Leopaldon is a mysterious character that has only appeared in Guilty Gear Isuka as the boss of the game's Arcade Mode. It's an entity composed of a dog fused with an ancient Gear and controlled by the dog's owner, a drum-beating sorcerer. It's unclear whom the name belongs to, but it most likely refers to either the dog, the Gear, or both.
Design[]
The Gear is a massive, white-scaled creature with red eyes, muscular limbs, and brown fur that covers its hands and nether regions (with a tuft of fur sticking out its backside, which acts as its tail). It sports black tattoos on its shoulders, tan bandages around its forearms, and black open-toed boots on its feet. Its massive mouth is full of big yellow teeth and brown threads connecting its gums to its lips. As the sorcerer and his dog reside within the Gear's mouth, the Gear keeps its mouth perpetually open wide. The only time it's shown with its mouth not like this is in its introduction animation, where it pops out of a pile of snow shaped like a Greek head bust, and is crocodilian and reptilian in shape, making it resemble a dinosaur in someway.
The sorcerer's pet is a brown-furred, black-nosed dog. On its head is a piece of black headwear reminiscent of a gimp mask. On the parts of the headwear where the eyeholes would be are two red ornaments that look like ball gags. Since it's fused with the Gear, its head is the only part of its body that's seen most of the time. The only time its full body is shown is in Leopaldon's win animation, where the Gear kneels and the dog momentarily defuses with it to pant.
The sorcerer is a red-eyed humanoid clad in black armor that perpetually beats on a big brown drum.
Personality[]
The Gear has no personality, being a corpse the dog fused with and the sorcerer keeps perpetually animated. Because of this, it merely serves as the "body" of Leopaldon. It's only real characteristic is its ability to cause destruction on a massive scale, just like its fellow Gears.
The dog bears little more than the usual characteristics a common dog has. It is, however, the "mind" of Leopaldon, as it's fused with the Gear and the way the Gear moves hint the dog's using the Gear's body as its own. Because of this, it's likely the character the player's actually fighting—and the one that actually bears the name "Leopaldon"—is the dog. The fact Leopaldon's in-game portrait often closes in on the dog further supports this theory.
All that's known about the sorcerer is he's a good man always trying to do the right thing, using the Gear's powers to help those in need. It's unknown why he perpetually beats on a drum, but since he's Leopaldon's "pilot", it's likely how he keeps the Gear animated.
Story[]
There is very little information on Leopaldon. Originally a huge white Gear, it is now in a semi-fused state with a brown dog. It should be incapacitated, but it is piloted by a mysterious man, simply called a "sorcerer" (ソーサラー, Sōsarā?), who has the ability to steer Gears. The sorcerer himself is not malicious and seems to be using the Gear's abilities to aid people living in the polar regions.
The game's tagline is presented thusly: A new Gear arises, its name Leopaldon. As they threaten to lay waste to the world, everyone prepares to mount their offense. The confrontation takes place in Antarctica, as it is Leopaldon's stage, and he is presumably defeated for good.
Abilities[]
Leopaldon is extremely resilient, as the Gear's belly is impervious to all attacks; the game reads all attacks directed there as a Guard. To defeat him, one must attack the sorcerer and his dog; as they're stationed in the Gear's open mouth, they can only be defeated by aerial attacks. He can also be hurt by hitting his back by using a teleportation attack. His main technique are claw swipes, as well as forming walls of ice or fire stones via magic spells.
The giant Gear is thought to be a Megadeath-class Gear, due to its large size and attacks, many of which being extremely powerful and destructive—such as Perfect Rainbow, a laser that is belched from its mouth.
Music[]
- Kill DOG as a Sacrifice to DOG - Guilty Gear Isuka
Quotes[]
Allusions[]
- Leopaldon is the name of a Japanese electronica/house band.
- The name may also allude to Leopardon, a giant robot from the Japanese live-action Spider-Man tokusatsu series. The Japanese spelling and pronunciation for Leopaldon and Leopardon are the same.
- Being featured in the "brawler"/party game styled Isuka, being fought in Antarctica, and being a massive creature, in this case a Gear, controlled by human entity, may be inspired by the shock rock act group GWAR, who are known for their stage acts of costumes and band personas, and in GWAR's lore, their home base lies in Antarctica. Along with featuring massive creature props for their tours and concerts, such as their pet World Maggot, GWAR had also made side production feature movies in the 1990s, with climatic battles with the band against gargantuan and freakish monsters and entities using the same level of large scale props. Its Gear body when the mouth and upper head is positioned upright is also evocative of Gor-Gor, GWAR's pet kaiju tyrannosaurus rex which they use to lay waste to New York City and is the namesake title subject of the song on their America Must Be Destroyed album.
Trivia[]
- In an interview, Daisuke Ishiwatari said that he believed the dog to be female, as he wants all bosses in the series to be women.[source needed]
- Leopaldon's theme song "Kill DOG as a Sacrifice to DOG" seems to be a play on the old saying "Dog-eat-dog world". The distorted vocals in this song repeat the phrase in the title as well.
- In Guilty Gear 2 -Overture-, there is a Vizuel creature in Valentine & Raven's Tribe known as "Charlotte" that bears a resemblance to Leopaldon, minus the dog.
Gallery[]
References[]