Testament (Guilty Gear)

Testament
Official Guilty Gear XX Accent Core artwork for Testament.
Game series	Guilty Gear series
First game	Guilty Gear
Created by	Daisuke Ishiwatari
Voiced by	Takami Akkun (GG) Akira Kobayashi (GGX onward)
In-universe information
Birthplace	Switzerland
Theme song	"A Fixed Idea" (GG) "Bloodstained Lineage" (GGX -) "In the Arms of Death" (Korean XX #Reload) "Push a Bush" (Guilty Gear Isuka)

Testament (テスタメント, Tesutamento^?) is a character in the Guilty Gear fighting game series, making his first appearance as a secondary boss in Guilty Gear: The Missing Link. He must be unlocked in that game and in Guilty Gear X: By Your Side, in which he is also the secondary boss, but after that he is freely playable from the start. He himself is a Gear, and has a constant distrust for humans, even though he was formerly a human himself, and feels a fierce protectiveness towards Dizzy.

Story

Background

Testament was an orphan during the Crusades, and was adopted by Kliff Undersn. When he was old enough, he desired to become a soldier in the war against Gears,and was known in the Holy Orders as the Black Knight . The Post-War Administration Bureau found him frustrated as he became mentally depressed, and offered to transform him into a Gear. He accepted, though unlike most Gears he still retained his sense of self. However, Justice turned him against humanity, and he found himself on the opposite side of the war from which he started. Testament also states that he enjoys pudding, while his profile page in the Guilty Gear Bible states that he likes potatoes (this is further evidenced in Dizzy's sidestory in Drama CD Side Black- she and Testament share a potato salad, which Dizzy bought for that specific reason).

Guilty Gear: The Missing Link

At the end of the Tournament, Testament appeared to the winner (officially, Sol Badguy, but this varies depending on who the player was playing as), revealing that it was actually he who hosted the tournament, with the intentions of sacrificing the winner to revive Justice, saying, "All that's required is the blood of one more sacrifice!" However, he was himself defeated, and used his own blood as the sacrifice. Justice was then defeated as well.

Guilty Gear X: By Your Side

Upon discovering that there was another Gear alive, Dizzy, Testament immediately took it upon himself to protect her in her hidden grove, fighting off everyone who came near (much like in the original Guilty Gear, Testament was fought before the "main" boss was). He did this until Dizzy decided to leave, joining Johnny and May of the Jellyfish pirates. (His Story Mode in Guilty Gear X+ has two endings, both of which are doubtful. In one, he and Dizzy decide to stay in the Grove for a thousand years until humans have forgotten about Gears; in the other, he and Dizzy decide to leave the Grove together.)

Guilty Gear XX: The Midnight Carnival

Testament arrives on the May Ship unannounced with the intentions of visiting Dizzy, only to find that she had been knocked off the ship by I-No. He curses humanity, and storms off to find her. He has three endings: in one (the least likely), he discovers that Dizzy has been killed, fights (and probably kills) Johnny, and vows to avenge Dizzy by way of the annihilation of the human race. In another, he encounters Sol, who reveals that "That Man" has returned and the Post-War Administration Bureau is on the move, he also revealed his respect for Sol as he may feel that Sol is the only one who may understand his nature aside from Dizzy. In the third, he fights I-No and then a Necro-possessed Dizzy, who recovers and tells Testament that her fall really wasn't the crew's fault, and in the end, Testament decides to become more accepting of humans - to a point.

Music References

Testament is named for the band of the same name. His attacks "Grave Digger" and "Warrant" are both named after bands, and his attack "Master of Puppets", is named after an album by Metallica. His "Seventh Sign" attack is named for a song by Yngwie Malmsteen. In Accent Core he gained an attack named "Badlands", which could be a reference to AC/DC's song, Bruce Springsteen's song or possibly the song by thrash band Metal Church. It's also possible that it is a reference to short lived bands Badlands (one formed by John Sykes and the other one by Jake E. Lee). Some parts of his song theme from Guilty Gear, "A Fixed Idea" resemble some parts from Iron Maiden's song Sea of Madness from their Somewhere in Time album.