Zanki Zero: Last Beginning is framed as a game with an ensemble cast. We have a group of eight people who are the last survivors after a devastating event wiped out everyone on Earth. They are clones tasked with rebuilding humanity. But this is a game with many twists. There are different layers at play here, hiding elements. One of the biggest secrets is that out of all these characters, one matters more than the others. Sachika is the most critical part of the entire thing, and the game is hinting at that all along the way.
Editor’s Note: There will be all of the Zanki Zero: Last Beginning Sachika spoilers below.
Sachika is one of the most prominent characters in Zanki Zero: Last Beginning from the very outset. When people wake up in the prologue as Haruto, Sachika is the first person he sees. Everyone remarks that her X-Key, the piece of technology embedded in everyone’s belly button that houses their memories and sense of self, looks different. Even though she is 25 years old, just like everyone else, she appears and behaves differently. When she resurrects, she doesn’t age. Already, she’s a bit of a mystery.
But, there are other elements designed to set you on edge from the very outset. Within the first half hour of Zanki Zero: Last Beginning, there is a sense that something is wrong. Sachika shows Haruto her belly button and how it is different. When she does, her eyes change color. Her personality shifts. She says that she is Sachika, but “the Sachika everyone forgot.” As someone goes through the various chapters, it might occur to them that hey, why isn’t Sachika becoming the person you get to play as? Why are we only stepping into the shoes of the seven characters representing the seven deadly sins. It is because Sachika is the catalyst, the heart, the antagonist (unwittingly), and the future.
Years ago, when the cast was young and human, they all knew one another. Sachika, Haruto, Minamo, Rinko, Ryo, Yuma, and Zen were all in the same class. Mamoru was Sachika’s older half-brother and the school doctor. Sachika was the heart of the group that brought them all together. Except there was a murderer named Yosuke Kurosaki was a killer who killed Sachika after he forced the children, the garage kids, to vote which person should die. Each one thought by voting for her, she might be saved and spared. Their memories of the incident were then wiped away.
The real Sachika’s father, Dr. Daichi Terashima, was a brilliant mad scientist who developed MANI’s cloning projects. With the help of his son, Mamoru, he attempted to bring Sachika back, but the first clone wasn’t the “real” her. To get revenge for the kids’ parts in her death and spare clone Sachika from being killed for their father’s X-key tests, Mamoru agreed to help his father kidnap all of them and use them for the Extend project (with its limited lifespans) as revenge. Mamoru was left behind after everything. Throughout the entire game, Mamoru was making the island move to other dungeons. It was only in the last hour, during the chapter where players control Mamoru, that the “real” Sachika personality comes through.
However, while Mamoru was one of the people aiding the “big bad,” the actual villain was hiding inside Sachika all along. When they reach the first Extend Machine, it is discovered that whenever Sachika’s eyes changed color and her demeanor changed, it was her father, Dr. Terashima, taking over. He was hiding in her prosthetic arm all along, and he wants to become a god. In stopping him, the group loses the chance to cure their clone bodies of their limited lifespans. However. Sachika then becomes humanity’s last hope. She is cloned with that first Extend machine and comes back as an actual baby. Then, five years later, when everyone else is unable to be revived again, we learn that she isn’t the only one. Someone else is still out there. And then, while Zanki Zero: Last Beginning never shows us exactly how, it seems like somehow Sachika may have found a way to actually restore the world.
Everything happens because of Sachika. She is the most important person in this new world. She’s the reason the events of Zanki Zero: Last Beginning happened. She’s the one who continues to help set a mood for the group in the past and future. The villain is hiding in plain sight inside of her. Then, at the very end, she becomes our hope for the future.
Zanki Zero: Last Beginning is available for the PlayStation 4 and PC.
