I-No

I-No (Japanese: イノ, Hepburn: Ino) is a character in Arc System Works's Guilty Gear video game series. She first appeared in the 2002 video game Guilty Gear X2 as a boss. In the series, I-No is a servant of That Man—the series' main antagonist. She fights with an electric guitar, and she also wears a sentient witch's hat that can fire projectiles.

I-No
Guilty Gear character
First gameGuilty Gear X2 (2002)
Created byDaisuke Ishiwatari
Voiced byTara Platt (Guilty Gear Xrd SIGN)[1]
Kikuko Inoue (Japanese)[2]

Video game reviewers have commented on her sex appeal, with some of them also remarking her winning pose as well as her clothes and electric guitar. Her fighting abilities and the difficulty to defeat her as a boss have also been noted by critics.

Appearances

I-No was first introduced in the third installment of the series, Guilty Gear X2 (2002), where she appears as the primary antagonist and final boss. She carries with her an electric guitar nicknamed Marlene (マレーネ, Marēne)[3] that she uses to fight both using it as a bludgeon and playing it to create deadly sonic waves, and she also fights with her hat that can shoot projectiles out of a secret hole.[4] I-No is one of That Man's servants,[2] and she appears in every character's storyline, manipulating them against each other—for example, she gives fake bounty lists with the name of the people her master wants to kill,[5] consisting entirely of other cast members, to Jam Kuradoberi and Bridget.[6]

As she works for personal gain instead of being only a puppet,[2] in Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus (2008), she arouses insecurity in That Man who uses Anji Mito to capture her, eventually succeeding. She has three possible endings: she is captured by That Man and Raven to be punished, and she argues she only wanted to remove those who stood in her boss' way, but her master says that they're beneficial to what he has in mind for the world; she fights and defeats Dizzy and May, either subsequently becoming overwhelmed by Dizzy's power, and kidnapping May; or she is defeated by Baiken, being stabbed repeatedly, thus leading to her death.[7]

I-No is a playable character in Guilty Gear Xrd (2014), where she worked for That Man and became associated with Axl Low.[8]

I-No is also a playable character in the spin-off games Guilty Gear Isuka (2003),[9] Dust Strikers (2006),[10] and Judgment (2006).[11]

Reception

In a 2013 poll conducted by Arc System Works, I-No was voted as the 20th most popular character from the series.[12] IGN named I-No their "first-favorite new character design" from Guilty Gear X2.[13] GameDaily ranked I-No thirteenth on their "Top 25 Most Bizarre Fighting Characters",[14] repeating the sentiment in a later article series called "Babe of Week", featuring her in "Asian Beauties" and "Guilty Gear Babes".[15][4] Complex placed the boss battle with I-No in Guilty Gear X2 #Reload as the fourteenth coolest boss battle of all time, saying she is not a hard boss "but the fact that she fights with a blue guitar is pretty amazing", and along with her stage, the hell above the clouds, "you have one epic boss battle."[16] They also elected I-No as the twenty-sixth "hottest video game character", and ranked her at thirty-sixth place on the list of "The 50 Most Dominant Fighting Game Characters", where they commented "She fought with an electric guitar. Her cleavage was godlike. She cut you with a guitar extension cord. She got half naked when she won. 'Nuff said."[17][18]

Destructoid included I-No on it "Badass of the Month", and described her as a combination of "[s]exy and deadly", adding "[w]e've seen it for years with characters like Morrigan and Chun-Li [...], but no one captured it quite like I-No, who induced many a people into chucking their controllers in frustration". They also noted the difficult defeat her in the game, saying "she is a total nightmare to fight against."[2] Joystiq ranked her first on their "top ten girls of PSP", noting her guitar is very appreciated by fans and that it makes her sexier.[19] UGO Networks ranked her finish move as the third "Most Gruesome Finishing Move" in video game's history, also including I-No in their "Hot Girls We Wish Were Real" list at the fourteenth place.[20][21] Joystiq's Jordan Mallory said her top removal victory pose "conjures up nostalgic memories of after-school" while GameDaily described it as "quite a reward in the game".[22][14] On other hand, she was mentioned by 1UP.com as one of Guilty Gear's "goofy characters" along with Faust and Millia.[23]

Marlene

I-No's primary weapon of choice is a guitar she calls "Marlene", which she uses as a blunt object to bludgeon her opponents. This guitar is actually a direct replica of Duesenberg Guitars company's "Starplayer TV" (also known as "Starplayer II") real-life guitar model, though it was reinforced with such materials as titanium and aerospace-grade aluminum so that Marlene would be able to withstand such actions as heavy impacts when I-No is hitting her opponents or when this guitar is being directly smashed against the ground.

The name "Marlene" that I-No gave to her beloved guitar is actually based on the German actress and singer Marlene Dietrich, as well as also being a direct nod to the musician Shiina Yumiko (since she has a guitar named "Dietrich" that is actually a Duesenberg Guitars' "Starplayer II/TV" model as well, down to them both even being of exactly same "surf green" color, and I-No's overall visual design was heavily based on Shiina Yumiko's choice of hairstyle and stage performing clothes during early years of her career).

See also

References
  1. Platt, Tara [@taraplatt] (1 December 2014). "@MasaakiKagura ah!:)" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  2. "Badass of the Month Club: I-No". Destructoid. July 24, 2009. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
  3. "I-No　イノ" (in Japanese). Guiltygearx.com. Archived from the original on February 16, 2013. Retrieved July 26, 2013.
  4. "Babe of the Week: Guilty Gear Babes". GameDaily. Archived from the original on May 20, 2009. Retrieved July 28, 2013.
  5. "Weekend Reading: Bridget is straight". Destructoid. August 19, 2007. Retrieved July 25, 2013.
  6. Arc System Works (2003). Guilty Gear X2 (PlayStation 2). Sammy Studios.
  7. Arc System Works (2008). Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus (PlayStation 2). Aksys Games.
  8. "Character – Guilty Gear Xrd Portal Site" (in Japanese). Ggxrd.com. Archived from the original on August 4, 2013. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
  9. "Guilty Gear Isuka - Character" (in Japanese). Guiltygearx.com. Archived from the original on November 25, 2010. Retrieved July 26, 2013.
  10. "Guilty Gear Dust Strikers for Nintendo DS". Majesco Entertainment. Archived from the original on June 16, 2006. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
  11. Reparaz, Mikel (June 24, 2012). "Guilty Gear Judgment Review". GamesRadar. p. 2. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
  12. "GUILTY GEARキャラクター人気投票結果発表ページ" (in Japanese). Arc System Works. Archived from the original on April 24, 2014. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
  13. "Guilty Gear XX-Posed". IGN. Ziff Davis Media. October 24, 2002. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
  14. "Top 25 Most Bizarre Fighting Characters". GameDaily. Archived from the original on August 13, 2008. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
  15. "Babe of Week: Asian Beauties". GameDaily. Archived from the original on April 2, 2009. Retrieved July 26, 2013.
  16. Knight, Rich (March 9, 2012). "I-No — 15 of the Coolest Boss Battle Ever". Complex. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
  17. Jones, Elton (May 17, 2012). "36. I-No — The 50 Most Dominant Fighting Game Characters". Complex. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
  18. Hester, Larry (June 27, 2012). "26. I-no — The 50 Hottest Video Game Characters". Complex. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
  19. Bailey, Steven (January 25, 2007). "The top ten girls of PSP". Joystiq. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
  20. Jensen, K. Thor (February 11, 2011). "I-No Instant - The Most Gruesome Finishing Moves Ever". UGO Networks. Archived from the original on December 27, 2013. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
  21. Jensen, K. Thor (February 9, 2011). "I-No - 50 Hot Girls We Wish Were Real". UGO Networks. Archived from the original on June 22, 2013. Retrieved July 28, 2013.
  22. Mallory, Jordan (September 20, 2012). "Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus hits Japanese PSN/XBLA this Oct". Joystiq. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
  23. Balistrieri, Emily (July 31, 2007). "Guilty Gear XX Accent Core". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on December 14, 2013. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
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