Before I begin, I just want to make it very clear there are MANY MANY MANY SPOILERS for Final Fantasy VII Remake in this post!
Recently my husband and I were talking about how the timeline for Final Fantasy VII Remake Part One moves very quickly. Like VERY QUICKLY. The timeline feels like it happens over a few weeks (probably because that’s how long we took to play it the first time), but really EVERYTHING happens within six days. The reason I think this is funny is because a TON of stuff happens, and once you think about how much happens in those few days, you kind of laugh to yourself and wonder how Cloud and the gang had time for everything they did. After looking at the six day time period of the plot of Final Fantasy VII Remake, I was able to break it down to this:
Day One – Mako Reactor 1 Bombing
Well, Day One actually begins in the evening when Cloud and Avalanche decide to go and bomb Mako Reactor 1. They don’t really say what time it is when they blow up the reactor, but my guess is that it happens before midnight. This is because right before you see Avalanche storming the reactor, you get the cutscene of Aerith walking around the busy streets of Midgar. And based on how many people are walking around, I’m guessing its not the middle of the night.
After Cloud and Avalanche blow up the reactor, they have to make it all the way back to Sector 7 undetected, which they find to be quite difficult. The reactor bombing was more intense than they realized and the entire sector is in flames and crumbling to pieces. Cloud has his first run in with Sephiroth, the Whispers, and Aerith. Aerith gives him a single yellow lily and then runs away when Shinra shows up to attack Cloud. Cloud makes it to the train and regroups with Avalanche. Once they make it back to the Sector 7, Cloud reunites with Tifa and then she shows him where his apartment is. He goes to sleep and then in the middle of the night he’s awoken by Marco. He almost kills him when he thinks he’s Sephiroth, but stops himself in time.
Day Two – Helping Tifa and Jessie
Most of the daytime is spent running around the Sector 7 Slums with Tifa. Cloud meets the people in the neighborhood while he and Tifa sell water filters (super exciting I know). Eventually you finally get to see Tifa in action as you fight monsters in Scrap Boulevard and while saving Johnny from Shinra. Once they’re done with their tasks, Tifa and Cloud head back to their apartments and she low-key asks him out, then they go back to Seventh Heaven so Cloud can get paid. Cloud leaves alone to go back to his apartment and Jessie intercepts him there to ask for help on a secret blasting agent supply run she doesn’t want the rest of Avalanche learning about.
Later that evening, Cloud and Jessie go to the train station to get to their mission, they are met by Biggs and Wedge who figured out that Jessie was sneaking out and knew she would need a way to the Sector 7 plate since the last train had already left. Biggs and Wedge decide to accompany Cloud and Jessie. They then have a run in with Shinra and a SOLDIER named Roche, who they are able to evade. Cloud, Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge go to Jessie’s parents’ house where Jessie, Wedge, and Biggs, distract Jessie’s mom while Cloud sneaks into the house separately to steal Jessie’s dad’s Shinra ID card. Finally the foursome travels to the reactor and steals the blasting agent for the next reactor bombing. They fight a ton of Shinra guards and Roche once more. Wedge is injured but everyone is able to get away when another Avalanche cell comes to back them up. Cloud and the others make it back to Sector 7 and Cloud goes back to his apartment. After Tifa comes and checks on him, he goes to sleep.
Day Three – Bombing Mako Reactor 5
As Avalanche sets out to blow up the next reactor, the Whispers show up to stop them. As a result, Jessie sprains her ankle and Cloud must take her place on the upcoming mission. So Cloud, Barret, and Tifa team up and continue on with the plan. Most of their journey is boring filler stuff where they have to run all the way to Sector 5, until the point where they place the bomb on the Mako 5 Reactor and get a broadcast from Heidegger telling them they wanted them to blow up the Reactor and it was all a trap. They learn they’re going to have to fight the Airbuster and run around trying to sabotage it before their battle. Eventually they fight it but not before President Shinra confronts them and explains they are basically a scapegoat for Shinra. They defeat the Airbuster but Cloud falls down to the Sector 5 Slums when their walkway is destroyed.
Day Four – Protecting Aerith, Saving Tifa, and Trying to Stop the Sector 7 Plate From Being Dropped
Out of all of the days in Final Fantasy VII Remake, I feel like Day Four is the most eventful. After falling into the Sector 5 Slums, Cloud wakes up in Aerith’s church. Cloud protects Aerith from Shinra and the Turks (Reno and Rude), while they spend the day together helping out people in the Sector 5 Slums. They go back to Aerith’s house and she promises to help Cloud get back to Sector 7 the next morning. But Elmyra, (Aerith’s mother) tells Cloud she doesn’t want him anywhere near Aerith, and asks him to sneak out of the house later that night. As a result, Aerith ends up sneaking out of the house too and catching up with Cloud.
They finally get to the walls of Sector 7 and they see Tifa being taken away to Wall Market to meet with Don Corneo. Aerith and Cloud decide they need to back her up and basically spend the evening doing underground fighting, and getting an disguise together for Cloud and Aerith so they can sneak in and meet with Don Corneo too. After confronting Don Corneo and learning Shinra’s plan to drop the Sector 7 plate on the Sector 7 Slums, Corneo drops them into the sewers.
Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith have to wander through the sewers for a while and eventually escape into the Sector 7 Haunted Graveyard. They’re trapped there for a while too, but eventually they make it back to the main part of Sector 7 to back up Barret and the rest of Avalanche who are trying to stop Shinra from dropping the plate. Aerith goes to save Marlene, while Cloud, Tifa, and Barret make their way to the controls for the Sector 7 plate to confront the Turks who are working on dropping it. They end up failing and right before the plate drops they get a video call from Tseng, the lead Turk, who tells them they captured Aerith.
Cloud, Barret, and Tifa manage to get out of Sector 7 before the plate collapses and then they go back to look for survivors when Cloud explains that Aerith probably took Marlene back to her house. They go to Aerith’s house to check and see if she’s there, and sure enough she is. They then learn about Aerith’s past from Elmyra, but Elmyra forbids them from searching for her because she doesn’t want Aerith to be harmed. So the trio decide to go back to Sector 7 to look for their friends. They end up finding Wedge along with a secret underground experimental testing facility. They take Wedge back to Aerith’s house and then sleep there as well.
Day Five – Saving Aerith and Fighting Destiny and Sephiroth
What happens next depends on what choices you have made up to this point in the game. In the early morning, one of three scenarios happens:
- Cloud hears a noise and finds Tifa in Aerith’s garden, and comforts her as she grieves about all that’s happened so far.
- Cloud has a dream where he and Aerith talk in her garden. He tells her how much he’s worried for her and she warns him not to fall in love with her.
- Cloud finds Barret in Aerith’s garden. Barret can’t sleep, so he talks about his other friends he has and tells Cloud once they save Aerith he’ll introduce him to them.
The next morning, Cloud, Tifa, and Barret insist Elmyra allow them to save Aerith from Shinra. Elmyra finally relents, so Barret says goodbye to Marlene and they all set out to find a way to get to Aerith. They decide to go to Wall Market and see if Don Corneo has a means to get up to the upper plates. They end up teaming up with Leslie, one of Corneo’s guards. He helps them find Corneo and a way up to the upper plates using grappling guns.
Cloud, Tifa, and Barret make their way to the Shinra building and then all the way up to floor 65, the Research Facility where Aerith is. On the way they learn more about Shinra, have a crazy vision of Sephiroth destroying the world, eavesdrop on Shinra’s leaders, and also meet the mayor and learn he is actually helping Avalanche.
Finally they make it to Hojo’s lab, where he’s been trying to learn more about the Ancients from Aerith. As they are freeing Aerith, Red XIII also escapes and joins their party. The group works to escape Hojo’s lab, and make it to the roof where Avalanche is getting ready to pick them up via helicopter. It gets complicated as Cloud meets Sephiroth once again and Sephiroth steals Jenova. Eventually they make it to President Shinra’s office, where Sephiroth kills the President and almost kills Barret. Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, and Red XIII then have to fight a hallucination of Jenova.
After the team defeats Jenova, they decide to make their getaway, but are halted by Rufus Shinra, the late President’s son and heir to Shinra. Cloud decides to fight Rufus and hold him back so that everyone can help Aerith escape. Rufus gets away, and everyone has to fight all the way down to the bottom of the Shinra building so they can escape. Cloud and Tifa find a motorcycle and pickup truck and they all break out of the Shinra building.
Everyone drives on the highway for a while and fight off enemies pursuing them as they come. Eventually they get away and are confronted by Sephiroth once again. They fight him and Destiny, all while having visions of the past and future. The group ends up defeating Destiny, and nearly defeat Sephiroth.
Day Six – Leaving Midgar
Not much happens on this day. Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barret, and Red XIII find themselves outside of Midgar’s walls after their battle with Destiny and Sephiroth. They all decide to leave Midgar in search of Sephiroth. As they are leaving Midgar, Cloud and Aerith have one last shared vision.
Conclusion
This lowkey turned into a summary of the plot of Final Fantasy VII Remake. Despite that, my goal with this post was to show how much happens in Final Fantasy VII Remake in just a short period of six days! Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this post! If you like Final Fantasy VII be sure to check out my post “Should You Still Play The Original Final Fantasy VII Even Though The Remake Is Out?” If you are interested in my blog, consider subscribing so you can get notified when I post new content!
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Do you think that the events of Final Fantasy VII Remake Part One happen too quickly? Or is it the right pace for the storyline? Let me know in the comments below!
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