Zeno Clash 2

Zeno Clash 2

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Zeno Clash 2 Plot Questions [SPOILERS]
Hi, everybody, I just finished Zeno Clash 2 yesterday, and, after doing some extra reading looking for plot details and such, I'm still intrigued by the world of Zenozoik. I must say that ACE Team did a fantastic job when it comes to world building.

I hope a dev sees this and responds if possible, but if not, I'd still like to discuss some plot details with the community.

Ok, on to the questions/plot details:

SOME SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW

By now, I already know that the world of Zenozoik is supposed to be Earth, with the actual Zenozoik being in Chile (I can't believe I didn't pick that while playing the game; the Moai on the West border/the island should have been a dead giveaway). I also know that there is a civilized world beyond the borders, which collectively decided to ban the chimeras to the land of Zenozoik.

Now, my questions (not sure if I should called them questions, it's more like things that left me intrigued) relate to the nature of the outside world, and some of its history. Like, what caused the chimeras to start appearing? I'm not talking about those created by the East Golem, but about the ones that got banished to Zenozoik (after all, the Lost Tomb talks about the early Zenos being chimeras). Also, why did the world decide to banish them to their own land, and, more specifically, why the region of Chile? Something must have clearly happened there, which is why the world decided to use it as a chimera reservoir/prison. After all, I don't think any country would willingly give their land to a bunch of savage monsters, which is how the chimeras were seen (or at least that's what the game implies).

I also have curiosity about the Zenos' history. I find it somewhat fascinating that they've apparently devolved, becoming more brutal, considering that there used to be Zenos that kept a written record of their history. It makes me wonder what caused them to forget pretty much all of civilization.

And then there's the Golems, and the current state of the outside world. The game seems to imply that the Golems are humans who volunteered to become cyborgs or something similar in order to watch the borders of Zenozoik, perhaps for all eternity. Even then, they don't seem to recall their past lives, at least, that's what it seems like to me. They simply got bored on the job, and while the East and West Golems died, the South and North Golem decided to mess with Zenozoik. Something that makes me curious is that, during the final battle, the Golems talk about how they lost contact with the outside world, and when Kax-Teh is about to kill himself along with Xotl-Teh, saying that "they" would send replacements, Xotl-Teh says something along the lines of "it could take years for them to arrive". This makes me wonder if something else happened in the outside world. Even though we do see what appears to be a city during the battle with Kax-Teh in Beyond EndWorld, there doesn't seem to be any activity on it, and the red tone of the sky doesn't make it look like the outside world is doing well.

As a final point, there is FatherMother. I still feel pretty torn in my opinion about him. On one hand, what he did is terrible, but after hearing his story, I kind of feel sad about him. We have a creature that's older than most (if not all) Zenos alive, and that is the last of his kind. Not only that, he's the only one of his kind, as far as he knows.

Well, I think that's enough for now. Once again, I must congratulate ACE Team for the fantastic job they did on the game; I really enjoyed the story, and would love to see more of Zenozoik.
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Showing 1-7 of 7 comments
[ACE] cbordeu  [developer] 24 Jun, 2016 @ 7:43am 
Hi Nico-Kun, glad to see you enjoyed the game and I must say you really dived deep into the story. :)

I can't really answer all those things because some questions are meant to remain unanswered or would be part of another story / game. Why the chimeras came to be, what the outside world is going through and geographically why Chile was selected - all this things are mysteries that are unknown to the Zenos and would be suited for another adventure.

One thing I can say is that this is set in a very, very distant future - so many things could have happened in the world, to the point where whole countries or nations might have dissapeared. Geographically the Chile we know now is where the Zenos are, but this doesn't mean that the country / nation still existed by the time the chimeras appeared.

That the Zenos devolve over time has a lot to do with the fact that the chimeras are multiple different types of creatures - not one specie alone. With that amount of diversity, bringing them all together to live in harmony is a very difficult task. Not all creatures are equally intelligent, and whatever attempts that there might have been to live in a more civilized way could have easily been destroyed by wars, tribalism, etc.

Your take on the Golems is pretty accurate, and is something that is also meant to be answered elsewhere. The world has probably changed enourmously during their stay in Zenozoik and is probably a strong reason for their boredom which could also come from a feeling of abandonment.

Finally: about Father-Mother... yes, we wanted him to be a character that was always in this "grey area" in terms of his morality. We didn't want an obvious evil character.

Thanks for the congratulations. Glad you enjoyed the game! Right now we're working on the sequel to Rock of Ages. Maybe one day we'll be able to revisit and explore more the world of Zenozoik.
Thanks for the reply! I figured you wouldn't be able to answer everything, gotta keep the world of Zenozoik mysterious, after all. I guess if everything was spelt out it would kind of lose its charm. Even then, I can't help but wonder what happened to the world, I guess if you ever make a Zeno Clash 3 I might get more details, but I understand that you're now busy with Rock of Ages 2. By the way, the first Rock of Ages is great, but I haven't finished it yet; some of the latter levels are really challenging to me, I really love the humour you've put into it, and the art style as well.

Going back to Zeno Clash 2, I guess the fact about Zenos being different species makes sense for the devolving, but something that now pops into my mind are the Restorers, like Word. It seems they were tasked with keeping the history of Zenozoik alive, at least to my understanding, but for some reason they remind me of the shadows; as in, they seem like mechanical creatures, rather than biological ones. I wonder if they were built by the early Zenos while they retained some sort of intelligence, or if they were sent to the outside world, or if they're actually chimeras. And they seem to be the oldest creatures in Zenozoik, besides the Golems, so they must know about the previous world, which is what makes them more intriguing, in my opinion.

As for FatherMother, I'd say you did a great job in making a morally grey character. I really felt pity for him after hearing his story, and even more so after his "test", when he's lying on the floor.

One more thing, I really liked the Hunter. I know he didn't show up in Zeno Clash 2, but still... There's something about bounty hunters that simply makes them cool in my opinion, and the fact that the Hunter was blind made him more interesting, not to mention he was a badass in hand-to-hand combat as well.

As a final note, I must add that I feel really happy to see a Chilean dev having the success that you have. I'm Argentinian, so we're like neighbours, and it's good to see that South America has something to offer when it comes to gaming.
[ACE] cbordeu  [developer] 24 Jun, 2016 @ 11:14am 
Saludos! Me imagino que debes estar impaciente por ver el resultado de la copa América (Chile vs Argentina). Que gane el mejor! ;)

*** Spanish mode off ***

The Restorers aren't mechanical... maybe they look a bit like that because they wear a lot of armor with strange pieces, but they are living beings. They don't need to be as old as the Golems since they act as a group or cult in which knowledge is passed on to others.

The foot collector is the bounty hunter of ZC2, though I agree that the Hunter is awesome. In any case the Hunter does appear in ZC2 - just not in the main campaign. He is very deep in the challenge mode (I think he's almost the last enemy).
Originally posted by ACE cbordeu:
Saludos! Me imagino que debes estar impaciente por ver el resultado de la copa América (Chile vs Argentina). Que gane el mejor! ;)

Si, así es, este domingo la voy a ver. :)

Originally posted by ACE cbordeu:
The Restorers aren't mechanical... maybe they look a bit like that because they wear a lot of armor with strange pieces, but they are living beings. They don't need to be as old as the Golems since they act as a group or cult in which knowledge is passed on to others.

The foot collector is the bounty hunter of ZC2, though I agree that the Hunter is awesome. In any case the Hunter does appear in ZC2 - just not in the main campaign. He is very deep in the challenge mode (I think he's almost the last enemy).

Yeah, I found the Hunter in challenge mode. It was nice seeing him again. And now that you mentioned him, I was wondering about the Foot Collector, since he showed up at random when I was playing the game. I didn't put much thought into him, though, since he was just someone else to beat up. :P

And thanks for the explanation on the Restorers. They did look a bit weird to me, and reminded me of the Elite Shadows. Guess it's just their armour, as you say. And now you leave me wondering, if the Restorers are still at large, why haven't they tried to organize Zenozoik? They do seem to be a bit more advanced than the rest of its inhabitants, keeping track of their story and all. And while we're at it, there's the issue of technology. Even though Zenozoik tech is very primitive, they've still managed to build some impressive things! After all, they've got firearms and all. So, my question now would be, who builds the technology? Are there people in Zenozoik who make the weapons?
[ACE] cbordeu  [developer] 30 Jun, 2016 @ 8:46am 
The restorers are just a handful of creatures and don't have the capacity or strength to organize Zenozoik. It isn't even clear that they would want to try to do so.

About firearms - Yes some level of understanding of how to build weapons exists in the society (they are not that primitive), but even then the weapons are made mostly of bones or basic materials. They aren't all that powerful (nothing compared to guns in our world).
SpitoCrono 19 Mar, 2023 @ 2:09pm 
After Zeno Clash sat in my Steam library for almost 14 years, I finally beat it and Zeno Clash 2 in the span of a week. Amazing series and reading the developer insights in this thread was very cathartic for me! Thank you, Ace Team. There is a criminally low amount of discussion for these games online. I'm excited to play the new Clash game.
Lirka 20 Mar, 2023 @ 10:30am 
Originally posted by SpitoCrono:
After Zeno Clash sat in my Steam library for almost 14 years, I finally beat it and Zeno Clash 2 in the span of a week. Amazing series and reading the developer insights in this thread was very cathartic for me! Thank you, Ace Team. There is a criminally low amount of discussion for these games online. I'm excited to play the new Clash game.
I did the same thing the last two days! I've had the games since release, but never got around to playing them. I played Clash last week, and finding out it actually takes place before the Zeno Clash games made me finally play those back to back after Clash. And omg, I loved them so much! The lore and universe is incredibly unique, and actually much darker than I was expecting ( I was expecting something more silly I guess).

I don't understand how there isn't more discussion either! I did a search on reddit, but only found some talk on ZC1, which seems like it has grown to be a bit of a niche cult classic, but hardly anything on the other two games. I think ACE had their own forums for a while, so that's probably where all the talk happened.
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