There was once a debate over whether Tifa or Aerith is the superior romantic partner from Final Fantasy VII. Then the remake came out, Aerith swung a chair at that one guy’s head, and there is no longer an ounce of doubt that Miss Gainsborough is FF7’s best girl. Now, modders have taken the next logical step: they’ve given Aerith a gun. In Resident Evil 3, anyway.
The Aerith Gainsborough mod for Resident Evil 3 replaces Jill Valentine with everyone’s favourite flower girl, so that you can truly bring the cycle of PlayStation-era remakes of horror games and RPG games full circle. Aerith’s face comes straight out of the FF7 remake, but she’s dressed as a modern STARS officer – just with the traditional tiny red jacket.
You can grab the file over on Nexus Mods, or just the hair, if you want to give Jill a makeover. The mod is still technically in beta, and has a few issues including clipping and rigging problems. Further updates are coming to both squash bugs and introduce some new variants for the character.
For now, though… Aerith’s got a gun, and that’s enough for me.
There is still no confirmed PC port for the FF7 remake, but if and when it does launch, I can only hope we get to see Jill and Claire modded in to replace Aerith and Tifa. It’s only fair at this point.