If you've been playing Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and it's your first time experiencing the world of Cloud, Shinra, Sephiroth, and co., I should advise that this article will spoil a significant part of the RPG's story. We're talking mysteries here – in fact, one of the biggest mysteries in PC gaming history. Final Fantasy 14 had a resurgence this year thanks to Dawntrail. FF16 finally made the leap to Steam. But long before any of that, back when the Square Enix series was still in its (relative) infancy, there was one myth that hung over the entirety of Final Fantasy 7. Now, thanks to some visionary exploits and speedrunner wisdom, it's finally been solved – well, kind of.
Okay. The spoiler part of this article begins in earnest here – if you don't know and don't want to know the details of FF7's story, stop reading now. Otherwise, for the RPG turns your expectations upside down and promptly gut punches you with a shocking, sudden twist.
For years there were rumors. If you do this, do that, go here, search there you can, somehow, bring Aerith back to life. I as a seven-year-old being duped by a story that you could find a helicopter in the original Grand Theft Auto. This was before we all had access to the internet, so there was no way of knowing – when somebody said that you could resurrect Aerith, unless you personally exhausted every possibility, it could well have been true. But there was no helicopter in Liberty City and Aerith remained dead. That is, until now.
As spotted by Eurogamer, two speedrunners have discovered an exploit in Final Fantasy 7 whereby you can skip almost the entirety of disc one and warp straight to the climactic battle at the Forgotten Capital.
'AceZephyr' and 'Kuma' recently completed runs where, using a glitch related to how FF7 retains positional data when you're traversing the world map, it's possible to glitch outside the normal boundaries, run across the ocean, and head straight for the Forgotten City. When you arrive, Aerith will still be in your party. Even after her iconic death scene, she'll remain available in the party menu, effectively 'saving' her.
Though it's previously been possible, in some versions of Final Fantasy 7, to save Aerith using cheats, this new speedrunning technique can be accomplished without any cheats whatsoever. There is a problem whereby if you have Aerith in your party during battle or during any cutscenes, the game will crash. Nevertheless, if you've wanted to save Shinra's best flower seller ever since your heart was broken by Sephiroth back in 1997, it's now possible.
If you're a big FF7 fan, check out some of the other best fantasy games ever made.
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