I'm such the geek.
Sep. 26th, 2003 09:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
la_belle_laideBecause some of you (CZ, Shikei, Balyn,) are FFVII fans like me, I had to share this!
Says![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
skitty_kitty :
"If this is true, that could kick some really large buttocks. It looks very cool, and FF7 was a great game, even if I didn't like the ending all too much."
That would rock my ass right off. Seriously. I'd have to grow a whole new ass.
I don't know if it's true, but I'd like to believe that it is, so I choose to. :) They made Cloud look maybe just a bit too kawaii. It's a huge improvement over the game graphics, but I liked his original character design, where he looked like the psycho potential badass that he was.
Luuuuuurve Cloud.
The word from thevgnation.com.
Not to whitewash Sephiroth or anything, but let's face it:
It wasn't Sephiroth's fault! He was dead for most of the game and it was clones doing most of the nasty stuff. This is how it seemed to go down:
Cloud Strife, 21 year old ex SOLDIER, mercenary for hire, joins a rebel group known as Avalanche, who are fighting the evil power company known as ShinRa. ShinRa has monopolized the power industry and uses Mako, a physical form of the "otherworld" called the Lifestream (where people go when they die, or otherwise leave the Planet,) as a power source. There are hypotheses that Mako and Lifestream are made up of human consciousness that has left the Planet, or a "world soul" or things like that. ShinRa uses Mako reactors to suck Mako up from the Planet and feed it into their power supply.
Cloud's first mission with Avalanche is to blow up a Mako reactor. We then find out that the leader of Avalanche, Tifa Lockhart, 21, is Cloud's childhood best friend. They grew up together in Nibelheim, and Tifa now lives in Midgar, Sector Seven, and runs a bar ("Tifa's Seventh Heaven.") with Barret Wallace, 35. Barret Wallace has had his arm shot off in a shoot out with ShinRa, and has had a machine gun grafted onto the end of the severed arm.
Cloud's and Tifa's hometown of Nibelheim was torched by the legendary Sephiroth after he went on a mission to check out a malfunctioning Mako reactor, learned something about himself, and went insane. Sephiroth disappeared after that.
Cloud seems to have amnesia, but we know that he was in SOLDIER for a while, ShinRa's elite army. SOLDIERs were usually injected with Mako, which gave them incredible strength and recovery powers. They fight, not only with weapons, but with Materia orbs - condensed Mako with specific powers. (Healing, defensive, lightning, ice, fire etc.) Materia is hard to come by in most places, but you can find it or buy it.
Cloud remembers very little, and has "episodes" - seizures and flashes of abstract memories.
Midgar is a mess; nothing but slums, all of it underneath a giant metal and concrete plate that was designed by ShinRa. Rich people live on top of the huge plate. Under it, where there's no fresh air or sun, are the slums. This plate was ShinRa's idea, and the final design was made by the Head of Urban Development (and one of the only deep down good guys in ShinRa,) Reeve.
On his way to see Tifa in Midgar, Cloud meets Aeris Gainsborough, 22, who is being chased by ShinRa's most elite fighters, a small group known as the Turks. He saves her from the Turks and she makes him her bodyguard. It's clear right away that Aeris is interested in Cloud.
We find out that ShinRa is interested in Aeris because she is what's known as an Ancient, which means that she's descended from a line of people who were supposedly the first to inhabit the Planet. They had all sorts of powers without Materia. ShinRa wants her because they think she can lead them to the Promised Land, to which supposedly only Ancients could lead the way. ShinRa's main interest in the mythical Promised Land however, is the fact that it's bubbling over with Mako that they can use.
However, the head of ShinRa's Science Department, professor Hojo, has another interest in Aeris. He's been studying Ancients for years, and also kidnapped Aeris' mother Ifalna many years before. Aeris' father, we later find out, was Professor Gast, who had been working on the studies with Hojo, unaware that Hojo would turn against him and try to kidnap his wife and daughter. Hojo killed Gast, but not before Gast hid Aeris. Aeris was later found by Elmyra Gainsborough, who then raised her.
There have been kidnap attemps made on Aeris since she was little, mostly by the man who would later become the leader of the Turks, Tseng. Tseng, we find out, was actually friendly with Aeris, and seems to never have had the heart to actually go through with the job. As Aeris grew up, Tseng seems to have fallen in love, or at least fascination with her.
After Avalanche blows up another reactor, back in Midgar, Aeris is finally taken by Tseng. Cloud and Avalanche go to the top of the plate as Aeris is taken away in a helicopter, and there they meet Reno of the Turks. Reno's orders are to bomb the support pillar over Sector Seven of Midgar in order to A) flush out Avalanche and B) set up Avalanche to take the fall for the mass destruction. Reno carries out President ShinRa's order and most of Midgar is destroyed.
Avalanche goes to ShinRa headquarters to rescue Aeris. While they're there, they find Hojo preparing to do an experiment on her. Also captured with her, is a lion-like, sentient, intelligent animal labelled Red 13. (His age is given as 50 something.) His real name is Nanaki. He joins with Avalanche.
They begin to escape with Aeris and Nanaki, and then find that President Shinra has been killed. By whom? None other than Sephiroth, who was presumed dead.
Old Man ShinRa's son Rufus takes over the corporation.
Avalanche goes to a town called Kalm, chasing after Sephiroth. While there, Cloud tells Sephiroth's story to the others.
Five years ago, Cloud, Sephiroth, and two other SOLDIERs (all SOLDIERs under First Class wore masks, so we don't see who they were,) went on the mission to Nibelheim, to inspect a malfunctioning Mako reactor. Their tour guide up the mountain to the reactor is a young girl who's familiar with the path: Tifa Lockhart. Cloud remembers visiting Tifa's house, but we never see him interact with her there. When they got to the Mako reactor, they discovered a bunch of mutants and monsters in Mako pods, all labeled "The Jenova Project." Sephiroth, who has always been told that his mother's name was Jenova, puts this all together and realizes that he has probably come from something like this, and it begins to explain why he's so different. He goes crazy seeing all of these mutants, realizing he is one, and runs out of the reactor. He runs to ShinRa's Nibelheim mansion, where Hojo and Gast used to work together and run a lab, and finds the files on himself. The files tell him that Jenova was an Ancient, and that he was more or less created like Frankenstein, than he was actually born to her. The files also tell about how the Ancients are the rightful owners of the Planet and how all of mankind is destroying the Planet, just as surely as they wiped out the Ancients. He stays up all night and reads his own classified files.
(However, Cloud has since found out that Jenova was not truly an Ancient, and that Gast's and Hojo's original files were wrong. Jenova was, in fact, a mutated virus from outer space, what the Ancients called the "Crisis From The Sky." In fact, Jenova destroyed most of the Ancients.)
The next day, Cloud finds Sephiroth completely insane. He goes running out of the mansion saying "I'm going to see my mother." Cloud follows him back to the reactor, where Sephiroth finally goes past the pods of mutants (really just pre-Sephiroth experiments gone wrong,) and finally finds Jenova. She's hidden behind a big metal plated facade, and underneath, is a nasty looking woman's body. Sephiroth takes the head and runs out of the reactor, cutting down everything that's in his way. This includes Tifa Lockhart, her father, and another SOLDIER who challenges and injures Sephiroth. Tifa is apparently the only survivor.
Cloud finds Tifa injured and helps her, then runs after Sephiroth. Cloud is 16 at this time, untrained and weak, but he challenges Sephiroth anyway. They fight, and eventually Cloud is able to throw Sephiroth off a bridge, into a river of Lifestream. Sephiroth doesn't come back. (<---noteworthy)
Now, five years later, Sephiroth has come back. (huh?) No one knows how. There are a bunch of black cloaked clones running around Nibelheim, half sentient, raving about a "reunion" and "becoming one with Sephiroth."
The group, following rumors of a man in a long black coat with a tremendous sword, go after him. They cross the Mythril Mines, and find that the Turks are one step ahead of them. Tseng is there, and Reno of the Turks is mysteriously gone (injured by Cloud is the official story.) Taking his place is rookie Elena, who slips up in front of Avalanche as to where they are chasing Sephiroth. Tseng sees Aeris there, and lets her walk. Elena has an obvious crush on Tseng.
They chase Sephiroth and eventually find him on a ShinRa boat out of Junon Harbor to Costa Del Sol. Sephiroth babbles about taking over the Planet, and the team fights with a form of Jenova and defeats her (it?) and Sephiroth escapes once again.
Chasing the rumors, Avalanche goes through North Corel, Barret's home town. Close to North Corel is a Disneyworld like place called the Gold Saucer. Cloud and company stop there, and there they meet a robotic cat who rides on a stuffed Mog. The cat is called Cait Sith. Cait Sith is a fortune telling machine as well, and he immediately joins Avalanche.
From there they head to Gongaga Village, and there find out that Aeris' first boyfriend was from there. His name was Zack, and he was also SOLDIER, first class. He had spikey black hair and carried a Buster Sword just like Cloud Strife. Zack disappeared five years ago and no one has heard from him since. Reno and Rude (another Turk and Reno's best friend) are there as well, also chasing Sephiroth. Cloud overhears that Rude has a crush on Tifa. Avalanche fights the Turks, and everyone lives to tell about it.
From there they go to Cosmo canyon, Nanaki's hometown. They meet his grandfather Bugenhagen, who has an observatory, and an elaborate "planetarium" sort of thing where you can learn about materia.
After learning about the Planet and Materia, Avalanche finally heads back to Nibelheim. Cloud and Tifa expect to find it in ruins, as it was after Sephiroth torched it, but everything is as it was. (Minus a few key townspeople, most importantly Tifa's father and Cloud's mother.) No one in town seems to remember anything about any fire. There are more Sephiroth clones walking around babbling about this "reunion."
In Nibelheim, they visit the ShinRa mansion. Locked in the basement in a coffin, and having slept for possibly 50 years, is Vincent Valentine (72? He doesn't age.) He used to be a Turk, but he fell in love with the woman he was assigned to protect. Her name was Lucretia, and she was a scientist working with Hojo. Hojo was also "in love" with Lucretia and she was torn between him and Vincent. Hojo became jealous, and captured Vincent for his experiments. He injected Vincent with Jenova cells and cut off his left hand, where he now has a claw. As a result of Hojo's tampering, Vincent can change into all sorts of monsters. Vincent also joins Avalanche and the chase continues.
We also find out that Hojo and Lucretia had a son. Lucretia became ill, and Hojo took the boy and used him in Jenova experiments as well. He was trying to create the perfect SOLDIER, more god than man, created to be the most powerful person on the Planet. Who could that son have been? Duh.
Avalanche heads to Rocket Town, a town that was supposed to be the site of ShinRa's first rocket launch into space. There they meet a man who's now a pilot, but who was supposed to be the first man in space: Cid Highwind, 32. He was ShinRa's astronaut, but the corporation pulled the funding at the last minute. The rocket is still there, hence the name Rocket Town. Rufus ShinRa is in town, thinking about re-investing in his father's aborted plan. Cid Highwind wants that more than anything.
However, Rufus and the Turks find out that Avalanche is in town, and end up fighing with them. To escape ShinRa, Avalanche needs Cid's plane, the Tiny Bronco. Cid Highwind joins with them and they all leave Rocket Town together.
Traveling through the fields outside of a town called Wutai, Cloud and company meet a 16 year old ninja called Yuffie Kisaragi. She's also a Materia thief. She also joins Avalanche, but ends up stealing their Materia. While in Wutai, Avalanche meets up with the Turks again, who are on vacation there. Yuffie and Elena are both kidnapped by Don Corneo, the owner of a brothel. Avalanche and the Turks team up to rescue them, vow to work together and trust each other for this one mission, rescue their party members, then go their separate ways again. Yuffie gives back he Materia, and stays with Avalanche.
Cloud has heard of a special Materia called the Black Materia, which has regenerative / restorative powers beyond imagination. This must be what Sephiroth is after. In order to get it, they need something called a Keystone, which is on display at the Gold Saucer, so they head back there.
At the Gold Saucer, they get the keystone, only to be betrayed by Cait Sith. It ends up that Cait Sith has been working for ShinRa all the while. Tseng of the Turks sends a message to Avalanche telling them that he's taken Marlene, Barret's daughter, and Elmyra, Aeris' mother, and they won't be hurt as long as they hand over the keystone. They do, and Cait Sith also forces them to keep him in Avalanche as well. We don't know why yet. Everyone in Avalanche knows he's the one who's been leaking secrets to Tseng, but yet he wants to stay with them.
With Cait Sith tagging along, Avalanche chases the Turks to the Temple of the Ancients, where the Black materia is supposed to be.
Once there, they find that Tseng and the Turks are already in the Temple. Tseng is nearly dead, having been butchered by Sephiroth. He hands the Keystone to Avalanche, tells them how to use it to get into the Temple, and tells them to keep the Black Materia from Sephiroth. Aeris is only vaguely emotional about Tseng's death, even though we find out here that they've actually known each other for a long time.
Inside, they find out what Sephiroth already knows: that there is a way to summon a giant meteor to all but obliterate the Planet. This is what Sephiroth wants, and also why he wants the Black materia. Then, they find out that the Temple itself IS the Black Materia. The only way to actually take it is to shrink it down by solving a puzzle from the inside.
Cait Sith, being a robot, offers to stay behind and do it. He apologizes, and Avalanche leaves, as Cait Sith solves the puzzle. The Temple is now the Black materia, and it is in Cloud's possession.
Cloud begins to freak out. Once he has the Black materia, Sephiroth appears and begins to control Cloud. Cloud is like a puppet. He hands the Black Materia to Sephiroth, attacks Aeris and beats the crap out of her, then falls into a hallucination. The rest of Avalanche manage to get the Materia back from Sephiroth.
Afterward, Cloud has a dream that Aeris tells him that it's alright, she forgives him, and she's on her way to the City of the Ancients. He wakes up to find that this is true.
Now Avalanche, with Cait Sith II, is on the trail of Aeris. Aeris understands that as a true Ancient, she can pray for Holy, which is the only thing that can stop Sephiroth's Meteor.
Cloud and the others find Aeris praying at the alter, in a trance. Cloud freaks out again, and raises his sword to kill her. He snaps out of it before he does so, and Aeris comes out of her trance, and smiles at Cloud.
Sephiroth flies down from the rafters and skewers her. Jenova shows up, and they all fight her, except for Aeris, who is dead. They give her a funeral, and hope that she has prayed enough to summon Holy to counter Meteor.
They head north past the Icicle area, trying to get Sephiroth before Meteor comes, and also now for revenge. Sephiroth's plan is that Meteor will make such a big hole in the Planet that he'll be able to take all of the Mako for himself, and become a god.
In the mountains, ShinRa is once again one step ahead of Avalanche. Rufus, Hojo, and Scarlet are there. Scarlet is head of ShinRa's weapons department, and they're also still looking for the Promised Land. Instead of Sephiroth or the Promised Land, they find the first WEAPON. WEAPON is soemthing that the Planet creates by itself, to defend itself, mostly from Jenova. Sensing Jenova, WEAPON begins to awaken, and will destroy everything, people included, if it's not stopped.
Hojo sees Cloud there and tells him that he is nothing more than a failed Sephiroth clone, and that's why Sephiroth can control him so easily. He asks to see Cloud's number tattoo, and Cloud says he doesn't have one. Hojo tells him that's because he is a failed experiment, and too weak to merit a number. Cloud freaks out and begs Hojo to give him a number.
Afterwards, Cloud disappears in the mountains, still carrying the Black materia. Voices begin to call him again, and he ends up climbing into a huge Mako crystal, doing all sorts of weird upside down walking things, ignoring gravity, and generally going crazy. In the Mako / Materia crystal, is the real body of Sephiroth. Everything they saw before that was done by clones.
Unable to control himself, Cloud slips the Black materia into the Mako crystal where Sephiroth's body is. The materia brings the body back to life.
With Sephiroth awake, WEAPON also awakens and begins to rampage. Everyone escapes the first WEAPON, but Tifa is injured as they all fly away in Cid's airship, the Highwind. Tifa awakens seven days later to find that she and Barret are ShinRa's prisoners. ShinRa plans to execute them live on television, in the gas chamber.
Tifa escapes from Scarlet with the help of Cait Sith, who attacks Scarlet with sleeping gas, saying "I really hate that broad."
After Tifa escapes, WEAPON catches up with them. ShinRa fights WEAPON this time, using Scarlet's creation, a weapon called the Sister Ray. However, during this battle, Cloud falls into the Lifestream and is lost.
Avalanche searches for Cloud, and they finally find him in a hospital in Mideel. Cloud is wheelchair-bound and incoherent. Being in the Lifestream has given him severe Mako poisoning and he can't remember anything and he can't speak. Tifa decides to stay with him.
Another WEAPON attacks, and the remaining members of Avalanche fight it, but Mideel is destroyed and the ground is blown open, revealing the Lifestream underneath. Cloud and Tifa both fall into the Lifestream this time.
In it, they find each other, and Tifa has to help Cloud find out who he really is. Going back over their memories of Nibelheim, Cloud learns that he is not truly a clone, however he was experimented on by Hojo. When he left Nibelheim to join SOLDIER, he was injected (like all SOLDIERS were,) with Mako. Cloud was also injected with Jenova cells. Only he was weak and couldn't handle it, and it began to make him crazy.
Tifa finally tells Cloud the truth: that she never actually saw him return to Nibelheim on the ill-fated trip with Sephiroth. All the while, Cloud has believed that he was there with Sephiroth, as his second in command, as SOLDIER First Class. Tifa was afraid to tell Cloud the truth: the story that Cloud told was actually Zack's story. Tifa wonders though, if Cloud wasn't really there, then how does he know everything that happened?
Cloud begins to unravel it, and he realizes that he was actually one of the infantrymen, who were wearing masks. He was on the mission, but had been ashamed to tell Tifa that he never made First Class, so he never showed his face. Tifa thought that Cloud simply hadn't come back.
They remember their childhood together, disproving Hojo's lie that Cloud was assembled in a laboratory. He was born and raised in Nibelheim - however, he was a failed experiment, as he couldn't handle the Mako treatments. Cloud has about half his memory, and has been psychotic for most of the time since then.
Cloud and Tifa both come out of the Lifestream with their memories returned. Cloud still forgets many things, but now understands who he is and where he's from, and why he can't remember much of his time in SOLDIER. As he remembers though, he really WAS the one who threw Sephiroth into the Lifestream five years ago.
Meanwhile, ShinRa has its own plan (really Scarlet's plan,) to counter Meteor. They have found something called Huge Materia, and plan to shoot Meteor down with it. They're using the old ShinRa 27 - Cid's rocket - to do so.
Avalanche knows this won't work, and they work to stop the launch. However, the rocket launches with them onboard, and Cid, Cloud, and another Avalanche member (depends on who you put in the party,) end up being the first people in space after all.
Cid is able to re-route the rocket, get them back down to the Planet, and take the Huge materia.
After that, another WEAPON arises, and is going to destroy the rest of Midgar. Avalanche heads back to stop it. They also learn that ShinRa is going to use the Junon Cannon, another or Scarlet's weapons, to destroy Sephiroth. This will also destroy the entire city. Reeve tries to stop them.
Avalanche goes to fight WEAPON, ShinRa decides to use their weapon to fight it, and in the fray, Rufus is killed.
Now it comes down to Avalanche and ShinRa each trying to stop Sephiroth, and also trying to stop each other from trying to stop Sephiroth. ShinRa's methods are almost as bad as Sephiroth's plan. Also, it ends up that Hojo, ShinRa's main scientist, WANTS Sephiroth to succeed. We find out for certain that Hojo is Sephiroth's father and Lucretia was his mother. Sephiroth however, doesn't know this, and never finds out that he's human.
Reeve tries to stop Hojo from helping Sephiroth, and as Reeve is doing this, Cait Sith begins to act strangely. The execs at ShinRa also notice Reeve beginning to act strangely. We find out that Reeve has been controlling Cait Sith all the while. However, it seems that most of ShinRa was in the dark about this. When ShinRa finds that he's been using Cait Sith to actually help Avalanche, Reeve is captured. However, Cait Sith is still working with Avalanche and still helping them, and there's nothing that ShinRa can do about that.
As they chase Sephiroth, Avalanche meets up with the Turks one more time. In the game, you have the option of either fighting them or calling a truce with them.
No matter which one you choose, Scarlet and Heidegger, (Heidegger hires out the Turks,) are still after Avalanche. Scarlet's new weapon is the Proud Clod, and Avalanche defeats it before moving on.
Also trying to stop them is Hojo, and Avalanche defeats him as well. (We assume he's dead after this.)
Sephiroth has gone to the Northern Crater to await Meteor, which no one's been able to stop yet. It ends up that Sephiroth's presence is countering Holy. As long as Sephiroth lives, Holy won't be able to do its work, and Meteor will still fall.
Sephiroth transforms into a bunch of different forms: Bizarro-Sephiroth, Savior Sephiroth the One Winged Angel etc. This is not the power of Mako, so he must be something completely other than human by now, but the game never explains this. We assume it's Jenova cells.
Avalanche defeats Sephiroth and waits for Holy to come. But Meteor is already falling, so they might be too late. In the meantime, Cloud collapses again and falls into a weird limbo sort of thing. It ends up that Sephiroth, or whatever he was, has pulled Cloud into his consciousness for one last battle. This is Sephiroth in his human form. Cloud opens up a can and wipes out whatever was left of Sephiroth's consciousness.
Cloud awakens to find that Meteor is still falling. It ends up hovering right over Midgar, destroying it once again. However, before it can make its true impact, Holy comes flying out from all over the Planet, and obliterates Meteor.
Aeris smiles from the Lifestream, and that's the end.
So you see, while Sephiroth is responsible for the fire in Nibelheim and all of that, he really didn't do some of the other major events in the game. Whew! That was long.
In other news, The Matrix: Revolutions comes out in Nov. I read some speculation on the ending that made me want to kick things. Hope to god it was wrong, because then I just might ask for my money back.
In yet other news, Pirates of the Caribbean comes out on video on December 2. WTF?! It's still playing in theaters! Not that I'm complaining; hell, I saw it the first time with one of my best girl friends, Kim, and my other best girl friend, Trish, hasn't gotten to see it yet. So I'm thinking, you know, a pre-Christmas pirate party at my house.
It's all good.
Says
skitty_kitty :"If this is true, that could kick some really large buttocks. It looks very cool, and FF7 was a great game, even if I didn't like the ending all too much."
That would rock my ass right off. Seriously. I'd have to grow a whole new ass.
I don't know if it's true, but I'd like to believe that it is, so I choose to. :) They made Cloud look maybe just a bit too kawaii. It's a huge improvement over the game graphics, but I liked his original character design, where he looked like the psycho potential badass that he was.
Luuuuuurve Cloud.
The word from thevgnation.com.
Not to whitewash Sephiroth or anything, but let's face it:
It wasn't Sephiroth's fault! He was dead for most of the game and it was clones doing most of the nasty stuff. This is how it seemed to go down:
Cloud Strife, 21 year old ex SOLDIER, mercenary for hire, joins a rebel group known as Avalanche, who are fighting the evil power company known as ShinRa. ShinRa has monopolized the power industry and uses Mako, a physical form of the "otherworld" called the Lifestream (where people go when they die, or otherwise leave the Planet,) as a power source. There are hypotheses that Mako and Lifestream are made up of human consciousness that has left the Planet, or a "world soul" or things like that. ShinRa uses Mako reactors to suck Mako up from the Planet and feed it into their power supply.
Cloud's first mission with Avalanche is to blow up a Mako reactor. We then find out that the leader of Avalanche, Tifa Lockhart, 21, is Cloud's childhood best friend. They grew up together in Nibelheim, and Tifa now lives in Midgar, Sector Seven, and runs a bar ("Tifa's Seventh Heaven.") with Barret Wallace, 35. Barret Wallace has had his arm shot off in a shoot out with ShinRa, and has had a machine gun grafted onto the end of the severed arm.
Cloud's and Tifa's hometown of Nibelheim was torched by the legendary Sephiroth after he went on a mission to check out a malfunctioning Mako reactor, learned something about himself, and went insane. Sephiroth disappeared after that.
Cloud seems to have amnesia, but we know that he was in SOLDIER for a while, ShinRa's elite army. SOLDIERs were usually injected with Mako, which gave them incredible strength and recovery powers. They fight, not only with weapons, but with Materia orbs - condensed Mako with specific powers. (Healing, defensive, lightning, ice, fire etc.) Materia is hard to come by in most places, but you can find it or buy it.
Cloud remembers very little, and has "episodes" - seizures and flashes of abstract memories.
Midgar is a mess; nothing but slums, all of it underneath a giant metal and concrete plate that was designed by ShinRa. Rich people live on top of the huge plate. Under it, where there's no fresh air or sun, are the slums. This plate was ShinRa's idea, and the final design was made by the Head of Urban Development (and one of the only deep down good guys in ShinRa,) Reeve.
On his way to see Tifa in Midgar, Cloud meets Aeris Gainsborough, 22, who is being chased by ShinRa's most elite fighters, a small group known as the Turks. He saves her from the Turks and she makes him her bodyguard. It's clear right away that Aeris is interested in Cloud.
We find out that ShinRa is interested in Aeris because she is what's known as an Ancient, which means that she's descended from a line of people who were supposedly the first to inhabit the Planet. They had all sorts of powers without Materia. ShinRa wants her because they think she can lead them to the Promised Land, to which supposedly only Ancients could lead the way. ShinRa's main interest in the mythical Promised Land however, is the fact that it's bubbling over with Mako that they can use.
However, the head of ShinRa's Science Department, professor Hojo, has another interest in Aeris. He's been studying Ancients for years, and also kidnapped Aeris' mother Ifalna many years before. Aeris' father, we later find out, was Professor Gast, who had been working on the studies with Hojo, unaware that Hojo would turn against him and try to kidnap his wife and daughter. Hojo killed Gast, but not before Gast hid Aeris. Aeris was later found by Elmyra Gainsborough, who then raised her.
There have been kidnap attemps made on Aeris since she was little, mostly by the man who would later become the leader of the Turks, Tseng. Tseng, we find out, was actually friendly with Aeris, and seems to never have had the heart to actually go through with the job. As Aeris grew up, Tseng seems to have fallen in love, or at least fascination with her.
After Avalanche blows up another reactor, back in Midgar, Aeris is finally taken by Tseng. Cloud and Avalanche go to the top of the plate as Aeris is taken away in a helicopter, and there they meet Reno of the Turks. Reno's orders are to bomb the support pillar over Sector Seven of Midgar in order to A) flush out Avalanche and B) set up Avalanche to take the fall for the mass destruction. Reno carries out President ShinRa's order and most of Midgar is destroyed.
Avalanche goes to ShinRa headquarters to rescue Aeris. While they're there, they find Hojo preparing to do an experiment on her. Also captured with her, is a lion-like, sentient, intelligent animal labelled Red 13. (His age is given as 50 something.) His real name is Nanaki. He joins with Avalanche.
They begin to escape with Aeris and Nanaki, and then find that President Shinra has been killed. By whom? None other than Sephiroth, who was presumed dead.
Old Man ShinRa's son Rufus takes over the corporation.
Avalanche goes to a town called Kalm, chasing after Sephiroth. While there, Cloud tells Sephiroth's story to the others.
Five years ago, Cloud, Sephiroth, and two other SOLDIERs (all SOLDIERs under First Class wore masks, so we don't see who they were,) went on the mission to Nibelheim, to inspect a malfunctioning Mako reactor. Their tour guide up the mountain to the reactor is a young girl who's familiar with the path: Tifa Lockhart. Cloud remembers visiting Tifa's house, but we never see him interact with her there. When they got to the Mako reactor, they discovered a bunch of mutants and monsters in Mako pods, all labeled "The Jenova Project." Sephiroth, who has always been told that his mother's name was Jenova, puts this all together and realizes that he has probably come from something like this, and it begins to explain why he's so different. He goes crazy seeing all of these mutants, realizing he is one, and runs out of the reactor. He runs to ShinRa's Nibelheim mansion, where Hojo and Gast used to work together and run a lab, and finds the files on himself. The files tell him that Jenova was an Ancient, and that he was more or less created like Frankenstein, than he was actually born to her. The files also tell about how the Ancients are the rightful owners of the Planet and how all of mankind is destroying the Planet, just as surely as they wiped out the Ancients. He stays up all night and reads his own classified files.
(However, Cloud has since found out that Jenova was not truly an Ancient, and that Gast's and Hojo's original files were wrong. Jenova was, in fact, a mutated virus from outer space, what the Ancients called the "Crisis From The Sky." In fact, Jenova destroyed most of the Ancients.)
The next day, Cloud finds Sephiroth completely insane. He goes running out of the mansion saying "I'm going to see my mother." Cloud follows him back to the reactor, where Sephiroth finally goes past the pods of mutants (really just pre-Sephiroth experiments gone wrong,) and finally finds Jenova. She's hidden behind a big metal plated facade, and underneath, is a nasty looking woman's body. Sephiroth takes the head and runs out of the reactor, cutting down everything that's in his way. This includes Tifa Lockhart, her father, and another SOLDIER who challenges and injures Sephiroth. Tifa is apparently the only survivor.
Cloud finds Tifa injured and helps her, then runs after Sephiroth. Cloud is 16 at this time, untrained and weak, but he challenges Sephiroth anyway. They fight, and eventually Cloud is able to throw Sephiroth off a bridge, into a river of Lifestream. Sephiroth doesn't come back. (<---noteworthy)
Now, five years later, Sephiroth has come back. (huh?) No one knows how. There are a bunch of black cloaked clones running around Nibelheim, half sentient, raving about a "reunion" and "becoming one with Sephiroth."
The group, following rumors of a man in a long black coat with a tremendous sword, go after him. They cross the Mythril Mines, and find that the Turks are one step ahead of them. Tseng is there, and Reno of the Turks is mysteriously gone (injured by Cloud is the official story.) Taking his place is rookie Elena, who slips up in front of Avalanche as to where they are chasing Sephiroth. Tseng sees Aeris there, and lets her walk. Elena has an obvious crush on Tseng.
They chase Sephiroth and eventually find him on a ShinRa boat out of Junon Harbor to Costa Del Sol. Sephiroth babbles about taking over the Planet, and the team fights with a form of Jenova and defeats her (it?) and Sephiroth escapes once again.
Chasing the rumors, Avalanche goes through North Corel, Barret's home town. Close to North Corel is a Disneyworld like place called the Gold Saucer. Cloud and company stop there, and there they meet a robotic cat who rides on a stuffed Mog. The cat is called Cait Sith. Cait Sith is a fortune telling machine as well, and he immediately joins Avalanche.
From there they head to Gongaga Village, and there find out that Aeris' first boyfriend was from there. His name was Zack, and he was also SOLDIER, first class. He had spikey black hair and carried a Buster Sword just like Cloud Strife. Zack disappeared five years ago and no one has heard from him since. Reno and Rude (another Turk and Reno's best friend) are there as well, also chasing Sephiroth. Cloud overhears that Rude has a crush on Tifa. Avalanche fights the Turks, and everyone lives to tell about it.
From there they go to Cosmo canyon, Nanaki's hometown. They meet his grandfather Bugenhagen, who has an observatory, and an elaborate "planetarium" sort of thing where you can learn about materia.
After learning about the Planet and Materia, Avalanche finally heads back to Nibelheim. Cloud and Tifa expect to find it in ruins, as it was after Sephiroth torched it, but everything is as it was. (Minus a few key townspeople, most importantly Tifa's father and Cloud's mother.) No one in town seems to remember anything about any fire. There are more Sephiroth clones walking around babbling about this "reunion."
In Nibelheim, they visit the ShinRa mansion. Locked in the basement in a coffin, and having slept for possibly 50 years, is Vincent Valentine (72? He doesn't age.) He used to be a Turk, but he fell in love with the woman he was assigned to protect. Her name was Lucretia, and she was a scientist working with Hojo. Hojo was also "in love" with Lucretia and she was torn between him and Vincent. Hojo became jealous, and captured Vincent for his experiments. He injected Vincent with Jenova cells and cut off his left hand, where he now has a claw. As a result of Hojo's tampering, Vincent can change into all sorts of monsters. Vincent also joins Avalanche and the chase continues.
We also find out that Hojo and Lucretia had a son. Lucretia became ill, and Hojo took the boy and used him in Jenova experiments as well. He was trying to create the perfect SOLDIER, more god than man, created to be the most powerful person on the Planet. Who could that son have been? Duh.
Avalanche heads to Rocket Town, a town that was supposed to be the site of ShinRa's first rocket launch into space. There they meet a man who's now a pilot, but who was supposed to be the first man in space: Cid Highwind, 32. He was ShinRa's astronaut, but the corporation pulled the funding at the last minute. The rocket is still there, hence the name Rocket Town. Rufus ShinRa is in town, thinking about re-investing in his father's aborted plan. Cid Highwind wants that more than anything.
However, Rufus and the Turks find out that Avalanche is in town, and end up fighing with them. To escape ShinRa, Avalanche needs Cid's plane, the Tiny Bronco. Cid Highwind joins with them and they all leave Rocket Town together.
Traveling through the fields outside of a town called Wutai, Cloud and company meet a 16 year old ninja called Yuffie Kisaragi. She's also a Materia thief. She also joins Avalanche, but ends up stealing their Materia. While in Wutai, Avalanche meets up with the Turks again, who are on vacation there. Yuffie and Elena are both kidnapped by Don Corneo, the owner of a brothel. Avalanche and the Turks team up to rescue them, vow to work together and trust each other for this one mission, rescue their party members, then go their separate ways again. Yuffie gives back he Materia, and stays with Avalanche.
Cloud has heard of a special Materia called the Black Materia, which has regenerative / restorative powers beyond imagination. This must be what Sephiroth is after. In order to get it, they need something called a Keystone, which is on display at the Gold Saucer, so they head back there.
At the Gold Saucer, they get the keystone, only to be betrayed by Cait Sith. It ends up that Cait Sith has been working for ShinRa all the while. Tseng of the Turks sends a message to Avalanche telling them that he's taken Marlene, Barret's daughter, and Elmyra, Aeris' mother, and they won't be hurt as long as they hand over the keystone. They do, and Cait Sith also forces them to keep him in Avalanche as well. We don't know why yet. Everyone in Avalanche knows he's the one who's been leaking secrets to Tseng, but yet he wants to stay with them.
With Cait Sith tagging along, Avalanche chases the Turks to the Temple of the Ancients, where the Black materia is supposed to be.
Once there, they find that Tseng and the Turks are already in the Temple. Tseng is nearly dead, having been butchered by Sephiroth. He hands the Keystone to Avalanche, tells them how to use it to get into the Temple, and tells them to keep the Black Materia from Sephiroth. Aeris is only vaguely emotional about Tseng's death, even though we find out here that they've actually known each other for a long time.
Inside, they find out what Sephiroth already knows: that there is a way to summon a giant meteor to all but obliterate the Planet. This is what Sephiroth wants, and also why he wants the Black materia. Then, they find out that the Temple itself IS the Black Materia. The only way to actually take it is to shrink it down by solving a puzzle from the inside.
Cait Sith, being a robot, offers to stay behind and do it. He apologizes, and Avalanche leaves, as Cait Sith solves the puzzle. The Temple is now the Black materia, and it is in Cloud's possession.
Cloud begins to freak out. Once he has the Black materia, Sephiroth appears and begins to control Cloud. Cloud is like a puppet. He hands the Black Materia to Sephiroth, attacks Aeris and beats the crap out of her, then falls into a hallucination. The rest of Avalanche manage to get the Materia back from Sephiroth.
Afterward, Cloud has a dream that Aeris tells him that it's alright, she forgives him, and she's on her way to the City of the Ancients. He wakes up to find that this is true.
Now Avalanche, with Cait Sith II, is on the trail of Aeris. Aeris understands that as a true Ancient, she can pray for Holy, which is the only thing that can stop Sephiroth's Meteor.
Cloud and the others find Aeris praying at the alter, in a trance. Cloud freaks out again, and raises his sword to kill her. He snaps out of it before he does so, and Aeris comes out of her trance, and smiles at Cloud.
Sephiroth flies down from the rafters and skewers her. Jenova shows up, and they all fight her, except for Aeris, who is dead. They give her a funeral, and hope that she has prayed enough to summon Holy to counter Meteor.
They head north past the Icicle area, trying to get Sephiroth before Meteor comes, and also now for revenge. Sephiroth's plan is that Meteor will make such a big hole in the Planet that he'll be able to take all of the Mako for himself, and become a god.
In the mountains, ShinRa is once again one step ahead of Avalanche. Rufus, Hojo, and Scarlet are there. Scarlet is head of ShinRa's weapons department, and they're also still looking for the Promised Land. Instead of Sephiroth or the Promised Land, they find the first WEAPON. WEAPON is soemthing that the Planet creates by itself, to defend itself, mostly from Jenova. Sensing Jenova, WEAPON begins to awaken, and will destroy everything, people included, if it's not stopped.
Hojo sees Cloud there and tells him that he is nothing more than a failed Sephiroth clone, and that's why Sephiroth can control him so easily. He asks to see Cloud's number tattoo, and Cloud says he doesn't have one. Hojo tells him that's because he is a failed experiment, and too weak to merit a number. Cloud freaks out and begs Hojo to give him a number.
Afterwards, Cloud disappears in the mountains, still carrying the Black materia. Voices begin to call him again, and he ends up climbing into a huge Mako crystal, doing all sorts of weird upside down walking things, ignoring gravity, and generally going crazy. In the Mako / Materia crystal, is the real body of Sephiroth. Everything they saw before that was done by clones.
Unable to control himself, Cloud slips the Black materia into the Mako crystal where Sephiroth's body is. The materia brings the body back to life.
With Sephiroth awake, WEAPON also awakens and begins to rampage. Everyone escapes the first WEAPON, but Tifa is injured as they all fly away in Cid's airship, the Highwind. Tifa awakens seven days later to find that she and Barret are ShinRa's prisoners. ShinRa plans to execute them live on television, in the gas chamber.
Tifa escapes from Scarlet with the help of Cait Sith, who attacks Scarlet with sleeping gas, saying "I really hate that broad."
After Tifa escapes, WEAPON catches up with them. ShinRa fights WEAPON this time, using Scarlet's creation, a weapon called the Sister Ray. However, during this battle, Cloud falls into the Lifestream and is lost.
Avalanche searches for Cloud, and they finally find him in a hospital in Mideel. Cloud is wheelchair-bound and incoherent. Being in the Lifestream has given him severe Mako poisoning and he can't remember anything and he can't speak. Tifa decides to stay with him.
Another WEAPON attacks, and the remaining members of Avalanche fight it, but Mideel is destroyed and the ground is blown open, revealing the Lifestream underneath. Cloud and Tifa both fall into the Lifestream this time.
In it, they find each other, and Tifa has to help Cloud find out who he really is. Going back over their memories of Nibelheim, Cloud learns that he is not truly a clone, however he was experimented on by Hojo. When he left Nibelheim to join SOLDIER, he was injected (like all SOLDIERS were,) with Mako. Cloud was also injected with Jenova cells. Only he was weak and couldn't handle it, and it began to make him crazy.
Tifa finally tells Cloud the truth: that she never actually saw him return to Nibelheim on the ill-fated trip with Sephiroth. All the while, Cloud has believed that he was there with Sephiroth, as his second in command, as SOLDIER First Class. Tifa was afraid to tell Cloud the truth: the story that Cloud told was actually Zack's story. Tifa wonders though, if Cloud wasn't really there, then how does he know everything that happened?
Cloud begins to unravel it, and he realizes that he was actually one of the infantrymen, who were wearing masks. He was on the mission, but had been ashamed to tell Tifa that he never made First Class, so he never showed his face. Tifa thought that Cloud simply hadn't come back.
They remember their childhood together, disproving Hojo's lie that Cloud was assembled in a laboratory. He was born and raised in Nibelheim - however, he was a failed experiment, as he couldn't handle the Mako treatments. Cloud has about half his memory, and has been psychotic for most of the time since then.
Cloud and Tifa both come out of the Lifestream with their memories returned. Cloud still forgets many things, but now understands who he is and where he's from, and why he can't remember much of his time in SOLDIER. As he remembers though, he really WAS the one who threw Sephiroth into the Lifestream five years ago.
Meanwhile, ShinRa has its own plan (really Scarlet's plan,) to counter Meteor. They have found something called Huge Materia, and plan to shoot Meteor down with it. They're using the old ShinRa 27 - Cid's rocket - to do so.
Avalanche knows this won't work, and they work to stop the launch. However, the rocket launches with them onboard, and Cid, Cloud, and another Avalanche member (depends on who you put in the party,) end up being the first people in space after all.
Cid is able to re-route the rocket, get them back down to the Planet, and take the Huge materia.
After that, another WEAPON arises, and is going to destroy the rest of Midgar. Avalanche heads back to stop it. They also learn that ShinRa is going to use the Junon Cannon, another or Scarlet's weapons, to destroy Sephiroth. This will also destroy the entire city. Reeve tries to stop them.
Avalanche goes to fight WEAPON, ShinRa decides to use their weapon to fight it, and in the fray, Rufus is killed.
Now it comes down to Avalanche and ShinRa each trying to stop Sephiroth, and also trying to stop each other from trying to stop Sephiroth. ShinRa's methods are almost as bad as Sephiroth's plan. Also, it ends up that Hojo, ShinRa's main scientist, WANTS Sephiroth to succeed. We find out for certain that Hojo is Sephiroth's father and Lucretia was his mother. Sephiroth however, doesn't know this, and never finds out that he's human.
Reeve tries to stop Hojo from helping Sephiroth, and as Reeve is doing this, Cait Sith begins to act strangely. The execs at ShinRa also notice Reeve beginning to act strangely. We find out that Reeve has been controlling Cait Sith all the while. However, it seems that most of ShinRa was in the dark about this. When ShinRa finds that he's been using Cait Sith to actually help Avalanche, Reeve is captured. However, Cait Sith is still working with Avalanche and still helping them, and there's nothing that ShinRa can do about that.
As they chase Sephiroth, Avalanche meets up with the Turks one more time. In the game, you have the option of either fighting them or calling a truce with them.
No matter which one you choose, Scarlet and Heidegger, (Heidegger hires out the Turks,) are still after Avalanche. Scarlet's new weapon is the Proud Clod, and Avalanche defeats it before moving on.
Also trying to stop them is Hojo, and Avalanche defeats him as well. (We assume he's dead after this.)
Sephiroth has gone to the Northern Crater to await Meteor, which no one's been able to stop yet. It ends up that Sephiroth's presence is countering Holy. As long as Sephiroth lives, Holy won't be able to do its work, and Meteor will still fall.
Sephiroth transforms into a bunch of different forms: Bizarro-Sephiroth, Savior Sephiroth the One Winged Angel etc. This is not the power of Mako, so he must be something completely other than human by now, but the game never explains this. We assume it's Jenova cells.
Avalanche defeats Sephiroth and waits for Holy to come. But Meteor is already falling, so they might be too late. In the meantime, Cloud collapses again and falls into a weird limbo sort of thing. It ends up that Sephiroth, or whatever he was, has pulled Cloud into his consciousness for one last battle. This is Sephiroth in his human form. Cloud opens up a can and wipes out whatever was left of Sephiroth's consciousness.
Cloud awakens to find that Meteor is still falling. It ends up hovering right over Midgar, destroying it once again. However, before it can make its true impact, Holy comes flying out from all over the Planet, and obliterates Meteor.
Aeris smiles from the Lifestream, and that's the end.
So you see, while Sephiroth is responsible for the fire in Nibelheim and all of that, he really didn't do some of the other major events in the game. Whew! That was long.
In other news, The Matrix: Revolutions comes out in Nov. I read some speculation on the ending that made me want to kick things. Hope to god it was wrong, because then I just might ask for my money back.
In yet other news, Pirates of the Caribbean comes out on video on December 2. WTF?! It's still playing in theaters! Not that I'm complaining; hell, I saw it the first time with one of my best girl friends, Kim, and my other best girl friend, Trish, hasn't gotten to see it yet. So I'm thinking, you know, a pre-Christmas pirate party at my house.
It's all good.
