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Final Fantasy Vii Timeline Walkthrough
Topic Started: Apr 19 2011, 01:39 AM (2,996 Views)
Alan Bates
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That one guy
I remember reading somewhere that Final fantasy VII took about a month timeline wise for the whole story. I always thought that was completely inaccurate. So, to figure out exactly how long the game takes, as well as putting to trest that "Aeris didn't know Cloud long enough) BS, I'm playing through the game again and keeping track of what happens when.

Also, I'll be jotting down little notes as I go about things that I missed before that I find interesting now.


Anyway ...

Day 1
Cloud blows up a reactor, meets Aeris, and rides a train

Interesting tidbits...

When we first see Aeris she's in an alley looking at some Mako energy. When she walks out, we see bilboards for the play Loveless and another sign saying that the building she's by is Goblin's Bar. Considering how just about everything in FF7 has been analyzed and reanalyzed and thrown in as references in later games and the source of major fanfics, I don't remember having anybody actually mention Goblin's Bar again at any point.

For some reason, it strikes me as amusing that Aeris is out late at night selling flowers outside of a bar. Maybe she's selling them to the people that wander out drunk and are trying to figure out what to tell their wives when they get home.

Despite having rode with them on the train to their target, Biggs doesn't know Cloud's name but knows he WAS in SOLDIER. Jessie doesn't even seem to know that much about him. You'd think Barret would want to everybody on his mission to know who each other are. How well did he plan this anyway? Was Cloud just a late addition to the group?

Wedge has apparently never seen AVALANCHE blow up a reactor before, I suppose this means that he's either new to the group or this is the first big mission AVALANCHE has taken.

Also interesting is the fact that Wedge says "What about our money?" which makes me wonder if Barret is paying the rest of AVALANCHE as well.

Biggs says "think how many of our people risked their lives just for this code" So, exactly how big is AVALANCHE and where are the rest of them?

Cloud meets Aeris this day. VERY late in the day. (More on this in a second) I wonder if she normally stays out all night like this.


Day 2
Cloud rides a train and meets Tifa (maybe)

Cloud escapes the Shinra jumps onto the train. We know this is day 2 because this is one of the few times in the game they actually give us a time. It's 12:38 AM. Just a little bit ago, Cloud was meeting Aeris. See what I mean about her being up all night?

Storywise, the team regroups and goes back to Tifa's bar where you meet Tifa and Marlene.

Interesting tidbits...

Before you go meet Tifa, you can actually pay a boy 1 or 10 gil to rent his room for the night. I'm not going to count this as part of the timeline, but I found it amusing that you could keep Barett and Tifa waiting until the next day.

Tifa's bar has quite a few alrge signs on them. The largest says TEXAS. Maybe there's more cowgirl to her than we thought. (None of the readable signs say Seventh Heaven)

Tifa's bar has three stories (not counting the secret basement.) You only get to see the main floor. (Possibly the upper floors are were Barett and the rest of AVALANCHE live.)

Anyway, there's a flashback to Cloud and Tifa's promise scene and Barett pays Cloud and etc etc. Cloud spends the night there and we move to ...

Cloud goes to sleep sometime after midnight and wakes up later on that day. (Alot happens this day.)


Tifa, Barett, and Cloud take a train to blow up another reactor. At right before 11:45 AM, they have to jump off the train because of alarms going off.

They meet President Shinra, they blow up the reactor, Cloud falls into Aeris's church, then he escorts her back to her home.

interesting tidbits...

Cloud has to explain to Aeris who and what the Turks are, I suppose it's possible that she's just pretending not to know at this point.

Elmyra lets Cloud have her room for the night.

You do NOT get to see Aeris sleep. She's still away when Cloud nods off and she's already awake when he wakes back up. We've already established that she typically stays out until midnight, does she just not sleep at all or what?
:razz:

So Cloud stays there that night, bringing us to .... Day 3... which I will get to later.
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Prince Roxas
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Just a Nobody
I personally find the time line to be complete bull to Alan. Aerith dies two weeks after meeting Cloud? I had always pictured that they were together for at least a month before she died.

I'll keep a watch on this topic Alan, there's no way that I believe VII took place in a whole month.
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Alan Bates
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Cool. We'll see how it all plays out. Granted, some of the breaks will be a tad bit subjective, but I'll try to make them make sense.

Also, I'm glad I've started playing it again simply because it reminds me how funny the game could be. I think we all get caught up in the angst and drama and tend to forget all the humor involved. That's one of the reasons I'm against a remake, because I don't think it would be as funny without the superdeformed characters and I'm fairly sure SQUARE doesn't want to bring those back again.
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Kaleta
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Clorith nazi
-posting cause you requested it-

This is kinda interesting, it could prove very useful to some people :3
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Alan Bates
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That one guy
Day 3
The infamous Cloud wears a dress portion of the game reminding you just how silly FF7 can be.

Aeris agrees to escort Cloud back to Tifa's place when they see her headed towards Wal-market.


So, yada yada, they try to break into the Don's place.


Interesting tidbits:
Aeris's first reaction to seeing Tifa is "she looks kind of odd."

One person at Wal-market says this of Aeris "hey boy, you shore got a good looking heifer there. Take her to the Don's place and you'll make a mint"

While waiting outside of the Honeybee Inn, Aeris talks to three people, she charges one 300 gil for a flower. Another she charges 500 gil. Johnny Cloud's childhood friend she gives a flower and a gil to for free.


The next part is an odd one....

While running errands for people and trying to get Cloud's disguises, one of the sidequests involves Cloud and Aeris staying overnight in a inn so they can get something out of the vending machines for a guy.

So Cloud and Aeris spend the night together in a cheap hotel while Tifa is still waiting in the kinky bondage dungeon to see Corneo. ... hey, look, I'm not making this up. Blame the game designers. It's not like this is just a standard spend the night at an inn kind of thing. This is written into the plot (even if it is an optional part.) So I'm going to count it.

So ...

Day 4
Cloud and Aeris go into Don's place.

IN MY GAME (this might not be true of yours) Don icks Aeris and she comments "Don, you've got great taste."

Tifa is taken back to the Kink-dungeon and Cloud is led to a room with six guys. Let's not think about that part too much.

They confront the Don.
They're dumped int the sewers.
The run through the train graveyard.
They arrive at the attack on the tower and Wedge is tossed off.

interesting tidbit here: When you last see Aeris, she's treating Wedge and even says "leave it to me" and we know (from later) that she had time to get Marlene and get back to her home. So, what happened with Wedge? Did he just up and die while she was trying to save him or did he recover enough to get away? maybe he tried to go back up the tower and save Biggs and Jessie while Aeris took off with Marlene.

You fight Reno, he drops the plate, Aeris is kidnapped, you go talk to Elmyra.

Day 5
This one is a bit tricky. There's no in-story part demanding you sleep, but it makes sense for Cloud and company to rest from al they've been through before trying to storm the Shinra HQ.

I'm going to say that they spend the night at Elmyra's house before continuing on, you might not agree. I also feel that this makes sense timeline wise as it gives Hojo time to perform his tests.

Plus it makes a lot more sense than resting at that sleazy inn back in Wal-Market.

Back at Wal-Market, word has gotten out that Cloud likes to dress as a woman and crush things so he's not allowed back in the Honeybee Inn anymore.

Also, Don Corneo is missing. The Shinra took him "somewhere"

Cloud and company climb the shiny golden wire of hope. In my game I chose to storm the Shinra HQ (you also hadthe option of sneaking into the back.)

interesting tidbit: Cloud says this is the first time he's ever been here. Later games in the series will tell us he's lying.

While inside the Shinra building, you come across a nap room. <_<

I'm not counting that. The Wal-Market thing was iffy, but there's no way Cloud, Barett, and Tifa would just take a nice long nap in Shinra HQ.

You encounter Hojo. Cloud says that's the first time he ever saw the man. ... yeah.

Something I caught this time that I missed before. The reason Hojo wants to breed Aeris is he wants a test subject that can withstand their experiments for a longer period of time. This actually makes sense to me, as it implies that Aeris's body just isn't strong enough for all the procedures they'd need to put it through. She'd have to recover inbetween tests or they'd just end up killing her. At least that's what I get out of it.


Also Aeris is only 18% different than her mother (so far.)

You meet Red XIII, meet Jenova, and get locked up and go to sleep.

At first i wanted to call it a day here, but the timeline doesn't match up.

Sephiorth comes in and starts slaughtering everybody and steal's Jenova's body back.

The reason I don't call it a new days is that when you meet Rufus Shinra, it's dark outside. So obviously the group was only asleep for a few hours. Tops.

Right after you break out and finish fighting the roadboss, your characters see the sunrise.

Day 6
This is the first time Aeris has EVER been out of Midagr. I wish they did more with that idea.

You spend at LEAST one day walking to Kalm from here. Where Cloud has a long flashback, and the team calls it a night.

(Does anybody think it would take more than a day? Let's face it, Aeris is NOT in the best of shape. We saw that much when they first were escaping Reno.)

So let me know. Do you think it was a days walk to Kalm? More than a day?

I'll point out some interesting bits from Cloud's flashback later.

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AerisStrife
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Love you for doing this Alan!

Interesting tidbits too.
In my game Don never picks Aerith(not that I care)
I wonder if it's programed in certain games as to whom Don will pick. Does anyone else think so? or does Don pick different girls each time someone starts a new story?

&
I think it took longer than a day to get to Kalm Alan. Though I have no proof to back that up. I'm sure Aerith would need rest and if she did Cloud would allow.
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Alan Bates
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That one guy
So what do you think? two days? More?

Also, I'm going to opperate under the assumption that AVALNCHE spends at least a full day at a town when they arrive there.

Anybody have problems with that or have any better ideas?
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Angelalex242
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Keeper of the Intimacy of Aerith's soul living in Cloud
Who Corneo picks is based on how much effort Cloud puts into dressing up. If Cloud halfasses it, Corneo picks Tifa. If he does a decent job, he picks Aerith. If he aces it, he picks Cloud.
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aerithbunny
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I always had Cloud picked because it was HILARIOUS to watch Cloud try and get out of it.
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Alan Bates
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asenk631
Apr 19 2011, 08:42 PM
I always had Cloud picked because it was HILARIOUS to watch Cloud try and get out of it.

I kinda enjoyed his dialog with Aeris.

Aeris: First could you explain a few things to me?

Don: Don't worry, baby, I'll walk you through it. (pelvic thrusts)

Aeris: NO! NOT THAT!

(Or somethign to that affect. I didn't write the dialog down.)

ANYWAY, back to the question at hand.

Midagar to Kalm, a days walk, two days walk, or more?
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Dreamstar
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Pink Maggit
asenk631
Apr 19 2011, 08:42 PM
I always had Cloud picked because it was HILARIOUS to watch Cloud try and get out of it.

LOL! Me too.

Cloud:*Leans in to kiss Don*

Tifa:Cloud! You weren't going to really..?

Or something like that!

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Alan Bates
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That one guy
So we'll go with two days walk between Midgar and Kalm.

So, start of day 6 they start walking to Kalm.

Day 7
Still walking to Kalm.

Arrive at night, they spend the night there, Cloud tells a story about what happened five years ago.

Interesting story tidbits...

This may not have happened when you played. When I played, the Dragon that Cloud and Sephiroth fight, killed Cloud before Cloud was able to even attack.
When Cloud is telling the story there's an exchange between him and Red XIII
Red XIII: So where do you come in?
Cloud: Me, I was mesmerized by the way Sephiroth fought

Sephiroth comments that there's a strong Mako smell in Cloud's home town. I never really thought about the smell of mako before.

There's some incosnistancey between the way people treat Cloud, the most noticeable is when a guy says he wants to take Sephiroth's picture. When you tell him to take your picture, he says he doesn't take pictures with nobodies. Later, he takes a picture with Cloud, Seph, and Tifa. In hindsight this makes sense.

When you're staying at the inn, one of the shinra soldiers comments that your part of Cloud, Sephiroth, and "two no named soldiers" are short one bed. Thus a 1,000 slash fics are born.

:razz:

Apparently Sephiroth knew and respected Gast quite a bit. Interesting that Sephiroth knows Aeris's father better than she ever did. (Not that you know he's her father yet.)

During the mission, one of the shinra troops is lost. No attempt is made to find him or explain what ever became of him. Having this character make a return appearance would have fit much better into the later spinoffs than all those new guys they made up later.

Cloud finishes his story buy not telling you how it ends and everybody takes a break and catches some sleep.

Day 8
The team spends the day at Kalm, stocking up on equipment, resting, and scouting for useful information and rumors. Eventually they here that somebody in a black cloak was headed east. The team spends the night at Kalm and sets out in the morning.

I found a map of the Final Fantasy 7 world, and actually measured the distance here. If walking to Kalm from Midgar took two days, then the walk from Midagr to the Chocobo ranch would have taken AT LEAST 7 days.


Day 15
Arrive at the Chocobo ranch.
Cloud and friends watch the chocbos's dance and get their first summon materia!

You find out about the Midgar Zolom (Which isn't near Midgar) and that a guy in a black CAPE traveled through the swamp.

Cloud and pals learn how to catch Chocobos and buy the equipment they need. They spend the night renting some beds from the Chocobo guy.

Day 16
I'm going to be nice and say Cloud is able to catch a Chocobo and it doesn't take him all day to do so.

They ride it through the swamp. They see what Sephiroth did to the Zolom, they encounter the Turks in a cave.

Right now the Turks are no longer interested in Aeris. Elena lets it slip that Sephiroth is headed to Junon.

Interesting tidbit here.

Elena got promoted to the Turks due to Reno's injuries and the fact that they were short on people. So the Turks at this point consisted of three people prior to Elena?
Does it EVER explain what happened to dozen or so Turks that the prequal games introduced? Wouldn't you think they'd start promoting people BEFORE you could count the number of Turks on one hand and have fingers left over?

AVALANCHE leaves the cave and see a tower with a big bird on the top of it in the distance. It's a day and a half's walk.


Let's be generous to them.
Day 18
AVALANCHE finds out about Fort Condor's problems with the Shinra. Never pasing up an opportunity to stick it to the Shinra and/or protect majestic looking endangered species they help. But first, they sleep.

Day 19
There's a quick rush to figure out a battle plan, station the troops, fight, and defeat the Shinra forces that are advancing. I am being EXTREMELY generous here. One could easily argue that the plans for battle could take a full day and the battle itself another one. I'm not going to. After the battle, they rest and resume their travels the next day ...

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aerithbunny
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I imagine the smell of mako is rather strong and pungent considering how they speak about it...makes you wonder about Sephiroth perfume that SE makes >>

And Sephiroth knowing Gast well, I believe there was something about Sephiroth being her brother in the original FF7 plans, but I can't be sure about that.

The Midgar Zolom isn't near Midgar...rather funny how it's named.

lol Cloud catching a chocobo quickly...so didn't happen, it freakin' took forever.
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Alan Bates
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lol Cloud catching a chocobo quickly...so didn't happen, it freakin' took forever.

By my play through, it took three encounters with a chocobo to catch one. That's of course not counting the other fights and me having to raise some more money to buy greens.

But, hey, I was being nice. :D
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Anastar
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To touch the light I see in your eyes...
Alan Bates
Apr 19 2011, 01:39 AM
I remember reading somewhere that Final fantasy VII took about a month timeline wise for the whole story.  I always thought that was completely inaccurate.  So, to figure out exactly how long the game takes, as well as putting to trest that "Aeris didn't know Cloud long enough) BS, I'm playing through the game again and keeping track of what happens when.

Hey, Alan... while I totally agree with you that taking about a month for the characters to go through FFVII seems absurd, there's what TLS calls an "official" timeline published at TLS:

http://thelifestream.net/final-fantasy-vii...ation-of-ffvii/

One thing to note is that Quex and I were looking at this timeline, and mutually decided that it is inaccurate. I can't find the topic where we were discussing this, but Quex found out that the timeline was compiled by the staff of TLS and is not published this way in the Ultimania.

At any rate, this timeline says that FFVII starts on December 9, and ends in the last third of January. Actually, that's more like seven weeks (at least a month and a half). That alone would mean that Cloud knew Aerith for at least 3 - 3 and a half weeks before she died.

Anyway, what you're doing is very interesting, so keep it up! ^_^

Alan
 
So, to figure out exactly how long the game takes, as well as putting to trest that "Aeris didn't know Cloud long enough) BS, I'm playing through the game again and keeping track of what happens when.

One thing about the "Aerith didn't know Cloud long enough" argument is that, according to the SE timeline, Tifa didn't know Cloud much longer than Aerith. According to the Lifestream event, Tifa didn't know Cloud well at all before the Promise scene. The Ultimania's even say that Tifa hadn't paid any attention to Cloud before he said he was going to join SOLDIER.

So, when FFVII starts, Tifa and Cloud hardly knew one another. From the reactions of Biggs, Wedge, and Marlene, we can tell that Cloud had only been at the Seventh Heaven for about one day before FFVII starts. Like I said before, Aerith doesn't die til the end of Disk One, so that's about three and a half weeks.

Then Avalanche journeys to the Northern Crater. Give that a week, according to the "official" timeline. Cloud falls into the Lifestream and drifts to Mideel, so Tifa doesn't talk or interact with Cloud during that time. Then Tifa finds Cloud in Mideel, so he's unconscious. Again, Tifa isn't able to interact with Cloud during that time. Then the Lifestream event happens, and, according to the "official" timeline, the HW scene happens about a week after that.

When you look at it this way, Tifa only knew Cloud two weeks longer than Aerith did before the HW scene happens.
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