Against all odds, Mortal Kombat 11 turned out pretty well on the Nintendo Switch. Like many ports from the PS4 and Xbox One, there was always a concern that Netherrealm Studio’s cinematic fighter wouldn’t be able to cut it on Nintendo’s hybrid console. Still, with 60fps performance and all the content you could possibly want, it proved to be a more-than-competent option for Switch owners.
Its direct sequel and semi-reboot, Mortal Kombat 1, aims to crank everything up a couple of notches, boasting stunning visuals and an expanded combat system that lets you call in additional ‘Kameo’ fighters to assist you in battle. After the gameplay reveal at Summer Game Fest, we managed to go hands-on with Netherrealm’s latest effort for roughly 30 minutes and came away utterly gobsmacked. And, honestly? It makes us worried about the Switch version.
IGN’s Summer of Gaming continues and The Xbox Games Showcase is nearly upon us. Fans are hoping to see some positive updates on upcoming console exclusives, and the showcase will be immediately followed by a Starfield Direct where we expect to see more details about one of the most anticipated games of the year.
If you’re wondering when and where you can watch the Xbox Games Showcase livestream and Starfield Direct, we’ve got you covered with all of the details below. You can also scroll down to see our predictions for what Xbox Series X games to expect from the showcase in 2023.
Xbox Games Showcase 2023 Start Time
The 2023 Xbox Games Showcase kicks off on Sunday, June 11 at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET. That translates to 6 p.m. BST if you’re watching from the UK. The showcase will likely last about 2 hours and be immediately followed by about 30 minutes from the Starfield Direct.
IGN will also be hosting a pre-show before the showcase starting at 8:30 a.m. PT / 11:30 a.m ET where we will be discussing the upcoming livestream.
Starfield Direct 2023 Start Time
The Starfield Direct is set to stream live immediately after the Xbox Games Showcase wraps up. That likely puts the start time somewhere around 12 p.m. PT / 3 p.m. ET.
Where to Watch Xbox Games Showcase and Starfield Direct Live
If you want to watch the Xbox Games Showcase and Starfield Direct, IGN will be hosting a stream on our homepage and across our other social media pages. Here’s everywhere you can watch the kick-off of the Xbox Games Showcase on Sunday, June 11.
What to Expect From the Xbox Games Showcase in 2023
Although we don’t know exactly what to expect from the showcase this year, Microsoft has been pretty clear that the event will feature new games as well as updates on AAA titles. Considering that Xbox has a variety of different major exclusive titles that have been in the works for years, this could mean we may end up seeing the likes of of Obsidian Entertainment’s The Outer Worlds 2 and Rare’s Everwild. There’s also a long list of other surprises Xbox could have in store for us.
The other huge game fans are expecting to see more of is Fable 4. After Xbox posted a video featuring glitter trails, it’s likely that we will be getting a decent update about the game at the show. This would be the first we’ve seen of Fable since 3 years ago when the title was first announced.
As for the Bethesda side of the showcase, we don’t anticipate any mention of Elder Scrolls 6 or any of the other games in development. We will likely get some extended gameplay trailers for Starfield as well as further highlights about features within the game.
Sonic the Hedgehog has garnered plenty of success in over 30 years of his career: five animated series, two movies (with a third one on the way), a comic book series by two publishers, and a long-running video game series beloved by gamers of all ages — all culminating into a single mega multimedia franchise. Sonic has had some ups and downs, including the infamous 2006 game that was supposed to reboot the franchise, but now he’s back on the right track following the release of the open-world venture Sonic Frontiers, as well as the release of The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, the visual novel by Sonic Team’s beloved and comical social media department.
With Sonic Origins Plus coming down the wire, adding more to the original compilation of the Sega Genesis titles — and rendering Classic Amy Rose as a playable character for the very first time by audience demand — we’re gonna take a look at some other games like Sonic that you can play right now. Some of them are even inspired by the gameplay styles of the Blue Blur’s adventures. Here are our selections.
You can also check out our list of the best Sonic games of all time.
Freedom Planet
If he showed his feminine side, Freedom Planet is basically what Sonic would’ve been like. It revolves around a spunky dragon girl named Sash Lilac as she ventures with her friends, wildcat Carol and basset hound Milla to stop Lord Brevon from stealing the Kingdom Stone and taking over the galaxy.
Freedom Planet was initially developed as a Sonic fan game using original content made by DeviantArt user Ziyo Ling for the main cast, but creator Sabrina DiDuro eventually turned the game into her own original IP, changing Lilac from a hedgehog into a dragon and replacing Dr. Eggman with a villain whose eyebrows resemble his mustache. Players can control any of the girls they choose, but the game serves as a love letter to the classic Sonic games with the loop-de-loops, hills, ramps, corkscrews, and rock walls present in each level.
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero
In the first HD game of the Shantae series set after the good ending of Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse, the belly-dancing half-genie guardian of Scuttle Town tries to save Sequin Land from destruction after Risky Boots steals the blueprints for Shantae’s uncle’s latest invention, the Dynamo. With the power of her Hair Whip Attack and the ability to transform into different animals through dance, Shantae travels all over the island to collect components for the machine that could either protect her town or destroy it, depending on how it’s used.
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is like Sonic in that the levels are divided into action stages in each zone that can be replayed to obtain new items that are only accessible if you transform into a certain creature. The soundtrack is also kicking thanks to Jake Kaufman and his mix of desert-style music and sound from other genres, like pop and rock.
When her best friend Hogo falls prey to an evil curse that spreads throughout the Crystal Islands, Kaze sets out to find the four titular wild masks to get to the bottom of it, all while dealing with raging living vegetables. Each mask allows the agile rabbit to unleash the powers of the animal guardians of the sky, land, and sea — eagle, tiger, lizard, and shark.
Kaze and the Wild Masks was heavily inspired by the Sega Genesis Sonic titles with the 16-bit-like visuals, though the graphics are crystal clear than those of its ‘90s counterpart. Plus the powers Kaze gets from the masks involve speed, flight, power, and even breathing underwater. Just like Sonic can crouch into a ball like a regular hedgehog and Spin Dash into his enemies, Kaze can use her ears to make them attack like nunchucks and cling to vines in addition to flying.
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
Before Epic Mickey and before Kingdom Hearts, Disney worked with Sega to put out Mickey Mouse’s video game classic, Castle of Illusion. The plotline reads like a Halloween story, as Mickey goes to the titular castle to rescue his beloved Minnie from the witch Mizrabel, who wants to steal Minnie’s youth and beauty a la the Salem Witches of Hocus Pocus.
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse came out a year before Sonic the Hedgehog made its debut, but it does carry a plot device that is similar to the Chaos Emeralds: the Seven Gems of the Rainbow. Just like Sonic has to find the Chaos Emeralds and use their powers stop Dr. Eggman’s plans for world domination, Mickey has to find all the gems in every illusion-riddled room of the castle and utilize them to stop the youthful version of Mizrabel.
In the SNES spin-off set 100 years after the original Mega Man series, Mega Man X takes place in a futuristic world where humans and sentient Reploids live together in harmony. The game centers on an android named X, a member of the Maverick Hunters who, with the help of his partner Zero, has to stop the former military task force’s leader Sigma and the other Mavericks from bringing about human extinction.
Mega Man X feels more like a Sonic game than any original Mega Man title with its engrossing storyline themed around saving the world from robotic destruction. Just as the last level of every zone ends in a boss fight against Dr. Eggman, each level in Mega Man X (which can be played in any order) ends in a boss battle against its respective Maverick.
Cuphead and Mugman venture around Inkwell Isle to collect soul contracts from the Devil’s runaway debtors after Cuphead loses a game to the Devil himself at his casino, forcing the brothers to make a deal with him to have their lives spared if they collect every soul or risk the Devil taking their souls if they fail. Knowing that the debtors won’t turn in their soul contracts easily, the cup-headed brothers gain the power to fire energy blasts from their fingers and take them down.
Players can control Cuphead and/or Mugman through the infamously difficult boss fights and run-and-gun levels much like they can control Sonic, Tails, and/or Knuckles in Sonic Mania and Sonic Origins. The character and world design take direct inspiration from the rubber hose animation style of 1930s cartoons made by Disney, Warner Bros. Cartoons, Fleischer Studios, and MGM Cartoon Studio, among others — much like Sonic was originally designed after Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse, with his current design taking after Bugs Bunny.
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy takes the original Crash games of the PlayStation era and upgrades them with the high-definition CGI graphics of the 2010s. The orange marsupial travels through all the worlds as well as all through time and space to defeat his own creator, Dr. Neo Cortex, and stop him from taking over the world — not to mention rescue his girlfriend Tawna in the first game.
When the original Crash Bandicoot trilogy came out in 1996, critics compared it to the Sonic games with its unique blend of platforming and combat, in that it’s equal parts side-scrolling and equal parts third-person linear. The remakes retained that charm but were made even more cartoonish than the originals.
Cristina Alexander is a freelance writer for IGN. To paraphrase Calvin Harris, she wears her love for Sonic the Hedgehog on her sleeve like a big deal. Follow her on Twitter @SonicPrincess15.
Today, Wholesome Games held its 2023 Wholesome Direct, which featured a whopping 76 games all focused on delivering cozy atmospheres and compassionate messages. Plenty of new games were announced and even more received release dates, new trailers, or other updates throughout the fast-paced showcase. Here are 15 of our favorite games featured in the Wholesome Direct.
Frogsong
Frogsong, the adorable action RPG that takes place in a frog and bug-filled world, is officially out now. The game follows Chorus, a small tree frog who hopes to protect the world despite society’s expectations for other frogs of their size. In the words of Frogsong’s Steam page, it’s a “heartfelt adventure where it’s okay to be small.” During the Wholesome Direct preshow, Frogsong developers Frogteam Games revealed the game’s surprise release on Nintendo Switch, Steam and itch.io.
Venba
Venba, a narrative cooking game focused on South Indian cuisine, finally has a release date, and it’s headed to Steam and Nintendo Switch on July 31. Players assume the role of an Indian mom who immigrates to Canada in the 1980s and explores family, love, and loss through cooking and by restoring lost recipes. During the Wholesome Direct, developers Visai Games showed off more of Venba’s satisfying cooking and painted art style.
Bubblegum Galaxy
In the strategy puzzle game Bubblegum Galaxy, players are tasked with rebuilding the universe by designing colorful planets tile by tile. Playing as the adorably low poly intern Haco, players will also meet a variety of quirky-looking coworkers (and just might discover the reason for the universe’s deletion in the first place) in between designing planets. It doesn’t have a release window yet, but a demo was made available on Steam during today’s showcase.
Unpacking
Unpacking, the cozy organization game that uses simple household objects to tell a story, is finally receiving a mobile port. Released in 2021 on Steam, Switch, Xbox, and PlayStation, Unpacking lets players unpack items into rooms during 8 different stages of the central character’s life. It doesn’t look like Unpacking is receiving any new content or updates, although it’s a welcome way to make a game that we loved more readily available — in our 8/10 review, we called it “moving” (ha) and praised its ability to tell a story without dialogue or visible characters.
Gourdlets
Cozy city building sandbox game Gourdlets allows players to build towns and customize buildings for small creatures called gourdlets to live in. In the past, developer AuntyGames has shown off the adorable gourdlets playing chess, drinking tea, and roasting marshmallows, but now, they have shared that the gourdlets will also be able to farm in the game’s final release by popular request. Players will be able to choose seeds to plant and watch as the gourdlets tend to farms. While it doesn’t have a release date yet, Gourdlets is headed to Steam and currently has a demo available for free. It also doesn’t feature scores or objectives, making it quite a relaxing pick.
The Guardian of Nature
In puzzle adventure game The Guardian of Nature, players embark on a journey as the size-changing botanist Henry to help save the magical forest he lives in. Throughout this journey, players can solve solarpunk puzzles, explore both the game’s above-ground forests and underground fungi-filled caves, and shrink down to get a new perspective. While The Guardian of Nature wasn’t given a release window, it’s headed to all major consoles, mobile, and Steam with an impressive hand-crafted art style.
Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley
Carrying on the beloved Moomin franchise, Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley follows the titular Snufkin on a journey to restore harmony to Moominvalley after hideous parks begin disrupting the area’s natural balance. With a soundtrack in part by Icelandic band Sigur Rós, Moominvalley is also filled with musical puzzles (and Snufkin has their own tiny harmonica). No major updates were given, but the game’s new trailer showed off more of the game’s storybook art style and introduced its relationship to the original Moomin stories and comics created by Tove Jansson. Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley is headed to major consoles and Steam.
Loftia
Loftia, a solarpunk MMO about building a sustainable city with friends, received its first trailer during today’s Wholesome Direct. In the trailer, developer Qloud Games showed off earth-friendly features like hydroponic gardening and sustainable crafting. The game also caters to different styles of play, allowing for players to play solo or with friends old and new. Loftia is far from seeing a release date, but Qloud Games frequently posts updates on Twitter and is set to launch the game’s Kickstarter page soon.
Beastieball
Wishes Unlimited, the team behind Chicory and Wandersong, announced the action-packed team management game Beastieball today. Vaguely Pokemon-esque creatures build friendships and work together to grow their team’s reputation in this seemingly fast-paced, turn-based volleyball-like game. Beastieball is also in its earlier stages, but it’s headed to Steam (with Steam Deck support!) in 2024 and its Kickstarter page is available now.
Smushi Come Home
Exploration adventure game Smushi Come Home also received a surprise release during today’s Wholesome Direct, and it’s out now on Steam and Nintendo Switch. With a style similar to A Short Hike, Smushi Come Home follows the titular mushroom Smushi on their way home after they get lost in a forest. Players are free to make this journey at their own pace by gliding, swimming underwater, mining, meeting the forest’s inhabitants, occasionally platforming or solving puzzles, learning about mushrooms in a mycology journal, and even riding on the back of a capybara through a river.
Tiny Bookshop
Ambient narrative management sim Tiny Bookshop lets players run an adorably small and customizable secondhand bookshop out of a trailer. The decisions players make while running their stores seem to impact the bookish town of Bookstonbury, with the trailer showing off a packed concert that happens after the owner of the bookshop allows a band member to hang up a flier. Tiny Bookshop doesn’t have a release window yet, but it’s slated to release on Steam with Steam Deck support.
Sticky Business
In cozy business simulator Sticky Business, players can create stickers and sticker sheets, pack orders (and include free goodies), and hear customers’ stories. It also features a number of purchasable upgrades, including more colors and plenty of pre-made food and animal designs for players to stick together and sell in the sticker workshop. It’s headed to Steam and itch.io at some point in 2023, and its demo was finally announced during today’s Wholesome Direct.
A Little to the Left
Announced back in April, puzzle organization game A Little to the Left’s Cupboards & Drawers DLC finally has a release date of June 27. It’s headed to Steam and Switch with 25 new puzzles that continue the game’s theme of finding perfect spaces to fit household objects, with a focus on, well, cupboards and drawers. And, of course, the game’s cute white cat who loves to mess up puzzles (and be pet) is back for more fun.
Pekoe
Players will finally be able to dive into the teahouse and cat-filled town of Pekoe at the end of June. With more calming gameplay and a new release window shown off during today’s Wholesome Direct, Pekoe lets players engage in every step of making tea from picking leaves to brewing cups, serve their creations to kitty customers, and forge friendships. Pekoe is headed to Steam and itch.io.
Solarpunk
Shown off with a brief trailer during today’s Wholesome Direct, Solarpunk is a survival crafting game that combines natural aesthetics with technological advancements in a world of floating islands. The trailer shows off traditional farming and beekeeping alongside the ability to create a sustainable energy system through wind, water, and sunlight. Ultimately, this energy system can help automate farms with the help of some adorable robots. Solarpunk is set to release in 2024 on Steam and consoles with a multiplayer mode.
Find more details about these games, and every other game announced during the Wholesome Direct, on the Wholesome Games website. Wholesome Direct is also part of IGN’s Summer of Gaming, which features quite a few showcases spanning from short indie games like these to massive AAA titles. Keep up with the news and find out how to tune in here.
Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, they’ve contributed to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.
Wholesome Direct is my favourite showcase from not-E3, because I feel like it’s a show directly catered to my interests. Cats, cooking, seaside towns, pretty landscapes, magical girls – Wholesome Direct has it all. This year we from the RPS Indiescovery Podcast watched the show and have plucked out a handful of games that we’re looking forward to the most, which was pretty difficult. There were a lot of great games this year.
There were around 70 games spotlighted during the showcase, so there was no way we could possibly list them all, but we’ve done our best and here are our bestest best picks. If you’re after more gaming news and announcements from this year’s not-E3 check out our coverage of not-E3 2023, Summer Game Fest round-up, and Day Of The Devs round-up. For now though, have a pleasant scroll through which wholesome games we have our eyes on.
Having been out for the best part of a month now, we think it’s fair to say that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is going to be one of those games where we never stop discovering new things.
In our playthroughs so far, these discoveries have had us grinning cheek to cheek on a pretty consistent basis, but that hasn’t stopped the smiles from being wiped from our faces as we stumble across some game-changing mechanic at the 100-hour mark.
Aerith dies. If you know one thing about Final Fantasy 7, it’s probably that Aerith dies. The praying girl gets cut down by the guy with the massive sword. There’s a reason why this pivotal story beat is one of the most well-known spoilers in gaming: it’s a moment that’s continually stunned players since 1997.
Video games had killed off significant characters before Final Fantasy 7, but this was different. The resonance Aerith had with fans is incomparable, and the emotional impact of her death left many players desperate for a resurrection. Over 25 years, rumour became myth, myth became hoax, and eventually hope became a way to genuinely save the flower girl from Midgar. This is the inside story of the players who re-wrote fate and resurrected Aerith Gainsborough.
Aerith Gainsborough is one of the most beloved characters in RPG history. First introduced as little more than a flower merchant in the opening hour of Final Fantasy 7, she soon becomes a significant figure in the story’s central cast. The revelation that she is the last remaining member of an ancient race positions her as vital to the plot, but it is her multi-layered personality that made fans fall in love with her.
“From the moment you meet her she’s charming, she’s very sweet, but she has a little bit of spunk here and there,” says Ally Tamara, a Final Fantasy fan and cosplayer from Canada. “And she was just one of those characters that immediately I personally fell in love with.”
“I think she’s a really, really fantastic character where you can’t judge her based on her appearance,” says Aequorinn, a UK-based cosplayer. “I kind of assumed because she dresses really conservatively, and you see the pictures of her praying, I thought she was going to be quite sweet but also kind of serious and boring and sort of self-sacrificial. But then it couldn’t be further from the truth.”
“I really like that she’s very teasing,” she adds. “That she’s someone who doesn’t take things too seriously, or rather she’s full of life and tries to get everyone else to enjoy it along with her.”
Aerith’s death comes out of nowhere, and happens just as Final Fantasy 7 gears up for its apocalyptic second half. Having learned that villain Sephiroth plans to force a meteor to crash into the planet as part of his attempt to ascend to godhood, protagonist Cloud and his friends head to the Forgotten City. There, Aerith will call upon the ultimate white magic, Holy, which she hopes will protect the world from the impending doom. Tragically, Sephiroth fatally interrupts the ritual at the final moment.
“It was absolutely earth-shattering,” recalls Tamara. “She was always on my team, always. I just loved her, it was just something about her character, she was so sweet and pure. And for whatever reason, maybe it is her personality and just who she is, it’s life-changing. I still haven’t gotten over her death years later.”
“Aerith does die activating the Holy spell, so there is this temptation to think of it as some noble sacrifice, but it’s really not,” explains Aequorinn. “It’s just a horrible tragedy that happens. And I think that’s quite different to how death is usually handled in video games, certainly at this point in time. I really feel like the tragedy of it is encapsulated by that one key artwork where Aerith is looking up at the Highwind. That becomes really bittersweet for me because she was the most adventurous of the whole party. She would have loved that, but she never gets to ride that airship.”
Aerith’s death is an important and irreversible moment in the story of Final Fantasy 7. But while she may have died in the game, Aerith endures through fan fiction, fan art, and – of course – cosplay.
“I remember saying to myself once I became a cosplayer, I was about 20 years old when I actually started, I said she’s a bucket list,” Tamara remembers. “I have to do her, but if I do it I have to do it at least correct or what I feel is good enough for me.”
“I feel like, personality-wise, she’s probably the character in Final Fantasy 7 that I see myself the most in,” says Aequorinn. “So I knew as soon as I finished the game that I wanted to cosplay her. Not just to show my appreciation for a game I really enjoyed, but also just because I love the character so much.
“Since then, the Final Fantasy 7 community has become such a massive part of my life, so I feel like it’s made the cosplay really special to me.”
The fantastic creations of Final Fantasy fans are just one part of Aerith’s story, though. If you were ever a school kid during the days of the original PlayStation, then you’ll almost certainly know that there was a much bigger mystery around Aerith’s death than just how to create a worthy epitaph.
“I remember when I was in elementary school, because one of my best friends used to play it,” recalls Tamara. “And he said ‘My brother told me there’s a way that you might be able to bring her back’. And I remember one of the things he said to me, that’s stuck with me that I remember trying […], was you had to have the max amount of Phoenix Downs saved up in your inventory, so that way by the time you got to her death you could resurrect her.
“But that’s not all,” she continues. “After her death you had to get to the next save point, hit start, and then you hit L1, R1, Circle, and then you’d get the title sequence and it was like ‘Oh, here she is, she’s magically on your team’. She’d just plop onto your menu to choose from. And I tried and obviously it never worked.”
Chances are, the rumour you’ve just read isn’t the one you learned about from your school friend or an internet message board. You may have heard that Tifa will sacrifice herself to save Aerith if you max out the right relationship stat. Or perhaps that unlocking Aerith’s final Limit Break before her encounter with Sephiroth will prevent her from dying. Or maybe you heard the one about returning to the Forgotten City and using Underwater materia to dive into the lake where Aerith was laid to rest, where you can then use a fully-upgraded cure materia to revive her. All these claims were different, but in the end they were all the same: bogus. False. Untrue. There is no way to save Aerith.
It went viral and there was people upset. There was definitely people upset.
That’s not to say there wasn’t something strange going on, though. Players who revisited the church in the Sector 5 slums would sometimes catch a brief glimpse of Aerith. Was it a glitch? Or was it a ghost? After two decades of speculation, a video uploaded in 2019 claimed to have worked it all out. According to Oddheader, a YouTuber specialised in video game mysteries, there was actually a grain of truth in one of the longstanding rumours. To resurrect Aerith, he explained, you have to collect three items – the Earth Harp, Desert Rose, and Guide Book – and then fight all opponents at the Gold Saucer’s 3D battle arena (including a secret, invisible fifth enemy). Then you have to give the three items to the old man in Kalm, and then head to the ghost of Aerith in the church. Then you have to switch your controller port, and finally hit L1+R1+Circle together. That is the secret to resurrecting Aerith.
“I remember putting the video up,” recalls Randall Rigdon Jr., the creator of Oddheader. “It was the slower time, it seemed. Videos were doing great, but when I put that video up, suddenly it exploded. It went to a million really quick. On that first day, I got some anxiety about it because I figured it was going to go mostly out to my audience and instead it went out. It went viral and there was people upset. There was definitely people upset.”
Why were people upset? Well, the date the video premiered on is a vital part of the story. April 1st. The whole thing was an April Fools joke.
“Well, honestly, the whole video was actually based on a comment that I got,” explains Rigdon Jr. “I get submissions all the time and they’re fake and silly things, but that was the first one where I looked at that and I was like, ‘Well, maybe there is a glitch. I haven’t heard of that.’ Then of course, to find out that it was false, I was like, ‘Well, I believed it, so I think I can convince enough people that it’s true then.’”
The comment, posted on a previous Oddheader video about Final Fantasy 7 mysteries, theorised that giving the Earth Harp, Desert Rose, and Guide Book to the old man in Kalm would revive Aerith’s glitch ghost in the church. It was another false rumour, of course, but Rigdon Jr. saw an opportunity to blend that myth with plenty of truth to create a video that wasn’t just a prank, but something based on genuinely interesting trivia.
“I mixed a lot of legitimate discoveries with fake discoveries,” he reveals. “It was also an excuse to cover a lot of things that I had been wanting to cover, but really wouldn’t fit in a video otherwise. For instance, I make a big deal about all the extra cross-dressing dialogue that was data mined from the game, which was found decades later.
“There’s also the hidden opponent that could be found in 3D battler,” he adds. “If you were to beat all four opponents, you get a fifth invisible opponent that always kills you immediately. That’s real. I thought that was so cool.”
Fascinatingly, the weirdest part of Oddheader’s video is actually rooted in fact. In his faked footage of the resurrection, the music distorts and visuals warp as Aerith says to Cloud “Silly… Didn’t anyone tell you? This IS Hades.” It’s a line taken directly from Final Fantasy 7, albeit from a scene players were never meant to see.
“It was largely based on another discovery where if you hack into a debug room, you could talk to her and she had special dialogue and there was a number of options,” reveals Rigdon Jr. “One of the options, I think, was like, ‘What is this place?’ Something along those lines. Then she’s like, ‘Oh, don’t you know? This is Hades.’”
“But that line, ‘This is Hades,’ that became a little bit of a meme on the channel,” he says. “It was definitely like, ‘What if that line was supposed to be in the game?’ Because it would make sense that lines that you would find in the debug room were actually intended to be in the game.”
Of course, for every truth in Oddheader’s video there’s a lie.
“I full-on faked a magazine quote to show the magazine,” laughs Rigdon Jr. “I feel bad. I quoted all these fake quotes and attributed them to people. I’m like, I hope they didn’t get mad finding out that I faked all this stuff.”
Then there’s the fake Square employee who tipped him off about the L1+R1+Circle code. Anyone suspicious enough to run a quick Google would have found that their name, Honto Janai, translates to “not really” in English. But it wasn’t just emails and magazine evidence that needed to be faked. To create a video, Rigdon Jr. needed gameplay footage of the resurrection in action.
“I have a lot of people coming to me like, ‘Can I get that mod? I want to use it in my video’,” he says. “A lot of the Final Fantasy community, actually. I have to reveal them. That was all basically animation. […] Like Aerith being there in the scene, she’s basically cropped in from another scene, so half of the image is cropped.”
“I got all the characters and I literally had to crop each character out of that font-face and manually position them into place on the dialogue box, and then frame by frame, I animate the text, writing in and everything,” he explains. “It was literally done frame by frame. It took me weeks.”
“I had it so that the audio time warps or time stretches,” he says. “Even doing those sound effects and stuff, I was like, I know that PlayStation can’t really do this on the fly, in real time, manipulate the audio like that, but that was the fun of the mystery. What if Aerith, you revived her and suddenly she’s making your console doing things that you wouldn’t expect. So it was definitely inspired largely by the idea of creepypastas.”
I’m not upset that I’ve maybe contributed to the video game mythology out there.
The video went live on April 1st, 2019 and quickly became one of Oddheader’s most watched (and most disliked) videos of all time. While many instantly realised the joke and enjoyed the fun, plenty of others were caught up in the hoax.
“I convinced so many people,” Rigdon Jr. says. “I remember when the video went up and I felt bad about it, a journalist, a reporter for Vice tweeted it out and he tagged me. He was like, ‘You did it.’ He’s like, ‘All these years, I can’t believe it.’ Then immediately all these people replied. They’re like, ‘Check the date of the video, dude.’”
“What’s so funny to me, I thought it was a dead giveaway when Aerith at the end says, ‘Let’s roll, homie.’ I thought to everybody that would be the clear getaway,” he says.
Today, the video has over two million views, and continues to fool people. That doesn’t bother Rigdon Jr., though.
“I’m not upset that I’ve maybe contributed to the video game mythology out there,” he says. “That’s part of the fun of video games, is we love to make up little secrets and stuff, and some of them turn out to be true and that’s really exciting. This just happens to be a dud. This is not one of those things, but it’s fun to be a part of that. If you’re truly a fan of the game, this should not be unfamiliar territory. The legend of reviving Aerith has been [around] since the game has come out. I think literally since the game came out, people were making that legend up.”
In its own way, the legend keeps Aerith alive. But while it seems like the book is well and truly closed on any hidden in-game method of saving Aerith, there is some truth in the idea that a glitch could be the secret to defying death.
In 2013, speedrunner Neohart uploaded a video to his YouTube channel revealing a wild discovery in the PC version of Final Fantasy 7. He’d found that the cutscene in which you recruit Yuffie is somehow connected to your previous game over state. That connection can be exploited to ‘warp’ from the Yuffie encounter back to the battle you failed. And that could be almost any battle; even a boss fight from the very end of the game. The potential for speedrunning was obvious, but players soon realised that this ‘Yuffie Warping’ glitch could be used to skip the Forgotten City and prevent Aerith’s death.
But the result of the glitch is purely mechanical. It keeps Aerith in the party, and she can be levelled up and made a vital part of your battle strategy, but she’s nothing more than a voiceless warrior. She’s not in any cutscenes, and has no role in the story. She is soulless.
To truly give Aerith life after death, her story had to be re-written. The code and script of the game needed to be changed to allow you to save her life and fight alongside her to protect the planet. And that’s exactly what happened.
New Threat is an ambitious overhaul for the PC version of Final Fantasy 7. It’s the work of Stewart Melville, a modder better known as SegaChief, and has a completely refreshed approach to battles, bosses, character progression, and artificial intelligence.
“I think what I really wanted to do was just surprise people and just keep them interested,” says Melville. “Add little things in and maybe not document them just so that they can discover them on their own. That’s how the Aerith thing came about originally because I was just working on the combat. I didn’t really have any intention of doing anything story-wise.”
What started as a mod to remix the game’s combat became increasingly more advanced and complex. The game was split into two pathways – Type A and Type B – with Type B featuring significant changes to not just the game’s mechanics, but its story, too. Near enough every boss is different from those in the original game. There are brand new conversations. Events play out in different ways. Even the Wall Market cross-dressing scenario is replaced with a challenging multi-phase battle in Don Corneo’s dungeon. But the change New Threat is most famous for is the one that finally makes the rumours true. You can save Aerith.
“So originally I just went with that old joke, the Phoenix Down, which was a bit of an eye-roller,” says Melville. “But it was usually quite funny on streams because people in chat would say that beforehand, ‘Just use the Phoenix Down,’ and then they would watch as it actually happened and you’d get a good pop off on it. But later on I decided to try and make it a bit more seamless, just try to incorporate it into the gameplay mechanics a bit more.”
In the current version of New Threat, Aerith is part of the Jenova Life boss battle that immediately follows her death. After a few turns of combat, Jenova will resurrect Aerith and use her as a pawn. Killing Jenova without downing Aerith in the process triggers a whole new alternate route through the final half of the game; one in which Aerith remains a core part of the mission to save the planet.
“I just figured it would be nice to have the gameplay mechanic do it rather than have a dialogue option or something, or some other requirement that you have to go do a fetch quest or something,” says Melville. “I just wanted it to be a bit more interesting.”
But working out how to implement Aerith’s resurrection was just the start. Aerith was now alive for the rest of the game; that’s hours and hours of story. That meant Melville had to rewrite the script to acknowledge her survival.
“So when I initially did it, I tried to keep the footprint of it as little as possible,” he says. “Scenes where all the characters appear, you just add a copy in and repurpose the dialogue and the animations and then you’re good to go.
“But there was a scene towards the end of disc two which I knew was going to be problematic,” he recalls. “I think it was Cosmo Canyon, when they start talking about Aerith and what she was maybe doing before she passed away. And I think that was the big problem because you can’t have that when she’s standing there so you have to think of something. So I think one of the best ways of getting out of a plot hole is to revisit stuff that’s gone before and look for something that you can use. And I think one of the things was she wasn’t sure what she was going there for and things like that, so there’s a bit of ambiguity. So I was able to use that and repurpose that into the scene and then that seemed to work out.”
You have to be careful about how you handle it because you can get a bit too sappy.
Melville had studied creative writing at university, and that education helped him put together Aerith’s new script. “I just looked at the dialogue quite a lot, trying to get the patterns and how it was written,” he says. “It’s not how I would usually write dialogue for characters, the way the game presents dialogue, and games themselves have a different way of presenting dialogue to, say, a book. So it was just a case of trying to mimic that and get into the rhythm of it so that it would try and fit.”
Not long after the sequence in the Forgotten City, Cloud discovers the home of Professor Ghast; Aerith’s biological father. With Aerith now alive for this moment, Melville had to carefully re-script the scenario in order to strike the right tone.
“It’s scenes like that I find a bit more awkward,” he says. “You have to be careful about how you handle it because you can get a bit too sappy, I guess. You can maybe get a bit too melodramatic so I try and find a balancing act if I can or just try and not go to one extreme to the other, try and make it too lighthearted or try and make it too melodramatic. Maybe try and find that middle ground.”
It was also important to keep Aerith’s sense of adventure alive, too, and so not everything could be focussed on her relationship with the planet and plot. You get to see her go a little wild during the siege of Junon when she beats Scarlett over the head with a chair; a fun reference to Final Fantasy 7 Remake. But the best example of New Threat’s approach to writing can be found during the flashback to Zack’s death.
“I needed to find a place to put each character’s limit breaks,” says Melville. “So it always starts usually from a gameplay thing, […] But then I also was working on a request that people wanted Aerith to be a bit more involved in the story past disc one, so I was looking for opportunities to do that. I was at Cloud’s scene where he’s talking about Zack and that’s when it clicked that maybe that’s a good place for that to be placed.”
With Aerith now in the party, this sequence is not just Cloud putting together the last pieces of his fractured memory, but also Aerith finally discovering the tragic fate of her boyfriend. As the two reflect on the loss of Zack, their final Limit Breaks are unlocked. It’s a poignant way to conclude their personal stories.
Thanks to New Threat, Aerith finally gets to ride the Highwind and embrace her love of adventure. But despite the mod’s popularity and success, Melville occasionally wonders if bringing Aerith back from the dead was the right call.
“Sometimes I regret adding the feature in, if that makes sense,” he says. “Say if you’re talking about [how] I’ve made some improvements to how the dialogue’s presented, and then somebody fires back, ‘But you did this thing, so how can you say the story’s better?’ You can never say it’s an objective improvement, really.”
“What I’ve learned over the years is that people have different expectations of what they want out of it,” he adds. “Some people are replaying it to enjoy the story again, so a feature like that wouldn’t be particularly welcome. Other people are looking for something new and interesting, or they’ve heard about that feature and they want to experience it, things like that. So you have to keep all of that in mind when you’re making things like this. But I think for the remake, they have to maybe be careful about doing things like that or they’ll get quite a bit of backlash.”
Somewhat similar to New Threat, the ongoing official Final Fantasy 7 Remake series is a complete re-imagining of the original game. Dealing with themes of fate and destiny, the re-written events see Cloud and Aerith choose a very different path. So far, that has already resulted in Zack surviving his encounter with the Shinra guards who killed him in the original game. And so it stands to reason that the upcoming second game in the trilogy – Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth – could go anywhere, including avoiding Aerith’s death. Just the possibility of that is already both exciting and controversial.
“As much as I love her and the same with Zack, seeing him come back I was ‘Oh my gosh’, but at the same time both of their deaths were so monumental and had such a huge impact on the series that I don’t know if I want them to go that route,” says Ally Tamara. “As much as I’d love to see them alive, it’s too much. Everything that happened was meant to happen, and obviously changed many of our lives and many of our gaming experiences. The fact that so many people who talk about Aerith’s death have it up there as one of the most monumental deaths in a video game speaks volumes.”
“I think [Aerith’s death] will go ahead but maybe not in the same place,” says Stewart Melville. “Because I think the whole idea of it was, if you have a story like that where everyone is aware of the twists and turns of it, so to speak, you need a way of recreating engagement, just not knowing where things are going to go. And I think they’ve succeeded in doing that, maybe in a bit of a heavy-handed way, but they have successfully made it so that you’re not quite sure what’s going to happen next. But I think that things will play out more or less the same.”
“It would be something else,” says Randall Rigdon Jr. about the possibility of Aerith surviving. “I would love to see it. It would definitely be a game changer. I would have to go make another April Fools’ video that shows that you can still kill her, I guess.”
What I really love about the remake is that a lot more people are experiencing Aerith as I feel she was intended to be.
Regardless of the remake’s eventual path, one of its enduring legacies will have been providing many, many more hours for players to get to know and appreciate one of Final Fantasy’s most iconic and important characters.
“I think a lot of people do remember her from her death scene in the original game, but because of that there’s always this kind of sadness when people talk about Aerith, they kind of don’t talk about how she is in the game, but they talk about how they felt when she died,” reflects Aequorinn. “It’s true that it’s really sad when it happens, but what I really love about especially the remake is that a lot more people are experiencing her as I feel she was intended to be, so you’re reminded that she isn’t just this kind of sombre character who goes and sacrifices herself in the game. She’s not just headed towards this death sentence, but she’s really full of life and she just brings this really big sense of adventure to Final Fantasy 7.”
Despite happening over 25 years ago, Aerith’s death remains one of the most memorable and discussed moments in the history of video games. The emotional impact of her loss is revealing; only a truly unforgettable character could be the starting point for one of gaming’s most persistent urban myths, a legion of cosplaying fans, a hoax video with over two million views, and a painstakingly-crafted mod that re-writes her story.
Aerith may have died. But Aerith lives on thanks to the enduring love of the Final Fantasy 7 community.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Features Editor. Dale Driver is the Executive Producer of Video Programming.
With special thanks to Ally Tamara, Aequorinn, Randall Rigdon Jr., Stewart Melville, @duuken, nalvara, Karasu, Frankie Lollia, HighScore, Jakisaur, Sebbywebz, Jegged.com, Neohart, and Endless.
Adorable exploration and platformer game Smushi Come Home has just been shadow-dropped as part of this year’s Wholesome Direct, meaning you can play it right now. The game follows the titular Smushi, a small mushroom, as it makes its way out of a forest to get back home. Along the way, it’ll meet and help out many of the forest’s inhabitants. If the combination of tiny shroom guy, chill exploration, and light puzzling hasn’t convinced you, take a look at the game’s launch trailer below.
Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2 game made a brief appearance at Summer Game Fest 2023, where we learned two important details about the long-awaited sequel. It’s hitting stores in October, and the version of Venom featured in the game isn’t Eddie Brock. In fact, Insomniac is setting out to introduce a version of Venom very different from what fans have seen before in the comics, shows and movies.
But if Venom isn’t Eddie Brock, then who is bonded to the symbiote this time around? What possibilities are there that don’t follow the same path as Venom stories of the past? Let’s break down a few theories and potential options based on the direction of the Insomniac series so far.
Harry Osborn
At this point in Insomniac’s Spider-Man series, all signs point to Peter Parker’s childhood friend Harry Osborn becoming the Venom of this universe. One of the quest lines in the first game establishes that Harry has become terminally ill with Oshtoran Syndrome, the same disease that killed his mother. Harry’s father, the former mayor Norman Osborn, has devoted his wealth and resources to finding a cure. That includes attempting to harness the power of Devil’s Breath.
Both the previous games include post-credits scenes hinting that the disgraced Norman has now turned to the Venom symbiote for the answer to save his son. Spider-Man ends with a scene of Norman approaching Harry’s stasis tank and interacting with a black tendril. Miles Morales: Spider-Man features a similar scene where Harry awakens and Norman orders a reluctant Dr. Curt Connors to unlock Harry’s stasis tube.
The implication certainly seems to be that Harry will become Venom in Spider-Man 2. Perhaps the game is leaning more on Marvel’s Ultimate Spider-Man comics, which depict the black costume as a medical device gone amok rather than an alien symbiote. If the game is anything like those comics, then Harry has been driven mad by his bond with this powerful suit, forcing Peter and Miles to team up against New York’s latest supervillain.
It is worth pointing out that the idea of Harry becoming Venom isn’t completely new. The animated series Ultimate Spider-Man also depicted Harry as Venom’s host in its early seasons. If Insomniac is trying to truly differentiate this Venom from previous incarnations, that could rule out Harry. Still, if the symbiote shoe fits…
Norman Osborn
Insomniac’s Spider-Man universe features a version of Peter Parker who’s been active as Spidey for a number of years. However, in all that time he’s never faced off with arguably his greatest foe – Green Goblin. Up until the end of the first game, Norman Osborn is still a respected businessman and politician, and he clearly hasn’t succumbed to madness and become the Green Goblin yet.
Maybe that’s because Norman is destined for a slightly different fate in the Insomniac universe. What if he becomes Venom himself? Maybe Spider-Man 2 is combining two of the greatest Spidey villains into one.
If this is the direction the game is headed, then perhaps Norman is finally given that final push into insanity by the death of his son. Perhaps the Venom suit fails to keep Harry alive, or maybe he dies during the time Peter is bonded with the suit. At that point, Norman might turn it into a weapon to take out his grief and rage on the two Spider-Men. That’s certainly one way to establish a personal grudge between Venom and Spidey.
Peter Parker or Miles Morales
One way to completely subvert fan expectations in Spider-Man 2 would be to make Peter or Miles become Venom themselves. As it is, we know Peter will wear the symbiote costume for at least part of the game, and it brings out his anger and aggression in the process. Traditionally, Peter is able to break free from the symbiote’s influence and reject the suit before it consumes him, leaving its next host to become Venom instead. But what if this universe avoids that trend by having Peter fail to overcome the suit’s corruptive influence?
Another possibility is that Peter rejects the suit at a key point in the game, causing it to choose Miles instead. Perhaps the suit preys on Miles’ inner pain and anguish over losing his father and the other tragedies he’s endured in the previous two games. We’re getting a taste of Peter’s dark side in the footage revealed so far. What about Miles?
The main problem with this theory is that making Peter or Miles into Venom removes one of the core selling points of the game – the idea that you take control of both Spider-Men. Would players accept being limited to one or the other at a certain point in the story mode? On the other hand, it would be very interesting if Spider-Man 2 gives players a choice in which hero falls and becomes Venom, allowing for two completely different outcomes and two different endings.
Ganke Lee
Spider-Man: Miles Morales focuses a lot on the bond between Miles and his BFF/superhero assistant Ganke. Ganke is there throughout the game to provide some much-needed banter, long-distance tech support and useful advice. He’s a character you can’t help but love. So what better way to turn the screws on players than by turning Ganke into Venom?
Based on the footage we’ve seen so far, it seems that Ganke will initially start out by serving a similar role in the new game. But who’s to say that won’t change over time? Once Peter rejects the symbiote, maybe it finds a home with Miles’ best friend. We’ve seen in the past how Peter struggles and sometimes fails to prevent his life as Spider-Man from bringing harm to those he loves. Transforming Ganke into Venom is a way of bringing the true cost of Spider-Man home for Miles.
Mary Jane Watson
The Insomniac games have made a concerted effort to veer in a very different direction where Mary Jane Watson is concerned. Unlike the comics, this MJ isn’t a supermodel or damsel in distress, but a crusading reporter who often willingly throws herself in harm’s way. But where the games do stick to the source material is in depicting MJ as someone Peter cares for very deeply, even if his superhero lifestyle drives a wedge between them.
Spider-Man 2 could easily throw players for a loop by having Mary Jane be the one who transforms into Venom. Granted, the artwork revealed at Summer Game Fest seems to depict a male villain, but who’s to say a woman couldn’t be lurking beneath all those muscles and tendrils? It would be a way of throwing another tragic wrench in the works of Peter and MJ’s relationship without simply killing her off, Gwen Stacy-style.
Kraven
Alongside Venom and Lizard, we know Kraven the Hunter will be one of the main villains of Spider-Man 2. As the recent cinematic trailer reveals, Kraven has grown bored hunting others in his private jungle retreat. He craves a real hunt, and he’s found it in the various costumed superheroes and metahumans of New York City.
But while Kraven is clearly a dangerous opponent, it’s fair to wonder if he really has what it takes to stand against two united Spider-Men. He’s a character with little in the way of super-powers himself, just mystical potions and a real knack for stalking his prey.
Fans are wondering how the game’s Kraven storyline will ultimately intersect with the Venom storyline. What if Kraven and Venom turn out to be one and the same? The idea is that Kraven is soundly defeated in his attempt to take down the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Men, causing him to resort to desperate measures and bond with the Venom symbiote. At that point, he absorbs his enemy’s power into himself and becomes a true threat to Peter and Miles. Maybe this version of Venom is the ultimate hunter.
If you’re of a certain vintage you may just about remember being thoroughly impressed with the graphical prowess of Starbreeze Studios’ Enclave when it first released on the original Xbox all the way back in 2002.
Starbreeze was about to have a great big Vin Diesel-shaped success in the form of The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay — a game we’d love to see on Switch — but, before that, the developer brought us this third-person action RPG that gave players both light and dark paths to walk in two story-based campaigns set in the world of Calenheim.
