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In a series built so heavily around the mythos of each entry, it can be easy to forget that many of the most recurring elements ofFinal Fantasyare in fact named after real-life myths and legends. Of the many summons and characters, Gilgamesh is likely one of the most well-known names.
Rather humorously, Gilgamesh is one of the most common elements of any Final Fantasy game despite very rarely being the centre of attention. In fact, due to this obscene amount of appearances, it can be hard to gauge who exactly Gilgamesh is as a character.
Updated September 6th, 2024 by Hilton Webster:Gilgamesh is one of the most iconic characters in Final Fantasy, even if he doesn’t end up being more than comedy relief most of the time. Recurring character as he is though, we’ve updated to article to highlight some of his best appearances and some new ones since this was last written.
A Brief History
Having originally appeared inFinal Fantasy 5 back in 1992, Gilgamesh became a defining feature of each game, becoming something of a mascot. A core element of the plot in FF5, he’s become almost like an easter egg in successive games. At times he appears as a boss, others as a summon, and in plenty of other forms.
He’s even found his way into the original Final Fantasy through remakes, and his continuity is a tad difficult to construct. Unlike most other recurring Final Fantasy characters,Gilgamesh is a single individual. He travels through the Void, a connective tissue of the games, to continue on his journey of collecting weapons.
Most of this journeying centres on discovering Excalibur, the most renowned weapon in his eyes, yet ultimately stumbling upon the Excalipoor. Thismotivates him to travel through the Riftin search of new weapons.
Appearance And Role In Each Game
Gilgamesh, as the most recurring character in the series, has appeared inover 30 Final Fantasy gamesand even a handful outside of the series. His role varies in each one of them. He can, at times, be a simple cameo; others function as an ally or even a primary character. Here, we’ll cover his most prominent appearances in the numbered entries.
NES And SNES Period
Thoughhis real first appearance was in Final Fantasy 5,he also appears in the originalFinal Fantasy in the Dawn of Souls remakein the Lifespring Grotto. Here, he isfought alongside other bosses from Final Fantasy 5, with his HP of 8,888mimicking the same amount as his original final boss fight.
His next chronological appearance is inFinal Fantasy 4: The After Years. Functioning as a sequel to FF4, Gilgamesh has only a brief stint in the game, being summoned bythe final bossto aid them. Upon defeat, he drops the Excalipoor, a weapon central to his character.
His third numbered entry but his firstactualappearance, as confusing as that sounds, isFinal Fantasy 5. Gilgamesh was an incredibly important character in this game, more so than he has been in any game since. He functions as a recurring mini-boss, most famously facing down the party at theBattle on the Big Bridge.Throughout the story, Gilgamesh even ends up helping the party, seemingly sacrificing himself, yet possibly entering into the Rift (FF5’s rendition of the Void) to travel to other dimensions.
Gilgamesh was added toFinal Fantasy 6 as a Magicite in the Advance remake for Game Boy. Here, he is acquired after battling him in the Jidoor Auction House. He teaches you various abilities through his Magicite and can be summoned in battle.
PS1 And PS2 Period
Gilgamesh appears again inFinal Fantasy 8, his first official appearance since his original in FF5. Here, he only appears quite late in the game under specific conditions. Functioning as a pseudo-Guardian Force, Gilgamesh is accidentally summoned when Seifer kills Odin. However, this scenario only occurs if you have Odin obtained in the first place. As such, Gilgamesh functions much like Odin, appearing randomly in battle and choosing one of four moves to attack, possibly killing all enemies, even bosses.
InFinal Fantasy 9, Gilgamesh is more commonly known as Alleyway Jackand shares little with the more well-known Interdimensional Gilgamesh. Indeed, much of his story, such as the search for legendary weapons, having four arms, and eventually revealing that his name is, actually and really, Gilgamesh, is akin to the more common rendition. However,he is only an allusion, not the actual Gilgamesh shared across the other games.
ThoughGilgamesh does not appear in Final Fantasy 10, the summon Yojimbo does. They operate in many similar ways, containing a variety of weapons to fight with, and Gilgamesh even disguises themselves as Yojimbo in Final Fantasy 14
The appearance ofGilgamesh in Final Fantasy 11 is, well, really not Gilgamesh much at all. He shares the name, though basically not much else. Instead, he is a major figure in the pirate city of Norg, and is involved in the Samuari Job quests, his closest connection to his original form.
Aside from his original appearance,his time in Final Fantasy 12 is some of his most in-depth. He is encountered in the Lhusu Mines and hunts down the party. Each time he is fought, he reveals more and more weapons, each being a counterfeit of weapons such as the Buster Sword or Brotherhood. Rather kindly, he finds the party later and gifts them a fishing rod, claiming it to be nothing but a useless stick.
PS3 And Onwards
Though originally intended to appear in Final Fantasy 13 as a Fal’Cie,he does not appear until 13-2 in a more familiar form, once again searching for legendary weapons. Here, he appears in the Coliseum, keeping Snow company. He rather unorthodoxly wields guns briefly but drops these for his more traditional swords when you battle him. After beating him, he can be recruited into the party, letting you use his many weapons to your advantage.
Gilgamesh appears again inFinal Fantasy 14 as a recurring boss during the Hildibrand questline,with you investigating him after a series of weapon thefts. After many an encounter and even disguising himself as Yojimbo, he finally returns to the Rift for some ‘unfinished business’ in his own words.
Final Fantasy 15 portrays Gilgamesh as a much more stoic characterthan other entries. Here, he is fought by Gladio during his DLC as a final test to prove himself with Gilgamesh growing spectral arms and fighting with his various swords.
He has even made his way intoFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirth, stealing artefacts around the world all in hopes of finding his ultimate weapon once again. He can be acquired as a summon in this rendition as well.
To even briefly mention Gilgamesh’s appearances in later games would be rather extravagant, though the most prominent would be inType-0 and Stranger of Paradise. In the former, he plays a key role in the plot akin to FF5 and can actually steal your weapons. In Stranger of Paradise, a game that already plays around with the timeline of the series, Gilgamesh appears directly from the Rift to challenge Jack Garland.
As An Ally
Though Gilgamesh is often fought as an enemy in the series, he has moments where he can be a nice guy. Indeed,he is a pretty light-hearted character, and switching allegiances when his main goal is gathering weapons isn’t so strange.
In FF5, he briefly assists the party in defeating Necrophobe before disappearing. In FF6, he can beused as Magicite to impart knowledge and assist in battle. In FF8, he can appear randomly to obliterate your enemies. In FF12, he gives you a fishing rod very kindly. In FF13-2, he can join the party in the place of a monster to help out. It’s not all collecting swords, especially when helping you helps him find more swords.
With his allyship most commonly appearing as a summon, it’s important to note how that functions. Based on his numerous weapons, his summon usually is based on the attacks performed by each weapon, from Excalipoor dealing next to no damage to others likeExcalibur instantly defeating all enemies.
As An Enemy
All of that said, however, your party does tend to have the best weapons, and so Gilgamesh is most commonly hunting you. Ever since his original appearance, it has been veryrare to fight Gilgamesh just once,with him typically being fought in stages.
As a result of this structure, he typicallychanges forms between fights. This can involve changing weapons, introducing more, growing more arms, or evensummoning his pet Enkiduto assist him. For a warrior with so many weapons, he was never going to be short of tactics.
How Many Times Does Gilgamesh Appear In Total?
Like Cid, Gilgamesh plays the role of the recurring character, though one who has a bit more awareness of their constant reappearances than other similar characters in Final Fantasy. He has in total appeared in over 30 games in the series,stretching from mainline entries to collaboration games. Here’s a quick breakdown of some of his more prominent roles outside of the main series:
2022
Opens up The Rift to Jack. Ally and enemy.
2011
Attacks the party and steals their weapons.
2007
Battles the party and is gained as a summon afterwards.
2015
Appears as a Heartless called the Weapon Master
Withover 30 entries to his name, it would be simply too many to list them all in their various forms. He does, however, beat out Cid as the most recurring character in the series by a decent number. Considering Gilgamesh is technically the same but also a different character in every game, there’s no perfect way to define his relationship to the characters of each world he enters, be it friend, foe or something else entirely. The only thing for certain ishe wants to collect some legendary weapons.
Shared Commonalities Of Gilgamesh
After having seen all of Gilgamesh as a character, it becomes much clearer what aspects of him define him. This makes him much more identifiable as a character, even whensignificant parts of the character are shifted or changed.
For one, the ultimate core of the character ishis search for weapons, the insatiable lust to find that greatest treasure. Humorously, this puts his FF9 version much closer to the true Gilgamesh than his FF11 version. Next would be his personality; despite his intense urge to fight, he’s actually a pretty comedic character. Then, as a consequence of his endless search, he willalways have a great variety of weapons at his disposal.
Moving onto his appearance, Gilgamesh is defined by his strong colour palette, hisfacepaint reminiscent of Kabuki actors, and his red outfit standing out starkly against his many,manyweapons. He’s also usually exceedingly tall. With all these pieces of his character considered, he can easily be twisted into a unique rendition between games.Final Fantasy Type-0 and FF15 are more stoic, though the former actually steals weapons while the latter uses multiple weapons in fights, despite neither having the comedy of other renditions.
