Let's play a game, you can choose your favourite thing. This cliché never dies. You can't run and you can't hide!
Developed by SpringlessEcho, VS Rewrite
is a mod serving as a crossover between Friday Night Funkin' and Sonic.EXE, featuring a unique take on the character known as Rewrite.
The mod contains two songs separated into two weeks; "Thriller Gen" and "Trinity".
This mod contains the following tropes:
- A God Am I: Rewrite proclaims the iconic "I AM GOD" line at one point in both songs, with the line in "Trinity" being complimented with "AND YOU'RE NOBODY"
- Art Shift: In contrast to base FNF, the whole mod, aside from the pixel section at the end of "Trinity", is in a 3D art style mixed with the SEGA Genesis's colour palette limits.
- Breather Episode: "Thriller Gen", even with its more difficult charting near the end, is fairly easy to get through compared to "Trinity", due to its slower pace overall.
- Creepy High-Pitched Voice: Rewrite's voice is a high, childlike text-to-speech voice, which adds to his unsettling demeanor.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: After disposing of Boyfriend, Rewrite takes the rest of the song against you, the player, aiming to claim your soul and add it to his growing collection.
- Fusion Dance: Whether willing or not is up to speculation, but at a couple of points during "Trinity", Majin and Sonic.EXE end up fusing into one body, having to share those portions of the song with each other. It may also be down to Rewrite's shapeshifting either going a bit awry, or he did it on purpose.
- Grew Beyond Their Programming: The main lore is that Rewrite is the original Sonic.exe that became more self-aware than before, rewriting the game with every playthrough and adapting to the player's mind.
- Interface Screw: For one, the arrows in both songs are replaced with coloured rings, so it's down to the player to remember which one corresponds to which key. And worse, the HP bar is out for "Trinity", so you don't know how far away you are from losing.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: During the homestretch, one of Rewrite's lyrics are that "This cliché never dies", hinting that he's aware of how the infamous creepypasta is still going strong after over 10 years, as well as the fact that he is another of several mods based on Sonic.exe (possibly even horror in general on top of that).
- Marathon Level: "Trinity" delivers this in spades, throwing in around 6 minutes of challenge to the table.
- My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Rewrite demonstrates this in full force by actually breaking free from the position he's meant to be in during "Trinity" before going in for the kill against Boyfriend.
- Nothing Is Scarier: When Boyfriend gets a Game Over, he gets turned into a red ring, his soul being imprisoned within. Come the homestretch of "Trinity", however, and we don't even know what happens to Boyfriend after Rewrite attacks him. Could he have been killed on the spot, or worse?
- Perpetual Smiler: Rewrite has a big grin on his face almost the entire time, save for when he goes to kill off Boyfriend and in his idle animation during the 2D section.
- Politically Correct Villain: Rewrite is stated to approve of trans rights.
- Promoted to Playable: In the homestretch of "Trinity", it's the player themselves that go up against Rewrite.
- Remix Album: Remixes of both "Thriller-Gen" and "Trinity" have been made on Springless's YouTube channel, though neither are planned to be added into the mod itself.
- Stylistic Suck: Downplayed, but subtly present. Overall, the mod likes to give off the initial impression of being yet another cheesy Sonic.exe spinoff that tries to be scary but is too simple and cliche to inspire any fear; The creator has indicated this is intentional when replying to a comment on YouTube.
- Rewrite's appearance is uncanny, but he looks almost entirely like a normal Sonic, and his rubber hose animations and melodic voice can make him seem more laughable than threatening.
- Thriller Gen's plodding, goofy horn synth helps the above, making it hard to take Rewrite seriously as a villain.
- The "I AM GOD" quote-drop in Thriller Gen is also spoken in such a robotic monotone that it's hard to take seriously, and the fact that it gets dropped at all comes off as an overplayed cliche.
- Trinity primarily features fan favorites Majin, Xenophanes, and Lord X, with Rewrite nowhere to be seen at first, as though pandering to the audience with known characters.
- Of course, in reality, Rewrite's whole shtick is his meta-awareness; By acting like he's trying to be scary and failing, he lulls the player into a false sense of security to keep them playing.
- Wolfpack Boss: Trinity serves as this, with the player pit against the original Vs Sonic.exe trio before facing Rewrite. Then it's revealed they were never there to begin with.
