Gilgamesh (Dissidia)

Unreleased

Gilgamesh is a playable character in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, representing Final Fantasy V. He is Exdeath's most prominent general, but was ultimately banished to the Interdimensional Rift after failing his assignments repeatedly. Since then, he began traveling between worlds, sometimes appearing to the player party to battle them, making him unique as a recurring comic relief. Prior to his official announcement, hackers found a cropped version of the artwork on the right embedded within the Prologus demo. He was officially confirmed in an advertising billboard seen in Japanese gaming stores, featuring a screen-shot of him performing his EX Burst.

Appearance
Gilgamesh's appearance in Dissidia 012 is directly based on his original artwork by Yoshitaka Amano for Final Fantasy V based on a design by Tetsuya Nomura. He wears primarily red and gray armor with yellow accents, gray shorts with red polka-dots, and a horned hood. Gilgamesh's main weapon is a.

His first alternate outfit is based on his Final Fantasy VIII appearance, where he has less armor with a red cloak that obscures most of his head and face. However, until he enters EX Mode, his extra arms are absent.

His second alternate outfit is based on his recurring sprite appearance. Gilgamesh wears heavier full-plate armor on his torso and arms with a hornless helmet. The lower half of his head is partially protected by a golden neck guard.

Story
It's unknown what his role in the story is, but the end of the third trailer shows Bartz wandering through the Rift when a dark portal opens in the air behind him, and Gilgamesh's voice calls out to him "Well well, Bartz, we meet again!" The trailer ends before Gilgamesh is shown. In a new Famitsu scan, Gilgamesh is seen approaching Bartz, saying "I told you not to forget my name." At some point, he encounters Squall, Zidane, and Vaan in Pandaemonium.

Battle
Gilgamesh is described as a Scramble Fighter, where he picks a weapon at random when attacking. This makes the strength and effects of his attacks unpredictable. The weapons he may use when attacking are as follows:

Each weapon's special ability is listed below:
 * Excalibur - All Bravery damage dealt is doubled.
 * Excalipoor - All Bravery damage is reduce to 1.
 * Naginata - Attack has greater range.
 * Masamune - Generates more EX Force than usual.
 * Genji's Katana - Depletes the opponent's EX Gauge.
 * Zantetsuken - Can instantly inflict Bravery Break.
 * Battle Axe - Attack does random damage.
 * Chicken Knife - The lower Gilgamesh's HP, the higher the Bravery damage done.

EX Mode
The Greatest Blade l5r11b-eFtk Failed EX Burst: Excalipoor 5YABd827Q9M Gilgamesh's EX Mode is Gilgamesh Change, where he transforms into his true form as seen in Final Fantasy V, giving him six more arms, different armor and a more monstrous face. While in EX Mode Gilgamesh gains the ability "Eight Closed Sacred Sword Paths." This ability causes one of three things to happen: two each of Gilgamesh's arms wield a different weapon, four wield one weapon and the other four yield another, or all eight hold the same weapon. Whatever weapon(s) Gilgamesh is holding, their relevant attacking bonus is applied to all his attacks. The weapons used are chosen at random - all eight arms may hold the same weapon and thus only one bonus is applied, or Gilgamesh may hold two each of four weapons and thus get four bonuses. This makes the exact benefits of Gilgamesh's EX Mode impossible to predict. Gilgamesh's attacks are also augmented to fire more projectiles or hit over larger areas, and do more damage.

His EX Burst is called The Greatest Blade, where seven blue Excalipoor and the red Excalibur rotate around in a circle in front of Gilgamesh. The player must press a button to select the Excalibur as it rotates around. Gilgamesh then performs several attacks with the blade and finishes the combo with Ultimate Illusion, an attack used by him in Final Fantasy XII, in which he jumps up and crashes down to the ground, striking the opponent with a shockwave to deal HP damage. If the Excalipoor is chosen, however, Gilgamesh will deal only one damage per hit, then he will look at the blade, realize it's not the Excalibur, and throw it away exasperatedly. The Excalipoor will fall on the enemy, dealing HP damage.

Allusions

 * Gilgamesh's HP attacks are based on those he used against the party in several battles during the events of Final Fantasy V.
 * The weapons Gilgamesh carries during his EX Mode are references to weapons he has been seen wielding repeatedly throughout the series:
 * Masamune and Excalibur are recurring abilities he may perform when summoned.
 * Excalibur, in particular, is the legendary blade that Gilgamesh is seen searching for in several games. One of Gilgamesh's trademark weapons is Excalipoor: a false Excalibur found during his search for the legendary weapon. Both Excalibur and Excalipoor resemble the fake Tournesol that he wields in Final Fantasy XII.
 * The Masamune has the appearance of Sephiroth's sword of the same name.
 * The Genji's Katana alludes to the Genji equipment that he carries in his various appearances and that can be stolen and dropped from him. In Dissidia 012, the Genji's Katana appears as a fake of Auron's weapon in Final Fantasy X, which may be a reference to how Gilgamesh carried replicas of the iconic blades of past Final Fantasy heroes in Final Fantasy XII.
 * Zantetsuken is Odin's weapon, which Gilgamesh takes from him and uses as one of his four random abilities as a Guardian Force in Final Fantasy VIII. He also possesses the blade in Final Fantasy XII, although it is designed differently, and the Dissidia 012 design is different from both of its appearances.
 * The Naginata and the Battle Axe are present on his various sprites, with the naginata usually appearing alongside Gilgamesh in his sprite-based appearances, and the Battle Axe appearing only while he is in his morphed form in Final Fantasy V. The Battle Axe's effect of dealing random damage is identical to how axe and hammer-type weapons function in Final Fantasy XII.
 * The Chicken Knife is a weapon in Final Fantasy V that increases in power when the party escapes a battle, and is potentially the strongest weapon in the game. Although Gilgamesh has never wielded it, he has a penchant for running from battle when he loses. In addition, Bartz wields the Chicken Knife's counterpart, the Brave Blade, during his EX Burst.
 * At the beginning of a fight that features the extended introductory scene, Gilgamesh appears from an interdimensional portal on the ground, as an allusion to his travels through different dimensions following his banishment to the Rift by Exdeath.
 * The name of Gilgamesh's EX Mode is a reference to his transformation quotation prior to assuming his multi-armed boss form in Final Fantasy V. His perfect EX Burst, Ultimate Illusion, is one of the attacks he uses during the first battle with him in Final Fantasy XII, used after he draws all of the fake blades that he uses in that battle.
 * The fact that Gilgamesh is seen with not only Bartz, but also Squall, Zidane, and Vaan in the story is a reference to him being in the same games as all four of them in various forms.
 * In Final Fantasy VI Advance, Blade Dance is an attack exclusive to Gilgamesh.
 * At the end of his failed EX Burst, Gilgamesh throws the Excalipoor away, hitting the opponent and dealing HP damage. Throwing the Excalipoor would do 9999 points of damage in Final Fantasy V despite only doing 1 damage with regular attacks.

Trivia

 * When Gilgamesh performs his EX Burst, Excalibur is red and Excalipoor is blue. This is contrary to the games where Gilgamesh has wielded the weapons as a summon, namely Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy VIII and Dissidia. In all three instances, Excalipoor was the red sword and Excalibur was blue.
 * When Gilgamesh uses Ultimate Illusion in Final Fantasy XII, he shouts, "This sword I wield... is no counterfeit!" in reference to the fact that most of his blades are indeed knock-offs. Ironically, when using Ultimate Illusion during his EX Burst in Dissidia 012, he only uses it because he has selected the single blade out of the ones presented to him that isn't a fake.
 * The Luck statistic has no bearing on which weapons Gilgamesh uses when attacking and when entering EX Mode.
 * Kazuya Nakai took over the role of Gilgamesh's voice after Daisuke Gori, his Japanese voice actor from Final Fantasy XII, committed suicide in 2010. This makes Gilgamesh, along with Vaan, the only characters not to have their original Japanese voice actors reprise their roles.
 * Additionally, Kazuya Nakai provides the voice of Wakka. Gilgamesh's English voice actor in Final Fantasy XII, John DiMaggio, voices Wakka in his English speaking appearances. It is currently unknown if DiMaggio will reprise the voice of Gilgamesh for Dissidia 012.
 * Like Bartz, Gilgamesh summons his weapons in battle when he attacks and dismisses them afterward.
 * When Gilgamesh begins his EX Burst, he spins forward and crashes into the 'screen', leaving a crack that breaks away to reveal the EX Burst background. This is a pun on the drama concept of "breaking the fourth wall," referring to when one acknowledges they are a character in a form of media.