Zato-ONE: A Shadowy, Redemption Arc of Guilty Gear

[@osan8751]

Due to his complex gameplay he still remains an unpopular fighting game character even though he is one of the most interesting stories that any fighting game character had. He's a really special character with an interesting back story, with his symbiot eddy, and the love of his life, Millia. I am glad that he has become more accesable and his recognition has increased with guilty gear strive, cause he is one of the most special characters for me not only among arcsys games but also among all fighting game characters. Glad you made a video about him

[@Wolfofthewildhunt]

He’s popular to me dammit

[@howbigcarbig582]

Among us

[@thedeed8740]

I really like him I’m just trash at playing him 😭

[@dolphinpower1107]

​@@thedeed8740same honestly

[@mythcat1273]

I was scared bc he seemed hard to use and I've just started playing but I'm so obsessed w him

[@SporadicV2]

It’s also important to remember that after his resurrection, Zato is essentially a hollow husk without emotion. The only thing he can feel is love for Millia, despite all they went through. Gives the ending to Let Me Carve Your Way a new light. “I’m a shadow always with you..” because she’s his sole reason for living now.

[@Tikialia]

I wouldn't say he is a hollow husk without emotion. He has simply lost all interest in many aspects of the human life... Or has he? A visible example of this is in Elphelt's XRD instakill and one of Zato's reaction to it. "The sun is so beautiful. Not that it matters." Here's where things get funny... Zato is supposed to be "emotionless", right? Well! That seems to be a façade, an ego defense, a masking technique. He acts like he does not care but does he really not care? Now onto the topic of his attachment to Millia... In the Signature XRD story when Zato "saves" Chipp from Bedman, he expresses anger. As he says these words there is emotion in his voice (or at least in the English dub). "You've awoken the anger of a dead man, child, and I will not hesitate to erase you from this world." Of course, this emotion is only present due to Bedman hurting Millia and, well, Millia matters a lot to Zato. But is it really love? In Zato's GGST arcade mode he tells Millia how he needs to protect her. Millia obviously takes that as an offense, as she asks Zato why does he only see her as something to be protected. You see, in the past Millia had low esteem and criticized herself. This is best noticed in Night Of Knives CD Drama. (I recommend reading the new updated translation of it in the gg wiki :)) Most likely Zato felt like he was obliged to protect her even though Millia changed. Not only during the time Zato was dead but before. Both of Millia's betrayals were caused by Zato's indoctrination towards her in the Assassins Guild. Ever since she was taken into said guild she was taught that there are no other ways other than the ways of the assassin, that there was nothing else for her and that happiness was only temporary. (Zato did the same to Venom, manipulating him into thinking that a life outside of the guild wasn't possible for an assassin. In Night of Knives Zato ponders about the existence of happiness. Venom and Millia correct him, saying that happiness doesn't exist for them, and that living in the Assassin's Guild is the only "happiness" for them. Zato taught them that.) While it's understandable that these topics weren't in the video I'd still like to mention that both Millia and Venom were groomed to kill since they were young. While Venom took the path of obedience, idolizing Zato, Millia did not. All this past trauma had resulted in her betrayals, not to mention her conflicted relations with Venom during the time she was still in the Assassin's Guild. But this was all in the past, what is Zato now then? Well, he's aware of the things he has done and he knows that he'll most likely never be able to fully redeem himself. Either way take this hypothesis with a grain of salt. Feel free to look at the wiki (not fandom one D:

[@JohnnyofTheSevenSeas]

He then fell again in Season 3 due to the amount of nerfs he got that would put the TF2 Spy to shame.

[@404_nowheresnotfound3]

He will be back Zatobros.

[@matmil5]

I kinda wish you mentioned arcade modes of strive where he bonds with nagoriyuki over their connection to Slayer and dandyism and then getting forgiven by ever innocent Sin, showing his emotions returning Otherwise, a neat analysis!

[@arcadenaut]

To be honest, I wanted to. Since Strive's arcade mode lacks the cutscenes, I wanted to focus on its main story mostly. I might consider adding these for future Guilty Gear videos though!

[@rowleyryan9025]

Damn, just when I was thinking there was nobody talking about Zato’s story in-depth, here you are with a video about him! Great work

[@arcadenaut]

I always try to find an excuse to talk about Zato-ONE, definitelty one of my fave characters of GG Universe.

[@gonkdroid9216]

I only recently began maining Zato, but he's so tricky and pretty difficult. so to know the full depth of who im getting into makes me even more eager to get better

[@arcadenaut]

I feel the same. Practising on saved combos in Strive helps a lot but its more important to when to summon Eddie and how to use him imo.

[@gonkdroid9216]

@@arcadenaut exactly my problem. I have no awareness of good times to slide eddie into the fight

[@Kenny-ot4yx]

I've been a zato main since the launch. One thing id recommend is constantly think "do I get anything off this? While Eddie's out when you get a hit, soft knockdown or anything Else. If no, unsummon Eddie. Trying to mix and they blocking everything? use a quick Eddie recall to punish someone playing too defensively so now they have to block a string again. Oh they know and they're mashing now? Do oppose instead of recalling to punish mashing. He's a trash character but when it works it's the most satisfying thing in the entire game.

[@yellowduckgamedev]

VANISH INTO DARK

[@arcadenaut]

FUTURE, NOW AND PAST

[@Z.E._ImSoDone]

@@arcadenaut VANISH INTO DARK

[@jpegval]

DROWNED IN PAIN I LOST MY MIND

[@Z.E._ImSoDone]

DROWNED IN GAIN I LOST MY MIND

[@yellowduckgamedev]

@adam S VANISH INTO DAAAAAARK

[@nepsterboop]

he doesny sacrafice his eyesight for the spell to work he sinply sacrafices his eyesight to even unlock the spell cause the creator of the spell thought it so awful he put a binding on it that would cost ones eye sight to undo the actually drawback of the spell is your very life as it consumes your life like a parasite

[@LoversandLilacs]

This is so well put together!

[@arcadenaut]

Glad you enjoyed it! More will soon to come, though I want to keep the content varied, with characters from different series.

[@jpegval]

This video is so well put together, I enjoyed it, especially since I main Zato

[@arcadenaut]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@simplestickland3367]

Still feel great seeing him help chipp be president.

[@zachstarattack7320]

so glad to see a video about him. i love atrive zato and hes the only reason i play strive!

[@MorbyLol]

Hey I think this happened to my uncle one time

[@noxwei]

Nice. Finally Zato content lmao

[@Kenny-ot4yx]

I just wish he would get buffed to not be bottom-1 so i wouldn't be the only person maining him. Maybe more people would be interested in his lore.

[@memeor_bememed4068]

Omg the Japanese voice actor of Dio from jojo!!!!,voiced In Guilty Gear?????

[@The_skeleton_enthusiast]

His English va is Matt Mercer the voice of jotaro joestar

[@AGuyWithEyeliner]

Leave it to the jojo VA cast to voice a character with a stand

[@coutiya2007]

well lookie here, my main

[@arcadenaut]

I'm not that good with Zato-ONE to call him as my main, but yeah I would like to play him as my main. Need to practise more of his combos and stuff though

[@coutiya2007]

im not that good either Floor 7-8 with 57 hours play. Strive is my first game in teh series. I came over from tekken because matchmaking over there is ass. i actually purchased the game because the puppet mechanic seemed really intuitive to me. But as a noob thnx for the character summary bro.

[@danieluribe4927]

Vanish into daaaaark

[@r1sing766]

Been looking for this

[@nugget1019]

call it off, he fell back down edit: this video was not about how bad he was in xx and xrd's older years

[@Handles_arent_a_needed_feature]

When we getting the bricklayer lore?

[@nukelesnick2779]

Can someone tell me the song at 0:30

[@waddledee1000]

Existence vs from Guilty Gear XX

[@mansour5673]

Can you please list all ost used here?

[@arcadenaut]

1) Guilty Gear X2 - Existence 2) Guilty Gear X2 - Holy Orders (Be Just or Be Dead) 3) Guilty Gear X2 - Feel A Fear 4) Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- - Black Blank blah-blah-blah 5) Guilty Gear Strive - Let Me Carve Your Way

[@mansour5673]

@@arcadenaut thanks

[@cringelord777]

WHAT!? A GGS VIDEO ESSAY THAT DOESNT USE LOUD GAME MUSIC IN THE INTRO- oh edit: obviously no hate lol

[@arcadenaut]

Don't blame me, blame Naoki and Daisuke's superb music.

[@greatestutuberhd]

How come you refer to Testament as he and not they

[@arcadenaut]

Testament of the 1st Guilty Gear is clearly a guy. I would use they/them for Strive but not for the first game I guess.

[@bormby_jones]

​@@arcadenautthat's... bizzare I mean wouldn't it just be less confusing to just call testament they/them at any point in their story

[@arcadenaut]

I talked about Testament once, and it was during the events of the first game. Shouldn't be cause for any confusion but I will try to becareful next time.

[@GC_keev]

This game story is ass