Am I really going to write another long post about a dormant JRPG franchise? Of course I am!
Job 88: Sophie Peithos from Xenosaga Episode 1: Der Wille zur Macht
Xenosaga is a... saga... of three episodes released on the PlayStation 2. As you may recognize from the name, it is part of the overarching
Xeno series, consisting of
Xenogears, Xenosaga, and
Xenoblade Chronicles, as well as their derivative works.
Xenosaga, like the other three, was developed by Monolith Soft. However, it was published by Namco rather than Square (as with Gears) or Nintendo (Blade). While its only release on a Nintendo console was a Japan-exclusive, KOS-MOS, one of the main characters is often present in games made by Monolith Soft. As eloquently stated in the KOS-MOS support thread, she is Namco's baby. It can also be argued that one of Mythra's down taunts is directly inspired by KOS-MOS's iconic victory animation in the first
Xenosaga game. A little less of a stretch are the two blades' pendants, which are shaped like the Zohars of the
Xenosaga games.
I have chosen
Xenosaga as our boss representative because, honestly, I don't play many third party games. But! The series has a long history that definitely cannot be ignored. The series helped Monolith Soft cement its legacy as a strong developer. I also believe that having a boss from this series would be a left field kind of pick similar to Rathalos.
2. What is Sophie Peithos?
Pictured: A swarm of Gnosis in space.
To keep it simple, Sophie Peithos is a type of Gnosis. Gnosis are a hostile alien species that threatens to wipe humanity from the universe, forcing corporations and governments to develop anti-Gnosis utilities, such as KOS-MOS. Normally, they are visible to the human eye but unable to physically touched. This means that without any type of way to bring them into our field of existence, we are basically defenseless. The Hilbert Effect can negate this, however, and allow them to be physically harmed and killed. Their main method of attack is through turning their victim into salt. There are many types of Gnosis, as you can imagine, and they have different attacks, appearances, and names.
Warning: some spoilers ahead! I tried to keep it as vague as possible but a spoiler is a spoiler!
Sophie Peithos in particular is the final boss of the first episode of
Xenosaga, Der Wille zur Macht. The name comes from a mistranslation of the
Sophia Pistis, an Gnostic text detailing the structures of Heaven. While Sophie Peithos is indeed a Gnosis, it is directly created after one of the villains of the first game, Albedo, is defeated. After monologuing to the protagonists, Albedo creates Sophie Peithos by merging the reactor core of the battleship Proto Merkabah with a huge fr*cking Gnosis. As villains do in episodic media, Albedo gets the heck out while the protagonists fight with the massive thing. To be honest, I am only in the middle of Episode 2, so I don't know if there are more iconic Gnosis than this thing. There are other important villains, especially one beginning with T and rhyming with Shellos, but they don't fit previous Boss Sphere bosses so here we are.
As pictured in the first image, Sophie Peithos is HUGE. It would be similar to the size of other bosses, such as Ganon or Giga Bowser. As such, its speed will be comparable to the former. As there aren't too many attacks to draw from, I'll have to make some inferences and guesswork as I did with my previous submission, Homunculus γ. Let's pretend that the Hilbert Effect is active and not have to worry about hitting an intangible boss.
Sophie Peithos moves around by floating in the stage. It is capable of moving to the background briefly to launch some of its devastating attacks, but that will come later. Its primary attacks will be to swipe with its arms, which deals a decent amount of damage if you are not careful. Unlike other bosses, actually touching the Gnosis will deal slight amount of damage (0.5% per second), as a reference to their ability to turn people into salt. Now we can begin discussing some named moves that reference the game itself:
Swarm P: Sophie Peithos has two options here: stay on the edge of the screen, or move to the background. In either case, it will take aim at the player and fire a shot of black particles (bugs? blood?). This can be dodged with a roll or air dodge, but if it hits, it will deal around 15% of damage.
Shadow Rain E: Similar to Swarm P, but it has a wider range and is harder to dodge. It will always come from the foreground with Sophie Peithos glowing an eerie dark purple before unleashing the attack. If it hits directly, it will deal 20%.
Column of Light E: Imagine Palutena's up smash. Like Swarm P, this can come from the foreground or the background. It will aim at the player, with dark spots appearing at the bottom of the stage detailing where the columns will come from. It will fire between 2 and 4 columns in succession, with each dealing around 18% of damage.
Summon Gnosis: Sophie Peithos again has two options here. It can summon two different types of Gnosis. The first,
Jaldabaoth, is a tapeworm like beast that follows the player around. It can be defeated with a strong attack, like a Smash Attack. It is best to dispose of these quickly, as once they start to glow, they will self destruct, dealing around 35% of damage if hit directly. If they are hit once, if they are not defeated immediately, they will start preparing to self destruct. The second,
Ratatosk, is a cocoon like object that orbits around Sophie Peithos itself. It turns into a beetle-like beast and turns around to use Demagogue E/S, which deals around 5% of damage, but deals a new effect with similar visuals to Joker's curse effect. This will cause all special attacks to deal less damage, thus it is vital to defeat Ratatosk as soon as possible if you are relying on specials. They have less health than Jaldabaoth, so it should be easier to do so.
Dark Omen: Easily the strongest attack in Sophie Peithos's arsenal. It will float to one side of the screen and charge a laser from the absorbed reactor core. Think of it to be similar to Marx's big laser. Can be dodged, but if hit, it will hit multiple times for a total of 50% damage.
While there are other moves to pull from, these are the ones that deal damage. The rest deal status effects and having the one status effect I think is enough.
The entrance will be rather cinematic, with Albedo standing on top of the reactor. He will say "Entertain me, if you will!" and open the reactor. He then enters his AGWS mech and flies away, with the Gnosis emerging.
The stage it will be encountered on is a dark, mechanical area. However, once Albedo opens the reactor revealing Sophie Peithos, the stage will morph into a bright, heavenly location. It is completely flat with no platforms, similar to other boss arenas.
When Sophie Peithos is defeated, it will glow in various colors and begin distorting, similar to the Gnosis death animations in
Xenosaga.
Ideally, the music played will be
Last Battle from
Xenosaga Episode 1, as it is the only other battle theme in the game aside from the normal one.
That's about it for Sophie Peithos! Please consider voting for it and play
Xenosaga.
![Sonic Generations: Death Egg Robot [1080 HD] - YouTube](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2aIeZm-LYXU/maxresdefault.jpg)
(replaces the Galleom fight, not Dr.Wily/Alien)
