Final Fantasy VII/Mako Reactor no. 1

The adventure begins
Welcome to the world of Final Fantasy VII! 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. The manual tells a lot of interesting tidbits on how to fight, obviously, but it isn't very difficult: Choose "Attack" and the bad guy and after a few hits, the thing dies. After you've defeated the guards, a brief introduction to the examining things: Walk up to them and hit [OK] (Circle on PS, Enter on PC) to examine the bodies of the two guards, to scavenge a potion from each. As it looks kind of silly to see our intrepid spiky-haired protagonist walking everywhere when the rest of the ecoterrorists seem to be on run, you may also want to learn how to run while moving: Keep [Cancel] (Cross on PS, Ins on PC) pressed. Learn that, as it makes this purported "100-hour RPG" to be completable in mere 45 hours of play time! ...okay, maybe there's more to it.

In the reactor, you will also meet mechanical things: Brute force works wonders here, as does the Bolt magic. You can pick up handy things like Potions from the enemies you defeat. There's really nothing too difficult in this chapter; Learn the basics of the game interface, learn to fight and examine/activate things, that sort of thing.

The first few rooms are quite straightforward, and basically all you need to do is to run along the people and talk to them if they stop. Your party, for most the rest of the chapter, consists of Cloud and Barret, both of whom you get to name at an early opportunity. 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 how to climb ladders, operate buttons, and like. You'll notice also sometimes flashing items and chests on ground; these can be picked up and opened. You'll find Potions on floor here if you pay attention.

You'll eventually reach the actual reactor room. On the floor, there's a save point, and as you cross the bridge to the other side, you'll find a Restore materia on ground. So this is definitely a good place to learn how to save the game and pick up items. Note that you cannot actually use the Restore materia yet, so aside of picking it up, quit worrying about it for a while. (A terrible shame, because you sure could use it for the stuff that's about to happen!).

As you place the bombs, Cloud gets a rather strange flashback. Huh? Well, don't worry, it will all make sense later...

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

(Notice the similarity of tactics with the first boss in FF6...)

The boss leaves an Assault Gun, which Barret can use, and is better than his default weapon. 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 don't know her, but she's going to be really important character later on. You can buy flowers from her if you want to. Flowers are pretty. There is a potion lying on the ground just before the south exit in this area.

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. You can actually choose to avoid fighting them, but since they're easy to defeat and garner a few items and Exp, it's probably best to fight them. 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.

There isn't terribly much to do aboard the train, just talk to the AVALANCHE members as you see fit. Jessie will show you a computer diagram of the railway system. 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.


 * 1) For the sake of clarity, in this guide, we're using the original character names - apart of another character you meet soon, Aerith, whose name was mistranslated as Aeris in both PS and PC versions.