Zato-1
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| Zato-1 | |
|---|---|
 Zato-1 in Guilty Gear X |
|
| Game series | Guilty Gear series |
| First game | Guilty Gear |
| Voice actor(s) | Kaneto Shiozawa (Guilty Gear-GGX); Takehito Koyasu (as Eddie, GGXX onward) |
| In-Universe Information | |
| Blood type | A |
| Birthplace | Spain |
| Birthday | January 28 |
| Eye color | Formerly Blue |
| Likes | The language of flowers |
| Important things | Pride |
| Dislikes | Women |
| Theme song | "Feel a Fear" "Black Soul" (GG) "Dementia" (XX #Reload) |
Zato-1 is a character in the Guilty Gear fighting game series, making his first appearance in Guilty Gear: The Missing Link. He is blind, but fights using a parasitic entity named Eddie, a shadow-being created using Gear technology, who eventually overcomes Zato and takes over his body.
Contents |
[edit] Gameplay
Zato-1 is blessed with the ability to control a second entity, which will act only on button releases, making knowledge of negative edge essential to high-level play. Usually this second entity is called his "puppet", "little Eddie", or other such names. This puppet allows him to attack his opponent while Zato-1 himself is not attacking, make long, relentless, near unescapable attack strings, due to the fact that his puppet can attack low, this allows Eddie to create near unblockable setups. However, due to how difficult it is to actually block this, (it is 1/60th of a second timing), most people just call them unblockable. What usually happens is Eddie knocks a player down in a corner, lays down the HS version of his puppet (a giant drill that must be blocked low) then he hits the player in the air with a Kick. This will then lead to large damage, usually due to Eddie raising the guard meter before knocking the player down (the more filled the guard meter is, the more damage the player takes) and then following up this unblockable with a large aerial combo. If Eddie does not have his puppet available, he then has a variety of abilities to run away safely, including the ability to fly, and sink into the ground with the ability Break the Law.
However, in Slash, heavy changes were placed upon Eddie, one of the most prominent being that the "puppet" no longer increases the guard meter of an opponent. Though still a "high tier character", these changes have helped to close such gaps.
[edit] Story
[edit] Background
Originally, Zato-1 was just another member of the Assassin's Guild. However, at some point, the Post-War Administration Bureau offered him a "forbidden beast" - a parasitic organism derived from Gear technology. After gaining control of the forbidden beast through a secret ritual that required Zato-1 to forsake his sight, he grew strong and became the leader of the Assassin's Guild. Because of his membership with the guild, he personally knows both of the other assassins in the Guilty Gear cast, former Assassin's Guild member Millia Rage, and Venom.
[edit] Guilty Gear: The Missing Link
In Zato's ending, whilst crowing his victory over Justice (an unnecessary part of the plot, since canonically, Justice was defeated by Sol Badguy), he hears another voice cackling: it is that of Eddie, the parasitic organism that he thought was under his control, who proceeds to possess and completely control him.
[edit] Guilty Gear X: By Your Side
Eddie spends his Story Mode rampaging around the countryside, taking "samples" from the other characters, apparently with the intention of collecting data on them. In both of his endings, Zato-1 lets out one last gasp before and after fighting Millia Rage. In one of them, Zato attempts to kill himself and take Eddie with him; in the other ending (not canon as it is impossible given the events in subsequent games), he absorbs Millia's hair, which itself is a parasitic entity.
[edit] Guilty Gear XX: The Midnight Carnival
From here on, the character is referred to in the character list as Eddie rather than Zato-1, because Zato is now dead. After a conversation with Faust telling him that he is near the end of his life cycle what with his host body no longer being alive, Eddie spends the game attempting to find a new one, and in one of his paths, he joins forces with I-No, who claims to want to help him; in one of his endings, he meets his end when he tries to possess Slayer's wife Sharon, and promptly melts. In another, he realizes that I-No has betrayed him, and fights her, only to become imprisoned by That Man.
His third story path, which is more likely, does not involve I-No; it ends with a fight against Millia Rage and then Venom, whom Eddie taunts, and then vows to become stronger. Whether this will actually happen is questionable due to Eddie's extremely short standalone lifespan, signified by his gradual loss of health over the course of each path (though this correlation is likely exaggerated for the sake of game mechanics).
[edit] Music References
Eddie is named after the zombie mascot of Iron Maiden, although another possibility is Eddie Van Halen. His attack "Break the Law" is a reference to the Judas Priest song "Breaking the Law" and his instant kill "Black in Mind" is named after an album by Rage. His Shadow Gallery attack is named for an American progressive rock band, and his "Amorphous" attack is named for Finnish band Amorphis.
Zato-1's theme, "Feel a Fear", seems to have an opening similar to the opening guitar riffs in the White Zombie song "Grease Paint and Monkey Brains."
The title of Zato-1's original theme music, "Black Soul", as well as his stage's background in the original Guilty Gear are references to the album Souls of Black by Thrash metal band Testament.
Eddie's stage, which is Hell in GGXX, is loosely based on the American heavy metal group, Iced Earth.
The visor Eddie wears over his eyes gives him a resemblance to Vic Rattlehead, the mascot of the metal band Megadeth.
[edit] Trivia
- Zato-1 is a reference to the fictional blind swordsman Zatoichi, "ichi" being Japanese for the number 'one.'
- Zato-1's voice actor, Kaneto Shiozawa, died of a brain concussion after Guilty Gear X was made.
