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A rogue Black Tortoise l'Cie who has forgotten his Focus, Gilgamesh wanders the world in search of a purpose. In his quest for strong spirits and stronger blades, he appears on the battlefield to challenge all present to a duel, hoping to test their mettle as well as their metal.

Gilgamesh Ashur is a non-player character who serves as a boss in Final Fantasy Type-0. He is a Black Tortoise l'Cie who was raised in Lorica alongside his advisor and close confidant, Enkidu Uruk.

Profile

Appearance

FFT0 Gilgamesh

Concept artwork of Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh is a colossal warrior with dark skin and red facial tattoos. He wears his black hair in a ponytail, and he has a wound on his left eye that forces him to keep it closed. Gilgamesh's body is covered in red, black, and gold armor; a red helmet and silver plating hide his visage. Black fabric covers Gilgamesh's legs, and silver, clawed boots cover his feet. A red cape with a black underside hangs loosely over Gilgamesh's back; attached to it is an enormous red shield. Gilgamesh wields a massive red and black blade with a silver tip. In battle, he holds it over his shoulder and swings it effortlessly with one arm.

Gilgamesh has a second form, in which he trades his cape and shield for six additional arms. Covered in red and black armor, each arm holds one of the ultimate weapons available to the members of Class Zero.

Personality

Pillage! Plunder! Leave nothing in my wake!

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh seeks a purpose, having forgotten his Focus, and he yearns to collect strong weapons. Suffering from amnesia, he wanders across Orience, challenging anyone he comes across to a duel.

This version of Gilgamesh is inarticulate in comparison to his previous incarnations. Native Japanese speakers refer to his manner of speech as "samurai talk," crude use of the Japanese language, and can find his dialogue difficult to understand due to its ambiguous context and lack of certain particles.

Story

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. (Skip section)

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FFT-0 Gilgamesh Enkidu

Gilgamesh stands with his childhood friend, Enkidu.

Long ago, Gilgamesh was king of Lorica. Charged with protecting his country, the l'Cie caused problems for his nation. Gilgamesh begged his advisor, Enkidu, to keep him on the path intended for him, but over time he forgot these events.

Gilgamesh2-Type-0-HD

Gilgamesh on the Big Bridge.

Gilgamesh appears during the battle at the Big Bridge, where he causes trouble for the legionaries of the Dominion of Rubrum who are trying to bring down the Militesi Gates so the Secundus Vermilion Bird l'Cie Caetuna can summon Alexander. The members of Class Zero find Gilgamesh waiting for them atop a pile of destroyed MAs, and they engage the l'Cie in battle. Gilgamesh simply walks off if Class Zero defeats him, but if they lose against him, he expresses his disappointment in its members' performance and goes off to find a stronger opponent.

FFT0 Defeated Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh is defeated by Machina.

Later on in Ingram Gilgamesh encounters Machina Kunagiri, who has become a White Tiger l'Cie. Gilgamesh regains his memories of Enkidu, and he challenges Machina to battle, but is defeated. The Black Tortoise l'Cie's fate following this duel is unknown.

In Pandæmonium, the Land of Judgment, Class Zero encounters a warrior resembling Gilgamesh who will challenge the cadets at the bottom of the Black Tortoise Crevasse while Militesi airships bombard the site. This appears to be a shadow of the real Gilgamesh. After Orience is freed from the spiral, either Gilgamesh himself or just his armor, appears on a throne in the Inner Sanctum in the Black Tortoise Crevasse with Lorican soldiers surrounding the throne.

Spoilers end here.

Gameplay

Concept artwork of Gilgamesh's eight-armed form.

Gilgamesh serves as a boss at the end of the mission, "The Clash on Big Bridge." The battle against him concludes the mission regardless of its outcome. Even if Gilgamesh is at a higher level than the members of Class Zero, it is possible to defeat him by exploiting Breaksight.

A shadow of Gilgamesh is fought in Pandæmonium during Tempus Finis. It fights exactly as the true Gilgamesh did during the battle against him on Big Bridge.

Gilgamesh's eight-armed form serves as an optional boss after the player beats the game twice and completes all available side-story missions. After "Chapter 4: The Last Queen's Return to Oblivion" ends, a portal to the Rift appears in one of four locations: the Black Tortoise Crevasse in the Old Lorica Region, near Ingram in the Azurr District, in the marshes of Rilochy Province, near the entrance to Roshana Province, and before the shallow waters of the Innsmouth Region. After the player enters the portal Gilgamesh selects a random member of Class Zero to challenge to a one-on-one duel. If the member Gilgamesh challenges is defeated, he steals their equipped weapon. If Gilgamesh is the one to lose, he relinquishes the member's ultimate weapon.

Creation and development

Voice

In the Japanese version of Final Fantasy Type-0, Gilgamesh is voiced by Kazuya Nakai, who previously voiced Wakka in Final Fantasy X.

In the English version, he is voiced by Keith Szarabajka, who also voiced him in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy.

Gallery

Etymology

Gilgamesh is the main character of the Epic of Gilgamesh, an Akkadian poem considered the first great work of literature. He is a demigod with superhuman strength who builds the walls of Uruk to defend his people and travels to meet the sage Utnapishtim, a survivor of the Great Flood.

Gilgamesh is believed to have actually existed by many scholars. It is estimated he lived sometime between 2800 and 2500 BC. The Sumerian King List claims Gilgamesh ruled the city of Uruk for 126 years.

Gilgamesh in Final Fantasy is also based on Benkei, a famous character in the Japanese mythologies and chronicles of the Genpei War. A powerful warrior monk said to have personally defeated 200 men in every battle he engaged in and said to have had the strength of demons, Benkei's introduction sees him set out to collect 1,000 weapons, and to this end he posted himself at Gōjō Bridge in Kyoto and challenged every warrior who attempted to cross. On his 1000th duel Benkei was defeated by Minamoto no Yoshitsune, the only defeat he had ever known, and became his faithful retainer throughout the rest of his life.

From the story of Benkei, Gilgamesh takes his preference for the naginata (Benkei's traditional weapon as a monk), his penchant for fighting on bridges, his collecting of weapons from enemies he defeats, and his friendship with the player's characters who defeat him. Benkei's devotion to Yoshitsune is the basis for Gilgamesh's association with Genji equipment—the Minamoto Clan is also called the Genji Clan, using the alternate pronunciation for the Chinese characters for mina and moto, gen and uji, respectively. Gilgamesh's face paint is based on traditional kabuki actors, for which Benkei is a popular character to portray.

Ashur is an East Semitic god and the head of the Assyrian pantheon in Mesopotamian religion.

Trivia

  • Gilgamesh is the only enemy whose in-game model can be viewed up close in the enemy compendium.
  • Final Fantasy Type-0 is the first game in which Gilgamesh takes the player's equipped weapon if they lose.
  • The weapons Gilgamesh wields in his eight-armed form are the ultimate weapons of the members of Class Zero.
  • Gilgamesh's role in Final Fantasy Type-0 is the first of the character's overall to resemble the story of his real-life counterpart.

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