Forum - View topicThis Week in Games -The New Testament
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FeelMyBlade
Posts: 155 |
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I've been following the Japanese Guilty Gear scene for ages and haven't heard this at all. Do you perchance have a source? Testament was always considered a genderless character in Japan, specifically a hermaphrodite given he was always said to possess traits from both genders. The English localization as far as I know has always called him male though for simplicity's sake. The most recent interview I could find from an ArcSys rep continues to call him "genderless" on a stream so I don't think anything has changed on that front. I would be wary of considering anything in English localization as canon, let alone voice actors. The whole Ramlethal recasting thing was entirely a product of the American localization that wasn't a factor in Japan. |
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b-dragon
Posts: 494 |
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"Agender is the best word. Neither male nor female. Testament is Testament," said Ozawa, later adding, "In English, you would say they and them." (Third party translator)
This is from Arc System Works marketing rep, Riku Ozawa during ArcRevo. The bigger change is perhaps that the English website uses they/them specifically, rather than defaulting to masculine anymore. So in this case its less that the character changed, and more that the localization is finally correct. Also, I'm not sure I understand what you're looking for a source for tbh- just to confirm, I'm pretty sure the comment about GG never having non-conforming characters before is intended to be read as oozing sarcasm. |
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Bvick00
Posts: 47 |
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Congrats on getting the Egret II mini arcade cabinet, Heidi!
Dragalia Lost EOS : Sigh Dragalia Lost player over here, been playing the game infrequently since 2019 and now I have to add another game to my ever growing list of dead mobile games. Thank goodness the game is at least ending on a later date after the main story conclusion (not to dissimilar to how Mobius Final Fantasy ended) since the previous game that died, Tales of Crestoria, didn't even get to conclude it's story in game. Back to Dragalia Lost, it's the biggest game on my phone - 8.84 GB and I'm currently on Chapter 10, so I got some time to catch up to the current chapter before the story's conclusion in July. Testament : Nice to see this character back in action, interestingly their JP voice is feminine sounding while the EN voice is masculine sounding and they both fit Testament extremely well! DNF Dual Release Date : June 28th - finally a proper release date Virtua Fighter 5 US Tekken Collab : Looking at the thumbnail, I thought it would be a character crossover, but it's actually outfits that look more akin to skins, so to speak. Anyway it's nice to see that Tekken 7 HUD. Gotta Protectors : Looks cute and I'm a sucker for 8 bit and 16 bit games, so I will definitely check it out |
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Guile
Posts: 595 |
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To me that doesn't contradict the established canon that Testament is genderless. Genderless and non-binary are two different things. Non-binary is basically someone who says they identify as a man one day and a female the next. Genderless is biological and not applicable to humans naturally, or most non-microscopic organisms. I assumed the localization used male pronouns because he's still a man, just one that went through horrific experiments and body modifications. Testament was a man who got abducted by the Conclave and converted into a bioweapon and then enslaved. It's seems purely semantics if you call him a guy, a hermaphrodite, a female, neither, or anything else after what happened to him during gear conversion, similarly how people will assign a gender to robots or other creatures like legendary Pokemon depending how they see them despite technically being genderless. What happened to Testament was basically conversion therapy if you try to apply a gender lens to it, which just makes this thing way more uncomfortable and strange. I'm not sure why anyone would want to claim that as representative of their identity. |
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AksaraKishou
Posts: 1414 Location: End of the World |
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And i'm not sure why we're still taking about it. They/Them. End of story. |
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Shenl742
Posts: 1524 |
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Gender identity and biological sex are two separate things Like, why are you so focused on "Well, actually..."-ing this? |
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whiskeyii
Posts: 2266 |
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While I don’t know the lore, you’re mixing up terms here. The translated word, “agender”, is a gender identity that falls under the non-binary umbrella, which is quite a bit broader than “feels male one day, female another.” The actual definition is closer to “does not feel exclusively male or female, period.” What you’re describing as “genderless” appears to be a total lack of physical genitalia, which has no bearing on gender identity, as gender is a social construct, not a biological one. Thus, Ozawa and the localization team are correct: a non-binary person would use they/them pronouns. |
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
Posts: 3020 Location: Email for assistance only |
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First, that's not the definition of non-binary, it is one possible identification under that term but it is not limited to that. Study link: https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/7279758 Abstract quote:
For those using the term 'hermaphrodite' or "genderless", the correct term you're looking for is 'intersex' and is applicable to individuals who are born with or develop physical traits of both sexes. There are a multitude of biological reasons someone may be intersex. A person who is intersex is not necessarily non-binary or vice versa. The sentence that both "genderless [intersex] is biological" and "not applicable to humans naturally" is both factually incorrect and nonsensical. Also asexuality and intersexuality both occur outside of humans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex_(biology) |
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Bvick00
Posts: 47 |
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Isn't Non-binary identifying as neither male nor female? |
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wolf10
Posts: 922 |
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I'm not much of a fighting game player, but I looked up Testament's old design and I have to say, I am really digging the new look. Very classy. |
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GNPixie
Posts: 316 |
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Re the whole Testament thing:
Gears have technically been an "It" since Day 0 since they're technically combinations of magic and science, with very few and rare exceptions in the early games.spoiler[ Sol being the big one.] They only really started to experiment with latter titles. Testament is more of a course correction since early GG was rather infamous for its kerfuffles translation wise but to quote someone I saw post it on another site, it definitely feels like a SF Poison situation given the Japanese trailer where Testament (voiced by Yu Kobayashi!) explicitly uses "watashi", which is commonly used with regards to feminine and female characters. Compared to the English trailer, they seem to be going with a completely different take but both are technically right, given the character and what Gears are. Re: Draglia Lost I really hope they revisit it or even just do a single player version honestly. The art and music are too good to be dumped in the Gacha Graveyard Dump. |
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AQuin1904
Posts: 270 |
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Please be more careful with descriptions of language. 私 is used in formal or semiformal situations regardless of gender and is still the most common first-person pronoun in Japanese. Its informal use has been increasingly shifting toward women in recent years (and has given rise to the distinctively feminine form "atashi"), but it's still what you'll hear from most people in a work environment, etc., and men who stick to it in casual conversation aren't exactly rare. Even if you're limiting this to fiction, unambiguously male characters who exclusively use "watashi" are fairly common. They're often relatively formal or standoffish (take Mitsurugi/Edgeworth from Gyaktuen Saiban/Ace Attorney, for example) or have a reserved or understated demeanor. As far as Testament goes, I know that they've been described as intersex (両性 or 両性具有) in interviews and books long before this, and also something about "transcending their humanity," but is this the first time they've been officially described as agender (無性別) as well? |
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SciasSlash
Posts: 120 |
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If you look at Testament's bios, they have a ton of new hobbies and mention explicitly in their trailer that they've rethought their relationship to the people around them. It's pretty clear that the whole gender identity thing is meant to be a part of that.
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Covnam
Posts: 3805 |
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Nice pickup with the Egret Mini. I've got an order in for the international version and I can't wait =)
Too bad about Dragalia, though not surprising. It'd be nice to see the IP stick around and get a more traditional game get produced for the franchise. I enjoyed the setting/characters, but didn't get in to the gameplay. |
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whiskeyii
Posts: 2266 |
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Whoops, I definitely didn’t mean to come across as declarative there! I’m aware of other non-binary pronouns, but I have a tendency to overexplain and was trying to keep things relatively simple without muddying the waters too much, but I should’ve been more considerate of any potential virtual bystanders, as it were. Thanks for the correction! |
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