Potemkin (Guilty Gear)

Official Guilty Gear XX Accent Core artwork for Potemkin.

Potemkin is a character in the Guilty Gear fighting game series, and he has appeared in every game in the series thus far. A massive man, he was a slave-soldier of Zepp, a floating continent originally controlled by a military dictatorship, and thus wore a metallic slave collar which would explode if he attempted to escape or remove it. Although the collar was disabled when Gabriel overthrew Zepp's government and freed him to become a soldier of his own accord, Potemkin still continues to wear it.

Story

Guilty Gear

In Potemkin's ending -- most of which is still canonically possible, despite the fact that technically only Sol Badguy's ending is valid -- he is approached by Gabriel. Initially, Potemkin is irritated by Gabriel's brusque, casual reaction to Potemkin's victory, but then Gabriel informs him that his next assignment is to attack Zepp: Gabriel is actually part of a resistance movement to overthrow Zepp's military dictatorship, apparently freeing all slaves, including Potemkin. After successfully revolting, Gabriel becomes the President and Potemkin becomes one of his top agents.

Guilty Gear X

Potemkin is sent, supposedly as a bounty hunter, to face Dizzy -- though rather than destroying her, his intention is to rescue her and bring her to Zepp in secret. In one ending, Johnny interferes, and Dizzy goes with him and May instead; in the other, Dizzy goes with him to Zepp, where she finds happiness. Events in subsequent games render the second ending impossible.

Guilty Gear XX

On a tip from Slayer, Potemkin goes to look for Dizzy, whom I-No had knocked off the May Ship, and subsequently becomes entangled in the affairs of the Post-War Administration Bureau. One of his endings ends with him bickering with Johnny over whether Dizzy should go back to the May Ship or to Zepp. In his second ending, he fights with Bridget, who mistook him for a bounty hunter chasing Dizzy. His third ending has Potemkin fighting against an army of Robo-Kys.

Promotion and reception

GameSpy in their review of Guilty Gear X stated Potemkin filled the "hulking brute" role in the title, adding that they found his personality unique and entertaining, and emphasized his uniqueness amongst the game's cast. This sentiment was repeated in their review of Guilty Gear X2, noting him as one of "the coolest character designs ever seen in a game", and adding him to be "the heaviest heavy ever conceived". Gaming website Boomtown stated simply "Potemkin makes Zangief from Street Fighter look like a sissy." Some criticism however for his voice has been made, with a Netjak reviewer stating "I think he should sound Barry White deep, not like a TI 99-4A running a voice module at quarter speed."