[Warning: The following contains spoilers for Final Fantasy 7.]
Speedrunners for the original Final Fantasy 7 from 1997 have made a discovery that has been strangely important for a long time FF7 Fans, even non-speedrunners. It turns out that through a series of very difficult in-game maneuvers, Aerith can remain in the player’s party even after her death scene. She can stay there and watch her own infamous murder at the hands of Sephiroth and just hang around afterward.
As with all speedrunning discoveries, this one was a group effort, although the two names most often mentioned are speedrunners who call themselves AceZephyr and Kuma. This new leap builds on insights from a previously discovered one FF7
Speedrunning tactics are always a bit esoteric to explain, but I found 4-8Productions’ YouTube video on the subject pretty clear and easy to understand.
The funniest thing about this video, and most videos on the subject from speedrunners, is that it portrays saving Aerith as little more than a fun side effect of the jump. Ultimately, speedrunners look for bugs and tricks that will get them through the game as quickly as possible. Whether Aerith goes along or not is rather secondary.
Additionally, since Aerith still has to witness her own death, one could argue that she isn’t really being “saved” here – even if she is still portrayed as a party member after this scene is over. However, it’s not like you can play the rest of the game normally with Aerith hanging around and fighting by your side. The game will automatically lock every time you enter a fight with Aerith there. For this reason, using this jump to successfully complete the game would also require the use of various means of skipping random battles. So this isn’t exactly the “Save Aerith” dream that fans thought was possible even many years later FF7 was published for the first time. However, it’s still pretty great for speedrunners, as it’s a huge discovery with great potential for more.