Gilgamesh is a bonus boss.

[Mega Man Volnutt]

What do you think of this? Gilgamesh in the Final Fantasy games have cameoed in almost all FF games thus far and I'd love to see Gilgamesh come back from the Rift in my game and look for the Excalibur even though it doesn't exist as well as saying some witty stuff about the little creatures he's going against despite him not being part of the story. As someone who likes Gilgamesh, what kind of stuff would be good for Gilgamesh in terms of attacks, stats and possibly some other things? Can Gilgamesh adapt with a world full of tiny creatures both anthropromorphic and feral?

 

[TheTsunaru]

While I personally enjoy the idea (Greg is one of my favorite parts of the Final Fantasy series), I'm not sure if it would be a good one. Mostly just because he is the intellectual property of another company, and commercial or not, that's something you REALLY have to tread carefully with. They typically don't take too kindly to their characters popping up in another persons work without permission (even if it is someone eternally wandering the void who pops up in numerous universes), and something to take into consideration is the possibility that the game you make explodes in popularity, Squeenix hears tell of Greg being in your game, and you've suddenly got a DMCA notice on your hands.

 

[Mega Man Volnutt]

While I personally enjoy the idea (Greg is one of my favorite parts of the Final Fantasy series), I'm not sure if it would be a good one. Mostly just because he is the intellectual property of another company, and commercial or not, that's something you REALLY have to tread carefully with. They typically don't take too kindly to their characters popping up in another persons work without permission (even if it is someone eternally wandering the void who pops up in numerous universes), and something to take into consideration is the possibility that the game you make explodes in popularity, Squeenix hears tell of Greg being in your game, and you've suddenly got a DMCA notice on your hands.

I've made plenty of games in the past but I never put any FF characters in them But. I think this applies with most other companies personally. These guys really don't know how to keep a fanbase. I don't really mind just making someone and make him based off of Gilga if that's the case.


(Btw, who's Greg?)

 

[Wavelength]

Comical uses of Bland Name Product tend to be not only a great way to get away with using an obvious reference to a known character, but also a great way to bring a smile to your audience's face.  Hildamesh?  Giga Mesh?  Bulbamesh?

 

[Dr. Delibird]

Just wanna point out super smash flash 2 (a completely fan made non-commercial smash bros style of fighting game) includes (atm) at least 2 characters from square enix made games (one being Vivi and the other being Sora). That fan game has been out for a while and is still being worked on. Also as we speak they have a booth at smash con so like it isn't exactly super small and not known about. As long as you use Gilga under fair use you will be fine.

"In its most general sense, a fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner." - fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/what-is-fair-use/


As for how good of an idea it is? I think it is a good idea. I personally loved a lot of references made in Borderlands 2 and Presequel (I am australian so I could appreciate some of the more australiana type references). As long as you don't make your iteration of Gilgamesh something that takes away from Squar Enix's products you really shouldn't have much of an issue (especially so if it is non-commercial). An entire fan game is more of an issue than this but even then if the creator knows what they are doing it can fall under fair use. Either way do your research on fair use and make sure your use of Gilgamesh falls under it.

 

[Kes]

So far this is not a discussion of mechanics but of copyright/trademark issues.  The OP did, however, ask this:

As someone who likes Gilgamesh, what kind of stuff would be good for Gilgamesh in terms of attacks, stats and possibly some other things? Can Gilgamesh adapt with a world full of tiny creatures both anthropromorphic and feral?

Perhaps we could stick to discussing this.

 

[ShadowHawkDragon]

Actually FF's Gilgamesh (as with most of their 'summons': Ifrit, Shiva, Quetzalcoatl, etc.) is based somewhat on tales from mythology


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh


His story is split in 3 parts:
The demi-god tyrant of a king who after intense battle befriends the man (Enkidu) sent by the gods to kill him.
The mighty warrior who fought terrible beasts and monsters alongside this new friend.
The wanderer who donned a life in the wilds whilst mourning the death of his friend and (possibly in fear of his own inevitable end) goes on to seek the secret to immortality.


You could base his skills off of these original tales, so something that implies his royal/divine nature tinged with ferocity and bloodlust.
Possibly some form of self sustain (healing, regen) or self buff(s) for his royal/divine side,
and heavy multi-hitting attacks (maybe with recoil) for his warrior/wild side.


He could even fight in cycles: passive/defensive stance with buffing/healing/cleansing followed by an onslaught of vicious attacks then back to his defensive stance


Interaction with this new world:
Feral beasts would likely remind him of his days in battle alongside Enkidu, possibly sending him on a rampage as he remembers the death of his greatest friend.
But it's possible one of the cuter critters could remind him of the good times calming his rage, to the point that he names it after his long-lost friend.


I can just imagine this beefy ferocious warrior with a cute hamster on his shoulder  

 

[Joronjo]

Like Wavelength said, you can very easily rely on a "totally-not-Gilgamesh" character that's an obvious allusion. It can have the benefit of being it's own character while satisfying the desire for "bumbling and likable idiot swordsman".


Alternatively, you can also just have him be a nameless warrior with a green chicken/critter/creature as a "companion".


One last thing you can also do is reference the other side of his origin by looking at the history of Musashibo Benkei (the inspiration for his obsession with swords and clashing in large bridges).

 

[Adventurer_inc.]

The trick to using historical figures, wither fictitious or not, is that they can be almost anything you want, character wise. Epics and History are only told from perspective and even auto-biography are full of bias.


Take this link as reference:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilgamesh_in_popular_culture 


Randomly click any two work from two different author and you will almost certainty find two completely different Gilgamesh who could of accomplished the same feat and have the same background. Who's to say Gilgamesh didn't fight giant mechanical robots and called them giants? You should be safe from copyright issues unless you straight and outright copy/paste descriptions, art, animations, and narratives from another work. 

 

[Mega Man Volnutt]

Just wanna point out super smash flash 2 (a completely fan made non-commercial smash bros style of fighting game) includes (atm) at least 2 characters from square enix made games (one being Vivi and the other being Sora). That fan game has been out for a while and is still being worked on. Also as we speak they have a booth at smash con so like it isn't exactly super small and not known about. As long as you use Gilga under fair use you will be fine.
 

Just wanna point out that Vivi isn't in SSF2. That's "Black Mage" If he was, might as well put in Zidane, Beatrix, Freya, and/or Garnet.


And Fair Use? Hell yesh. It falls under parody. It's basically a what-if scenario if tropes from various FF games came into one large video game frnachise and the multiple appearances of Gilgamesh is gonna be one of them. But enough of this law stuff... I find it rather pointless to have to worry about copyright from someone who simply enjoys two different franchises.

 

[Dr. Delibird]

@Mega Man Volnutt, sorry my bad I did notice my mistake later on after logging off though but thanks for correcting.


On topic: OP you could have Gilgamesh be a super secret boss that the player has to jump hoops through to face but in various parts of the game Gilgamesh shows up in is super annoying and antagonistic towards the player, enough so to warrat the player to really really want to beat in his face and make the jumping of the hoops totally worth it and satisfying. Maybe make him a push over of a secret boss, to examplify the worthless piece of poop he is (hopefully the player hates GIlgamesh enough to be all like "Yeah you go and die fast you big dummy dummy!!!").