Pandora's Coffee
Box
[Index]
[Character List]
[Shinra Heirachy]
![[Shinra Heirachy]](shinhier.jpg){kind=link}
{Background}
[Timeline]
[Walkthrough]
[Ani Gifs]
[Hojo vs Vincent]
Lisitings:
[Items]
[Weapons]
[Armor/Accessories]
[Enemy Skills]
Materia:
[Materia Guide]
[Command]
[Magic]
[Summon]
[Support]
[Independant]
Characters:
[Cloud]
[Aeris]
[Tifa]
[Barret]
[Cid]
[RedXIII]
[Yuffie]
[Vincent]
[Cait Sith]
My Opinion:
[FAQ]
[Problems]
[Mail]
[PCB Main Index]
[Guestbook]
Background:WARNING: This section kinda spoils the whole plot for you, it's better read after finishing the game if you didn't get what happened, or just to read to see what I thought happened and tell me how wrong I am.
Shinra inc. is a organization which is monopolizing Mako energy across the world, sucking it out of the planet using huge reactors. This is destroying the planet slowly since mako energy is like the planet�s life-force.
Most of the story behind FFVII revolves around the principles of life-energy. It is believed that when people die, they�re bodies will decompose and return to the planet but also, so will their souls and minds. This is happening constantly and so the energies �meld� into one and become the lifestream which runs throughout the planet. When new babies, animals and plants are born, they are given life-energy but life-energy is also what keeps the planet itself alive. Without the life-energy the planet would die and crumble. Shinra are drawing this energy from the planet as Mako energy and turning it into electricity, to which a lot of people on the planet seem to be thankful for except a rebel group based in the slums of the main city - Midgar.
Life in the slums, stuck under the huge plate which houses the well off people, is not a plentiful one. AVALANCHE, a rebel group led by Barret hope to change all this by sticking up to Shinra and restoring the planet.
The game starts off with Cloud who is the main character throughout the game. Cloud used to be in Shinra�s "elite fighting force" - SOLDIER. The main purpose behind SOLDIER was to put down any resistance against Shinra after the war with Wutei which took place quite a few years previously. Having left SOLDIER for reasons not given, Cloud becomes a mercenary and gets involved with AVALANCHE. His first job is to destroy the number one reactor in Midgar, which goes to plan.
Happy with how well their plan went, AVALANCHE decide to turn their attention to the reactor in sector five with their new team member, Cloud. Things here do not go so well and here is one of the first times cloud starts to have �flashbacks�. On their escape they are blocked by Shinra techno-soldiers and results in Cloud falling into the slums in sector five where he meets Aeris, a flower-seller. Normally flowers are not said to grow in Midgar, but they seem to bloom in Aeris� church. Just as they are getting acquainted, one of the Turks turns up and tries to kidnap Aeris. The Turks (Shinra Manufacturing in Administrative Research, as Vincent tells you) do all the dirty work for the Shinra and need Aeris. Aeris is the only remaining Ancient (also known as Cetra). The Cetra spent their lifetime traveling between planets restoring the balance in life-energy there and then moving on. By the end of their journey they would rest in their Promised land and experience their own true happiness. It was believed by the Shinra that the promised land would be abundant in Mako energy and so Aeris was hunted down so she could lead them there.
There is also a darker side to the Shinra�s work, however in the form of their scientific research. The Cetra long ago fought against a "calamity from the skies" - Jenova. Jenova was a being which crashed to Gaia long ago and whom the cetra befriended. After a time, they relised what Jenova was doing and began to fight her, resulting in many of the centra being killed off. Some of the Cetra broke off and didn�t want to fight anymore, but wanted to rest from their arduous journey. These became the people of our planet today and slowly the Cetra were all but wiped out. One was traced - Ifalna who got married to Professor Gast who at the time was working for Shinra on the Jenova Project. They had a daughter otherwise known as Aeris. As far as I understand from the footage shown in the game, Professor Gast was against the Jenova project and so was shot by Hojo allowing him to take over. Ifalna managed to escape with her daughter to the slums of Midgar where she later passed away.
Hojo was, I think, the main bad guy in the whole story. The Jenova project consisted of not only treating people with Mako energy to see how they reacted, in the same way the SOLDIER recruits were produced, giving them extra strength and power, but also mixing Jenova cells into them. One of the questions of the project was to see what exactly Jenova was capable of as well. Hojo wanted to see if jenova was separated into several victims, would Jenova be able to manipulate them to gather in one space. (At the beginning of disk two where they meet in the crater.) Sephiroth was the first product of the Jenova project. Hojo decided it would be a really fun idea if he injected Jenova cells into an actual woman in order for them to re-produce. What fun! (Mutters bad things.) The un-fortunate victim of this experiment was Lucrecia - his lab assistant. This is where Vincent comes in. In an effort to stop Hojo, Vincent goes to see him when Hojo shoots him and decided he should get involved in the experiment as well, later leaving him asleep in the basement of the Shinra mansion.
There's somekind of love triangle between Lucretia, Hojo and Vincent. I don't think the game shows it too well what happened. Lucretia was definately with Hojo but whether anything happened or not with Vincent is unclear, we only see him walking with her and he says when you meet him that he did love her. I'm not totally sure that Hojo can be blamed for his actions either since Jenova may have been able to manipulate him, especially since he mentions that he injected himself with the cells.
Later, Sephiroth was presumably born and although I don�t know how or what happened to him after this point, he is enrolled in SOLDIER where his strength and powers are mysteriously beyond anyone else's. He's commended as the best and is supposed to have lead the war against Wutai. After the war, the Shinra sends him and a team to Nibelhiem on a routine check of a reactor where this all seems to start. He and Zack - a fellow SOLDIER member and a couple of Shinra soldiers go to check out the faulty reactor and find out what exactly the problem was. It turns out that the experiment was trying to be copied by subjecting creatures and humans to abominably high levels of Mako energy inside the reactor. Sephiroth spots something in this and wonders if this is the way he was created too. In a bit of a huff, he starts reading all the research evidence left in the Shinra mansion and learning of how he was created and goes slightly mental. He blames everyone on the planet for being traitors and leaves to go and see his �mother� in the reactor, burning Nibelhiem to the ground as he passes.
Here is where is gets kinda crazy, as if it wasn�t already. Zack is the guy who follows him to the reactor, along with the two other Shinra soldiers. Trying to talk Sephiroth out of it, Sephiroth stabs him and leaves him for dead. Tifa then tries to get revenge on Sephiroth as well since he burnt down her village, but he virtually kills her as well. After this, one of the Shinra soldiers steps up to try and sort things out. This turns out to be our Cloud who subsequently fights Sephiroth and although he is badly injured, throws Sephiroth almost dead into the life-stream. Zack and Cloud are then recovered after the incident by the Shinra and are subjected to the same kind of experiment the creatures were in the reactors, being bombarded with Mako and injected with Jenova cells. This doesn�t appear to have any effect on Zack, but Cloud�s consciousness starts to diminish. They manage to escape and return to Midgar to start their life as Mercenaries. However, Shinra has other ideas and shoots them as they try to get into Midgar. Zack is killed instantly, but Cloud is left as he is thought to just be a mental wreck. Due to his diminishing consciousness and grip on reality, Cloud picks up Zack�s infamous buster sword and assumes the role of Zack, believing this is who he is.
This is where the game starts off, with Cloud beginning a mercenary-for-hire in Midgar. His adventures lead them into trouble with the Shinra, who have kidnapped Aeris. Going to save her, they witness the after-effects of the Shinra president�s encounter with Sephiroth. It appears he wasn�t killed as reported in the Shinra newspapers, but is back and is now trying to prevent Shinra from attaining the Promised Land. The long quest that him and his friends go on is for you to explore on your own. It takes up far too much space here. Basically, Sephiroth continually appears and manipulates Cloud into attaining the legendary Ultimate Destruction Materia for him. This, when he gets it, it used to summon Meteor, which, as the name suggests is actually a big meteor, used to destroy all life on the planet. (Though we have another theory on some of this.) I think it�s quite weird that there is actually a spell in the other final fantasies called Meteor. Aeris believes she can help and returns to her homeland to use her magic - Holy. Sephiroth manages to cotton onto this and goes after her and Cloud goes off to save her like the hero of the story that he is. He then has to watch as Sephiroth kills her.
The whole point behind Sephiroth�s plot is that he believes he was created to be the ruler of the planet along with Jenova. To do this, is essence, he�d need an awful lot of energy in the form of everyone else�s on the planet, hence the whole planet needed to be destroyed, starting with those who were merged with Jenova cells. It ends up with Cloud and the others fighting Sephiroth in a bid to stop meteor and if in your version of the game you can bring yourself to kill Sephiroth, it turns out that he has been in the lifestream since he felt into it and Aeris� prayer has worked. Holy was used just in time to save everyone. And that�s where the story finishes, leaving you in semi-suspense. But if you wait until the end of the credits, you get to see Red XIII quite a bit older, looking over the ruins of midgar with his children, which is quite a spooky image.
Although I have now rambled on for ages, I still haven�t explained many parts, e.g., the Weapons, and most of them not to it�s fullest. Many parts will probably never be answered, which is a shame. What happened to the Turks is the best example I can think of. Alternatively, you can try and figure out the plot by yourself. In this case, I suggest you see all the cinema footage you can. Go to Lucrecia�s waterfall and in the last disk, you can visit the basement in the Shinra mansion for what happened to Cloud and Zack after the incident at the reactor. What happened to Tifa after this can also be viewed in a letter you receive with her level four limit break.
[Argh! ...To much information� Give me a number...]