Suzaku

There's also the matter of Crow, the PWAB guy making Justice replicas in AC+, to consider. He's got the same voice actor as Raven, and, well, his name... that can't be a coincidence. Since Valentine is supposed to be a copy of Aria, and Aria is supposed to be Justice, and That Man and Raven discuss the fact that more Valentines are being produced at the end of Overture, I think we're possibly coming to the oft-predicted future disaster that would require humans and Gears to fight side by side. He probably put the spike there himself, being the indestructible, unfeeling, masochistic kinda guy he is.

They're canon sidestories. In the interview with Ishiwatari, he specifically stated "gaiden". They're part of official canon, but not part of the main storyline. I guess that's what the By Your Side "G GEAR" subtitle was supposed to indicate.

He wasn't. Someone probably just couldn't tell between him and Frioniel. Terra is the most likely, as all the characters have EX-Modes, and her Esper form is a given. Locke doesn't really have anything special or distinguishing enough to be a second mode.

Well his minion isn't exactly called "Crow" (クロウ, Kurou). It's still, "Karasu" (カラス). Katakana is used in place of hiragana (からす) or kanji (烏), meaning you'd probably want to leave that as its name. I'm guessing that the Karasu he summons is the same as the birds that come out of the black clouds during his boss battle. As for his nationality... I wouldn't neccesarily jump to conclusions, since he can't even remember how old he is. I'm not sure that the language of their attack names has any direct correlation to their nationality. And, although I'm not sure if the plot hinted at it, I certainly get the feeling that Raven and Crow are connected, what with the same voice actors and all. That's a bit much for mere coincidence.

Judging from the button combination, I do believe that would be Verzweifelt. I also made two fixes to the last two skill descriptions (I accidentally used two inaccurate transcriptions from 2ch the first time). The minion he summons is called Karasu (カラス), which means "Raven" or "Crow" in Japanese. I'm not sure if he'll have other types of servants or not. Also, his age should be "Unknown (He doesn't remember)" instead of just "(He doesn't remember)". I've got a friend who works professionally as a Japanese <-> German translator for Nintendo, I'll try and see if he can offer any better insight into the move names. They're probably musical references or something, but some seem pretty weird. Edit: I missed the little asterisk under the skill section. He uses the same servants as Valentine.

That was the personality/background I posted a while back, right? I'd take my own shot at translating the move names, but you did a good job. Just a couple minor corrections I noticed: シュメルツ・ベルク = Schmelz Berg [Melting Mountain], not schmaltz (which is apparantly Yiddish). クライゼン・ヴェー = Krisen-V [Crises-V], since krisen is the plural form of krise. フェアツヴァイ・フェルト = Verzweifelt そこじゃぁない = Soko ja nai. (just different spacing) シュヴァルツ・ヴォルケン = Schwarz Wolken [black Clouds], not schwartz. Of course, I don't really know much about German. Anyway, he's not actually available until June 5th, so don't bother looking for new videos or anything just yet. Edit: Move Descriptions I'm not sure if they put any effort into their German attack names, they seem pretty random.

More, please! I don't care if it's the same art that was published in Dengeki Maou, the printing looks to maybe be a bit better quality.

Yes, it should. The Backyard is just the technical way magic works, and it seems like it probably isn't common knowledge. What mankind discovered was a way to tamper with the Backyard, whether they understood that or not, which produces the results of "magic" in the physical world. Think of it like... Well, you're playing a game on your computer. The game is like the physical world. But if you were to get into the code running the game, that's like the Backyard. You could alter the code to make something happen in the game. The Backyard is basically like the "code" for the real world.

Move names for non-player characters would be nice too, if there are any.

Guilty Gear 2: Overture Complete Guide is out. Anyone gonna buy this and scan the artwork and other possible interesting tidbits?

Yeah, pardon me, you're right. Just checked the normal Japanese wikipedia article, and it says 5 years after GG.

Yeah, whoever it was that typed that stuff up got a few details off. GG Overture is the official continuation of GG, X and XX are a side-series. Overture is "about" ten years after GG (or was it GGXX?), I don't remember if they got more specific.

Abominable K: Once again, as far as I've seen, nothing has stated that the X-series is "non-canon", just that they are gaiden (sidestories), as in not a major part of the overall plot. No. Both he and his servants appear to be youkai; an "izuna" is in fact a type of fox spirit. Though he's a self-described inhabitant of the Backyard, it's not where he's originally from. His actual birthplace isn't specified, but it's probably some sort of spiritual plane, and judging from his mannerisms and style of dress (which reflect that of the ronin), he seems to be a vagabond or even an outcast. His stage, Yomotsu Hirasaka, resembles Japan, and exists outside of the physical world in an unspecified location; the Yomotsu Hirasaka (Broad Slope to the Underworld) is the hill that leads to Yomi (the Underworld) in Shinto mythology. For some clarification, what is dubbed as the "Backyard" is essentially a higher dimensional plane which holds great sway over the laws of the physical world. What is known as "magic" is actually the manipulation of the Backyard made manifest in the physical plane; the power it holds is so strong that carelessly manipulating it could result in the world's destruction. The Backyard has no "ties" to the Gears, or "That Man", (or anyone really), it's just one of several planes which exist in the GG-verse. Also, the "Shadowed One" - Her name (Kokage no Kimi) would probably be more accurately translated as, "The Lady in the Shade of a Tree".

Well, one of the design sketches marks it as ブリンド (burindo), which I'm guessing is a typo of ブランド (burando), which would be brand. The big kanji on his back is 鴉 (karasu), which means raven, and is also marked as a "ブリンド" in one of them, so, *shrug*.

So, I don't think the stuff is visible in Raven's final design, but he has some phrases in greek (actually, standard windows Symbol font) on a couple of his character design sheets. The cross on his mask says, I believe, "oreno", "yutaka", "terada", and "nawoittemiro". I'm not good at piecing Japanese together, especially with no kanji to go by. The other one, which is apparantly on the Raven emblem on his chest, is "And mortal life shall cease, a life of joy and peace", which are lyrics from Amazing Grace.

Well, he doesn't quite fall in with the Sacred Order group; the Sacred Order apparantly has a custom where it's members find a word that they choose to live by and inscribe it on their belt buckles, Ky's being "HOPE", Sol's being "FREE", and another member from Lightning the Argent having, as I recall, "FAITH". I'm not sure if I'd qualify Raven as being "half dead", exactly, as Sol describes him as "undying", (I believe, "The undying, diseased Raven", though I'm not entirely sure). I'd almost describe him more as being trapped between life and death. His body is essentially impervious to harm, and even if it's destroyed, it will regenerate; he's also almost completely unable to experience any sensation, except perhaps for extremes of emotion and pain. He also no longer remembers how old he is (probably due to time travel and such), and so apart from following That Man, his main prerogative seems to be simply proving that he's actually alive, be it by jamming needles through his body or taunting Sol so he can feel a full-power Tyrant Rave. Hence, "LIVE". Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting a look at these scans, and I hope we get even more design works in the future.

Oh, hey, an interesting note about Raven, I was checking the Japanese GG2 wikipedia article to see if anything was added, and one little tidbit was. The gold thing over Raven's left eye (hard to make out in the LQ youtube/nico videos, but pretty clear in the second PV on the official site) is actually a gold coin. It's apparantly taken from the Christian custom of placing coins over the eyes of the dead to keep them closed... Which, apart from the obvious allusions, would also mean Raven didn't even bother using his eyes when he fought Sol.

For those of you who are sticklers for having proper titles and info for your mp3s, like me, here's the proper tracklisting (with some translation notes): 01. Keep Yourself Alive III (Sol Yuusei BGM) 02. Ride on Time (Sin Yuusei BGM) 03. Hiruandan (Izuna Yuusei BGM) 04. Intellect, Reason, and the Wild (Paradigm Yuusei BGM) 05. The Mask Does Not Laugh (Valentine Yuusei BGM) 06. Holy Orders (Be Just Or Be Dead) (Ky Yuusei BGM) 07. Worthless as the Sun Above Clouds (Raven BGM) 08. Misadventure (Dou Character Taisen BGM) 09. The Re-coming (Sol VS Ky BGM) 10. Communication (Sin VS Ky BGM) 11. The Man ("Ano Otoko" BGM) 12. Diva (Valentine Saishuu Keitai BGM) 13. Curtain Call (Staff Roll BGM) 14. The Fate Broke Down. (Master VS Master BGM) 15. You Only Have to Decide It. (Character Select BGM) Yuusei = Superiority Hiruandan = A Lamp at Noon (metaphor for someone who doesn't stand out) Dou Character Taisen = Same Character Battle "Ano Otoko" = "That Man" (he's called "The Man" in the GG2 credits) Saishuu Keitai = Final Form

Unforunately, no. The folks on 2ch have been leary of uploading copyright content lately, and when they do, they usually remove it really quickly. I'll keep my eyes open, though.

Oh, hey, just a followup on the "artbook" post. That link was for Comiket (Comic Market), a convention in Japan. They did an autograph session and sold various Guilty Gear 2 products, ranging from posters to a pillow cover. The artbook they sold is called, "Guilty Gear 2 Creation Materials Collection (Special CD Appendix)" [ギルティギア２設定資料集（特別付録CD付）]. Comiket was 12/29-12/31. According to some posts on 2ch, the book was thin (only 13 pages), though it was full color and printed well with good paper. There were some rejected and changed designs, such as designs with Izuna having red or black hair and different clothing. It seemed to cover all the characters though. I'm not sure if it's being made available to the general public, although it seems that the Guilty Gear 2 Complete Guide (being released at the beginning of February) will have all that stuff as well, along with interviews with Ishiwatari and the other developers.

Well, I guess I neglected to post this stuff a while back (when I posted the profile data for Raven and That Man), which is odd, because I certainly intended to. Aria isn't explicitly stated to be Justice, just a friend of both Frederick and That Man from long ago, and I believe it's either stated or hinted that she and Frederick were lovers. Please recall the old panel from Guilty Gear Xtra which shows a photograph of Frederick, That Man, and a woman (no doubt Aria). Valentine, on the other hand, was "designed" in Aria's image, which is why she looks exactly like her. There are apparantly multiple Valentines being produced, and I don't think That Man has anything to do with it (though I could be mistaken). The fact that Valentine becomes Justice is essentially enough to confirm that the original Justice was Aria.

Thanks! Wish the video had a bit higher quality, though. Oh, and some more tracklistings for Vol. 2 have gone up, and "Dead Elf" has been replaced with "Valentine". Don't know what's up with the Dead Elf thing. *shrug*

Are you seriously emplying that the PS2 hardware and DS hardware are even remotely in the same realm? FFIVDS's graphics amount to little more than FFVII graphics with texture maps, and even *that* has some slowdown in the battles, according to all the reports I've been reading. It wouldn't be a simple matter of "dumbing down" the graphics or clicking a button that says, "reduce polygons". They'd almost certainly have to rebuild the game from the ground up. I seriously cannot see Arc Systems possibly going through the difficulty of porting it to the DS. That's roughly equivalent to jumping back three hardware generations. Maybe, maybe PSP, what with it being close to PS2 quality hardware and having great sales since the Slim model came out... But PS3 and PC seem like the easier solutions to buffering their sales.

Pretty sure that wouldn't constitute a "port". They'd pretty well have to rebuild it from scratch with a new graphics engine and all that. Really, I don't see it happening, and with how cluttered the game can get, I don't imagine it'd be that pretty with blocky, pixelated 3D characters on a small screen. PS3 or Wii would probably be more likely, I imagine, or maybe even PS2. Possibly PC, down the line. But with those dismal sales, they're bound to do something about it, nonetheless. I just don't expect it'll be a DS or PSP version.

I'd have to assume so. The katakana is デッドエルフ (Deddo Erufu), by the way. I saw a couple people mentioning fighting "Izuna + Dead Elf" online in the 2ch thread, I believe, but haven't seen it anywhere else. Actually, I wouldn't rule out some downloadable stuff either. At least something dinky like alternate costumes (like their old costumes), or extra characters. Maybe even Raven and "That Man"... And maybe a port to a console people in Japan actually own. Make way for Guilty Gear 2: Encore, heh.