10 Video Game Twists We Never Saw Coming

10. Final Fantasy VII

The death of a beloved secondary character can often give us something to fight for, but what’s rather less common, however, is for a playable protagonist to kick the bucket, and even less so for them to do it with so much of the game still left to play.

That’s what makes Aeris/Aerith’s death in Final Fantasy VII such a crushing blow; it doesn’t occur early on as a way to initially galvanise Cloud into action, nor does it happen at the end as part of a final dramatic coda.

It’s also a particularly jarring scene because it takes place within a game wherein Aerith had probably been killed and revived with a Phoenix Down several times prior to her canonical death.

But that dissonance aside, fans in 1997 were shocked when one of the game’s most beloved and benevolent characters was so mercilessly struck down. It’s arguably one of the main reasons why Sephiroth has lived on as one of gaming’s most iconic and sadistic villains.