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Guilty Gear -Strive- Developers: Bridget Was Always Meant to Be Transgender

In a new interview with TBS last Wednesday, Guilty Gear -Strive- game director Akira Katano and video game developer Daisuke Ishiwatari discuss the development and fan reception of Bridget's character. The two claim that she was always meant to be transgender, although there is a broader context behind her inclusion in the game.

"Regarding the conclusion of the story itself, the overall direction has been decided since Bridget first appeared in the game. That has not changed even now," Ishiwatari said. He then elaborated that although he is uncertain whether he felt as strongly then as he does about it now, Bridget's character arc is more or less the same as what he imagined then.

Katano added that "nothing got changed on the fly." This applies not just to Bridget, but to all the characters.

When the interviewer suggested that Ishiwatari was ahead of his time, and that transgender recognition has only now spread widely enough to catch up with the story, Ishiwatari replied, "It sounds kind of cool when you put it that way, but it's more like now was the right timing to allow us to express that story properly."

Ishiwatari said that he first came up with the idea for Bridget because he knew someone who was into yo-yo tricks, and he modeled Bridget on that person. He decided on the crossdresser theme because he wanted to do something "offbeat." He denied the rumor that he made a male character because he did not want to show a female character punching or getting punched.

"At the time Bridget first appeared, we weren't that sensitive about compliance," he said. "With the game before this one, we were fairly conscious about marketing to the overseas audience and were strongly conscious about compliance to global standards, but at the beginning, we focused our attention simply on what had the most visual and emotional impact."

As an example of a character he was pressured to change, he brought up Baiken, a woman who has one eye and one arm. He was absolutely firm on including this character, and he managed to keep her in the game by not explicitly writing a story around her disability. Just by showing a character with those physical features, he felt like he was able to portray Baiken as someone who always made the choice to keep living.

"With a subsection of the character roster, I actively tried to represent people who occupy a 'minority' position in society," Ishiwatari recalled. "I wanted to portray those characters doing heroic things."

When asked how Bridget might have initially seen herself, Ishiwatari reflected that because it was a period when people tried to fit in with others, Bridget might have done her best not to think about her gender identity. When bringing Bridget into Strive after a 10-year gap from her previous appearance, he was conscious about updating her character and presentation. This is the reason why the male symbol ♂ on her habit's forehead changed into the transgender mark ⚧ in Strive. Ishiwatari was so particular about including the mark that when one of the modelers overlooked it and used the old design, he called it out.

The interview also addressed Katano and Ishiwatari's thoughts on the fan reception to Bridget's updated character in Strive. Katano said that the team expected mixed reactions from the outset, but that they did not plan to state their intentions with Bridget's portrayal until some users began impersonating the official account in order to spread their own opinions. It was at this point when Katano decided that they had to make an announcement.

In September, the team addressed Bridget's gender identity in the "Developer's Backyard." Ishiwatari explained plainly in the post that Bridget identifies as a woman. Katano clarified that the game also does not have "good" or "bad" endings, acknowledging past arguments that Bridget identifying as a woman at the end of one Arcade route is a "bad ending" because the dialogue differs from the "perfect" ending.

Reflecting on the controversy, Ishiwatari said that the biggest factor behind the announcement was that the global users were fixated on the developers' stance rather than believing that it did not matter either way. He thinks that by clarifying his stance one way or the other, he was able to give peace of mind to some users. He also remarked that, rather than wanting to impart a particular "message" with Bridget's character, he wanted to portray how characters in different walks of life find their own brand of happiness.

Ishiwatari concluded that although "diversity" might be a modern word, he has always wanted to show "all kinds of people who can become all kinds of heroes or heroines." Katano concurred: "That's been the theme of the Guilty Gear series for 20 years."

In Strive, every playable character gets a mini-story demonstrating how they've changed since their previous appearance, and Bridget is no different in this regard. Strive's Arcade Mode tells a sweet story about her doing some soul-searching, as Goldlewis and Ky tell her that she can be whoever she wants to be. In one of the Stage 8 endings, Goldlewis asks if he should refer to her as a "cowgirl" or a "cowboy", to which Bridget responds: "Cowgirl is fine! Because... I'm a girl!"

Bridget is a popular recurring character in the series, a girl who wears a nun habit and wields a mean yo-yo. She first debuted in Guilty Gear X2.

Source: TBS News Dig (Link 2)