{"id":50436,"date":"2025-07-26T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T15:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=50436"},"modified":"2025-07-25T17:59:54","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T08:59:54","slug":"guilty-gear-strive-unikas-name-lore-and-design-were-made-by-franchise-creator-daisuke-ishiwatari","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/guilty-gear-strive-unikas-name-lore-and-design-were-made-by-franchise-creator-daisuke-ishiwatari\/","title":{"rendered":"Guilty Gear Strive: Unika&#8217;s name, lore, and design were made by franchise creator Daisuke Ishiwatari\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Guilty Gear<\/strong> creator Daisuke Ishiwatari has been involved in almost every aspect of the franchise since its conception. Aside from his work as a game developer, Ishiwatari draws artwork, composes music, and even serves as the voice actor for protagonist Sol Badguy and his iterations in the character\u2019s early appearances. Though Ishiwatari has been less involved with recent Guilty Gear projects, <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/venom-unika-in-game-frame-data-and-all-the-planned-guilty-gear-strive-updates-announced-at-arc-world-tour-finals-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">newcomer Unika<\/a>\u2019s design and name were created entirely by him. Take note that spoilers follow for Guilty Gear Strive and Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1075\" height=\"752\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1075px) 100vw, 1075px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250725-50436-002.jpg\" alt=\"Guilty Gear Strive Unika concept art\" class=\"wp-image-50443\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250725-50436-002.jpg 1075w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250725-50436-002-380x266.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250725-50436-002-768x537.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.guiltygear.com\/ggst\/en\/news\/post-2550\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Volume 18 of the Guilty Gear Strive Developer\u2019s Backyard<\/a>, it is revealed that Ishiwatari was heavily involved in the plotting phase of the Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers anime. As the show marks Unika\u2019s debut, Ishiwatari carefully plotted Unika\u2019s place in the Guilty Gear universe as the daughter of Ky Kiske and <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/guilty-gear-strive-queen-dizzy-is-coming-to-the-nintendo-switch-version-for-free\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dizzy<\/a> from an alternate future timeline.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Given Unika\u2019s relationship with her parents and her brother Sin, Ishiwatari carefully crafted a character that shares certain traits with her family but is entirely her own. Though she resembles her warmhearted father and mother, Unika holds a grudge against all gears. Her initial coldness is also a stark contrast to her brother\u2019s upbeat personality, as the two were raised by different father figures.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1074\" height=\"781\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1074px) 100vw, 1074px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250725-50436-003.jpg\" alt=\"Guilty Gear Strive Unika concept art\" class=\"wp-image-50444\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250725-50436-003.jpg 1074w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250725-50436-003-380x276.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250725-50436-003-768x558.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Combat-wise, Unika was created to be an all-rounder who can deal damage from different ranges. Her large transforming weapon makes her slower than the rest of her family, but its versatility makes her more approachable to players. According to producer Ken Miyauchi, while Unika\u2019s unique Weapons Free Overdrive transformation does not appear in the anime, it was part of her initial design by Ishiwatari.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite being one of the main characters in Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers and having her story continue in Guilty Gear Strive, Miyauchi says there are still many unknowns surrounding Unika.. . Since Unika is an important character in Guilty Gear lore, <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/game-development\/how-does-arc-system-works-greenlight-game-ideas-for-development-we-take-a-peek-at-their-internal-audition-process\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Arc System Works<\/a> hopes it will have the opportunity to explore more about her in the future.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Guilty Gear Strive is currently available on <a href=\"https:\/\/store.playstation.com\/en-us\/product\/UP0036-PPSA02181_00-GGSTPS5US0000100\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">PS4\/PS5<\/a>, PC (<a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/1384160\/GUILTY_GEAR_STRIVE\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Windows<\/a>), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xbox.com\/en-US\/games\/store\/guilty-gear-strive\/9mzdl6l34kf2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Xbox One<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xbox.com\/en-US\/games\/store\/guilty-gear-strive\/9mzdl6l34kf2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Xbox Series X|S<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendo.com\/us\/store\/products\/guilty-gear-strive-nintendo-switch-edition-switch\/?srsltid=AfmBOop15MpZanuoaVkQS8ICKKeU58GuSqvAKlhQ8y8QmSC_vfUwg3EW\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Nintendo Switch<\/a>, and arcades.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Volume 18 of the Guilty Gear Strive Developer\u2019s Backyard offers insight into how Unika was created.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":50439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-50436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Guilty Gear Strive: Unika&#039;s name, lore, and design were made by franchise creator Daisuke Ishiwatari\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Volume 18 of the Guilty Gear Strive Developer\u2019s Backyard offers insights into how Unika was created.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/guilty-gear-strive-unikas-name-lore-and-design-were-made-by-franchise-creator-daisuke-ishiwatari\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Guilty Gear Strive: Unika&#039;s name, lore, and design were made by franchise creator Daisuke Ishiwatari\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Volume 18 of the Guilty Gear Strive Developer\u2019s Backyard offers insights into how Unika was created.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/guilty-gear-strive-unikas-name-lore-and-design-were-made-by-franchise-creator-daisuke-ishiwatari\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-25T15:01:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250725-50436-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1078\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"723\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Guilty Gear Strive: Unika's name, lore, and design were made by franchise creator Daisuke Ishiwatari\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"Volume 18 of the Guilty Gear Strive Developer\u2019s Backyard offers insights into how Unika was created.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/guilty-gear-strive-unikas-name-lore-and-design-were-made-by-franchise-creator-daisuke-ishiwatari\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Guilty Gear Strive: Unika's name, lore, and design were made by franchise creator Daisuke Ishiwatari\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Volume 18 of the Guilty Gear Strive Developer\u2019s Backyard offers insights into how Unika was created.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/guilty-gear-strive-unikas-name-lore-and-design-were-made-by-franchise-creator-daisuke-ishiwatari\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2025-07-25T15:01:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1078,"height":723,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250725-50436-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/guilty-gear-strive-unikas-name-lore-and-design-were-made-by-franchise-creator-daisuke-ishiwatari\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/guilty-gear-strive-unikas-name-lore-and-design-were-made-by-franchise-creator-daisuke-ishiwatari\/"},"author":{"name":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/2812ca8facd5f161edfbc531cf81eb31"},"headline":"Guilty Gear Strive: Unika&#8217;s name, lore, and design were made by franchise creator Daisuke Ishiwatari\u00a0","datePublished":"2025-07-25T15:01:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/guilty-gear-strive-unikas-name-lore-and-design-were-made-by-franchise-creator-daisuke-ishiwatari\/"},"wordCount":381,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/guilty-gear-strive-unikas-name-lore-and-design-were-made-by-franchise-creator-daisuke-ishiwatari\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250725-50436-header.jpg","keywords":["News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/guilty-gear-strive-unikas-name-lore-and-design-were-made-by-franchise-creator-daisuke-ishiwatari\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/guilty-gear-strive-unikas-name-lore-and-design-were-made-by-franchise-creator-daisuke-ishiwatari\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/guilty-gear-strive-unikas-name-lore-and-design-were-made-by-franchise-creator-daisuke-ishiwatari\/","name":"Guilty Gear Strive: Unika's name, lore, and design were made by franchise creator Daisuke Ishiwatari\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/guilty-gear-strive-unikas-name-lore-and-design-were-made-by-franchise-creator-daisuke-ishiwatari\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/guilty-gear-strive-unikas-name-lore-and-design-were-made-by-franchise-creator-daisuke-ishiwatari\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250725-50436-header.jpg","datePublished":"2025-07-25T15:01:00+00:00","description":"Volume 18 of the Guilty Gear Strive Developer\u2019s Backyard offers insights into how Unika was created.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/guilty-gear-strive-unikas-name-lore-and-design-were-made-by-franchise-creator-daisuke-ishiwatari\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/guilty-gear-strive-unikas-name-lore-and-design-were-made-by-franchise-creator-daisuke-ishiwatari\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/guilty-gear-strive-unikas-name-lore-and-design-were-made-by-franchise-creator-daisuke-ishiwatari\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250725-50436-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250725-50436-header.jpg","width":1078,"height":723,"caption":"Guilty Gear Strive Unika concept art"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/guilty-gear-strive-unikas-name-lore-and-design-were-made-by-franchise-creator-daisuke-ishiwatari\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Guilty Gear Strive: Unika&#8217;s name, lore, and design were made by franchise creator Daisuke Ishiwatari\u00a0"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/2812ca8facd5f161edfbc531cf81eb31","name":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/display-pic-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/display-pic-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/display-pic-100x100.jpg","caption":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor"},"description":"Automaton West writer. Zoto has been playing video games for 30+ years now but has only recently come to grips with PC gaming. When he isn't playing video games, he watches romance anime and gets mad when his best girl never wins.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/carlos-zotomayor\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50436"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50445,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50436\/revisions\/50445"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}