I-No

"So... care to dance?"

- I-No

I-No is a villainess from Guilty Gear who is a servant of That Man. She makes her debut in Guilty Gear XX: The Midnight Carnival, as a boss; unlike previous bosses, she is freely playable from the start. 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.

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.

Guilty Gear X
She spends most of her Story Mode manipulating the various cast members against each other. She is the one who hands out the fake bounty lists, which consist entirely of other cast members, to Jam and Bridget.

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus
To get her out of being misbehaved, That Man uses Anji Mito to trick and arrest her, eventually succeeding. In the ending where she fights Sol — as well as various other characters' endings — she is captured by That Man and Raven, who evidently intend to punish her. I-No protests that she only wanted to remove those who stood in her boss' way, but That Man proclaims that they're actually beneficial to what he has in mind for the world. In her other, less likely endings she fights and defeats Dizzy and May, either subsequently becoming overwhelmed by Dizzy's power, or kidnapping May with the apparent intentions of bringing her to That Man. Also, in her second ending, I-No is defeated at the hands of a malicious Baiken and is stabbed repeatedly, thus leading to her death.

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.

References & 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.
 * 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, the same guitar, the same height and birthday.
 * One of her victory animations has her playing part of a solo from Metallica's "One".

Trivia

 * I-No's voice actress, Inoue Kikuko, is known for her motherly and angelic roles. However, I-No is anything but motherly and angelic.
 * Inoue Kikuko also voiced another villain, namely Virgilia from Umineko no Naku Koro ni.
 * Though I-No time travels, she doesn't meet her past self, unlike Axl and Sol.
 * I-No is by far the only known Guilty Gear character to have no P.W.A.B. data.
 * I-No's Blazblue counterpart is Yuuki Terumi whom she bears many similarities with but with big differences:
 * I-No is That Man's servant while Hazama just brainwashes Saya and turned her into his boss though his real boss is Izanami and is possessing Saya and Izanami herself is Terumi's Master and abandon him after he stop being useful to her.
 * Both have a strong tendency to mock their opponents.
 * Hazama is a lot more older than her.
 * I-No is female while Hazama is male.