Final Fantasy VII Timeline Explained | MojoPlays
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“Final Fantasy VII” Timeline Explained
We all know the story of “Final Fantasy VII”…but recapping some of the details sure couldn’t hurt. Welcome to MojoPlays and today we’ll be recapping the timeline of “Final Fantasy VII” and all of the events that occur before the game begins.
“Final Fantasy VII” takes place in a world called Gaia, also known as “the Planet.” Gaia and its lore are key to the main conflicts of the original game, and many details of its ecology, design, and naming are meant to draw parallels to our own planet. Among the most important aspects of its ecology is the Lifestream, an energy which runs through the planet, containing all knowledge of its creatures. Every living thing is born from the Lifestream and returns there upon death.
An ancient race known as the Cetra, and later called the Ancients, was able to communicate with Gaia and the Lifestream, but was almost entirely wiped out by a mysterious and powerful alien being called Jenova. As Gaia began the incredibly slow process of healing itself, humans became the dominant species and evolved into what we see in the franchise’s media.
Nearly two thousand years later, the Shinra Electric Power Company was able to harness the power of the Lifestream and convert it to Mako. This practice is devastating to the wellbeing of the planet and has allowed Shinra to become the most powerful group on the Planet. Their headquarters is stationed in Midgar, which has turned the city into a dystopian industrial nightmare. When crystallized, Mako becomes a highly coveted item called Materia, which allows its user to manipulate nature by calling on the power of the Lifestream.
About thirty years prior to the events of the original game, two Shinra scientists, Professors Hojo and Gast, discover Jenova in the Northern Crater. Soon after, they commence work on the Jenova Project in an attempt to create human/Genova hybrid beings. The three results of this experiment are Angeal, Genesis, and Professor Hojo’s own son, Sephiroth.
BEFORE CRISIS
In response to Shinra’s unethical actions, a group called AVALANCHE is founded in the Cosmo Canyon and begins partaking in eco-terrorist activities in order to bring Shinra down. The mobile game “Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII” puts the player in the shoes of a Turk battling the group at the onset of the conflict known as the AVALANCHE Insurgency.
This first iteration of AVALANCHE, led by Elfé, attempts to assassinate President Shinra and blow up Midgar, but both attempts are thwarted by the player. It’s later revealed that the President’s son, Rufus, was actually feeding information to AVALANCHE in an attempt to take over the company for himself. Meanwhile, an AVALANCHE scientist named Fuhito hopes to destroy humanity with a summon Materia called Zirconiade.
As Fuhito hatches his plot, President Shinra tries to have the unnamed primary characters killed, but they defect and decide instead to help a slowly dying Elfé, who is revealed to be the daughter of Veld, the leader of the Turks. Having gone mad with power, Fuhito transforms all of AVALANCHE into Ravens, zombie-like supersoldiers, and summons Zirconiade, fusing the creature with himself. The Turks defeat the Ravens and Zirconiade, and are able to bargain with President Shinra to keep the program going, in exchange for their promise of loyalty. In order to protect Elfé and the newly-defected Veld, President Shinra is told that they died.
Sometime after the events of the game, Barret Wallace learns of AVALANCHE’s goals before Fuhito took over, and forms a second iteration of the group. His group is much smaller than the one seen in the prequel, and follows a more benevolent ideology than the evil one the first group succumbed to.
CRISIS CORE & Last Order
This brings us to the events of “Crisis Core,” a prequel following Zack Fair, a key figure in the franchise’s mythos, seven years before the original game. At age thirteen, he leaves his hometown of Gongaga to fulfill his dream of joining SOLDIER, befriending Angeal as a mentor. When Angeal and Genesis defect from Shinra, Zack and Sephiroth are tasked with hunting them down. Meanwhile, he befriends a flower girl in the slums named Aerith.
On a mission to Modeoheim, Zack makes friends with Shinra infantryman Cloud Strife, who’s destined to become the protagonist of “Final Fantasy VII.” In Modeoheim, Zack confronts Angeal, who is tiring from the degradation caused by the experiments on his cells. Angeal mutates and attacks Zack, forcing him to kill his own mentor, who bequeaths him the Buster Sword as he dies.
As Genesis continues to plot his scheme to heal himself of his degradation, he tells Sephiroth that he is also an experiment of the Jenova project, but a more successful one, preventing his degradation. This leads directly to the infamous Nibelheim incident, also chronicled in the anime film “Last Order: Final Fantasy VII.” In the most impactful event of the “Final Fantasy VII” mythos, Sephiroth discovers the truth about his identity and burns Nibelheim to the ground, traumatizing both Cloud and Tifa.
He steals Jenova , declaring his newfound intent to take over the planet with “her,” and a villain is born. Zack, shocked by his idol’s cruelty, engages Sephiroth in battle, but falls. Cloud arrives in the nick of time to stop him from killing Zack, and nearly dies himself, but manages to dispatch of the one-winged angel, seemingly putting an end to him.
Later, Professor Hojo discovers Zack and Cloud in their weakened state, and kidnaps them, conducting Mako experiments on them as they sleep for four years. Zack is awoken by a vision of Angeal, and is able to escape with a catatonic Cloud, disguising him in a SOLDIER first-class uniform. Determined to stop Genesis, Zack goes after him and defeats him once and for all. Afterwards, he tries to bring Cloud back to Midgar, but is confronted by a huge number of Shinra infantrymen. Zack is able to hide Cloud and battles the troops valiantly, but he’s fatally wounded. Later, as he dies, Cloud awakens, confused, as Zack names him his living legacy and once again the Buster Sword is passed on.
Setting up FF7
Sometime before the start of “Final Fantasy VII,” Tifa comes across Cloud in Midgar, mumbling and confused. The events at Nibelheim have caused Cloud to confuse his past with Zack’s, and he now believes himself to be a former SOLDIER first-class, when in fact he was never more than an infantryman. Tifa has joined up with Barret’s AVALANCHE group, and she convinces him to help them, although he claims that he’s only doing it for money. And with that, the stage is set for the events of the 1997 masterpiece and its 2020 remake, both of which tell one of gaming’s most epic stories, in which all of Gaia hangs in the balance.
We all know the story of “Final Fantasy VII”…but recapping some of the details sure couldn’t hurt. Welcome to MojoPlays and today we’ll be recapping the timeline of “Final Fantasy VII” and all of the events that occur before the game begins.
“Final Fantasy VII” takes place in a world called Gaia, also known as “the Planet.” Gaia and its lore are key to the main conflicts of the original game, and many details of its ecology, design, and naming are meant to draw parallels to our own planet. Among the most important aspects of its ecology is the Lifestream, an energy which runs through the planet, containing all knowledge of its creatures. Every living thing is born from the Lifestream and returns there upon death.
An ancient race known as the Cetra, and later called the Ancients, was able to communicate with Gaia and the Lifestream, but was almost entirely wiped out by a mysterious and powerful alien being called Jenova. As Gaia began the incredibly slow process of healing itself, humans became the dominant species and evolved into what we see in the franchise’s media.
Nearly two thousand years later, the Shinra Electric Power Company was able to harness the power of the Lifestream and convert it to Mako. This practice is devastating to the wellbeing of the planet and has allowed Shinra to become the most powerful group on the Planet. Their headquarters is stationed in Midgar, which has turned the city into a dystopian industrial nightmare. When crystallized, Mako becomes a highly coveted item called Materia, which allows its user to manipulate nature by calling on the power of the Lifestream.
About thirty years prior to the events of the original game, two Shinra scientists, Professors Hojo and Gast, discover Jenova in the Northern Crater. Soon after, they commence work on the Jenova Project in an attempt to create human/Genova hybrid beings. The three results of this experiment are Angeal, Genesis, and Professor Hojo’s own son, Sephiroth.
BEFORE CRISIS
In response to Shinra’s unethical actions, a group called AVALANCHE is founded in the Cosmo Canyon and begins partaking in eco-terrorist activities in order to bring Shinra down. The mobile game “Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII” puts the player in the shoes of a Turk battling the group at the onset of the conflict known as the AVALANCHE Insurgency.
This first iteration of AVALANCHE, led by Elfé, attempts to assassinate President Shinra and blow up Midgar, but both attempts are thwarted by the player. It’s later revealed that the President’s son, Rufus, was actually feeding information to AVALANCHE in an attempt to take over the company for himself. Meanwhile, an AVALANCHE scientist named Fuhito hopes to destroy humanity with a summon Materia called Zirconiade.
As Fuhito hatches his plot, President Shinra tries to have the unnamed primary characters killed, but they defect and decide instead to help a slowly dying Elfé, who is revealed to be the daughter of Veld, the leader of the Turks. Having gone mad with power, Fuhito transforms all of AVALANCHE into Ravens, zombie-like supersoldiers, and summons Zirconiade, fusing the creature with himself. The Turks defeat the Ravens and Zirconiade, and are able to bargain with President Shinra to keep the program going, in exchange for their promise of loyalty. In order to protect Elfé and the newly-defected Veld, President Shinra is told that they died.
Sometime after the events of the game, Barret Wallace learns of AVALANCHE’s goals before Fuhito took over, and forms a second iteration of the group. His group is much smaller than the one seen in the prequel, and follows a more benevolent ideology than the evil one the first group succumbed to.
CRISIS CORE & Last Order
This brings us to the events of “Crisis Core,” a prequel following Zack Fair, a key figure in the franchise’s mythos, seven years before the original game. At age thirteen, he leaves his hometown of Gongaga to fulfill his dream of joining SOLDIER, befriending Angeal as a mentor. When Angeal and Genesis defect from Shinra, Zack and Sephiroth are tasked with hunting them down. Meanwhile, he befriends a flower girl in the slums named Aerith.
On a mission to Modeoheim, Zack makes friends with Shinra infantryman Cloud Strife, who’s destined to become the protagonist of “Final Fantasy VII.” In Modeoheim, Zack confronts Angeal, who is tiring from the degradation caused by the experiments on his cells. Angeal mutates and attacks Zack, forcing him to kill his own mentor, who bequeaths him the Buster Sword as he dies.
As Genesis continues to plot his scheme to heal himself of his degradation, he tells Sephiroth that he is also an experiment of the Jenova project, but a more successful one, preventing his degradation. This leads directly to the infamous Nibelheim incident, also chronicled in the anime film “Last Order: Final Fantasy VII.” In the most impactful event of the “Final Fantasy VII” mythos, Sephiroth discovers the truth about his identity and burns Nibelheim to the ground, traumatizing both Cloud and Tifa.
He steals Jenova , declaring his newfound intent to take over the planet with “her,” and a villain is born. Zack, shocked by his idol’s cruelty, engages Sephiroth in battle, but falls. Cloud arrives in the nick of time to stop him from killing Zack, and nearly dies himself, but manages to dispatch of the one-winged angel, seemingly putting an end to him.
Later, Professor Hojo discovers Zack and Cloud in their weakened state, and kidnaps them, conducting Mako experiments on them as they sleep for four years. Zack is awoken by a vision of Angeal, and is able to escape with a catatonic Cloud, disguising him in a SOLDIER first-class uniform. Determined to stop Genesis, Zack goes after him and defeats him once and for all. Afterwards, he tries to bring Cloud back to Midgar, but is confronted by a huge number of Shinra infantrymen. Zack is able to hide Cloud and battles the troops valiantly, but he’s fatally wounded. Later, as he dies, Cloud awakens, confused, as Zack names him his living legacy and once again the Buster Sword is passed on.
Setting up FF7
Sometime before the start of “Final Fantasy VII,” Tifa comes across Cloud in Midgar, mumbling and confused. The events at Nibelheim have caused Cloud to confuse his past with Zack’s, and he now believes himself to be a former SOLDIER first-class, when in fact he was never more than an infantryman. Tifa has joined up with Barret’s AVALANCHE group, and she convinces him to help them, although he claims that he’s only doing it for money. And with that, the stage is set for the events of the 1997 masterpiece and its 2020 remake, both of which tell one of gaming’s most epic stories, in which all of Gaia hangs in the balance.
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