Video Game / Clash: Artifacts of Chaos

The third entry in the Zeno Clash series, Clash: Artifacts of Chaos is a Beat 'em Up that switches the perspective from the first person in the prior two games to third person and introduces a new protagonist; a martial artist hermit known as Pseudo.

In the land of Zenozoik there is One Law, enforced by the warlord Gemini and her minions, that all must partake in the Ritual; a game of chance and strategy played with dice and point-altering stakes known as Tchaks, and the titular Artifacts, items that determine the stakes of the game. From this One Law there is relative order, at least enough that Gemini's reign remains.

As the story begins, Pseudo bears witness to the accidental death of an old man at the hands of a bandit Zeno, and must step in to guard and care for his orphaned grandson, only known as The Boy, who bears a remarkable curse. Attempting to help him get returned to his brother in their village, Pseudo quickly learns that Gemini is after the Boy to use his power to save herself; four of her six heads are dormant, the fifth is weak, and the sixth may not last much longer.

Refusing to give up his new charge, Pseudo embarks on a journey to defeat her and her minions to save the Boy's life.

The game was released for the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC and Xbox Series X|S.

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Clash: Artifacts of Chaos contains examples of the following tropes:

• Anarchy Is Chaos: The inhabitants of Zenozoik live in a violent anarchy. The One Law is only in place because Gemini has the strength to back it, if she ever were to fall the law would fall with her. As it has by the time of Zeno Clash 1
• Arc Villain: The Director becomes the primary threat during the Zonectic mountains section of the game, with his Theater troupe constantly harassing both you and The Boy's few remaining family members/tribesmen.
• Artifact of Doom: Gemini's ability to maintain the One Law and the ritual is based not just on her physical strength, but the Artifact of Pain, the Prime Artifact from which all others get their power. Said artifact allows her to take the first strike on an opponent with her weapon; The Macuahuitl, a bladed club more than powerful enough to kill most Zenos.
• Artifact of Hope: The bulk of Pseudo and the Boy's quest is finding four Great Shield Artifacts, which can counteract the powerful artifacts held by Gemini and her palace guards.
• Bittersweet Ending: By the end of the game Pseudo manages to defeat Gemini and claim her artefact, becoming the de-facto ruler of Zenozoik. After their journey, Pseudo accepts the Boy as his son and the Boy accepts Pseudo as his father. But then, in the middle of the night, Kax-Teh decides to take the Boy across the ocean to humanity. Although Pseudo tries to fight Kax-Teh for the return of his son, the Boy stops him before Pseudo kills himself with the Golem's link. In the end the Boy agrees to go with Kax-Teh despite knowing he'll be experimented on for the rest of his life. The next morning Pseudo preforms his first and last act as ruler of Zenozoik. Abolishing the One Law and dooming Zenozoik to lawless anarchy.
  Pseudo: "While there is no justice... There will be no Law."
• Butt-Monkey: Two of the recurring Zenos fit the bill. The first is Bhlag, the (mostly accidental) murderer of Grandpa who is swiftly dealt with, in all his appearances after he's coated in lumps and nasty bruises and is no more difficult to dispatch. The other is Ekeke, a birdlike Zeno who claims he's powerful and frightening, but is a total wimp who typically hangs around much larger and stronger Zenos to improve his odds - Zenos that typically end up knocking him out for you.
• Cast of Snowflakes: As is traditional for the series, the majority of enemies are completely unique in appearance and moveset. Many aren’t even the same specific subspecies as one another.
• Call-Forward: The game enjoys these greatly.
  • Grandpa and the Boy are members of Father-Mother's species.
  • Another advanced ship exactly like the one from the ending is later found crashed into the ground in Zeno Clash 2.
  • Claw is a master of the same martial art that Hunter will later use in Zeno Clash, down to using it with one hand behind his back.
  • Kax-Teh appears as a much younger, much less refined version of himself, still fusing with his Golem technology.
  • The title of "Word" is revealed to be an honorary name taken up by scholars of history, a reference to the Chimera you meet in Zeno Clash 2 who shares said name.
  • The source of the strange whale carcass (and later skeleton) seen in the previous two games is actually either Word himself or a descendant.
• Catch and Return: With appropriate timing, Pseudo can catch and toss back anything thrown at him, rocks, boomerangs, balls of non-descript energy, anything an enemy can throw.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Ghat and Rimat’s humanity was actually a plot point in the second game. Pseudo is utterly bizarre even by Zeno standards, looking nothing like any other Zeno. Pseudo also seems to have no connection to The Family. And finally, he’s much more levelheaded and friendly than the previous main characters.
• Crapsack World: It was revealed by Word and Kax-Teh that the world in and outside of Zenozoik is dying.
• The Beastmaster: An opponent, only called Beastmaster, fights with his pet gargantuan wild boar,
• Big Bad: Gemini, a multiheaded giant who is responsible for the One Law. She is slowly dying, one head at a time, and wants the Boy as he represents a chance to save her remaining heads.
• Defeat Means Friendship: In a sense. Using a Pact Artifact during the Ritual and winning binds an opponent to fight alongside Pseudo in a future battle, provided he uses a Summon Artifact and wins that Ritual. These can even be used to summon a Zeno who you're about to fight.
• Determinator: Pseudo goes to great lengths to keep the Boy safe, but somehow even more determined are the band of Zenos attempting to steal him in the hopes of a reward from Gemini. You fight the same dozen or so mercenaries multiple times in different combinations throughout the world. No matter how badly beaten by Pseudo they all become by the end, even the weakest of them never, ever stop trying.
• Degraded Boss: Every major enemy can be refought in Pseudo's dreams where they each take on a wooden form like the standard enemies do. Typically these fights are much easier than the initial ones, though the Director and the Outcast both come in a trio. They generally only appear after you've taken on the original, the possible exceptions being Nightmare Wrehgg, Nightmare Claw, Nightmare Moon-Sun and Nightmare Gemini, the latter three granting Pseudo pieces of the Northern Armor set.
• The Dragon: Dragons, Gemini protects herself with three extremely strong Zenos, the hulking, elephant-like Wrehgg, the lightning-fast Claw, and the hammer-wielding Moon-Sun, all of which are fought at different points.
• Dream Sequence: The night levels take place in Pseudos dreams, though they have inexplicable effects on the real world, such as thorns burned in the dream vanishing in the real world.
• Dream Walker: It’s not clear exactly how it works, but Pseudo's consciousness can leave his body, either willingly (by sleeping) or unwillingly (by death). This spirit form exists simultaneously in the real world and the world of dreams, having to fight off both real world assailants as well as nightmares. If, after death, he manages to fight through all that and get back to his body, he is brought back to life.
• Dungeon Shop: Two vendors in the game, Moozhaw the Maker, an aged Zeno who facilitates fights with his weapons and gear rather than getting into them, and later on Eo the Trader, who deals mainly in dice and Tchaks. Both of them have a tendency to turn up at their stalls long before you get there, even in dangerous areas full of aggressive wildlife.
• Dying Race: The Boy and Grandpa (and the Boy's brother, Voota-Yan) are part of a dwindling species of bird people. By the time of Zeno Clash 1, only their descendant, Father Mother, will remain.
• The Exile: On the coastline lives a former partner of Gemini's, who gathered artifacts alongside her but was banished when she rose to power, forbidding anyone to even speak his name. Even when Pseudo and the Boy catch up with him he's only referred to as The Outcast, his real name is never revealed.
• Face Death with Dignity: When Bhlag invokes the ritual, Grandpa accepts without question, even as the Boy begs him not to.
  Grandpa: "We are not Corwids, child. This is the only law, and we must obey it. Let's get it over with, stranger."
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Corwids are too insane to recognize the One Law, and so it is skipped when you encounter them; the fight starts right away.
  • The notable exception being the Corwid Axylon, who accepts the challenge, but immediately after eats some of the dice and declares himself the victor. The way he vomits up even more dice during his fight says he's being doing so for a while.
• Glory Hound: A goose-like Zeno, Verruk, can be overheard talking about how his bringing Gemini the Boy will see him revered as a hero, an example for all to follow and bring about a new age of prosperity in Zenozoik.
  • Kroggo Longtooth, a Zeno based on the prehistoric Platybelodon, is of a similar mindset, sincerely believing that Gemini and the rest of Zenozoik will see him as a great hero.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: The Director became convinced the world was essentially a stage play with a “correct” sequence of events after being exposed to the Harmony of the Spheres and not taking it as well as Pseudo did.
• Hopeless Bossfight: During the first boss fight, you initially play as Grandpa. He is quickly killed regardless of how well you fight, forcing Pseudo to step in to protect The Boy and begin his journey.
  • The final boss is also this. Kax-Teh can't be defeated, his linking power causes Pseudo to take damage as he does, and no matter how much punishment the two of them endure, it's always the Golem that comes out on top.
• Idiosyncrazy: Corwid of the Free return, and are just as insane as ever. Their philosophy consists of picking something you find satisfying, making it your “Corwid Focus” and then letting it completely overtake your life until nothing else is left. In this, they believe, is enlightenment.
• I'm a Zenotarian: The chicken-like and extremely obese Tsiu Kotopol makes regular reference to how much he'd like to eat Pseudo, both during the Ritual and during battle. His size implies he's done it before, and he claims that he doesn't care if one day he's the one to be eaten, so long as he can eat his fill of other Zenos while he's alive.
• Ki Attacks: Shadow Style lets Pseudo channel his inner energy into small, short range explosions.
• Living MacGuffin: The Boy. His powers make him the target of Zenozoik’s power players, especially Gemini. The entre plot revolves around trying to get him to safety.
• Living Statue: The Shadows return, in an extremely unrefined form, looking craggier than in their other appearances. Like always, they either rise from the ground or pretend to be statues until an intruder approaches.
• Lost Technology: Left behind by The Precursors, usually built out of granite and gold. Most of it is inoperable, but in the Amokuali region you can find the autonomous Living Statue Shadows, automated energy weapon defenses, and more. The training dummies also are said to be the product of these precursors.
• Might Makes Right: Zenozoik runs on this. Even the One Law just applies this concept to a dice game, with the losers being forced to abide by whatever Artifact rules the winner put in place. Some people, like Tarnas, are very happy with this arrangement. The majority are not, but the world brutally puts down most attempts at organization unless someone formidable like The Director is leading them, and even then they enforce order through violence.
• Mr. Exposition: Once he's awakened, Word the historian proceeds to fill Pseudo and the Boy in on how Zenozoik is a preserve to hold the chimeras and mutated creatures that populate it, whether or not they fully understand it.
• The Nothing After Death: Discussed Trope. The Boy and Pseudo have a conversation on what happens after death. Due to Pseudo’s issues with feeling like he’s an empty/fake person, he states he thinks death is complete oblivion.
• Our Monsters Are Weird: The Zenos featured in Clash are arguably the strangest yet, and look particularly grotesque and mutated to reflect that this iteration of Zenozoik is somehow even more violent and chaotic than normal, mainly because this is a distant prequel
• Parental Substitute:After Grandpa is killed in the tutorial fight, Pseudo takes over his role as The Boy’s protector and caretaker.
• Plot-Triggering Death: Grandpa dying forces Pseudo to take The Boy under his wing, which in turn sets the entire plot in motion.
• The Precursors: Zenos are not the first civilization to have inhabited Zenozoik, and the Golem is a creation of those precursors. Zenozoik is actually just a small part of the world, fenced off; the precursors are simply the people who used to live in the reservation before it was cleared out.
• Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: In larger skirmishes your enemies will typically trip over one another, leading to lots of accidental friendly fire. Thrown rocks, shot projectiles, wide swings and even regular punches can have Zenos flattening others in the midst of battle.
  • The Fog Artifact weaponizes this. The blinded enemies will swing at anything nearby, usually hitting their teammates.
• Silent Antagonist: Claw, one of Gemini's guards, never says a word before any of Pseudo's three encounters with him. After he's defeated at Gemini's palace he starts to go into a monologue about why he works for Gemini, Pseudo promptly kicks him unconscious to make him shut up.
• The Social Darwinist: Tarnas, one of the mercenaries sent after you. He enjoys the chaos of Zenozoik, as it allows him to live true to his warped ideals of crushing the weak underfoot.
  Tarnas: "Nature is not peaceful. Nature is at war. It is fornication and asphyxiation; it is fighting for survival. It is growth and rot, misery and fear."
• Skeletons in the Coat Closet: Zenozoik has no taboo about bones, and many sets of armor and weapons are made from parts of (or sometimes entire) skeletons.
  Moozhaw the Maker: "One day my bones will be weapons, and I will live in the battle."
• Stealth Prequel: The game is actually set an unfathomably long time before Zeno Clash. It details Zenozoik's final descent into total anarchy with the death of the One Law, and Kax-Teh acquiring his linking ability he will later use to take over Zenozoik.
• Stone Punk: Zenozoik is extremely primitive, with the only advanced strictures being things built by The Precursors. They have no currency, no recognizable language system, literally a single law in the entire land, and no leadership. What tools they do have are often made of bone. The even lower technology level than normal, such as the relative lack of firearms, is a hint that this is a prequel.
• Token Human: While the previous games had very few human characters, this entry outdoes them by having only one obvious human, Tarnas. It's possible that Moon-Sun and Claw are also human but it's hard to tell underneath their masks and armor.
• Video Game Caring Potential: Moozhaw can make three outfits for the Boy to solve three problems; a coat to keep him warm, a mosquito hat to keep the bugs off him and a respirator to keep pollen out of his nose. None of these affect gameplay and the Boy can endure with some complaints, but it feels so much better to take care of him.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Both the Corwid Axylon and the historian Word vomit on screen, one in gameplay, one in a cutscene. One is stunned by it during his fight, the other regurgitates the Great Shield Artifact that the Outcast threw into his mouth.
• Walking Spoiler: Pseudo's rarely-mentioned master is Kax-Teh, not yet the North Golem, but pulling strings for the world outside Zenozoik. The Artbook even mentions that lengths were nearly taken to disguise his identity, but his voice is so distinctive they simply couldn't hide his inclusion.
• Wild Card: Eo tends to play all sides against each other. As an example, in his Establishing Character Moment he first tries to buy the Boy off of Pseudo to give to Gemini, then immediately pivots to selling gear to Pseudo when it becomes clear Pseudo won’t sell the boy, and then is implied to be selling increasingly strong Ritual gear to the very mercenaries chasing you. As he explains later when he sets you down the path to find The Outcast, Gemini’s status quo has been terrible for business (she basically owns everything and anything, if she chooses to enforce her will) so he is trying to destabilize Zenozoik through the only means available to him.