Draft:Gogo (Final Fantasy)

Gogo is a character in the 1994 Square Enix video game Final Fantasy VI, and a mime who's gender and identity is unknown to the player and even the game.^[1] Gogo is a Mime, a recurring character class in the Final Fantasy franchise that copies the last move used by one of your allies, allowing the Mime to mimic this and use the action for themselves.

Gogo can only be recruited during the game's second half, after the world was devastated and the entire party was separated. Gogo is trapped inside the body of an enemy called the Zone Eater, and if you let your entire party get engulfed by the Zone Eater, it transports you to a mini-dungeon where Gogo is. Gogo explains to the heroes that they have remained idle inside of here for a long time, and was wondering why they were here. After the heroes told Gogo their plan was to save the world, Gogo was fascinated by this, and decided to "mimic" the heroes and help them save the world as well. After this, Gogo does not speak for the rest of the game.^[2][3] Gogo also appears in Final Fantasy V as a boss, going by the title of Famed Mimic Gogo, where they mimic the actions used by the party members and uses their attacks against them.^[4]

Final Fantasy VI was developed with the mindset that none of the playable cast was the protagonist, and that each of them was equally the "main character". Standing at 166 cm (5 ft 5 in) tall,^[5] according to the director of Final Fantasy VI, Gogo does not have a secret identity nor a backstory. They were simply added as a hidden character players could use in battle, as well as being an easter egg to the Famed Mimic Gogo from Final Fantasy V. Despite this, there are many fan theories trying to uncover Gogo's identity, most notably Daryl, Relm's mother, and Baram. However, since these are just theories, none of them are officially confirmed.^[6]

Originally, Gogo had a much different way of recruiting them. Gogo was hidden across a bunch of different pubs in the World of Ruin, disguised as one of the player characters that was not in the active party. Under a timer, Gogo would randomly move to a different pub, and if the player managed to speak with Gogo with the correct party member they are disguised as, Gogo will join your party. However, this idea was scrapped by the developers since they thought it was "too difficult". This also could suggest that the boss, Siegfried, was Gogo earlier in development.^[7]

Gogo received mixed reception, mainly because of how difficult it is to use them in battle. Critics have praised his mimic abilities, with Brighton Nelson of The Gamer saying that "he is a very fun character to have in your party" and also calling them an "incredibly versatile character". GameRant however, called Gogo a "pretty useless" character, but he doesn't think Gogo is as bad as Umaro, but not by a significant margin.^[8]

Similarly, three writers known as Joey, Erin, and Jillian on Final Fashionista heavily criticized Gogo for their outfit, with Jillian stating that they “look like a post-shopping spree explosion at Jo-Ann Fabrics”. Erin similarly agreed, saying that “the lack of symmetry bothered him”, referring to the horn poking out of the top of the outfit.^[9]

But despite their very small role, Gogo has gained a ton of attention from theorists, with many of them trying to speculate Gogo’s real identity. The most popular theory is Darill, Setzer’s dead girlfriend who died in a plane crash, and the crash was aligned with triangle island, the place where the Zone Eater enemy is, which notably contains Gogo. However, all of these theories were debunked by the creators, with Yoshinori Kitase simply stating that they have no identity or backstory, as that intentionally remains a mystery.^[10]