I-No

**I-No** (イノ, *Ino*) is a character in the *Guilty Gear* fighting game series, making her first appearance as a boss of the third game, *Guilty Gear XX*; unlike bosses in previous games, she is freely playable from the start. She is a servant of Asuka R. Kreutz. Very little is known about her; in fact, her profile in *Guilty Gear XX* consists entirely of "UNKNOWN!!" repeated several times over. Information given thus far is also somewhat unclear as to the nature and origin of her hat, which resembles a witch's hat and seems to be animate. She also seems to derive pleasure from tormenting other characters, especially Dizzy.

## Character Design

I-No has black hair in a bob cut, and has red lips and a mole on her right cheek. I-no wears a red witch hat that has a skull face on it. She wears black leather choker around her neck with a gold ring that is connected to her shoulder-less red jacket that she can easily take off and put on. She has a red mini skirt and thigh high heel boots with black panties underneath as seen during some of her attacks. Despite having green eyes in her artworks, her profiles state that her eyes change color "depending on the angle", and are said to be multi-colored. This was not shown in-game until Xrd in which her eyes shift color constantly.

## Personality

I-No is a sadistic and manipulative woman who seems to act without conscience. Thus, she has no qualms about hurting other people (physically or mentally). She is dedicated — or so the audience is led to believe — to That Man's goals and ideals, to the point where she altered reality at least once to make his objectives possible, though it is never entirely made clear what the former are. She is somewhat crude in how she speaks to others, as she is always either cursing, insulting her opponents, or making sexually charged comments, usually using musical references as double entendres. She is shown to have a masochistic side when her opponents attacks her in erotic ways.

It is due to her chaotic nature, she tends to actually deter most of That Man's goals albeit in-denial; however, it is still hinted that he keeps her around regardless due to the fact that she tends to mindlessly cause chaos if left unchecked.

## Gameplay

Arguably one of the hardest characters to use, I-No's gameplay is more advanced, focusing on placing relentless pressure on the opponent while retaining defense. I-No's attacks have a good offensive potential and appear almost instantly. I-No's moveset has rather unique properties; when I-No dashes, unlike other characters, she floats above the ground, as if she was jumping. Thus, she can use her aerial moves without actually being in the air. **Sultry Performance** is an aerial move that can attack horizontally or diagonally, and can be combined with I-No's hover dash, becoming one of the most damaging aerial moves if charged fully. All of I-No's Overdrives have a very limited range; unless the opponent is at melee distance, the chances of missing are high. **Ultimate Fortissimo** is hard to pull off; that, combined with the fact that it is an aerial move makes it very likely to miss. However, it is I-No's most damaging attack, and makes an excellent finisher with a zero cast delay.

In EX Mode, her unique hover dash has become a command dash, making it harder for the player to access her aerial combos. But she gains the advantage of being able to disrupt opponent's aerial moves with moves like **Chemical Love Height**.

In Gold Mode, she becomes roughly three times as fast, making her even harder to control due to how increased her mobility is. She also possesses regenerating health as well as infinite Tension. This is the form she takes when fought as the game's final boss. As a boss, she also has an exclusive Overdrive called **Megalomania** where she becomes fully invincible as the background turns pitch-black, and warning signs appear as she sprouts wings with loudspeakers on them. The formation of the warning symbols differ, but after about 3 seconds of inactivity provided she doesn't False Roman Cancel to change the trajectory suddenly, I-no will fire a stream of unblockable heart orbs that can deal up to 70% of a character's health, as well as a considerable amount of chip damage if the opponent does not use Faultless Defense. This Overdrive actually utilizes I-no's Burst Gauge, rather than her Tension Gauge, as evidenced by the fact that as of *SLASH*, it is usable in her EX mode.

## Powers & Abilities

According to Drama CD Side Black, I-No has the ability to time travel. However, she seldom does this as, according to herself, it is difficult to do. She traveled back in time in order to fulfill the ideals of That Man and saved Ky's life, thus changing the future into one where the humans won the war against the Gears, since Ky's death would have meant the defeat of the Holy Order. In I-No's timeline, the humans were on the verge of defeat from the Gears led by Dizzy.

This ability is referenced in *Guilty Gear XX: Slash* and *Accent Core*, whereas after being defeated, I-No opens up a time portal to escape, and depending on the player's actions, their character might be sucked into the portal as well, taking them into the past timeline and fight Order-Sol.

I-No also uses electric guitar named "Marlene" for both magical and physical attacks, strumming it to produce damaging sound waves or slamming it to her opponents. She also uses it for flight as she rides it when she dashes in the air. She also has the ability to alter and devour memories. It is later revealed that as the humanoid Magical Focus born from the desperate wishes of humanity, she may possess other abilities that can potentially affect reality itself. It is also suggested that she has yet to reveal her full power.

## Musical Themes

* **Kagematsuri (Shadow Festival)** - *Guilty Gear XX*
* **The Midnight Carnival** (Boss) - *Guilty Gear XX*
* **Blacklight Babe** - *Guilty Gear XX #Reload Korean OST*
* **Sheep Will Sleep (If You Become Fatigued)** - *Guilty Gear Isuka*
* **Dirty Drive** - *Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-*

## References and Allusions

* I-No's name may be a reference to Brian Eno, a musician/songwriter famous for working with Glam Rock stars like David Bowie, or "eye no", a Prince song released in 1988. The symbol on her guitar looking similar to Prince's symbol. Prince was also known to play the same guitar.
* I-No's design is speculated to be influenced by Japanese musician Shiina Ringo, as I-No sports a hairstyle Shiina wore during her early days, a mole in the exact same facial location (which she later had removed), the same guitar, the same height and birthday.
* One of her victory animations has her playing part of a solo from these songs:
	+ Metallica's "One".
	+ Van Halen's "Eruption".
	+ Ozzy Osbourne's "Mr. Crowley".
	+ Additionally, this solo is remarkably similar to a portion of Street Fighter character Adon's theme in the Street Fighter 4 series.
* I-No uses a Duesenberg Starplayer II Guitar.
* Her guitar Marlene is named after German-American actress Marlene Dietrich. I-No's guitar is named Marlene, while Shiina Ringo's guitar is named Dietrich.
* Her move Chemical Love may reference the musical band "My Chemical Romance".
* Her original Instant Kill, Last Will and Testament, may be named after the band, Testament.
* Likewise, her infamous Megalomania attack used by her Boss version (and used as her IK in *Xrd*), may be named after the first album of the Russian metal band, Aria.

## TMNT X Pokemon

She doesn't work with the Foot Clan like many of the other villains do. She does things her way and uses her charms to get what she wants. Independent, she won't follow any kind of order as she likes to do things in her own way.

## Trivia

* I-No bears resemblance to Anna Williams from the Tekken franchise.
* Even though she time travels, I-No doesn't seem to encounter her past self, unlike Axl and Sol.
* According to I-No's voice Type-C in Xrd, she doesn't really know anything about herself, not even her own identity as a "human". In the Guilty Gear XX -Side Red/Black- Drama CD, she insists to That Man and Sol that she is "human", though both remain incredulous towards her claim. In XX, however, she admits that humans are fragile creatures, but if she really said so because she perceives herself as a superior human, is yet to be proven. Baiken, when sensing I-No's aura, claims that she is not at all what she appears to be. Bedman also makes a remark in his Win Quote against her that he is unable to discern her "true form", whether he is speaking of her identity or the ambiguity of her actual nature is unknown. Slayer makes a similar remark when he demands that she shows him her true self.
* In the Arena stage in Xrd, I-No is described as Minstrel Crimson, which is probably a reference of X Japan's song, Kurenai. Moreover, in the Story Mode, Axus stated that Ky's eye is "Crimson" before his death.
* In GGXrd -REVELATOR-, I-No is featured wearing a pair of yellow-tinted sunglasses and a short jacket, which is similar to the ensemble she wore in her first chronological appearance in Guilty Gear X: Lightning the Argent.