left. Darby, however, is too old to fight, so he instructs Vexx to collect the wraithhearts and use them to power the rift in order to find and stop Yabu before he opens the gate to his own world. Before Vexx departs, Darby warns him that the Shadowraiths are shapeshifters and to "trust no one along your journey". After collecting several wraithhearts, Vexx meets up with Darby again inside the Landspire, and the two of them encounter Reia, the last remaining Astani warrior, who is also the narrator of the game. Reia exposes Darby, who turns out to be Dark Yabu in disguise. Both Reia and Vexx try to attack Yabu but he escapes, taking Reia's magical staff with him. It is revealed that by collecting the wraithhearts, Vexx was actually helping Yabu power the gate to his own world. Since the only way to close the rift is with Reia's staff, Vexx has to activate the rest of the gates and catch up to Yabu to get it back. After collecting 60 wraithhearts, Vexx finds Yabu in the Shadow Realm, and the two of them fight one last time. During the battle, Vexx manages to take Yabu's amulet, which gives him an extra dose of power. Vexx ultimately wins and retrieves the staff, but Yabu's death causes the platform on which he and the portal back to Astara stand to begin to crumble. Unable to get back through the portal, he throws the staff through, successfully closing the rift and thus saving Astara, but also trapping himself in the shadow realm. He is last seen roaming the desolate, wraith-infested lands. Development and release Creation and character design Development of Vexx began in late 1999 by Acclaim Studios Austin, with the studio wanting to create a mascot platformer for the then-next generation consoles. The development team was led by creative director David Dienstbier and designer Thomas Coles and varied in size, ranging from around 22-40 people who had worked on some of Iguana's previous titles, such as Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. Coles cited several platform games as inspiration for the game, specifically Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie. The game was initially titled Clip and Mischief, and starred a rodent-like creature named "Clip", who had a small, reptilian sidekick named "Mischief". This idea was shelved when the development team thought the concept was too similar to Jak and Daxter. In order to