Gilgamesh (character)



Gilgamesh (ギルガメッシュ) is a recurring character in the Final Fantasy series. Initially introduced as a minor villain, he has made a number of appearances in remakes and later titles. To date, Gilgamesh appears in more games than any other character, and may be the only character to appear in more than one game in the main series (see below).

Gilgamesh's role has varied greatly, from ally, to enemy, to summon, but for most of his appearances he is a traveling sword collector that battles with a variety of rare and powerful weapons. In most, if not all, of his appearances, Gilgamesh is searching for the legendary sword, Excalibur. Another of Gilgamesh's trademarks is Genji Equipment, which can be stolen from or dropped by him.

Originally voiced in Japan by for the Japanese release of Final Fantasy XII before his death on January 17, 2010, Gilgamesh's voice is provided by  as of Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. He is voiced in English by in Final Fantasy XII, and by  in Dissidia 012.

Profile
Gilgamesh's appearance has varied subtly in each game, but in all his appearances he has a gray complexion, red/orange armor, and as many as eight arms, in which he holds an arsenal of different weapons. Gilgamesh's trademark weapon is a type of polearm known as a naginata, but he also uses rare and powerful swords collected from around the world. He considers himself a master swordsman, but usually ends up running away after the party defeats him. However, he is by no means weak; most of his fights outside Final Fantasy V are quite difficult, and his Dissidia profile describes him as having "strength that once decimated an entire army" (specifically, it's Galuf's army that Gilgamesh decimated). Usually, Gilgamesh appears with only two or four of his arms visible; it is only after he "morphs" that he reveals his true form, in which he has six or eight arms. He is often seen traveling with his partner Enkidu, whose appearance has also varied.

Gilgamesh is a sword collector, and in most games is shown to have a wide variety of weapons. His primary target for collection is the holy sword Excalibur. However, most of the time Gilgamesh finds what he believes to be Excalibur but is actually the knock-off Excalipoor. The first incident occurs in Exdeath's castle in Final Fantasy V. In Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy VI, Gilgamesh appears to attack the party due to their possession of Excalipoor, and in Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy VI possesses the genuine sword when called as a summon. As shown in Final Fantasy XII, though Gilgamesh has many other famous swords besides Excalibur, most, if not all of them, are also knock-offs. In battle, Gilgamesh has retained a few key characteristics across the series. When weak, he will often feign defeat, then cast Protect, Shell and Haste on himself, and renew his attack. In games where Blue Magic is featured, he tends to use many Blue Magic spells. He also uses his collection of rare weapons.

Though he frequently appears to challenge the party and is first featured as a villain, Gilgamesh is not truly evil. In Final Fantasy V he seems saddened when he learns of Galuf's death, and when he is banished to the Interdimensional Rift he almost offers to join the party, and sacrifices himself so that the party can defeat Necrophobe. In Final Fantasy VIII he becomes the party's ally, and again is not hostile in Final Fantasy IX (though he attempts to steal gil from the party several times). He attacks the party in Final Fantasy XII, but later appears to give them a useful item, and in Final Fantasy VI and Revenant Wings, is available as a summon after being bested in battle. Because of these factors, he can be considered more of a rival than an enemy or ally.

Gilgamesh is one of the more well-spoken characters in the series, often using lengthy terms in dialogue or archaic phrases such as "I must egress post haste!" or "enough expository banter!"

Unlike other recurring characters like Cid and Biggs and Wedge, Gilgamesh has the same appearance and personality in every game he appears in. As implied in Final Fantasy VIII and confirmed in Dissidia 012, this is because the Gilgamesh seen in the series is actually the same person, traveling between worlds via portals in the Rift. When he appears before Bartz he makes reference to being banished to the Rift the last time Bartz saw him, and mentions traveling a great journey and fighting many opponents before making his way back to face Bartz again. When he runs across Zidane, Squall and Vaan before seeing Bartz, Zidane points out that Gilgamesh has only two arms and thus he doesn't seem familiar to him, alluding to Gilgamesh's appearance with four arms in Final Fantasy IX.

Gilgamesh began a tradition of an incompetent, comical, yet persistent recurring boss for the party to face.

Final Fantasy
Gilgamesh doesn't make an appearance in the original Final Fantasy, but does appear in the Dawn of Souls and 20th Anniversary remakes. He is in the Lifespring Grotto, a bonus dungeon, together with three other Final Fantasy V bosses. After the Warriors of Light talk to some mermaids, they find a mysterious sword. The sword is most likely the Excalipoor (the Excalibur can be found later in another dungeon). Upon inspecting the sword, Gilgamesh, who is described as a rude man wielding a halberd, attacks the party. If the player chooses not to speak to the mermaids, they can face him in the exit room near the teleport out. He will speak a different set of words.

Gilgamesh has 8,888 HP (like in the third fight with him in Final Fantasy V) and unleashes physical attacks that can easily KO even a high level character. In true Final Fantasy tradition, he drops Genji Gloves upon his defeat. In Dawn of Souls, he is somewhat easy to beat should the player's party be at a high level.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Gilgamesh is summoned as a boss by the Creator in the Final Dungeon. In keeping with a slight tradition from Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI, during the battle he will feign defeat and cast Haste, Protect and Shell on himself before continuing the battle. When defeated, he mutters "... Bartz...?" before vanishing. The party wonders what "Bartz" means, and thinks that in spite of his appearance, Gilgamesh did not seem evil. He drops the "Excalipur" upon his defeat.

Final Fantasy V
Gilgamesh is a major villain in Final Fantasy V, acting as Exdeath's right hand man. For the bigger part of the game, Gilgamesh has morphed his appearance, but he reveals his true appearance later. The party can steal Genji Equipment from him.

In an interview, Hironobu Sakaguchi alludes to Gilgamesh's early life. Gilgamesh grew up in a village where all men were warriors. The Genji equipment sets were ancient and precious sets of armor from that village, and were usually passed on to its best warriors when they proved their worth in battle. It is said that the centuries of "blood, sweat and dust" accumulated on the Genji equipment have made them extremely resistant.

Gilgamesh makes his first appearance in Castle Exdeath, where he is commanded by Exdeath to guard the prisoners Bartz, Lenna, and Faris. Galuf is forced to save them alone. He easily defeats Gilgamesh, but the latter runs off. He next appears on the Big Bridge, which the party crosses after escaping Castle Exdeath. They defeat him there as well, even though he casts Protect, Shell and Haste on himself, and he makes up an excuse and runs off again.

Gilgamesh's third appearance is during the battle to unlock the barrier surrounding Castle Exdeath. Gilgamesh attacks the ship the party and Xezat are on, and brings an ally with him this time: Enkidu. The party defeats him, and he is thrown into the ocean after attempting to take Galuf with him. Swearing revenge, he swims off.

Having survived, he is later seen once again in Castle Exdeath when the party attacks it. Halfway through the fight, he transforms into his true form, hoping to use the blade that he had just taken from a chest shortly before the fight, the Excalibur, to defeat the party. However, he is unable to hurt the party in this form, as his sword turns out to be the Excalipoor, an incredibly weak replica of the Excalibur. Exdeath sees this, and as a result, banishes him to the Rift.

Gilgamesh is lost in the Rift, fighting monster after monster, and does not make a reappearance until the party attacks him there, with Gilgamesh thinking they are more monsters before recognizing them. However, Gilgamesh has changed, and he no longer wishes to serve Exdeath. He simply wants to leave the Rift and go back to the real world. However, he realizes there is no way to do this.

As a result, when the party attacks Necrophobe, Gilgamesh arrives to support the party. He sacrifices himself to save the party and defeat Necrophobe. If the player manages to defeat Necrophobe before Gilgamesh sacrifices himself, he can be considered alive, although will not appear for the rest of the game. Despite his sacrifice, Gilgamesh went on to appear in many games to follow.

Final Fantasy VI
Gilgamesh appears as an Esper in the Game Boy Advance version. If the player bets the rare sword Excalipoor that can be bought in the Jidoor Auction House in the Dragon's Neck Colosseum, they are put in a battle against an Onion Dasher. Win or lose the battle, Gilgamesh challenges the party to a battle for the Excalipoor.

His sprite is a modified version of his Final Fantasy V sprite, and his AI script is similar to the second battle with him in the same game, involving him casting buffs on himself and using Jump when his HP drops low. Continuing the tradition, the party can steal Genji equipment from him in the battle. If he is defeated, he acknowledges the party's strength and gives himself up as Magicite.

Summon
Once defeated at Dragon's Neck Coliseum, he is acquired as an esper. He costs 99 MP to summon and randomly uses one of four attacks:


 * Excalipoor - Deals 1 damage to all enemies.
 * Excalibur - Deals moderate damage to all enemies. Has a power of 120 and is holy-elemental.
 * Masamune - Deals heavy damage to all enemies. Has a power of 99 and ignores defense.
 * Enkidu - Gilgamesh's demon-like companion deals damage to all enemies. Has a power of 200 and ignores defense.

Gilgamesh teaches the following spells:
 * Quick x1
 * Valor x5

Gilgamesh's magicite grants +2 Strength at level up.

Final Fantasy VIII

 * See the Summon sequence here

Gilgamesh appears as a pseudo-Guardian Force only obtainable if the party acquired Odin before entering the Lunatic Pandora and fighting Seifer at the end of disc 3 (if Odin is obtained after the fight, acquiring Gilgamesh will not be possible). Odin will attack at the beginning of the battle, but Seifer will use Zantetsuken Reverse and slice Odin in half instead.

Odin's Zantetsuken creates a rift in space/time, from which Gilgamesh appears and picks it up. Later in the fight, if it has lasted for more than 12 rounds, Gilgamesh will appear and defeat Seifer. Afterwards, he will appear at random during battles just like Odin to attack enemies with one of four random swords, but unlike Odin, Gilgamesh can appear even during boss battles and any time during battle, not necessarily at the battle's start.

When he appears, Gilgamesh will select one of four swords to attack with: Zantetsuken instantly defeats all opponents, the purple-hilted Masamune and the blue sword Excalibur both deal heavy damage to all opponents, and the red sword Excalipoor deals just one point of damage to all opponents. As with Odin, Gilgamesh's Zantetsuken does not work against opponents invulnerable to instant death attacks, such as bosses - though he may attempt it, it will always miss in these cases. It is known that Zantetsuken can be used against Adel and will work, but it will also kill Rinoa, causing an instant Game Over.

Gilgamesh has a 9/256 chance of appearing at the start of a battle (or 3.5% chance), and throughout the battle, if nothing has happened for a few seconds, there is a 13/256 (or 5.1%) chance of him appearing. The chance of him using each attack are 65/256 (or 25.4%) for Excalibur, 64/256 (or 25%) for Excalipoor or Masamune, and 63/256 (or 24.6%) for Zantetsuken. Gilgamesh can also only be summoned once per battle. Gilgamesh uses the same coding to determine its appearance rate as Angelo Search. If Gilgamesh appears, Angelo will never search in the same battle.

The damage formula for Excalibur is:


 * $$Damage = 100 * Level / 10 + 50 + 100$$
 * $$Damage = Damage * (265 - TargetSpr) / 8 $$
 * $$Damage = Damage * 50 / 256 $$

The damage formula for Masamune is:


 * $$Damage = 100 * Level / 10 + 100 + 100$$
 * $$Damage = Damage * (265 - TargetSpr) / 8 $$
 * $$Damage = Damage * 100 / 256 $$

The dialogue he exchanges with Seifer hints that he is indeed the same Gilgamesh as the one from Final Fantasy V:


 * Gilgamesh
 * "You gave me the 4th one..."
 * "Huh? Was it you...?"
 * "Then dodge my sword!"
 * "Eat this!!!"


 * Seifer
 * "Ergwahhhh!!!"


 * Gilgamesh
 * Where is the dimensional interval...?

In the Japanese version, Gilgamesh's line "Huh? Was it you...?" was "「ん？　オマエなのか・・・・？　バ・・・・？」" ("Huh? Was it you...? Ba...?"). The "Ba...?" in the end could mean he was talking about Bartz (バッツ). Also, the "dimensional interval" may be the Interdimensional Rift.

Final Fantasy IX
Gilgamesh is a non-player character in Final Fantasy IX. He is a treasure hunter who travels around Gaia looking for new treasure. He bears little resemblance to the Gilgamesh that appears in the majority of games and is known by different names in different towns, including "Alleyway Jack" and "The Four-Armed Man"; however, he does not reveal his true name until Zidane becomes a Rank S Treasure Hunter.

Gilgamesh first appears in Alexandria, where he teaches Vivi how to play Tetra Master. Afterwards, he can be seen in Treno during Active Time Events. The first time the party visits Treno, he steals money from Princess Garnet and buys a Power Belt with the earnings, which he drops after being scared off by Steiner. The second time the party visits Treno, Gilgamesh can be seen plotting to abduct Eiko in order to blackmail some money off Amarant, but his plan fails and he manages to drop another piece of his equipment after being scared off by Quina: the Chimera Armlet.

Gilgamesh can be met in Daguerreo, where, when challenged to a card game, he will play with the rare airship cards. After Zidane gains the highest possible Treasure Hunter Rank, Gilgamesh reveals his true identity, as well as admits that he is not a great treasure hunter. He then disappears to places unknown.

If the player makes it to Memoria before 12 hours of play time has passed, they can obtain the Excalibur II, the game's strongest sword. Nearby is found a note, addressed to Gilgamesh from his brother that says:

Final Fantasy XI
Gilgamesh is a non-player character in Final Fantasy XI. He is a major figure in Norg, which is the pirate city located on the Elshimo Island. He is involved in a few of the quests related to the Rise of the Zilart expansion, and is also involved in the Samurai job class story. Like the Final Fantasy IX incarnation, this Gilgamesh looks entirely different from his other appearances.

In the Abyssea mini-expansions, about an alternative version of Vana'diel the player can visit, throughout the main quest line the player can come into contact with that dimension's version of Gilgamesh—curiously, at the same spot one can also come into contact with the avatar Carbuncle, although only at night.

Later in that quest line it's possible to have similar meetings with other characters from the same dimension, but at least in Esha'ntarl's case, she comments she cannot do this as easily as others (implying Gilgamesh)—which is peculiar, as she is thousands of years old, while Gilgamesh is never shown to be anything more than a famous pirate.

Gilgamesh is also the name of one of the world servers used by the game.

Final Fantasy XII


Gilgamesh is an Elite Mark in Final Fantasy XII. He is petitioned by Montblanc at the behest of an unidentified warrior who lost to Gilgamesh and was forced to forfeit his sword to him. Gilgamesh is found in the Lhusu Mines and must be fought twice.

The player can steal a different Genji item from him each battle. He uses a variety of swords from previous games (all of them counterfeit), including the Buster Sword, the Revolver, the Orichalcum, and the Brotherhood, as an homage to past installments in the series, as well as Zantetsuken, the Tournesol, and the Wyrmhero Blade. He is still accompanied by Enkidu.

After the battle, Gilgamesh appears to the party in the Barheim Passage. He refers to them as "friends" and gives them the Matamune fishing rod before departing.

Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
For the enemy page, see Gilgamesh (Revenant Wings).

Gilgamesh returns for Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, as a Yarhi in the mission Battle on the Big Bridge, wandering around with Enkidu at the Gates of Shattered Time. When he spots the party, he recognizes them as the people who had previously battled him, and vehemently denies that he is, in fact, lost.

Deciding that fate had brought them back together to fight, he takes out his swords and attacks Vaan and two other party members. Gilgamesh is defeated yet again, and just like always, flees for his life, but not before alluding to his position as a summon upon being defeated. Afterward, the party unlocks his sphere on the Ring of Pacts. Gilgamesh is a Rank III non-elemental melee Esper, sharing the same rank and spot with Odin. Gilgamesh is more powerful than Odin though, and also has a special attack. His normal attack, Slice Thrice, hits the enemy three times, while his special attack, Masamune, deals physical damage to one target ignoring their defense.

Final Fantasy XIII
While Gilgamesh himself makes no formal appearance, his name is used for one of the Retail Networks the player can obtain, named "Gilgamesh, Inc.", received after clearing mission 46. Keeping with his dimension-hopping hobby, the company sells weapons that offer the highest strength and magic boosts for the characters and belonging to powerful and rare synthesist groups, but these are offset with disadvantageous special properties such as Stagger Lock, which prevents the character from staggering enemies, and Paper Tiger, which greatly reduces the character's maximum HP.

The game's Ultimania Omega further reveals that Gilgamesh was at some point during development planned as a fal'Cie who would have wielded swords in various sizes, some even so large to dwarf large buildings.

Final Fantasy XIII-2
Gilgamesh will be available as a downloadable content boss for the Coliseum, and is said to be a Commando.

Final Fantasy Type-0


A colossal warrior from Lorica with the power of the Genbu crystal, Gilgamesh is a l'Cie who has forgotten his Focus and serves as one of the game's bosses. He is accompanied by Enkidu, a fellow Genbu l'Cie. Gilgamesh in this game is notably less well-spoken as many of his previous appearances, and most native Japanese speakers often refer to his manner of speech as "samurai talk" or crude use of the Japanese language.

When presented with some of his dialogue, a native Japanese speaker will often have a hard time understanding it due to ambiguous context and the lack of certain particles. This may be due to Gilgamesh being presented as a wandering rough-spoken warrior.This may also be his first appearance in the Final Fantasy timeline. Lorica being referred to as the place he spent his childhood.

He first appears wandering in the battle around the Big Bridge where the Suzaku Peristylium Army attempt to bring down the Milites Gates so that Caetuna can summon Alexander.

During this time, he is holding the Big Bridge alone, when Class Zero makes their way to the Big Bridge there is screaming and yelling over the radio channels indicating that either side of the battle had just encountered something strong and multiple Ifrits fall from the skies before player gets to the Big Bridge.

When player meets him, he is standing atop a pile of decimated Milites assault vehicles that he destroyed. Gilgamesh had no memories of where he is or who he really was and ambushes Class Zero when he encounters them. Following the battle, Gilgamesh is disappointed by the strength of his opponent and leaves to find another battle, much to Cater's dismay.

He later appears in the Byakko capital where he stops Machina, who is now a Byakko l'Cie, and decides to test his strength by challenging him. It is later revealed in a flashback that Gilgamesh is the King of Genbu and the ruler of the Lorican Alliance, who is proud of protecting the country and many of his people looked up to him, but his actions have somehow caused a huge problem to the nation, much to the dismay of the council members of Lorica.

Enkidu is his royal advisor and a childhood friend, who has ensured that Gilgamesh does not lose the path he is heading down. After recovering his memories, Gilgamesh asks Enkidu to forgive him, as it is revealed that the latter and the people of Genbu perished when the nation is destroyed by the Ultima Bullet. Gilgamesh fights against Machina, but loses.

Gilgamesh appears as an optional boss after the player has beaten the game twice completing second side-history missions, he'll appear in his traditional eight-armed presentation. A door to the Rift appears in the Genbu crater after the mission "The Last Queen Returns to Oblivion"; if the player makes all training missions to unlock map areas, the door appears in these locations: Genbu crater, Milites Empire near the capital, Concordia Kingdom near the Royal Palace and east Suzaku. The locations repeat in this order if the player fights and defeats Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh will take a random character of the party to fight and if the player is defeated, he takes the character's equipped weapon. The reward of defeating the True Gilgamesh is the character's ultimate weapon. To date, this is the second title in the main Final Fantasy series in which Gilgamesh serves an important and impacting role in the story. Also, due to the fact that his final battle takes place in the rift, this alludes to the idea that he is the true Gilgamesh from Final Fantasy V, this is unconfirmed however, if so it could mean that this story takes place before the events of Final Fantasy V.

Dissidia Final Fantasy
Gilgamesh appears as a summon, and as a ghost for the player to fight in the Offline Lobby. The Gilgamesh ghost is a Level 100 Bartz, wearing a full set of Genji equipment and bearing the Dragon Seal item, a reference to Shinryu who was introduced in Final Fantasy V like Gilgamesh. The message on the card reads "I wanted to fight you one more time... mano-a-mano", which is Gilgamesh's farewell to Bartz when the party finds him in the Rift. Bartz also quotes Gilgamesh in some of his battle quotes, saying "Let's finish this, one-on-one!" when battling Chaos, and "Let's fight like men!" when battling Jecht.

Gilgamesh's Summonstone can be obtained in the second stage of the Distant Glory - Villains storyline. The artwork used for the summon is from Final Fantasy V. When called upon he will either triple the summoner's Bravery or reduce it to 1, as a reference to Excalibur and Excalipoor. When Gilgamesh is summoned and produces the Excalipoor result, the text for the summon effect will read "I feel so betrayed..." This is what Gilgamesh says in Final Fantasy V upon realizing that the "Excalibur" he found is actually a worthless counterfeit.

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy


Gilgamesh appears as a secret playable character in Dissidia 012, marking his first fully playable appearance. Mimicking several of his other appearances, Gilgamesh's appearance in Dissidia 012 is a coincidence, as he stumbles into World B where the wars are taking place while traveling through the Void and the worlds connected to it.

Sensing Bartz in the world he seeks out his rival for their promised rematch, but Bartz has lost his memories and cannot remember him. Nonetheless he accepts Gilgamesh's challenge and defeats him, and though he was not summoned by a god Gilgamesh is subject to the war's rules and is sent back to where he entered the world from, a portal to the Void engulfing him.

Despite appearing as a playable character, the summon version of Gilgamesh from the first Dissidia returns, and is even used by him in the story battle against him. Like other summons, it functions identically to how it did in the first game.

Gilgamesh's first alternate outfit is based on his Final Fantasy VIII appearance, giving him lighter armor and a red cloak. His second alternate outfit is based on his battle sprite, giving him heavier full plate armor. As a bonus fourth outfit, Gilgamesh takes on his Final Fantasy Type-0 appearance, a suit of red and black armor. This outfit was made available to those in attendance of a Dissidia 012 tournament in Japan, and it is unknown if or how the outfit will be released in other areas.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
Gilgamesh is set to appear as an enemy in Theatrhythm Final Fantasy.

Chocobo to Mahou no Ehon: Majo to Shoujo to Go-nin no Yuusha
Gilgamesh appeared in the sequel game to Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales. He is the main villain in the first book, who also tries to marry the princess Irma. He also appears as a summon card.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Gilgamesh is represented in the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game by two cards: a Lightning-elemental card and a Dark-elemental card. The first features his original artwork by Yoshitaka Amano, while the second depicts his artwork by Tetsuya Nomura for Dissidia 012.

Itadaki Street Special
Gilgamesh appears in Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Special. He appears as he did in Final Fantasy VIII.

Blood of Bahamut
Gilgamesh is one of the giants that cities have been constructed on.

Final Fantasy III
In Final Fantasy III, there is a character called Gigameth. A common misconception, he is not the same character as Gilgamesh, and his katakana is "Gigamesu", while Gilgamesh's is "Girugamesshu".

Final Fantasy IV
In Final Fantasy IV Advance, a monster by the name of Gilgamesh appears. It has no resemblance whatsoever to the recurring character, and its name is most likely a "swing-and-miss" from the translator's side, due to monster's name being Gilgame (Gil Turtle). In the European version, the translation was corrected, and it was called Gil Turtle.

Development
According to the fifth "Chocobo's FF Laboratory" feature published in the November 1993 edition of V-Jump, the initial design for Gilgamesh was created by Tetsuya Nomura, although Yoshitaka Amano was the one who drew the character's final artwork. The magazine states that Nomura's initial design looked like a cross between Gilgamesh's first and second in-game forms.

Music
Gilgamesh's theme is called "Clash on the Big Bridge" (ビッグブリッジの死闘) (named after the area where he is encountered a second time in Final Fantasy V), and often plays during battles against him. Since its original appearance, it has been a fan favorite and remade into different versions. "Clash on the Big Bridge" is the most recorded of all the tracks in the Final Fantasy series, having ten official arrangements in total and countless remixes.

Merchandise
Master Creatures produced a six and a half inch tall figure of Gilgamesh in their third series of Final Fantasy characters. The figure's information describes it as wearing the Genji armor and wielding the Excalipoor, among other weapons.

There are also two figures based on Gilgamesh's appearance in Final Fantasy VIII, one with him standing and the other kneeling, and both with the four swords he uses in the game.

Etymology
Gilgamesh was an actual king of an ancient Sumerian region called Uruk, reigning around 2650 BC. He is also the main character of the Epic of Gilgamesh, which is among one of the earliest known literary works, the most complete edition dating back to the 7th century BC, though earlier editions date back to about 2000 BC. The Epic of Gilgamesh centers around the king and demigod Gilgamesh and the wild man Enkidu who was sent to kill him. After a fight between the two, in which Gilgamesh defeats Enkidu, they become loyal friends and embark on several epic adventures.

Eventually Enkidu is killed by a fatal disease sent by the gods they worshiped, and after watching Enkidu suffer for twelve days before dying, Gilgamesh is afraid of death and wants to become immortal. After a long quest, and several times coming close to dying, he reaches his ancestor who shows him where to find a plant that will have the same effect as the elixir of life, granting him eternal life as long as he continues to use the plant. After obtaining the plant and leaving for home, Gilgamesh put the plant down to bathe, when a snake eats it. Gilgamesh has to return home depressed that he lost the immortality when he had taken such a long quest to get it, but learns a valuable lesson, that true immortality can be gained by leaving a legacy for others to learn from and aspire to.

Gilgamesh seems to take a large amount of inspiration from, a famous Japanese warrior monk. Benkei is said to have posted himself at Gōjō Bridge in Kyoto, where he disarmed every passing swordsman, eventually collecting 999 swords. On his 1000th duel, however, Benkei was defeated by. This story parallels Gilgamesh's penchant for fighting atop bridges and collecting the swords of his fallen opponents. As a monk Benkei was trained in the use of a naginata, which is Gilgamesh's signature weapon. After his defeat, Benkei became a retainer of Yoshitsune and fought alongside him. Yoshitsune is credited with most of the Minamoto clan's successes in the war against the Taira clan. The Minamoto clan, which Benkei served, was also called the Genji clan, using the alternate pronunciation for the Chinese characters for mina and moto, gen and uji, respectively.

This is likely the namesake of Gilgamesh's recurring Genji equipment set. In the end, Yoshitsune and Benkei were encircled in the castle of Koromogawa no tate. As Yoshitsune retired to the inner keep of the castle to commit ritual suicide on his own, Benkei continued to fight at the bridge in front of the main gate to protect Yoshitsune. The soldiers were afraid to traverse the bridge to confront him, and all that did were killed by Benkei. Eventually the soldiers noticed Benkei's wounded, arrow-riddled body was still, and when they finally dared to investigate closer Benkei fell to the ground, having died standing up.

Trivia

 * Gilgamesh is referenced by Natsuki Takaya in one of her side columns in Fruits Basket, stating her love of the Final Fantasy series.
 * Gilgamesh, to date, has had more appearances in any Final Fantasy media than any other character.
 * Gilgamesh's transformation quote in Final Fantasy V Advance is a reference to the popular series Power Rangers.
 * Despite being famous for being a swordsman, Gilgamesh's trademark weapon, seen in his sprite-based appearances, is actually a naginata (erroneously referred to as a halberd in the English translation).
 * Humorously, in Final Fantasy VIII, the decorations on the right side of Gilgamesh's body appear to be wood or cardboard cutouts with arms drawn on them, having perhaps lost those arms during earlier fights.
 * Gilgamesh is referenced in Final Fantasy XIII-2 being one of the names available for monsters. His name is however spelled 'Gilgamash.'
 * Gilgamesh's time in Final Fantasy Type-0 may actually be canon for Final Fantasy V Gilgamesh's backstory, as the two seem to have much in common. The events in Type-0 might have occurred before Gilgamesh met with Exdeath and triggered the events of Final Fantasy V.
 * Though Gilgamesh is portrayed as weak and cowardly, putting up a bluff before pressing an attack then finally fleeing, in truth he is among one of the most difficult boss fights in the Final Fantasy series and among the strongest of Final Fantasy villains.
 * Gilgamesh is reported to have come across virtually every world's version of Excalibur, or at the very least, the cheap knockoff. Why he seeks these weapons is unknown, but it might not have anything to do with power, as he already has some of the highest tier weapons in the series. Indeed, when he obtains the Zantetsuken in Final Fantasy VIII he mentions "the fourth one" and opens this quote as though he was expecting the blade to fall into his hands in the first place.