Zhectast (ゼクタスト), is one of the Old Gods threatening to destroy Shiokawa, Japan. Its summoning ritual involves placing a biohazard canister containing a spherical object (presumably a piece of the meteor it arrived in) in the centre of a sigil.
Zhectast is not unlocked by default. To unlock Zhectast, one must unlock the "do something" Achievement, requiring the player to win their seventh playthrough.
Descriptions[]
Old God / Pre-playthrough Selection Screen[]
"A big meteorite fell down on a field in a village near SHIOKAWA. A farmer who found it contacted researchers from Tokyo, but when they arrived, all they found was a wet puddle of pinkish goo."
Appearance[]
According to the tooltip, Zhectast resembles a sphere of organic matter with various drippings off of it. In the intro description, it appears to be a skull with flesh melting off of it, with one eye having two pupils; however, this may be it processing the farmer said to have found the meteor containing Zhectast melting into a pinkish slurry of biological raw material.
Zhetcast's purpose is to transform the biosphere of Shiokawa, Japan into a fleshy dome called the Perfect Form, meant to protect the gestation of another Old God (or possibly its own adult self). As shown in its 100% DOOM ending, the Perfect Form is a massive construction that covers all of where the devoured Shiokawa used to be. As a side effect of Zhetcast slowly warping the biosphere into the Perfect Form, the human inhabitants of Shiokawa occasionally suffer horrifying but useful mutations such as protective membranes over their eyes, opposing joints in their fingers, and clear, glassy blood that enhances their constitution.
Old God's Rule[]
Perfect Form: Every 21% of DOOM, characters receive -1 to all stats.
Zhectast Events[]
Bad Ending[]
During any playthrough in which Zhectast is the Old God threatening to destroy the world, if your DOOM reaches 100%, or if any of the character stats reaches 0 due to Old God's Rule effect (not STAMINA or REASON), you will be shown a special bad ending.
"Flesh and gore. Skin, strands of hair, bones, insects, flowers, sweat and soil. All in a macabre unity. Melded as one.
Perfect form. A flawless vessel to nurture an infant God."
The final log entries that appear after you are shown this bad ending state that the player's cause of death is "Swallowed by the Perfect Form".
Trivia and Theories[]
- Zhectast is most likely based on The Colour out of Space by HP Lovecraft, wherein a parasitic organism that resembles an unnatural, unknown color in visible light crashes into a small town in a meteor and mutates its inhabitants in ways that seem initially beneficial while it feeds on their life force.
- Zhetcast being an alien creature that merges humanity into one divine organism may also be a reference to the Human Instrumentality Project from Neon Genesis Evangelion.
- As an alien organism that came to Earth on a meteorite and corrupts living beings into an alternate ecosystem, Zhectast is similar to the Elder Evil Ragnorra from Dungeons and Dragons.