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Final Fantasy VII/Preface/Story/Before the game

Arrival of Cetra
The Cetra, also known as the Ancients, were an ancient peoples who go from planet to planet, searching for the 'Promised Land'. It is possible that the 'Promised Land' is, in fact, the afterlife; where the Cetra return to the planet. In the meantime, it seems their mission is to settle on planets to maintain and protect that planet's lifestream and to enrich the world with their knowledge. Long in the past, a group of Cetra arrived on the planet and settled amongst the indigenous humans there.

Calamity from the Sky
Shortly after the arrival of the Cetra another lifeform landed on the planet, possibly following the Cetra. Later known as JENOVA this creature appeared to the Cetra of Knowlespole, near the north crater where it had landed. It presented itself as one of the Cetra, and brought a message of peace. The truth is, JENOVA was a malicious viral lifeform. JENOVA's cells infected the Cetra of Knowlespole, turning them into monsters. JENOVA and it's virus spread among the Cetra, though it left the indigenous tribes unharmed.

WEAPONs and the defeat of JENOVA
In response to the wound JENOVA inflicted upon the planet the lifestream created 5 huge monsters: Sapphire WEAPON, Diamond WEAPON, Ultimate WEAPON, Emerald WEAPON and Ruby WEAPON. The WEAPONs' sole function was to destroy everything in its path, thereby absorbing as much spirit energy as possible to heal the wound. However, before the WEAPONs could fulfil their mission, a few surviving Cetra managed to seal JENOVA somewhere near the Nolespole(Northern Continent),or in MOUNT. Nibel Over the next 2000 years the Cetra dispersed around Earth and their numbers slowly dwindled. The WEAPONs went into hibernation in the North Crater for when JENOVA should return. The planet continued its efforts to heal the wound JENOVA left.

The Rise of Shin-Ra
Around 50 years ago, President Shin-Ra founded the Shin-Ra Weapons Company. They quickly grew in influence in a world made up of tiny townships with no substantial form of government. In this period, Shin-Ra developed a space program culminating in a manned space-flight plan. The rocket was to be piloted by Cid Highwind, a renowned Shin-Ra pilot. However, on the day of the launch an engineer named Shera (Sierra in Japanese version) stayed below-deck trying to fix an oxygen tank. Cid chose to abort the launch even as he ignited the rockets instead of letting Shera burn to a crisp. Having missed their launch window, Shin-Ra abandoned the mission and put its space program on hold.

At some point in their weapons research, Shin-Ra discovered the fuel potential of the lifestream and dubbed it Mako energy. Shin-Ra realized the profit potential in this cheap and abundent energy source and poured more and more funding into it. Soon the major towns depended upon Mako energy, and with their existing armed forces controlling the operations along side the corporate divisions, Shin-Ra was poised perfectly for world domination.

The Shin-Ra company designed and built the vast Metropolis of Midgar in the Mako-rich plains near Kalm. There, eight reactors tunnelled into the Earth, drawing vast amounts of energy from the lifestream there and subsequently causing all the wildlife around Midgar to shrivel and die. It seems there were already towns where Shin-Ra wanted to build its city, their solution was to simply build over them. As a result, Shin-Ra built the city into two parts: A massive plate was erected, where Shin-Ra employees and the rich from around the world could live a life of luxury. Underneath, the old towns transformed into overcrowded, dark slums. The names of the old towns were forgotten as the original inhabitants of the land died and were replaced by the poor, seeking a new life in Midgar but finding only misery.

Above, Shin-Ra let the people elect a Mayor to keep the people happy. Shin-Ra still held all the power, and people didn't complain as long as things were good. All around the world the same happened, Shin-Ra built reactors in every human settlement on the globe, making the populace dependent on the company whether they liked it or not. Where there was resistance, Shin-Ra countered with force. In Corel, a coal-mining town whose livelihood had been wiped out by the rise of Mako, Shin-Ra troops burnt down the town claiming the people had attacked the reactor. A mineworker named Barret Wallace, who had the reactor's construction, and his friend Dyne were returning from negotiations with Shin-Ra when they saw their town in flames. They were attacked by Scarlet and a group of soldiers. Barret caught Dyne before he fell off a bridge, and Scarlet's troops opened fire on them. Barret lost his right arm trying to hold on to Dyne's, and Dyne lost his left arm trying to hold on to Barret's. Dyne plummeted from the cliffs near Corel and was assumed dead. Returning to Corel, Barret found Dyne's infant daughter Marlene in the rubble, he took her with him to Midgar and swore to take revenge against the Shin-Ra. Barret chose to graft a gun onto his arm stump. The Golden Saucer theme park was built over the ruins of Corel, invested in by Shin-Ra (a possible reason why Shin-Ra burnt the town). The survivors of Corel moved to the ropeway station taking people to the Golden Saucer, scavenging and selling junk to tourists.

Shin-Ra also struggled to bring the Eastern continent and Wutai under its control. Wutai, a large and influencial state was governed by Godo Kisaragi who refused to allow a Mako reactor to be built. Shin-Ra waged war upon Wutai, reducing the great civilization to a small tourist resort. During this war Shin-Ra built the city of Junon, once again, simply building over the original inhabitants. Junon was built as a military port, presumably to defend the western continent and Midgar from invasion by Wutai, it contained the giant cannon 'Sister Ray' as well as numerous artillery installations which would later be used to defeat WEAPON. This war was costly, and as a result of this Shin-Ra made the final move from a weapons manafacturer to a power company.

Sephiroth: One-winged Angel
2000 years after JENOVA was imprisoned by the last surviving Cetra, a brilliant but inexperienced Shin-Ra scientist named Professor Gast discovered what he thought was an ancient, preserved in the rock on Mt. Nibel.


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Final Fantasy VII/Preface/Story/During the game

This guide is designed to explain the major events of the game, and some of the more confusing elements. The Glossary section will attempt to provide some of the background information, see the characters page as well.

Glossary
Jenova

An alien creature found in an ancient geological stratum, discovered by Professor Gast. It was believed by him and the Shinra to be one of the Ancients, a powerful race who are believed to be the source of magical knowledge. Professor Gast later came to suspect it had a very different origin after meeting an Ancient named Ilfana. Jenova was kept in the reactor near Nibelheim, and later moved to the Shinra building.

The Jenova Project

A set of experiments conducted by Hojo to create humans with the power of the Ancients. Humans were treated with Mako and exposed to Jenova's cells. Some of those treated became monsters, and the experiment culminated in treating the infant Sephiroth, who was branded with a tattoo of the number 1, marking him as Hojo's first subject.

The Jenova Reunification Theory

Hojo believed that if Jenova's body was ever dismembered, it would re-form itself. After the events of Nibelheim, he treated several individuals with Jenova's cells and expected to witness a Reunion of them with Jenova itself. At least 12 additional subjects were involved. One of which was a sick man in the Midgar slums bearing a number 2 tattoo, and the last of which was RedXIII, who exhibited no significant reaction to Jenova.

Mako

A mysterious force of the planet used by the Shinra as a source of energy. It is used to treat members of SOLDIER to enhance their abilities, leaving a strange blue glow to their eyes, and it is believed to represent the distilled knowledge and magic of the Ancients. Bugenhagen refers to it as the Lifestream of the planet, and the continually renewing energy of all living things. When any creature dies, it enters the Lifestream, and is reborn into some other form. Shinra's use of Mako is considered by elements of AVALANCHE and others to be destroying the lifeblood of the planet.

Materia

Crystalized Mako energy, which allows the bearer to use magic.

The Turks

A set of mercenaries who work for the Shinra corporation, Vincent Valentine was formerly of their ranks. Members include Tseng, Reno, Rude, and Elana. They serve as the usual reliably incompetent villains.

Shinra

The Shinra corporations was formerly a weapons manufacturer, but there turned out to be more money in Mako production. In control of the elite fighters of SOLDIER, responsible for Mako reactors, and in charge of the city of Midgar. Greedy and often irresponsible, but they aren't intentionally trying to destroy the planet.

Shinra Executives include the president and his son Rufus in charge of the organization as a whole, Palmer in charge of the space division, Scarlet in charge of weapons research, Heidegger in charge of the army, and Reeve in charge of urban development. Professor Gast was previously employed by Shinra but quit, and Hojo is a mad scientist in charge of several unethical experiments in the name of Shinra.

The Promised Land

A legendary place believed to be the home of the Ancients, and a place full of power and rich with Mako energy. The Shinra believe they can mine it as an abundant source of Mako, but none of them suspect its true origins.

Weapon

A legendary monster from the past used to defend the planet from some great threat to its very existence.

Meteor

The ultimate destructive magic said to be contained by a black materia. It is said to summon a meteor powerful enough to nearly destroy a planet. It would also force the planet to try to heal itself by drawing on the Lifestream and gathering it to the point of injury.

Character Summary
Cloud: Young man who lived in Nibelheim until he was 14, when he left to join SOLDIER to be like Sephiroth. Came back as a first-class SOLDIER but troubled mentally. Experiences strange flashbacks on occasion and is emotionally alienated from his surroundings. Skilled with a sword and familiar with the Shinra from his past working for them, starts the game as a mercenary for AVALANCHE.

Tifa: Childhood friend of Cloud and a martial artist. Cloud made a promise to protect her as a child if he ever became strong or famous. She looks after Cloud now and tries to keep the group together.

Barret: A bitter terrorist determined to bring down Shinra and stop the use of Mako reactors. He lost his right arm and traded it for a gun. Has a daughter named Marlene and leads a crew known as AVALANCHE against the Shinra.

Aeris: A flower girl from the slums, believed by the Shinra and herself to be an Ancient. Tifa and her compete over Cloud's mostly non-existent affections.

RedXIII: An experimental project of Hojo's who seems to have suffered no ill side effects. His real name is Nanaki, and he comes from Cosmo Canyon. A strange dog-like creature with a number 13 tattoo.

Cait Sith: A robot-like fortune teller who is more than he appears.

Cid: A bitter pilot who lost his dreams to be in the Shinra Space program thanks to a mechanic named Shera who insisted on repairing the ship before it launched. He's the current owner of an airship.

Sephiroth: Cloud's nemesis and the finest warrior who ever lived according to many. He disappeared five years ago at Nibelheim but has recently been seen appearing all over the world. Is believed to be hunting Black Materia and the Promised Land.

Midgar
Midgar Slums

Cloud Strife is hired out by AVALANCHE, a terrorist group blowing up Mako Reactors due to the harm they believe it is causing to the planet. Led by Barret, they blow up a reactor and escape on a train. Cloud's childhood friend Tifa is in charge of a bar in the sector 7 slums, and she tries to keep Cloud from just running off. He agrees to do a second mission, but they have to run for it on the train raid over. After their second attempt to blow up a Mako reactor they fall into a trap set by the Shinra and have to escape. Cloud meets a flower girl from the slums named Aeris who helps him recover, and he saves her from the Turks, a band of Shinra mercenaries trying to capture her because she's an Ancient. Aeris's mother Elmyra asks him to leave Aeris in peace, and tells Cloud of Aeris's abilities, but Aeris follows him anyway. Aeris helps Cloud dress up in drag to rescue Tifa, who's been kidnapped by a playboy called Don Corneo. They learns of a plot to destroy the sector of the city where AVALANCHE is believed to be located, and go there to try to stop the Shinra scheme. Cloud is thwarted by the Turks, and sector 7 is destroyed, but not before Aeris helps get Barret's daughter, Marlene, to safety.

Shinra Building:

The whole group heads to the Shinra building to get revenge on the president and rescue Aeris. Hojo is attempting to breed Aeris and an experimental animal named RedXIII, both the last remnants of dying races. RedXIII turns out to be a helpful creature, and attacks Hojo and joins the party. Cloud notices a holding container for a creature named Jenova, and learns that the Shinra are seeking the promised land by using Aeris. His group is captured by the Turks and put in prison. Cloud wakes up to find his door unlocked, Jenova missing from its holding cell, and the president of Shinra has been stabbed with the Masamune, a sword he knows belongs to Sephiroth, a legendary first-class SOLDIER who was supposed to have been dead for years. Cloud confronts the new president of Shinra, Rufus, and makes a getaway on a motorcycle with his crew.

Cloud's Tortured Past
The group leaves Midgar and travels to Kalm, where Barret and the others want to be filled in on what Cloud knows about Sephiroth, and what their connection to Shinra is. Cloud reluctantly explains all he remembers.

Five years ago, Cloud was a first class SOLDIER alongside Sephiroth, although he was nothing compared to the legendary warrior. He was only 16 years old. Cloud did his best to be friendly with the regular members of the army as they dealt with motion sickness on the ride over. Sephiroth remarked to him about Cloud visiting his hometown as they arrived, and said he had never had a home. Cloud visited Tifa's house for a while, visited his mother who advised him to find an older girlfriend to take care of him, and spent the night in the inn courtesy of Shinra. They headed out in the morning, and Sephiroth took Tifa as a guide to go to Mount Nibel to visit the Mako Reactor to see what was causing the problems with monsters appearing in the area. The group got a photo taken together, and Cloud noticed Tifa but never talked to her alone. Two soldiers accompanied them to the Mako reactor, but the bridge broke, and only one continued with them. Tifa was forced to wait at the door of the reactor and Sephiroth learned that humans had been injected with Mako by Dr. Hojo to create monsters. Sephiroth was disturbed to notice that the monsters were associated with something called the Jenova project since his own mother's name was Jenova.

Sephiroth brooded for a while, and Cloud hunted him down in the basement of the mansion in Nibelheim. Sephiroth learned of an alien creature discovered by Dr. Gast and believed to be the last of the Ancients, or the Cetra. They named it Jenova and experimented with its cells impact on other life forms. He also learned of the promised land, a place of power held sacred by the ancients. Sephiroth grew angry with Cloud and asks him to leave him alone.

When Cloud woke up later, the whole village was burning, and Sephiroth stabbed several of the villagers. Cloud chased him to the Mako reactor, and found Tifa struck down by Sephiroth. He dragged her to safety as she mumbled about him keeping his promise. Sephiroth attempted to free the body of Jenova and told Cloud that the ancients are the rightful heirs of the planet, and he will seek the promised land. Cloud vowed to stop him, and they approached to fight. Unfortunately, that's where Cloud blacked out, that was all he could remember.

Sephiroth and Cloud both had disappeared for five years, and the body of Jenova was moved from the reactor at Nibelheim to the Shinra building, where it was apparently broken out by Sephiroth. The group isn't sure what to make of everything, but decide to keep pursuing Sephiroth.

The Black Materia Hunt
Junon

Cloud and company hire a Chocobo to cross a dangerous swamp filled with giant snakes, and they find the corpse of a snake apparently killed by Sephiroth. They meet the Turks again, who are apparently looking for Sephiroth, Aeris, and the promised land. They make their way through the mines and come to the city of Junon, where Cloud, after rescuing a girl, has to disguise himself as a Shinra soldier to sneak onto a military vessel carrying Shinra President Rufus to another continent. On the Ship he meets Sephiroth briefly and has to fight a creature apparently generated from the arm of Jenova.

Gold Saucer and Corel Prison

Cloud and company visit Mt. Corel, a mining village destroyed by the Shinra. Barret used to live there, and blames himself for allowing the Shinra in. They visit the Gold Saucer, have a strange fortune-telling creature named Cait Sith join the party and predict bad luck for one of the party. Shinra soldiers are in a few parts of the theme park, and Cloud finds a bunch of people shot. Cloud and party are blamed for the murders, and dropped into Corel prison beneath the Gold Saucer. The only way out is as a Chocobo racer. Barret tells the part of an old friend of his, Dyne, who lived with him in Corel and lost his other arm to be replaced by a gun the same way Barret did. His friend is the boss of the prison and is the father of Barret's adopted child, Marlene. He has sunk into depression and wants to kill them all, so Barret fights him alone, and Cloud is able to enlist as a Chocobo racer. He wins a race and is able to get out, and the boss of the Gold Saucer, Dio, let's him know he didn't think they were guilty anyway.

Cosmo Canyon

Cloud and company learns about the Shinra trying to harvest Huge Materia from Mako reactors, and that Sephiroth was looking for black materia. They also hear about a boy named Zack who joined SOLDIER 10 years ago, and was Aeris's old boyfriend. They travel to RedXIII's home of Cosmo Canyon on a buggy, and learn he thinks his father was a coward who refused to defend his village. Cloud learns about how using Mako is draining the life force and spirit energy of the planet, and RedXIII finds the body of his father, who actually died defending his village. They head to Nibelheim, only to find that the whole town has been rebuilt and no one seems to recognize Cloud or want to talk to him. Nine men in black cloaks are nearby with Tattoos on their arms of different numbers, who speak about hearing Sephiroth's voice, the reunion, and Jenova. Sephiroth was known to have a number 1 tatoo, and a sick man in Midgar had a number 2 tatoo. They visit the Shinra mansion and find Sephiroth in the basement, talking about Jenova bringing a calamity from the skies. Sephiroth tells him he thinks Cloud is too weak to join the "reunion" but he is welcome to try. Cloud travels through Mount Nibel where the old Mako reactor was, and heads to Rocket Town.

Rocket Town

Rocket Town has a giant rocket sticking into the sky, the remants of Shinra's space program that was aborted after a failed launch. Captain Cid was in charge of the rocket that was going to be launched, and he's pinning his hopes on Rufus, the new Shinra President, to restart the space program. Cid is also the proud owner of the tiny Bronco, an airship. The rocket launch was aborted because of a mechanic named Shera who stayed in the engine room to try to repair the oxygen tanks. Cid cancelled the launch rather than let her die from the heat of the takeoff. Since then he blames her for ruining his dreams. Rufus shows up and informs Cid they have no intention of restarting the space program, they just want to take his airship so they can follow Sephiroth to a place called the Temple of the Ancients. Cloud fight off Palmer so they can take the airship before the Shinra can get it, Cid escapes with them but the ship is damaged in takeoff and is forced to land in the water. Cid informs them it can only function as a boat to traverse shallow water, and he's willing to join them to help fight the Shinra.

Gold Saucer Redux

Cloud learns that the Temple of the Ancients is on the continent to the east, but he needs a keystone to enter, which is owned by a very rich man, who sounds like Dio, the owner of the Gold Saucer. Dio was willing to give them the keystone in exchange for seeing Cloud fight, but they were unable to leave the gold saucer once the tram broke down. They chose to spend the night at the ghost inn, where Cloud brought Cait Sith and Cid up to speed on what they were trying to do in keeping Sephiroth and the Shinra from reaching the promised land. The night, Cloud was dragged out for a date with a member of his party and played the lead in a show. After a romantic ride through the sky, Cloud spots Cait Sith, who's stolen the keystone, and who hands it off to Tseng of the Turks. Cait Sith admits to being a spy for the Shinra, and that the body of the animal is actually a robot he's controlling remotely from Shinra headquarters, he's a Shinra employee himself. He also says he has Marlene as a hostage, so Cloud needs to cooperate and keep him in the party, but Cait Sith does want to help him and directs him to the Temple of the Ancients.

Temple of the Ancients

Tseng of the turks shows up at the doorway, wounded by Sephiroth, and says that Sephiroth didn't come there to seek the promised land after all. He gives Cloud the keystone and Aeris leads them inside, where they encounter some of the spirit bodies of the ancients protecting the temple. Aeris has a vision of Sephiroth attacking Tseng and vowing to become one with the life force of the planet. Sephiroth materializes in front of Cloud and Aeris and disappears, saying he intends to cause a fatal wound to the planet and absorb all the energy the planet summons to heal itself. The murals on the wall depict meteor, the ultimate destructive magic which summons a meteor powerful enough to destroy a small planet. The black materia turns out to be the temple itself, only it has to be shrunk down from the inside, killing whoever is inside. Cait Sith volunteers for the job since he has a robotic body, and the temple disappears with the black materia shows up in its crater. Sephiroth appears levitating above the crater, saying that he has travelled the lifestream and absorbed the knowledge of the Ancients and all those who have lived since. Cloud has an out of body experience after Sephiroth tells him to wake up, and he watches himself hand off the black materia to Sephiroth from the point of view of himself as a child. He has a small breakdown and watches himself again beating up on Aeris before his party members stop him. When Cloud blacks out he has a vision of Aeris saying goodbye to him, that she has to go to the city of the ancients to stop Sephiroth, and Sephiroth follows her and saying "we need to stop her." When Cloud comes to, Aeris is gone, and he's scared to continue hunting Sephiroth in case he loses it again.

The Promised Land
City of the Ancients

Tifa and Barret do what they can for Cloud, and they head to Bone Village, where Aeris was seen heading into the Forgotten City through the Sleeping Forest. Cloud locates the Lunar Harp to open the way and treks through the Sleeping Forest to the Forgotten City of the Ancients, where he finds Aeris in the middle of a crystal like cathedral, apparently praying. Cloud begins to lose control of himself and finds himself drawing his sword to attack Aeris when his party members yell at him to stop. Aeris looks up at him, smiles, and Sephiroth flies out the sky to stab her straight through the back, as a white materia slips out of her fingers. Sephiroth laughs at Cloud's pain, and says Aeris will soon become part of the lifestream of the planet, which will soon become part of him when he reaches the Northern Crater. Cloud yells at him, and Sephiroth says to stop bothering to pretend he's angry or hurt. None of his feelings matter, "because you are... a puppet."

After battling another one of Sephiroth's minions, Cloud lays Aeris to rest under water. He admits to the group that he doesn't understand himself anymore and that he fears there's something terrible inside himself waiting to be unleashed that made him nearly kill Aeris himself, but he can't forgive Sephiroth for what he's done and he has to continue. He doesn't know how Aeris was intending to stop Sephiroth, but he has no choice but to try to prevent him from using the Black Materia. As he begins to head out, he hears the voice of Sephiroth beckoning him to head North, past the snow fields.

Disc 2: The Northern Village to Midgar
Northern Village and Snow Fields

In the Northern Village, Cloud and company find Dr. Gast's house and learn about Aeris's mother, Ilfana, another ancient. She explains on a video how 2000 years ago the Ancients, or Cetra, gathered near the Northern crater to try to heal a wound inflicted on the planet. They tried to gather the planet's energy to heal the wound, but were unsuccessful. The being who had caused the injury to the planet, known as the "crisis from the sky" offered friendship to the Cetra, but betrayed them and infected them with a virus, causing many Cetra to go mad and become monsters. The monster who had injured the planet was known as Jenova, and it was eventually sealed away by the Cetra, but as long as it lives the planet can never fully heal. The planet created a monster known as "Weapon" through sheer will to destroy Jenova and anything which might threaten the life of the planet. Weapon lies dormant but as long as Jenova lives the planet remains wary. At the end of the set of videos Cloud watches with Ilfana explaining the past of the planet, Hojo shows up to kidnap Aeris and apparently kills her father, Dr. Gast, as well as Ilfana.

Cloud evades the turks and Shinra forces moving into the village in pursuit of Sephiroth by snowboarding into the valley. After trecking through the snowy wasteland, he reached the Northern Crater, the exact site where Jenova crashed down years ago and the planet was forced to gather energy to heal itself. It's known as the promised land simply because of all the Mako which was gathered there to heal the wound. Along the way, Cloud encountered several of the black-hooded men he had seen previously, all of which appeared to be perishing along the route. The Shinra were in hot pursuit, with Hojo laughing and saying the reunion would be soon. Sephiroth appeared and stabbed some of the black-hooded men, saying that "that this body had outlived its usefuless" and disappeared. He returned and forced Cloud to fight another battle with Jenova, after which he learned that the reunion was related to Jenova's cells. After the battle Cloud found the remains of the black materia, but decided to leave it behind with one of his friends to keep it from falling into Sephiroth's hands again.

Northern Crater

As Cloud headed north, the northern crater disappeared and he found himself in Nibelheim. He decided it must be one of Sephiroth's illusions, but was surprised as he watched a familiar scene with himself walking into Nibelheim. The difference was that the man following Sephiroth wasn't him, it was a black-haired man wearing his clothes and using his sword. Cloud watches the same black-haired man leave the Shinra mansion, but thinks nothing of it since he believes it just to be a trick. Tifa was frightened, and Cloud yelled out to Sephiroth, asking if he was trying to say that Cloud was never in Nibelheim five years ago. Sephiroth appears, laughing at him, saying he was only a puppet. Cloud was constructed piece by piece by Hojo from the dead at Nibelheim. His body was constructed with Jenova's cells, and infused with Mako. He was just another Sephiroth clone like the black hooded men, only he was incomplete, not even given a number.

Cloud refuses to believe him, calling on all the memories Tifa and himself had shared before Nibelheim. Sephiroth laughs at him, saying that Jenova has the power to alter memories and appearances, Cloud was created in part by Tifa's memories. Sephiroth shows him the photo that was taken of him, Tifa, and Cloud, only the black-haired man appears in his place again. Cloud insists that his version of events is real and that Sephiroth's is a lie, but he's suddenly unable to remember when or how he joined SOLDIER.

Meanwhile, Scarlet, Rufus, and Hojo reach the depths of the Northern Crater, which they believe to be the promised land, and find a web full of materia and Mako energy. Part of the wall begins to come alive, and Hojo says it must be Weapon, the creature which exists to protect the planet. Meanwhile, Sephiroth disguises himself as Tifa and tricks the party member holding the black materia into following him. Cloud shows up next to Rufus and the others, no longer in the illusion, but clearly disturbed. He takes the black materia back, saying it is time for the reunion. He apologizes to Tifa that he couldn't be the real "Cloud", and hopes she meets him someday. Hojo laughs, saying the reunion is complete, and tries to talk to Cloud and ask what his number is, but Cloud says that he never got one, since Hojo assumed he was a failure. Hojo refuses to give him a number, and tells the others he was one of the clones of Sephiroth he developed.

As Cloud rises into the air, Hojo explains to the others the Jenova unification theory: that if Jenova's body were to become dismembered, it would eventually try to become one again. The event would be Jenova's reunion. He expected the reunion to occur around Midgar where Jenova was stored, but Jenova disappeared from the Shinra building. Hojo figured out that Sephiroth was able to take control of the "Jenova clones", and was bringing them all to himself. Cloud mumbles to himself that he was never pursuing Sephiroth, he was being summoned by him. Cloud calls out to him, saying he brought the black materia. Sephiroth's frozen body appears into the middle of the web of materia, Hojo cackles that Jenova and Sephiroth will not be diffused into the lifestream but gathered together here, and Rufus tries to evacuate, taking Cloud's party. Cloud hands the black materia over to Sephiroth, and the Northern Crater erupts with energy. Cloud's party escapes with Rufus on his airship, as Weapon, a giant mechnical dragon arises out of the crater as well.

Meteor and Weapon arrive
As Tifa blacks out, she remembers her first meeting with Cloud after he returned, finding him at the train station, with him saying he hadn't seen her in five years, and herself thinking it had been seven. She asked him to join AVALANCHE so she could keep an eye on him and try to figure out what was wrong with him. When she comes to, she hears that she'd been asleep for a week. Sephiroth is sealed in the Northern crater, protected by a barrier of light, and a monster called Weapon has been on the rampage. Rufus is trying to fight it, but it seems hopeless, and outside they can already see a giant meteor getting closer to the planet. Rufus shows up and says there's nothing more he can do, and he intends to have Tifa and the others executed so the public can blame someone for the whole disaster.

Scarlet shows up to execute them, but Weapon shows up to attack, and Cait Sith reveals himself after posing as a reporter and knocks Scarlet out. Barret tries to rescue Tifa, and Rufus fires the Mako Cannon Sister Ray at the weapon, but only wounds it. They attack it with everything they have, but it rams into the side of the base. Cait Sith leads Barret to the airport, and Tifa escapes from her cell as the weapon attacks the side of the base, making a hole. The mako cannon blows Weapon's head off, and Tifa climbs to safety and slaps Scarlet silly. Tifa escapes by jumping off the end of the cannon and gets picked up by Barret on the Highwind. The crew of the highwind rebelled against the Shinra and joined up with Cid and your party to help save the planet. All of the party is on the ship, and Tifa hopes to search for Cloud some place where the lifestream gushes up above ground.

Tifa leads the party to Mideel, a place where Mako energy gushes up from below. Cloud is in the clinic as an invalid, unable to talk or cope with anything. The doctors say he was exposed to extrodinary amounts of Mako radiation, causing damage to his brain. He must have fallen into the lifestream and been carried down to Mideel. Tifa decides to stay with Cloud to help him recover, and Cait Sith lets the party eavesdrop on a meeting between two people he calls "Gya ha ha" and "Kya ha ha", or the Shinra executives Heideger and Scarlet, also accompanied by Rufus, Reeve, and Palmer. Shinra's two goals are to destroy meteor somehow and remove the barrier around the Northern cave to defeat Sephiroth. They plan to destroy meteor by collecting Huge Materia from all the Mako reactors and launching it in a rocket to blow up Meteor. They've already gathered the huge materia from Nibelheim, and plan to dispatch troops to Corel and Fort Condor.

The Huge Materia Hunt
Barret and the others decide they don't trust the Shinra and don't want to let them get their hands on the huge materia, plus they believe it might help them since it's supposed to react to regular materia. Barret elects Cid to be the new leader of the group when he wakes up, and he decides to head to North Corel to deal with the Shinra there. The Shinra have run off the the Huge Materia on a train there, so Cid races another train out to catch up with it, leaps onto the Shinra train, and shuts it down before it can crash. The villagers give them the huge materia out of gratitude. The group also heads to Fort Condor to save the base being overrun by Shinra and witness the birth of another Condor, and gain another huge materia. They head back to Mideel to check on Cloud.

Cloud's Therapy Session
When Cid and the others arrive, lifestream starts gushing out of the ground and another monster called WEAPON shows up to terrorize the place. Cid and the group manages to chase Ultima Weapon away, but the lifestream below the village is still gushing up, and they all have to escape. Tifa tries to get Cloud to safety, but they both end up falling into the lifestream together, where Tifa finds herself inside Cloud's troubled subconscious. Cloud guides her back to the entrance to Nibelheim, but Tifa confesses to him that she never saw Cloud at Nibelheim five years ago, it was Sephiroth and another man.

Cloud remains confused, so Tifa takes him back to the promise he made her by the well years ago. Sephiroth wanted her to think Cloud only made up his memories by hearing her stories, so Tifa asks Cloud to show her one of his own memories. Tifa asks him why he joined SOLDIER, and Cloud admits that he wanted to stand out, and to be noticed. He takes Tifa back to a memory of them as children, and how she barely knew him until he went away. Cloud was never a part of her group, and begin thinking that maybe he was different. The day Tifa's mother died, she climbed the mountain looking for her, Cloud followed her but they both fell off. Her family blamed Cloud for what happened, and he started to blame himself even though Tifa never even knew he was there. Cloud started getting into fights and acting immature, and heard about Sephiroth, and thought that maybe if he was strong like him, Tifa would finally notice him. Tifa feels sorry for him, but Cloud tells her not to worry about it anymore.

Tifa's convinced Cloud wasn't just created five years ago if they share their childhood memories, so Tifa takes them back to Nibelheim, and they go over Sephiroth cutting Tifa down at the reactor. The dark haired man shows up, runs past Tifa, and chases after Sephiroth, and Cloud suddenly remembers that his name was Zack. Zack was the name of the first-class SOLDIER who accompanied Sephiroth. Cloud then remembers Zack getting tossed aside by Sephiroth, and an ordinary military grunt grabbing Zack's sword and stabbing Sephiroth. The grunt took off his helmet, and Cloud recognized his own face. Cloud was the ordinary soldier he recalled in all his memories. He was the one who got sick on the train, and who followed Tifa, Zack, and Sephiroth to Nibelheim. He didn't want to show his face to anyone in town since he was too ashamed of failing to get in to SOLDIER. After he stabbed Sephiroth at the reactor, Cloud helped get Tifa to safety, and chased Sephiroth as he staggered away with Jenova's head. Sephiroth stabbed Cloud in the side, but Cloud lifted Sephiroth up by the hilt of the his sword and tossed him into the bowels of the reactor, where he vanished into the lifestream.

With Cloud finally realizing who he really is, he's able to put together the shattered pieces of his personality, and come to rest outside of the lifestream, where the group is waiting for them. Cloud admits to the others that he never made it into SOLDIER, his friend Zack did, and since he was ashamed of who he was, he managed to convince himself that he had lived in Zack's place. Hojo's experiments on him with Mako and Jenova cells made him close physically to a member of SOLDIER, and his weaknesses mentally and infection with Jenova made it possible for Sephiroth to manipulate him. It was his fault Sephiroth was able to gain the black materia and try to summon Meteor, but Cloud intends to do everything in his power to stop him. Cait Sith suggests they head to the Underwater Reactor near Junon to get the last Huge Materia, and Cid's glad to have Cloud in the lead again(he can never remember who has what materia anyway).

The Huge Materia Hunt Continued
Cloud heads to Junon where another Huge Materia is being taken via sub to the Shinra. After engaging Reno of the Turks briefly, Cloud hijacks a sub and sinks the Shinra vessel. They learn via the sub's radio that the Shinra are gathering the huge materia they found to the Junon airport, and they discover that the cannon at Junon has been moved. They arrive at the airport to find that the huge materia is being taken to rocket town, where the plan is to launch it into the meteor.

Cloud and Cid fight their way past Rude of the turks to reach the rocket, where Cid takes over the launching of the rocket. Cloud tries to convince Cid that the materia represents generations of knowledge and wisdom they can't afford to lose, and which they may be able to use to fight off Sephiroth, so the Shinra's scheme of using it against meteor may not be such a bright one. Cid's not too eager to give up his life's dream of going into space, but the rocket is launched with them in it before they can do anything.

They're left on a collision course with meteor, but Cid says they can get to an escape pod in time. Cloud snags the huge materia, and they make their way to the escape pod, only to have an oxygen tank blow up and injure Cid. Cid realizes that one of the Oxygen tanks was malfunctioning, and Shera was right to delay the launch. Shera shows up on the rocket to rescue them, and they fly out in the escape pod. The rocket crashes into meteor with a fantastic explosion, but the giant rock looming overhead is left unharmed. Cid talks to the group and said he's had a revelation, the planet isn't very old compared to the universe or all the other stars and planets out there, it's like a little kid, assaulted and infected by Jenova and Sephiroth, and it needs their help to protect it. RedXIII suggests they go talk to his grandfather Bugenhagen to see what they can do.

City of the Ancients Cloud asks Bugenhagen why Aeris wasn't afraid to challenge Sephiroth on her own, and whether or not they could continue what she was trying to do. They decide to travel to the city of the ancients to learn more, and Bugenhagen lets them store their Huge Materia and help learn the secrets of its power, which seems to be tied to the different types of materia. At the city of the ancients, Bugenhagen tells Cloud that what they need to do is find the magic of Holy, which is used to protect the planet from great threats. It will remove anything which is bad for the planet, including meteor, weapon, or even humans themselves. Aeris had the white materia which could summon Holy, but it disappeared when she died. Bugenhagen reads the ancient's script and says to seek the key where sunlight can not reach. One submarine trip later after running into Reno and Rude of the Turks on a sunken ship that was carrying weapons and materia built to destroy Sephiroth, they find the key.

The key turns out to be a literal key to a music box, and a column of water appears, which is used to project the image of Aeris praying right before she died, and the white materia slipping from her hands. Aeris already came to the planet and prayed for the magic of Holy, but Sephiroth is preventing the magic from working to destroy meteor. Meanwhile, Cait Sith informs the group that the Shinra have moved the Mako Cannon that destroyed the other weapon to Midgar, so they can fire it with the mako energy harvested in its reactors. They've renamed the Mako cannon to the sister ray, and it's a weapon powerful enough to reach the barrier around the northern crater itself.

When Cloud takes to the air again, a new Weapon rises from the sea and moves to attack Midgar. Cloud and the others aren't sure if the sister ray is ready to be fired yet or not, and Marlene is still in Midgar with Aeris's mother. Cait Sith and Barret argue about whether Barret blowing up the Mako reactors was any better than when the Shinra does, and Cloud and the others decide to attack the weapon before it can reach Midgar. After battling it off, the weapon moves to attack Midgar, and they fire a blast from the sister ray, destroying the weapon and reaching all the way to the Northern Crater to destroy the barrier which protects Sephiroth. The blasts from the weapon still damage Midgar and blow up the Shinra building with Rufus still inside, and Hojo takes over the mako reactor and attempts to increase its output in some scheme to give more mako energy to Sephiroth. Cait Sith admits to being Reeve, the shinra executive in charge of urban development, and he tries to shut off the reactor at Midgar but is unable. Reeve is taken prisoner by Scarlet and Heidegger, and Cloud and the others parachute into Midgar to stop Hojo's scheme.

Optional Events
Yuffie: At some point, the party can meet Yuffie in the forest around Junon, and after challenging her briefly, she tries to trick them into stealing some of their money. After playing with her ego, she decides to join them when she sees how much materia they have.

The group travels to Wutai, and Yuffie steals their materia when they get attacked by Shinra soldiers. They follow her to Wutai, where the turks are hanging out at the turtle inn paradise. The group chases Yuffie around Wutai, where they learn that she's mad at her father for giving up on the city. They corner her, she apologizes and says she just wanted to help Wutai from being a tourist trap. She leads them to her home where she says she's hidden the materia, but she runs away again when she gets the chance. Don Corneo shows up again and kidnaps Elana of the Turks as well as Yuffie, and the party joins up with the Turks to find them both, and they finally corner him after fighting one of his pets. Elana and Yuffie are rescued, and the Turks get a call that Shinra wants to hunt Cloud, but they decide to let the group go since it's their day off. Yuffie gives the group back their materia and they take off.

Yuffie also has a chance to battle through the five levels of the Wutai padoga, challenging the fighters there to prove her supremacy, and she's able to fight her father on the top level, and they gain a mutual respect for one another. Her father gives her his most valuable materia, and tells his daughter he turned Wutai into a resort town because he didn't want to fight himself, he asks Yuffie to help Cloud and his friends. (and steal all their materia after they're done)

Vincent: Hojo left a message in the Shinra mansion that he needed to get rid of all those who stood in the way of his research, particularly that one from the Turks. After investigating the clues in the mansion the party finds the combination for the safe and the key to the basement, where a man named Vincent sleeps in a coffin, atoning for his sins. The party tells Vincent about Sephiroth and how he learned of the Jenova project and how he was created. Vincent explains that Lucrecia gave birth to Sephiroth, as an assistant to Professor Gast. He joins your party for a chance to meet Hojo again.

Vincent also has a chance to visit a waterfall cave and find Lucrecia. He recalls his past at Nibelheim, how he loved the scientist named Lucrecia, but she rejected him and married Hojo instead. The two of them decided to experiment on humans, and created a child named Sephiroth. Vincent tried to stop Hojo, but was attacked, and Hojo experimented on Vincent, giving him the body of a monster. Vincent considered the form to be his punishment and penance for being unable to stop Hojo, Gast, and Lucrecia with their experiments. Lucrecia tells Vincent she wanted to die, but the Jenova cells inside her wouldn't let her, and that she still dreams of her child Sephiroth, whom she never got to even hold. She begs to know how he is, since she can't believe he perished so easily five years ago, but Vincent coldly tells her that Sephiroth is dead.

Nibelheim revisited: Cloud can head back to Nibelheim again, and find a note in the piano left by Tifa's old martial arts instructor, Zangan, who carried her to safety from the reactor. Hojo and the Shinra arrived in the town and used the bodies they found for twisted experiments, and Zangan began to see the black-hooded men staying around. He left behind a gift for his star pupil, Tifa. Cloud also headed to the basement, where he was able to remember how Zack and him were both trapped in holding containers, as experimental subjects for Hojo. They broke out, and Zack dragged Cloud to safety and dressed him in a SOLDIER outfit. Cloud was still delirious, so Zack talked to him on a truck ride to Midgar about their plans to become mercenaries. Zack was hunted and gunned down by Shinra soldiers, and Cloud was left for dead. He grabbed Zack's buster sword and escaped to Midgar. Hojo also left behind files on two experimental subjects in the basement, one of whom exhibited no reaction to Jenova, and one who did, Cloud learned that it was himself and Zack.

Shinra's End
After parachuting into Midgar, Cloud and company make their way through the Midgar sewers, and after a final run-in with the Turks, they fight off Scarlet and Heidegger's latest weapon, the Proud Clod. Cloud confronts Hojo at the Mako reactor, who dismisses Cloud as a failure. Hojo explains to Cloud that he's attempting to channel the Mako energy to help Sephiroth, because Sephiroth is his son. He had a son with the scientist Lucrecia, and injected it with Jenova's cells while it was still in the womb, hoping that they could create a creature with Jenova's power. Hojo's also has been experimenting with Jenova cells on his own body, and Cloud has to destroy his mutated form.

With the Shinra in ruins, Cloud and others sail through the skies and gives a motivational speech about how everyone is really fighting for themselves and those closest to them. He gives them all a chance to find their own reasons for fighting Sephiroth, and Cloud shares a moment with Tifa together. The group reunites with everyone willing to do their part, and Cid pilots the airship straight into the Northern Crater.

Disc 3: The Northern Crater and Sephiroth
The group heads into the Northern Crater, with the party splitting up and reforming to explore all the paths. Cloud heads into the depths of the crater and has to fight a final battle with a form of Jenova. Sephiroth appears, and is preventing the magic of Holy from being released. Cloud and the others fight him in a duo of bizarre forms, and Sephiroth disappears and the magic for Holy is freed. As the group tries to escape, Cloud suddenly loses control of himself again and the scene shifts to Sephiroth and Cloud inside Cloud's head, in a titanic battle to rule Cloud's personality that takes... all of a couple seconds. Cloud frees himself of Sephiroth's influence once and for all, and the group escapes from an explosion coming from the Northern Crater. The magic of Holy heads to Midgar and tries to stop the meteor, but it's not strong enough. Cloud and the others become convinced the whole planet is doomed, when the lifestream begins gushing out from all over the planet and strengthening the magic. Now that Aeris's soul can return to the lifestream she's able to strengthen the magic and destroy the meteor. Five hundred years in the future, Midgar is overrun by plants and vegetation, RedXIII and his kids have a good time, and children still laugh apparently. Or something.

Executive Plot Summary
Cloud from the start of the game on tells everyone that he was a bad-ass member of SOLDIER, first class, and that he witnessed Sephiroth turn evil at Nibelheim. Sephiroth is a legendary warrior and experimental subject of Hojo's who was infected with the cells of an alien creature named Jenova from birth, and chose to follow the will of Jenova rather than the Shinra or anyone else. After Cloud confronted Sephiroth at Nibelheim, both disappeared for five years.

Cloud fights against the Shinra at Midgar, who are draining the lifeforce of the planet by using Mako energy, and he begins to hunt Sephiroth all over the globe. Sephiroth is pursuing a black materia which can summon a deadly meteor to injure the planet, and his goal is to wound the planet and absorb its lifestream. Aeris, an Ancient from a long forgotten race, tries to summon the magic of Holy to stop the meteor and Sephiroth, but Sephiroth kills her and prevents the magic from being released. Cloud gains the black materia himself but hands it over to Sephiroth after finding himself under Sephiroth's control briefly. Cloud chases Sephiroth to the Northern Crater, and Sephiroth tells Cloud that the person known as Cloud died at Nibelheim, he's merely another monster created by Hojo to be a clone of Sephiroth. Cloud freaks out and Sephiroth uses the black materia to summon the meteor. A monster known as weapon wakes up and starts terrorizing everything it sees as a threat to the planet, which is mostly the Shinra. The Shinra have a scheme to launch some huge materia in a rocket to blow up the meteor, but it fails. They keep the weapons at bay with a Mako cannon, and eventually pierce Sephiroth's barrier around the Northern Crater.

Tifa finds Cloud after he fell into the lifestream and helps him figure out that he actually was at Nibelheim five years ago, only he was a lowly army grunt rather than a first-class SOLDIER. His friend Zack actually was a first-class SOLDIER, and Cloud imagined himself in Zack's place because he didn't want to confront his own failure at getting into SOLDIER. Cloud actually did confront Sephiroth at Nibelheim, and Sephiroth fell into the lifestream while Cloud was mortally wounded. Sephiroth's body ended up at the Northern Crater, where he was able to exercise his will over the subjects Hojo had infected with Jenova and appear in their places. In the aftermath of Nibelheim, Cloud was experimented on by Hojo, who infected him with Jenova which gave Sephiroth some measure of control over him. Cloud purges his personal demons, beats up the Shinra to stop Hojo from aiding his son Sephiroth, and defeats Sephiroth at the northern crater, where he also frees himself of Jenova's influence. Aeris is able to return to the lifestream and summon Holy to destroy the meteor en route to the planet, and everyone lives happily ever after. (except for Aeris, who is of course dead)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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Final Fantasy VII/Preface/Story/After the game

What happened to the playable characters?
Cloud Strife: Cloud lived with Tifa and Marlene in the new town of Edge, built on the edge of the ruins of Midgar. Cloud started a delivery service, however, he was still overcome with guilt because of his failure to save Aerith. Cloud then snuck out on Tifa and Marlene, wanting to be alone in his misery.

Tifa Lockhart: Lived with Cloud and Marlene in Edge. Opened up a new Seventh Heaven bar in the town.

Barret Wallace: Left his daughter Marlene in the care of Tifa and Cloud while he went to take care of his personal demons, and to find a new energy source to replace Mako.

Nanaki: Returned to Cosmo Canyon.

Cid Highwind: Married Shera and gained legendary status as an airship pilot. Started up an airship division to aid the World Restoration Organization.

Cait Sith/Reeve: Started up the World Restoration Organization, charged with restoring the planet after the evils of Shinra Inc. and the Meteor Incident.

Yuffie Kisaragi: Helped in the evacuation of Midgar along with Vincent and Reeve before Meteor impacted. Afterwards, returned to Wutai.

Vincent Valentine: Helped in the evacuation of Midgar along with Yuffie and Reeve before Meteor impacted. Afterwards, roamed the world, spending most of his time in the Ancient Forest to reflect on his past sins.


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Final Fantasy VII/Game controls

General
The game uses the following controls. PC version refers to the controls with their labelled names, the PS version uses button symbols (for most part, anyway, there are still some slips in it that show labels instead).

Specific controls
Specific controls are (or will be), for most part, listed in the minigame articles. The ones that won't should be listed here.

title: Final Fantasy VII/Game controls


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Final Fantasy VII/Status Effects

During battles in Final Fantasy VII, many status effects can be induced on your party or enemies.

Below is list of status effects, their appearance, their effects when used, and their remedies.

title: Final Fantasy VII/Status Effects


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Final Fantasy VII/General combat strategies

General combat strategies
Back attacks: If you're getting attacked at back, there's an easy remedy for that. Hit [PgUp]+[PgDn] (both shoulder buttons on PlayStation, (presumably?) 3 + 9 on PC). Normally this makes your party run away, but with just a brief push, they won't. And after they've tried running away, they always turn to face the enemy. This way, you're never actually back-attacked.

General boss combat strategies
Or, good advice on how not to die in the massive boss battles.

Heal often. How often you need to heal a character depends entirely on how much damage the boss does, but as a general rule, if the character has less than a half of HP left, it's always a good idea to heal up. At first, you probably rely on Potions and Hi-Potions, but in general, using Restore materia is much cheaper and more effective in long run. Once you have the Big Guard enemy skill, White Wind becomes a rather handy enemy skill as well, because Cure2's effectiveness is reduced by Big Guard or MBarrier, while White Wind goes straight through it. Same also goes for Aerith's limit breaks.

Protection and haste. The most useful spells in boss fights are Haste+All, Barrier+All and MBarrier+All. This makes your party faster and gets less damage. But in general, if you have Big Guard enemy skill, things are much easier.

Fury. If the boss is strong against magic and needs good physical beating, using Hypers to get the party to Fury status makes them more likely to get limit breaks.


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Final Fantasy VII/List of things that are easy to miss

This module intends to have list of things that have to be done at certain parts of the game, or items that are only available at certain parts of the game and have to be picked up at that point or they'll be missed for good.

Shin-Ra Headquarters
There's two ocassions to go here. Better take them on either visit.

 * One of Turtle's Paradise posters.

Chocobo jockey room

 * Ramuh materia

Great Glacier and Gaea's Cliff
These items at the Great Glacier aren't permanently missable, though they're not available for another grab for quite a while if you miss them at the beginning of CD2.

 * Alexander materia

The following are permanently missable, since they reside on the Gaea's Cliff, which means they can be only got at the beginning of CD2:

 * Ribbon (Ribbons are extremely rare, so it pays to get this one. See Things to Collect.)

Temple of the Ancients
Most of the items, especially the Morph materia which can be found only here.

Yuffie's home

 * One of the Turtle's Paradise posters.


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Final Fantasy VII/Walkthrough/Assault on Mako Reactor no. 1

The adventure begins
Welcome to the world of Final Fantasy VII! The opening cinematic leads us, thrillingly enough, right into the action. At the very beginning, you're controlling an Ex-SOLDIER, now employed by AVALANCHE, who gets to try out this newfangled combat interface right on. The first few soldiers are not too difficult to deal with: Just hit them with all of your might. The manual tells a lot of interesting tidbits on how to fight, obviously, but it isn't very difficult: Choose "Attack" and the bad guy and after a few hits, the thing dies. After you've defeated the guards, a brief introduction to the examining things: Walk up to them and hit [OK] (Circle on PS, Enter on PC) to examine the bodies of the two guards, to scavenge a potion from each. As it looks kind of silly to see our intrepid spiky-haired protagonist walking everywhere when the rest of the ecoterrorists seem to be on run, you may also want to learn how to run while moving: Keep [Cancel] (Cross on PS, Ins on PC) pressed. Learn that, as it makes this purported "100-hour RPG" to be completable in mere 45 hours of play time! ...okay, maybe there's more to it.

In the reactor, you will also meet mechanical things: Brute force works wonders here, as does the Bolt magic. You can pick up handy things like Potions from the enemies you defeat. There's really nothing too difficult in this chapter; Learn the basics of the game interface, learn to fight and examine/activate things, that sort of thing.

The first few rooms are quite straightforward, and basically all you need to do is to run along the people and talk to them if they stop. Your party, for most the rest of the chapter, consists of Cloud and Barret, both of whom you get to name at an early opportunity. The only notable thing on the few first rooms is on a room to south: a chest holding a Phoenix Down.

Along the way, you will learn how to climb ladders, operate buttons, and like. You'll notice also sometimes flashing items and chests on ground; these can be picked up and opened. You'll find Potions on floor here if you pay attention.

You'll eventually reach the actual reactor room. On the floor, there's a save point, and as you cross the bridge to the other side, you'll find a Restore materia on ground. So this is definitely a good place to learn how to save the game and pick up items. Note that you cannot actually use the Restore materia yet, so aside of picking it up, quit worrying about it for a while. (A terrible shame, because you sure could use it for the stuff that's about to happen!).

As you place the bombs, Cloud gets a rather strange flashback. Huh? Well, don't worry, it will all make sense later...

A mission would be nothing without a good, big, warm-up fight. As soon as the bombs are ready to get tripped, a really big nasty thing shows up.

(Notice the similarity of tactics with the first boss in FF6...)

The boss leaves an Assault Gun, which Barret can use, and is better than his default weapon. The time bomb is set, and you now have 10 minutes to go back the same way you came.

Along the way, you'll run into Jessie whose foot seems to be stuck. Talk to her and help her to get loose again. If you missed her and get back to the rest of the gang, you still probably have plenty of time to get back and there again. Once you're out, the reactor blows up.

Going to Sector 7? The train just left.
After you escape, you and the rest of the AVALANCHE split up. There isn't much to see here, but you actually do get to meet Aerith for the first time. You don't know her, but she's going to be really important character later on. You can buy flowers from her if you want to. Flowers are pretty. There is a potion lying on the ground just before the south exit in this area.

When you finally head towards the train station, you get surrounded by soldiers, who, as the beginning of the adventure showed, are quite trivial to defeat. You can actually choose to avoid fighting them, but since they're easy to defeat and garner a few items and Exp, it's probably best to fight them. Eventually, the torrent of clowns ends, and you leap from the bridge to the roof of the passing train, conveniently right on the right car too.

There isn't terribly much to do aboard the train, just talk to the AVALANCHE members as you see fit. Jessie will show you a computer diagram of the railway system. After you get back to the station, head left, where you find, among other things, a savepoint. The Sector 7 slums are further to the left.

 * 1) For the sake of clarity, in this guide, we're using the original character names - apart of another character you meet soon, Aerith, whose name was mistranslated as Aeris in both PS and PC versions.


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Final Fantasy VII/Walkthrough/Sector 7 Slums and Assault on Mako Reactor no. 5

Sector 7 slums
Back in Sector 7, you will meet a lot of scared people. Head to the bar - the building on left where Barret is waiting.

Inside, you meet Tifa Lockhart for the first time in this game. If you bought flowers from Aerith, you can give them to her (or Marlene...) Talk to the folks there. If you try to get out, Barret will come in, and gets the meeting downstairs going. You can ask Tifa to make you a drink if you want to.

Downstairs, you'll get to talk more to the AVALANCHE folks and see exactly how cold Cloud is. As you try to get out of the house, Barret will give you your pay - and you sign up for the next mission.

So, in the morning, after greeting Barret and Tifa (who will now accompany you for a while), up. Barret asks how to use Materia. Choose to explain if you want to see a tutorial on Materia system. You can now use the Materia menu to arrange your stuff.

Outside, there are a few places to visit. You can talk to people, and visit houses. You also have some money to spare now, so you can visit the weapon shop and the materia shop. Pick up as much Materia as you think is necessary, and maybe also some protective stuff, potions, maybe even an extra Phoenix Down (there is never enough of those).

Barret hinted that the weapons store guy knows something. Talk to the guy behind the fence and he forwards you upstairs. Beginner's Hall has a cute dog, and a lot of helpful tutorials to get you familiar with all of the basic aspects of the game. There's also a Save Point there. Here, you can also pick up a free All materia here, so it pays to see this stuff. And did I mention the dog is cute?

Reactor no. 5
Once you're done, head up-right from the town the way you came in and head back to the train station. The train is waiting, hop aboard.

Inside, talk to folks again, Tifa wants to show you the security monitor again. Something goes wrong, and the security lockdown starts. You now have 15 seconds to head out of each car - just follow where the rest of the folks are running again. Eventually, you'll reach the last car, and you get to jump out of the train.

Once outside, there's really not much else to do but go up. There's a security gate there. Examine the air conditioning duct, and head down. What follows is a simple maze-like thing that really isn't a maze at all - you don't have people running ahead of you to guide you, but whatever route you take, you'll finally end up to the crawlway leading to the reactor and a save point. Along the way, you'll meet Jessie and Wedge, and find (at least) an Ether, Potion and a Tent, which is right beside a save point.

Once you get to the duct and emerge to the reactor side, you've got to slide to get down. Reactor no. 5's inner building is exact same as the no. 1 - this is familiar territory now already, I hope.

Head to the reactor core room again, plant the bomb, and Cloud gets another flashback. This time, far more weird than the one in the first reactor. What kind of reactor is this then? Why's Tifa got that hat? What's going on in here? Again, I assure you things will make sense later, but as of now, you just have to note that Cloud has some weird flashbacks and mental issues.

The good news: There isn't a boss fight here. What can that possibly mean? Well, among other things, it means that the boss fight is somewhere else. So, to get out, head back the same way you exited the first reactor, and up the elevator.

The security room is different in this reactor. Tifa and Barret go to the other side of the table. Try to hit the button at the exact same moment as the others. It doesn't need to be exactly at the same time, just close enough. (Is the security in this power plant really this awful, or is there something even more sinister waiting here for us?)

Head out, and there's a save point on the other side of the room. Save here, because you won't be getting to a save point until in the next chapter of this walkthrough...

So we get out of the reactor... oh, this was a trap. How unsurprising. A trap so cunning that the very president of Shin-Ra had to show up to congratulate you for your unsuspiciousness and introduce you to his secret weapon and your certain doom, called Air Buster.

And with the explosion, the bridge breaks and Cloud, after a short struggle falls.. falls... falls...

...into nightmares. But at least the wake-up will be pleasant.


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Final Fantasy VII/Walkthrough/Meeting Aerith, Wall Market, Don Corneo

Spiky hair sticking from that flower bed there
Cloud crash-lands and goes blank. Obviously, this leads to more confused dreams that probably make absolutely no sense to people who play the game for the first time - but they all will be revealed later.

As he comes to, we find ourselves in the church. The flower girl from slums, Aerith by her name, is here tending her flowers. Discuss with her about things. Someone who calls himself not very important appears.

And a moment or two later, you note that the person is actually very important. This is Reno, one of the Turks, who has come to grab Aerith with a couple of Shin-Ra soldiers. So, Cloud and Aerith escape.

The climb to the top isn't easy. Aeris is down, and gets attacked by Shin-Ra soldiers. When she gets attacked, you either have option to have her wait or let her fight or run. If you let her wait, you can push one of the barrels down from above. If you push the wrong one, you have to fight anyway. The fights aren't too hard, only bad thing is that Aerith doesn't have much melee fighting power and she has no Materia. If you give her some, she'll start kicking butt. Even without Materia, the soldiers aren't too difficult to defeat.

To prevent the fights, push the barrels in the following order:

 * 1) The one way off to the left.
 * 2) The center one in back.
 * 3) The one off to the right.

The only waterfall in the polluted city
After this, you escape across the rooftops, Cloud volunteering to do some bodyguarding. When you get back to ground, head left (savepoint somewhere here too) and up. Talk to the folks in the slums. There's a weird person with a weird tattoo in the pipe. (You guessed it. Foreshadowing.) There's a Materia and weapons store where you can get Titan Bangles which may help things a little bit. Many people seem to miss where to go next - Just head left from this place to get to Aerith's house.

Aerith's house garden has an Elixir and a Cover materia. Head in. It's a good idea to stay overnight—except that Elmyra wants Cloud to leave before Aerith notices a thing. In the room prepared for Cloud, there's a Potion and a Phoenix Down. Sneak down (don't run, Aerith will hear you and sends you back to the room) and out. Head through the slum and now to left from the intersection.

Oops. Aerith is here afterall. She wants to tag along. Head through the maze in the next room (you'll probably run into one of the craziest enemies of the game here, the Hell House), and you'll arrive to the Sector 7 gate. Aerith stops by the playground.

And just as you start to chill down, a chocobo cart comes from Sector 7, with a familiar barmaid, not looking at all like a barmaid, aboard... whatever's gone in Tifa's mind now? Time to follow her to Wall Market.

Wall Market: Wretched hive of pervs and villainy
Welcome to the greatest and the weirdest shopping district in the Midgar slums! As you walk around and ask people things, you'll soon find out that Tifa has become a candidate for inclusion to the Honeybee Manor, and new inductees have to be personally checked by someone called Don Corneo. Corneo's manor is fairly easy to find, it's on the northern side. The problem is, the guy on the door will only let women in, Aerith is the only woman around, and Cloud just cannot let a frail maiden like Aerith, despite her helpfulness and willingness to take risks, be sinfully savaged by these villains. But luckily, Aerith's resourcefulness knows no bounds, and she has a wonderful idea which she tells Cloud right away.

In a feeble attempt at one-upping Nintendo in making history of LGBT videogaming, your next objective is to get Cloud dressed up like a girl. Technically, this is very simple, and you practically cannot lose this thing, and you can do this very very simply. If you want to put more effort into this, read the whole section first. If you are afraid to see Cloud in a dress for too long, just do the simple things.

Firstly, you need a dress. If you talk to the cloth store clerk, she says that her father does the cloth designing, he's lounging in the bar without any inspiration whatsoever. Talk to him and convince him to make a dress for Cloud. A challenging task! He then tells you to scurry off.

After you return, Cloud's hairstyle stands out too much, so you need a wig. You'll get this by going to the gym and entering the squatting competition (it doesn't matter if you win or lose). After you have the wig, return to the cloth store and scurry away to the Manor Corneo.

If you've got to go, go with the style
(Todo: what other items there are, how to get them, and how they affect the outcome...)

If you want, you can do the following optional things. Not that I want to spoil anything, but very soon, Don Corneo's going to pick a bride for himself; the more of these items you collect, the queerer the whole thing goes. But here's a list of stuff that you can collect, anyway:

The best possible dress is one that "feels soft" and that "shimmers". In other words, a silk dress. The other options are "feels clean" and "shiny". There is a cotton dress to be obtained, or a satin dress. (Todo: what combo makes what dress)

In the bar, there's a woman in the bathroom who's having severe digestion problems. Go to the restaurant, get Today's Special, and you'll get a pharmacy coupon. Head to the pharmacy, exchange the ticket for a digestive medicine. Head to the bar, and the woman will give you sexy cologne. There is also disinfectant or deodorant to receive from the coupon. The disinfectant will get you the cologne and the deoderant will get you the flower cologne.

Talk to the indecisive man pacing on the lowermost Wall Market. At one point, he'll can't make up his mind and will give his membership card to you. But don't go in the Honeybee Manor yet...

Go up the rightmost path on the lower screen, past the man with the big cooking pot. The man in the store wants to know what's in the inn's vending machine, but can't check it out himself because he's been banned. Pay for the night. Get the 200 Gil item from the vending machine. Head back to the shop and the man will give you a diamond tiara. Returning the 50 Gil item to the materia shop man will get you the glass tiara and the 100 Gil item will get you the ruby tiara.

The best possible wig is the blonde wig, which you'll get by winning the squatting competition with the Big Bro. The second best possible wig is the dyed wig which you get if you tie with Big Bro. Losing to Big Bro will get you just a regular, old wig.

Before you go to get changed for good, head to the Honeybee Manor. Poke your nose around. First of all, here, you get more of the man-to-man action, or perhaps see even more freakish Cloud mind-bending. If you take peeks in the occupied rooms (note that you can look around with the d-pad), you'll also see President Shin-Ra engaging in some Epic Foreshadowing, and also get to see the first glimpse of Cait Sith. Most importantly, by poking around here, you'll get lingerie (if you enter the top left room), or the bikini briefs (if you enter the bottom left room), and also, before you leave, you get the makeup from one of the girls. (Obviously, this isn't showing up as a Key Item in inventory.)

Corneo's Little Cave of Horrors
In Corneo's room, head upstairs and through the open door. Here you meet Tifa again, who explains what's going on. After some discussion, Corneo's lackey comes and asks you to show up in his room.

Corneo will pick one of the three girls depending on what items Cloud had when he dressed up. If Corneo picks Tifa or Aeris, Cloud ends up in a room with some drooling men. He takes off the dress, and they attack you. There's a Phoenix Down in the room too. If Corneo picks Cloud (and you need the above items to do this), the whole thing is a little bit shorter.

 * Tifa will be selected if you have just the basic items (dress, wig), or if you have the worst possible items that you can get (glass tiara, cologne, etc.)
 * Aerith will be selected if you have the moderately good items (ruby tiara, dyed wig, flower cologne, etc.).
 * Cloud will be selected if you have te best possible items (diamond tiara, blonde wig, sexy cologne, etc.).

Remember to steal the Phoenix Down in the Lackey's room if Cloud isn't selected, and the Hyper behind Corneo's bed.

Either way, Cloud, Aeris and Tifa get to intimidate Corneo strongly, and learn of a terrifying plan to destroy Sector 7. And just as you're about to leave, he ends up buffing up his Evil Antagonist Skills and keeps talking. And, having once in his life gotten the trap set up correctly, sends the heroes down to the sewers with a flick of a switch.

A cutscene follows... and our heroes, as noted, are in the sewers.


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Final Fantasy VII/Walkthrough/Sewers, the Train Graveyard, and the fall of Sector 7

(Todo: May need some expansion)

After the cutscene you splash down in the sewers. Talk to Tifa and Aerith to wake them up, but before you wake up the other of them, be sure to check up your healing and materia if necessary. Of course, Don Corneo wouldn't have thrown you into the sewers expecting the foul stench alone would have killed you!

There's a single notable item in the sewers, a Steal materia. Getting back to the surface after beating the boss should present no problems, the enemies are relatively weak.

Train graveyard
The train graveyard is easier than it looks. The only thing that probably confuses at first is that the train cars may have holes on their roof so figuring out where the items are is more difficult. Use the ladders and ramps and whatnot to cross to the other side. There's a Hi-Potion and Ether here, loose or in rain barrels.

On the other end of the train graveyard, the trains block your path. Hop on the nearest engine that has a door open. The engine will push one of the cars off the way. Then hop on the another engine, and the way clears.

TIPS: Give Tifa the steal materia since her DEX rating should be higher than Cloud and Aerith. On the second screen, you can steal ethers from Deenglows (the green flying creatures) and you can steal the Striking Staff for Aerith from Eligor, who looks kind of like a cross of Baraka from Mortal Kombat and a Centaur. The Striking Staff will not be sold in stores for a very LONG time (Junon).

The fall of Sector 7
The column is still standing! Regrettably, Wedge isn't, as he just fell down. Nor are Biggs and Jessie in much better condition a bit further up. Aerith scurries off to get Marlene from Tifa's bar. You can buy stuff from the merchant here. Save if you feel like.

Once you reach the top, Barret says that the enemies are coming by air and lets you get your Materia and equipment sorted out before they get closer. Get Barret equipped.

And then... oops, Reno shows up and calmly sets the hell bomb loose. Of course, fighting him does no good, but it always pays to try...

Reno will rush off at one point, and it's time for our characters to make for a quick escape. Barret will figure out how to use the hook cable, and off you go...


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Final Fantasy VII/Walkthrough/Back to Aerith's House and the Road to Shin-Ra HQ

You'll find yourself on the playground. Barret will be pretty broken after Sector 7 is destroyed, but he'll be a bit hopeful as he learns that Marlene might be safe. So, after this cutscene, head toward Aerith's house - and Barret and Tifa will join Cloud.

Back at Aerith's house, you find out about the Cetra (Ancients), and who Aerith's mother really was. And Barret will meet up with Marlene.

Back to Wall Market
Barret will suggest that Wall Market might have something that might help us get to the Shinra headquarters. So head there.

It's a good chance to stock up with all sorts of stuff. The people will discuss about how the neighboring sector went crash, the porridge is all ruined, and how all sorts of stuff rained down - and that damn weapon shop man grabbed them all!

The weapon store man - the one who's constantly fixing up the tank, not the clerk - tells you that you need batteries to get up to the plate. Umm... okay. Buy them, they're not that expensive.

I really recommend that you should stock up on Lightning materia, have at least 3, one for each party member at time. You are, of course, heading to a highly technical place next; highly technical means "doesn't like power surges".

The long climb
As you pass Don Corneo's mansion, a bunch of kids will tell you of something cool, like, a cable that just happens to hang down all the way from the World Above and lets you climb the sector wall.

After you get up, the place is again fairly straightforward: The yellow sockets need batteries inserted in them. These let you advance. (If you didn't get the batteries earlier, climb back down to the market and buy the batteries from the gun shop, as noted earlier. If you don't have enough money, well, think of something...)

The single most frustrating minigame in the entirety of the game is right here too. It involves leaping to the other side by using the swinging bar. Timing is really important. The best way to proceed is to pick some static spot of the background, and hit the button as the bar is at that point, and try earlier. To me, it seemed like coinciding with some puffs of smoke on the background. The point is, the right moment is when the bar is swinging towards Cloud, and pretty close to him, but not quite there.

Have fun storming the castle!
You can save at the front entrance of the Shinra building. Tifa begs you to sneak in. The first part of getting in is to head left, and use the side entrance door. Now begins the fun, long and dull part of the game - you need to climb all the way up to the 59th floor! Whoever decided to actually make you climb 59 flights of stairs (they're all there, you can count them as you ascend) should be caught and shot immediately! :) The best way that I've found to get through it is to make it a race between you, Barret, and Tifa. The feeling of elation you get everytime you take that corner and finally pull out ahead is almost worth the climb. The only spoils on the long climb are a lone Elixir, though the conversations between Tifa and Barrett are nearly worth the climb too.

Right through the front door!
Alternatively, you can do what Barrett suggested and just walk through the front door to the Shinra headquarters. As soon as you head in, you will get attacked. As soon as the battle is over, you can chase the group of people around the lobby, or you can just jump on the elevator at the back of the lobby. However, security klaxons start going off, and you'll have to figh random battles on the elevator till you get to the 59th floor.

Presumably, you have here a chance of seeing a Turtle's Paradise poster on the lobby wall; You will get the another chance to see that when you visit the building at the end of CD 2 though, so don't worry if you decide to climb the stairs instead.


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Final Fantasy VII/Walkthrough/Infiltrating Shin-Ra HQ

59th floor: Guards! Guards!
There isn't much to see here. Beat up the guards before they make much of a rukus and grab their Keycard 60. The robot guards are very susceptible to Lightning but Ice works pretty well too; give each party character Lightning materia, hammer away with it, and you can kill each of the guards in one turn. If you don't have enough Lightning materia, at least equip one person with a Lightning + All combination so that you get a good spread on your first hit, then just Lightning/Ice/Assault Gun and you can still normally take the guards out in one turn.

60th floor: Metal Shinracrud Solid
Time to sneak past guards! Head to the room on the left. Open the door, head to the statue when the guards aren't looking (you can move to the first statue no matter what the guards are doing). Then, when the guards aren't looking, scoot across the gap between the pillars, one at a time, until you reach the middle and Cloud leaves your control. At this point, you use [OK] to let Barret and then Tifa know when it's safe to cross a gap. Remember, anytime the guards aren't standing still they aren't looking! Then, do the same process for the right side of the room, note that the distances are shorter and the guards run now. Be careful, Snake. I mean, Cloud.

If you get seen, the guards will attack from both sides. In that case, use Bolts or Bolt/Ice/Gun again. Luckily, if you absolutely don't manage to get through with five tries or so, the torrent of guards will eventually end... The team isn't very happy about this, but at least you tried!

61st floor: Bar of the Fools
This is the employee lounge or something. Luckily, the door is busted so you won't need a keycard to get to this floor. Once inside, talk to every people in the room. If you don't show yourself to be a complete idiot by talking about Aerith, you get a Keycard 62 for your trouble.

62nd floor: My Librarian, My Mayor
The Mayor will help you if you manage to solve his riddle.

So here goes, solution to the riddle: Look at each library room. Each room contains books on certain topics (read the signs on the doors). Each room has two shelves. Each shelf has two books, stored on the ends of the shelf. Your task is to find the book that doesn't belong in the room in question. (For example, "5 Reactor Construction Chart" that has somehow been filed to, say, urban planning library.) Then, count to the indicated letter, ignoring spaces and punctuation and such, from the beginning. Make note. (In the example, "T") Arrange all four letters to a word.

Mayor will give you Keycard 65 for guessing right eventually, and an Elemental materia if you guess right at the first try.

63rd floor: Warehouse of goodies
This floor is optional; if you want, you can leave this for CD2 when you return to Midgar. You can do this now to get some helpful stuff though.

Once you reach this floor, go to the door access computer below where you come in. It will give you the ability to open three doors on this floor. If you choose the top-most door you have access to, then the second door you pass to the south, you can get the coupon in one of the rooms. From there, jump into the air ducts and make your way to another room containing a coupon. Exit this room, and open the door to the left to get to the last coupon room. Afterwards, jump into the air ducts again and go back to the door access room again. Tell the computer you want to trade in your coupons, and you will be rewarded with a Star Pendant accessory that protects against Poison, a Four Slots armor that holds four individual materia, and an All materia.

If you make a mistake and open up the wrong doors, go back to the door access machine to reset the doors. Remember, once you turn in your coupons, the doors won't reset anymore!

64th floor: Not another gym?
You can rest and save here.

65th floor: Exhibition behind locked doors
There's a big Midgar model in the middle. One of the chests contains "Midgar parts". Insert the piece to the model in its appropriate place, and another chest will open. Repeat this until the last chest unlocks. It contains Keycard 66.

66th floor: Why is everybody talking of the bathroom?
As you get in, you note that President, Heidegger, Scarlet, and other people are gathering in the big meeting room. Obviously, it's not really wise to barge in. Most of the folks here seem to have some sort of bathroom obsession. So, head to the bathroom.

Use the ceiling grate to get to the ventilation shaft, which just happens to be above the meeting room. Cutscene ensues. Listen patiently.

As the meeting ends and you crawl back, you see Hojo leaving to the floor above.

67th floor: Mad science!
Here, you see Hojo adoring his new specimen, and he goes to the floor above using the elevator. While Tifa seems preoccupied with the cute specimen, Cloud gets freaked out by remains of Jenova, who seems to be locked up in the other container. Not much you can do about it - head north, save if you want, then up.

A brief cutscene ensues. Summary: Specimen up. Barret mad. Specimen pounce Hojo. Aerith safe. (Select who will take care of her.) The specimen (whom I shall henceforth call Red XIII, in honor of Hojo's insanity) has a name which you surely do get to pick. Red XIII is also armed with some free Materia.

Another specimen shows up, and you need to fight it. For this fight, your party has Cloud, whoever you didn't send away with Aerith, and Red XIII.

After beating HO512, run around the floor and steal Carbon Bangles from "Moth Slashers" (the blue chain saw looking things) and steal the Hardedge for Cloud from "Soldier: 3rd" (the blue soldiers, who can give you a serious beating, but the Hardedge is worth it at this point in the game).

Escape from the Shinra Building
Time to get out! But just as you enter the elevator, this bald guy, whom you will henceforth know as Rude, stops you. Seems that he and the Shin-ra security folks have captured you and the rest of the team.

Some cutscenery later - where you get to meet President Shinra in person - you find yourself in prison. Kill time.

As you wake up, we find out a few alarming things: Jenova is missing from the containment. Tail of blood leads up. President Shinra has a big honkin' sword on his back. Palmer spooked because he saw Sephiroth come and kill the President.

Rufus waits you outside. Talk forth.

Basically, there's now two battles to deal with. You get careful options and time to prepare the battles if you play your cards right.

The Elevator fight
The first battle is done by Aeris, Barret and Red XIII. You get to remove Cloud's and Tifa's materia first. Re-equip. I recommend a good dose of Lightning materia (hey, we're still in Shinra building!) and Restore as well. You definitely need to have good spells on both Red XIII and Aerith.

Enter the elevator, and boom... Well, let's just say, this is one of those battles that make skeptics love this game. A battle in the freaking elevator. The following two bosses will be fought immediately after each other, so you don't get any chance to rest or change equipment between them.

Balcony fight
You get to mess with Cloud's materia and equipment at this point too. Rufus and Cloud talk and talk and talk. And then the time for talks is over.

Now, head downstairs. You can save at the savepoint - just remember to do it before you talk to Tifa.

Crazy Motorcycle Chase
And then it's the time to show some surprising thinking. The crew gets in a car, Cloud gets a motorcycle. Time to slam some baddies after you figure out the instructions. Note that this is the chance to rearrange your party for the coming fight and get the materia up correctly.

Also note that if you use PC, I strongly suggest drinking 10 litres of coffee - I cannot recommend illegal/controlled stimulating substances. The following game is was manageable on my P166 with Voodoo1, pretty hellish to play on a Pentium III 600MHz with a GeForce 4; I sure wouldn't want to try this on my Athlon XP 3000+ with the same graphics card! I have heard that there are some unofficial fixes to make this game a bit less... mentally straining. Playstation version is really smooth.

There's really not that much into this game - you can ram the bikes against the railings, or slash them with your sword. Either way, get rid of them before they damage the passengers or cloud too much. Eventually, you end up getting tailed by something really big...

Time to adore the view and try to get down. You're finally out of Midgar.