The Remaining Fantasy 7 Followers Who Re-Wrote Destiny

Aerith dies. If you already know one factor about Remaining Fantasy 7, it’s most likely that Aerith dies. The praying woman will get minimize down by the man with the huge sword. There’s a cause why this pivotal story beat is likely one of the most well-known spoilers in gaming: it’s a second that’s regularly surprised gamers since 1997.

Video video games had killed off important characters earlier than Remaining Fantasy 7, however this was totally different. The resonance Aerith had with followers is incomparable, and the emotional influence of her loss of life left many gamers determined for a resurrection. Over 25 years, hearsay turned fable, fable turned hoax, and ultimately hope turned a technique to genuinely save the flower woman from Midgar. That is the within story of the gamers who re-wrote destiny and resurrected Aerith Gainsborough.

Aerith Gainsborough is likely one of the most beloved characters in RPG historical past. First launched as little greater than a flower service provider within the opening hour of Remaining Fantasy 7, she quickly turns into a big determine within the story’s central forged. The revelation that she is the final remaining member of an historic race positions her as important to the plot, however it’s her multi-layered persona that made followers fall in love together with her.

“From the second you meet her she’s charming, she’s very candy, however she has somewhat little bit of spunk right here and there,” says Ally Tamara, a Remaining Fantasy fan and cosplayer from Canada. “And she or he was simply a kind of characters that instantly I personally fell in love with.”

“I believe she’s a extremely, actually improbable character the place you’ll be able to’t decide her primarily based on her look,” says Aequorinn, a UK-based cosplayer. “I form of assumed as a result of she attire actually conservatively, and also you see the photographs of her praying, I assumed she was going to be fairly candy but additionally form of severe and boring and type of self-sacrificial. However then it could not be farther from the reality.”

“I actually like that she’s very teasing,” she provides. “That she’s somebody who does not take issues too severely, or quite she’s vigorous and tries to get everybody else to get pleasure from it alongside together with her.”

Aerith’s loss of life comes out of nowhere, and occurs simply as Remaining Fantasy 7 gears up for its apocalyptic second half. Having realized that villain Sephiroth plans to pressure a meteor to crash into the planet as a part of his try and ascend to godhood, protagonist Cloud and his associates head to the Forgotten Metropolis. There, Aerith will name upon the final word white magic, Holy, which she hopes will shield the world from the upcoming doom. Tragically, Sephiroth fatally interrupts the ritual on the remaining second.

“It was completely earth-shattering,” recollects Tamara. “She was at all times on my crew, at all times. I simply beloved her, it was simply one thing about her character, she was so candy and pure. And for no matter cause, perhaps it’s her persona and simply who she is, it is life-changing. I nonetheless have not gotten over her loss of life years later.”

“Aerith does die activating the Holy spell, so there may be this temptation to think about it as some noble sacrifice, nevertheless it’s actually not,” explains Aequorinn. “It is only a horrible tragedy that occurs. And I believe that is fairly totally different to how loss of life is often dealt with in video video games, actually at this cut-off date. I actually really feel just like the tragedy of it’s encapsulated by that one key art work the place Aerith is trying up on the Highwind. That turns into actually bittersweet for me as a result of she was essentially the most adventurous of the entire celebration. She would have beloved that, however she by no means will get to journey that airship.”

Aerith’s loss of life is a vital and irreversible second within the story of Remaining Fantasy 7. However whereas she could have died within the sport, Aerith endures via fan fiction, fan artwork, and – in fact – cosplay.

“I bear in mind saying to myself as soon as I turned a cosplayer, I used to be about 20 years previous after I truly began, I stated she’s a bucket checklist,” Tamara remembers. “I’ve to do her, but when I do it I’ve to do it at the least right or what I really feel is nice sufficient for me.”

“I really feel like, personality-wise, she’s most likely the character in Remaining Fantasy 7 that I see myself essentially the most in,” says Aequorinn. “So I knew as quickly as I completed the sport that I needed to cosplay her. Not simply to point out my appreciation for a sport I actually loved, but additionally simply because I like the character a lot.

“Since then, the Remaining Fantasy 7 group has turn out to be such an enormous a part of my life, so I really feel prefer it’s made the cosplay actually particular to me.”

The improbable creations of Remaining Fantasy followers are only one a part of Aerith’s story, although. In case you had been ever a faculty child throughout the days of the unique PlayStation, you then’ll nearly actually know that there was a a lot larger thriller round Aerith’s loss of life than simply the best way to create a worthy epitaph.

“I bear in mind after I was in elementary faculty, as a result of considered one of my greatest associates used to play it,” recollects Tamara. “And he stated ‘My brother advised me there is a method that you simply may be capable to carry her again’. And I bear in mind one of many issues he stated to me, that is caught with me that I bear in mind making an attempt […], was you needed to have the max quantity of Phoenix Downs saved up in your stock, in order that method by the point you bought to her loss of life you may resurrect her.

“However that is not all,” she continues. “After her loss of life you needed to get to the subsequent save level, hit begin, and you then hit L1, R1, Circle, and you then’d get the title sequence and it was like ‘Oh, right here she is, she’s magically in your crew’. She’d simply plop onto your menu to select from. And I attempted and clearly it by no means labored.”

Likelihood is, the hearsay you’ve simply learn isn’t the one you realized about out of your faculty good friend or an web message board. You’ll have heard that Tifa will sacrifice herself to avoid wasting Aerith for those who max out the best relationship stat. Or maybe that unlocking Aerith’s remaining Restrict Break earlier than her encounter with Sephiroth will stop her from dying. Or perhaps you heard the one about returning to the Forgotten Metropolis and utilizing Underwater materia to dive into the lake the place Aerith was laid to relaxation, the place you’ll be able to then use a fully-upgraded treatment materia to revive her. All these claims had been totally different, however ultimately they had been all the identical: bogus. False. Unfaithful. There is no such thing as a technique to save Aerith.

It went viral and there was folks upset. There was positively folks upset.

That’s to not say there wasn’t one thing unusual happening, although. Gamers who revisited the church within the Sector 5 slums would generally catch a short glimpse of Aerith. Was it a glitch? Or was it a ghost? After 20 years of hypothesis, a video uploaded in 2019 claimed to have labored all of it out. In line with Oddheader, a YouTuber specialised in online game mysteries, there was truly a grain of fact in one of many longstanding rumours. To resurrect Aerith, he defined, it’s a must to gather three objects – the Earth Harp, Desert Rose, and Information E book – after which combat all opponents on the Gold Saucer’s 3D battle area (together with a secret, invisible fifth enemy). Then it’s a must to give the three objects to the previous man in Kalm, after which head to the ghost of Aerith within the church. Then it’s a must to change your controller port, and eventually hit L1+R1+Circle collectively. That’s the secret to resurrecting Aerith.

“I bear in mind placing the video up,” recollects Randall Rigdon Jr., the creator of Oddheader. “It was the slower time, it appeared. Movies had been doing nice, however after I put that video up, instantly it exploded. It went to one million actually fast. On that first day, I bought some anxiousness about it as a result of I figured it was going to go principally out to my viewers and as an alternative it went out. It went viral and there was folks upset. There was positively folks upset.”

Why had been folks upset? Nicely, the date the video premiered on is an important a part of the story. April 1st. The entire thing was an April Fools joke.

“Nicely, truthfully, the entire video was truly primarily based on a remark that I bought,” explains Rigdon Jr. “I get submissions on a regular basis they usually’re pretend and foolish issues, however that was the primary one the place I checked out that and I used to be like, ‘Nicely, perhaps there’s a glitch. I have never heard of that.’ Then in fact, to search out out that it was false, I used to be like, ‘Nicely, I believed it, so I believe I can persuade sufficient folks that it is true then.’”

The remark, posted on a earlier Oddheader video about Remaining Fantasy 7 mysteries, theorised that giving the Earth Harp, Desert Rose, and Information E book to the previous man in Kalm would revive Aerith’s glitch ghost within the church. It was one other false hearsay, in fact, however Rigdon Jr. noticed a possibility to mix that fable with loads of fact to create a video that wasn’t only a prank, however one thing primarily based on genuinely attention-grabbing trivia.

“I blended plenty of authentic discoveries with pretend discoveries,” he reveals. “It was additionally an excuse to cowl plenty of issues that I had been desirous to cowl, however actually would not slot in a video in any other case. As an illustration, I make an enormous deal about all the additional cross-dressing dialogue that was information mined from the sport, which was discovered a long time later.

“There’s additionally the hidden opponent that might be present in 3D battler,” he provides. “In case you had been to beat all 4 opponents, you get a fifth invisible opponent that at all times kills you instantly. That is actual. I assumed that was so cool.”

Fascinatingly, the weirdest a part of Oddheader’s video is definitely rooted actually. In his faked footage of the resurrection, the music distorts and visuals warp as Aerith says to Cloud “Foolish… Didn’t anybody inform you? This IS Hades.” It’s a line taken straight from Remaining Fantasy 7, albeit from a scene gamers had been by no means meant to see.

“It was largely primarily based on one other discovery the place for those who hack right into a debug room, you may discuss to her and she or he had particular dialogue and there was numerous choices,” reveals Rigdon Jr. “One of many choices, I believe, was like, ‘What is that this place?’ One thing alongside these traces. Then she’s like, ‘Oh, do not you already know? That is Hades.’”

“However that line, ‘That is Hades,’ that turned somewhat little bit of a meme on the channel,” he says. “It was positively like, ‘What if that line was alleged to be within the sport?’ As a result of it might make sense that traces that you’d discover within the debug room had been truly supposed to be within the sport.”

After all, for each fact in Oddheader’s video there’s a lie.

“I full-on faked {a magazine} quote to point out the journal,” laughs Rigdon Jr. “I really feel unhealthy. I quoted all these pretend quotes and attributed them to folks. I am like, I hope they did not get mad discovering out that I faked all these things.”

Then there’s the pretend Sq. worker who tipped him off concerning the L1+R1+Circle code. Anybody suspicious sufficient to run a fast Google would have discovered that their identify, Honto Janai, interprets to “probably not” in English. But it surely wasn’t simply emails and journal proof that wanted to be faked. To create a video, Rigdon Jr. wanted gameplay footage of the resurrection in motion.

“I’ve lots of people coming to me like, ‘Can I get that mod? I wish to use it in my video’,” he says. “A number of the Remaining Fantasy group, truly. I’ve to disclose them. That was all principally animation. […] Like Aerith being there within the scene, she’s principally cropped in from one other scene, so half of the picture is cropped.”

“I bought all of the characters and I actually needed to crop every character out of that font-face and manually place them into place on the dialogue field, after which body by body, I animate the textual content, writing in and every thing,” he explains. “It was actually accomplished body by body. It took me weeks.”

“I had it in order that the audio time warps or time stretches,” he says. “Even doing these sound results and stuff, I used to be like, I do know that PlayStation cannot actually do that on the fly, in actual time, manipulate the audio like that, however that was the enjoyable of the thriller. What if Aerith, you revived her and instantly she’s making your console doing issues that you simply would not count on. So it was positively impressed largely by the concept of creepypastas.”

I am not upset that I’ve perhaps contributed to the online game mythology on the market.

The video went dwell on April 1st, 2019 and shortly turned considered one of Oddheader’s most watched (and most disliked) movies of all time. Whereas many immediately realised the joke and loved the enjoyable, loads of others had been caught up within the hoax.

“I satisfied so many individuals,” Rigdon Jr. says. “I bear in mind when the video went up and I felt unhealthy about it, a journalist, a reporter for Vice tweeted it out and he tagged me. He was like, ‘You probably did it.’ He is like, ‘All these years, I am unable to imagine it.’ Then instantly all these folks replied. They’re like, ‘Verify the date of the video, dude.’”

“What’s so humorous to me, I assumed it was a lifeless giveaway when Aerith on the finish says, ‘Let’s roll, homie.’ I assumed to all people that will be the clear getaway,” he says.

At this time, the video has over two million views, and continues to idiot folks. That doesn’t trouble Rigdon Jr., although.

“I am not upset that I’ve perhaps contributed to the online game mythology on the market,” he says. “That is a part of the enjoyable of video video games, is we like to make up little secrets and techniques and stuff, and a few of them grow to be true and that is actually thrilling. This simply occurs to be a dud. This isn’t a kind of issues, nevertheless it’s enjoyable to be part of that. In case you’re actually a fan of the sport, this shouldn’t be unfamiliar territory. The legend of reviving Aerith has been [around] because the sport has come out. I believe actually because the sport got here out, folks had been making that legend up.”

In its personal method, the legend retains Aerith alive. However whereas it looks as if the ebook is properly and actually closed on any hidden in-game technique of saving Aerith, there may be some fact in the concept that a glitch might be the key to defying loss of life.

In 2013, speedrunner Neohart uploaded a video to his YouTube channel revealing a wild discovery within the PC model of Remaining Fantasy 7. He’d discovered that the cutscene during which you recruit Yuffie is in some way related to your earlier sport over state. That connection could be exploited to ‘warp’ from the Yuffie encounter again to the battle you failed. And that might be nearly any battle; even a boss combat from the very finish of the sport. The potential for speedrunning was apparent, however gamers quickly realised that this ‘Yuffie Warping’ glitch might be used to skip the Forgotten Metropolis and forestall Aerith’s loss of life.

However the results of the glitch is only mechanical. It retains Aerith within the celebration, and she or he could be levelled up and made a significant a part of your battle technique, however she’s nothing greater than a unvoiced warrior. She’s not in any cutscenes, and has no function within the story. She is soulless.

To actually give Aerith life after loss of life, her story needed to be re-written. The code and script of the sport wanted to be modified to help you save her life and combat alongside her to guard the planet. And that’s precisely what occurred.

New Risk is an bold overhaul for the PC model of Remaining Fantasy 7. It’s the work of Stewart Melville, a modder higher generally known as SegaChief, and has a very refreshed strategy to battles, bosses, character development, and synthetic intelligence.

“I believe what I actually needed to do was simply shock folks and simply preserve them ,” says Melville. “Add little issues in and perhaps not doc them simply in order that they’ll uncover them on their very own. That is how the Aerith factor happened initially as a result of I used to be simply engaged on the fight. I did not actually have any intention of doing something story-wise.”

What began as a mod to remix the sport’s fight turned more and more extra superior and complicated. The sport was break up into two pathways – Kind A and Kind B – with Kind B that includes important adjustments to not simply the sport’s mechanics, however its story, too. Close to sufficient each boss is totally different from these within the unique sport. There are model new conversations. Occasions play out in several methods. Even the Wall Market cross-dressing situation is changed with a difficult multi-phase battle in Don Corneo’s dungeon. However the change New Risk is most well-known for is the one which lastly makes the rumours true. It can save you Aerith.

“So initially I simply went with that previous joke, the Phoenix Down, which was a little bit of an eye-roller,” says Melville. “But it surely was often fairly humorous on streams as a result of folks in chat would say that beforehand, ‘Simply use the Phoenix Down,’ after which they’d watch because it truly occurred and also you’d get an excellent pop off on it. However in a while I made a decision to attempt to make it a bit extra seamless, simply attempt to incorporate it into the gameplay mechanics a bit extra.”

Within the present model of New Risk, Aerith is a part of the Jenova Life boss battle that instantly follows her loss of life. After just a few turns of fight, Jenova will resurrect Aerith and use her as a pawn. Killing Jenova with out downing Aerith within the course of triggers a complete new alternate route via the ultimate half of the sport; one during which Aerith stays a core a part of the mission to avoid wasting the planet.

“I simply figured it might be good to have the gameplay mechanic do it quite than have a dialogue choice or one thing, or another requirement that it’s a must to go do a fetch quest or one thing,” says Melville. “I simply needed it to be a bit extra attention-grabbing.”

However understanding the best way to implement Aerith’s resurrection was simply the beginning. Aerith was now alive for the remainder of the sport; that’s hours and hours of story. That meant Melville needed to rewrite the script to acknowledge her survival.

“So after I initially did it, I attempted to maintain the footprint of it as little as attainable,” he says. “Scenes the place all of the characters seem, you simply add a duplicate in and repurpose the dialogue and the animations and you then’re good to go.

“However there was a scene in the direction of the top of disc two which I knew was going to be problematic,” he recollects. “I believe it was Cosmo Canyon, after they begin speaking about Aerith and what she was perhaps doing earlier than she handed away. And I believe that was the large drawback as a result of you’ll be able to’t have that when she’s standing there so it’s a must to consider one thing. So I believe among the finest methods of getting out of a plot gap is to revisit stuff that is gone earlier than and search for one thing that you need to use. And I believe one of many issues was she wasn’t positive what she was going there for and issues like that, so there is a little bit of ambiguity. So I used to be ready to make use of that and repurpose that into the scene after which that appeared to work out.”

You need to watch out about the way you deal with it as a result of you may get a bit too sappy.

Melville had studied artistic writing at college, and that training helped him put collectively Aerith’s new script. “I simply seemed on the dialogue rather a lot, making an attempt to get the patterns and the way it was written,” he says. “It is not how I’d often write dialogue for characters, the best way the sport presents dialogue, and video games themselves have a special method of presenting dialogue to, say, a ebook. So it was only a case of making an attempt to imitate that and get into the rhythm of it in order that it might attempt to match.”

Not lengthy after the sequence within the Forgotten Metropolis, Cloud discovers the house of Professor Ghast; Aerith’s organic father. With Aerith now alive for this second, Melville needed to rigorously re-script the situation with the intention to strike the best tone.

“It is scenes like that I discover a bit extra awkward,” he says. “You need to watch out about the way you deal with it as a result of you may get a bit too sappy, I suppose. You may perhaps get a bit too melodramatic so I attempt to discover a balancing act if I can or simply attempt to not go to 1 excessive to the opposite, attempt to make it too lighthearted or attempt to make it too melodramatic. Perhaps attempt to discover that center floor.”

It was additionally essential to maintain Aerith’s sense of journey alive, too, and so not every thing might be focussed on her relationship with the planet and plot. You get to see her go somewhat wild throughout the siege of Junon when she beats Scarlett over the pinnacle with a chair; a enjoyable reference to Remaining Fantasy 7 Remake. However one of the best instance of New Risk’s strategy to writing could be discovered throughout the flashback to Zack’s loss of life.

“I wanted to discover a place to place every character’s restrict breaks,” says Melville. “So it at all times begins often from a gameplay factor, […] However then I additionally was engaged on a request that folks needed Aerith to be a bit extra concerned within the story previous disc one, so I used to be in search of alternatives to try this. I used to be at Cloud’s scene the place he is speaking about Zack and that is when it clicked that perhaps that is an excellent place for that to be positioned.”

With Aerith now within the celebration, this sequence is not only Cloud placing collectively the final items of his fractured reminiscence, but additionally Aerith lastly discovering the tragic destiny of her boyfriend. As the 2 mirror on the lack of Zack, their remaining Restrict Breaks are unlocked. It’s a poignant technique to conclude their private tales.

Due to New Risk, Aerith lastly will get to journey the Highwind and embrace her love of journey. However regardless of the mod’s recognition and success, Melville often wonders if bringing Aerith again from the lifeless was the best name.

“Generally I remorse including the characteristic in, if that is sensible,” he says. “Say for those who’re speaking about [how] I’ve made some enhancements to how the dialogue’s introduced, after which someone fires again, ‘However you probably did this factor, so how will you say the story’s higher?’ You may by no means say it is an goal enchancment, actually.”

“What I’ve realized over time is that folks have totally different expectations of what they need out of it,” he provides. “Some individuals are replaying it to benefit from the story once more, so a characteristic like that would not be significantly welcome. Different individuals are in search of one thing new and attention-grabbing, or they’ve heard about that characteristic they usually wish to expertise it, issues like that. So it’s a must to preserve all of that in thoughts if you’re making issues like this. However I believe for the remake, they should perhaps watch out about doing issues like that or they’re going to get fairly a little bit of backlash.”

Considerably just like New Risk, the continued official Remaining Fantasy 7 Remake collection is an entire re-imagining of the unique sport. Coping with themes of destiny and future, the re-written occasions see Cloud and Aerith select a really totally different path. Thus far, that has already resulted in Zack surviving his encounter with the Shinra guards who killed him within the unique sport. And so it stands to cause that the upcoming second sport within the trilogy – Remaining Fantasy 7 Rebirth – might go anyplace, together with avoiding Aerith’s loss of life. Simply the potential for that’s already each thrilling and controversial.

“As a lot as I like her and the identical with Zack, seeing him come again I used to be ‘Oh my gosh’, however on the similar time each of their deaths had been so monumental and had such a big impact on the collection that I do not know if I would like them to go that route,” says Ally Tamara. “As a lot as I might like to see them alive, it is an excessive amount of. The whole lot that occurred was meant to occur, and clearly modified lots of our lives and plenty of of our gaming experiences. The truth that so many individuals who speak about Aerith’s loss of life have it up there as one of the vital monumental deaths in a online game speaks volumes.”

“I believe [Aerith’s death] will go forward however perhaps not in the identical place,” says Stewart Melville. “As a result of I believe the entire concept of it was, in case you have a narrative like that the place everyone seems to be conscious of the twists and turns of it, so to talk, you want a method of recreating engagement, simply not understanding the place issues are going to go. And I believe they’ve succeeded in doing that, perhaps in a little bit of a heavy-handed method, however they’ve efficiently made it so that you simply’re not fairly positive what is going on to occur subsequent. However I believe that issues will play out kind of the identical.”

“It could be one thing else,” says Randall Rigdon Jr. about the potential for Aerith surviving. “I’d like to see it. It could positively be a sport changer. I must go make one other April Fools’ video that reveals that you could nonetheless kill her, I suppose.”

What I actually love concerning the remake is that much more individuals are experiencing Aerith as I really feel she was supposed to be.

Whatever the remake’s eventual path, considered one of its enduring legacies can have been offering many, many extra hours for gamers to get to know and admire considered one of Remaining Fantasy’s most iconic and essential characters.

“I believe lots of people do bear in mind her from her loss of life scene within the unique sport, however due to that there is at all times this type of disappointment when folks speak about Aerith, they form of do not speak about how she is within the sport, however they speak about how they felt when she died,” displays Aequorinn. “It is true that it is actually unhappy when it occurs, however what I actually love about particularly the remake is that much more individuals are experiencing her as I really feel she was supposed to be, so that you’re reminded that she is not simply this type of sombre character who goes and sacrifices herself within the sport. She’s not simply headed in the direction of this loss of life sentence, however she’s actually vigorous and she or he simply brings this actually massive sense of journey to Remaining Fantasy 7.”

Regardless of occurring over 25 years in the past, Aerith’s loss of life stays one of the vital memorable and mentioned moments within the historical past of video video games. The emotional influence of her loss is revealing; solely a really unforgettable character might be the place to begin for considered one of gaming’s most persistent city myths, a legion of cosplaying followers, a hoax video with over two million views, and a painstakingly-crafted mod that re-writes her story.

Aerith could have died. However Aerith lives on due to the enduring love of the Remaining Fantasy 7 group.

Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK Information and Options Editor. Dale Driver is the Government Producer of Video Programming.

With particular due to Ally Tamara, Aequorinn, Randall Rigdon Jr., Stewart Melville, @duuken, nalvara, Karasu, Frankie Lollia, HighScore, Jakisaur, Sebbywebz, Jegged.com, Neohart, and Countless.