Gnosia Secret Ending guide: how to unlock the true ending

Indie darling Gnosia has found itself a rather passionate niche lately. Fans have been eagerly discussing almost every aspect of it on social media, and we even have our own glowing review of this unique title. It’s a ton of fun to discover Gnosia's secrets on your own, but did you know that the game has one last secret waiting for those with a keen eye?

We're talking, of course, about a hidden secret ending, onw which you might consider the true ending. On this page, we explain how to get it.

Naturally,  the following will contain spoilers for the end of Gnosia, so if you want to experience the game without any bit of outside knowledge until you reach the credits for at least the first time, then it’s a good idea to bookmark this for later. We'll try to keep it as vague as possible, but we are discussing endings here.

How to reach the secret, true ending in Gnosia

To be honest, for those that have already completed the game, knowing that there’s a secret ending at all could be enough to help you to find it if you're particularly clued-in - but in our experience, figuring this out on your own is pretty obtuse. So here's how it works.

When you see the credits roll (which requires you to fill out every character’s data screens), you’ll be given a brand new title screen. However, there’s a noticeable exclusion. This makes sense given what just happened in the story, but maybe you’ve found yourself lacking some much needed closure with Setsu’s story? There’s no real hint that you can do this, but you certainly can finally close the loops for good with a bit of creativity. 

Once you “finish” the game, start a new one. This part is important, make sure both your name and color icon are the exact same as your first playthrough. Your stats don’t matter here, you can mess with them as much as you wish but it won’t effect unlocking the secret ending. Also, you don’t even need them for what you’re about to do!

You’ll begin the game as you first did, but now when Setsu is asking if you understand them you have a new third option. This is based on the option you picked during their Let’s Play event in the main story. For me it was fishing with Otome, but it could be watching movies with Shigamechi for you.

Saying this will make them realize that you’ve retained your memories, and will now activate the secret ending path. Now all you need to do is sit back and enjoy as the game ties up some of it’s final loose ends! There are some small dialogue choices to make along the way, but they won’t effect anything. You earned this, and are even rewarded a new title screen!