I-no

Lore & Background

I-No first appears in Guilty Gear X2 as a playable character, while also serving as the antagonist and final boss. She works under series villain Asuka R. Kreutz, though of her own accord due to wanting to see what happens when his plans come to fruition. To this end she tries to eliminate anyone that can impede his goals, particularly manipulating the other characters against each other to this end. Able to manipulate time and causality, Guilty Gear Xrd reveals she is a magic being created from humanity's "hopes and desires" for a better future, with half of her power having been stolen by villain Happy Chaos to prevent her from becoming all-powerful and destroying the world. After this revelation, I-No becomes obsessed with finding the answer to her purpose in Guilty Gear Strive. However even after recovering her power she is unable to, and tries to pass her abilities onto all of humanity so they might be able to in the future, despite the consequences. The protagonists fight her, and in the ensuing battle her body is destroyed. In her dying moments, I-No realizes that fellow time traveller Axl Low is an alternate timeline incarnation of her former boyfriend Will, and she uses her powers to reunite him with her counterpart from his timeline, Megumi.

In Their Own Story

When developing X2, the team originally considered bringing back the character Justice as a playable character. Series creator Daisuke Ishiwatari however wanted instead to explore a new character that was based on several aspects of Justice, feeling that simply bringing Justice back would diminish some of their impact. When developing I-No, he gave her a "wizard-like" silhouette, while wanting to push the "limits of eroticism" with her design. He emphasized this in particular with how he drew her guitar, aiming to avoid making it feel like attacking with a baseball bat and instead appear erotic in motion. While the concept originally started as a wizard, they felt the design would be too plain for Guilty Gear universe. It was considered to give her a large iron club, before deciding to make her look like a "delinquent". Going with a combination of a wizard and a musician, Ishiwatari stated it changed as he added his own tastes, wanting to portray someone that was "absolutely evil", but also the "ultimate erotic character". Her name was inspired by musician Brian Eno, while physically she was based on musician Ringo Sheena. Ishiwatari stated the similarity was not originally intentional, and came about due to modelling her after "the most feminine person" he knew, even giving I-No a beauty mark in the same position as Sheena's. He noted that when coming up with the design, he even considered asking her to provide the character's voice.

Reader's Guide

When designing her gameplay they pulled from several elements of Justice's, in particular her projectile attacks as well as allowing her to fight well while in the air, while also having effective close-range attack options. Of the moves they designed for, "Megalomania", an attack that fills the screen with projectiles after a pause, proved to be the hardest to create. In addition to her aerial gameplay, she can also quickly rush down opponents, dashing forward with attacks such as "Sultry Performance" or "Stroke the Big Tree". Meanwhile, attacks such as "Antidepressant Scale" fire a projectile that she can control the vertical trajectory of, and does increased damage the farther it travels. I-No was designed to be more difficult to use overall, and a character they wanted players to practice with heavily. However, with Strive, they simplified some of the inputs necessary for her attacks, to try and increase her accessibility for players. In each installment of the series her outfit remained consistent until her appearance in Guilty Gear Strive, in which it was changed entirely. While the red witch's hat, black gloves, choker, thigh-high boots and blue guitar remained, her dress was replaced with short shorts, and a belt atop them that featured coat tails hanging off it. Regarding the design change, Ishiwatari stated it was to take into account global audiences, not wanting it to be seen as due to "regulations" but instead a "change in expression" to "allow more users to play the game".

Did You Know?

• I-No's name was inspired by musician Brian Eno, while her physical appearance was based on musician Ringo Sheena.
• I-No is voiced in Japanese by Kikuko Inoue, who called her 'the scariest role I've ever played' due to the abusive dialogue.
• In her dying moments in Guilty Gear Strive, I-No realizes Axl Low is an alternate timeline incarnation of her former boyfriend Will.
• I-No's guitar 'Marlene' is modeled after the Duesenberg Starplayer and takes the place of a witch's broom, allowing her to fly while straddling it.
• I-No was originally conceived as a replacement for the character Justice, with her gameplay pulling from several of Justice's elements.