Synopsis of the game Final Fantasy 7

The plot of Final Fantasy 7 is as follows:

Background:
- In the fictional world of the game, there is a life source called the ‘Lifestream’ on the planet. When a life form dies, its memories, thoughts, knowledge and other spiritual energy will converge to the Lifestream, which becomes the root of creating new life, making the planet always maintain strong vitality.
- In ancient times, there was an ancient race, the Setra, who possessed the ability to communicate with the planet, and guided the Fountain of Life as planetary pioneers. However, the attack of Jenova, an alien, brought catastrophe to the planet. Although the Sethra tribe succeeded in sealing the Jenova, they were on the verge of extinction, and some of their descendants mingled with the human race, leaving behind only the legend of the Ancient Race.
- With the development of human industry, the military-industrial corporation Shinra discovered the energy value of the ‘Spring of Life’. By extracting the stream of life and turning it into Mako, which is widely used as an energy source, and researching the hidden power of Mako for military development, Shinra became a giant company in the world, and Mako energy became an indispensable energy source to support human life, and Shinra established the Mako city, Midgar. However, the exploitation of Mako energy has taken away the life force of the planet, making the land around the Mako Furnace, which is the centre of the energy exploitation, barren, and the life force of the planet is gradually heading towards an imbalance and collapse.
Major Plot Developments:
- Join the Avalanche: protagonist Claude Stryfe calls himself the original 1st Shinra warrior and later becomes a mercenary. Introduced by childhood friend and Avalanche member Tifa Lockhart, Claude is hired by the eco-terrorist organisation Avalanche, and together with organisation leader Barrett Wallace, destroys the One Mako Furnace in Midgar.
- Meets Alice: During the second mission, Claude and the others were ambushed by Shinra and fell into a church in the slums of Block 5, where they met Alice Gainesbacher, a flower girl. Claude had previously met her after the first mission, but due to the involvement of Shinra’s secret service, Tux, Claude was asked by Alice to act as her bodyguard and escort her home, and then travelled with her to the slums to meet Tifa.
- Avalanche Crisis: Shinra learns of the location of the avalanche and blows up the disc above the slums; Cloud, Tifa, and Barrett escape the crisis, but the rest of the avalanche organisation is killed in action, and Alice is taken away by Tux.
- The Infiltration of Shinra and a New Journey: Claude and his team infiltrate Shinra to rescue Alice, and in doing so, they welcome a new member of the team, Red XIII, who learns from Shinra’s president that Shinra has captured Alice in order to locate the legendary ‘Promised Land’ in order to further exploit Mako’s resources. However, when they try to escape from Shinra, they are captured and imprisoned. The next morning, they find the door of the prison opened and most of the Shinra personnel, including the president of Shinra, have been killed. It seems that the murderer is Sephiroth, a Shinra warrior who disappeared a few years ago, and the Jenova experiments that had been sealed in the laboratory have disappeared, and the son of the president, Lufas, has become the president of Shinra. Thereafter, in order to have closure with his past self, Claude and his group leave Midgar in search of Sephiroth’s whereabouts.
- Partners and Battles Along the Way: In the course of travelling around the world, Claude and the others befriended Cat Robot Kate Sai, Gundai Ninja Yufi Kisaragi, former Tarkus member Vincent Valentine, and Pilot Cid Havender, among others, and engaged in many fierce battles with Shinra forces.
- Knowledge of Sephiroth’s Plot : At the Temple of the Ancient Species, Claude and his party met Sephiroth and learned of his plans. Sephiroth wanted to use the legendary Black Crystal to unleash ‘meteorite’ magic to inflict great damage on the planet, thus activating the planet’s defence mechanism of using the Fountain of Life to heal itself, and by doing so, he would merge with the Fountain of Life and be reborn as a god. The group defeats Sephiroth and obtains the Black Crystal, but Claude somehow gives it to Sephiroth and falls unconscious.
- Death of Alice: During the rest period, Alice was determined to stop Sephiroth’s plot and travelled to the city of oblivion. Although the group was reunited with her, Claude once again lost control of himself and attacked Alice with his sword, while Sephiroth descended from the sky and assassinated Alice, calling Claude a ‘puppet’. 3.
Truth Revealed and Final Battle:
- The Truth About His Life: In order to defeat Sephiroth, Claude and his group tracked him to the Great Hollow, where they learnt about the existence of Jenova, an alien from the sky. Jenova fell to the planet about 2,000 years ago, and is a parasitic life form that sucks the life force of the planet to grow itself, and the Big Hollow is the crater it formed when it fell with the meteorite. Setra sealed the Jenova at the cost of nearly annihilating his family, but the Shinra Corporation’s excavation brought it back to life and used the Jenova cells in human experiments, the end product of which was the Shinra’s most perfect warrior, Sephiroth. Claude learns from Shinra scientist Pojo that the ‘Sephiroth’ he met was one of the Jenova replicas, and that due to the nature of Jenova, the replicas will converge towards a single entity, and that the real Sephiroth has been sleeping in the Great Hollow since the Nibelheim Incident. It is also learnt that Claude’s memories are false, and that his true identity is a clone of Sephiroth that Haojo experimented with through Mako as well as Jenova cells.
- Final confrontation: Sephiroth unleashes a meteorite that awakens the monster ‘Weapon’, which was protecting the planet, and ‘Weapon’ attacks multiple locations in order to return Mako’s energy to the Fountain of Life. Claude’s whereabouts are unknown, and Tifa and Barrett are captured and nearly executed by Lufthansa, but with the help of their companions, they manage to escape to the Hurricane. Later, Claude and Tifa fell into the Fountain of Life, and with Tifa’s help, Claude restructured his memories and regained his original personality. In the end, Claude and his group travelled to the Big Hollow and had a final confrontation with Sephiroth, who had gained the power of God, and defeated him in a fight to the death.