The internet shitposted too close to the sun, and now we're getting a spiritual successor to the most cursed Zelda games of all time

A villain from Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore leans in close to the camera while cackling wildly.
(Image credit: Limited Run / Seedy Eye Software)

I feel like I've fallen into an alternate dimension, staring at the janky pixelated 2D cutscenes of Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore. They remind me of an internet age I thought was on its last legs, and a game I have not seen in a long time. See I grew up with Zelda CD-i not as a player, but as a witness to a terrible—and I use that word affectionately—cultural phenomenon known as Youtube Poop. 

In case you were fortunate enough to miss them, Youtube Poops were a trend of heavily-edited sensory nightmares that remixed, typically, older media. The short-lived 1993 Sonic the Hedgehog TV show, the work of british children's poet Michael Rosen, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air—it's all fair game. Most are an assault on the senses with little rhyme or reason, a precursor to our modern-day deep fried meme culture. You get some gems though, like this Eggman rap that's an absolute banger.

The Zelda CD-i games were created exclusively for the Philips CD-i, a bizarre Frankenstein's console-slash-CD player, one of those attempts at creating a "we can do everything!" multimedia machine in the 90s.

The games were a weird result of a dissolved partnership between Philips and Nintendo—a compromise from the dissolution gave Philips the right to use the Zelda brand on their system. They've not aged well, as Kotaku's retrospective review called one "an uphill march through a pointless adventure."

A shopkeeper from the 90's cursed Zelda CD-i games. Lamp oil, rope, bombs, you want it?

(Image credit: Phillips Interactive Media)

Which makes a spiritual successor even more delightfully baffling. Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore was announced at Limited Run's summer showcase yesterday, and it's sure as hell got the spirit right. There's deep charm to the jarringly-animated cutscenes, which jank disastrously with fully-painted backgrounds and 64-bit sprites.

Some of the CD-i game's original creatives are even reprising their roles: Rob Dulanvey, who had a hand in painting the Zelda CD-i backgrounds, is lending his brush. Jeffery Rath, voice of CD-i Link, as well as Bonnie Jean Wilbur, voice of CD-i Zelda,also return to bring their voices to this hyper-specific nostalgia trip.

The question burning in my mind—is it actually gonna be fun to play? Unlike other throwbacks to the classics, there's nothing worth copying from the Zelda CD-i titles. They've always been panned as unintuitive, difficult-to-control, overly punishing messes.

I'm still staggered that this game is going to exist. It owes its existence to a feral culture of internet goblins who sentence-mixed the same few janky cutscenes for years. It's a spiritual successor to a game no-one liked on a console barely anyone played, it's a shitpost made manifest, and I might just fall in love with it.

Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore is set to squadala its way onto Steam later this year, with no specific date announced.

Harvey Randall
Staff Writer

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

Read more
Beyond the Ice Palace 2 screenshots
I’m not sure what’s weirder: that someone made a sequel to a completely forgettable 37-year-old game I played as a kid, or that it was actually worth the wait
The titluar Cyberlich of Cyberlich surrounded by a smoky cloud and with a saintly halo behind his head
I felt goodwill and hope for the future seeing Cybrlich and the Death Cult of Labor, an FPS that's 60% HUD and looks like an Adult Swim cartoon where you smoke 'deepweed' to restore your health and blow clouds that spell out 'doink' and 'loud'
Sabnack, PC-98 puzzle game
This '90s PC game's one-of-a-kind combination of puzzles and RPG heroics was the perfect way to jumpstart my brain for the new year
Mindwave screenshots
Mindwave is the story-driven spiritual successor to WarioWare that is so good I don't care that I keep messing up on the supposedly simple final boss
The jester from Balatro, portrayed in unsettling detail in real life, wears an uncanny smile and stares at the viewer.
The outtakes from that live-action Balatro trailer are unhinged
A catgirl with long white hair and ears
At least it's not NFTs this time: The new Wizardry RPG is a gacha game
Latest in Adventure
Inside
Limbo and Inside studio demands compensation from co-founder Dino Patti for alleged 'unauthorized use of Playdead's trademarks and copyrighted works'
Two characters sitting on a bench talking
Wanderstop review
Zoe showing off in front of Mio
Split Fiction review
Rusty Rabbit chomping a carrot like a cigar
Rusty Rabbit turns Yakuza's Kazuma Kiryu into a fluffy bunny
Pathologic 3 screenshot
Get ready to get weird in Pathologic 3: Quarantine, a free 'prologue chapter' about a young doctor looking for immortality in the world's most miserable town
A young woman's face bathed in light
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Tape 1 review
Latest in News
Erenshor - A player and two simulated MMO party members stand on a plateau in front of a yellow landscape
This RuneScape-looking 'simulated MMORPG' has all the nostalgia without the drama because all the other 'players' are NPCs
Pirate Bay co-founder Carl Lundstrom
Pirate Bay co-founder and far-right politician found dead after plane crash
Sunset in the desert in Hello Sunshine
Hello Sunshine is a desert survival sandbox where you live in the literal shadow of the colossus
Roblox CEO David Baszucki.
'Don't let your kids be on Roblox', Roblox CEO tells parents, before comparing himself to Walt Disney and declaring the platform 'the future of communication'
Titus in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 3 reveal promo image
Praise be to the Omnissiah! Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 3 is officially in development
Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., speaks while holding the company's new GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards and a Thor Blackwell robotics processor during the 2025 CES event in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. Huang announced a raft of new chips, software and services, aiming to stay at the forefront of artificial intelligence computing. Photographer: Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Group allegedly trying to smuggle Nvidia Blackwell chips stare down bail set at over $1 million