Final Fantasy VII/Mako Reactor no. 1

&lt; Final Fantasy VII

The adventure begins
The opening cinematic leads us, thrillingly enough, right into the action. At the very beginning, you're controlling an Ex-SOLDIER, now employed by AVALANCHE, who gets to try out this newfangled combat interface right on. The first few soldiers are not too difficult to deal with: Just hit them with all of your might. In the reactor, you will also meet mechanical things: Brute force works wonders here, as does Cloud's Bolt magic. You can pick up handy things like Potions from the enemies.

The first few rooms are quite straightforward. Your party, for most the rest of the chapter, consists of Cloud and Barret whom you get to name, too. The only notable thing on the few first rooms is on a room to south: a chest holding a Phoenix Down.

Along the way, you will learn to climb ladders and operate buttons and like. You'll eventually reach the actual reactor room. On the floor, there's a Restore Materia and a save point.

A mission would be nothing without a good big fight. As soon as the bombs are ready to get tripped, a really big nasty thing shows up.

The boss leaves an Assault Gun, which is handy for Barrett. The time bomb is set, and you now have 10 minutes to go back the same way you came.

Along the way, you'll run into Jessie whose foot seems to be stuck. Talk to her and help her to get loose again. If you missed her and get back to the rest of the gang, you still probably have plenty of time to get back and there again. Once you're out, the reactor blows up.

Going to Sector 7? The train just left.
After you escape, you and the rest of the AVALANCHE split up. There isn't much to see here, but you actually do get to meet Aerith for the first time. You can buy flowers from her.

When you finally head towards the train station, you get surrounded by soldiers, who, as the beginning of the adventure showed, are quite trivial to defeat. Eventually, the torrent of clowns ends, and you leap from the bridge to the roof of the passing train, conveniently right on the right car too.

After you get back to the station, head left, where you find, among other things, a savepoint. The Sector 7 slums are further to the left.