The brainwashing fuels his desire to surpass his master, and increases his rage towards Ky. He is eventually beaten out of his condition by Sol, and continues to fight Valentine's Justice form. When Valentine attempts to self-destruct the gate to the Backyard, Sin is forced outside the gate by Sol. After, it's shown that he's now trying to mend the broken relationship with his father while awaiting the recovery of his mother, deciding to take it slowly and continue to train under Sol.
Sin returned in Xrd as a console-exclusive playable character, making his debut in the fighting games proper. His appearance here is defined by his strong ground neutral game with a myriad of powerful long-range pokes and decent anti-air moves. He has a unique calories meter for his special attacks, which he must occasionally stop to refill by eating meat, or else he is rendered temporary immobile after performing special moves when the meter is empty. His rushdown-footsie playstyle is simple to execute, but his limited Gatling Combo paths can be rather predictable and easy to counter, and his need to keep eating leaves him vulnerable to opponents who wait for him to try eating.
His playstyle remains very similar in -STRIVE-, with a few key differences. Sin is no longer able to chain his special moves together, as that ability was instead given to Nagoriyuki. In exchange, however, he has now been given follow-up attacks as well as a special dash cancel followup to all of his specials, and his R.T.L. Overdrive attack has a unique followup of its own. All of these follwups utilize a unique Stamina meter, an updated form of his Calories meter from Xrd that now only depletes whenever Sin performs one of the aforementioned followups, and refills over time instead of needing to be refilled by using his Still Growing special. Lastly, while Sin's damage is still fairly high, it is noticeably toned down compared to his Xrd incarnation. In exhange, his new followups and ability to dash cancel now give him much stronger pressure, making him a more well-rounded mid-range rushdown character compared to the simplistic but linear powerhouse he was in Xrd.
- The Ageless: Given that he's part-Gear, which become immune to age and live for an indefinite period of time, this is a given.
- All-Loving Hero: By his own admission, he's more than happy to accept basically anybody as a friend and/or sparring partner (unless your name is Ky, and even then he's mostly gotten over his daddy issues as of Xrd). It's this readiness to see the best in people that helps Ramlethal forge her own identity and eventually turn against her mother.The battle's over! We're friends now, right?
- Ambidextrous Sprite: In Xrd. Most noticeable with his eyepatch, ala Sagat.
- Animal Motifs: His moves in Xrd and -STRIVE- are named after birds.
- Apologetic Attacker: In his Instant Kill in Xrd, he admits to his opponent that he has no idea what will happen as he goes all out, wishing them luck as they crash through several mountains. He also does this as one of his entry quotes in -STRIVE-:Sin: I'll say sorry in advance, in case I make you cry.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Once he's got a good hit in, Sin's ability to chain special moves lets him go for an unrelenting string of damage... provided he's eating well.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: With Ky, opening mission 16.
- Badass Army: Shares a human army with his father Ky.
- Badass Family: Ky is his father and Dizzy is his mother (which makes Justice his Grandmother (and by extension Valentine, maybe). And then of course there's Grandpa Sol. He's essentially all the main characters rolled into one. By the time Xrd ends, the Valentines can all be included in some shape or form, since they're all genetically copies of Aria, the woman who would later become Justice. As such, Jack-O', Ramlethal and Elphelt would be considered as Sin's aunts.note In the story mode for REVELATOR he gets to join his father and grandfather in a 3 on 1 fight against Ariels.
- Badass Longcoat: Well, more "Badass Long Vest" if one could call it that, since it lacks sleeves. In -STRIVE-, he actually does get one of these, similar in design to the one worn by his father, except Sin wraps the sleeves around his waist.
- Beat the Curse Out of Him: In Overture, Sol snaps him out of his Valentine-induced brainwashing by kicking him in the head. And then he keeps doing it, even after it's made clear that Sin's back to normal.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Sin is a carefree and friendly guy, but if you get on his bad side things will go south for you very quickly. He's consistently shown to be extremely dangerous when he's angry. Just ask Ariels.
- Big Eater: One of his likes is "his raging appetite", and he even has this as a mechanic in Xrd, where he will has to eat in order to keep his power steady, or else his ability to do special attacks will be halved. -STRIVE- retains this, with some changes - instead of needing to eat to regain stamina, he can instead eat to get a random buff to his stats.
- Brainless Beauty: Is an absolutely stunning, incredibly well-toned muscular guy with absolutely nothing going on upstairs. Justified, as even by -STRIVE- he's still only five years old, so he's got time to develop his intelligence. Not that that stops women like Jam from throwing themselves at him or anything.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Gets brainwashed by Valentine in Overture, and was all too happy to kill the heroes. Sol had other ideas...
- Combos: Sin is a fighter with combos already baked into his moveset. Xrd lets him chain any number of specials into each other so long as he has the stamina for it, whereas in -STRIVE-, every special has its own follow-up that he can then cancel into a dash for further offense.
- Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: That reason was having a king of a newly-formed nation for a father, which naturally took up a lot of Ky's time when Sin was (quickly) growing up. There's also the fact that Sin is technically a bastard son that came from a Gear mother, and publicly acknowledging either Sin or Dizzy would have resulted in a lot of political backlash.
- Dumb Blonde: He's not like the rest of his family in terms of brains, seeing as Ky is Ky, and Dizzy is noted for being an avid bookworm. A lot of this falls on Sol, who didn't bother teaching Sin a lot of things that he really should have, like reading, basic math, history, where babies actually come from, etc.
- Dumb Muscle: Being partly a Gear, he has immense strength but is barely literate, courtesy of his upbringing by Sol.
- Early-Bird Cameo: He pops up in -STRIVE-'s "Another Story" as a supporting character, having joined the Illyrian army under Ramlethal's unit.
- Evil Costume Switch: When he's under Valentine's control in Overture, his outfit changes color from white and blue to black and pink.
- Eyepatch of Power: Sin's never been seen without his eyepatch, with no explicit explanation for why he's wearing it. It may be a quite literal instance, seeing as it starts leaking red lightning during his Instant Kill attack. He's actually wearing it to hide his glowing red Gear eye.
- Foreshadowing: He repeatedly calls Sol "old man". -REVELATOR- reveals that Sol's actually Dizzy's father and by extension Sin's grandfather.
- Graceful Loser: If Sin loses to a light attack, he'll give his opponent a thumbs up as he drops to his knees.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Sin's probably one of the nicest people in the series, once you get past his cocky attitude and brashness.
- Half-Human Hybrid: He's a quarter Gear on his mother's side (except he's a little more than that, considering it's heavily implied that Ky is at least part Gear).
- Hates Their Parent: He and his father have a contentious relationship due to Ky's obligations conflicting with his need to be there for Sin. However, Sin doesn't exactly hate everything Ky stands for and gives him some respect, despite dear old dad not being around to guide him. Xrd shows how Sin can be a bit more cordial when dealing with Ky as his way to fix their relationship. The icing on the cake comes with him calling Ky "Dad" during their reunion with Dizzy."This is my real power! MY MOTHER'S POWER!" Which he "displays" to Sol by using Ride the Lightning.
- The Heart: Despite being a tad naïve, he acts as this role in Xrd. Compared to the more objective Sol and Ky, Sin serves as the emotional center of their group. He's also the first to try teaching Ramlethal how to feel emotions, and keeps having to step in when Sol gets too angry with either Elphelt or Ramlethal.
- Heroic Bastard: He's illegitimate, yes, but he's not that much of a bastard. Also, nobody in the kingdom knows that he actually existed.
- Heroic Build: Lampshaded by May who notes that Sin really takes after Sol. It's taken up to eleven in STRIVE, where it's shown that he's become absolutely jacked over the brief time skip."Oh, jeez. He's pretty ripped..."
- Hidden Depths: It's a blink and you'll miss it moment, but if left crouching for an extended period of time he'll perform a quick Hail Mary prayer.
- Hyperactive Metabolism: Sort of. In Xrd, Sin has a "Stamina" meter that goes down whenever he uses special moves. Once this meter depletes, he must eat food items to refill it and be able to use his special moves without a massive delay (though he can cheat a bit if he uses a Roman Cancel). -STRIVE- downplays this even further: his Stamina now only goes down when using the follow-ups to his special moves, and he no longer needs to eat to refill it (he can still eat in battle to gain a random buff, however).
- Idiot Hero: In a series where your two lead heroes are a retired scientist and a veteran-turned-political-leader, Sin stands out even more for his less than impressive intellect. It's possibly justified by his age, since he's still a child by Gear standards... and further justified when it's shown that Sol has really slacked on teaching Sin much of anything beyond survival tactics and fighting.
- I Have No Son!: Inverted with his father by blood, who Sin loudly and repeatedly denies is his father. He instead considers Sol to be his dad, whom is actually his grandfather, not that Sin knew that. He's mostly grown out of this mindset by the time of Xrd.
- Improbable Weapon User: Fights using A FLAG. And as for why, the 10th Anniversary Memorial book says that some time before Overture a younger and then-weaponless Sin decided that he needed a weapon to help Sol with the bounty hunting. Sol asks what kind of weapon, and Sin gives a somewhat lengthy description that boils down to "it needs to be flashy and attention-gathering", to which an unamused Sol tells Sin to go wave a flag or something... advice that Sin took seriously.
- In the Blood: He inherited his father's lightning element, though he denies it and claims that it's his mother's power.
- It Runs in the Family: Sol himself pointed out that he's as loud as Ky and he can be just as brash as his grandfather, Sol. Later games tend to emphasize the innocence he inherited from Dizzy, often for very comedic effect.
- Kindhearted Simpleton: For what he lacks in brains he makes up for in unending kindness for others, being able to flip the allegiance of antagonists through sheer earnesty. Then again, his efforts to comfort others can sometimes fall flat due to him missing a lot of important info.
- Lightning Bruiser: Being part gear gives him above-average strength and durability. And combined with Sol's training and Ky's lightning, Sin can come at his opponents like a racecar, with a lot of his moveset comprising of agile and fast-moving rushdown moves.
- Like Father, Like Son: For as conflicted as he is about his father, Sin does take a lot after Ky; they're both lightning-powered, blonde-haired warriors who are kind of heart and believe in creating peace between humans and Gears.
- Masquerading As the Unseen: His appearance in Another Story has him initially wearing the armor of one of the Illyrian Phalanx guards alongside another member before being forced to remove the armor as it limits his mobility when Bedman's mechanical bedframe attacks.
- Meaningful Name:
- Sin in many Slavic languages translates to "son", which of course alludes to being the son of Ky and Dizzy.
- His name is probably a reference to the fact that he is the offspring of a human and a Gear, a taboo in the setting.
- Miss Conception: Sin's explanation of how babies are made (which was given to him by his own mother) in Another Story is Played for Laughs, being treated like a horror story by everyone else in the room who knew better. Sin believes that babies originate from a person's eye when it randomly falls out of its socket, which turns into a newborn after a while.
- Momma's Boy: Dizzy had to take a good part of his upbringing due to Ky's work, so Sin adores his mother but has mixed feelings for his father.
- Nice Guy: Sin is friendly and outgoing to pretty much everyone. Being the only person to show any kindness to Ramlethal is what kickstarts her Heel–Face Turn in -SIGN-.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Ramlethal's presumed death in -REVELATOR- story mode does a serious number on Sin, and leaves him uncharacteristically quieter up until the end. Although he does his best to try and keep his cool, once the final battle begins he explodes in pure, unbridled rage at Ariels for making the Valentines, her own daughters, suffer and die for her agenda.
- Power-Up Food: Sin's game mechanic. He must scarf down food that he pulls out of Hammerspace to keep his stamina up. He can even eat the chocolate bars and donuts that Faust tosses.
- Pretty Boy: He IS Ky's son, after all. His redesign in -STRIVE- keeps his youthfulness while also hunking him up a bit with a more muscular build.
- Random Number God: In much a similar vein as Faust's items, this is how Sin's Still Growing special works in -STRIVE-. He will eat one of 5 random food items, each of which has 5 levels of effectiveness, that all do different things. The effects are as follows.
- Meat on the Bone: Increases Sin's damage output.
- Lobster: Decreases the amount of damage Sin takes.
- Ice Cream: Increases Sin's Tension Gauge.
- Lizard: Restores some of Sin's Health.
- Fish: Increases Sin's walking and dashing speeds.
- Rapid Hair Growth: He claims he has to cut his hair every three days to keep it from getting long. Probably a side-effect of being a Gear. By -STRIVE- he's cut it even shorter.
- Rebel Prince: Sort of. Being Ky's son means he's technically a prince, but given his upbringing he doesn't have many if any political obligations.
- Ride the Lightning: A move taken from his father, though unlike Ky's version which has more finesse to it, Sin's has more force as he can propel himself up to 3 more times in succession, in multiple directions to boot.
- Sarashi: The leather midriff part is this, basically.
- Secret Character: Per se. In Xrd, unlocking Sin requires that the player buy him in the gallery for 200,000 World Dollars... or purchasing him with actual money. It's not completely terrible, seeing as going through Story Mode gets you about 100,000 World Dollars.
- Shock and Awe: Like father, like son. Sin can use his lightning to empower his powerful polearm strikes.
- Rude Hero, Nice Sidekick: Sin is generally very friendly and cheerful, setting him in stark contrast to his mentor, Sol.
- Shonen Hair: Furthering his contrast with his father Ky, Sin's hair spikes outward and upward in a similar manner to fellow ArcSys alumni Ragna, making him look more similar to his grandfather Sol. Even in -STRIVE-, where it's shown that he's cut it even shorter, it's still spiky.
- Simple-Minded Wisdom: Despite lacking in skill and intelligence compared to the rest of his family, Sin shows a surprising amount of wisdom and emotional insight, being able to help others reconcile their own emotional shortcomings.
- Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration: A mix of both Natural and Deliberate; one of the key aspects of Sin's characterization is his relative immaturity compared to the rest of the cast, on both a physical and mental level. Naturally, the events of the story see him slowly beginning to play his own role, and not just simply being seen as "Sol's student" or "Ky and Dizzy's son". By -STRIVE-, he's overcome one of his major weaknesses in Xrd, no longer being required to eat constantly to keep his Hyperactive Metabolism up, and he's come up with his own version of Sol's Tyrant Rave, meaning his fighting style now incorporates elements from both of his father figures while incorporating elements of his mother's history with and love of nature via the Theme Naming of his attacks. Also, in keeping with his simple-minded personality, while he still can eat food items throughout the match, it's entirely optional and instead grants him a random buff that despite having complex calculations attached, can be simplified into "it just makes him stronger".
- Stock Shōnen Hero: Sin hits basically all the marks of the classic shonen protagonist. He's a cheerful, energetic, loud-mouthed hero with a huge appetite and not much going on upstairs.
- Technicolor Lightning: Like his dad, he can imbue his attacks with lightning. Because he's part gear, his lightning is red as opposed to Ky's blue.
- Turn Out Like His Father: Subverted. Though he inherited Ky's power and some part of his personality, Sin is informal, occasionally foul-mouthed and carefree like Sol.
- Double Subversion as Xrd -REVELATOR- revealed Sol is his grandfather. Sol is an intelligent scientist, but Sin ended as a simple-minded individual and barely literate. And
Word of God states that Sol's half-assed upbringing is to blame for that, since Sol half-asses pretty much everything. - In Xrd Sin displays some of cheerful innocence similar to his mother, Dizzy.
- By -STRIVE- it's shown that he's grown a bit into a balance between the three, emphasized with his new design. He effectively has Ky's affinity for lightning magic, Sol's fighting style, and some of Dizzy's personality. In fact, he even gets a new Overdrive attack called Tyrant Barrel, which is a combination of his old Phantom Barrel attack from Overture and Sol's Tyrant Rave, finally paying respects to both of his father figures.
- Double Subversion as Xrd -REVELATOR- revealed Sol is his grandfather. Sol is an intelligent scientist, but Sin ended as a simple-minded individual and barely literate. And
- Unskilled, but Strong: He doesn't have much actual skill, seeing as though he expends sooo much energy using specials that he needs to eat mid-battle in Xrd. That said, he can break through several mountains, and cause an electrically-charged nuclear explosion.
- Younger Than They Look: Like Dizzy before him, he's 2-5 years old but looks around 15. Probably a major contributor to his massive appetite, seeing as he's plausibly still developing and/or learning how to not accidentally use all of his power and energy at once. -STRIVE- confirms his official age is 5.
Izuna
Izuna
Noonday Lantern
"A person who won’t fight when a friend is in need is not a coward. There's a different word for that... A Chicken Breast! And I am no chicken breast, sir!"
Playable in: Overture
Profile:
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 150lbs
Gender: Male
Blood type: Unknown
Birthplace: The Backyard
Date of Birth: August 3rd
Hobbies: Travelling the world and comparing the tastes of different fried tofu
Likes: The sense of "It'll work itself out", friends, affection
Dislikes: Thoughts that are lacking in charm, people who don't take care of their things, referencing
Character theme:
昼行灯 (Hiruandan) -Noonday Lantern-
昼行灯 (Hiruandan) -Noonday Lantern-
A jovial fox spirit created in the Backyard. He lives in (and was previously exiled to) a pocket dimension of the Backyard called the "Yomotsu Hirasaka" or Underworld Hill in English. He first appears to Sol and Sin when they are first attacked by Valentine's servants. Izuna doesn't usually fight, but then reveals that he can fight perfectly well and has a lot of knowledge about magic, much to Sol's annoyance. Like Anji, he appears to be fond of getting information.
- Badass Army: His Youkai family take to the field during various parts of Overture.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Very easygoing and fun to be around.
- Brief Accent Imitation: Loves doing accents, especially of Elvis.
- Cat Girl: His Nekomatas.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: He pretends that his sword is just an ornamental one for style and that he's not a fighter, but he's fibbing about both of those and can hold his own perfectly well.
- Older Is Better
- Put on a Bus: Hasn't been seen since his debut game.
- Put on a Bus to Hell: Unfortunately, -REVELATOR- implies that he might not be coming back anytime soon, as several characters as well as his entry in the GG World mode imply that the Universal Will has done something to him.
- Samurai: Can also be classified as a McNinja.
- The Trickster: He's a fox spirit, after all. His fighting style relies heavily on misdirection and attacking from unpredictable angles as a result.
- Trickster Mentor: He singlehandedly teaches Sol and Sin Overture's gameplay, but spends the whole time annoying Sol and pretending he's not doing all that much.
- Youkai: He and his faction.
Dr. Paradigm
Dr. Paradigm
Intellect, Reason, and the Wild
"I am a dragon, sir, not a bird. As this is a time of crisis I will let your insult pass, but I hope not to see you make the same mistake in the future!"
Playable in: Overture
Profile:
Height: 3'8"
Weight: 71lbs
Gender: Male
Blood type: Unidentifiable
Birthplace: USA
Date of Birth: Unknown
Hobbies: Studying ways to make an organization correlation diagram beautiful, converting all phenomena into provisional information units, figuring out his brain’s processing speed and memory capacity
Likes: Getting a concrete view on any kind of philosophy, gentlemanly attire
Dislikes: People who don’t plan things out, people who sare, mosquitoes, being called a bird
Character theme:
Intellect, Reason, and the Wild
Intellect, Reason, and the Wild
The leader of a group of animal-type Gears on a remote island called Ganymede. Paradigm is a dragon-like Gear who is a brilliant strategist and tactician who also has an immense knowledge of magic. He hates humans at first for their treatment of Gears, but then realizes that not all Humans Are Bastards when he allies with Ky, who makes him the ambassador for Gears in the end.
He's currently trying to figure out how to break the seal on Dizzy. He ultimately succeeds, which allows Dizzy to rejoin the cast.
- Badass Army: His Gears, who have a interesting "civilized nature with technology" aesthetic.
- Badass Bookworm: He even has his own magic scrapbook.
- Big Damn Heroes: He and Ky show up with an army in tow to bail out Sol's party.
- Big "WHAT?!": His reaction when Ky Kiske declared his love for the frozen maiden, which is the Key Valentine is searching for, the backup of Justice and a powerful Gear who's supposed to be dead. He nearly suffered a stroke when the king also revealed he and his lover are Sin's parents.
- The Cameo: Shows up helping Leo with paperwork in the ending cutscene of -STRIVE-.
- The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Which the heroes promptly avoid his suggestions or ignore him. This is a lot less prominent in Xrd, where he gets more respect.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Paradigm doesn't take kindly to being called a "bird". Sol doesn't care and calls him that anyway.
- Fairy Companion: Always accompanied by his Assistant Bonnie in Overture, a small fairy-like being who sets the explosives he uses and amplifies various effects of his spells. If she hits opponents on the way to a set bomb, the resulting explosion is much more powerful.
- Humans Are Bastards: His thoughts at first, and fairly justified since he's had to avoid human contact in order to simply survive; -REVELATOR-'s Story Mode mentions that, even though Ky can prove that Dr. Paradigm and his group of Gears helped prevent the first Valentine from destroying the world, revealing that fact would cause Ganymede to be mercilessly bombed into oblivion by multiple governments, since its residents are all Gears.
- Innocently Insensitive: Accuses Ky of using the Maiden of the Grove as a weapon. Fairly reasonable from the Doctor's perspective, as it's a king trying to prevent a very powerful Gear from being destroyed. Turns out... It's Dizzy, Ky's wife and Sin's mother! Very much not a weapon.
- Insistent Terminology: For the last time, it's dragon!
- Pragmatic Hero: Since his goal is preserving the universe at large, he's not opposed to doing morally-dubious countermeasures.
- Squishy Wizard: He's capable of high level magic that even Sol can't do but he has the smallest health in the roster of Overture, and is the worst at direct combat when it comes to fighting other Masters. To compensate for this, his army is the most tactically-flexible and he has the best support magic in the game, such as increasing the speed of all friendly units (allowing for quick flanking attacks), healing, and blocking enemy spells.
- Throw the Mook at Them: One of his skills in Overture is to pick up an human-sized opponent and throw them. It does no damage by itself but he throws the victim quite far, letting him temporarily remove a key target from a fight for a little bit. Doing it in the right spot can remove an enemy mook or Master from the battle for minutes at a time (if the Paradigm player is facing a cliff).
- Token Evil Teammate: More pragmatic then evil, but he's still the one who advocates the darkest solutions. This fades a fair bit in Xrd, though he still prides himself on not being held up by "human foibles".
- When All You Have Is a Hammer…: His gameplay in Overture is strange in that he doesn't physically attack you, but he hurls (apple-shaped) boulders and explosives at you. His various attacks are just altering where the boulder lands or where the explosive is set.
- A Wizard Did It: Pretty literally in this case. Dr. Paradigm can only breathe underwater, so in Overture he always resides in a magic bubble of water. In Xrd he no longer needs it when Sin asks why he didn't "just magically made himself breathe air." It took Paradigm a grand total of two minutes to rid himself of the bubble.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: He takes a while to realize in Overture that his teammates are the only people who are trying to CHANGE the difficult situation between humans and Gears, and spends some time fighting them to defend Ganymede from them. He's better about it in Xrd, though there's times he still seems to think he's in a gritty war scenario rather than a setting that, at the end of the day, runs on Rule of Cool.
Valentine
Valentine
"Why is it? I don't get it. Can I not perform well unless I understand 'feelings'?"
Playable in: Overture
Profile:
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 99lbs
Gender: Female
Blood type: O
Birthplace: The Backyard
Date of Birth: Unknown
Hobbies: None
Likes: None
Dislikes: None
The Antagonist of Guilty Gear 2: Overture. She is obsessed with obtaining a certain "Key" that will allow her to enter the Backyard and cause the undoing of the universe. She is completely emotionless, and has eerily robotic mannerisms. She kidnaps and brainwashes Sin for a short period before extracting his DNA, and enters the Backyard. Sol stops the process of the Key turning by destroying it, which causes her to feel her first emotion: Rage. After going One-Winged Angel, Sol kills her, but not before realizing that she is a clone of Aria, Sol's previous lover.
- Animal Motifs: Bats; the skeletal design on her hat is of a bat's wings, and her balloon weapon has small bat wings on it as well.
- Apocalypse Maiden: That Man calls her "the illegitimate child of a merciless apocalypse."
- Badass Army: Shares an undead-ish army with Raven. A lot of the units are
Ugly Cute; monsters that wear ribbons and lace are still monsters. - Battle in the Center of the Mind: There's a whole lot of her in there, too. It's kind of what would happen if Studio Gainax designed a boss for the Kingdom Hearts series, and then ran the hell out of ink.
- Big Bad: Of Guilty Gear 2: Overture.
- Emotionless Girl: In addition to Valentine herself, her campaign-only units are these with various specialties.
- Flawed Prototype: Posthumously considered to be this by Mother after her failure, and pinning the reason on the lack of emotions. Thus Ramlethal and Elphelt were developed with emotions in mind, though it may not look like it with the former. It also seems like Mother thought this Valentine was too close to the original Aria genetically, given the modifications the later Valentines underwent.
- Foe Romance Subtext: With Sol, heck she looks exactly like Sol's girlfriend in past, Aria, and has memories of her. And since she's based on Justice, who was Aria, there's an implication of memory implantation as well.
- Humanoid Abomination: Alluded to by That Man.
- Improbable Weapon User: She uses a talking balloon that functions as a bazooka, a shield, spiked mace on a string, and a mode of transport. And it has a crush on her.
- Navel-Deep Neckline: Her outfit has a plunging neckline that reaches her stomach.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: Her second theme, "Dignity."
- One-Winged Angel: She got two: The giant Justice look-alike Armor and the HUGE flying Diva fortress.
- Theme Naming:
- Every unit in her army is named after some kind of sweet dessert: Mille-Feuille, Candy, Charlotte, etc. Valentine also has "Sugar" and "Non-Sugar" on her gloves.
- Her move names are taken from famous traitors in history (Cassius, Brutus, Judas, etc.).
- Villainous Breakdown: She suffers this briefly before telling the heroes that they are PISSING HER OFF.
- Unstoppable Rage: Pretty much her default emotional state after the above.
Raven
Raven
"I am, after all... not alive."
Voiced by:
JP: Shigeru Sakano (XX only), Hiroki Yasumoto (Overture onward)
EN: Jamieson Price (Overture only)
JP: Shigeru Sakano (XX only), Hiroki Yasumoto (Overture onward)
EN: Jamieson Price (Overture only)
Playable in: Overture (DLC), Xrd -REVELATOR-/REV 2 (DLC)
Profile:
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 130lbs
Gender: Male
Blood type: A
Birthplace: Germany
Date of Birth: March 28th
Hobbies: Searching for proof that he was alive
Likes: People who make him want to kill them, people who discover new things
Dislikes: People who can't feel love
Raven is one of the mysterious allies of That Man. He is proficient in dimensional magic, and is also extremely sadomasochistic. He enjoys both causing and receiving pain immensely, even going so far as to charge headlong into attacks just for the stimulation.
The 10th Memorial Book reveals that Raven is of German descent, and that he is a "natural immortal" due to a genetic anomaly. He was an accomplished warrior during the 12th century and took part in many battles of the Crusades. His first death occurred in an attempt to retake Jerusalem. The enemy had anticipated their moves and slaughtered all of his comrades, except him. Raven was shot with arrows and stabbed repeatedly, but instead of dying he found himself trapped within a strange cylindrical space surrounded by predatory birds. The sensation of their stares boring into him soon became the sensation of thousands of needles piercing his body. And so Raven survived, continuing to linger on for 2,000 years. He grew bored with life, and one day drove a spike into his forehead out of despair. That spike remains bored through his skull to this day. That Man approached him not long afterward, and made him an offer to become "a witness to history". Raven had, at long last, found a purpose in his eternal life, and accepted That Man's offer.
Originally a DLC character for Overture, he later appears as an Arcade Mode NPC in -REVELATOR-, seeking the assistance of Sol's group in order to search for That Man after he had been captured by Bedman. The mantle that he wore in Overture has been changed into a full-on hooded cloak, and he no longer wears a mask. His skin is no longer a pale blue or silver as it was in previous games, having now returned to a more natural color, and his right eye no longer glows blue.
On February 16, 2016, He was confirmed by Famitsu as a playable character in the console version of -REVELATOR-, being a straightforward offensive character with good reach and speed, alongside a unique gliding air dash that also acts as a near ground-sweeping attack. He has a gameplay mechanic in the Excitement gauge that is filled by taking damage while performing the stance "Give it to me HERE". Doing so upgrades the properties of other special attacks, such as hit counts, startup speed or damage, along with being able to regenerate his health from the absorbed attacks. In turn, he has relatively slow normal attacks, needs to keep absorbing attacks with his stance to build and maintain Excitement, and getting damaged while regenerating health means that he loses that health entirely.
- Animal Motif: Ravens. Both his name and his outfits make some sort of reference to the bird. The spike in his forehead serves as a functional beak for the whole motif.
- Anti-Nihilist: His final meeting with Asuka in -REV 2- essentially lead to him adopting this perspective.
- Ascended Extra: While he was originally just a Story Mode portrait within the fighting games, he is now a fully-playable character in -REVELATOR-.
- Ax-Crazy: Downplayed version. While he isn't totally crazy, and is a good guy to boot, Raven is a very sadistic and brutal fighter.
- Back from the Dead: A staple of the character, this turned him into what he is, as well as this is something he continuously experiences.
- Badass Army: Shares an undead-ish army with Valentine.
- Badass Cape: His Overture design, in which he wears a mantle shaped in the likeness of a raven's wing.
- Being Good Sucks: By his own admission in the After Story. He tried to help people using his immortality and newfound dimensional magic, but all it caused him was more pain.
- Black Cloak : His Xrd redesign, pictured above, now sees him wearing one of these with a hood.
- Blood Knight: When he gets into a fight, he REALLY gets into it.
- The Cameo: Shows up looking over a city on top of a spire in the ending cutscene of -STRIVE-.
- Camera Fiend: The "Something Precious" that Johnny's Treasure Hunt move steals from him in Xrd is a camera. Apparently he took That Man's advice to become "a witness to history" quite literally.
- Campy Combat: With his penchant for eccentric poses and hypersexual theatrics, Raven certainly qualifies.
- Church Militant: He has the esteemed honor of being a real Crusader who was a part of The Crusades, whom the Sacred Knights of the Holy Order were named after when the Gear Wars started. He gained his immortality at the end of the Crusades in a rather bizarre incident, and has been kicking and reviving from death ever since.
- Combat Sadomasochist: Due to his immortality, Raven has gone beyond being desensitized to pain and has learned to enjoy it. Immensely. In -REVELATOR-, he makes use of this in one of his special moves, which builds a meter for use as a comeback mechanic. Both Overdrives and various moves get improved as this meter gets higher, and his enthusiasm also gets very readily apparent.
- He even goes as far as chiding his opponents for fighting precisely or cautiously against him, as seen in his winquotes against both Johnny, Millia, and Elphelt. It always boils down to "That barely even hurt, make it hurt more next time".
- Complete Immortality: He regenerates faster than Sol's flames burn him, even going as far as to taunt the latter that he didn't even feel a twinge of warmth.
- Taken a step further in -REVELATOR- where his Instant Kill animation reveals that he can regenerate from being vaporized. The guy is just outright impossible to kill.
- Cool Mask: In Overture, a steel mask adorns his face in a similar manner to Vega.
- Creepy Good: Despite his disturbing mannerisms in battle, Raven works with That Man in order to ensure a bright future. His likes and dislikes section on his profile state that he enjoys seeing people pursue their dreams and desires, while despising those who cannot feel love.
- Dark Is Not Evil: In spite of appearing to be the platonic ideal of an anime edgelord and his rather unsettling behavior in fights, Raven's comes across as the most morally upstanding of That Man's crew (which is admittedly not saying much) and genuinely wishes to make the world a better place. His interactions with Jack-O' drive the point home further.
- Shown to a bigger degree in After Story A when he talks with That Man AKA Asuka about his own past, and deciding to go on about his good deeds as a friend to Asuka in the end as opposed to a servant.
- Death Seeker: Initially, his immortality had burned him out so badly on life that he no longer wished to live. But meeting Asuka made things better for him.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Suffered from this quite badly until That Man gave him purpose.
- Dub-Induced Plot Hole: The English version of Axl's story mode in XX, translated by Majesco, erroneously paints the scenario so that Axl and Raven's meeting is a case of Never the Selves Shall Meet, with That Man describing Raven as an "parallel existence" of Axl, resulting in him getting time-warped away. The actual translation, on the other hand, is more along the lines of That Man describing both of them as "similar beings". That is to say, anomalies who should not exist in this world.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Raven in the XX games looks nothing like his later incarnations, as he comes off as spikier and buffer in comparison to his leaner future models.
- Energy Absorption: Raven's gameplay gimmick in Xrd- using the move I Want It Here! will cause Raven to shrug off attacks and build up Excitement, increasing the power of his attacks.
- Enigmatic Minion: Raven appears to put I-No in her place, but we still don't know what he can actually do. That Man is something like this as well, except for the minion part.
- At the very least, Raven can fight interdimensionally (which he does with Faust at once point in the manga) and regenerates faster than Sol's flames can burn him as he claims to not feel the heat.
- He also, in the same novel where Sol burned him, lazily caught Sol's sword in two fingers. Sol could not budge him. To say he has some form of super strength is an understatement.
- Exotic Eye Designs: His left eye has what looks like a gold coin instead of an iris and pupil. This is in reference to the Roman practice of putting coins over the eyes of the dead; Raven considers himself half-dead, so he only has the one.
- Fan Disservice: He's a good looking guy, but the albino look, spike jammed through his head (along with his brain), and blatantly sexual reactions to pain kinda kill that. His "Give it to me HERE" move and "Excitement" meter mechanic are especially egregious examples, as whenever the Excitement meter builds he will exhibit a noticeable bulge during gameplay that is sure to make some players very uncomfortable.
- Flash Step: During his forward run he flash steps appearing in front of his opponent.
- From a Single Cell: Specially seen at the end of his Instant Kill.
- Genre Motif: Death metal. Both of his themes have raspy vocals.
- Gratuitous German: Almost all of his specials, overdrives and Instant Kill are in German.
- Horned Humanoid: Forcefully. It's actually a spike he rammed through his skull that exits out of both sides.
- Image Song: "Worthless as the Sun Above Clouds" and "Tsuki no Shihai"
- Interplay of Sex and Violence: Loves being hurt as pain is the last sensation he can feel, judging from his face when he uses his special move "Give it to me HERE"... he really loves it.◊
- Large Ham: In Overture, whenever he gets hit, Raven will loudly proclaim that it "feels GOOD!!"
- Lean and Mean: To Noodle People levels.
- Licking the Blade: Or his...finger needles?◊ .
- Living Emotional Crutch: That Man serves as one to him. Before he entered his service he wandered aimlessly filled with despair due to his immortality.
- Maniac Tongue: Let's just say he loves keeping his tongue out as much as possible in Xrd.
- Master of Illusion: He warps through dimensions and creates smoke clouds that turn into flocks of ravens as a boss-only move in Overture.
- Meaningful Name: His name is Raven, guess what his look and attacks all have the motif of.
- Messianic Archetype: Tragically deconstructed. The After Story reveals that Raven tried to use his immortality to help people, working miracles with his powers, but eventually the very people he helped came to view him as a god and thus started blaming him for their misfortunes in his absence. In his own words, he was nothing more than a glorified repairman. This was the catalyst that made him a Straw Nihilist.
- Nigh-Invulnerable: As a natural-born immortal, he cannot be harmed by any means. He still feels it, though, and loves it.
- Not Afraid to Die: Mainly due to how any death just cannot stick for Raven. He'll even egg on opponents who are doing Instant Kills on him to put their all into it.
- Orgasmic Combat: More or less a given, considering both his gameplay gimmick and the sounds he makes when hit... and it's probably literal, seeing how he writhes and thrusts when he loses all his health in a round.
- Only Friend: In After Story A, pretty much all this time That Man (AKA Asuka) started to truly consider Raven as one of his only close friends as well as feeling a bit guilty for treating him like a servant. Raven himself feels mutual about this, and also starts to consider Asuka as a close friend enough to reveal his own past to him.
- Power Trio: He is one of the three powerful servants of That Man.
- Really 700 Years Old: Was active during the Crusades in the medieval period (1200-1400), making him somewhere between 750 and 1000 years old.
- Red Baron: "The Undying Disease".
- Rubber Man: Many of Raven's attacks show Raven stretching out his arms for long distance attacks, most noticeably his grab attacks.
- Something Else Also Rises: Definitely not Played for Laughs. If you look at his crotch whenever he has a high "Excitement" meter, or if you hit him during "Give it to me HERE"...yeah.
- The Stoic: When he isn't fighting. He is a very composed, quiet, and intellectual man.
- Suddenly Shouting: Most of his victory quotes against other characters are low and reserved. When he defeats Baiken, however, he starts screaming with excitement about how much he loves being attacked by her.
- Straw Nihilist: He wandered the world maintaining this mentality before That Man gave him purpose as a witness to history. Jack-O', Haehyun, and Ramlethal all call him out on this in their winquotes against him, and in Story Mode he starts questioning it himself.
- Taking You with Me: His Instant Kill in a nutshell. He annihilates himself and his opponent in a giant pillar of energy smiling the whole time, enjoying the pain and knowing he will regenerate anyway.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: When unmasked in Xrd.
- Too Kinky to Torture: As a result of being a complete masochist on top of being a complete immortal, torturing him is outright useless and counter-productive. Some of his hit animations and lines implies that he enjoys getting hit. He even has a move that lets him gain "Excitement" (which is used to improve some of his attacks) by letting himself get hit. Again, his reactions to some of the other character's instant kills ranges from delighted to ecstatic.
- Trap Master: In Overture, at least, he can set gravity seeds on the ground to slow down his opponents.
- Warrior Therapist: His victory quotes against other characters are surprisingly introspective, giving them advice on their own conflicts from the perspective of someone who has lived for a very, very long time.
- When He Smiles: During his heart to heart with Asuka in REV 2, Raven gives probably the first sincerely friendly smile he's ever shown.
- White Hair, Black Heart: Not really; he's working for That Man and gets off on pain, but is far more level-headed than the Ax-Crazy I-No and doesn't do anything without being ordered first. Also, he's actually NICE when he wants to be- at least to Jack-O' and Ram.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: A key personality trait is that he is in constant weariness from Immortality.Even death is a luxury I do not have!
- Wolverine Claws: Wields two-pronged daggers attached to his middle and ring fingers as his weapons, giving him exceptional reach.
